Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community, and I'd love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this has blessed you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it. So share this podcast.
[00:00:28] Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward.
[00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy.
[00:00:58] You guys just saw your live flash, you know, like the history of your life. You're like, yes, there's some things I think we should bring back, you know, like. You know what I'm saying? Parachute pants?
[00:01:08] No.
[00:01:09] Bell bottom pants.
[00:01:12] Just bring back. They're already back. They are back, actually.
[00:01:16] How about dial up?
[00:01:18] Anybody know the sound that Dial up used to make? Anybody can.
[00:01:24] Okay, for those of you who are like, what is happening?
[00:01:27] Here's what's happening. You're surrounded by old people. That's what's happening. You're surrounded by old people. Well, hey, we are kicking it old school, but basically, we're going to Old Testament stories, and here's what we're gonna do. We're actually going to look at some Old Testament stories, and we're going to do it a different way. And we're going to do it in a way that we're going to put a lens on it, a certain kind of lens on it. And I want to put. Say, we're going to put the lens of Jesus on it.
[00:01:49] Here's why. Here's why. So I recently got an eye exam. And, you know, and I gotta be honest, you know, with myself, I am getting older. Anyway, so, anyway, so I got. I didn't. I didn't go for one for years, and I finally got one and I got glasses. I've had glasses. But anyways, I was like, I'm fine. I'm fine. And obviously, I don't know the whole concept of as years go on, your prescription actually gets.
[00:02:11] Yeah, okay, whatever. All right. Anyway, so then they gave me glasses. I put them on, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I can See, I can see. But here's the thing, though. You guys, you don't want, like, this. You guys have, like, a filter. It's cool. It's like a smooth filter. I put this on, I can see everything, See everything. Okay. But when you. When you put a lens on which you can actually see clearly, you can actually see what's going on. And so what I want to do is I want to. I want to put the lens of Jesus. Because when you put the lens of Jesus on the Old Testament, all of a sudden you. You begin to see things that you didn't see before. All of a sudden you begin to go, oh, oh. That's why it matters. Here's why. Because for so many of us, we grew up with the Christianity. We grew up reading the Bible, maybe exposed to the Bible and heard stories about the Bible, and we're like. We're just kind of confused. We're like, I don't get how the Old Testament lines up with the New Testament. I get it. Jesus, you know, it just feels like God and the Old Testament was really angry and then went to therapy. And then he's really good. Then he's really good. He's like, you know, I can't stand you. I love you.
[00:03:21] Like, what's going on? And what we find is. Here's what we find. We find is that we have not.
[00:03:27] And people like me, preachers and pastors, we have not really looked at the Old Testament with the lens of Jesus. And because of that, we've distorted some things. We have.
[00:03:40] And that's why at Mosaic, we wanna reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus. We're trying to do that. That's why we exist as a church. And so what we wanna do in this series and in all the series, but especially the Old Testament series, we want to really reclaim something that has been lost. And for some of you, I'm going to talk about something today that it's gonna. Like.
[00:04:00] You might. You might get uncomfortable because you've been like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I've been taught this, and this is true.
[00:04:07] This is true because the Bible tells me so, you know, whatever.
[00:04:11] But no, actually it doesn't, because someone else told you so and you just kind of believed it. So just be open to the idea of putting on what, fresh new lenses to see a little bit more clearly. All right, so we're going to jump in, and we're going to go. We're going to go to the beginning. So if we're gonna go to the Beginning, beginning, beginning. We gotta talk about the story of humanity, right? The story of humanity, how we all started up, you know, how do we get to where we are?
[00:04:39] Like your current existence is connected to the story of humanity. And the story of humanity starts in the book of. Anybody know Genesis? Yeah. It starts with the big thing that happened there. Anybody remember the big thing that happened there? It was kind of like a trip up. It was not the trip up. It was called the Fall. Yes, the fall of humanity. Anybody know the story?
[00:05:00] Kind of like, okay, so there was a couple characters, right? You got Adam and Eve and then you had this, you had a, like a fruit, like the apple, which was not the apple, but anyways, it was a fruit. Who else was there? There was a, there was a serpent, there was a snake there. And if you don't know the story, if you don't know the story, basically Adam and Eve were in the garden and they had a choice. They ate the fruit and because the serpent told them it was going to be great, and, you know, Eve ate it first, apparently, and gave it to Adam, convinced him he didn't want to do it, but he did it.
