The Big Day 2026

I just want to, man, if this is your first time with us at Fade Church, my name is Pastor Johnny. I'm so glad, honored that you are here and if, man, we just feel like you're already part of the fam around here. If you haven't connected with somebody yet, you can unlock your phone as a first-time guest and hold it next to that little tag that's on the seat in front of you and it'll give you a way to connect with us. And so I encourage you to do that if you have not connected with this yet. Do that. But I also want to welcome our locations and we have guests at every location right now. But joining this service right now is our Red Bug Lake campus, our Michigan Street campus, our Narcusti Road campus. And also today's service is streamed at the Center Florida Reception Center, our correctional facility campus. And, man, we love you guys too. And so now come on across all those locations, us celebrating what God is doing in every life, in every congregation, every person matters. And we're just so blessed by Him, by His presence and by His Word. We're going to get into the Word of God today. If you have a copy of God's Word, go to Genesis chapter 3. If you want to turn it on on your Bible, on your phone, you can do that. But Genesis chapter 3, and we're going to start reading verse 1 of Genesis chapter 3. We're going right back to the beginning of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. And next couple weeks around here, we're going to be emphasizing worship. It's going to be the next two Sundays, it's going to be incredible. And then three weeks from today, you find out whether or not I went through with it. All right. And so don't miss any of these next few weeks. Genesis chapter 3, verse 1. This is what the Bible says.

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals," the other more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, the serpent did, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat from all the trees of the garden, but God did say you must not eat from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not touch it, or you will die." So the serpent says, "You will certainly not die. For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be open. And you will be like God, knowing good from evil." And so then when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it. Just renderings and everything has always kind of pictured this fruit as being an apple. The Bible doesn't say it was an apple, but we kind of always think of it being an apple. So we see her plucking this apple from the tree and the Bible says here that she ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it as well. Then, verse 7, "The eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and they made coverings for themselves. And 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 in the garden. But the Lord called to the man and said, "Where are you?" And he answered, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." I'm going to preach today just on the thought of hide and go seek. Hide and go seek. And I'm just going to pray one more time that God would speak to us, yes, as a big room filled with big rooms filled with people, but can we pray also that God would speak to us as

individuals? Will you pray God will speak to you today, that you'll be open to what God says? So let's pray that together. Lord, thank you for your word. And I do pray, Lord, as we open our hearts to you, and we do that. We just approach your word today already just with a yes, because your word is truth. And so God, speak to us from your word. And I thank you for what you're doing in our lives. We love and we bless you in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Hide and go seek. Never played hide and go seek with like a little kid who doesn't quite understand that, like when you would, okay, go hide, and then they go hide, but they only hide like the top part of their body. You're playing with a little kid that they go and they kind of like hide partly behind the couch, but then their whole body is still exposed because they think, "Well, if I can't see you, you can't see me." And so you got to pretend like you don't seem like, "Where are they? I don't know where they are." We had a dog named Chief a bunch of years ago, and he was a great dog, but his appetite got him into all kinds of trouble. Man, he was just out of a rocious appetite. He would get into anything that he could get into. Like, I mean, we would have pies on the counter, and we'd come home to an empty pie plate. Like, he would just, he would, like, you shouldn't give chocolate to dogs. Everybody knows that, but he didn't know that. So, entire bags of chocolate he would get into. And so, there would just be times we would come home,

and we could see that he had gotten into something, and he knew it. Like, when we got home, he would be filled with guilt for what he had done, what his appetite caused him to do. And so, I would come into the room, and I would say, who did this? And he would go run, and he would go to at the sliding glass door, where there was a curtain, and he would go hide just his head behind the sliding glass door. And I'd be going, who is this? And he's back to going, he can't see. He can't see me, he can't. Meanwhile, of course, I could see the other 85 pounds of his body coming out of the curtain. But there he was hiding, because he's thinking, well, man, if you don't, if I don't see you, you don't see me. And I think that's kind of a little bit what we read there in Genesis chapter three of Adam and Eve, that they're hiding from God, thinking that that's gonna work. Of course, it never works to hide from God, as God is seeking for them. And if you open this in a physical Bible, sometimes over the heading of chapter three,

