The Soul Felt Its Worth (Week 2 Advent)

The Advent series that we're doing is called

Soul Felt Its Worth. And I want to unpack how

God shows our worth and value. by what he has

done, not by anything that we have done. And

so where we're driving today is we're gonna look

at the promise that rewrites our story and shows

our worth. And so we're gonna look at more of

Genesis 3. We're gonna finish out Genesis 3,

but we're gonna explore how... our shame was

exposed, how God foreshadows redemption, because

you guys hear me talk a lot about how the Old

Testament foreshadows redemption. We're gonna

look at the first sacrifice and how exile reveals

our desperate need for a savior who would come

to restore our worth. And so let's go ahead and

let's look at, starting in verse 14, because

that's where we left off. So the Lord God, said

to the serpent, because you have done this, you

are cursed more than any livestock and more than

any wild animal. You will move on your belly

and eat dust all the days of your life. This

is where you should highlight. I will put hostility

between you and the woman and between your offspring

and her offspring. Or it could say seed. He will

strike your head and you will strike his heel.

And he said to the woman, I will intensify your

labor pains. You will bear children with painful

effort. Your desire will be for your husband,

yet he will rule over you. And he said to the

man, because you listened to your wife and ate

from the tree, which I commanded you, do not

eat from it. The ground is cursed because of

you. You will eat from it by means of painful

labor all the days of your life. It will produce

thorns and thistles for you and you will eat

the plants of the field. You will eat bread by

the sweat of your brow until you return to the

ground. Since you were taken from it, for you

are dust and you will return to dust. And so

the man, his wife Eve, because she was the mother,

or so the man named his wife Eve because she

was the mother of all living things. The Lord

God made clothing from skins for the man and

his wife and he clothed them. You should highlight

that because that's really where we're going

to kind of drill down. And the Lord God said,

since the man has become like one of us, knowing

good and evil, And so the first point that we're

gonna look at is a new term you guys are gonna

learn today. It's called proto -evangelium. And

what that means is this, the first gospel. So

in verse 14, we look at God passing judgment

to the serpent. And then in verse 15, he gives

us the first gospel. What does gospel mean? Good

news, right? And as a matter of fact, it means

life -changing news in the Greek. And so this

is technically the first good news. And you may

be like, huh? But if you look at it, he says,

he will strike your head and you will strike

his heel. This is God speaking to the serpent.

So when we step into Genesis 3, everything looks

hopeless. If we did not have what we just read,

if we took out verse 15, Genesis 3 would be a

really bad story or a really bad movie with no

good ending. It's like if you took where you

have a city that's under siege, let me actually

let me put it like this. It's like watching the

Lord of the Rings and seeing that Sauromon and

Sauron, am I being a nerd right now? Does everybody

know what I'm talking about? Lord of the Rings?

Okay. And the orcs ultimately take over Middle

Earth and there are no good guys. They're all

killed. Man, what a terrible story. It's like,

hey, this was really cool. All these wars, except

for these demonic beings just absolutely had

their way and killed everybody and there is no

light. Nobody really wants to hear about that,

right? Our souls long for good news. Our souls

long for the good vanquishing the bad. Verse

15 is the good vanquishing the bad in a promise.

And so humanity has fallen, the serpent has deceived

and shame now sits like a heavy weight on the

shoulders of God's children. If the story ended

at verse 13 and 14, We will be left with nothing

but guilt, fear, and endless separation. I want

you to think about that. If God had not entered

the scene, if he had not come and put himself

in the garden to intercede, where does that leave

Adam and Eve? What did we talk about last week?

Where did they go? Into the shadows, into shame.