[00:05:35] That's the story we know. And then. Yeah, and then it all just went sideways. They got kicked out of the garden, right. And then the doom of humanity as we know it. Right. The fall, it happened. And now we're all in a sinful, broken world. Thank you, Adam and Eve.
[00:05:51] And so the Christianity that you were told, maybe I know, I was even as a Muslim when I first came to the States, that, yeah, you, you, you live in a fallen world and you were born a particular way, you were born a sinner.
[00:06:08] And the good news is, you know, the good news is like, you're born a sinner. But. And here's what has to happen, is that humanity has got to figure out a way because it's broken, it's sinful, Figure out a way to get to heaven and make it right with God. And so every religion out there, like if you think about it, every religion, basically humanity is trying to do one thing.
[00:06:27] They're convinced that there's something broken. They're sinful and they're trying to get to heaven in whatever way they can.
[00:06:34] Yeah, but Christians know it because it's like Jesus is the only way. This is it. But all of humanity is trying to do that.
[00:06:41] They're sinful, they're trying to get to heaven. How do you do it? Different religious leaders, Christians go, hey, Jesus is the way. That's the story of Humanity.
[00:06:50] Well, not necessarily, but some of us will say, no, no, no. That is the story of humanity. Why? Because we understand, or at least some of us know the concept of original sin, that we were born into it. And we get that from the story in Genesis. But also we get that really dialed in from a quote that we took out of context in the book, from the book of Romans that Paul writes. And in there, he writes this. He writes this. He says, therefore. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man. I thought it was Eve, anyways. One man.
[00:07:28] And. Yeah. And death through sin, in this way, death came. Came to all people. Because now all sin. So you and I are born sinners. That's the story.
[00:07:42] So I do want to go back to the original, like Genesis.
[00:07:47] But that account that we just talked about, that's chapter three.
[00:07:54] That's like 10 days a little into it.
[00:07:59] There was day one. Then, you know, the seven days of. Anybody know, creation. But this is the story that we all know. We think it started day 10.
[00:08:11] Day 10. It started. Have you ever.
[00:08:14] Okay, do you know someone in your family that whenever you watch a show, you're ready to watch a show or something, they don't show up on time. They show up a little bit later, and then they go, what's going on?
[00:08:26] What's happening? Anybody? Yes. Yes. I am that person.
[00:08:30] I am that person. And Ashley is so sweet.
[00:08:33] She's like, okay, we're watching the movie, and then I get busy getting all my stuff, because I gotta get all my stuff, okay? And then I'm 10 minutes late to the thing, and she's played it already, or she's already playing something, watching something that she wants to watch. I come in, plop, down I go, exactly. I'm like, what's going on?
[00:08:52] What's happening over here? Who's that person? And she's like, come on, are you serious? And I'm like, just tell me. Just tell me. Just catch me up.
[00:09:00] She's like, no, I can't catch you up. You gotta start from the beginning. Because if you miss the beginning, you miss the whole.
[00:09:06] You miss the whole. Yeah, full story. You're gonna be confused the entire time. You're gonna misinterpret what the point is. You gotta go back. And she goes, okay, let us go back and rewind.
[00:09:16] Be kind. You remember that. Okay, go back. And we started from the beginning. So here's what I want to do.
[00:09:24] I want to go back. I don't want to start our story, chapter three. I want to start humanity Stories when it actually started in chapter one. And in chapter one, here's what it said.
[00:09:37] It says here, so God, okay, this is like, this is days of creation. So this happens to be the last days. And he goes, so God created human beings in his. Help me out. In his what?
[00:09:51] Own image. And in the image of God. He created them, male and female. He created them. He keeps on saying, I created them, created them, created them in my image. My image is both male and female, which blows my mind if you really read this.
[00:10:08] Like, what? What now what? And then God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and what? Govern it. Reign over the fish and the sea and the birds in the air and all the animals that scurry along the ground.
[00:10:27] Okay, okay. And then it says some more things. And then it ends with this. Because it's one thought.
[00:10:34] It says here in verse 31, it says, Then God looked over all he had made.
