October 30, 2022 / Origins / The First Sin

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.

Today John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, brings a message in the Origins series

that helps answer the five most important questions in life.

How you live today depends on how you answer these questions.

Here's John Metter with the teaching on the five questions.

Do you have your Bibles this morning?

We are in our Origins series and we are in Genesis chapter 3 today.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 3, the title of the message is the first sin.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

So this will be exciting today, the first sin.

And Genesis chapter 3, you know if you've been walking with us through the book of Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

you know that we've been hitting the mountain peaks of theology and truth.

And we've uncovered a lot of firsts in the scripture.

They've all been very, very important.

But we've been answering amazing questions.

Genesis chapter 1 is a chance to answer the most important questions on the planet.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Who is God?

What is truth?

Who was I created to be?

Last week we looked in Genesis chapter 2 at the theology of gender, the theology of sexuality,

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

the theology of marriage.

What is God designed from the beginning?

And now we're going to be looking at Genesis 3 at what I call a catastrophic divide, a

huge divide that takes place in Genesis 3 and is still present between God and man.

A few weeks ago my wife and I had the privilege of going to Colorado and spending some time

in a wonderful home there in the mountains.

And much of what we did from day to day was drive.

We enjoyed driving together.

So we got in my truck and we drove the Continental Divide in several different ways.

One of those roads was what's called Trail Ridge Road, which is 12,000 feet above sea

level.

And it's a paved road that many people go on.

And it has no guardrails and it has nothing to keep you from going off into the cliffs

below.

It's pretty exciting.

It keeps everybody awake as you drive Trail Ridge Road.

But when you go into a little bit of study about what the Continental Divide is all about,

it's very interesting because the Continental Divide of the United States of America also

takes place in Canada all the way to Alaska and all the way to South America.

And the Great Divide or the Continental Divide is that high mountain peaks, series of peaks

that go from north to south.

And it determines the direction that water flows either towards the Pacific or towards

the Gulf of Mexico and later on the Atlantic.

The snow that melts on the mountaintops goes down either towards the Pacific or towards

the Gulf of Mexico, depending on what side of the Continental Divide it's on.

It's really kind of amazing that all the massive water flows in America right there at that

point have their dividing point, one direction or the other.

Just a few steps this way and all the water flows towards the Gulf of Mexico or towards

the Atlantic.

It's just this way and it all flows towards the Pacific.

It is a great divide.

It really has a great deal to do with what I'm talking about today.

Because in Genesis chapter 3 we find Adam and Eve taking just a few steps in a different

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

direction from God.

And everything in their life from that moment on flowed away from God and away from God's

design.

You want to know what that looks like.

Please stand with me as we read Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

We're going to read the first 13 verses today.

These 13 verses will reveal a great deal about this divide, about temptation, about the first

sin.

It opens up with these words.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, indeed has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden.

The woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but

from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden God has said you shall

not eat from it or touch it or you will die.

The serpent said to the woman, you surely will not die for God knows that in the day

that you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and

evil.

Verse 6.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes

and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate and

she gave also to her husband with her and he ate.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they

sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

They heard the sound of the Lord 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 of the garden.

Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked

so I hid myself.

And he said, who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

The man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree and I ate.

And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done?

And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.

We'll end it there.

Father, today in Jesus' name, thank you so much for your word.

I pray that you'll illuminate it, shine the light on it and shine the light on this word

in our minds and our hearts as well.

We ask it in Jesus' name.

God's people said, amen.

Please be seated if you would.

So many firsts in the book of Genesis, aren't there?

I mean everything is a first in the book of Genesis, right?

The first dividing of the water and the land, the first animals, the first fish in the sea,

the first clouds, the first beast crawling on the planet, the first fruit trees coming

up.

We tried to imagine a few weeks ago the beauty of that garden of Eden and what exactly that

looked like.

It must have been mesmerizing and amazing what God had created and placed Adam and Eve

in a beautiful place.

But as we read Genesis chapter three, we move into a place beyond what God created and we

look at the things that man creates.

The first doubt, the first selfish thought, the first deception, the first choice leading

to the first sin.

I mean the first divisive steps from God that take place right here, where they move away

from that mountain top experience that God has given them and they begin to move in a

different direction away from God.

It really inspires my confidence in God and diminishes my confidence in man.

