The Beginning of Brokenness | Genesis | Full Experience

Welcome everyone, I'm so glad that you're here with us. I invite you to join in and worship. This is the day you made, so I'll rejoice and be glad, rejoice and be glad in it. This is where I believe that You are more than enough, more than enough for me. You are faithful to Your promise. You are strong when I am weak. When I'm standing in Your presence, I have everything I need. Come on. Yes. Yes it is. Hey. I have everything I need. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. It's more than a feeling. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh my soul, bless His name. All that is within me say, The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Yeah. It's my strength. So let it rise up like a river, overflowing Holy Spirit. And let it pour out with no limit, overflowing Holy Spirit. Let it rise up like a river, overflowing Holy Spirit. Oh let it pour out with no limit,

overflowing Holy Spirit. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh my soul, oh my soul, bless His name. All that is within me say. Oh my soul, I'll bless Your name. All that is within me say. Oh my soul, bless His name. All that is within me say. The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Yeah. Welcome to CCV. We're so glad that you're here and just honored to worship with all of you. And we're gonna continue to worship together and sing songs. And as we're doing that, we are centering our minds and our hearts on Christ Jesus. And we are reminding ourselves of who He is and what He's done. And this next song we're gonna sing comes from Romans chapter eight. It's a book in the Bible. I'd love to read this verse together. It says, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called upon. according to his purpose. I'm gonna read that one more time. It says, and we know that in all things,

God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. I love that reminder so much. And one of the things that that verse is not saying is that we won't have hard times or that life doesn't give us grief and loss and pain. We will experience those things. But one of the things that that verse reminds us of is that with God, nothing is wasted. With God, we have hope that he works all things for the good. So this next song is all about that. We're gonna sing that together. We'd love to teach it to you and invite you to hope with us. Let's sing it together when you get it. It goes like this. ♪ He's working, he's working, he's working ♪ ♪ Everything for good, he's working, he's working ♪ ♪ He's working everything for good ♪ Let's sing it together, come on. ♪ Hasn't he made a way for us ♪ ♪ Didn't he part the water ♪ ♪ Didn't those walls come crashing down ♪ ♪ Wasn't he in the fire ♪ ♪ And hasn't he kept his promises ♪ ♪ A thousand generations ♪ ♪ Hasn't he made a way, didn't he make a way ♪ ♪ Won't he make a way for us ♪ So we sing together, we sing he's working. ♪ He's working, he's working, he's working ♪

♪ Everything for good, he's working, he's working ♪ ♪ He's working everything for good ♪ ♪ Hasn't he been so good to us ♪ ♪ Didn't he heal the broken ♪ ♪ And didn't he freely give his life ♪ ♪ Wasn't the veil torn open ♪ ♪ And doesn't he call the dead to rise ♪ ♪ Awaiting new creation ♪ Sing this together. ♪ Hasn't he been so good, working it all for good ♪ ♪ He has been so good to us, he's working ♪ ♪ He's working, he's working, he's working ♪ ♪ Everything for good, he's working, he's working ♪ ♪ He's working everything for good, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ He's working everything for good, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ He's working everything for good, we believe that ♪ ♪ Doesn't he still do miracles ♪ ♪ Right here in this moment ♪ ♪ So we pray for the impossible with faith ♪ ♪ And believe that he will do it ♪ ♪ Cause hasn't he made a way, didn't he make a way ♪ ♪ Won't he make a way for us, we're gonna sing that one more time, come on. ♪ Cause hasn't he made a way, didn't he make a way ♪ ♪ Won't he make a way for us, he will, yes he will make a way for us ♪ ♪ So we sing, he's working, he's working, he's working ♪ ♪ He's working everything for good, he's working, he's working ♪ ♪ He's working, He's working everything for good ♪ ♪ Oh, oh He's working everything for good ♪ ♪ Oh, oh He's working everything for good ♪ ♪ He is working He's working everything for good ♪