And they would stay there because it was God,

as we talked about, that drew them out. But as

we see, it doesn't end there. Before God turns

to Adam or Eve, he speaks to the serpent first,

as far as judgment, and what is to become the

first whisper of the gospel. And so here is something

you should write down and it'll be up here. Genesis

3, 14 and 15 is the proto -evangelium. It is

the first gospel, God's earliest announcement

that evil will not win. Right in the middle of

humanity's failure, God looks at the deceiver

and declares an end to his story. When he says,

I will put enmity between you and the woman and

between your seed and her seed, he shall crush

your head and you shall bruise his heel. In other

words, you've struck my children, but you will

not own them. A deliverer is coming and he's

gonna crush you. Did you hear that? God is saying,

you may have hurt them for now, but I promise

you it won't be that way forever. So here's something

that I can't unpack all of this at once today.

If we in the future unpack the book of Genesis,

I will go into a lot more of it. But here's something

that you need to know. There's a reason why God

talks about seed. He talks about their offspring

of the two. And so there's a deeper kind of conflict

that's going on. And so when scripture speaks

of the seed of the serpent, it's pointing to

more than just wicked people or bad influences.

It's describing an ongoing rebellion of darkness

that stands opposed to God and his purposes.

What am I talking about? If you read in Genesis

six, You will see a little bit of what I'm talking

about. Throughout the Old Testament, there's

a rebellion that continuously shows up again

and again and again. And we see it in Genesis

six, when it says the sons of God came down,

okay? And they looked upon the daughters of men

and they were like, they're beautiful. We're

gonna take them as our wives. Now, in this moment,

They know that they're rebelling. They're doing

it on purpose. Something that you need to understand

is, is that what the enemy, when they look at

us, they know that we are made in the image of

God. They are not. And they want to ultimately

destroy and mar God's image. So what's one way

that they can do that? By ultimately with their

seed intermixing with the seed of woman. And

so they create these things called Nephilim,

which are giants. Here's something that you should

probably know. Every culture for thousands of

years, even to this day, every culture across

the globe all has a flood story and giant stories.

It's very interesting. I will also tell you,

my wife is probably right now going, please don't

let him do this. Please don't let him do this.

This is the kind of stuff I nerd out on and get

really weird about with giants and stuff like

that because I think that there's a much deeper

story, but I'm gonna put my wife's anxiety at

ease and I'm not gonna get into that. But there's

a lot of supernatural stuff and there's corruption,

there's distortion, and it's all pointed to wanting

to overthrow God's design. That's the whole premise

of it. And so the point... is I don't want to

get lost in the whole thing of the seed. I can

really get off into the weeds. But the point

is this, and this will be up here for you to

write down. There has always been a war between

the forces that want to destroy humanity and

the God who refuses to give up on us. So here's

the good news. In Genesis 315, it doesn't leave

us guessing about the end of that war. Amen.

We know how it ends. But it says that a seed,

singular, one will come, one man, one savior,

one champion, one redeemer. So before Abraham,

before Moses, before David, before Isaiah ever

said, a child will be born, God already promised

a redeemer who would absorb the curse himself.

And so there's always, if I didn't land the plane

on the seed part, There's two seeds that are

always going to be at war. And it starts in Genesis

six. And we begin to see these two seeds that

are one is ultimately very, very, very evil.

And then you have the seed of the woman who ultimately

Christ would come from. Do you guys follow me?

Just like two family lineages. This is why, by

the way, God floods the earth. Because there's

a wicked seed upon it. And there's a lot of death

and a lot of disgusting barbarism that God never

intended. So this is why he floods the earth.

So God had already promised a redeemer who would

absorb the curse himself. The serpent would strike

his heel, wounding him at the cross, but the

seed would crush the serpent's head, defeating

Satan, sin, death once and for all. And this

is why this moment matters so much. Write this

down if you would. I believe I'll have it up

here. In the same breath where God pronounces

judgment, he also pronounces hope. So he calls

out judgment, does he not? We see it, right?

Talks to the snake, tells the woman, and all

the ladies here are like, yeah, thanks a lot,

Eve. And then he looks at Adam and he says, hey,

yeah, you're gonna eat, but it's gonna be really

difficult. but then he also pronounces hope,

before. So this is what he, this is what, it's

hope that our story can be rewritten, hope that

our worth is not lost, and hope that the darkness

will not have the final word. The first gospel

isn't just a prediction, it's a declaration.

