INTRO

Download the Life in 6 Words app while I tell you a story…

Story: Separated in Chile…

What are the worst things to be separated from?

  • Dates, family, WiFi, phone chargers

TENSION

How close are you to God tonight? Do you feel separated?

Review series…G.O.S.P.E.L.

If there is space between you and God, there is only one culprit…sin.

Our sins separate us from God.

TRUTH

Read: Genesis 3:22-24 What happened?

  • Background: Gen. 1-11(The prologue); interpretation/scholarship; Jesus affirmed the prologue when he quoted from Gen. 2.
  • Context: Narrate Cf. 3:1-21; arrive back at main text.
  • Our sins separate us from fellowship with God.
    • Sin breaks his commands.
      • Cf. 2:17 – The command (2:17)
      • Cf. 3:1 – Satan: “Did God say?”
      • Cf. 3:11 – God: “The tree I commanded you not to eat?”
      • God’s law is written on our hearts and written in his Word.
    • Sin attacks his character.
      • Cf. 3:5 – Satan: “God knows you will be like him…”
      • I Know Better Syndrome – “Good for food, pleasing to the eye…”
      • What they didn’t know: They couldn’t handle the fruit.
      • Sin tells the world what you think of God.
    • Sin misses his mark.
      • Cf. 3:7 – Their first act with “knowledge” – making clothes with leaves (STUPID!).
      • Cf. 3:8 – God came, and Adam hid. Why?
      • Cf. 3:23-24 – Paradise Lost – Separated from God.
        • Sent out, drove out
        • No more walking and talking with God. No more seeing him face to face.
  • Our sins separate us from the blessings of God.
    • Because of sin, people are going through hell.
      • Shame replaced innocence (v.10).
      • Blame replaced intimacy (v.12,13).
      • Pain replaced pleasure (v.16).
      • Drama replaced unity (v.16).
      • Lack replaced plenty (v.17). 
      • Work replaced purpose (v.19).
      • Even believers experiences these consequences of a broken relationship with God.
    • Because of sin, people are going to hell.
      • Sin caused an immediate spiritual death.
        • Eph.2 – Dead in our sins & following Satan
        • Cf. 3:15 – Spiritual warfare
        • Rom. 5:12 – We’re born dead in our sins inherited from Adam.
        • Would you drink a bottle of water with a drop of arsenic?
      • Sin causes a future physical death.
        • Cf. 2:17 – “You will surely die” 
        • Cf. 5:5 – Adam died.
        • Remember when I brough the casket to Refuel?
      • Sin causes an impending eternal death.
        • Rev. 21:15 – Anyone not in the book of life is thrown into the Lake of Fire
        • Jesus mentioned hell more than he did Heaven!

How do we see people? Do we care about the hell people are going through, and the hell they’re headed to?

  • Our sin isn’t the end of the story.
    • Cf. 3:9 – “Where are you?” -> Adam hid, but God came looking.
    • 2 Pictures of Jesus in Genesis 3…
      • The Seed (3:15)
        • Before God cursed man, he promised Jesus.
        • Gal.3:13 – “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
      • The Sacrifice (3:21)
        • Innocent animals died so Adam & Eve could be in fellowship w/God.
        • Heb. 10:4,10 – For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins…we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Our sins separate us from God. But Jesus made a way for us to be restored.

APPLICATION – The ABC’s of Defeating Sin

#1 – Advance the gospel.

  • Download the “Life in 6 Words” app, and add 3 people to your Cause Circle.
  • Help us with the video (Jan.20) and the Backpacks/Pantry (Jan.29)
  • Care about the hell people are going through, and the hell they’re headed to.

#2 – Believe in Jesus.

  • Sin is big, but Jesus is bigger.
  • There’s only one way to be saved, and it’s by believing in Jesus. Trust him tonight.

#3 – Confess sin often.

  • Christians! Is the Holy Spirit working on your heart, exposing a sin in your life? Confess it to God and remove the space between you and him (1 Jn. 1:9).

LANDING

  • Pray for people in your cause circle.
  • Rededicate your life to God.
  • Ask Jesus to be your Savior.