The Village Church
Inception of Consequences, Pt. 2: Hide ‘n’ Seek! - Audio
for your name so have your Bibles Genesis 3 verse 8 and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees in the garden so the picture we have here Adam and Eve are standing in the garden with fig leaves on covering the shame trying to cover their guilt and they hear a sound they hear footsteps or someone approaching them they recognize the sound they're familiar with the sound it was the sound of the Lord that's what they heard and what was God doing in the garden what was he doing walking in the garden in the cool of the day and for the first time in Genesis 3 we had the Lord God on the scene and for the first few verses you know it was the serpent and Eve and Adam doing another thing and now here the return of God and don't forget in the context of the situation they just rebelled against God and then they hear him walking approaching and when you go out to dinner or when you leave him go to dinner and you're sitting next to a family and the kids start being disobedient what do you think you wonder what the parents are going to do to get the kids to calm down that's what you think I wonder what they're going to do how they're going to respond to the kids disobedience how is God going to respond because his two kids were just obedient just disobedient and so how is he going to deal with them what is it going to say to them how is he going to approach them what is his intentions here is he's walking in the garden because we know God knows what just happened right he's God so he has to know so what is his intentions here one commentator Matthew Henry says the Lord God came into the garden as one still willing to be familiar with him he came walking not running not riding on the winds wings of the wind you see the language Moses is using here the striving God walking in the garden in the cool of the day he is using that to communicate that at one point there was joy pleasure and happiness in their fellowship with the Lord God at one point it was perfect joy perfect pleasure perfect happiness perfect fellowship and as I said earlier they knew the voice they recognized who it was there was no confusion on the identity of the one walking in the garden this was not God going on the meditation walk clearing his thoughts relieving stress his intentions were to go meet with Adam and Eve that's why he's there he's just not walking in the garden just to relieve stress he's going to meet with Adam and Eve and don't think that this is some unusual thing remember this is Eden this is something that he did regularly they were in fellowship with God and so they were used to his presence in the garden and this is what Moses letting us know God's presence was in the garden and our first parents knew it and for them being in the presence of God was normal before the fall it was just life for them being in his presence before this a joy was normal before them before the fall keep in mind he had a special relationship with them that he did not have with the other created things the other created beings what do you mean Alex first Genesis 2 they were created in his image or the other creatures created in God's image was the lion created in God's image was the zebra created in God's image there was only one being created in image of God and that was Adam and Eve that's man special relationship Genesis 2 7 says the Lord of God breathed into the man the breath of life and man became a living creature God gave the man life the breath of life and then also in Genesis 2 we see the Lord God he brought to the man all the beasts of the field and the birds and what did the man do when God brought the animals to him the man named them God let the man name all the creatures and what does that show us that man had the men over all the other created animals he was different God had given him the men over them to rule over them to subdue them in their relationship before the fall there was complete trust and dependency they enjoyed God like we never could they did not sense his presence from a distance it was up close and personal face to face that's what that's what it was like man that's what it was like God's face shine upon them with deep affection and deep flape favor the creator and the creation went right relationship one another and all things were well man all things very good one Christian said God was in familiar intercourse with the man in the happy days of his innocence God was loved his father and guess what fear was unknown can you imagine that fear was unknown before the fall the he says the severe rule no one beholds God and lives did not even exist then they be held God and lived so God and lived face to face with no need for mediator know that no need for high priest you see the relationship you see how good it was men of us many of you know Romans 3 23 says we all have sinned and fallen short to God's glory that's my reality that's your reality that was never Adam and Eve's reality before the fall they never fell short until they fail and think about those moments of in your relationship with the father when you sense closeness to him don't you have those moments when you fit when you can sense that you're growing in him that you're loving him do you have those moments or am I just talking to myself Adam and Eve that was that moment all the time before the fall it wasn't like this we're like this for them it was always like this until they failed it was like this it was not a roller coaster like it is for us they had and were living they created purpose the created purpose was to be a fellowship with God and they had it man they were living it everything changed from one bite from one decision from one taste and this time when they heard the Lord's God's voice in the garden garden something was different it didn't entice the same joyous feelings it did before why was it different because they were different they were different in the way they saw the Lord God was different because they fail I'm sure many of you have what I want to call breakup and rejection stories of relationships that failed I know I have my share I'm sure you have your share and some of them some of those rejection stories and breakups are painful some of them are funny now because you can look back and laugh at them and when I was in college you know me and some of my friends we used to share these rejection stories and breakup stories and it became like a ritual for us to see who had the verse one and we'll sit back and laugh about it and they're sad and yet funny you know I had one friend he was having lunch with this girl and she told him if I can just put that guy's face on your body then you'd be a perfect guy like wow rejection and those things are painful and the rush for me came when I was in college as well I was sitting in my dorm room one night the phone rang and the girl on the other hand said hey Alex we need to talk can we meet I said sure so you know I left my dorm room I didn't know what to expect we met in front of this academic building on campus and what went down I didn't think what was going to happen it happened but I wasn't expecting I was expecting something else and so the more she shared you know I got there she was waiting on me the more she shared I realize rejection is coming but she's prolonging it so they stick with the knife already and if that night was a scene in a suspense movie you would have heard the drums playing the music building up the suspense is coming because she's getting ready to lay down on the rejection I haven't shared this with many people but some of my friends but you know she said Alex Alex 95% of me don't feel the same way I used to feel about you and I was thinking to myself okay it's just still 5% so I still got a chance but she's not done yet she has she puts a cherry on top and she says Alex and I'm praying that God take away the other five and