Broken God: Paradise Lost | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, awakening.

How are we doing this morning?

Woo! Yeah.

And the overclappers, that was wonderful as well.

Love you.

And I just want to say, Second service, um, you beat out first service on just the responsiveness right there.

So well done.

You're winning already today.

Hey, we're beginning a brand new series called Broken God.

Why don't you just turn to your neighbor and say Broken God or somebody close to you?

My wife and I, we uh dated long distance.

Uh and so I was in Chicago in college, and she was in San Luis Obispo in college at Cal Poly.

Uh, she being a couple years older than me.

Um after college, she decided to do a year-long missions trip with uh Campus Crusade for Christ uh and go helping start a new uh crew movement in Sweden.

And so both of us are very Swedish uh looking, at least.

Uh and so she goes and uh going on this trip, and as she goes, I mean, we're gonna spend a year dating internationally.

Now, this is before you had um Facebook, or you we didn't even have cell phones at that time, they existed, but we just didn't have them.

Uh, and one of the things that was problematic for me was on her team, it was a team built up of like three or four guys, three or four girls, and a leader or something like that.

On her team was this guy named Sven.

Yes, Sven.

I don't know what comes into your mind when you hear the name Sven, but whatever it was, it's probably right.

Sven was like a six foot one, blonde, like extremely built, good-looking guy.

And I, you know, I'm like scrawny college guy.

I'm like, oh my gosh, you're going for a year with Sven.

Every insecurity in me just rose to the top, right?

And so they get over to Sweden and they struggled finding housing.

And so for a while, their team they're staying in hostels.

Eventually, they were able to get one house for the entire team.

And so then now the entire team, guys and gals, are in one house, and you just can imagine, as you know, a 19, 20-year-old guy, what is going through my head thinking about Sven and Jenny in the same house.

And I'm going like, no.

Like, literally, this is I'm ashamed to say this, but this is what I had this picture in my head.

Um, I imagine that like Jenny wakes up to go use the bathroom in the morning or something like that, but Sven was already there brushing his teeth, shirtless, with a towel wrapped around his waist.

I mean, that was the picture in my mind.

And because that was the picture in my mind and the thoughts I was having, I began to act and respond as if they were true.

And so my deep insecurities began to come out in my conversations, in my emails of like, what about this?

What about this?

Uh, and all of a sudden, I almost ruined the best relationship of my life, this side of eternity and my real earthly relationship.

Like, I was so insecure, and she's like, wait a second, you know my character.

Are you questioning you know who I am?

Are you kidding me?

And eventually I was like, yeah, no, I I you're right, but Sven, you know, you know, as we look at the world around us today, it's it's easy to conclude that if there is a God, maybe he's broken because we're seeing so much brokenness in our world.

And we just see all the devastation and all the pain and all the heartache around us and then just in our daily lives.

And yet, I just wonder, could it be that the problem actually isn't that God is broken, but that our view of God is broken.

That how we fundamentally understand him and how we see him and believe him to be, and because of that, we begin to act on those things, and then it causes devastation, it causes disconnect, it causes heartache and pain.

In fact, A.

W.

Tozer would say this in his like just Christian classic little book, I have it right here.

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

Like, like right now, what comes into your mind when you hear the word God is the very most important thing about you.

In fact, he'll go on to later say the reason why is we tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.

So, what comes into your mind when you think about God?

Could it be the most important thing about you?

And what if the brokenness we're experiencing and living and walking through?

What if it's not because God is broken?

But because we have a broken view, understanding a mental image of God.

We're gonna spend the next several weeks actually looking and understanding the attributes and the character of God, reframing and understanding who it is that we just sang to, to know Him more fully and clearly together.

Uh, next week, we're gonna talk about the holiness of God.

Week three, we're gonna talk about the goodness of God.

Week four, we're gonna talk about the wisdom of God.

Today, I want to talk about how we got here.

How did we end up in this broken place to begin?

I want I want to actually begin just by answering kind of at its most fundamental essence core, who is God?