[00:10:42] All he had made.
[00:10:44] He looked back and just goes, wow.
[00:10:47] Have you ever created something?
[00:10:50] Maybe even put an outfit together? Okay, fine, fine. Look in the mirror, step back and go, okay, now. Okay, okay, okay. I like that. I like that. Have you ever made, like, cooked something and take a bite and you go, oh, my goodness.
[00:11:04] And complimented yourself? Have you ever complimented yourself?
[00:11:08] I am. I am amazing.
[00:11:12] I don't know where you. I think you got that from your creator. He looks back and go, hey, that's good stuff.
[00:11:22] I don't want to brag or anything, but I'm amazing.
[00:11:27] This is so good. This is so, so good. Why? Because. Not just because he made all the things in the world, but he says, this humanity that I made in my own image, I am giving him. I don't know if you read this. I'm giving them trust, responsibility, choice, freedom to govern, to reign, to make choices. I'm going to give them something unconditional because. Because I just. I mean, they're so. It's so good.
[00:11:57] It's just so good. It's so good. That's where your story and my story started.
[00:12:04] Day one.
[00:12:06] We tell the story of us. Day, chapter three, couple of days later, if you missed the beginning, it dilutes the thing, right? It dilutes it. Have you ever opened a can of fresh, you know, carbonated drink? It's crispy, like, oh, this is awesome.
[00:12:28] And then you leave it for 10 days, then you drink it.
[00:12:32] How amazing is that?
[00:12:35] Awful.
[00:12:36] That's why the gospel, which means. Anybody know. Anybody know what the gospel means?
[00:12:43] Good news. That. That's why the good news, the gospel to the world is not necessarily good.
[00:12:52] Like, you know, you've had. You tell people you've done this, right? You've been so excited to tell someone some good news. Or if you've heard someone, be so excited and they tell you the good news, and you're like, oh, that's great.
[00:13:06] That's great. That's awesome. Because it's not. It's like, let me tell you why the gospel is because if you start the story of humanity 10 days later, the story starts off as that you were born a sinner. You were made in the image of Adam and Eve.
[00:13:27] Translation, here's what the gospel sounds to the world.
[00:13:33] Hey, I got good news.
[00:13:36] Good news. This is good news. You want to listen? Listen. Good news. This is good news.
[00:13:41] So you're a terrible person. I mean, listen, hold on.
[00:13:45] No, no, it's not your fault.
[00:13:47] You're naturally awful.
[00:13:50] No, no, no, no, no, no. Why? Wait. No, no, no. You were born this way.
[00:13:54] You were born this way. Just evil, just.
[00:14:02] But the good news. You are terrible. But God has figured out a way to still love you.
[00:14:12] And you know what? He's going to have to sacrifice his son for it, and he's going to forgive you.
[00:14:20] But he's done that good news.
[00:14:26] You're good now, and all you gotta do is believe that he did it and you're good.
[00:14:32] Isn't that great news?
[00:14:34] And when I first heard it, I remember, I'm like, no, no, it's not good news. But to a person who deals with insecurity, who always. Who has a struggle with not feeling enough and good enough, you're like, I'll take it.
[00:14:50] I'll take it.
[00:14:52] Because I don't know why. From day one, I have been convinced I'm so awful.
[00:14:58] I'm not enough, hide from everything.
[00:15:03] I'm just a terrible person.
[00:15:05] I don't believe anybody can love me. And so if you're telling me that God loves me, then I'll take it.
[00:15:11] The problem is, it's not Good news.
[00:15:15] It's 10 days into the story.
[00:15:18] The story really is this.
[00:15:20] You and I were created in the image of God.
[00:15:25] In the image of God. He created us. Day one looked at us and said, you're good.
[00:15:33] You, my friends. You, my friends, have intrinsic value because you were created by a God who loves you. You, in fact, were made in love.
[00:15:43] You were made day one in love. Humanity was made in love. See, the Genesis account is not necessarily literal. It's poetic. But when you go back to the Jewish language. It's not really saying, okay, they were day one, they were day two. It's not saying. It's telling us about the nature of God.
[00:16:02] And so if you go, I don't know if I believe literally, there was a garden.
[00:16:07] That's not the point. The point of this story is to show you who God is like.
