- Sometimes it seems as if we have it all figured out, spiritually, physically, mentally, financially… Sometimes we feel secure.
- Sometimes we feel on fire for God, like nothing can change, sometimes we feel like we're walking in purpose, like we are walking in obedience and humility. And sometimes we're comfortable, stress free.
- And sometimes not.. Sometimes we feel far from the Lord Jesus, sometimes we are not in good health, sometimes our minds get away from us and we walk through seasons of anxiety and depression, sometimes our hearts are broken and sometimes financially we don’t see a way out, sometimes after we pay the bills we have to bring a handful of quarters to the bank to make sure the account balance isn't negative.
- And when we get into those situations it gets easy take our eyes off God, it gets easy to be really hard on ourselves, it gets easy to look in the mirror and not love what you see, and it gets easy to question everything, our faith, our purpose, our lives, and even what God says about us
Gen 2:7-9 CSB
7Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. 8The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed. 9The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 2:15-25
The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.” 18Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding to him.” 19The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found corresponding to him. 21So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. 22Then the LordGod made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. 23And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. 24This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh. 25Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.
- Adam and Eve were comfortable, and on an endless vacation enjoying it with God
- And God gave them one rule, not a hard rule just a loving simple rule, and HE said to them, this is the only rule, DO NOT EAT FROM THAT TREE, BECAUSE I LOVE YOU AND IF YOU DO, YOU WILL DIE!!
Genesis 3:1
1Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’? ”
- The devil has a scheme, and it doesn’t change, its the same. The first thing he does is try and make you doubt God
- And then he tempts you, with the very things that God tells us will kill us
The devil has 3 tricks that he uses to tempt you and he disguises them as all kinds of things:
1st John 2:16 KJV
16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
3 tricks:- Lust of the flesh
- Lust of the eyes
- Pride of life
GEN 3:2-7 CSB
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6The woman saw that the tree was good for food (Lust of flesh) and delightful to look at,(Lust of the eyes) and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. (pride of life).. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
- You ever start rationalizing sin in your brain? "Well if i do this and not that, its really not that bad.. Or if i dont do this i do that later so… "
- LIES! The DEVIL IS A LIAR
- And thats the only power satan has is to lie and to deceive!!!
- Thats why its so important to read the scripture!! Because this is the only truth in the world!!
Condemnation- We know Condemnation was originally created by God because he is a righteous judge and condemned satan and his demons to hell.
- But, condemnation is not meant for the children of the living God that put have put there faith in jesus
- Definition- An act of judgment declaring one guilty and dooming them to punishment!
- A spirit of guilt that isolates, discourages, and often leads people to turn from or hide from God.
GENESIS 3:8-10 CSB
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LordGod walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you? ” 10And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
- Condemnation is something that brings down the spirit of so many christians, so many sons and daughters of Christ.
- It makes us feel unworthy of the life we have, unworthy to worship God, unworthy to turn to God and unworthy to turn to the people that love us most for help and advice.
- It leads us away from God, away from forgiveness, away from healing, deliverance, intimacy with Christ and away from the plans he has for our lives!
- It brings your focus off of God and with that goes your fire, and your comfort, your peace, about everything, your health, finances, mental state, the farther away you are from God, the easier it is to doubt what he says about you!
- That’s the reason Even though God knows your sin he looks at you like a son and daughter and calls you by you name!
- And Satan calls you by your sin even though he knows your name
1 Peter 2:24 CSB
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds , you have been healed.”
- Sin entered the world because the man and the woman took from the tree, and because God loves you he put his son back on the tree to undo what mankind did.
JOHN 3:16-17 ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
- And the devil's entire scheme isn’t just to get mankind to fall into sin, he wants you to feel condemned about it, so that you run and hide from God, or feel unworthy to walk out the plans that Jesus has for your life.
- The devil is a defeated foe, He knows he can’t stop God from working in your life so he tries to get you to run from God, because God has given you free will to do that.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Romans 3:23-24 CSB
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
- That he who knew no sin became sin so that you could be the righteousness of God!!!
- Because God loves you, even though you are blameless he doesn’t want you to live in sin, so after your saved the Holy Spirit that lives within you will convict you and tell you to turn from that sin, this is totally and completely different than condemnation!
Conviction- A gracious and purposeful act of the Holy Spirit, revealing to someone their sin and rebellion against God
- This is a good thing, it means your heart is still sensitive to God
- Its also pretty good evidence for the existence of God right?? If he wasn’t real why you feeling so bad about being disobedient
- Guard yourself from the devil and his schemes they don’t change, be sober minded on alert, recognize what's going on, if you take a step back you'll always see it… don't feel ashamed and run and hide from the Lord, and hate what you see in the mirror, don’t hate your circumstance, trust God and his plans for you and learn to let conviction run you back to Jesus, rest in him and the finished works of what he has accomplished on the cross for you and for me
- Believe what he says about you and live life for him in the kingdom of God