♪ He is working He's working everything for good ♪ ♪ Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen ♪ Amen. That's good news today. We put our trust in you God. We put our trust in you God. Sing blessed assurance. Sing blessed assurance. We put our trust in you God. We put our trust in you God. Sing blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. He's been my fourth man in the fire time after time. I'm born of his spirit and washed in his blood and what he did for me on Calvary is more than enough. Come on. So I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. Fail, he will never fail. I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. He will never fail. Fail, no he won't. Perfect submission, all is at rest. And I know the author of tomorrow has ordered my steps. So this is my story

and this is my song. Praising my risen King and Savior all the day long. So I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. Fail, he will never fail. I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. He will never fail. Fail, he will never fail. The book of Hebrews chapter 13 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever goes on to say, he goes on to say, never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. We can know tonight that our trust is well-placed in the one who follows through. Come on. And I sought the Lord and he heard and he. Sing it. I sought the Lord and he heard and he. I sought the Lord and he heard and he. He has my trust in him. We look to you, God. I sought the Lord and he heard and he. Every time. I sought the Lord and he heard and he. Oh, it's wise. Yeah, that's why I trust him. That's why I trust in God, my Savior,

the one who will never fail. He will never fail. Not today, not tomorrow, never fail. I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. who will never fail. He will never fail. Oh, and I sought the Lord, and He heard, and He answered. I sought the Lord, and He heard, and He answered. I sought the Lord, and He heard, and He answered. That's why I trust Him. That's why I trust Him. I sought the Lord, and He heard, and He answered. I sought the Lord, and He heard, and He answered. I sought the Lord, and He heard, and He answered. That's why I trust Him. That's why I trust in God. Yeah. Oh, so good. So good. Good to worship together here in community, to lift up the one who's worthy, to recognize here today that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who is faithful to our forefathers, is faithful to us today. He'll be faithful to future generations, from generation to generation to come. God doesn't quit. Not about to quit. He's doing miracles today. And we'll continue to worship now by recognizing the greatest miracle of all. Jesus Christ came. I love what Donna shared. To take all the things of our past, no matter how ashamed we are, no matter how we have gone astray, the good news of the gospel is that God works all things for good. Nothing is wasted because Jesus was obedient, even obedient to death on the cross for you and for me. So we take now the bread and the cup during this time and just honor Him for that. Worship Him for that. Give Him our adoration for that. Would you pray with me? Lord, we're so grateful. We're grateful for Jesus. We're grateful for the gift that you offer freely through salvation.

Nothing that we've done to earn or deserve it. But God, it was your plan from the beginning to redeem us, to call us back to yourself. And so we take a moment. We honor you. We acknowledge you. And we come before you with a very, very grateful heart. It's in the strong name of Jesus that we pray and we remember. Amen. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ serving as one of the pastors here. And over the last couple of weeks, it's kind of been a natural time for all of us to look back and reflect. And for me, man, I've been reflecting a lot. And man, over and over, God has been reminding me of how he has been moving over the last year, especially in our next generation. And I'm not just talking about kids and students in junior high and high schools, but I'm also talking about with young adults.

This past year, my wife and I started to help lead a young adult group here at CCV. And let me tell you something, it has been, every time we get together, we're so inspired, we're so encouraged. Man, the young adults, man, they are so hungry. They're so hungry for truth. They're so hungry for community and purpose. And we see God moving in incredible ways. And if that's you, if you're a young adult, or you know a young adult, and some of you might be saying like, well, how do I know? What do you mean by young adult? Well, not all of you are young adults, okay? But how we would define young adult is anybody post high school through mid 20s, we have some things that you need to know about. In fact, we wanna invite you to something that you're not going to wanna miss. It's happening on Wednesday, January 21st, right here at the Peoria campus. It's our next young adult event. It's where all of our young adults from all of our campuses are gathering here. We're gonna have an amazing service with powerful worship, be inspired and challenged. And if you're a young adult, this is a date you wanna circle on your calendar and invite your friends.

And if you know young adults, make sure they know about this, invite them to it. It's an evening they will not want to miss. Well, as we're kicking off series, I've been so excited because as a church to go through the book of Genesis together, is just, it's powerful. It provides a powerful foundation for our faith as we kick off into the new year. And we want you to get the most out of this series, not just on the weekend when you show up, but also during the week in your own private devotion time or maybe with your family. And that's why we've provided this resource for our entire church. This is a resource through the book of Genesis that will, this will help you take notes on the weekend. You can write a spot to write your notes, has daily devotions, has some insights into the book of Genesis. And so if you're here today, maybe you picked one up last week as you were coming in, or maybe you picked one up on your way in today, that's great. But if you want one and don't have one, we have plenty available right after service, invite you to go to the Next Step Center, or if you don't want a physical copy and you wanna, or you're joining us online, you can download this digitally through our app.

