Falling Hard; Recovering Strong-Part A

His strategy is to get you to think that what God said isn't the truth, but that He, Satan, will tell you the whole truth. God can't be trusted. His word can't be trusted. And if His word can't be trusted, then you might as well replace the Bible with whatever you feel is right for you at that time.

Make it up as you go along. And so we'll take and we'll change terms around. And our culture has become very good at taking old sins and giving them new names. God's Word equips and empowers you to live well in a fallen world. That's what you'll discover today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, as Skip explains what happened when Satan took his evil scheme from heaven to earth and reveals how you can defend yourself against him. Then, at the end of today's program, Skip and his wife, Lenya, share why living in obedience to the Lord is key to a joyful, satisfying life. The key is always confession, right?

Yeah. And we confess before God the faults that we all have. Once they're made aware, we bring it before Him.

But you brought up a key point. Bring it to somebody else, to confess your sins one to another, your faults one to another. And there's real healing in that.

Thank you, Skip and Lenya. If you want to hear more, please stay tuned after the teaching. Now we want to tell you about a resource that will help you dive deeper into God's truths. What would it look like if God threw a party? Well, the Old Testament shows that the Jewish calendar is anchored with regular, mandatory holidays and celebrations. And the Book of Esther says that God wants His people to experience light and gladness, joy and honor at such times.

Sound like your family celebrations? Listen to this insight from Skip Heitzig about one of our own regular holidays, Valentine's Day. It's for God so loved. That's the essence of His nature. The Bible says God is love. Boy, that is so simple to say and so hard for some of us to believe. Happiness, Holiness and Holidays is a four DVD collection of celebration messages from Pastor Skip, messages that could be a game changer for your family. Take holidays from toxic stress to celebrations of light and joy.

Here's a sample. You are loved by God, not because you deserve it, but because, just because. That is His nature.

It is His decision. Imagine that foundation for the next holiday on your family calendar. This selection of some of Pastor Skip's holiday teachings is our thanks when you give $25 or more to help connect more people to God's Word.

Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy of Happiness, Holiness and Holidays with Skip Heitzig. OK, we're in Genesis Chapter 3 as Skip Heitzig starts today's study. You and I grew up with nursery rhymes, especially Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

They seem innocent enough, but if you ever stop to look at the words when you do, you discover that some of them are macabre, downright disturbing. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Now, little Jack was not a king. This was not a king's crown that he broke. That's an old English word for his head. So you're singing about a kid who had a skull fracture. It's raining.

It's pouring. The old man is snoring. He went to bed with a lump on his head and didn't get up in the morning. He didn't get up. Why didn't he get up? I'm guessing he died in his sleep. Some intracranial bleeding, some hematoma, some bad thing happened to him. Rub-a-dub-dub three men in a tub.

I don't even want to go there. Then there's a nursery rhyme about an egg that turns into scrambled eggs for a king. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty back together again. That was a great fall but that is a sort of a setup for something I want you to look at that is not a nursery rhyme. It is not a fairy tale.

It's a real story about a real fall and the repercussions of that we are still feeling to this very day. It's the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 and it's a real story about a real man and a real woman with a real experience. It is biblical history. I want to underscore that because whenever you get to the first few chapters of Genesis in the New Testament whenever it's spoken of or treated whether it's Jesus or Paul or anyone else they always refer to it not as mythological or allegorical but always as literal historical reality. Jesus referred using marriage as the topic and went back to Genesis 3 and went through what happened between Adam and Eve. So if this isn't right then Jesus isn't right.

If Jesus isn't right then you're believing somebody who didn't tell you the truth. Also Jesus' own genealogical records go back to Adam. In Luke chapter 3 there's name after name after name and it goes all the way back to Adam. His genealogical record is traced to Adam. Then you get to the book of Jude that single chapter book in the New Testament where in Jude verse 14 it talks about the biological record of Enoch.

Listen to what it says. Who was the seventh from Adam? So we are dealing with the back story behind why everything in the world is so bad. It's because of the fall that happened. It wasn't Humpty Dumpty who sat on this wall. It was Adam and Eve who sat on this wall and they had a great fall.