It should do that for you as well.

God is the only one we can rely on, the only one we can trust, but every time from the

beginning of the garden of Eden, the beginning of mankind, we just make the wrong choices

and we move in the wrong direction.

Today's text lets us see how it all unfolds.

The first I want you to note in this text, the presence of an enemy.

The presence of an enemy, it says in verse one, now the serpent was more crafty than

any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and all of a sudden there's this

unusual creature that makes his appearance in the garden.

Now it's unusual in that this is the first creature besides man and woman that is communicating,

he's talking and he's saying things.

So it begs the question, who is this snake and where does it come from?

And to this point here, we don't get the answer to it until later on in the scripture and

by the way we need to read all of scripture to be able to see all the secrets of the early

part of scripture as well, but we do know some things about this serpent and here are

some things that we know about this serpent.

It's clear that this serpent is unusual and it's clear that this serpent is hath out

to God because at this point in the garden there's nothing but harmony, nothing but

joy.

They're naked and not ashamed.

The man and his wife are together.

They see how God has created them to be together and they look at all of creation that God

has raised up and placed them into and they have nothing to do except rejoice and just

glorify God.

Their very first full day on earth is a day of resting and rejoicing in what God has done

until this moment in the garden when all of a sudden all the good things and all of the

very good things began to move towards doubts and dissatisfactions and disobedience.

So who is this creature that enters into the garden so boldly and began to subvert what

God has made for Adam and Eve and for all that would come after them?

You know as you read your whole Bible you're going to find glimpses as to who this serpent

is.

In the book of Isaiah chapter 14 we have a very vivid description of who Satan is and

Isaiah 14 · chapter mention

who this serpent is.

I want you to look in your Bibles at Isaiah chapter 14, a few verses there.

Isaiah 14 · chapter mention

It says, How ye have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn?

You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened in the nations.

But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the

stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the recesses of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will make myself like the Most High.

Now you need to remember this text as we walk through Genesis chapter 3 because this is

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

the identity of that fallen, created angel who rebelled from God in heaven and was cut

out of heaven.

We know him as Lucifer, we know him as Satan.

He's the adversary because that's how he acts and that's what he does.

Now since all the angels are created beings, this occurs sometime between the creation

of the earth and the heavens and the clouds and this moment of temptation that we read

in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And if you keep reading the scriptures all the way to the end of Revelation you'll find

that Jesus actually names this serpent by saying, This is the serpent of old who is

called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world.

Now in the garden this fallen angel, this deceiver angel takes on the embodiment of

a serpent and carries on a dialogue with Adam and Eve and his goal is to oppose God's plan,

to oppose God's ways and to subvert everything that God says.

He begins his deceptive work by focusing on the very first human being in a perfect environment

and it continues to this day.

Now I've got good news for you but it's going to be a little bit later in the path

and that is one day God deals with Satan fully and completely and eternally and aren't you

going to be glad about that?

But until that time he still has power to tempt, to sway us away from God, to cause

us to take steps away from God's design off that mountain peak where he has designed for

us to walk on and down the mountainside in the wrong direction.

So as we look at this deceiver today we want to look at how he works and he always works

in a predictable way.

This first temptation, this first sin in the Garden of Eden is a prototype for how you

and I deal with temptation and sin today.

It's really important for you to pay attention when I talk about the path of sin.

Genesis 3 talks about the path of sin, the path of temptation.

And isn't it just like God to give us a warning about how temptation will occur and how sin

will occur?

It's almost like God is saying to us and all of those that read the Bible, look if you

want a forewarning, if you want an understanding of how temptation is going to unfold in your

life, if you want to have a little bit of a heads up of how you'll be tempted to sin

this is it right here.

Because I don't know of a passage that deals with temptation more plainly and a more step

by step way than this text right here at the very beginning.

So God prepares us through the revealing of this first temptation and this first step

of sin and we learn how they were enticed to go their own way and reject their creator.

And it's really amazing when you think about they're standing on the mountain top of creation.

They're on the pinnacle of being with God and understanding that intimacy and that knowledge

of God and yet it's still they take steps away from God down the mountain in the wrong

direction.

What do those paths look like?

What do those steps look like?

First of all step one is to question the truth.

To question the truth.

In verse one we see the serpent talking and he said to the woman, indeed as God said you

shall not eat from any tree in the garden.