You can have it on your phone or on your iPad, take it wherever you go during the week, because we want you to get the most out of this series. That's why I'm excited, because right now we're getting ready to hear a powerful message from our senior pastor, Ashley Woodridge. So you can actually take your books out, you can open up your app, and get ready to take some notes as we kick into week two of Genesis. I want to give a shout out to just a couple campuses, our Maricopa campus, our Queen Creek campus, this weekend are adding extra services because God's doing something amazing in our church. People are coming, it's growing. Are you glad to be a part of a church where God's just moving? Like, oh, I'm just, I'm so excited. You are here as we dive into 2026. Have you ever asked yourself this question? Like, what is wrong with our world? Anybody else? You're asking, like, what is wrong with our world? I mean, you can't get on social media. You can't turn on the news. You can't even just look around at the people around you and think, what happened? Like, you see the violence in our world. You see the anger, the hatred so many people have. You see families falling apart.

You see abuse happening. I mean, for me, I think to myself, like, what happened when there's more Seahawks wins and more Cardinals losses? What is wrong with our world? Anybody else? Like, come on, what's wrong? Let me make it a little more personal if I can dig. a little bit. You ever ask yourself this question, what's wrong with me? Why do I keep messing up over and over again? Why do I keep doing what I don't wanna do? Hey, let me get vulnerable, and I'll just say, what's wrong with Ashley? Like three weeks ago, when with my wife Jamie, my tone, my irritation level, my anger, and she did not deserve it, like what is wrong with me? What's wrong with humanity? What's amazing is philosophers and leaders for all of human history have tried to answer this one question, and everyone has a different answer, did you know that? Plato thought the answer was education. He says if people just knew better, they would do better, and here we are today. We are in the most educated society in human history. It's not better. During the Enlightenment, you know what they said?

You know what they said? And during the Enlightenment, philosophers said, we just need more systems, we need more laws, and there's a philosopher named Jacob Needleman. He went to Yale and Harvard. He's brilliant. He's wrote extensively that every society in human history has had a set of moral codes and laws, and every single one of them has had widespread, widespread breaking of those exact moral codes and laws. Every society. So more laws, more systems isn't gonna do it. Marx, he argued that the issue is economic injustice, and so Karl Marx said if we just would redistribute power and money evenly everywhere, that would solve it. Have you ever seen a good socialist society? Me neither, and let's pray to God that America never goes that way, amen? Like we can't do that? There's no, that doesn't work. Sigmund Freud, Sigmund Freud, you studied him in college or in high school? He said this, the issue, the core issue with humanity is we have these suppressed sexual needs, and if we could just, or desires, and we could just unleash those, let them out, that would solve everything. We've been trying that for a long time. It's not working. Local, and like recent philosophers and thinkers

would argue things like this. They would say, well, the issue is low self-esteem, or childhood trauma, or our anxiety levels, or even another kind of psychosis. We just need more therapy, and I'm not, I'm pro-therapy, I think going to therapy's good. Did you know we have more people in therapy today than any time in human history? Is it better? What is the problem with humanity, with us? Well, man, you picked a good weekend to be here because as we continue our series going through the book of Genesis, today we're gonna turn to Genesis chapter three, if you wanna turn there, and Genesis chapter three gives us the definitive answer to that exact question, and not just the answer to that question, what's wrong with the world and humanity, it gives us the solution, and what I want you to do today is I want you to lean in with everything you've got, because understand this, if you don't answer the question what's wrong with us correctly, you will never turn to the right solution, and so if you've got your booklets with you on Genesis, I wanna encourage you, you can open to page 20 to take notes today. I want you to bring these with you every week. Take notes in these, dive in, because God wants to do really miraculous, transformative things in this series,

and oh, by the way, pages 22 through 25 will give you a lot of additional resources and teaching on what we're gonna teach today. There's a Bible reading plan in here. This is gonna be amazing, but we're gonna dive straight in. What I wanna do is I wanna show you that Genesis chapter three is the answer to that problem. Now, most theologians believe that Genesis chapter three is, if not the most important chapter in the entire Bible, it could arguably, maybe it is. Now, even if you disagree with that, what we know for a fact is that Genesis chapter three is the pivot point of the whole entire Bible. Let me show you how that could be true. In what we looked at last week, Genesis chapter one and two, you remember what Mark showed us? Mark showed us in Genesis chapter one and two when God created the world, he created it with perfection and beauty, and everything was what? Good. Now, if you read chapters one and two and you skipped chapter three and then you kept going and you read chapters four through 11, what you will find is in chapters four through 11, we have jealousy, anger, murder, envy, sexual deviancy, lying, abuse. Ana, the world falls apart. If you didn't have chapter three, you would be left with a vacuum

