Where it All Went Wrong | Adam Weber

To help us understand this in life, there's a gap that we all feel. There's a gap in all areas of life between the way things are and the way that things should be. Ever felt this gap? It's almost like there's something inside of us that just knows that things are not as they should be. Everyone feels it. It's almost like there's something inside of us that remembers the garden and how things are meant to be. What is up, Embrace? I hope you're doing well on this Palm Sunday weekend. We are so excited that you are here. My name is Adam. I'm one of the pastors here. Just know we are truly honored, honored and overjoyed that you've decided to come and worship with us here today. So today and next weekend for Easter, we are going to be looking at two different gardens found in Scripture. Speaking of gardens, across campuses this spring, how many of you will have a garden? Across campuses, let's see the hands. All right, all right. At my house, about once every four years, my wife, Becky, will decide that she randomly wants to do a garden. So I'm like, okay, awesome. So I'll till up some soil for her. We'll somehow spend a couple hundred dollars on tomato plants along with some cucumbers and squash seeds. This is a pic of her garden years ago. This is from a long, long time ago when she just planted it. Now, I don't want to call out my wife, but I have to say, I just have to say thank you, Jesus, for the grocery store because the Weber family, we would die of starvation if we had to live off my wife's garden. Seriously, every four years, we get one cucumber, which makes it the most expensive cucumber in the history of cucumbers. And usually a part of that cucumber is rotten. Okay, so it's flimsy and it's disgusting. I should say, just for the record, this is true, I did get permission from my wife to call her out like this. So I'm growing in wisdom over the years. But once again, though, today and next week, we are going to be looking at two different gardens found in scripture, one garden where everything went wrong and another garden where everything was made right. And it's kind of interesting. I think this is so powerful to think about the story of God. It starts in a garden. Listen to this in Genesis two, the Lord God took the man and put him into a garden, into the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. God puts this first man into the middle of this beautiful garden and he's there to watch over this garden and to care for this garden. This first man, he is a gardener. Continuing on, we're told, and the Lord God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden. This guy is given total freedom. God tells him to eat and enjoy the fruit from any tree.

And then God goes on to say this, but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil for when you eat from it, you will certainly die. Okay, so from here, you might know how the story turns out. Continuing on, now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, you must not eat from the fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die. You will certainly not die. The serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too. All right, so here's what I want to highlight. God made his will crystal clear. Don't miss this. God didn't have a bunch of rules. He just had one. Again, God said, you can eat the fruit from any tree except this one tree. God's like, this is my will. Go have a blast in this garden. Go explore and enjoy everything I've made. Just follow this one rule. And yet in this garden, And the first man, instead of listening to God's will, he said, I want my will to be done. Basically, the first man said, God, instead of listening to you, and instead of doing things your way, I'm gonna do things my way. Now, it's easy to read this story and just think that this guy is a complete idiot. It's like, you have total freedom to go and do anything you want. Go and do all this awesome stuff, and there's only one rule, and yet you immediately go and do the one thing that you're not supposed to. It's easy to think he's a fool,

but friends, you and I, we do the exact same thing. And this has been true of us since we were little kids. Just think about this. Like, honestly, just think about this. If you put a bunch of kids into the coolest playground ever, ever, slides, bouncy houses, obstacle course, you could even put a roller coaster inside of this playground. And if you said to this group of kids, you can go and do anything you want, but over in the corner of the playground, there's a red button. Go do anything you want, but don't touch the red button. They would sprint past the roller coaster to the red button, right? And if you think kids are bad, us adults are even worse. We'd push others out of the way just to get to the red button first. I also just think about the serpent and him questioning God. Did God really say, like, did he really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? Friends, this right here, it sounds like us too. Yeah, I don't understand why God has so many rules. I mean, God, he clearly doesn't want me to be happy like with sex. Why does God have so many outdated rules? This is 2026. With money, why does he have so many rules?

Yeah, God, he definitely doesn't want me to be happy. Just to say it, my guess is that for some of us here, this is exactly what's kept us from fully following God. We just wanna be happy. And God, he's got so many rules, and so certainly I won't be happy with God. With this, here's the crazy part. When we do this, when we think like this, what we're really saying is, God, I know what's best. God, I know what will make me happy, and I actually know this better. I don't know if you'd be impressed with me, God, but I actually know this better than you do. What we're basically saying is, God, I want my will, not yours. I want my way, not your way. And this is insane, isn't it? That you and I would somehow claim to think that we know more than the God who put the stars in their place. That we would claim to know more than the God who created us and wired us and shaped us. That you and I would know more than the God who exists before time began and will exist long after it's over. A few weeks back, Becky and I and the kids, we went to Florida as a family to meet her folks there. And the trip, it was an awesome trip. One of our favorite family getaways, just being together. But the only part that was hard about the trip,