And the very first thing you notice about this text is that the serpent, the enemy is

talking and he's talking to the woman.

It's really kind of amazing.

He's asking questions like is it really true what God said?

Questions like does God really say that?

Are you sure?

Why?

You know every temptation begins with a question mark.

It begins with what's wrong with it?

Why should I do that?

Woman's always going to question God's authority, always going to question God's

ways and sometimes somebody poses a question that makes us wonder well why can't I just

get away with that?

Other people do it.

Why can't I go that way?

And that's exactly how it's unfolding here in the questioning of the truth.

By the way Satan is behind every voice that questions truth in your life.

You don't need a serpent talking to you to know that Satan is working through ideas and

thoughts and statements.

Communication is not as obvious as a serpent talking to you, hanging off a tree.

Sometimes it's subtle and deceitful but the reality is it's always going to question the

word of God.

That's why it's important to know that Satan speaks through serpents but he also speaks

through false doctrine, through temptations, through other people, through our desires

by words and thoughts placed in our mind by almost every avenue of communication.

And here in the garden they've eaten something very dangerous that's happening.

The woman is actually talking and conversing with the serpent.

It's their first mistake.

It's one thing to listen to somebody questioning God's word.

It's another thing to carry on a dialogue with them, reasoning with them and really

what happens is she begins to reason on the side of the serpent.

One commentator made it like this.

He said, the serpent succeeded in drawing the woman's attention to another possible

interpretation of what God said.

Oh, I wish I could tell you the number of people that are in that boat today who are

looking for any other possible interpretation about something that God has said, don't

go there, don't do that and yet they're looking for a way out of that.

And even when she dialogues with the serpent, with the adversary, when she recounts what

God says she removes details from the conversation of what God's command was.

She removes the idea of the generosity of God.

You can eat from all of the trees of the garden except this one.

She removes the idea of urgency out of the conversation because God says don't touch

it, don't eat of it lest you die.

So we question the truth, step one.

At this point she's already began to lean towards sin.

Step two, we deny the truth.

In verse four and five, the serpent said to the woman, you surely will not die for God

knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God

knowing good and evil.

I want you to notice the quick jump from just asking a question to making a bold declaration

of denial.

And that's what happens.

Satan is making this bold declaration.

That's not true.

God said you'll die but that's not true.

That surely will not happen.

And I can just see the reasoning going on in Adam and Eve's mind at this moment.

Well what he says is right because after all if God kills us who will be there to multiply

and replenish the earth, right?

I mean there won't be any more humans if we die.

So God's not going to kill us and so it must be okay to do this.

Maybe what the serpent is saying is not so bad after all.

Reality is that when we begin to deny the truth we don't do it outright but we reinterpret

it or we change something about what we understand to be true or we begin to doubt it.

And our minds thoughts like this well I want to do it but I shouldn't do it.

I want to and I'm going to rationalize it.

I'm going to explain it away.

You know when we face temptation we talk ourselves into disobedience by minimizing the severity

of it or by minimizing the penalty of it.

This is not going to hurt as bad as it seems that it will hurt.

And we begin to rationalize away the idea that it's actually a sin but more of a misunderstanding.

Maybe people just misunderstand what God is asking.

Surely it must be why would this be sin?

Why would God bring these circumstances?

Why would we die?

So Satan's bringing an argument that many people have today in deconstructing what God

said and meant to interpret it where it's more acceptable to our own desires.

Isn't that what our culture does today?

Isn't that kind of the direction of the world?

Flowing away from God by the way and not in the direction of God.

Asking, questioning, deconstructing and they're progressive in their thinking.

They're just not biblical.

Folks that's part of the temptation.

That's part of the tempter.

So all these things are unfolding here in the beginning to deny the truth and then step

number three replacing the truth.

So here's what you read in verse six.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the

eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wife, she took from his fruit an aid and

she gave also to her husband with her and he ate.

As you look at those words on the screen you'll notice the highlighting of a few words that

have to do with her feelings and the things she was thinking.

The tree was good for food.

It was a delight to the eyes.

The tree was desirable to make one wife.

That's what this third step is really all about.

This third step of replacing the truth is to change the focus from the creator's truth

to creation's desire.

Now that's what we looked in Romans chapter one and we looked at several verses in Romans

one where it says that a group of people began to deny God sexually and deny what he said

sexually and began to move in their own directions.