And then talk about who we are, and then why are we where we're at?

Where did it all go wrong?

Okay, so if you got your notes, would you open up with me?

Let's talk about who is God, who we are, and then where it all went wrong.

Uh open up your Bibles, if you would, to Genesis chapter 1, verse 1.

Genesis 1:1

This is how the scriptures begin.

The very first sentence gives us this window and this picture to who God is.

It begins this way: In the beginning, God.

God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning, so there was a point in time when all that we see around us was not.

But God pre-existed all of that.

He was before the beginning, he had no beginning, and he is the creative one who designed all that we see and know.

And so when we answer the question, who is God?

And we begin to see and look and ask that, really, fundamentally, God is not like you.

God is not like me.

Now, our tendency, when we think about God, isn't it true to think about that he's just a better version than us?

He's just a bigger version than us, or maybe not even of us, but uh the best version of ourselves?

Or the best person you can think of?

And here's uh I think part of the reason why A.W.

Tozer, and you'll note that I'm actually going to quote significantly from him for multiple reasons.

One, I want to expose you to one of the Christian classics that has been transformational and formational in my life.

Two, when we're talking about these deep areas, sometimes any book that you want to approach feels really big, doesn't it?

And this is a little.

And first, when we have to start with that question, our mental picture, what comes to our mind, we have to first assert God is not like us.

He's completely other, and we'll talk more about that next week.

But what does that mean he's not like us?

Uh, and where we get uh from the text here first is that God is self-existent.

I just want to go through some of these attributes and qualities of who God is.

God's self-existence, meaning he has no origin.

God owes no one or nothing to his existence.

He's the uncaused cause of the universe.

He's the uncreated creator of all that we see.

God exists in himself and of himself.

He's self-existent and he's self-sufficient.

God is the one who contains, this is Tozer.

God is the one who contains all, who gives all that is given, but all but who in himself, but who himself can receive nothing that he has not first given.

He's self-sufficient, he needs nothing, he's complete in himself.

One of the most difficult things for us to really understand is God does not need us.

God does not need you.

God does not need me.

And yet in his grace and his kindness, he voluntarily stoops low to come near to us.

But he is self-existent, he is self-sufficient, and he is eternal.

Tozer would say this that time marks the beginning of created existence.

And because God never began to exist, it can it can have no application to him.

God dwells in eternity, but time dwells in him.

And we are created, we have a point in time, and yet because we are created in the image of God, we're gonna get there in a second, he has placed eternity in our hearts, and so one of the deep challenges of our own souls is there's this eternal desire and understanding that we're longing for, and yet we're put within the constraints of time.

We're put within the constraints of change and meaninglessness, death, longing for life and permanence.

God is self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal, he is infinite.

God knows no bounds.

Whatever God is and all that God is, he is without limit.

He is measureless.

And this applies to all of his attributes.

His love is infinite.

It has no bounds.

It's measureless.

His grace is infinite, his mercy, his goodness.

You know, we sing this song, um, you are good, you're good to me, and then then the chorus or the bridge says you keep on getting better.

And I think some of you at least are wrestling with that, and rightfully so in some ways.

Because you're like, no, if God being infinite, self-existent, he can never get better.

And that's not what we, you know, many of you know what the intended author is meaning.

It's not that God is getting better, it's that we as finite human beings with limited capacity and understanding, as we in our finiteness begin to know the infinite love, begin to know the infinite goodness, begin to know the infinite God in all who He is, and we're just beginning to scratch not even the surface of it.

We can't barely ever even scratch it.

Our experience of Molen gets better.

Our moment of like, oh my God, you are God and you are great and you are good.

It only grows as we get to know him.

Not that he's changed in any way, but our perspective and understanding does.

He's self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal, infinite, and he's incomprehensible.

Go ahead and just say that to your neighbor.

Incomprehens we cannot fully grasp or understand God.

Because he's infinite and we're finite.