that's like the largest black hole in the world. What happens between this and this? And chapter three gives us the answer. I wanna answer two profound questions today. If you're taking notes, question one, what's wrong with humanity? And question two, which Genesis three also answers, what solution did God provide? Let's dive straight in if you've got your Bibles open. Genesis chapter three, starting in verse one, says this. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord had made. So for the very first time in human history, Satan, the devil, the enemy, the tempter, comes on the scene. Now, last week, Mark showed us the first four words in the entire Bible. Do you remember them? If you do, say them out loud. What is it? In the beginning, God. And any time he showed us you put God at the center of your life, there can be goodness no matter what's going on. I wanna show you today the first four words out of the mouth of Satan, your enemy. He said this, watch this. He said to the woman, say it out loud, did God really say? And those are the same four words

he will whisper into your life over and over and over again. What is Satan doing? He's trying to get us to question God's word and God's goodness. Did God really say? Did God really say? And he's so crafty and sneaky about it. Watch what he does to Eve. He says this, this is so crafty. He says, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? Now that is not what God said in Genesis chapter two. If you read Genesis chapter two, God said you can eat from all the trees in the garden, just not this one. So Eve corrects him and says, no, no, no. God didn't say we can't eat from any tree in the garden. He said we can only eat from this one or we'll die. And you know what Satan's response is? Satan says, oh, come on, girl. Just kidding, that's my interpretation. But he does say this, he says, come on, girl, you won't certainly die. Watch this, he says, you won't certainly die, the servant said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God knowing good from evil. Satan is trying to say to Eve and to us,

he wants us to question God's goodness and his word. But here's really what he's doing, watch this. Satan didn't attack God's rules, he attacked God's character. Did you see it? He said, did God really say, and then he kind of tried to confuse her, and then he said, no, no, no, God's holding out on you. If you'll just do this, like not the rule, he's attacking God's character, if you just do this, you'll have a more fulfilling, better life because God's holding out on you. And he does the same thing with us, right? I mean, in our lives, he's like, forget what God said, you can eat, you can do that, you can smoke that, you can drink that, you can sleep with that, you can do that, and God's holding out on you. And any of you have lived your life in a way that's contrary to God's word, know that you thought there was some sort of freedom in it, there was gonna be more enjoyment in it, like everyone's doing it, surely I could do it too, and it's gonna be awesome, until it's not. Let me speak directly to someone here today. There's someone here today that you got wrapped up in that sin, you maybe had that affair, and it's because Satan whispered in your ear, hey, you deserve it, you'll be happier doing that. And you thought you would, and then things fell apart. Some of you have an addiction, and the reason you're in that addiction

or have struggled with that addiction, whether it's alcohol or pornography or drugs, is because Satan whispered in your ear, everyone's doing it, look how much fun it looks, and you just fell into that. In other words, sin rarely announces itself as rebellion, it disguises itself as freedom. Let me repeat that, so you can write it down or take a picture. Sin rarely announces itself as rebellion, it disguises itself as freedom. And the freedom you thought you'd have by going against God's word, actually gave you the exact opposite, it puts you in a prison. And that's where some of you are, you feel trapped, you feel like you're in a prison, your life is falling apart. See, the issue isn't that sin looks bad, the issue is that sin looks so good until we engage and our life falls apart. And this is what happened to Eve, she bought into the lie that God's character, God was holding out on her, so what did she do? Verse six says, when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, she bought into the lie that God's character was holding out on her, so what did she do? but in pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom.

Verse seven says, when the woman saw She took some and she ate it. that the fruit of the tree was good for food, And then she also gave some to her husband who was with her. Don't ever believe the lie that it was just Eve. He was right there watching the whole thing. Just as Copeland, he ate it too. And watch this, in this moment, in a moment in time, sin entered our world. This is the first time sin entered our world. And it says, when sin entered our world, then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked. Now, what happened is for the very first time, they have shame. Genesis chapter two ends with it saying, Adam and Eve were naked and they had no shame. And all of a sudden they sinned and now they have shame for the very first time. That's what sin does. It seeps into our heart. We have shame. Now, when Adam and Eve sinned, do you remember the very first thing they did? What's the first thing they did? What did they do? Most of us think they went and hid. That's not the first thing they did. Let me show it to you. This is the very first thing they did.