The phrase used there is that they began to worship and serve the creature instead of

the creator.

In other words, what mattered is what the creature felt, what the creature wanted instead

of what their creator told them and how the creator created them.

It was a pretty big deal when we began to replace the truth like that.

When we move further and further away from absolute truth the more radical we make decisions

based on something we feel that may be here for a little while but not long.

We make those decisions based on something other than truth.

John later on wrote about temptation in 1 John chapter two.

It's so great.

It talks about the difference between thinking in an eternal way and thinking in a temporary

way.

Here's what he says.

He says, for all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes

and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but from the world.

The world is passing away and also is blessed but the one who does the will of God abides

forever.

Think about those things.

Desires the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life.

When you read those phrases you now know where that point of decision is.

This is precisely the point at which choices are made and sin is embraced.

The choice made by Adam and Eve was not inevitable but became that way when they began to reason

independently from God.

They were in a perfect environment.

They did not have to sin but that's what they did.

For you, you need to know today this is the tipping point of life.

This is the tipping point of all decision making where you begin to question what God

said, deny what God said and then replace what God said with your feelings, your emotions

and the things that you filter through your mind the way you do with whatever sources

you listen to.

That is the tipping point.

We begin to move further and further away from God to the point of simply disobeying

Him.

I describe this tipping point as a time when we consider sin more and we spend less time

considering God.

When we're thinking about sin more than we're thinking about God.

We're thinking about what we want more than what we're thinking about when it comes to

God.

What happens is that sin's attraction, its allure grows and increases when we

give it space and time.

That's why Jesus said don't even lust after a person in your own heart.

Why?

Because you're focusing on what ultimately you cannot have and still be in obedience

to God.

Eve's focusing on this with her desires.

It looks good to her.

It seems desirable to make one wise.

Notice how quickly the story moves from Eve's focus to Eve's disobedience.

She actually begins to see this fruit in an entirely different light.

Sometimes we put a bright lens on and we look at a situation and we don't see it the way

God wants us to see it.

I've got a pair of sunglasses with me here today.

It's a very unusual set of sunglasses.

I bought this pair of sunglasses when I was playing golf in West Texas a few months ago

and it was incredibly hot.

106 degrees every day, no wind, the sun was beating down upon us in a hot, hot, heavy

humidity.

Some guy in the clubhouse, some enterprising clubhouse employee, super salesman, sold me

a pair of sunglasses that would help me with my golf game.

Talk about gullible.

I bought into it.

The unusual thing about these sunglasses is it's not a typical gray shade but it's an

amber type lens where you can see the movement on the green, the highs and the lows of the

green so that you can putt better.

I said, I bought these sunglasses and sure enough when I put them on everything was more

beautiful.

The greens were more green, the blues were more blue, the whites were brighter whites

and I could.

I could see the undulating surface of the green.

I could actually tell where I needed to putt.

It didn't have any help for me when it actually came to putting but I could see where I was

going wrong.

Did everything look better with these sunglasses?

You look better with these sunglasses.

And I looked in the mirror.

I look better with these sunglasses.

But these sunglasses do not give me a picture of reality.

I'm looking at things through colored lenses and the contrasts are stronger and brighter.

They're more attractive but they're not real.

That's what's going on in Eve's life.

She looks at the fruit that God said in black and white terms, you'll die.

And she said, but it's so good looking.

It's desirable to make one wise.

I can't wait to taste it.

Look how beautiful it is in comparison with everything else in the garden.

And she had those lenses on as she ate the fruit and sinned.

But the moment she sinned, she saw what she had done.

And all of a sudden it wasn't as beautiful because shame and guilt and nakedness and

regret came into her lives.

You see we live life sometimes with these kind of lenses on thinking everything's going

to be fine.

I mean after all it's so attractive and it fits so well with what everybody else is saying

in the world.

And after all if everybody else can do that, why can I not do that?

But if you're wise enough to take the lenses off, you'll know why.

You'll see reality again.

It's not as a little room.

It's not as attractive.

It's not as appealing.

It's not beneficial at all.

But right now Eve is seeing what she wants to see, the appealing part.

And she's missing the real part and the penalty and the shame and the separation.

Be sure you're looking at every temptation with clarity.

