Hide and Seek

So here, brand new series today, titled Community.

Brand new series, titled Community.

And before, we're going to be talking about community over the next four weeks, but before we get into community, we've got to lay some groundwork that prepares us to live in community.

There's two questions that are asked in Genesis that really are the core of our relationship with God.

It's found in these two simple questions.

Genesis 3.9, God asked a question to Adam and Eve.

Where are you?

Where are you?

And then in Genesis 4-9, God asked Cain a question, and the question is, where is your brother?

Where is your brother?

So, so at the core of our relationship with God, there are these two questions.

We're going to really deal with the first question today.

Where are you?

And we're going to build on that question with answering the next question really over the next three weeks.

Where's your brother?

And so this first question is about vulnerability.

It's about sin.

It's about shame.

And I want to, it makes me think of the beginning of my relationship with my wife.

Y'all pray for Jill.

She had a rough night last night, just sick.

She may not even be here at all this morning.

I hope she'll be able to be here for the second service.

But Jill and I met at a youth camp.

We were friends for a couple of years.

I lived in Savannah, Georgia.

She lived in Peachtree City.

We kind of grown separate.

And she comes down to visit Savannah.

And so we we connect.

And I'm like, man, she's cute.

I mean, she's sharp.

And so I said, hey, so this is Wednesday night, you know, Wednesday night at church.

And I said, um, I said, what are, I said, you want to like get something to eat tomorrow?

Tomorrow?

And um she says, well, somebody has set me up on a date with this guy, you know, a blind date.

I said, oh man, she said, but I'd be willing to like go meet you for dessert after.

I'm not I'm not lying.

And so my first date on November eleventh in nineteen ninety three.

I was Jill's second date.

Yeah, well.

Y'all look, God forgive these people.

Oh, I wish she was here.

I wish she was here.

I'll tell her.

Yeah, I I have joked with that, but but I can she would be upset if I did that publicly.

But um so I was so anyway, so so so that that that first you know evening kind of get together led to us talking and um getting to know each other, and and you know, what we do early in a relationship is we present the best of ourselves.

Oh my goodness.

Some of y'all, we present the best of ourselves, and Barb is is is laughing because where is she thinking about how short I fall uh compared to Jill.

So I present the best.

I'm gonna wear the nicest thing.

I'm not gonna say the wrong thing.

I wanna, and look, listen, I'm gonna tell you that Jill, and many of you know her.

She's the godliest person I've ever met.

I mean, she is just a godly woman.

And and she is, listen, there is no pretense to Jill.

What you see is what you get.

And those of you that know her well, there's no fake, there's no pretense.

I mean, she she doesn't care whether you like her or don't like her.

She wants to glorify God and she wants to fulfill the Great Commission.

That's just her heart.

But and so I man, I had a I had a pretty steep climb.

I mean, I've got to I've got to impress this woman enough.

And so we finally got to a point where where we were we were vulnerable enough, and I and I began to ask her about about a long-term relationship that would eventually lead to marriage.

But in that process, we we struggle with vulnerability.

I am I really gonna open myself up to this person?

Am I really gonna let them know everything about me?

And even into marriage, and some of you know this.

We hold back.

We hold back, we struggle, we struggle.

Why is this hard?

Why is it hard with our spouse?

Why is it hard to be vulnerable with other people in general?

Which leads to the relationships that we have in the family of God, in the house of God, in, and so when listen, here's an evidence of this.

If you have people over to your house, and back when we started our church, our kids, you know, were young.

They're 25, 22, and 18.

And so when we started cleaning, they said, Who's coming over?

I mean, that's literally was their first response.

If we're cleaning, somebody's coming.

And why?

Why?

Because we want to be presentable.

And so we're shoving stuff in closets.

We're throwing it under the bed, under the couch.

I mean, we're we're doing whatever we have to do.

And so we all do that.

How we dress and put on makeup, Pinterest, Instagram, social media has changed all of this and capitalized on all of our inability to live vulnerable.

Why do we do these things?

Because we are scared that if people really knew us, if they really knew us, they wouldn't love us.

They wouldn't want us.

This isn't a modern phenomenon.

This is a this is a ancient issue.

God creates everything.

He creates, he creates, in six days, he creates the planets, he creates the earth, and he creates humanity.

And then they rest on the first day of the week, and then they move on with life.

And so in Genesis 2.25 says this.

Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

They were both naked, and they felt no shame.

No jokes here.

They were both naked, but they felt no shame.

Now, now when I when I say naked, it does it mean that they were without clothing?

Yes.

It's like a husband and wife on their wedding night, how God designs it, how God plans it to be.

A man and a woman experience intimacy on their wedding night.

That's God's plan.