away from paying $1,200 for one day at Universal, away from that, the only hard part was finding our Turo vehicle, our rental vehicle, when we first got to Florida. I should mention, our flights got super delayed and so we didn't get to Florida until close to midnight. All of us were tired. And so when we landed, I got the instructions about where to find our vehicle and I copied and pasted those instructions and I sent them group family texts to everyone in our family. You see, in the instructions, it said that our vehicle, our minivan, was parked in the Endeavor parking lot there in Orlando. We got a bunch of instructions along with this map that was totally worthless, okay? I was like, that is the worst. Where am I at on that map? Can you put that on there? Well, here's the deal. In our entire family, the only person who read the instructions and went to five out of the six was my oldest son, Hudson. I didn't read the instructions. My wife didn't read the instructions. None of the kids except Hudson. And so when we got off the plane, Hudson told us, he's like, he just took charge. And he's like, okay, we first need to go

towards baggage claim. And I'm like, that sounds correct. So I'm like, let's just follow him. Baggage claim. We got to baggage claim and he's like, okay, now we need to get on this airport train thing. And so it's like, okay, that sounds accurate as well. So we get on that and we go and then we get off that. And then Hudson says, now we need to go to terminal C. I'm like, Terminal C, that feels like it's backwards. Like, you know, now it's the parking lot, right? Terminal C. Now, at this point, all of us, the other five, were fully convinced that Hudson was wrong, okay? Like, we were confident that we were totally lost, but Hudson, he was confident that he was right. He's like, no, it's time for Terminal C. Like, that's what we do. Instead of listening to Hudson, we start going in a totally different direction, okay? Like, we started doing what we thought was right. I'm like, the parking lot is right outside those doors right now. Like, let's just go towards that. And we walked, and we walked, and we walked. We couldn't find, shockingly, the Endeavor parking lot anywhere, okay? And so 15 minutes later, we came across the airport employee. At this point, I have no pride left, okay?

It is totally gone. It looks like back at Terminal C or something. So I go up to a guy, and I'm like, hey, we're trying to find the Endeavor parking lot. Immediately, the guy just points back in the direction we came from, and he's like, you need to go to Terminal C. If Hudson would've had a football, he would've spiked it in our faces, okay? Friends, here's the deal. It wasn't making any sense, but Hudson knew the way. The whole time, he knew the way. We just didn't listen to him. Side note, you'd think you'd listen to the only person in your family who got a 34 and has ACT, but we're not that smart, okay? All joking aside, there are so many times in life where God tells us to do things, and he gives us instructions, and he gives us wisdom and insight, and we just don't wanna listen to him, why? Because it's not always gonna make sense to us. And at times, it's gonna seem backwards to what we're looking at with our eyes. But get this, God, he knows the way. He knows the way. Like God, he didn't just read the instructions, he created them. Back to the garden, God puts this first man into the middle of this garden, and God says to him,

you can follow my will or yours. You can do things my way or your way. And God, he comes to us and he says the same thing to us. For all of us, I just gotta ask, will you follow God's will or your own? For all of us, will you follow God's way or your way? Just for the record, if you're living according to your will instead of God's, don't be surprised if your life isn't working. If you're doing your way instead of God's way in your relationships, don't be surprised if your relationships are a mess. With your finances, your will instead of God's will, don't be surprised if it's a disaster. Your will instead of God's, don't be surprised if you feel like you're lost and you're wandering around trying to find your direction in life. Don't be surprised. Going back to this first garden, Adam and Eve, they don't listen to God. They don't follow his will and they eat the fruit and after they did so, listen to this. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked. So they sowed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord God called to them, man, where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. Again, Adam and Eve, they don't listen to God and immediately they're afraid and they're covered in shame and so what do they do? They cover themselves up and they hide. They hide. I just want to acknowledge this is textbook what happens in life, isn't it? Textbook. When you and I screw up, our immediate instinct is to hide. We hide from others, we avoid people that we know will hold us to a higher standard. We tell half truths, we lie because we're scared and ashamed and insecure and we're convinced that we can't tell anyone. It's like I'm so embarrassed, what will people think about me? I just can't believe that I did this. I can't ever tell anyone about what I've done and so we do our best to hide from others. But more specifically, we do our best to hide from God. As a kid, like many of you, I used to play hide and seek with my siblings and my friends. And I'll never forget, there was one specific time, I must've been in second or third grade, that a bunch of my friends were over at my house and we started playing a game of hide and seek. And my brother Luke was the one who was looking for us.