This is what it is. I want you to hear this because

this has to be heard. If you're about to fall

asleep on me right now, I want you to wake up

for just a moment and hear Pastor Logan. Even

at your worst moment, God is already working

to redeem you because that was the whole premise

of what he's saying to Adam and Eve in this moment.

Yes, you've brought sin into the world. Yes,

you have fractured everything. But even at your

worst, I'm still going to handle it. Do you hear

me? I want you to think about the one thing in

your life that you are most ashamed that if anyone

here knew about it, you would probably run away.

Think about that for a moment. Think about how

much you want to hide, and then know this, God

was present in that moment, and he had died for

that moment. He was very present in that failure.

That is hope. That's good news. That even in

your worst moments, God is ever present and he's

calling you out of the darkness. So that's the

first gospel. Verse 15 is the first good news

that a savior would come and destroy the serpent.

Point number two, the first foreshadowing something

had to die. So let's look at verse 21. The Lord

God made clothing from what? What does he say?

Skins. What did they previously have? Fig leaves.

Skins. for the man and his wife and he clothed

them. So when you read verse 21, what does it

say? Does it say that Adam and Eve did this work?

No, it says God made the clothing, right? And

he clothed them, by the way. That is important

that you see that. If you rush through because

you know the story, you can really easily miss

or easily overlook what is actually happening

here. This is salvation happening. Now, for skins

to be put on them, what does that mean? Yeah.

Something had to die, right? Like that's in my

point. But think about this for just a moment

Adam and Eve up into this time have not seen

anything die And so I want you to think about

what it must have been like For them the shock

to see something else die To cover them What

shock would that be to see blood for the first

time, to see life and breath leave a living thing

because of something that they had done and now

they're being covered because of it. This is

a really special moment and one that should break

our hearts because this is the gospel. Just one

sentence, but we have a thunder clap of grace.

This is the moment that the gospel begins. So

I kind of have some little sub points here if

you want to write these down You see the first

attempt at worth With fig leaves this is Adam

and Eve trying to make sense of themselves now

now the shame is entered They're trying to cover

themselves up. They're trying to make things

work on their own And so they cover themselves

with fig leaves. Why does it why don't fig leaves

work? Yeah, they're just gonna fall apart Right

and so God's like hey, hey, hey You tried right

you tried That's not gonna work Something else

has to die Something else has to take its place

something else has to cover that And so when

Adam and Eve sinned the very first thing they

did was try to cover themselves and here's a

point that you can write down Shame creates an

instinctive self -covering Right What how many

times have you justified your sin How many times

have you tried to explain it away You guys understand

what I'm saying, I don't know how many times

I've done that I've done I've I've lied about

things that were just kind of stupid just because

I was ashamed and I was like, why not just tell

the truth? But in our sin, in our shame, we do

really dumb things in order to kind of cover

up and self justify what we do. And so that's

your fig leaves. You're trying to do the fig

leaf thing. And so in verse seven, it says that

they sowed fig leaves together because fig leaves

is all they had. That's all humanity has been

doing ever since trying to cover the inward ache

of unworthiness with outward self -made coverings

So give me some ideas of some fig leaves like

modern -day fig leaves for us Don't say fruit

of the loom. Okay What are some modern -day fig

leaves Everybody else is doing it that's good

what else What about achievement for all my overachievers

in the room? You can try to cover yourself by

being an overachiever. Reputation, self -confidence

or a fake self -confidence, pride, self -righteousness,

right? The law, the law becomes our fig leaf.

We were talking this morning on the way in and

I'm gonna ask my wife to help me with this because

I can't remember she said this really really

really well in the home school community kids

these kids are not allowed to date and so which

I support but they have these things that they're

calling their their special friends that's what

they're saying special friends and I'm like that

is stupid It's my special friend. And the whole

thing of special friend is that the parents of

either the girl or the boy don't necessarily

want them to date that person. And so they're

like, why don't we just call them our special

friend? And my wife is like, why not just say

no? Like, we don't want them apart. We don't

think they're a good influence. Whatever it is.