it'll say the fall. And so I guess the first thing we need to understand about the Bible is the Bible is not a disconnected set of individual stories. It's one big story that's kind of speaking of the, what's wrong with humanity, and what God did to solve the problems that we have as humans that are living in a fallen state. What God did about that, and kind of what is coming for the future, and that's what the Bible is. The Bible's written by 40 different authors over 1500 years, and yet it weaves together one story. How does it do that? It's because the Holy Spirit inspired the authorship of the Bible. That's why the Bible is the truth. It's not my truth because I'm a pastor, because I'm a Christian. It's not your truth because you've decided to make it. It is the truth. And so for all of us, we need to go today to this word, and we're gonna go to the beginning, specifically Genesis. And specifically Genesis provides a record of, yes, the fall of human beings and the beginning of this fallen state that we live in, this, the introduction to sin and to death. But it's also a picture of what temptation is like,

what temptation is still like today. So as we look at Genesis chapter three, here's what I want us to do, okay, all of us. I want us to look at it today with an emphasis on the spiritual realm, okay. Let's look at it with spiritual eyes. Let's look at it and how it applies and it affects and to our spiritual eyes. Let's look at this passage that way today because we all know what it's like to fall to temptation. Romans chapter three says all of us have sinned. So we all know what it's like to fall to temptation. So for Adam and Eve, we know what it's like like them to believe a lie. That's kind of the first thing that jumps out to me as I was studying this passage is we know what it's like to believe a lie. Adam and Eve believed a lie. And a lot is made of this serpent that Eve is having a conversation with a serpent. Like what in the world is going on? That's her first mistake. Like if you're gonna talk to an animal, talk to a dog, okay. Don't talk to a snake, all right. If a snake comes up and starts a conversation with you, let me just tell you, get out of there, all right. It's just, it just can't go well. Like she should have known better. Snakes just look dishonest.

And so she's having this conversation with a serpent. A lot is made of that. Well, is this an actual serpent? Is it just the devil? Like I don't know if the devil is in the form of a serpent or if the devil has possessed a serpent. And honestly, that part is not even all that important. What's important is that in this conversation that she has with this serpent, it is the introduction to lies. This is the first lie that's ever talked about in the Bible. This is the first time dishonesty would have even been mentioned in the Bible. And it's here in verse one that he says to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? Now hold on for a second, let me tell you this. That's absolutely not at all what God said. But this is what the enemy does. Did God say you can't eat from any tree in the garden? So Eve tries to kind of correct the serpent and she says, well, we can eat from the trees in the garden, but God said, I can't eat from that tree that's in the middle of the garden. I can't eat from the middle of the garden Doubles down on lies and says you'll you will certainly not die The serpent said the woman for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be open and you'll be like God knowing good from evil Even that first opening line from the serpent. Let me show you what he did He says to God will he say you can't eat from any tree in the garden now if you go back a chapter to chapter 2

What God said was you can eat from any tree? except for that one So really God's command was a permissive command. It was a provision command It was like man, this is all yours except for that one tree and then Satan takes that and he says did God forbid and prohibit you from Everything I mean is God completely letting you down and that's exactly what the enemy does I think maybe the most dangerous lie that the enemy would cause us to be tempted to believe is That God is not good That's what he was doing did God say you couldn't have any tree at all You can't have any of this fruit at all see some of us in this room right now We're struggling with even that with even that thought man. I don't even know if God's good Because of what I've gone through him because of what I've Suffered and because of the way my I've seen other people boy God seems to be good and some other people's life But I don't know if God's good in my life Listen to me you cannot believe that lie of the enemy that the enemy comes to steal kill and destroy If you want to talk about somebody that's not good It's the enemy but as bad as the enemy is can I tell you that God's goodness dwarfs and multiplies way? His goodness is so much better than the worst of the enemy has to offer all God is good So we cannot believe this lie that he's not providing good God now. He's still a just God Okay, he's still a God of truth and so his goodness and his mercy does not mean that he's not adjust and it and a God of truth as well and now some people think that he falls to this This this doubt of of of who God is and is in God's actual essence And that's what that's what the enemy does. He first teaches us to just doubt God and Then that doubt pretty soon will turn into denying God. That's what he was doing He's just pitching this idea of like hey But did he really say this and then Satan doubles down on lies as we have but you don't worry. You're not gonna die Causing a doubt of God and it starts there. We all have doubts from time to time It's that's doubting is maybe not even the sin It's what you do with those doubts and if we stay in that in that doubt it can turn to a denial of God So we start out maybe being skeptical of maybe some of the things of God and it turns us into really no longer even believing in a full Denial of God some people think he falls to this