They expose themselves.

That's what the word means.

They expose themselves.

But it means so much more.

It means to expose yourself emotionally, to expose yourself relationally, to open yourself up, to get to know one another, to be known, and to know the other without without any barrier whatsoever.

You see it?

The word shame, they felt no shame.

It's important to understand that word.

It means to fail in hope and expectation.

It means to to it means emotional distress from wrongdoing, from sin, from disobeying God.

That's what it means.

And this is interesting words the writer used.

He doesn't, now the man and his wife were both naked.

He didn't say and strong and confident, or he didn't say naked with no fear or anger or sadness or disappointment or regret, but instead the writer emphasizes the word shame.

The Lord is trying to communicate something to us.

He's wanting us to understand.

Remember the question to Adam and Eve?

He says, Where are you?

Now, do you think God didn't know they had hid themselves so well that God needed to know where they were?

Or is he asking a question about shame and vulnerability?

No, he's asking, he's trying, he knows exactly where they are.

He is communicating a message.

Kurt Thompson, who's a counselor, a Christian counselor, he says the vulnerability of nakedness is the antithesis of shame.

And with this revelation, we're going to see in Genesis 3, listen to this.

Genesis 3, 1 through 5.

How the enemy attacks us in our vulnerability and he focuses on our shame.

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made.

And one day he asked the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from the fruit of any of the trees in the garden?

Of course, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, the woman replied.

God said, You must not eat it or even touch it.

If you do, you will die.

You won't die, the serpent replied to the woman.

Listen to me, church.

This is at the heart of the gospel and our need for the gospel.

And how we have victory over the gospel through the gospel over sin and shame and bondage to sin.

Verse 5: God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.

And so the enemy's coming to Eve, just like he comes to you and me.

He's intentionally trying to get in between her relationship with God.

And as a result, get in between her relationship with her husband.

How is he doing this?

He's causing her to question who she was created to be.

God is, listen, here's what the enemy wants you to believe.

God's holding back on you.

He's holding back on you, getting her to believe that she was not important as she thought.

In other words, he's getting her to believe you are not enough.

You are, you, you don't have enough.

You don't need to trust God.

He's holding back on you.

And she believes that there's something wrong with her.

So she, look at verse 6.

The woman was convinced.

She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her.

So she took some of the fruit and ate it.

Then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too.

At that moment their eyes were opened.

Now what does that mean?

It means there is a loss of innocence.

A loss of innocence, a loss of a purity in their relationship with God.

Their eyes were open and suddenly they what?

They felt shame.

Shame.

Something's wrong with me.

Shame at their nakedness.

They were emotionally experiencing the distress of being separated from their creator.

And now there is a barrier.

There is shame, and there is there's gonna there's gonna be tension.

The prophetic word from God that speaks to the relationship between a husband and a wife having tension.

Listen.

Anybody ever experience tension with your spouse?

Three honest people.

Do y'all understand what I'm talking about?

This is at the heart of the gospel, the center of the word.

And so they feel shame.

So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

And here's what we do.

We don't use fig leaves.

We use ambition.

We use social status.

We use uh you name it.

We can come up with it.

Money.

Social status.

Just hiding ourselves.

Isolation.

We use anything.

Can I be vulnerable for a second?

I hated COVID.

I hated COVID.

Except for one reason, except for one thing.

If I needed to walk, if I just needed to run to the store.

And I just listen, I'm a people person.

I really am.

I mean, I I like I I get I I get I started getting giddy on Friday night and Saturday.

Man, I'm gonna see my people.

I just I mean I get to see every I mean I'm hanging out with everybody, I'm I get to talk to everybody.

But I'm gonna be honest with you, when I when I go to my truck, I'm about spent and I and I have to go home and I and I I just have to I have to have some isolation and quiet for a little while.

But but here's the funny part.

I hated COVID, except I could run into Kroger and put a mask and a hat on, and I didn't have to talk to anybody.

And I and I because I there's times like, man, I just I just I'm a people person, but there are just times like, man, I don't, I really don't, I want to go get this and this, and I want to get out and go home.

And I and I love it, I I put on a hat, you know, I feel kind of like a secret agent or something.

I love that's the only time I love the mask, is that I could I could cover myself, but he listen, here's the truth about shame.

Shame shatters relationships.

Shame shatters relationships.

Shame shatters relationships.

Here's what Brene Brown says: shame is the fear of disconnection.

There is something about me that if other people knew or see, they see it, then it won't, I won't be worthy of connection.

So shame shatters relationships.

If somebody knew something about me, you know my testimony, right?

My testimony is shameful.

I'm sitting in in the jail in Conyers, Georgia.

And my mama, my sweet mama, has to walk in that jail with my brother Eddie and get me out.