But my wife said, it's ultimately the letter

of the law. Can you say it? You say it way better

than I did. I want my kids to honor and obey

me actually, not just slap a different title

on it and call it obedience. Yeah. All right.

That's your sermon for the day. She's a she's

she's really good. Yeah But that's a fig leaf,

right? That's a fig leaf, right? It's it's we're

gonna rename obedience for it to kind of that's

a fig leaf But I just thought that was really

good religious performance And so fig leafs never

work they wither they tear they're fragile. They're

temporary and ultimately exposed more than they

cover And if you're here as a skeptic or a doubter,

maybe even as an atheist, the fig leaves illustration

is still true. You don't need to believe in Adam

and Eve to know the feeling of covering your

shame. Amen. Changing your performance, hiding

the real you, managing how you're perceived.

Every human is born knowing I'm not what I should

be. Something is missing. Something is broken.

Something is wrong. So we seek to fill the void.

Right? So Genesis doesn't create the feeling,

or Genesis doesn't create that feeling in you

of something's missing, it explains it. And then

my sub point number two is this, God's response

is the first death. When it tells us that something

is happening with the garment and the skins,

skins don't come from plants, so skins means

something died. But why, why did something have

to die? Exactly, why blood? Ever thought about

that? I have actually never thought about it

until I was a youth pastor and a mother came

to me and she said, the biggest question I have,

she's like, I've been a Christian my entire life.

And I believe it all, but the thing I do not

understand is, is why blood? That's exactly right.

Blood represents life. And so the shedding of

blood, we see it throughout the entire Old Testament.

This is the first sacrifice, right? And then

what do we see in Exodus for the angel of death

to pass over? They had to do what? Put blood

on the doorpost, right? But we see that God himself

made the sacrifice. So this is our literal first

foreshadowing that Christ would come, that God

would handle it. And so Adam didn't offer the

sacrifice. Eve didn't offer it. There was no

priest. There was no religious ritual. There

was no altar. It was just God. God performs the

first sacrifice. God sheds the first blood and

God provides the first covering. This is where

substitution begins, brothers and sisters. Adam

and Eve don't die that day, they will. Something

else dies in their place. Grace begins that day.

But I want you to remember, this is important,

Adam and Eve aren't the ones who took the steps.

God did it. He pursued from the very beginning

when they were in the shadows hiding and he was

the one that did all the work. This is the gospel.

God's heart is you broke it, I'll fix it. You

sinned, I'll cover it. You ran, I pursue. And

so Genesis 321 is the first whisper of the lamb

who would come. Adam and Eve received a promise,

but not the person. Hebrews 11 talks about that.

Hebrews 11 points out all those who would come

before us, that they would know of the promise,

they would seek the promise, they would hear

the promise, but never see the person. And from

this point forward, the whole Bible starts whispering,

he's coming, he's coming, he's coming. And so

foreshadowing of the coming savior, the story,

of the Bible keeps telling over and over in the

Old Testament. And so here's what I want. My

wife was like, you've got a lot of notes today,

but really it's, I want to point out, I went

through the Old Testament and went through all

of the foreshadowings that we see. And if I miss

any, call it out. But I want you to write this

down because this is where scripture becomes

a chorus. This is where many voices, but one

story. So let's, Sacrificial foreshadowings.

We just saw the first one, right? The next one,

Abel's offering in Genesis four. The innocent

dies, blood covers, God accepts, atonement is

costly. Genesis six through nine, Noah, one righteous

man brings salvation and a new creation, and

his first act after the flood is sacrifice. Abraham

and Isaac, Genesis 22. The father raises the

knife, but God stops him and provides the ram.

Substitution becomes explicit. Exodus 12, the

Passover lamb. We've already talked about that.