[00:16:13] And what the writer is saying here is God created you in love, but here's the story.
[00:16:21] The story as you go on, you know, ten days later, chapter three.
[00:16:28] Well, your story was disrupted, interrupted by sin, but. But it's going to be redeemed by grace.
[00:16:44] You were made in love in one sense. You have wandered. Humanity has wandered in brokenness. And we see this, but it will be made right because God is pursuing us to make it all right again.
[00:17:00] That's your story.
[00:17:02] That's good news.
[00:17:06] That's going back and going. That is the lens of Jesus. And I want to show this to you as we read the story and we continue it.
[00:17:15] So he saw it was very good, right? And then what happens? Then, well, it gets distorted. How? Well, it says here, Genesis 2.
[00:17:24] Let me go to the second chapter. It says, the Lord placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. Why? Because he trusted him.
[00:17:34] He trusted us.
[00:17:36] Because love trusts love. Love gives you choice. Love gives you responsibility.
[00:17:41] True love does that.
[00:17:43] But the Lord God also warned him, because you have a choice. You may freely eat of every fruit in the garden except the fruit, except the tree of the knowledge of what good and evil. And if you eat of its fruit, you will what?
[00:17:57] Surely die. Like as if God is saying, hey, listen, I have made you in a. This world that you're living in is nothing that other people are going to begin to understand. Because, number one, I made you. Not as babies, I made you. No, no, you didn't go through that toddler phase.
[00:18:13] No, you were just.
[00:18:15] I made you as adults. I also made you to live forever. I know it's beyond your understanding. And now I've given you this space, and it does have time, but also you're going to live forever.
[00:18:28] The things here, it's just something we cannot understand. So God gives us the.
[00:18:33] The beginning of us, our Adam and Eve, humanity, this opportunity to live in this space, but also a choice, because you have to have choice of choosing something that is not necessarily good. You have to have that. So that's the choice he has. But he says, but you will surely die. Which again, does not mean that you're gonna die physically, because that Was not a thing.
[00:18:54] It was like things in your life are gonna die. There's something that's going to die. Decay. You're going to give birth to something as like atrophy that you've never experienced before. What is die? What does death mean? I know you don't understand, but I'm just gonna let you know it's gonna start something that you don't want to start.
[00:19:13] So he does that and then we go to kind of day 10, chapter three. In chapter three, it starts off and it says the what?
[00:19:25] The serpent.
[00:19:28] Nahash.
[00:19:30] The Hebrew word for serpent is. Let's say it with me. Can you just say it? You want to say it? Nahash.
[00:19:36] You sound like Harry Potter. Like Slytherin here. Nahash.
[00:19:40] Yeah, he was the shrewdest of all the wild animals and the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, did God really say that he was not eating the treasure?
[00:19:53] He says, no, of course we may eat the fruit of the tree in the garden.
[00:19:57] Yeah, it's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. The middle of the garden? How big is the garden? It's gotta be huge because you got all kinds of animals. It wasn't like it was this small. And they kept bumping into it like, oh, it's tempting. Oh, my gosh, we're rubbing. No, no, no. It's in the middle of the garden. I don't know where it is. We just can't eat that.
[00:20:21] Yeah. But just happens to be close by when this conversation takes place.
[00:20:27] And then he says, well, well, you won't.
[00:20:32] You won't die.
[00:20:33] Like, what is death anyways? What does that mean? You won't die?
[00:20:39] What is dying?
[00:20:40] I don't know what dying is. You won't die. He says, no. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it. And you will be like God to knowing both good and evil. If you've ever wondered, could you be like the one who created you?
[00:20:59] Could you be a God?
[00:21:03] Take a bite.
[00:21:04] You might want to. You might want to.
[00:21:07] So here people, humanity who is fully loved and trusted gets an opportunity because love does that.
[00:21:17] You have to have choice and then gets distorted by sin. The serpent here is not necessarily the snake. It's. It's. It's. It's our. It's our sin. It's. It's the. It's the idea that we have. It's the. It's the thought we have of like. It's the it's the voice that says, maybe I should try this. It's a. It's a desire that you go, ah, maybe, just maybe, just maybe.
[00:21:43] So what happens? The woman was what?
