The Thread Of Promise

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Thrive. In no way did I ever think I would ever be up here. You know, it's kind of funny. Back when I was like 16, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. One second I wanted to probably do some form of biochem, and the next second I wanted to be a lawyer, and now I'm here. So, you know, I never would have thought I would ever be here. Giving a sermon, let alone wanting to be a pastor, getting my Master of Divinity, just never thought I would do it. So thanks for being along for the ride, I guess. So I'm going to be discussing Genesis chapter 3 with you guys today. Like I said, I'm Kellen Hicks. I'm a pastoral intern here. John gave me the opportunity to share this with you guys today, the start of the Woven series here at Thrive. And, you know, it's really funny because when he came to me and he was like, Kellen, for your internship, you need to, you know, give a sermon. And he was telling me that I have Genesis 3, or I could choose next week's sermon, which, spoiler, is Isaiah. And I don't know if there's a simpler choice to be made there. I'm not delving into Isaiah, so I'll take Genesis. But the funniest part about it was, what am I, I thought, like, what am I even supposed to do with Genesis 3? Like, we've kind of all read it before. It's the idea that, you know, the serpent gets cursed. Adam and Eve, the fall of humanity, they eat from the tree. And, you know, what more is there? Childbirth and curse to, you know, get food from the land, right? Well, the more I researched this bit of scripture, the more I kind of realized how important it is to really highlight the story of humanity. Throughout the story of Adam and Eve. So, with that being said, let's get into it. Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 15. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat from any of the tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat off the fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, you shall not eat off the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you surely will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eye and that it was and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. So I lost my place. They sewed fig leaves together and made for themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman who you gave to me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. Then God said to the woman that what is it that you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So that being said, there's three main points that we're going to be talking about from Genesis 3 today. The first one is, did God really say? The second one, where are you? And he will strike your head and you will strike his heel. So to begin, did God really say? The serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? Notice who sows the first doubt here. Who talks about God first in this abstract way? The serpent is crafty as the text says. Behind that English translation is the Hebrew word a room. And in Genesis 3, there's a pretty interesting wordplay that's happening between the word a room, the craftiness of the serpent and the word naked, which is the root of that word. Or uncovered for how Adam and Eve were in the garden. Tim Mackey states, Adam was physically uncovered, innocent, vulnerable, open, unguarded. But for the serpent, he was mentally uncovered, calculating, able to see what others don't, shrewd and man...