A spotless lamb dies, so judgment passes over

God's people. Leviticus 16, the day of atonement.

One goat dies, one carries sin away, and Christ

is both. Do you see that? Numbers 21, the bronze

serpent, the curse lifted up so the people can

look and live. And Jesus says, this is me. Now

let's look at some head crushing foreshadowings

because we, I talked about that a couple of weeks

ago, but then I really found more Genesis three

15 echoes this everywhere that there is going

to be a crushing. And so these stories aren't

random, they're patterns. So here we go, Jiel

and Sisera, judges four through five, a woman

crushes the head of the enemy of God's people.

David and Goliath, 1 Samuel 17, David slings

the stone, then cuts off the head of Goliath.

By the way, did you know that Goliath, so all

the giants, all the Nephilim, they were called

people of the serpent. This is pretty interesting.

They were called people of the serpent. And when

they would wear armor, when they would go to

war, do you know what that armor was? Scales.

And so when Goliath comes before David, he's

literally wearing scales as armor. And so when

David strikes him in the head, by the way, that's

not just like, oh, he got lucky. That was on

purpose because again, we're foreshadowing what

would happen. The one who was the representative

of the serpent, the lineage of the serpent, the

seed of the serpent was struck in the head and

then his head cut off. And then David raises

it, a foreshadowing of Christ. I think that's

awesome. Everybody else, you guys are all looking

at me like, oh, it's kind of weird. No, it's

awesome. Here's one that I'd never thought about

so I was going through judges the woman at the

tower You guys know this one judges chapter 9

Judges 9 · chapter mention

Abimelech is destroying the children of Israel

and they're running and they all run into Into

the walls and they go up in this tower and Abimelech

is chasing them with all of his army and he knows

that they're terrified And so then he looks up

and he's going to start scaling this wall to

get up and over it to destroy women, children,

and men. And it is a woman who picks up a millstone

and throws it over and it just smokes them in

the head. Why a woman? It echoes Eve. A seed

will come. So a millstone dropped on the head

of a tyrant. Psalm 74, 13 and 14, you crushed

the heads of Leviathan, God striking the chaos

serpent. This is what God says over and over

and over. I have not forgotten my promise. The

serpent crusher is coming all throughout the

Old Testament. I got chills. Prophetic foreshadowings,

the Davidic covenant in second Samuel seven.

a coming king, an eternal throne, and the serpent

crusher is a son of David. Psalm 22, hands and

feet pierced, enemies encircled, garments divided,

written a thousand years before Christ. Isaiah

seven and nine, which we're gonna unpack Isaiah

nine next week, a child, a son, God with us,

the one who shatters the oppressor. Isaiah 53,

the lamb, our substitute, our covering, our worth

restored through his wounds. Daniel 7, the son

of man who destroys the beast, the serpent's

kingdom, in reign forever. And then the one that

has all of our hearts, Revelation, the entire

book. The child defeats the dragon, the lamb

triumphs, the serpent, is finally crushed once

and for all. Amen. So here's how this all should

land on our hearts. All of this, every sacrifice,

every head crushed, every whispered prophecy

in scripture is this. The world is broken. The

lie still echoes. Shame still clings. Fig leaves

still fail, but someone is coming. At Advent,

we don't just remember his first coming. We anticipate

his return. And when the serpent will be crushed

forever. At the cross, the soul truly felt its

worth. At his return, the soul will feel it fully.

So I hope that you guys can feel, do you feel

the ache of the Old Testament? Do you feel it?

As we quickly run through all of it and God continuously

as the people cry out. to be redeemed as the

people cry out to be made whole, as the worth

of the soul is aching so much and God continuously

says, one is coming, one is coming, one is coming.

And so when we get to Matthew, the exhale. Point

number three, the first exile. A worth we could

not restore on our own. Exile is the great revealer.