They fell hard. You might say he bombed. This was the first Adam bomb. Adam really, really bombed out.

And we are bummed out because of it. Paul refers to this in the fifth chapter of Romans when he wants to just kind of show everyone why it's so bad. He goes, through one man sin entered the world and death through sin so that death spread to all. The one man he was referring to was this man, Adam. And he makes a contrast between the one man Adam and the one man Jesus who came to fix it all.

So the entire world and all of humanity was affected ever since. We're doing a series, Crash and Burn, and the premise of it is we want to learn to fly by looking at those who fell. We want to get good lessons from bad examples. So you know the story so well.

You know it so well. And typically when I teach this, and I have taught it on many occasions, I outline it. You always want to give an outline to hang your thoughts on. I typically outline it according to the people involved or the plot that unfolds. But what I want to do is jump right in and outline it based upon the principles that we find.

I want this to be very practical. And there are warnings that are written about in Genesis chapter 3. And I'm going to give you five of them. I'm going to give you five useful lessons, five warnings to keep us from falling like these two. And here's the first. Choices will be challenged.

Whatever good choice you make will be challenged. In verse 1, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die.

For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Eve is immediately challenged by Satan. Shortly after they are created in the garden, Adam and Eve, they're now enjoying this new relationship of marriage in the garden, and she is questioned. She's alone. Obviously, Adam has gone off somewhere naming animals somewhere or exploring the garden God has made, but he's not there, and he'll be back.

We'll see. But Eve is questioned by Satan, by this being we looked at in part last time, and she tells the reason why she has chosen to obey God, because God said something. This is what God said. I'm obeying because God said this, to which he counteracts it and saying, God didn't say that. So just look at this a little more carefully, because the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices.

I wish that were true of all of us. We are not ignorant, or we are not unaware of his schemes. So let's look at some of these schemes, because this is the conception of deception. This is where it all begins. And you will notice that first of all, Satan challenged God's love. Verse 1, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree?

Now in that question, now in that question, there is an implication. This being, Satan is implying, if God loved you, why would he keep you from enjoying yourself? Why would he dare keep away from you something that would bring to you happiness?

Sound familiar? You've heard that. If God is a God of love, why would he not allow you to have joy? Why would he keep you in this marriage? You're not happy here. Go get out of it.

Whatever makes you happy. He tried the same with Jesus Christ when he took him to a high mountain and tempted him. He said, hey, since you're the son of God, why are you hungry? How can your father be so loving that he would neglect the needs of his son, turn these stones into bread? You can make a bakery right here.

You could put a Panera bread stand right here in the wilderness. Why would your father keep you from that? So he challenges God's love. Notice in verse four, he challenges God's word. As soon as Eve says, well, this is why, because God said this, he says in verse four, you're not going to die. You're not going to, God said, you're going to die, but you're not going to die, but you're not going to die. In other words, he's calling God a liar. This is a direct attack on God's word. Satan gets you to question God's blueprint, God's word, the Bible.

Oh, this thing's outdated. This won't work in my situation. The Bible won't work in real life. You have to go to the secular world to get real help. It's good to believe on Sunday, but I'll never forget a couple who came to one of the services some years back. I know about this because somebody who attends here all the time was there that day right behind them. And he overheard her turn to her husband as I was teaching and said, Oh my goodness, he actually believes this book literally. I said, well, I'm glad you got that message because it's true.

I do. But it was such a shock. Satan challenges God's word. Third thing I want you to notice, he challenged God's truth. In verse five, he says, well, you know, God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes are going to be opened and you're going to be like God, knowing good and evil.

Now, Satan is suggesting something here. You're going to be like God. God knows that. God doesn't like competition.

Actually, he's sort of speaking autobiographical. His own experience is he said, I will be like the Most High. And he is still sort of reeling from that, saying God doesn't like anyone to be his equal. He won't tolerate that. God knows if you eat, you're going to be just like God.