It says that they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. So the first thing they did, and I had our team bring a fig leaf today. These are my beautiful fig leaves straight from like Home Depot here, okay? So this is so significant. In the creation account, the only tree that is named by name is the fig tree. In fact, the tree that Adam and Eve ate from when they sinned most of us think it was an apple because we see that it does not say it was an apple. We don't know what it was. In fact, if you asked me what it was, I think it was papaya tree because I don't like papayas. So I think it was like a nasty, you know, but we don't have any idea. The only tree mentioned is the fig tree. Now I want you to log that in the back of your mind because we're gonna come back to that. I'm gonna show you something unbelievably significant at the end of the message about the fig tree, but here's what Adam and Eve did. They took some figs and they decided with their shame and what they felt, maybe we could sow some of these together and cover ourselves up. Now, how many of you think a fig leaf

is gonna help cover up? Ladies, no snickering out there, okay? No snickering, okay? But could you imagine trying to use a fig leaf to cover up any sort of shame or sin in your life? Log the fig tree and the fig leaf in your mind and we'll come back to that towards the end. After they sowed fig leaves, it says this, 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 God among the trees of the garden. And in this passage of Scripture that I just read to you in Genesis chapter three, we are given the answer to what is wrong with humanity. And here it is. What's wrong is we sin, we try to cover up our sin on our own, ourselves, and then we hide from God. And that is what so many of us have done in our lives, all of us. In fact, it's where some of you are at right now. You've been hiding from God, you've tried to cover it up yourselves. And what we see in this passage of Scripture is that when you try to hide it, it doesn't work. In fact, I say we sin, when you look at that, I say we sin because it wasn't just Adam and Eve, the moment they sinned, Scripture teaches us that sin entered this world

and now all of us are affected by sin. Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned, we all fall short of God's glory. And then watch a few chapters later in Romans chapter five, how clear this is going back to Genesis chapter three. Romans chapter five verse 12 says, when Adam sinned, sin entered the world and Adam's sin brought death, that's not just physical death, that's spiritual death. I had a Bible professor, he used to say, it's called big D, little d. He said that all the time, big D, little d. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, the little d is your physical death, the big D is dying spiritually when you're separated from God. So here we see a spiritual death, not just a physical death, so death spread to everyone for everyone sinned, including you, including me. If you don't think we were born sinful into this world, here'd be my challenge to you, just go have kids. If you've had kids, you know, oh, they're so sweet, until they're not, all of us, right? I mean, when I was a kid, one of my most vivid childhood memories is my parents had these matches that they had on the table. Well, they use for like candles and other things. And they would always tell me as a kid, don't play with the matches, don't play with fire.

So what's the one thing I wanted to do? Play with fire. I remember one day I grabbed, it's kind of sneaky, I grabbed those matches off the table and I grabbed my two-year-old sister who could barely talk at the time, and we went to this, we had this just open field behind our house, and I was taking those matches and I'm just lighting them, I'm just lighting up little fires at the time. And I was, so my sister's like, cool, man, your brother's cool, I'm lighting these fires up. And it was fun, this is what happens with sin. It's just like a little fire, and then all of a sudden, it just gets out of control. And you never saw it coming, and what was a little fire, this is a true story, it ignited this whole entire field. In Wilcox, Arizona, the rural fire department had to send a fire truck to put this, now when it blew up, I ran and hid. I ran and hid, and I don't think anyone saw me. The fire truck came, put the whole fire out, they're asking around, who did this, who did, so that night, my parents got all of us kids around the table, asked all four of us kids, did any of you light that fire? And you know what I did? I looked right at my sister and I said, she did it. So I did, and she couldn't even talk at the time, so she's like, you know, so I felt like I got away

with it for a little bit. In Genesis chapter three, when God finally comes to Adam and Eve and says, did you eat from the tree I told you not to? What's Eve say? Satan made me do it, what's Adam say? She made me do it. And guess what, men, we've been blaming women ever since, and I don't know if you ladies are blaming the devil, but you can argue over lunch or dinner, what's worse? I mean, it's like, we all blame each other, right? And so sin entered this world, and when sin entered this world and into all of us, the effects are threefold. One, we break internally. We have sin, we have shame. Whether you know it, sin always brings shame, and it brings a broken relationship with our creator because we have a holy God. But we don't just break internally and vertically, we break horizontally. Adam and Eve, for the very first time, had a fight, and sin entered this world. And you need every single relationship in your life that's broken in your life horizontally with some other person, it's because of sin. Every relationship that's broken is because of sin. Either your sin, their sin, both of your sin. But you know what else happened because of sin? This is a significant theological insight