Well, at the time, we had this one closet in our house. I swear everyone has one closet in your house that was packed with a whole bunch of blankets. It was so full, you could barely close the door. No one wanted to mess with it because it was such a pain to get back that closed. And so we're playing hide and seek and I decided I'm gonna crawl into the bottom of this closet and I got underneath all these blankets and I hid. Well, at first I was pumped. I'm like, no one is gonna find me in this closet. It's such a hassle. No one's gonna wanna open this thing up and try to look for it. But slowly I started realizing that it was kind of hard to breathe underneath these blankets. And so my brother Luke was looking for us and he hadn't found me yet. And the longer I hid, the more and more I was struggling to breathe and it's crazy that I can remember. It's like as clear as day in my mind. I just remember hiding under the weight of these blankets and I started feeling lightheaded. And then I start overthinking things and I get scared about not being able to breathe so much so that I didn't wanna hide anymore. And so I finally worked my way out of the blankets and I just remember yelling to my brother, I'm here, I'm here, come find me, I'm here. Today I just wanna say that some of you might be hiding

and it honestly feels like you have 15 heavy blankets on top of you and you're struggling to breathe. And to be clear at first, the hiding, it might've been fun. Whatever you were doing might've felt exciting and you might've even thought that you were getting away with something, but slowly the weight of it all, the weight of the shame, the weight of the sin, the weight of the hiding, it just gets heavier and heavier and heavier and now you can't breathe. Let me highlight this, hiding our sin suffocates us. Hiding our sin, it suffocates us. In the garden, the first man and the first woman, they sinned and they hid from each other and they hid from God and so just to ask right now for all of you, all of us, myself included, what are you hiding? What are you hiding from others even more so? What are you hiding from God? Maybe it's something big, maybe it's something super small, that you just know you're hiding. Maybe it's lying about money to your spouse. Maybe it's text messages that you're sending to your coworker. Maybe it's your dating life. Maybe it's cheating at school. Maybe it's jealousy or bitterness. Maybe you haven't even done anything yet, but you're thinking about it and you're already starting to hide, what is it that you're hiding?

Going back to the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sin and after they hide, God comes to them and he says, here are the consequences for your actions. Just listen to what God says to them. To the woman, he said, I will make your pains and childbearing very severe. With painful labor, you will give birth to children. And then he said to the man, curse is the ground because of you, it will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field until you return to the ground since from it you were taken for dust you are and the dust you will return. Okay, so to help us understand this, God says that as a result of you doing things your way instead of my way and as a result of your sin in this life, you will experience pain. You'll experience pain. And the garden that was once filled with beautiful trees and fruit, it will now be filled with thorns and thistles. And then this last part, God says for dust you are and the dust you will return. And this last part, you've maybe heard before but it might sound confusing, God's saying that our bodies are made from the same stuff as the earth, the dust and the dirt and now because of our sin, one day our bodies will go back into the earth. Translation, as a result of you and I choosing our will. instead of God's. And as a result of your sin and your rebellion, you will now experience death.

It's a physical death, but even worse, a spiritual death. To help us understand this in life, there's a gap that we all feel. Like there's a gap in all areas of life between the way things are and the way that things should be. Have you ever felt this gap? You can just sense this gap. I would argue that every single one of us sees and feels this gap, even atheists. It's almost like there's something inside of us that just knows that things are not as they should be. Have you ever thought about this? Like, why do you and I feel this gap? Everyone feels it. It's almost like there's something inside of us that remembers the garden and how things are meant to be. It's almost like there's something inside of us that knows this. Like with our world, there's the way things are, war, division, children, little kids starving to death, injustice, and there's the way that things should be. And then even in our city, there's the way things are, right? Addiction, people hurting each other, families falling apart, and there's the way that things should be. Even with something like our health,

there's the way things are with our health. Cancer, depression and anxiety continuing to skyrocket, unhealthy eating, and there's the way that things should be. There's our families. You just look at our families. There's the way that things are, right? Divorce, people not speaking to each other over politics, jealousy, and then there's the way that things should be. There's our marriage, no longer speaking to each other. Our love has grown cold, constantly fighting, resentment, betrayal, silence, and there's the way that things should be, even within you and I. There's the way things are. We wanna be a patient person, but we constantly lose our temper. We don't wanna do this, but we keep doing this. We wanna be a better person, but we're just becoming more and more of a broken, bitter person, and then there's the way that things should be. Once again, you feel this gap, this gap, the way that things are, the way that things should be. Deep down inside of us, we sense this gap, and what is this gap? This gap is death. It's death.

