2016-01-31am Authentic Relationships CLICK HERE to download
NOTES AND READINGS FOR SUNDAY SERMON ON AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS
Gen 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me–she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
INTRODUCTION
Hiding. Naked. Blaming. Alone.
It’s all just Broken.
That pretty much describes the scene in the garden of Eden.
FOUR BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS
1. Their relationship with God was broken: (Hiding)
2. Their relationship to themselves was broken (Naked)
3. Their relationship with each other was broken(Blaming)
4. Their relationship with creation is broken (Alone)
IT AFFECTS US TOO.
1. We hide from God.
2. Our self-images are broken.
3. We blame each other:
4. We live in brokenness
THERE’S AN ENEMY
The serpent – comes to steal kill and destroy.
He wants us to hide,
he wants us naked,
he wants us to blame
and he wants the broken world to hurt us.
_
This is a war!
GOD STEPPED IN
1. Jesus came to where we were hiding.
2. He came to heal us – for we are His workmanship.
3. He came to unite us – that’s why He died.
4. He came to overcome brokenness and death.
Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men)– 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility
AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS: