by Ps John Lin
Consequences after the fall of mankind
Big idea:
God desires us to thrive relationally with others
Bully, excessive digital use, pressure, addiction... Etc
Alot of problems above are relational in nature
Genesis 2:18
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
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God wanted human being not to be alone in his original design, which is foundational to our mental wellness
Genesis 2:25
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
They were not ashamed until sin entered
How consequences of sin brought about conflicts in our lives:
1. Humanity tries to cover up shame
Genesis 3:7-8
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
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.
Adam and Eve cover up to hide their shame when they hear God coming. Before they were perfect harmony, but now they deal with shame by hiding from God, chose to hide instead of being open
Something shifted inside them, they felt unworthy and incomplete
- I'm not good enough
- I'm not who I'm suppose to be
Shame exposes something deeper within us:
that somewhere down the line, we have believed in the lie that we're not worthy and not good enough
Avoidance to cover up:
(Clothes, deep relationship, over compensating, strive for success at expense of putting down others, being perfectionist etc)
We are suffocated by our shame and haunted by what others see or say about us
Only Christ can restore us to be children of God, by what Christ has done, none of our own effort or who we are
John 1:12
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
There is no need to strive anymore
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!
2. Humanity tries to remove the guilt
Genesis 3:11-13
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.”
Instead of confessing, Adam chose to remove his guilt by blaming Eve and Eve shifted blame to serpent
We try to remove guilt by playing victim and blame others
Sin distorts the way we view our relationship with God and with one another
Blaming Alleviates us from guilt and remove ourselves from responsibility from the sin we have committed
Blaming leads to Anger that leads to depression and lacks of empathy for others
God did not respond to Adam with hate or anger but he gave Adam the opportunity to respond in confession and repentance
2 Samuel 12:13
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Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
In Christ we are able to receive forgiveness because God is faithful
3. Humanity will experience conflict with one another
Genesis 3:16
To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
Men and women were created equal....sin came and distorted relationship and ultimate affect humankind
Genesis 4:7
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Woman desires will not be aligned over men
(This is far from God's design of co-equal)
Sin causes us to have conflict with one another
World is becoming more polarised, workplace politics, school bullying, cyber bullying, harbour hatred or unforgiveness to someone who abused us. Lost of appetite, lose sleep, emotionally paralysed when going through stress
Unforgiveness is like a poison, God will not forgive us if we do not forgive others
Forgive and you will be free
We can be carrying the negative emotions or mental stress and think it's ok to carry, but We will never to be able to let go, only jesus can take away
Isaiah 53:4-5
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
Only Christ can bring peace and healing
Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
If sin did not stop God then, it will not stop HIM today!
Where are you Emotionally, Spiritually, Relationally??
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