falls to this trap and falls into this temptation because maybe she received this This instruction not from God but from Adam so in Genesis 2 God's telling Adam this instruction and then people some scholars think that then Adam conveyed that to Eve and That because it was second-hand information. Maybe she was more susceptible to fall to it And I don't know if that's true or not but I do know this is that you're not gonna live in the truth of God for somebody else Okay, you're not gonna live in the truth of God to try to please a spouse or try to please a parent Or try to please a leader in your life or a pastor in your life The only way that you're gonna live in the truth of God is to have a real functioning relationship with Jesus the God of truth, okay That's that's how we do this and it's when we live in the truth. Oh, it's when we live in the truth That then we can spot a lie Oh, if I'm if I'm living a lie, I can't I can't even distinguish what is being suggested I it's hard for me to decipher what's going on in temptation But if I'm living in the truth and that's the only hope we have is to live in the truth truth wins So we know what it's like To fall for a lie we we know what it's like to focus on lack I think that's another problem that Adam and Eve get into is they start to focus on not what they have Oh, God has provided everything look at this garden and look at all of these trees and look at this fellowship We have with God God is everything and they they go from focusing on what they have to focusing one on what they don't Have and that lack In our lives even today is is a launch for so much Sin see up until this point in the Bible in Genesis 1 Genesis 2 God had been the chief speaker and now in Genesis 3 It's the serpent now when God speaks there brings life and provision and when? And the enemy, the serpent introduces this quiet doubt of, hey, is God holding out on you? Is there something that you don't have that you should have? Well, if we're being honest, man, we have all felt that.

I mean, our society, our life, our culture, media, movies, TV, social media, I mean, it's all that. It's like we're constantly looking around what everybody else's has and what everybody else is doing and it causes this sense of lack. I'm just gonna confess something to you now. I fell to the temptation like this. This week, I was boarding a plane to come home and I was on my boarding pass. I was boarding group five and I watched as they said, boarding group one come line up and I watched all those boarding group one. People come line up with their smug looks on their faces 'cause they get to get on the plane first. No, I don't need you looking at me like that. So they get on the plane and boarding group two gets on the plane and I'm watching all those people get on my plane. Meanwhile, I got a seat reserved, but still, I don't know what's going on. Are they throwing parties on that plane before I get on? I don't know what they're passing out. I don't know what I'm missing. I watched boarding group three get on. I'm watching boarding group four is walking. I'm boarding group five's lined up over here, but as boarding group four is walking on, I give in to the temptation and I'm boarding group five and yet I get into the back of the line

of boarding group four. I know, pray for me. That's all I can say, like this is the level of the seat. Just this week. And I'm at the back of the line and boarding group four even though I got boarding group five. And I walk up and I'm so nervous and I'm trying to just hurry. I wanted to quickly flash the phone fast so she wouldn't see my number when she was checking in. And when I go to flash my phone fast, I drop my phone and Atlanta goes flying away. Now it's all focused is on me. Now I gotta pick it up and be like, here. And she punches it and she goes, that's what you get, boarding group five. But she left me on. And I'm gonna tell you the relief that I felt that all my sins were exposed right there in that moment. I'm like, okay, good. She knows and she's offered me some grace. But why did I do that, that simple little goofy? Just why did I do that? 'Cause I had this weird sense of lack that boarding group four was having something that I didn't have, access, a timing that I wasn't getting to experience. So you take something goofy like that, multiply the stakes by man so much where we're constantly, we begin to focus

on what we don't have instead of focusing on what we do. And it leads us into sin. I mean, Satan, the tactics that he used as a serpent here with Adam and Eve are the same ones he still uses today. He did this in verse one, he said, he questions whether or not it's a sin at all. I'm sitting there, it's not that big of a deal if I go boarding group four. It's the end of four, five's getting ready to come in. It's not a sin at all. It's in verse four. He denies that there was any danger in it. What's the worst, I'm still gonna get on the plane probably. Verse five, he suggests that there's much advantage by it. That's what he did with Adam and Eve. That's what he does today. I mean, the number of sins that the Bible clearly points out as a missing of what God's best is for us and yet you'll find so many people who will defend, well, that's not a sin because of this and that's just how I feel and that's just how I was made and that's just what I want to do. And so how can that be a sin if that's what I want to do? This is the same text as the enemy uses now. And so then in verse six, the woman sees that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye. Oh, she starts to feel the lack

and it's also desirable for gaining reason. So she took some and she ate it and she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it as well. Look at what lack launched in Eve and Adam's life. First, she saw, then she took, then she ate, she consumed, and then she gave. And the lack will do the same thing now. Now, when she saw the forbidden fruit, I don't know if at that point she was planning on consuming and planning on distributing it to her husband, but she was just looking. But then she looks and she takes and when she was taken, I don't think she, when she took it, maybe she wasn't planning on eating. But look at what happened. First, it starts with a glance, then it starts with a hold and now she's consuming. Why did it all happen so quickly? Because sin is a downhill ride. Oh, once you start looking, it's so easy. Once you start holding it, it's so easy to consume. And I'm talking to people who know what that's like and know what that experience is like. So they lived Adam and Eve in complete paradise. Lacking really nothing because when God is your portion, you are not in want. Can I say that one more time? When you can grasp and really know that God is your person, you don't lack.

So Adam and Eve are in this garden and they're lacking nothing and maybe this is their biggest mistake is they invent lack where there was none. And it's the same mistake we did. We know what it's like to believe a lie. We know what it's like to focus on lack. And then we know what it's like to hide from the Lord, which is what they ultimately, that's their response in this. And so in verse seven, the Bible says, the eyes of both of them are open and they realize that they're naked and so they sewed fig leaves together to make coverings for themselves. Immediately there's this loss of innocence. There's this loss of connection with God. There's this sense of shame and now we've got to cover. And so they make coverings. And I would say this, I think the human nature would be like we don't want that moment of exposure. We don't want that moment of vulnerability. We don't want to be exposed because of what that might mean. And even at the end of this service, I'm gonna give you a chance who need to surrender your life to Christ. I'm gonna give you a chance to do so. And there's gonna be a war going on inside your heart of like, man, I don't wanna be exposed. I don't wanna put myself out there like that. But can I just remind you of this that God does not expose you to embarrass you or to ridicule you?

No, we allow things to be revealed so that God can bring healing in our life. So when I'm revealing what's going on in my life, God is healing. Come on, what's going on in my life. And the man and his wife, this is heartbreaking part of this story. They hear the sound of the Lord, God as he's walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The original language implies that this was a regular occurrence. This is like their time when God was gonna come and they would walk along and they would talk and they would be into it. They would fellowship with their creator. And instead of that moment happening like it always had happened in the past now, they're hiding from the Lord among the trees of the garden. Hiding, thinking of, well, if we don't see him, he can't see us. I guess my question is, why did they decide to hide? The other days that the God had come in the cool of the day, they didn't hide. They spent time with him. They fellowshiped with God. They talked with God and yet this day's different. This day they hide. Why did they hide today? Because they felt the guilt and the shame of missing God's best, of missing God's instruction.

And so there's a lot of talk of the word sin, but can I give you the most basic biblical definition of the word sin? It is to miss the mark. That's what sin is, to miss the mark. So earlier in this service, we had people that had this little bow and arrow game and they had a target that they were aiming at. So if you picture it that way, that my life has a target, there it is to please God. It's to honor God, it's to honor his word. And anything that I do in my life that misses that, that mark for my life, then that's what is called sin. James chapter four says it this way. If anyone then knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin. And so we know what it's like to miss the mark that God has laid out for us. There is clear teaching in the word of God of what a life that honors God is, it's looked like. And so God has a mark in every area of your life. God has a mark in your sexuality. God has a mark in your thought life. God has a mark in your resources. God has a mark in your interactions and your reactions and your actions. God has a mark for that of what it looks like to honor him. And when you miss that mark, that guilt will cause you,

it'll cause you to be tempted to hide from God. And so we hide things and in our world, there's so much focus given in our projected life. And the part that everybody sees. I want you to see my highlights. That's what I want you to see. Check out my social media for all my highlights and all my good things. And so we project everybody how moral we are. We project everybody what a good person we are. And we hide. And can I tell you this, that to God, your real life is your secret life. Because that's really who you are. And God sees that. And there's a part of us that senses that. It's called a conscience. And we kind of feel that we've missed the mark. And so sometimes that will cause us to not, maybe want to be even in environments like this. Because we know, well, when I come in here, I might feel a certain kind of way. I might feel like regret or I might feel conviction for what I've done. And can I tell you that those moments of feeling that are necessary and ultimately they're an expression of God's grace. Because God has better for you than for us to just fall to the lowest common denominator of our sinful desire. So we hide from God in all kinds of different ways.