for someone here today. We don't just break vertically or internally or horizontally, we have a broken relationship with our world. Our world is broken because sin entered our world. And now every disease, every death, every natural disaster is because we live in a sinful world that's broken and God didn't intend it that way. So what is wrong with humanity? The answer is sin. Now, remember, until you understand the source of what's wrong, if you don't understand that, you'll never turn to the right answer to solve it. I love what Martin Luther said. Martin Luther said, the recognition of sin is the beginning of salvation. And when it comes to the problem of sin, what is the only thing God gave us as the solution to our sin? What is the only solution God provided? What is it? What's his name? Say it out loud. It's Jesus. It's what we talked about over Christmas. His name describes what he does. He came to save us from our sin. And you might be thinking to yourself, Ashley, we're in Genesis chapter three, bro. Jesus doesn't come until like the New Testament.

In my Bible, that's almost a thousand pages until Jesus hits the scene on Matthew. And this is the most powerful thing I want you to see today is that Jesus wasn't just in the New Testament. Jesus is right in chapter three. And you're gonna see it clearly today, maybe for the very first time, because the answer to sin, Jesus, wasn't God's answer someday in the future. It was God's answer on the first day sin entered the world. Now watch this very, very carefully and stick with me. What you're gonna see in a moment is called the proto-evangelism. Now this is a big theological word, and all this means is this. It means the first gospel, the first good news. In other words, the first mention of Jesus and what he came to do on the cross to save us from our sins. It didn't happen in the New Testament. It happened in the very first chapter when sin's introduced. Watch this very carefully. Genesis chapter three, verse 15. People put enmity, that's hostility, between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. Now, the word offspring here is a singular Hebrew word that means seed, and it's singular, one seed from one woman. Now, there's no man in the picture, so how does a woman on her own have a descendant

or a seed without another man? Jesus was born of the virgin birth. So it's talking about the seed of a woman, Jesus coming, now watch this clearly. It says, he, Jesus, it's my quotes, will crush your head and you, Satan, will strike his heel. Now, this is being written, God is giving this to Satan, the serpent, our enemy. This is his curse that God's giving him, and what God is telling him in Genesis 3.15, Satan, as he said, you will strike at Jesus' heel, try to destroy Jesus, and you'll wound him, but his wounding won't kill him, he will strike your head and crush you and crush the effects of sin that entered this world because of your temptation. That is a picture in Genesis 3.15 of the work of Jesus on the cross. Now, if that's confusing, I wanna show you a clip from The Passion of the Christ. This is at the end of the movie, this is right before Jesus is crucified, he's in the garden, he has an interaction with Satan. This is an artistic rendition of Genesis 3.15 in The Passion of the Christ, watch how clear this is. Watch this. ["The Passion of the Christ"] ["The Passion of the Christ"] ["The Passion of the Christ"] You will never read that verse the same again.

Genesis 3.15, the first description of the gospel. So, what have we learned? What's wrong with humanity? What is it? We sin, we try to cover up our sin and we hide from God, and when we sin, the first thing we see is that when we sin, God sent a Savior, immediately, in Genesis 3, Jesus was always the plan. But not just he sent a Savior, when we try to cover ourselves, cover our sin ourselves, what we also learn is that God is gonna provide a way for us to be covered with his grace. Now, let me tell you what, you remember the fig leaf? When Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to cover themselves. And the fig leaf represents all the ways that you and I try to cover over our mistakes and our sin in life, outside of just relying on the blood and the sacrifice of Jesus. And fig leaves don't work. And some of you are trying, and what we do with the fig leaves in our lives is we try to cover our sin and our mistakes, and we wanna feel okay in this world, and sometimes the way we do that is we think, well, I'll just go into image management. I'll look good, I'll project myself as like everything's fine in my life. I'll wear the right clothes, I'll look the right way. And when I post on social media, I'm gonna make it look like my life is amazing when deep down inside, I am hurting so bad.