I'm sitting there like well what do you say to that okay so you hate me and for Adam and Eve they rejected God here it was rejection it wasn't nine and five percent of them but it was a hundred percent of who they are rejected the Lord God they broke up with him they way they saw him the way they thought about him and whether they fit him upon him the way they trusted him has now changed in their rebellion they broke up with their creator they rejected him and they turned their backs on him hundred percent of who they are no longer hears the sound of the Lord God the same way there's no longer joy there's no longer excitement a hundred percent of who they are no longer finds pleasure in his presence now a hundred percent of who they are there's no longer imperfect fellowship with the father just like their innocence just like their innocence they lost fellowship with God because they ate the forbidden fruit and now their disobedience created a gap a separation between the creator and his creation the relationship has changed and not for the better and this is seen in their response to him the Lord in the garden verse eight again says and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden they hid themselves the first instinct you can see a change was to run from him not to run toward him not to run to greet him but to run away from him and guess what he's not even there yet he's just walking toward them and yet they run away and hide among the trees and the garden they are not the same two people they used to be and the fig leaves that they had could not save them cannot protect them could not cover them enough from the Lord God and so they run and hide behind the trees as one commentator said they they shun him whose presence they used to welcome they shun him no I don't want to see you I don't want you to see me running from his presence and they were afraid afraid of God's presence that's what we see here and so it's you know the pitch you should have is like little kids running into the forest to hide behind the trees hide behind the trees and then poke the heads out to see if he's coming is he coming is he coming be quiet you breathing too hard he's going to find us is he coming but yes he's coming as my similar my seminary professor said simple man is afraid to be seen by holy God afraid to be seen they don't want to see God they don't want to look into his eyes they don't want to seek him face to face because they knew what they did they felt fear for the first time and we see here in our first in our first parents is that there's the game of hide and seek the very first game of hide and seek is in Genesis 3 and you wonder why it's universal game our first parents created it hiding from their creator and we still play this game today all people you even you and I included before you come to saving faith you are hiding from the Lord did you know that it's only and only the reason you have come to saving faith is because the Lord had patiently sought after you you didn't seek after him he pursued you even for us Christians we still have areas of life in which we try to hide from God says mine you can have this but this is mine don't we yes we do do you know your created purpose is to be in fellowship with God it's not the things you live in for right now it's not the things you think you need right now your created purpose in this life is to be in fellowship with the father not 95 percent of you not 75 percent of you not 2 percent of you not 10 percent of you 100 percent of who you are was created for that purpose every human being was created for that purpose to be in fellowship with the father the thing that we lost in Genesis 3 or 36 when they enter the fruit and so now human beings are hiding from that they run from that where are you this morning are you hiding in the trees are you in the forest hiding are you hiding behind your own goodness hiding behind your own sense of self righteousness where are you hiding well you feel like you don't need him that's hiding I got my life all together I don't need God is need a little bit of guy where are you hiding from God reveals separation from him broken relationship broken fellowship but this hiding also reveals it's a lost sense of your need for him what do I mean by that here's what I mean Stephen Hawkins I think he's the atheist guy you know he's a physicist of physicists I think and his new book the grand design he says because there's a law such as gravity the universe can and will create itself from nothing spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing while the universe exists and while we exist God did not create a universe the big band was in an ill of a consequence of the law of physics that's what I mean by law six of our need for fellowship by that's kind of statement we don't think we need God we look for ways to prove he does not exist we look for ways to prove why we don't need him law gravity I got gravity I don't need God and so you have the fall or the fall has taken away for us sin and need for him we all have no people or work with people who are not believers and they don't even think they need God God is not even on that radar why is that Genesis three man that's why they are going this way and it takes God coming to bring them to bring him back to themselves he had to come pursue them and bring them back to him and all of us was that person man all of us were we used to before you became a believer God was on your radar you will live you were doing your thing if you people talked about God you you hated God or God wasn't really going to what was really need for you until he spoke into your life until he changed your heart then you saw your need then you saw your need in our present state we don't naturally come to God apart from God coming to us and bringing giving us a desire to come to him that's why we come this morning when when I drove up to the church this morning it was trash all over the parking lot and trash out the trash can here someone had ripped the trash bag and and threw the trash all over the place so I had to go by and pick it all up it was nasty stuff and I was thinking that's what God was getting ready for Adam and Eve they just trash your souls trash everywhere life broken life messed up dirty plates old food old bottles old toilet tissue all on the ground and God was going to have to pick it all up himself and that's what he did for you and me he picked up the trash in my own life and what this shows us that we're going to get to later is that there has to be a mediator now keep in mind Christmas is coming no special about Christmas mediator because what we're doing with these sermons here is that what everything that we lost in the garden Christmas is going to restore he got to see that Christmas is going to restore it they lost their innocence and so they need a covering what covering do you have we just talked about it they lost their fellowship with God so now they need a mediator he's coming Christmas is coming he's coming let's pray Father God I thank you that we do have a mediator and that he came Christmas is coming and I know Lord that you love your people and I know that Adam and Eve messed up a lot of things for us but we still see that you still did not just wipe them out you were still merciful to them have patience with them that's the kind of guy you are always faithful always providing more merciful than we can even imagine and so again I pray for that for all of us and I walked with you that you were strengthening us those who who may not know you I prayed that you will reveal yourself to them more and more and those of us who do help us to give all of our life to you even the things we want to hold on to and hide from you open up our hands and take our life take every area of it Lord and mold it into what you want it to be in Christ in my prayer amen. 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