12 Jun 6/15/25 Gen. 3:8-15 “The Perfect Track Record!”
6/15/25 Gen. 3:8-15 “The Perfect Track Record!”
I think that you all know that I have been doing this for many years but I’m always open to improvements. I started to write this a couple, three weeks ago and I started as I always do. I wrote an introduction. I was coming back in a couple of days to write a story to go with it. Well, I came back and was going to continue but I found that what I had written was gone. I spent an hour looking for that opening but it was gone. I have had this happen to me a few times over the years but not quite like this. This time I still had a lot of time to get the sermon ready. So, this is what I figure happened. God was telling me that I could do better or I was not writing quite what He wanted. I found that when you think in terms of God in these situations, much of the sting is gone. I went back and reread the Scripture. What I found was the first question God had in the Bible. “Where are you?” I’m here to tell you today, that I was right back in the beginning, starting over. And this is sort of like where God was as we begin our reading today. God will have to take us to the very beginning. We find ourselves in this situation quite often and you need to know that all is well as long as you have God in charge. Today, we are going to look at where Adam and Eve were, along with where you are or might be. Let’s see if we can make this very relevant to your lives today.
Tim Smith tells this story but I’m going to update it a little when I refer to GPS units. The author learned that to be able to get where you’re going, you first have to know where you are. He learned this over Thanksgiving when he was in Atlanta. He says “We used our GPS units to get around as we were unfamiliar with the area. GPS units are great because all you do is enter the address of where you want to go. But before it can give you directions, it has to first calculate your location. You can’t get to where you’re going unless you first know where you are. That makes sense because if you don’t know where you are, then you can’t know how to get to a new place. So repeating God’s first question in the Bible, “where are you?”
I’m going to begin this by talking about Satan although he is not mentioned until we are well into the reading. If this was the first time we read our Bibles, we might be tempted to say that this was a talking serpent and not Satan. This would be understandable because he really has not been explained yet. As we go through the Bible, we run across many names for this evil, foul creature. Here he is referred to as the serpent. Other names that he goes by in the Bible are Satan, Lucifer, the Accuser, the Adversary, the Tempter, the Devil, the Evil One, the Father of all Lies and Beelzebub, just to name a few. No matter what we call him, we must remember that he is very evil and totally against anything you might do or believe. In a nutshell, he is a terrible, miserable creature!
So, they just had this evil serpent talk them into eating the forbidden fruit. Then they both ate and I’m not going into who was at fault here. They were both guilty as they both ate. Some so-called experts say that God allowed the serpent into the Garden in the first place so that they could subdue this creature. But that obviously did not happen. I only know of one way to subdue this creature and that is through Jesus Christ.
Anyway, Satan has an army of demons to help him. So, Satan called in some of his lieutenants to help him develop a strategy for keeping God’s people living in defeat. One strategy after another was suggested. For example, to keep God’s people living in defeat, it was decided that they could try to keep them from prayer, the Bible, and church. Satan liked all of these, but one strategy impressed him most of all as being quite effective. That strategy was to let them pray all they want, read the Bible all they want, and go to church all they want; just convince them that they don’t really have to do what God tells them. Wow! How clever!
This brings us to where is Satan in our lives today? What strategy is he using on you? I’m not going to talk about the obvious ones that I always talk about. One of the biggest threats that many of us has is that of complacency. We get to thinking that we are now getting a little older and we don’t have to do anything to keep our spiritual life going. We get a little complacent and to be quite frank, lazy.
But God did not make us this way. We are made to be working for Jesus at all times. If nothing else, we can be praying for people. And please, don’t be one of those people who say they will pray for someone but never do it. You should be praying about these things and people will not even have to ask. How much are you reading your Bible? This is the most important, inspirational, influential book that has ever been printed. I have found that most people have never read the Bible but they sure do know a couple of verses taken out of context. Satan is working these areas to keep you from obeying Jesus.
The last thing I want to talk about where Satan is working is in the church. We have just seen how this evil being split the Methodist Church into one church that doesn’t follow the Bible unless it suits their purposes. The new church is the one where we try to follow the written word of God in all we do. People in this new denomination should be excited because for the first time in many, many years they are obeying Jesus. And when you are obeying Jesus, then good things begin to happen. Many of these churches are growing by leaps and bounds. It doesn’t seem to matter if they are in big or small communities, they are taking this wonderful message of our Lord Jesus Christ and telling it to all they know. Unfortunately, there are other churches where Satan is still in control and things are not happening as fast for them. I love the message of the Lord and I try to tell it every week. When I go out to new churches, they usually tell me that they have never heard preaching like this or it has been a long time since they have. All I can say is that I preach Jesus Christ and all He stands for.
Now let’s move on here a bit to the question that God asked Adam and Eve. Where are you? This seems like a rather odd question. This is God asking and He knows everything. Therefore, He knows exactly where they are and what they have been doing. So, why is He asking?