[00:21:46] She was what she was. She was convinced. She was like, okay. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious. Isn't it really awful that all the bad things for you are always good looking?
[00:21:59] Anyways, Anyways, okay. And we won. And we. And she wanted the wisdom it would give her to give her more power.
[00:22:08] So she took some of the fruit and ate it and gave it, Gave some to her husband who was, you know, watching the game.
[00:22:19] I mean, soccer is a big deal, friends. It's happening. So he looted the game. He wasn't in this. He, you know, we know the story, right? She was all alone, helpless.
[00:22:31] Serpent convinced her. She runs back, says, hey, I just had this. You gotta eat this. He goes like, okay, fine.
[00:22:38] No.
[00:22:40] She gave some to her husband, who was with her the entire time, and he ate it too. Both of them were there, and at that moment, their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame.
[00:22:58] Hmm. They felt shame.
[00:23:02] Not guilt.
[00:23:05] They felt shame.
[00:23:07] Guilt is. I don't think we should have done this.
[00:23:10] This was wrong.
[00:23:12] This is bad. This is awful.
[00:23:14] I did an awful thing.
[00:23:16] No, the first thing they heard, you're awful.
[00:23:23] You're awful.
[00:23:26] They felt shame.
[00:23:28] Shame says, Goes after identity.
[00:23:31] It says, you are that awful thing you did.
[00:23:35] You are not enough. Look at you. You're hideous.
[00:23:40] And for some of us, we kind of. We've kind of heard those thoughts. You look at you, look at you. And instantly, instantly they felt their what?
[00:23:52] Their nakedness.
[00:23:54] Oh, my gosh.
[00:23:55] What's going on? And they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
[00:24:02] And they went into hiding, hiding from each other.
[00:24:09] And that's the beginning of where people who were loved and created in God's image and were good were distorted all of a sudden. Because shame finally had a voice into the soul of humanity.
[00:24:26] And it begins talking and it started saying. And that's why it starts talking to you when you're really young. Have you noticed that toddlers have no care in the world of being naked like some of your kids? We've hung out. They are very happy naked, right? They're like running around, running around. And it's the parents that says, put something on, cover that up.
[00:24:53] Because in the beginning, you're naturally born with the inability to hear shame.
[00:25:02] And then someone speaks it over you, and then you grow up with it. And now it's just A part of who you are. And so we just know that we always have to cover up and hide.
[00:25:14] And for some of us, that's what we do. We live in that way because that's what sin does. It's this idea that tempts us, but then it manipulates us and it doesn't. So nt Wright, he's a scholar.
[00:25:33] He says sin doesn't simply break the rules, it dehumanizes us.
[00:25:38] We stop being fully human the way God intended.
[00:25:44] So the story continues. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And they did what?
[00:25:53] For the first time, they did what?
[00:25:55] They hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord called to the man and said, what?
[00:26:04] Where are you? Something that God had never said before and something that God has now forever been saying to all of humanity.
[00:26:14] Where are you?
[00:26:15] Why are you hiding?
[00:26:17] He says, I heard you in the garden. We were afraid because I was naked and so I hid.
[00:26:25] And then God says this, which is so interesting. He says, who what told you you were naked?
[00:26:36] I'm sure the serpent's like, not me. I didn't do it. I did not do it. I mean, I said a lot of other things, but I did not say that they got naked all by themselves. I did not do this. Did not do this.
[00:26:49] And God knew.
[00:26:51] God knew that they had allowed shame to speak to them.
[00:26:55] He says, oh, no.
[00:26:57] Oh no, you've eaten. You've eaten, right?
[00:27:02] You ate the tree that I command you not to.
[00:27:04] You did. You did it.
[00:27:06] You did it. You let it in.
[00:27:09] You let it in.
[00:27:11] You let it in.
[00:27:13] So what happens there?
[00:27:16] Well, there, they don't know what to do.
[00:27:21] They don't know what to do. And sometimes we go, you know, it would have been great if we were just created in love and then put in the garden and just get rid of that choice.
[00:27:31] Like, get rid of the option of the good and evil. Like, why would you even put that there?
[00:27:38] Like, I feel like God set them up.