Because he's eternal, self-sufficient, self-existent, and we are dependent on human beings.

And so even when we begin this conversation about the attributes and the character and nature of God, friends, this is not easy for us in what in Western culture.

We have to have the courage to utter mystery.

Because to an extent and to a point in this conversation when we ask, who is God?

There is a bounds upon which we can know him, and we're going to talk about that in a second, but there is so much that he is incomprehensible God, and if we could comprehend him, he would not be God.

And so we just have to have the moment where we go, he is mysterious beyond us.

Well, if he's incomprehensible, how can we know him?

God, in his kindness, has chosen to reveal himself and what's true.

We're going to talk more about attributes next week.

The attributes of God is what God has revealed to be true about himself in three primary or fundamental ways.

The first area is in the area of creation, how we can begin to know what's true of God.

The psalmist would say it this way: the heavens declare the glory of God.

Paul would say it, he says, For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

That when you look at creation, when you step into the majesty of the expanse of the ocean or the night sky without the city lights, and you see the heavenly host above, or when you hold a brand new baby and the wonder of life itself, you begin to understand in part the character and the nature of God.

How do we understand him?

Well, he's revealed himself in creation, then he's revealed himself in his word.

That he's chosen to make himself known and explain who he is.

I love how the Apostle Paul says it to Timothy.

He says, All scriptures God breathe, useful for teaching, training, rebuking, uh, all the things, so that the person of God might be fully equipped.

Like all of this, God has said, I am going to give you my words.

I'm going to reveal myself to you in ways that you can understand me.

And as you get into his word, you'll see and know more of who he is.

And finally, in creation in his word and in Jesus Christ.

And we talked about this last week at Easter, if you were here, that in Jesus we see God.

The way John would say it, that we see the fullness of grace and truth.

In Colossians, the way the Apostle Paul would say it is that he is the image of the invisible God.

That when you look at Jesus, you get to see exactly how God responds and acts.

God has revealed himself in creation, his word in Christ.

So when we wrestle with who is God, well, God is not like you.

Well, then who are we?

Well, you have been made in God's likeness.

So God's not like us, he's completely other.

And yet at the same time, this beautiful reality is then we have been made in his likeness through the creation account in Genesis 1.27, it says, so God created mankind in his own image, in his own reflection.

In the image of God, he created them, male and female, he created them.

That who we are, down to the physical realities of our maleness or femeness, speak of his image-bearer making in us.

See, humans, we are made to be a reflection of God's character into this world.

In fact, God would tell them to be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth.

And then he places Adam and Eve in the center of the garden and he begins to say, I want you to cultivate this, that you're to be co-creators with me, you're to be co-rulers with me, and come alongside and begin to form and fashion that my creative energy and how I spoke, and from nothing to something, you're to take something and begin to bring order and life to it.

That's how who we were created to be.

I like how A.W.

Tozer said it.

He said, We can never know who or what we are until we know at least something of what God is.

You have been made in the likeness of God, in the image of God.

And this is one of the profound truths that anchors, that has anchored, especially our modern understanding of equality.

Our understanding that every person has value and dignity is rooted right here in this scripture.

That you have a creator, you have a designer, you have a maker who has put his imprints on you.

So you've never met just an ordinary person.

They are all image bearers of the God most high with infinite dignity and value and worth.

Because they've been made in God's image.

And if we actually want to get to know who you are, like if you want to get to know you, get to know God.

See, we we we mess up the order, don't we?

Because we're like, I just need to find myself.

I'm just gonna spend time discovering myself, and I'm gonna find I you know what?

I'm just and so I just look within yourself to find yourself, right?

No, no, no, no.

You're an image bearer, you're designed, you're created.

If you want to figure out who you really are, go back to the designer, go back to the creator, and because you have been made in his image, when you get to know him, you're gonna see yourself reflected back who you truly are to be.

So, who is God?

Well, God is not like you.

Who are we?

Well, you've been made in God's likeness.

You're like, Ryan, this is sounding really good.