Shame.

Shame.

Now imagine me telling Jill that, part of my testimony.

And she loves me.

Because she she knows she knows all about that.

Genesis 3, 8, and 10.

Hang on, and we'll get there in a second.

So not only does the enemy create shame to tempt the woman to believe she isn't enough to get her to disobey God, but once the fruit is eaten, there's shame because they now recognize that they are naked.

They realize nothing has changed in the physical appearance.

But they've always been naked, and it has never been an issue.

But now suddenly they feel this deep sense of shame and they seek to hide from each other, but they don't just hide from each other.

Genesis 3.8, when the cool of the evening breeze is blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord walking in the garden.

Now, by the way, this is that's just the coolest thing in the world.

We're gonna be reunited in a heavenly state.

Jesus is coming back, and he can come back anytime, and he's gonna take his church.

There's gonna be a tribulation period, and then Jesus will bring the church back to a new heaven and a new earth.

And there will be no more shame.

There'll be no more hurt, there'll be no more pain, there'll be no more tears, Revelation says.

He'll wipe every tear away.

And so they they heard the Lord walking in the garden, so they hid from the Lord among the trees.

They hid from the Lord, and the Lord called out and said, What's the question?

What's the question?

Where are you?

Is it is it really because God didn't know where they were?

Or is it a deeper question?

It's about their heart, it's about it's about vulnerability, it's about shame.

Shame compels us to conceal.

Listen to me.

Shame compels us to conceal.

Nothing's changed for Adam.

He's always been naked, but now.

Now, there's shame over the reality that has always been.

Tim Keller says this.

He says to be naked is to be known.

Before Adam and Eve decided to be their own masters, they had no problem with radical vulnerability.

But now suddenly being vulnerable, being seen by somebody, being observed, being visible, being open and uncovered, it's traumatic.

It's traumatic.

So what Adam and Eve are feeling, what Adam and Eve are feeling in this passage, the truth of Genesis 3, is we feel like we can only be loved if we're not known.

That is why people will go out on a night and put substance into their bodies that messes up their thinking and will experience physical intimacy only meant to be, by the Creator, only meant to be between a husband and a wife.

Shame compels us to conceal.

To be uncovered is traumatic.

So we we were originally built to be known and loved, and now we are uh we we we believe we can never be both together, we can never have both together.

Neither, we can never be both known and loved together.

So we don't want people to see certain parts of who we are.

We don't want people to know that that we have anxiety, how we get upset, how we lose our temper.

We don't want people to think that we are depressed or know that we're depressed or we're or we're disappointed or we struggle or that we're weak at all.

I I feel like I have to carry this persona that I've got it all together.

And I don't.

I I, you know, I try to be vulner I try to be as vulnerable as I can.

But if I was completely vulnerable, you couldn't handle it.

And I wouldn't be able to be your pastor anymore.

So we because of shame, we hide from one another.

We hide from God and then we make excuses for our behavior.

Our deepest need in life is to be fully known and fully loved.

That's what we're yearning for.

People think if I find the right person to get married, it will fill that void.

If I can just find the right person, I will find love and I'll be accepted.

But there's a flaw there because the other person has shame, has the same issues you have, and you got two people that are dealing with shame and vulnerability and sin.

The word is sin.

That's the word that we get from this story is that Adam and Eve sinned, and the result of sin, according to the Apostle Paul, is death.

The wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Yes.

And so to experience love, we must embrace vulnerability.

If we're going to experience love, we must embrace vulnerability.

It's when I share with Jill my deepest weaknesses, my deepest issues.

And she loves me anyway.

I love you anyway.

I see your heart.

Yes, I see the flaws.

And she'll tell you.

There's flaws.

Kurt Thompson, he talks about this vulnerability, it's a state that we must pass through in order to deepen our connection with God and others.

Given our condition, there is no other way.

So we've got to embrace vulnerability.

Listen to me, church.

If you want to have a relationship with God, you've got to embrace vulnerability.

You've got to admit.

You've got to humble yourself.

And say, you know what?

I can't do it.

I need something outside of myself.

I need something that is transcendent.

And so we read this story and we we relate to the feelings of Adam and Eve and the shame that they felt in the moment of nakedness that they that is revealed and how they went from thinking everything is just right, then having to cover up.

However, imagine the moment all of this takes place, the rejection that God felt.

Imagine the fact that God faced rejection himself.

God places them in the garden and he walks with them hand in hand in the garden.

And when Adam and Eve take a bite from their fruit, their actions said, We don't want to live for you.

We know a better way ourselves.

And God experiences rejection, but God doesn't run.

God doesn't run and say, I'm just going to forget about you.

