Following Jesus Son of God …

This is the divine verdict: Light came into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light.

A battle began about 6,000 years ago in the Garden of Eden. Humans decided that they didn’t need to listen only to God for wisdom and knowledge.

We thought we would be wise, but instead became fools. Now many are “playing chicken” with God when it comes to their eternal destiny. Spoiler Alert–God won’t blink! God says the way is narrow, in fact only one way to be saved from his coming day of judgment. And that is believing in the Son of God who he gave to be the sacrifice for our sin.

But the pretending continues … and the defiance … and the contention. Humans love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And most, it seems, even church folk, don’t want a holy God telling them any different.

The battle rages …

Here is a quote from Richard Dawkins:

• The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. [1] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 1st Mariner Books ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2008).

Go ahead, Richard, live in your world. Pretend there is not a God, or fashion him to your liking or dislike as the case may be. But an hour is coming when your knee will bow along with everyone else and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord.

That is reality. Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is coming again. Let’s live in God’s reality so we are ready.

Message Title: Discovering Our Post-Eden World: CONDEMNATION!

Message Text: John 3:16-21 & Selected

• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 10 – Discovering Our Post-Eden World-CONDEMNED : Genesis 3 – Selected : ffc : dave scott : 061916 AM : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 10 – Discovering Our Post-Eden World-CONDEMNED : Genesis 3 – Selected : ffc : dave scott : 061916 AM : STUDY SHEET TWO

We are lost.

• To be lost means to be unable to find one’s way; not knowing one’s whereabouts; having gone astray or having missed the way; bewildered as to place or direction—[a little bit like coming out of Walmart and not being able to find your car]; ruined or destroyed physically or morally; not knowing where you are or how to get to where you want to go.
• We, as in the human race, apart from salvation in Jesus Christ, are lost.
• In Luke’s gospel we read: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10 ESV).
• And you might say, “Wait a minute, Dave, isn’t this a Genesis study?”
• Yes it is. The “lostness” that Luke writes about is a result of the spread of sin and death from the fall of humanity that we have been studying in Genesis three.
• Let’s review a little bit to set the stage. We know that on the day of the disobedience of Adam and Eve that God came to the garden of Eden in the cool of the day looking for Adam and Eve. We know that Adam and Eve are now dead, as God had told them that in the day that they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would surely die. And we know that not only have Adam and Eve died because of their sin but that through Adam’s sin, death and sin have spread to all people.
• So let’s go back to the scene as God comes walking in the garden. “Where are you?” he calls out. Adam and Eve are hiding. God has asked, “Where are you?” but beyond the basic facts that they are hiding among the trees, they just don’t know. The trees they are hiding among are part of the garden that God set them over to work and to keep. Everything is the same, but everything is different. They have lost their way. The effects of this catastrophe have left them in darkness. They were the first sheep off the path.
• (Isaiah 53:6 ESV) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.
• We must understand that we live in a post-Eden world which means that we must understand the continuing effects of the fall. To help us do this we keep asking ourselves the question that God asked Adam and Eve: Where are you?
• Part of the answer to that question is that we are lost. But there is good news. Fast-forward about 4,000 years and we find that the Son of Man has come to this earth to seek and to save the lost.

Message Title: Discovering Our Post-Eden World: LOST!

Message Text: Genesis 3, Luke 19:1-10

Message Title: Discovering Our Post-Eden World–Lost!

Message Text: Luke 19:1-10

• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 9 – Discovering Our Post-Eden World : Genesis 3 : ffc : dave scott : 061216 AM : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 9 – Discovering Our Post-Eden World : Genesis 3 : ffc : dave scott : 061216 AM : STUDY SHEET TWO

SUNDAY AM

• As we enter the discussion this morning, we are going to direct our attention to the last question that God asks in Genesis three: “What is this that you have done?”

Because of what they had done …

1) They died and brought death to the entire planet on that day, Genesis 3:1-7, 2:15-17, Romans 5:12.

• (Genesis 2:17 ESV) ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

2) They brought down God’s curse and judgement upon the Earth on that day, Genesis 3:8-19.

3) They were driven from Paradise on that day, Genesis 3:20-24.

• Let’s ask ourselves: Do we live in the world of Genesis three? Do we understand the world we live in from a biblical perspective, most specifically, do we live our lives in view of the cataclysm of the fall of humankind?
• Genesis tells us of a great upheaval. From God’s unbounded blessing to a world of pain, death and hostility. Do we see that? Do we live in view of a world in great turmoil that will one day be brought completely under the judgment of God?

Message Title: What Is This That You Have Done?

Message Text: Genesis 3

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SUNDAY PM

Message Title: This Is Your God!

Message Text: 2 Samuel 22

The last question God asked in Eden: “What is this that you have done?”

God has asked the questions and now proceeds with his judgments. Now we will begin to understand the catastrophe of the fall.

So much of Genesis three is very simple and very complex. Many layers. Here is the key. God makes very clear what we need to know to obey and honor him. God does not answer all of our questions, and he does not seek to satisfy our curiosity. Yes, he leaves questions unanswered, hanging in the air. He is God.