Now let's just cut to the chase here. Satan is a liar. That's what Jesus said. John chapter eight, Satan is a liar and the father of lies. And he lies about two things, principally, God's character and God's word, who God is and what God has said. And his strategy and his strategy is to get you to think that what God said isn't the truth, but that he, Satan, will tell you the whole truth. God can't be trusted. His word can't be trusted.

And if his word can't be trusted, then you might as well replace the Bible with whatever you feel is right for you at that time. Make it up as you go along. And so we'll take and we'll change terms around. And our culture has become very good at taking old sins and giving them new names. Even the word sin that I just mentioned. Try seeing if that's tolerated.

You want a fun little experiment? Talk about sin tomorrow at work. Just bring that up. Just say, Hey, I just want you to know that God says that sin and you shouldn't do that. Just try, try that out.

See how far that conversation will last. There are new terms for old sins. There's a book that's been put out a few years ago. I grabbed a little snippet of it called the Officially Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook. Some of it was written tongue in cheek.

Some of it was written based on just pure research. The term promiscuous or immoral is now simply sexually active. When is the last time you heard anyone being referred to as immoral or promiscuous?

They're just sexually active. Instead of dishonest, a person is ethically disoriented, differently honest. A drug addict is a person with a pharmacological difference. Ooh, that sounds like, like you earned that. If you're drunk, you're just chemically inconvenienced, sobriety deprived. Stealing and looting is now non-traditional shopping.

What are you doing shopping? A serial killer is somebody who is socially misaligned, one with difficult to meet needs. Well, that puts a whole new spin on the Ten Commandments. Instead of thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not be socially misaligned.

Instead of thou shalt not steal, do not be a non-traditional shopper. Listen, we're all going to be challenged. When you put the stake down in the ground that says who you are and what you believe, your faith is going to be challenged. Your positions are going to be challenged. Your love for God will be challenged. God's love for you will be challenged.

Jesus, and the Bible says, don't marvel if the whole world hates you. So you just got to know that going in and you have to, you have to be prepared for how you're going to deal and manage that kind of challenge, how you're going to meet it. Like the old saying, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

So when you are challenged, what are you going to do to meet it? The Bible says in Proverbs 22, it's the prudent man that sees danger and takes refuge. So what you do going in is you take on the, take up the full armor of God. It says you cling to the truth. Jesus said, you will know the truth. The truth will set you free. Satan will say, oh no, God wants to put you in bondage. I'll make you free.

Just know that he'll do that going in. And when you get up in the morning, put on the full armor of God before you go out the door. So choices will be challenged. Here's a second warning. It comes from our text. Allurement does not mean entitlement.

In other words, just because something looks good doesn't mean you should have it. Verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, what's wrong with any of that? She took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her and he ate. This forbidden fruit, whatever it was, and we don't know what it does. Well, I thought it was an apple.

That's just an old kind of a legend that comes from a few Latin words. And so people think it's an apple. And there's even a legend that says that Adam choked on his apple. That's why men today have an Adam's apple. I mean, I kid you not.

This is, it gets nuts. So we don't know what kind of fruit it was, but whatever it was, you know, I wouldn't be tempted by an apple. A mango, yeah. Well, whatever it was. To Eve, it was attractive in every conceivable way. It was attractive physically, nutritionally, educationally.

It was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, desirous to make one wise. That is what I want. It looks good. I want it. It looks good.

I want it. Now listen to this and see how closely these verses parallel. In the New Testament, John writes in first John chapter two, love not the world, neither the things that are in this world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away and the lust thereof, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Now look how closely those parallel. She saw it was good for food, lust of the flesh. She saw that it was pleasant to the eyes, lust of the eyes. She saw that it was desirous to make one wise, the pride of life. I mean, it was just kind of like check, check, check, fire on all cylinders for Eve. It just looked good and she felt it looks good.

I ought to have it. It's like a woman I had told you about, I think in previous times about this gal. She was married to a cheapskate. Her husband said, whatever you do when you go out, you are not allowed to buy anything for yourself unless you ask my permission first.