Be sure your eyes are not being deceived.

Make sure you see not only the act that you're considering, but every penalty and every possible

complication that could come on the other side of that.

Otherwise you are deceived just like she was.

So step three is that rejecting the truth after denying the truth, replacing the truth.

By the way, when we question God's truth, we elevate self and we embrace the no absolute

truth idea.

We really move into a category from which it's really difficult to come back.

We open ourselves up to any ideas, all ideas about religion or morals or law or education

or marriage or morality.

And when that happens in an individual it's called deception.

But when it's happening in a culture we call it relativism.

Now relativism is kind of a term that has been around for a while.

The Wikipedia, the secular definition of it is an important definition.

It says relativism is the concept that points of view have no absolute truth or validity,

having only relative subjective value according to the differences in perception and consideration.

In other words, what you think is truth and what I think is truth, even though they're

diametrically opposed, can still be truth because all truth is relative, which is a

lie.

Truth is not relative.

Truth is absolute.

It's either true or it's not.

It's not any of these shades in between.

So relative truth teaches that when it comes to moral choices people can do their own thing.

Relativism changes the rules based on whim or convenience or culture.

It says there are no rules but mine and dramatically impacts how people live.

And I'm going to submit to you a document and I'm going to submit to you something

that you are knowledgeable about.

I present to you 2022 America.

This is the result of relative thinking.

Everywhere you look, everywhere you listen, we've moved away from truth.

And how did it all begin?

It all began right here in the garden with the first sin and the first temptation and

that first adversary to God.

The serpent of old is what started this whole movement, by the way, and they are one and

the same with what's happening today.

And our sin literally is the result of considering truth to be relative rather than absolute.

It's so easy.

Someone the other day asked me this question as we were talking about the text.

If Eve could so easily sin in a perfect world, could we not easily fall in an imperfect world?

By the way, how many of you know you live in an imperfect world?

Would you raise your hand if you know it's imperfect?

It's messed up.

If she fell in the perfect world, how easy is it for us to get the wrong idea about truth

in an imperfect world?

My answer to you is it's extremely easy.

That's why the scripture warns us.

Step four, we're talking about steps into temptation, steps away from God's best in

our life.

Step four, forget the truth.

Forget the truth.

Because see, you question the truth and then you deny the truth and then you replace the

truth and after a period of time you forget it.

In verses seven through 10, the eyes of both of them were opened, they knew that they were

naked and they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord.

When he came looking for them, Adam, why are you hiding?

And Adam said, I was afraid.

Nakedness, shame, hiding from their sin, separated from God and in destruction.

They're now in an entirely different world.

They're beginning to live in a very, very different way.

It's broken, it's fallen, it's cursed and they have seemingly forgotten the intimacy

and the closeness of creation, the goodness and the generosity of God.

All that God had provided for them as he placed them in the garden and they're forgetting

everything God gave them.

But I have to tell you today, I see that in people's lives almost every day where people

step by step walk away from truth and soon live in a reality where there's no awareness

of God, no awareness of right or wrong, no memory of truth.

You know, you read the Bible long enough, you're going to find that happening in several

nations that were people who were supposedly the people of God.

The book of Judges, the last chapter, the last verse is one of the most revealing verses

in the Bible and it says this in that verse, in those days there was no king in Israel,

that everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Wow.

I'm telling you, that's not a great place to be.

But that happens over and over in our lives.

It happens over and over in nations today.

Everyone does what's right in their own eyes.

So all the more reason to be warned and to be prepared for temptation towards sin.

Finally, if you keep reading this text that we've been reading, you get to the pain of

consequences.

Notice what it says in verse 11, and he, that is God said, who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat?

It's amazing that in one sentence, in one phrase, God clarifies everything that happened

in the garden and it's all about, did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat

from?

It's that simple.

Did you disobey me?

Now regardless of who tempted whom, regardless of who sinned first, all that is just sideways

energy.

The main is disobedience in the first sin, guilt, shame, blame, then the curse.

The consequences of the first sin lay the pattern for the consequences of sin since

that time.

Listen to me very carefully.

You can choose the sin, but you cannot choose the consequences.

And they're always the same, separation, shame, guilt, and you drive a wedge between yourself

and God.

The grief in the garden that day is a documented next, but the grief and pain passed down to

all humanity is written in a history of 6,000 years of human history.