Well, where did it all go wrong?

What happened?

What why all the brokenness in our world?

What in the world really is going on?

Genesis chapter three is what theologians call the fall.

If you got your Bibles, we're gonna dive into this text.

Genesis 3 verse 1.

Genesis 3:1

It begins this way.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animals the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from the tree in the garden, or any tree in the garden?

All right, let me back it up for those who don't know the story.

Chapter 2 of Genesis is God zooming in on humanity.

He makes Adam and Eve.

Adam means human, Eve means life.

He makes this beautiful, incredible uh couple that then is created to be co heirs with him, places them in the garden to cultivate and work and develop.

And uh because they're made in his image, one of Things that's incredible and that God has given us is moral uh volition and choice.

That and so he places them in the garden.

He says, Eat of any tree in the garden.

In fact, at the very center is the tree of life, the source of God's very essence of life itself.

And then there's the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

He says, You can have of everything but that one tree.

Think about the expansiveness, the generosity, the desire of God.

Right?

Everything.

Everything is for your enjoyment.

Why that tree though?

Well, love requires a choice.

If I'm going to love and be in a relationship with you, I have to have a choice.

And if I don't have a choice, it's called force, and that's not good.

And it's a robotic, automatic response.

And God gave humanity moral agency for us to be able to choose or not to choose Him.

And He gave us freedom and said, We you can have whatever you want right here.

But here's just one thing, one area.

That's it.

Well, the enemy comes along and begins to question, saying, What did God say?

And then immediately the idea is look at how limiting God is.

Did he really say?

Come on.

Did he really say you must not eat of any tree?

No.

He didn't say that.

Now think about this.

The woman said to the serpent, just pause right there.

Because I think we do this all the time.

She stopped to entertain the conversation.

We'll find out later that Adam was there just passively standing by quietly.

That's a sermon for a whole nother day about us men.

But how often we entertain these thoughts?

How often we entertain these things?

How often we we hear and we go, no, that's not really true, but I'm gonna sit with it and talk with you.

I'm gonna begin to play with that idea, I'm gonna play with that thought, and then we head down paths we never ever dreamed of heading down because we just entertained the thought and the conversation.

The woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit from the tree in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it.

Well, he didn't say that, or you'll die.

The serpent said, You will not certainly die to the woman.

For God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God.

Lie, how were Adam and Eve made?

In the likeness of God.

They already were.

God had already created them, and now he's telling them he's attacking their identity.

You'll be like God.

No, already had it, thank you very much.

But knowing good and evil.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

Good job, Adam.

Stood by, said nothing.

Passivity, like I said, that's a sermon for another day.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Where did it all go wrong?

Right there.

It's where we've been going wrong ever since.

See, a broken view of God is at the root of humanity's problems.

What is the broken view of God?

Well, you have a spiritual enemy, we find out from Genesis 3, verses 1 through 5, who hates you, wants death and destruction for you.

Genesis 3:1–5

The first thing he wants to break is cause doubt on God's word.

Did God really say?

Did he?

No, he didn't.

And see, when we don't know God's word, it's easy for the enemy to manipulate and twist it.

When we don't actually know his word and how he's revealed who he is and his character, then we begin to believe whatever chirping and whatever, you know, Instagram post or whatever Twitter feed casts doubt on God's word.

And then fundamentally calls into question God's goodness.

See, at the root of every sin is a lie that we believe that God is not good and he doesn't want my very best.

At the root of it is we actually believe that God is holding out on us.

And I'm missing now.

And God is here to take good away from me, and I have to get good for myself.

And by the way, you know what the enemy is fundamentally?

A liar.

The father of lies, Jesus would say.

All throughout, woven through it, he is just taking little bits of truths and twisting it, little bits of things, and say, you won't certainly die.

Well, you will, and we'll get to that in a second.

And they did.

You'll be like God.

You already were.

It's a lie, attack on your identity.