A huge part of what we need to know from Genesis three is how our world changed after the disobedience and rebellion of Adam and Eve. Those things God does answer as they are vital to understanding our lives and our salvation some 6,000 years later.

Message Title: What Is This That You Have Done?

Message Text: Genesis 3:14-24

• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 8 – What Is This That You Have Done : Genesis 3-13 : ffc : dave scott : 060516 AM : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 8 – What Is This That You Have Done : Genesis 3-13 : ffc : dave scott : 060516 AM : STUDY SHEET TWO

In view of the subject of freedom and liberty this morning, we are going to look at a greater freedom, our freedom in Christ. A freedom which knows no  social or political boundaries. A freedom that crosses all cultural and geographical lines.

This freedom is the greatest freedom of all, given by God, purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross, and always safe and secure in the promises of God. That is the freedom that will have our attention today.

A position of freedom that Jesus Christ states to be “free indeed.”

Free indeed means free forever. For eternity; for all future time; for always; an endless time; without ever ending; eternally; for everlasting time. And, as Buzz Lightyear of Toy Story fame would proclaim, “Freedom to infinity and beyond.” Limitless freedom in Christ, boundless, never-ending, impossible to measure or calculate; having no boundaries or limits; immeasurably great or large.

Freedom from everything that constrains us on this Earth. In Christ we are free from our sin and everything that sin would blemish and stain in our lives, including our emotions, our intellect, our spirituality, our relationships. Freedom one day even from the physical restraints of this life: our bodily limitations, sickness, general frailties that go along with being a human who was born on a planet that is under the judgment of God because of our rebellion.

What Paul warns us about and exhorts us to stand firm against in our text this morning is not primarily concerning the cults, such as Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons, or the mystic religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism. He is not even speaking here primarily against Islam.

He would oppose all those religions, but here they are not his emphasis. In our text this morning he warns us about those groups who would call themselves Christian and even Bible-believing. The groups who believe in a gospel that is close to being scriptural, in fact, in some instances very close, but with one major, fatal error. They require some human work for your salvation to be complete.

Message Title: The Freedom of the Cross!

Message Text: Galatians 5:1-15

Tip Kamm – harmonica; Chuck Butterfield – guitar & vocal; Dave. 🙂

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

(John 8:36 ESV)

We are indebted to our servicemen and servicewomen who have made sacrifices great and small to secure the freedoms we enjoy in this great country in which we live. And we do want to show them this weekend (and always) our appreciation and honor.

However, there is a freedom which knows no boundaries of any social or political structure on Earth. A position of freedom that Jesus Christ states to be “free indeed.”

This freedom is the greatest freedom of all, given by God, purchased by the shed blood of Christ, and always safe and secure in the promises of God. This is the freedom I would like to examine today. This freedom has its roots and foundation in the only true gospel. The gospel that comes to us by grace through faith and not of works.

Free indeed …

• Freedom forever: For eternity; for all future time; for always; an endless time; without ever ending; eternally; for everlasting time.
• Freedom to infinity and beyond: Limitless, boundless, never-ending, impossible to measure or calculate; having no boundaries or limits; immeasurably great or large.
• Freedom from everything that constrains us on this Earth: In Christ we are free from our sin and everything that sin would touch and stain in our lives, including our emotions, our intellect, our spirituality, our relationships. We also will one day be free from the physical restraints of this life: our bodily limitations, sickness, general frailties that go along with being a human who was born to die while living on a planet that is under the judgment of God because of our rebellion.

Message Title: The Freedom of the Cross!

Message Text: Galatians 5:1-15

• PDF We Are Called to Freedom : Galatians 5-1-15 : ffc : dave scott : 052916 AM : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF We Are Called to Freedom : Galatians 5-1-15 : ffc : dave scott : 052916 AM : STUDY SHEET TWO

SUNDAY AM

Four Questions Everyone Needs to Ask!

Genesis 3:6-13

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SUNDAY PM

Is God Looking for You?

2 Chronicles 16

• In an instant the original couple passed from life to death, from sinlessness to sin, from harmony to alienation, from trust to distrust, from ease to dis-ease. It did not take a day. It happened in a millisecond! [Hughes, R. K. (2004). Genesis: beginning and blessing (p. 76). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.]

Message Title: Four Questions Everyone Needs to Ask!

Message Text: Genesis 3:6-13

• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 7 – Where Are You : Genesis 3-6-13 : ffc : dave scott : 052216 AM : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 7 – Where Are You : Genesis 3-6-13 : ffc : dave scott : 052216 AM : STUDY SHEET TWO
• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 7 – Where Are You : Genesis 3-6-13 : ffc : dave scott : 052216 AM : STUDY SHEET THREE
• PDF GENESIS MESSAGE 7 – Where Are You : Genesis 3-6-13 : ffc : dave scott : 052216 AM : STUDY SHEET FOUR