[00:27:40] I've had conversations with people who go, God just kind of set them up. No, no. God doesn't give you the illusion of freedom and choice and trust. He gives you trust and choice and freedom. And the only way to have illusion is not even to have the opposite of something.
[00:27:56] Not even have good and bad, just have good. There's nothing there.
[00:28:01] It's a bubble of control.
[00:28:04] But a bubble of love actually has the option for you and I to do something. That we're not supposed to do.
[00:28:11] That's why even as parents, we are supposed to have a bubble of not control, making sure our kids don't do anything wrong.
[00:28:20] No, we have to have a bubble of love which gives them the option to do that. James, the brother of Jesus, says this. He says God is never tempted to do wrong and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation actually comes from our own desires, which entices us and drags us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow and it gives birth to what?
[00:28:48] Death. Giving birth to death. What a picture.
[00:28:52] It gives birth to death. Says, that's what happened. So here's the story of you and me. The story of you and you and me is because of that.
[00:29:04] Because of that, and because we are linked to Adam and Eve, we have some tendencies now. Like, I know growing up back in the day, I used to look at my dad and I was like, he's so old and I'm just so cool. I'll never be like him because I'm cooler now.
[00:29:24] There are some things I'm saying and doing that I'm like, are you. You guys still. You guys do that too?
[00:29:34] Have you done that?
[00:29:35] Like, you're like, oh, my gosh. I sound like my dad.
[00:29:39] Oh, my gosh. And if those of you who are like, oh, man, no, there's no way. Just wait.
[00:29:45] Just wait and see. There are tendencies. I don't know why, because physically I have my dad's genes, my mom's genes. There's something that continues to be passed on. And what got passed on from that day of humanity and because of the decay entered the world.
[00:30:04] Our tendency to be enticed got stronger and stronger. And now humanity kind of is born into this brokenness and then lives a broken world and a broken life.
[00:30:16] But the good news is that God redeems it. The first thing he wants to do is restore and to redeem it. And he does this with grace and mercy. Why? Because the beginning of the story, you were made in his image.
[00:30:33] And he said, I'm going to restore that back. I'll figure it out. And so if you carry on, read the rest of the story. You see, he tells Adam, here's what's gonna happen to you. He tells Eve, this is what's gonna happen to you. He tells the serpent what's gonna happen to you. And when he tells the serpent something, he says something, because he's not talking to a snake and a serpent. He's talking to sin. And death over the universe. And he says this, which is so profound, because if you just read it, you're like, oh, okay. No, no, no.
[00:31:04] About Jesus. Here's what he says. He says, so the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you.
[00:31:12] Above all livestock and wild animals, you will crawl on your belly. Because till that point, he did not. So the serpent that we see on a tree or whatever. No, the serpent had a conversation, possibly standing up, maybe a dragon.
[00:31:29] You're like, what? Yeah, because then it got cursed. And what happened to the curse?
[00:31:34] And the curse, it started crawling on the belly before, then it didn't.
[00:31:39] And then it says, and you will eat the dust of the days of your life, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers.
[00:31:55] He.
[00:31:56] He who's the offspring, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. Like. There will be a constant struggle for death and life. And let me just tell you, because you did this, because you had this, because sin manipulated, the woman from the woman will become a seed. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take Eve.
[00:32:22] And through generations and generations, in time and time, what's gonna happen? One day, there will be another Eve. And. And her name will be Mary.
[00:32:32] And Mary will give birth because her offspring will crush death.
[00:32:38] Her offspring. So what I'm going to do is I'm gonna redeem humanity by connecting it. There will be another Mary who'll make the right choice because she'll be given a choice. She'll make the right choice and give birth to God himself. And he will forever create, crush the heel, forever end death. That's why we sing songs like death. Where is your sting?
[00:33:03] Right there and there. Genesis story. He says, this is happening. This is going to happen.
[00:33:11] I will redeem all of humanity.
[00:33:14] I will do this. And then God does the next thing that only love would require him to do. Not because he hated us, because he loved us. He did something that he did not need to do. It says here. This is so profound. Now, verse 21, he says, and the Lord God made clothing from animal skins. For who?
[00:33:36] Adam and Eve? He did not need to do that. They already covered themselves up with fig leaves. They did not need that. But the first thing God says is, I want to nurture and I want to restore, and I want to have relationship, and I want to take care of you, and I want to figure this out. And so the first thing I will do is, is I will sacrifice my very own Creation, I will draw first blood.