If you know God, then you probably kind of know what and why He is asking. God wants a conversation with you. That is the bottom line here. Just think what might have happened here in the Garden if they had a conversation with God about the forbidden fruit! Instead, they took the word of the devil and they got us into a world of trouble that extends until today. If they had just asked instead of plunging ahead, things would have been totally different.
So today we know exactly what happened here but do we learn anything from this? I don’t really think so. This is what I think. Satan is handing you apple after apple from the forbidden tree and you are gobbling them up. You think that everyone else is doing sin, so I should be able to also. Just as a sidebar on doing sin, you will never feel good doing it. Sin will always lead to bad feelings. Or maybe you were raised in sin and don’t even think it is that bad. Once again, it is terrible. Or maybe you are just floating along until retirement and you don’t want to take on any responsibilities. Once again, taking on things for Christ are not responsibilities. Rather they are privileges and honors. Or worse yet, you are already retired and you don’t feel that you have to do anything more. That is wrong thinking or stinkin thinkin at its finest. I challenge you to find retirement in the Bible. Who do you know in the Bible that was retired? There is no one. You will never find retirement in the Bible. It is not there. As long as you are still breathing air, Jesus has a job for you. I think I can be a prime example of this as I am 74 years old and I’m still out here doing the things Jesus wants. I could not be happier either. I have Jesus and my family and all is well. So, find out where you are and move ahead from there. You may not move as fast as you used to but that is ok with Jesus. Today, he is asking you, “Where are you?” Answer Him. He wants conversation with you.
Now I would like to ask the same question of your church. Where is your church? Are you dying? Are you growing? Are you stagnating? One of the problems most churches have is that they do not realize that they are stagnant or dying until it is too late. I’ve been involved in some of these. I remember telling a church that they had reached their capacity. They said no. They could fit many more in. So, I had to tell them that in a church if you are sitting shoulder to shoulder, you are over full. People in churches in this area, need a couple of inches between each other. I told them that if they did not do something, they would lose attendance. They had been averaging around 70 for every Sunday.
So, no one did anything (stagnant) and the next fall the attendance dropped (dying). By Christmas they were lucky to have 45 in attendance. Satan was very happy. Enter God. Right before Christmas, there was a woman there who remembered what I had said would happen. It was happening and she said they had to do something to stop it or the church would be gone. They decided, with God’s help, that they would build a new church with a larger capacity. That is exactly what they did and Satan was in absolute shambles. The congregation approved the plan with well over 90% approval. They raised about $500,000 in one Sunday. God was working in every step they took. By the next Christmas, we had Christmas Eve service with folding chairs and extension cords. It was one of the nicest services I had ever been a part. This church said no to dying and yes to growing. They are still growing today!
I tell this story for a couple reasons. First, I think that you should take a look at your own church. Where are you? Are you stagnant? Are you dying? There are many ways to turn this around but you have to do something. You cannot sit and look for others to act. One of the things that Satan uses to distract us is to get us to focus on the church building or some of the committees. I don’t ever remember reading that these things are important. As a matter of fact, about the only thing that really counts as important is who you are helping to get to know Jesus. If you run across people who don’t know Jesus, bring them here or have them confess their sins to Jesus and ask Him to live in their hearts. That, my friends in Christ, is our mission.
To help you along, here is just a little reminder of the power of Jesus to help you talk with people who don’t know Jesus. Tell them He turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana. I’d like to see you do this. He walked on water. No one can do that. He fed 5000 people plus wives and children with next to nothing. Then He turned around and did the same thing with 4000 more people. These people were hungry so He fed them. He did not call for a committee meeting. He cured people of many diseases including leprosy. He told a woman of her history so that He could give her the water where she would never thirst again. He got a coin from a fish’s mouth. He transported Himself across the lake. He calmed the storm with just a command. There could have been volumes of scrolls filled with all the miracles that Jesus did that were not recorded.
So how about the things that you know that Jesus has done in your life? He has healed my wife of cancer 3 times. I remember leaving the hospital once thinking I would never see her again. She was about 100 times better the next morning. He healed me from a gall bladder attack. He healed me from a massive heart attack. He healed me of cancer. He put us in the right positions so we could be His ministers. I cannot even begin to tell of all the smaller things that He has done for us. God is so good. I’m also sure that you have many similar stories.
Think about these stories. Remember where you would be without Jesus. You would be nowhere. All He wants in return is to help Him grow His church. He does not want decline or stagnation. You know how great He is. You know the Bible stories. You know your personal stories. Tell these things to all you know. You know the greatest story ever told. You know Jesus on a personal basis or if you don’t, see me after the service. I have watched churches rebound from their demise with one simple thing. The truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. He will help you and help you to find those who don’t know Him. The last thing He wants is to lose any of His churches, any of His people. He has a perfect track record. Go to Him and go often. He loves you and will help. And thank you, Jeus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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