When Adam and Eve are driven out of Eden, it's

more than a relocation, it's revelation. Eden

was not merely a place, it was the environment

of perfect identity. As you guys heard me, I've

said this before, I'm gonna say it again. Eden

is the first temple. It's where the presence

of God dwelled. And so it was where humanity

lived in unbroken fellowship, or it was where

humanity in exile lived in unbroken fellowship,

unfractured, I'm sorry, in Eden, unfractured

dignity and unshadowed worth beneath the smile

of God. But when they are sent out east of Eden,

something immeasurable happens. It's all lost.

The fall fractures identity. Exile exposes that

fracture. It shows us that life apart from God

is not just hard, it is impossible to repair

on our own. Have you ever been lost, like physically

lost? Not like the way Phil Robertson, if they

ask him, have you ever been lost, you say, yeah,

I've been lost, Will. And he starts going, have

you guys ever heard that? It's really funny,

anyway. But have you ever been out somewhere

and you're just like looking around you're like

I? Have no idea where I'm at right now My wife

shaking her head because she gets lost all the

time we lived in Lincoln 10 10 years and she's

still like I Don't ever get lost There's a little

bit of a terrifying feeling when you're lost

in a way that's like, you don't know anyone,

you have no idea where you're at. When I was

touring, our bus broke down and we were trying

to call a tow truck. And the tow truck's going,

where are you? And we're like, I have no idea.

Well, what's a cross street? There is no cross

street. Well, what's near you? A farm. and a

cow and he's like I need a little bit more than

that and we're like buddy we don't know what

to tell you and there was just a sinking feeling

of like what are we gonna do can't call mom and

dad and the one person who can help us can't

actually help us because we don't know any have

any idea where we're at it's a little bit terrifying

to feel like you're on your own right Now think

about Adam and Eve have always been provided

for. They've always been with their dad. And

now they're being sent out of a garden and he

says, hey, I love you, but you can't stay here

anymore. And oh, by the way, when you go to eat,

it's gonna be really hard. When you go to have

children, it's gonna be very hard. but you can't

come back here, but I promise you I will fix

it. Imagine how terrifying that is because they

couldn't just sit outside the walls of Eden.

They had to go because they still had something

that God told them to do. Do you guys remember?

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth,

which means go out. Go see all the things I've

created. But that's a terrifying feeling. And

so exile exposes that fear, that need for, I

need protection, I need stability, I need to

be made whole. And so I wanna put up here, so

the fall fractures identity, exile exposes that

fracture. It shows us that life apart from God

is not just hard, it is impossible to repair

on our own. They couldn't go back in, right?

So right here. Exile was both judgment and mercy.

You can be like, how? How can that be mercy by

God just sending them out? Because we got to

say it's both. The flaming sword is judgment

because sin has consequences, but the flaming

sword is also mercy. This is something I had

never thought about till now. What happens if

they were to stay in Eden? God had not intervened

and they stayed in Eden. What would happen? That's

exactly right. They would be trapped eternally

in brokenness. And so to be sent out, they are

then shown mercy because they would You may be

like, how, how so? What are they going to eat

from? What did God say they could no longer eat

from? That's why they had to leave. The tree

of life. So they're forever trapped in their

own brokenness. So if they had eaten of the tree

of life in their fallen state, they would have

been forever fixed in corruption. This was, that

was something that I had read in a book this

week, preparing. was unpacking that idea and

I'm like, dude, I've never thought about that

if God had allowed them to stay. I'm thankful

for people that are smarter than me. So exile

is not God slamming the door in anger. It is

God ensuring that redemption will still be possible.

He removes them so that they may one day be restored.

Charles Spurgeon says this, God's mercy is so

great that you may sooner drain the sea of its

water and deprive the sun of its light. or make

space too narrow than diminish the great mercy

of God. Wrapping up. Even in exile, God is moving

towards them, not away from them. Exile shows

our inability to get to Him, but Him come to

us. Genesis ends the chapter with the heartbreaking

image of humanity on the outside looking in.