Hide from God, whether it's busyness or I'm just too busy and we don't think about it. We distract ourselves with things to hide from God. We hide from God in our attempt to be good people. We know what it's like to hide from God. This problem is it just never works with God. And what we're better off doing is saying, God, just find me. I want to play a video of a young man who knows what it's like to believe a lie and knew what it was like to feel the lack and to hide from God, but then knows what it's like to be found by God. I want you to check out Esteban's story. Watch this real quick. I mean, it all started when I was 14. I remember what started off as a fun little thing of just smoking and drinking and doing things at parties and on the weekends. Really quickly just turned it into an addiction and a spiral and just a crippling downfall. I mean, I was heavily addicted to pills and weed and alcohol and so many things. In the year of 2023, I just hit a new low point in my life. And I just knew that the way I was living-- I was just tired of just living day to day, just trying to get a high, trying to get by. January going into the new year, I decided to just get clean completely. And honestly, it was so hard. I just remember feeling so alone, so depressed. And my aunt, actually, she goes to faith at main saying,

she invited me on Super Bowl Sunday because she knew what I was going through. And I just remember walking in like, what the heck am I even doing here? I'm literally withdrawing as I'm walking into a church. And Pastor Johnny was preaching with an illustration about a rope and how eternity was the entire length of the rope. And what we're living in right now was just this little bit of black tape that was covering the rope. And I just remember having so much more faith and so much more hope in that moment for what was to come. And then that led to me starting going to The Voice. And a couple weeks later, I signed up for Love Week. And I received Jesus in my heart during Love Week. On a Tuesday morning, we're just sitting there and worship. And I'm like, God, I want to just give you my entire life. And in that moment, I just felt Him so clearly say, son, you've been trying to fill this Jesus-shaped hole in you with all these other substances, all these things, all these counterfeits. When really all you needed was me. And I just felt that breakthrough instantly and just His love consumed me. And just to know that it was like this full circle moment of me finally reaching what I've been looking for in the world. But I couldn't find I found Him. When He first spoke to me, He called me son. He did not call me addict. Just like I labeled myself throughout my entire life.

He called me His son. And that's because it could only be found in Him, the freedom that I received when I just came to Him and surrendered it at His feet. You just always have to keep coming back to Him, always have to keep living alongside Him and letting Him carry you through. Because it was not out of my own strength that I was delivered from it. It was through Him. I want to put up verse 9. We were at a moment ago, but this is God. As Adam and Eve were hiding from Him and they hear Him coming, this is what God says to them. The Lord called to the man. of location. It was really a question of identity. It was really a question of Adam, you're not who I created you to be. You're not who you used to be. Where are you now? Where do you land in all of this? Adam responds, "I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked so I hid. I'm hiding from you." It was not a question of location. I mean everybody knows everybody's location now because we share locations via our phone and so when someone's not showed up yet, we're like, "Man, where are they?" They're like, "Oh, they're 12 minutes away. I've got them. They're going to be here." Everybody knows everybody's location. Can I just remind you of this? God knows exactly where you are. God knows the life you have been leading. God knows the decisions that you have been making. God knows the sin that has started to define your life, the lust, the impurity, the chasing after the desires of just a flesh, of a fallen flesh as a result of this story that we're reading today, we're still in that fallen state until we're clothed by God. See, the Bible says that after this, that God made coverings for Adam and Eve. It is so prophetic speaking of what Jesus was going to do to be our covering. In Galatians chapter three talks about that, when we are in Christ, we are covered by Christ now. When we're baptized

into Christ, we are clothed with Christ and so that covering now is Jesus. Because of what He did, because of the price that He paid, yes, we're all sinned. We've all listened. We know what it's like to fall to temptation, but also Romans chapter 10 says that if we will believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we'll be saved. And they'll be a grace in our life, not just to cover our past, but a grace to give us the strength and the power to live in the truth today. Man, God wants to do that in your life