[00:34:02] The first animal killed here in the story of humanity is not by humans, it is by God.
[00:34:14] And he does it also signifying that he will always be the one who provide the sacrifice, foreshadowing Jesus his son, that he would.
[00:34:30] He just didn't sacrifice these for Adam and Eve. He would sacrifice a part of himself, Jesus, to cover the sins of the world.
[00:34:42] So God says, you're going to be redeemed. I'm going to redeem all of humanity. And here's the good news. The good news is you don't have to believe it.
[00:34:54] You're like, what?
[00:34:57] Just because half or more than half of humanity doesn't believe, doesn't mean that's not true.
[00:35:06] God's going to be. God basically is saying is, here's your story.
[00:35:11] You were made in love.
[00:35:14] And humanity wanders around.
[00:35:17] Different tribes, different cultures. They wander around in their own unique brokenness.
[00:35:23] But they'll be redeemed.
[00:35:24] And I will redeem them by Jesus.
[00:35:28] And they'll get to choose to believe it or not.
[00:35:31] But I'm gonna do it.
[00:35:33] I'm gonna do this before they ever get even the chance to see. Say yes to it. That's why the scripture says that before anything, before we did, before we were even born, Christ died for us.
[00:35:50] The good news is so good news because it doesn't become true. Because if you believe it, it's true because God did it.
[00:36:01] That's the good news.
[00:36:02] So why is this important?
[00:36:04] It's important because I want you to know that God is pursuing you. Even some of us who find ourselves hiding, hiding in deep shame.
[00:36:15] Some of us are not carrying old sins.
[00:36:19] You're carrying old shame.
[00:36:23] You have a voice that is louder than the voice of God and it always tells you you are not enough.
[00:36:31] Some of us, God is pursuing because he knows that we've done something and we're going to live in regret. That's why if you continue the story of Adam and Eve, he keeps on talking to them. Even when they're not in the garden anymore, he keeps on talking to them because he does not want to. He. He know. He knows. Day one, out of the garden, Adam and Eve looking at each other and thought, what have we done?
[00:37:01] And God said, hey, hey, hey, I'm still talking to you. You're gonna go through some rough things, but I'm still pursuing you.
[00:37:08] This is so important because for some of us, we are.
[00:37:14] We're hiding.
[00:37:16] We just feel like we just need to hide because we hide. Busyness, religion, we just feel like we need to hide. Because if people just knew all that we were, we would not be loved.
[00:37:30] And then for some of us, we just live in constant confusion because of that.
[00:37:34] It's a constant conversation about self worth.
[00:37:41] Can I just tell you, you were made in goodness.
[00:37:47] You were made by love.
[00:37:50] As quirky, messed up, whatever you think you are, it still doesn't change that you were made in the image of God.
[00:38:04] That's why you and I cannot, cannot mistreat any other human, regardless of what they believe. Look like whatever.
[00:38:18] Why? Because we're all made in the image not of Adam and Eve as we've been kind of told we are. No, we've been made in the image of who?
[00:38:30] God.
[00:38:31] We have his DNA running through us.
[00:38:36] So I pray that empowers you to fight the voice of shame, regret in your life.
[00:38:45] I pray it changes all of us.
[00:38:48] Can I pray for you, Lord God?
[00:38:53] God, I pray that you would silence shame.
[00:38:59] God, it has a voice now. It has. It has a mic in our lives.
[00:39:06] It can speak to us, God, for some of us, we believe so much of it. And God, I just pray that you would remind us, God, that when you look at us, you are never motivated by sin.
[00:39:25] You've always been motivated by love.
[00:39:29] And that's why you'll continue pursuing us.
[00:39:33] Because it's not up to us. It's about to you. And you have decided long ago that you're going to bless us.
[00:39:40] Not just our lives, but for generations.
[00:39:43] You're going to love us, not just our lives, but for lives of our kids. You are forever committed to us. So, God, I pray this would set us free. I pray as we respond to today in different ways, each they're receiving communion or going to the cross, lighting a candle, whatever it is, singing God, it would change us from the inside out. I pray.
[00:40:06] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:40:11] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