See, a broken view of God, and fundamentally his goodness is at the root of humanity's problems, is at the root of my problems, is at the root of your problems.

The reason we want to go our own way, run and do our own things is we fundamentally think we can do better than God.

Who?

Yeah, the self-existent, self-sufficient, eternal, infinite, incomprehensible one.

Do you hear how asinine that is?

Seriously, come on.

But we do that.

That is how we live functionally.

St.

Ignatius of Loyola would say it this way: Sin is the unwillingness to trust that what God wants from me is my is only my deepest happiness.

And so ultimately, then what we do is we try to get it on our own, outside of God's wills and ways.

In fact, the enemy will use three primary areas to draw, to lure our hearts away from Him, to try to get good outside of God.

Now, as I say these areas, they're fundamentally not bad and of themselves.

They're designed, God actually created them for us with Him.

The first source of temptation, this luring, this drawing away is the area of physical pleasure.

It's the desire to do something that is contrary to God's will or desires.

The desire to do something that's outside of God's will for your life, which by the way, his will is your ultimate good.

The way the Apostle Paul would say it in Romans chapter 12, then you would know his good, pleasing, perfect will.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Like when you begin to not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, when you begin to realize that you've been sold a bill of goods by the enemy that only wants your destruction and that the devastation in your life is resulted because you don't actually believe God is good, and you begin to renew your mind on that, you'll discover his good, pleasing, perfect will for your life.

And see, the enemy says to us and uses, hey, there is something for you out there.

There's pleasure, there's experiences, a desire to do.

Second area is well, and under that, this is all fallen from, remember the uh Eve, she saw that the food, it was good for food.

It's that what John would say, the lust of the flesh.

Jesus would experience all three of these temptations in the wilderness.

Physical pleasure, number two, material possession.

If pleasure is the desire to do good, possession is the desire to have something apart from God's will.

It was pleasing to the eye.

It's the lust of the eyes.

It was when Satan is putting in front of Jesus all the kingdoms.

He says, if you just worship me, you get all of this to have something.

We run after that hard in the Silicon Valley, thinking all of these somehow are going to make us a somebody and gonna give us life.

It's the lure.

It's somehow getting good outside of God.

Finally, power and prestige.

If the first one is desire to do, second is desire to have, this is the desire to be something apart from God.

She noticed that it was desirable for wisdom.

This is a position, status symbol.

It's the letters after your name.

It's the influence you have.

These are the sources that then begin to lure and pull us away.

A broken view of God is at the root of your problem and my problem.

Okay, so what happened after that, Ryan?

Well, we're living in it.

We're living in it.

You know, in the first chapter, God created, and after every creative act is said, and God saw it and it was.

Help me out.

Anybody know it?

Good.

It's good.

And after that, when we chose our own good instead of his good, brokenness entered the world.

The aftermath of the fall, in fact, just in one word, you just write it down, death.

See, the Satan lied, the serpent lied.

You'll not surely die.

Death.

See, death biblically means separation.

It doesn't mean annihilation, it means separation.

It brought death relationally, separation, Adam and Eve.

It brought death spiritually between them and God.

And it ultimately brought death physically.

And ultimately for humanity, it brought death eternally.

See, the aftermath of the fall first meant a loss of vulnerability and intimacy.

Do you notice what the Adam and Eve did the minute they partook?

They realized they were naked.

And so they covered themselves.

In chapter two, it says something so wonderful, so amazing, it's hard to even imagine this kind of reality of relationships.

Like, I mean, it's just mind-blowing because we live post-fall, we live broken, covered up lives.

It said of Adam and Eve that they were naked and not ashamed.

Like, think about never having to fear what someone would think of you.

Think about the reality that you could be fully you in full view and fully loved.

That there would be no relationship that would harm you or take advantage of you.

And so you don't have to cover up and hide and protect and make sure you get yours and you're afraid of what they're gonna do.

See, we live covered up lives, and we do it in the most intimate of relationships, and the loss of innocence here has been the loss of vulnerability and intimacy that brought death to relationships.