What's this gap? It's death. Friends, death is what happens when the world is no longer the way that God, not more than us, that God says it should be. The gap is death. It's a result of you and I choosing our will instead of God's. Okay, so I wanna go back to this garden, this first garden, it's beautiful. God puts a man in the middle of this garden, and he's supposed to care for it. He's supposed to bring life to this garden, yet unfortunately, this first gardener, he failed us. He failed us. Unfortunately, just like you and I have done, just like you and I, instead of following God's will, he chose his own will, and yet here this, thankfully, this isn't the end of the story. You see, as we're gonna find out next week for Easter in the book of John, we're told about another garden. I just love scripture. I just love the story of God because friends, there is in fact another garden, and in this other garden, there's another man. There's another gardener,

and instead of failing us like the first gardener has, this man who is also fully God, he doesn't fail us. Instead, he changes everything, and friends, I cannot wait to next weekend to talk about this other garden, this other gardener. I genuinely can't tell you how excited I am. Today, though, as we bring things to a close, I wanna go back to the day. Again, I was in second, third grade. I'll never forget playing hide-and-seek. seek, struggling to breathe underneath all these blankets until I finally decided I didn't want to hide anymore. And I started crying out to my brother, I'm here. I'm here. Come find me. I'm here. Just to be clear, this is something that's available to all of us. Today, if you're here and you're feeling the weight of life, maybe it's the weight of stress, anxiety, of grief. Maybe it is the weight of fear or shame, the weight of hiding, the weight of sin. At any point, at any moment, all of us can cry out to Jesus and just declare, Jesus, I'm here. I'm here. Come find me. I'm here. Literally, any second. It waits too much. I'm here.

Come and find me. Today, to close, I specifically want to talk to those of you who are here. And you want to be found by Jesus for the first time. Like if you're here and you've never told Jesus, I want to follow your will, not mine. Because Jesus, my will is not working today. If you're here and your whole life, maybe you've been running or hiding from God. And today, you want to be found. Maybe you grew up in the church and you were baptized as an infant. And you've tried to be a good person your whole life. But if you've never told Jesus that you want a relationship with him, you've never told Jesus to come into your life. Friends, today, if this is you, today is a great day to take this step to cry out and tell Jesus, Jesus, I'm here. I'm here. Come find me. I'm here. And so right now, at all campuses, I'm going to invite all of you to close your eyes. And if this is you, if you're here today and for the first time, you want to invite Jesus into your life, right now, at all campuses, I just want to challenge you to raise your hand, to just boldly raise your hand. If this is you, just raise your hand.

I never cease to be amazed by what happens when we simply take a step out of our comfort zone and just say, Jesus, it's me. I want you. If you raise your hand with me across campuses, if you would pray with me. If that's you, pray with me. When we invite Jesus into our lives, it comes down to four words. The first word, sin. Just tell God, Lord, I have sinned. I've fallen short. I haven't followed your will, and I'm sorry. Second word, love. Just tell God, but God, you love me so much. Even at my worst, you love me more than I'll ever comprehend. Third word, grace. Just tell God, Lord, you sent me Jesus to forgive me, to save me, to rescue me from my sin, and you make me brand new. And then lastly, faith. Just tell God, today, I'm putting my faith in you, Jesus. Today, I'm giving up control. I'm choosing your will, not mine. I'm trusting you from this day forward. Jesus, I'm yours. Lord, we're so thankful for who you are. We're so thankful for your kindness, that you're a God who knows the path that leads to life. And God, you just give us your will.

You give us your wisdom. You give us your instructions not to take away our joy and peace, but actually to give it to us. And so God, for all of us today, we choose your will, not our own. And if there's an area that we need to surrender to you, maybe it's our dating life, maybe it's our finances, whatever it is, God, more than just lip service, what we actually follow through with your will, not our own. Lord, we love you. We thank you. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus. All God's people said, amen, amen. Friends, today, if you prayed with me, amazing. If you invited Jesus into your life, you've just taken the first step to the greatest adventure possible. If that's you at all campuses, we have free Bibles. In a booklet out of the entryway, when you leave the campuses, please grab one of these Bibles. They're the Bible that I give out to my own friends. Please grab one and go. But also, we'd love to come alongside you. If you just prayed with me, I can't encourage you enough. Simply text the word EMBRACE to 97000. If you prayed with me, please go do that. We're not going to spam you. We just want to come alongside you in the journey of following Jesus.

I can remember the day I gave my life to Christ. The second best step I took was I told somebody. I said, hey, I just prayed that. Hey, I just began that journey. And others came around me. And we just want to do the same. Amen? Amen. watching.