He doesn't run.

That question that he asks, where are you?

Man, is that chock full of significance?

Because it helps us understand that there now is a barrier between us and God.

But God says, Where are you?

Where are you?

You know what it says?

I'm coming after you.

You're my creation.

It's okay to clap.

Yeah, we're we're we're we're we're not so bad as we can't clap, right?

Yes, yes.

Man, this is the best part.

God doesn't run and hide, but through, listen, God, through the community of the Trinity.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, he pursues his people.

He moves toward them with vulnerability that will come to a climax.

When?

When God is born as a baby on the earth, that is his pursuit.

That is his answer to our sin and our shame.

Where are you?

I'm coming after you.

God in the flesh coming down so vulnerable as a baby.

But we see him vulnerable in the garden of Gethsemane.

He's crying, sweating drops of blood.

That's vulnerability.

I'm coming for you.

God, can you think about Jesus perfectly, perfectly God and perfectly human at the same time?

It's just a mystery we can't understand, but but in the humanity part of him, he says, He says, God, may this cup pass from me.

But your will be done and not my will.

And so the Father is showing us, and Jesus hanging on the cross in the most vulnerable state that he could be in.

Jesus does not have a stitch of clothing on his body on the cross.

That just doesn't show well in culture.

But that is the reality, as he's on the cross.

He's probably not on a hill.

Now I know that scholars disagree on this.

He's probably not on a hill.

He's probably down on the street level because where everybody could see him, the Romans wanted you to be up close and personal to crucifixion.

So it would be a deterrent to your rebellion against the Roman Empire.

And his cross probably was not really high.

It was probably on a level where people could walk up and spit in his face.

Now you talk about vulnerability.

That is the God of the universe coming and telling you, I am willing to come in my most vulnerable state.

I'm willing to come after you.

I'm willing to risk rejection.

I've already risked rejection in the garden.

I'm willing to come and risk rejection again.

The point here is to emphasize that Jesus in his vulnerability is pushing back shame.

It's a testimony to us that he knows exactly what it's like to be human and to experience vulnerability, shame.

The attack of the enemy.

The enemy in our world wants to cover up the significance of the cross.

We as believers need to make it public.

We need to go public with our faith.

We need to be willing to be bold.

If you want to experience the joy of the Lord and the presence of God in your life, if you want to be loved, then you've got to be willing to match the vulnerability of Jesus.

And so where are you?

Where are you?

Are you?

Are you standing arms distance away from God?

I can't be loved.

God would never love me.

If I went, if I shared with somebody what I was really like, what I was really struggling with, God wouldn't love me.

Here's the significance of vulnerability.

1 John 1.9 says, but if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Amen?

Hallelujah for that.

And so the battle with shame is not just to overcome through vulnerability with God.

We confess our sins to God and we receive forgiveness.

But if we want healing, that requires also a different type of vulnerability.

James 5.16 says this confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so you may be healed.

All right.

Y'all took so much time laughing earlier.

I want to ask you, are you ready to be vulnerable with God?

And some of you have never you've never been vulnerable to the place where you've put your faith in Jesus.

The gospel, and I think we've we've we've we've explained the gospel.

The gospel is that is that is that humanity rebelled against God.

And there's so much, there's so many consequences.

The world, look at the world today, that's the consequences of humanity rebelling against God.

We are experiencing that.

Shame.

Broken relationships.

And the gospel, Jesus comes to reveal the love of the Father.

And then the full Trinity is the Holy Spirit is at work right now, hopefully speaking to some of you.

And the Holy Spirit draws us to a place where we obey what Jesus commands in Mark 1.

He says, repent and believe the good news.

Repent and believe the good news.

Now, some of you, that's your step.

And I'm going to be down here, right down in this area.

And if you want to come and put your faith in Jesus, I want to encourage you to do so.

But I listen, this morning, some of us need to get our heart right with Jesus.

And we need to be vulnerable and we need to be open.

Some of you need to confess your sin.

Some of you need to confess it to somebody else.

You need to confess your sins one to another.

And listen, I'm not saying some of you are angry over here with people over here, but there might be a need for you to go to somebody that you are comfortable talking to and saying, you know what?

I have something in my heart that has been holding me back, and I just need to share it openly with somebody.

And listen, we need to be a church that loves somebody despite what they might share.

And so the altar is open for you to pray.

Man, we went through a lot this morning.

Father, would you speak?

Would you work over these just the next few moments?

God, bring people to faith in Christ.

And God, would you bring people to a place of healthy vulnerability and healthy relationship with their heavenly Father?

So when we start talking about community next week and answering the question, where is your brother?

We will be prepared to move forward in healthy relationships with others.

God, would you please work?

It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.