And then what happened, and this is so beautiful, is God did not wait for Adam and Eve to come to them, to him.

Says that God came to them in the cool of the evening, as he always does, and as he always did, it was his pattern to be with them, and he's coming.

He notices they're not where they usually are.

They had moved, they heard him, and so they hid from him.

And that's what we do.

We cover up with others and we hide from our creator.

In the very trees that God created for them to enjoy, they began to hide from their creator.

And we begin to hide from God and brought separation in our lives.

Here's what's amazing, though.

Think about how God responded to Adam and Eve.

He came to them knowing full well all that they did, all that that was going on, and you know what he asked them?

What were you thinking?

No, he didn't ask them that.

That's what I would have said.

How amazing.

Think about this.

This is amazing.

Don't miss this.

He said, Where are you?

The self-existent, self-sufficient, infinite, eternal one who needs you not.

It says, Where are you?

I desire you, though.

I miss you.

You moved.

You moved, and I want you close to me.

And then he doesn't shame them.

And shame is what we lived in ever since the fall, that we live under the shame, and so then as a result, then we blame the world and others around us.

And that's exactly what Adam and Eve did.

And God's going, like, who like, where are you?

And Adam and Eve say, We hid because we're naked.

He's like, Who told you?

Did you eat of the tree?

And Adam, oh boy.

Sorry, men, but this is us.

He blames God and the woman.

He gets two for one on this one.

He does, he does.

He blames God, the woman you gave me.

He blames God and his wife.

Very wife, by the way, that he was singing.

There's a song at the end of chapter two.

It's Adam's song of blessing over this, like, whoa, man.

I mean, he's like in all with this woman, and now he's blaming her and blaming God.

And that's what we've been doing ever since.

And then Eve blames the serpent.

And here's what's amazing is we we worship a God who moved close to us when we moved away from him.

And when we broke his good creation.

See what happened, what happened here, listen.

Is every facet of creation was affected.

The reason this is such a broken world is this one moment acts like a cancer throughout all of humanity and the world itself, to the point that the Apostle Paul would say that even creation groans and is in labor pains, longing for the restoration of God.

That every single facet, down to our fabric of who we are and our response as people to creation itself.

God says, I'll come and provide restoration.

I'll come and fix it.

In fact, as He's ex, as God is telling the judgment, explaining to Adam and Eve, here's the consequences for rebelling and running from my goodness.

By the way, anytime we reject God or his goodness, the creator, it is always a movement towards death.

It cannot be any other way, for he's the creator of life.

So when he's saying this, he's like, I'm just allowing you to go the path that you went down.

And when he gets to the serpent, in this judgment, he gives a promise.

And he says to the serpent, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.

And speaking forth of one who would come, he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.

This one who will come, you will actually kill.

But he will crush sin.

He will crush death.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we're healed.

And here's the reality: here's our state, here's our broken world.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray because we don't believe fundamentally God is good.

Each of us is turned to our own way, our own version of good.

And even there, the Lord has laid on him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all.

That anyone who would call upon his name, he would come in and take the brokenness in your life, the death that is actively working in your life, and he would supernaturally raise you spiritually to new life in him.

The old is gone, the new has come.

What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

Why?

Well, because a broken view of God is at the root of humanity's problems, of your problems, of my problems.

A broken view of my wife all those years ago, girlfriend, almost destroyed the most amazing relationship of my life.

I just wonder, would you lean in in this next few weeks to begin to understand the God of the universe who created all that there is and who needs you not but loves you dearly, that we might experience his wholeness and peace and life.

Jesus, thank you so much for this time.

Thank you for your word.

That you have revealed yourself and spoken to us to show us who you are, that we might become more like your Son Jesus.

Right now, in this moment, God, would you draw our hearts to you?

Would you lift our vision to you that we'd see you more as you are, not as we think you are to be, but as your word has revealed you to be.

And may we worship you in all and wonder of your great grace and love in our life.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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