There's no ladder, there's no negotiation, there's

no returning. And this is the moment that scripture

makes unmistakably clear this moment. Put this

up here, bub, if you would. We cannot restore

ourselves. We cannot pay the debt. We cannot

cover our shame and we cannot create our own

Eden. So hear me, stop trying. Stop trying to

create your own Eden. It doesn't exist. This

is what makes the Advent story so stunning. The

door we could not open, the presence we could

not enter, the worth we could not reclaim, God

Himself would cross the distance. Exile creates

a holy longing. Every human being, atheist, nominal

believer, skeptic, feels the same ache that we

all feel, the sense that we are east of Eden.

The sense that something is off, that the world

should not be as it is, that we should not be

as we are. Exile becomes the base note humming

under the entire biblical story. The prophets

carry it, Israel's wilderness wanderings echo

it, the Psalms groan under it, and the Advent

answers it. Because Advent is the announcement

of your exile is ending and God is coming. So

Advent begins in exile. Before we talk about

mangers and shepherds and stars, we must remember

Christ came because the way back was closed.

He came because humanity stood outside the garden

with no ability to re -enter. He came because

our worth had been shattered and only He could

restore it. Advent begins with an ache. Advent

begins with distance. and Advent begins with

exile and that makes the arrival of Christ infinitely

more beautiful. I'm gonna close with this story.

In 2005, a small auction house in Louisiana put

an old, dirty, beat up painting on the block.

Have any of you guys ever been to a, to a, goodness

gracious. What are the things that we go to?

Not auctions. They're like garage sales when

people die. Estate sale, chimney, Christmas.

Yeah, my wife and my daughter are suckers for

estate sales, man. They will plan out their Saturday.

But my wife, for the last couple of months, has

been going to all these estate sales, and she's

been finding all of these paintings. and different

like pictures that are just one of a kind to

just kind of fill our house with. Because she's

like, I don't like going to Hobby Lobby and getting

stuff that everybody else has in their house.

Like I want unique stuff. And so we've got some

pretty unique things. And my wife actually got

for cheap this little bitty painting that ended

up like, when we looked it up, it's like one

of a kind. And it was given to a pastor. It was

painted, hand painted. in like Germany or France

or something, and it was given to him as a gift.

And so it's really cool to have something so

one of a kind. And so when I read this story,

I was like, oh man, maybe this will happen to

us one day. But the painting, no one was looking

at it. No one wanted it. The wood was cracked,

the paint was flaking, and the image was barely

visible. And so it was at this estate sale, and

two art hunters bought it for less than $1 ,000,

assuming it was just a nice old copy of a Renaissance

work. But then something happened. They brought

it to an art restorer, someone who knew the difference

between trash and treasure. And as she cleaned

it, layer by layer, something shocking began

to emerge. Brush strokes, light details, And

then a face appears. So then they call in experts,

and after months of study, testing, and comparison,

they realized that what they were looking at

was a lost Leonardo da Vinci, Salvador Mundi,

the savior of the world. It was a famous painting

of Jesus. It was a lost painting. A painting

that had spent decades in obscurity, dismissed,

ignored, and devalued. and it ultimately revealed

the work of a great master. Its worth had not

changed, its condition had, its location had,

and its story had. You want to guess what this

ultimately went for in 2005? Remember, it was

bought for less than $1 ,000. It was bought for

$450 million. It's the highest price ever paid

for a piece of art. But its worth had been there

all along. Not because the painting suddenly

became valuable, but because someone finally

recognized its worth and restored it. And so

that's Genesis 3. That is Advent, and that is

the gospel. Humanity was exiled. It was damaged.

It was dirty. It was cracked by sin, but not

worthless. but unable to restore itself. The

world looked at us and saw not much, but God,

the true artist, the one who knows the original

design, looked at us with a different gaze. Through

the sacrifice in the garden, through foreshadows

of redemption, through the ache of exile, through

the promise of a coming savior, he set in motion

the restoration of a worth we ourselves could

not recover. And at Advent, the master stepped

into the story himself, the savior of the world,

coming to restore what had always belonged to

him. Let's pray.