You got a fig leaf and it doesn't work. Others of you, let me talk to some of you men, especially others of you, you're trying to cover up your mistakes by your successes. You just want so badly to have some success in this world or to have enough wins or to make enough money that like maybe you'll be okay. If it hasn't hit you yet, I'm just telling you, no amount of success will satisfy. It's a fig leaf, only Jesus can satisfy your life. Others of you, you know what you're trying to do? You're trying to fill that void in your life and you're turning to everything. You've been to so many parties, you've had so many relationships, you've done so many drugs, you've had so many sexual relationships and it's not fulfilling you. It's a fig leaf and it's. Cheap, and it doesn't work. And man, what God's trying to say is like, drop the fig leaf. It doesn't work. In fact, did you know when Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with the fig leaf, God didn't leave them there? He could have, but watch this. Genesis chapter three, verse 21. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them.

God made garments. Now, this is pretty cool. The first designer of clothes in human history was God, okay? Not Gucci, not Versace, not Coco Chanel. God made the clothes, okay, and it was awesome. In fact, the Hebrew tense here, when it says he clothed them, watch this. When it says he clothed them, it doesn't mean a little cheap imitation or a little bit here and there. It means a full covering. That's what God does. Now, watch the significance pointing to Jesus. When God created skin from an animal, what had to happen for the very first time in human history? An animal had to be sacrificed. Blood had to be shed. Because listen to me. Scripture teaches over and over again, the only way to be covered from your sin is when there's a sacrifice, when there's a shedding of blood. This is crystal clear. Hebrews 9.22, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. So God makes the very first sacrifice, and what does that sacrifice point to? It points to the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus, who will give his life on the cross, and the shed blood of Jesus,

a perfect sacrifice on the cross, is the only thing that can cover you fully, your sins, and make you whole again in this life. That's the good news of Jesus. Now, watch how powerful the fig leaf is. When we try to cover ourselves this cheap imitation, and God gives us another solution, which is his son, Jesus. When Jesus enters this world in the New Testament, what is the only tree in the New Testament that Jesus curses? It's the fig tree. He's walking past a fig tree one day, and it's not budding, and he curses it for it to never bud again. What is Jesus saying? I'm trying to show you that nothing in this world that you can do to try to cover your sin, cover your mistakes, cover your inequities, cover all the messes, it won't work. It's only the blood of Jesus. Is that not an incredible picture of the gospel right out of Genesis chapter three? The Lord made garments of skin for Adam and Eve, and he clothed them. Now, watch this. The only way God can clothe you, cover your sin, is by you believing in Jesus Christ, you repenting of your sins, which means I wanna turn from my sins and turn to Jesus,

and then giving your life to Jesus by being baptized, immersed underwater and baptized, which when you're baptized, you know what baptism symbolizes? Baptism symbolizes Jesus' death on a cross and his resurrection three days later so he conquered sin and death and can cover all your sin and shame and save you. Now, watch the picture of baptism. Remember the very first sin, God had to clothe them? Watch this in Galatians chapter three. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. When you turn to Jesus, he clothes and covers all your sins. So watch this, our problem, humanity's problem. When we sin, God sent a savior. When we tried to cover ourselves with some cheap imitation that will never work, God sent an ultimate covering, his son Jesus, to clothe us with his sacrifice. And then when we try to hide from God, God comes seeking. This might be the most emotional part of Genesis chapter three to me. See, you remember when Adam and Eve hid, it says when they sin, they hid from God. This is so amazing. God didn't stay on a park bench and go, hey, come back when you get your act together. God didn't say, I'm gonna stay over here and you guys clean up first.

Like, get it all together and then come back to me. You know what God did? When they sinned, he went on a search and rescue mission. He was the one that started walking through the garden, looking, searching after them. He say, verse 9, but the Lord God called to the man. He said, where are you? He didn't say, shame on you. He didn't say, what the heck did you do? This is beautiful. He said, where are you? I've been looking for you. Now, when God asks a question, it is never for his benefit. He already knew exactly where they were and he knows where you are. When God asks a question, it's for your benefit, not his. And what God wanted Adam and Eve to do and what he's asking someone here to do is when he says, where are you, where you been? He wants you to admit that you got a problem you can't solve on your own. He wants you to admit that you need him. And so Adam and Eve, they admit their sin. He makes a covering and they're saved. I just wanna acknowledge today that there's someone here today and you know who you are. You've been running from God. You've been trying to cover it yourself. I don't want everyone in our church to do something for the next two minutes.