Read the Bible, but even go further than that, read the history books of the ages, and you're

going to find documented the picture of this separation, this heartbreak, this sin, rebellion,

hatred, and bloodshed.

Now I really hate ending a message in such a bad note.

The Genesis chapter 3 ends at this point in a really, really bad note.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It doesn't end well because of the consequences of sin, but I do need to tell you that God

will still win the day.

Did you hear me?

God will still win the day.

It's bleak, it's dark, it's sinful, it's separated, but God will still win the day.

He will.

If you just keep reading, and we'll be there next week.

You find right after the documenting of the first sin, there's a first mention of the

first and final solution.

That final solution would be, he will send a king, he will bruise the head, crush the

head of the serpent.

He will send one, he will be the Messiah, he will build a bridge from mankind's sinfulness

to God's holiness in the peak where we started.

It's going to be a powerful picture that we read and know about.

Jesus himself will build a bridge back to God, cross the great divide, cross sin, cross

rebellion, and he builds that bridge with his broken body and his shed blood.

That's what the gospel is all about.

That's what the good news is all about.

Jesus Christ can bridge that massive divide between ourselves and God.

He sends his son, Jesus, to do that.

Here's a verse you need to walk out with.

First Peter chapter two, verse 24.

And he himself bore our sin in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and

live to righteousness for by his wounds you were healed.

You know why I know that I'm not going to receive the consequences of sin in my life?

Because by his wounds I was healed.

You know how you can know that you're not going to have all those consequences of sin

in your life because by his wounds you were healed if you put your faith and trust and

confidence in Jesus Christ.

Boy, you do need to remember today it's not only that he saves us and he pays for our

sin, he builds that bridge back, but you need to be aware that there is an adversary.

There is such a thing as temptation.

There is such a thing as sin and deception.

And you need to be forewarned that it's always the wrong way to go.

It'll never bring the promise that it proclaims it will bring.

It will never be as beautiful, never be as colorful, never be as alluring, never be as

magnificent as it promises.

It'll bring you away from the God who put you on a mountain top through his son Jesus

and promises you all things pertaining to life and godliness.

Do not walk away from that one.

Stay with that one.

Here today we may need to make some decisions.

You may need to make a decision in your life.

One of the decisions, the most primary decision for you to make today is to make sure that

you're on the bridge that Jesus built.

Make sure you put your faith and trust and confidence in Jesus' broken body and his

shed blood.

It took place on the cross and he did that for you.

And you must put your faith and trust in him.

People are not saved because they know about it.

They're saved from sin because they placed trust in him and in that work on the cross.

Today if you've never done that, if there's never been that moment in your life where

you made a decision to trust Jesus today, I urge you to do it today.

We have decision stations that are stationed as you leave today.

When you see that decision station lit up and you see somebody standing behind the table,

they're there to talk to you about decisions that you need to make.

I urge you to make decisions today that will put you on that bridge that Jesus built himself.

I have a second appeal to you today and that second appeal is that we have a guest reception

center that I would like to invite you to to continue a spiritual conversation to tell

you more about what makes this church different and what we want you to know about Cross City

Church.

I'd love to visit with you.

Welcome you to our services.

And you can do that in just a short space of time.

We spend about five or ten minutes in there just outside the center exit doors and across

the hallway.

There's a third appeal I make to you and that is invite someone to come back with you

next week.

We actually have an open house next week.

You have invite cards that are available for you.

This is a chance for people to see what God is doing here, what's going on around us

and to be able to hear a message that will point them to Christ.

And next week we're going to point them to Christ.

And I want to encourage you to reach out to those around you.

Such an important opportunity for us to do that with a world that needs answers.

We have them in the word of God don't we?

I am so glad we do.

Would you stand with me?

I want you to bow your heads for just a moment as we have this closing word of prayer.

Father my gratitude to you for the incredible truths you give us in Genesis 3.

Lord I'm so thankful for the bridge that you built to you through Jesus for all of us.

Because all of us are in need of a savior.

All of us are in need of forgiveness.

Father today my prayer is that we will be bold and courageous enough to make decisions.

That would be spiritual decisions in trusting you.

And Father that we would be bold enough to reach out to others around us with an invitation

to hear good news.

Father use this message today in the lives of all present.

I ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.

God bless you.

Amen.