You may
have noticed from the sermon title today that we are beginning a sermon series
today on the Bible’s Biggest Losers. I’m pretty excited about this series. We
all know the stories of the heroes of the Bible. You learn those stories in
Sunday School when you are a little kid. Joshua and the Battle of Jericho,
Daniel in the Lion’s Den, Noah and the
So I want to start today by talking about Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are the original losers of the Bible. Man, did they blow it. They had it made. God creates this beautiful world, and then creates Adam in his own image. In other words, Adam looks something like God. Good looking guy. God puts him in a beautiful garden full of wonderful animals and plants and all the food he can eat.
One day God gets a good idea and says, know what? I’m going to make a wife for you Adam. Adam says, ok, well, what’s a wife? God says, a companion, a friend so you won’t be alone. Adam says, ok, sounds good to me. So think about this folks. All you married people out there pay attention…well, and you single ones, too. Maybe this applies to you even more. Do you know how hard it is to find that “special someone?” I had to date a lot of girls before I found Holly. It was hard work. Finding that perfect person for you isn’t easy. For those of you who are still single out there, you may be thinking, God, where he? Or where is she? Why can’t you just drop that perfect person right here in front of me so I don’t have to look so hard?
That’s what God did for Adam! God made someone for Adam who was perfect for him. They were literally made for each other. A perfect match. So here they are: a perfect couple in a perfect place. And how good do they have it? No kids, no bills to pay. No IRS. No job to go to. Their only responsibility was to name the animals, and how hard is that? You look at something and call it whatever it looks like. “Hey hunny, what’s that?” “I dunno…haven’t named it yet.” “Hmm…how about…hippopotamus?” “Heh…that’s a good one.” Life is as good as it could possibly ever be for any human being. It is perfect.
So God comes to Adam and Eve and says, “Hey listen…I’ve given you two a pretty perfect life…I’m just going to make one rule. You can eat fruit from any tree that you can find…just don’t eat off of this one tree over here. It’s forbidden. It’s the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You don’t want to eat off this tree. You’ll die.” They say, ok. God says, “But, you can eat as much as you want off of this tree over here, the tree of life. It’s really good.” They say, ok.
So that’s their only rule in a perfect place. Don’t eat off the forbidden tree. That’s it. Anything else goes. So Adam and Eve are hanging around the garden having a good time. One day Eve says, “Hey Adam, want to go for a walk?” Adam says, “Nah…I think I’ll just lay here in the shade all day and do nothing.” See ladies, it started from the beginning of time. So Eve goes off by herself for a walk and as she’s walking she stumbles across the forbidden tree. She says, “Huh…that’s that tree God said not to eat from…kind of a weird rule, but what God says goes…”
Then this serpent pokes his head out of the tree and says, “Hey Eve…you’ve got to try this fruit! It’s awesome!” Eve, apparently not startled by a talking snake, replies, “Nope, God said not to.” The snake says, “Really? God told you that?” “Yep.” “Well, why not?” Eve says, “Because God said if we ate this fruit, we’d die.” The snake says, “Well, God is pulling your leg. You won’t die. You’ll be smart like God. God just doesn’t want you to be as smart as Him, that’s why he told you not to eat it. He tricked you!” Eve says, “Noooo…really? Well, then I think I will have some.” And she picks off a piece of the fruit and takes a bite. She says, “Wow, this is great!” And she takes some back to Adam and says, “Adam, you’ve got to try this stuff!” Adam says, “Wait…isn’t that the forbidden fruit? The fruit God said not to eat? I don’t think we’re supposed to…” “Take a bite!” says Eve. So Adam says, “ok.” And he takes a bite. And they look at each other…and they look at themselves…and they look back at each other…and they said, “You know…we’re naked.”
And about that time they heard God taking his evening walk through the garden and they ran and hid behind some bushes. God starts calling out to them, “Adam! Eve! Where are you?” Adam says, “over here…” Why are you hiding, “Cuz I’m naked.” “How do you know that you’re naked?” “Well, Eve brought me some of the fruit, but I didn’t want to eat it! She made me!” “Adam, did you eat the fruit that I asked you not to eat?” Adam says, “Yes, God.”
God turns to Eve, “Eve, did you eat the fruit?” Eve says, “The snake! It tricked me! I didn’t want to eat the fruit, but I got all confused when he was talking and the fruit looked so good and I didn’t know what to do…” “Eve, did you eat the fruit?” Eve says, “Yes, God.”
Talk about a couple of losers. Adam and Eve had it made. Perfect for each other, in a perfect place, with a perfect life. They had ONE rule to follow, and they broke that rule. They disobeyed God. And really, if you think about it, disobedience is at the heart of all sin. If we never disobey God, then we will always follow all of his commands. As long as we are doing what God commands and obeying Him, we can never sin. But as soon as we disobey, sin enters.