I want everyone to participate if you would. I just want you to close your eyes for a minute. Just close your eyes. Every campus, every head, just close your eyes. With your eyes closed, I want you to imagine the thing in your life right now you hope no one in this room never finds out about you. What's the one thing in your life you're trying to cover? It may be something from your past. It's maybe something you're struggling with right now. It's maybe something you think about that if you said it out loud, you would be utterly ashamed that you even think those thoughts. It may be something you did that you have never told anyone and you have so much shame about. Now keeping your eyes closed, I want you to imagine right now that that thing in your mind that you're thinking of, that it's displayed on the screens right now with your name attached to it so everyone knows about it. That feeling you have, that's exactly how Adam and Eve felt in the garden. They felt sin and shame and they tried to cover themselves. They tried to disappear. They tried to hide from God. And here's what I want you to hear today. God already knows that thing you're thinking about. He saw it happen.

He knows your thoughts. He knows everything about you. And he's not here to say, how could you? He's here saying, where are you? He's not looking to expose you. He wants to save you by you turning to Jesus. Everybody open your eyes. There's someone here today that it's time for you to come home. It's time for you to stop relying on a cheap imitation for whatever you've been relying on in your life. It's time for you to turn your life over to the life-saving power of Jesus Christ. You might say, what would that look like? And I just want to speak to the person that maybe you gave your life to Jesus in the past. You have been baptized when you knew what you were doing, not as a baby, but you knew it. And you've kind of been running from God. Maybe you've been straying from God. Maybe you're back to church for the first time in a long time and you're just wondering, what do I do? And I just want to tell you, it's time to plug into the local church. It's time to be here every single weekend, no excuses. It's time to get into God's word. It's time to join a small group. It's time to actually take your faith seriously. And let me tell you what that means for some of you. It means you get over your pride.

Some of you are like, well, if I come back, if I dig in, if I'm gonna get serious again, people will say, I know what you did. I know who you were. Who cares? God can cover anything and transform your life if you turn back to him. But for others of you, here's what it means. You've never fully given your life to Jesus and gone all in. What does that mean? It means you believe in Jesus, you repent of your sins, and you are baptized into Christ. Remember Galatians? Galatians says, for all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. And some of you have held off. You've just never gone all in. You haven't been baptized, you haven't gone all in, and you're holding back. Why? Just last night, I met a young girl. I'm not gonna give you any details or her name because I don't want to expose her or embarrass her in any way, but she ran up to me and she said, Pastor Ashley, I've been coming to CCP. I want to get baptized. I'm like, awesome. What's holding you back?

She said, well, you know, I just figured that I made a commitment. that I need to be in church, because I'm kind of busy and I miss everyone. I want to be in church every weekend for two months and then reading my Bible, and then I'll get baptized. And I just looked at her, the way I look at some of you today, and I just say this, you know that's not how it works, right? You don't earn your way to Jesus, you don't earn your salvation, you don't become a good enough person to get baptized someday. You give your life to Jesus, let him transform you and become the person you want to be. You don't hold off, you never hold off when you want to decide to follow Jesus. And so I told her, I said, man, that's not how it works. And she said, well, I've also been thinking like, maybe near my birthday or the summer when the water's a little warmer at CCV, you know? And I was like, oh, well, you don't know this, but on almost every baptistry on our campuses, they're all heated, did you know that? She said, oh. Sounds like I shouldn't put it off anymore. And neither should you. What excuses do you need to get over

so that 2026 can be the year of transformation in your life? You got to give your life to Jesus, amen? Like we got to give your life to Jesus. You got to give your life to Jesus. You got to give your life to Jesus. So if you know today that you've held off right after the service, I want you to head straight to our information center, our guest services, right to the baptistry. We have staff and volunteers there and they're ready for you, like right now, like today. We have a change of clothes, shorts. We have a shirt that says change. This is so cool. It says change because that's what happens to your life. And being baptized is the most significant moment in your life, so take that step. Don't hold off and just head out there. But for all of us today, no matter who you are, here's what I want you to understand about Genesis chapter three, one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible, is that what do we learn today? When we sin, God's son, a savior. And when we tried to cover ourselves, God covers us with his son, Jesus, and the blood of his sacrifice on the cross. And when we hide, God comes searching, just like he's been searching for some of you. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the power of your word and your salvation that you offer. For those of us that have strayed in our faith, bring us back. For those of us that need to give our life to Jesus, help us take that step today. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. We'll see you back next week for week three of Genesis. Amen.