Some men still sort of do that today, but this guy was just a miser, right? So she went out and she said, I'm going shopping. And her husband reeled around and said, you're going what? She went, I'm going shopping. It's not non-traditional shopping.

Don't worry. I'm not going to steal anything. I'm just going shopping. He says, you're going window shopping. You will look, but you will not buy.

You got it? She goes, I got it. I know honey. So she comes back a couple hours later with a bag and a brand new dress. Husband said, I thought I said, you're not to buy anything. She goes, honey, I know, but I tried this dress on and it looks so good on me and I was tempted. He said, you were tempted. You should have said, get thee behind me, Satan. She goes, I said that, but when he got behind me, he said, you know, from the back, it really looks good too.

I'm just saying. Eve's cravings blurred Eve's convictions. What she saw and she looked at it and she kept looking at it and she gazed upon it. And in so doing, she ignored God's warnings about it. So Eve's look offset God's law.

She thought, I have to have it. Proverbs 23 says, do not look on the wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly. At the last, it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. In other words, there's lots of pretty things in this world that'll hurt you. They look good. They seem good.

They feel good, but they're not necessarily good. And before you think, well, I'm entitled to it. I deserve it.

Let me tell you something. We are entitled to whatever God gives us. Whatever God, God knows what you need. He knows your needs. He also knows your greed. And He's promised to meet your needs, not your greed.

That's Skip Hyten with a message from the series Crash and Burn. Now let's head into the studio with Skip and Lenya as they share why living in obedience to the Lord is key to a joyful, satisfying life. Today you gave us a warning, a hard heart leads to a hard life. That is so true. And we must remember that whatever price we think we'll pay for sin, the actual price is far worse.

It's more costly. Skip, what can we do to make sure our hearts don't harden against obeying God and living a life set apart for Him? Well, and of course, we're talking about Adam and Eve in the garden, and they had it pretty good in the garden, didn't they? Yes, they did. I mean, they kind of had it made.

They had so much at their disposal. But, you know, it says in Galatians, don't be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever man sows, that will he also reap.

And we have to remain teachable. We can't even write off criticism, because God can use critics for our benefit. I think of David and Shammai when he was leaving Jerusalem, and Shammai was cursing him, and, you know, David's man said, let's get rid of him and kill him. He goes, no, no, no, this could be from the Lord. I may need to hear this.

That's right. And I think that if we were that open to when we get a criticism, a letter, a comment, that before we write it off, we would just say, Lord, is there some truth in this that I need to hear? I think that kind of evaluation would deflate us a little bit. Yeah, we all have blind spots, and I've gotten criticisms in the past. Being a pastor's wife, it happens. And my general protocol is I come to you, and I go, someone said this, do you see that in my life?

I'm giving it a chance, you know, to really, and then I'll go to a good friend, like, you know, a mentor, and ask them the same thing. Do you see this in my life? And so having an open heart, instead of a hard heart, when something comes that you can kind of chew on it for a little while, and maybe, you know, like, you could have been waiting just for someone to say that, and you go, well, honey. Yeah. Now that you mentioned that.

It kind of is true. So, the key is always confession, right? And we confess before God the faults that we all have, once they're made aware, we bring it before Him. But you brought up a key point, to bring it to somebody else, to confess your sins one to another, your faults one to another.

And there's real healing in that. And if you, and so, you know, unfortunately, people won't always allow forgiveness. Well, it's not that easy. You can't just confess it and move on. You can. And if they don't let you, God will.

But find a trusted brother, sister, friend, mentor that you can have those kind of conversations with. Narrator Thank you, Skip and Lenya. We hope this conversation with Skip and Lenya encouraged you in your faith.

Now, we'd like to tell you how you can help keep these biblical messages coming to you and others so you can keep growing in your walk with Jesus. Just call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Tune in again tomorrow as Skip Heitzig continues to examine Adam and Eve's journey from flying high to falling into idolatry, sharing biblical wisdom to help you stay ready for Satan's attacks and temptations in your own life. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.