So when Adam and Eve disobey, maybe we can relate to that. In fact, if you have ever sinned, chances you have disobeyed God yourself. Maybe you’ve disobeyed the command not to lie or not to steal. Or maybe you’ve disobeyed the command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Or you’ve disobeyed the command to love your neighbor as yourself.
But not matter what area you’ve sinned, I think it is safe to say that everyone in this room has disobeyed God at some point in their life. We have all been disobedient. Why do we do that? Why don’t we just listen to what God says? Think about Adam and Eve. What was the point of disobeying God? They had it all. God had given them everything. A perfect partner, a perfect place to live. Everything was perfect. God asks them not to do one thing, and they do it. What was to be gained by disobeying? Why disobey?
Well for one, they stopped trusting God. I don’t know why. But they stopped trusting God. The God that had made everything perfect for them. They listened to the snake – who is the devil – and his divine conspiracy theory that God is hiding something from them. The Bible tells us that when they saw the fruit, and that wisdom could be gained from it, they ate it. That seemed like a good thing. But God was protecting them from it. It’s just like when you were a kid and your mom bought a new box of Oreos and said, “You shouldn’t eat those right now, ok?” And you think to yourself, I heard Oreo’s are really good. She’s just trying to keep them for herself! Well, I’ll show her! And you eat the whole box, and you’re sick for the next two days. She was trying to protect you, but you didn’t trust her. In the same way, God was trying to protect them, but they didn’t trust him.
But you know, out of all of this, something good did happen. Even though Adam and Eve turned out to be losers and they disobeyed a God who had given them everything good and was trying to protect them from everything bad, something good did happen. Because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, God had a chance to show us his mercy, his forgiveness, and his patience. Let me tell you something, if we had a God who was not merciful, forgiving, and patient, if we had a God who was full of wrath, vengeance, and anger, we would not be here right now. If our God was just a God of wrath, he would have pointed his finger at Adam and Eve and killed them right on the spot. But no, our God is a God of mercy, forgiveness, and patience.
Now don’t get me wrong, God is also a God of justice. He didn’t just say, “Hey, forget about it. Let’s act like it never happened.” No, he told Adam and Eve that they would have to leave the garden. There could no longer be perfection for them. Man would have to go to work to survive, and woman would have to give birth to children in a very painful manner. Life was no longer going to be a walk in the park, they would be punished for their disobedience. But God showed mercy, forgiveness, and patience. Genesis 3:21 says that God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve and clothed them. He gave them their first clothes. And he allowed them to reproduce. Even gave birth to two boys, Cain and Abel. And after a few years, Cain murdered his brother Abel. And still, God did not just smite everyone from the face of the earth. He was patient with them. Just, but patient and merciful.
And aren’t we thankful that God continues to be merciful, forgiving, and patient with us? Thankfully, that has never changed, because even today, we are disobedient. We haven’t learned our lesson from Adam and Eve. We continue to disobey God and his commandments. And God continues to exercise justice, but also mercy, forgiveness, and patience.
Many times people will say things to me like, “I don’t feel like I deserve to be loved by God. How could God ever love someone like me? I’ve been so disobedient. I’ve done some really bad things. And I’ve done them a lot. I don’t deserve God’s love.”
And my answer to that always has to be, “You’re right! You don’t deserve God’s love. None of us do. We’re all disobedient. And God will exercise justice, and has exercised justice. But God is also a God of mercy, forgiveness, and patience, and there is nothing you can do to separate yourself from the love of God. No matter how disobedient you are, no matter how many times you break the same rule, no matter how bad of a thing you have done, God still wants to love you and have a relationship with you.
And what’s even greater is that God has found a way to deflect the justice that must take place off of us and onto himself, onto his Son Jesus. It’s as if God is doing everything possible to make things right with us, and we are doing everything possible to mess it up. But he is patient with us. Every time we disobey, he finds a way to show us his mercy and forgiveness. Even when we are unfaithful, he is faithful. In a few moments we are going to sing the great hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” and I think those words really sum it all up. God’s faithfulness is great. He gives pardon for our sin and a peace that endures. Every day he shows us his mercy in a new way. His faithfulness to us is great.
But that doesn’t mean that it is ok for us to just keep disobeying. At some
point we have to look at all that God has done for us, to recognize and realize
the mercy, forgiveness, and patience that he has shown to us, and try to
change. Try to be obedient. Try to follow God’s commands. At some point, we
have to start trusting God that his commands are for the best, that he really
does know what he’s doing and he really does want the best for us. And we need
to fall on our knees and ask forgiveness and start acting with faithfulness
towards Him, because he has been and will always be faithful to us.
Van Buren United
Pastor Dan Metzger