Sermons to Download

Series: Lessons for Life [Sermon 1]

Title: Adam and Eve

Reading: Genesis 1:26-27; 2-3:13 then… v20  

Who of us this morning think that this book… God’s word… is filled with lessons for life? Who also thinks that this book is filled with people… characters… whom we can learn from?

It’s a fact of life… that these pages are filled with lessons for life… would you agree…. Brilliant…

Today… I will be starting a new series… the series will be called… Lessons for Life… [And we’ll be looking at different people to find these lessons… some challenging.. some encouraging and some inspiring…]

We’ve got a lot to go at… so who knows how long it will take us… and… I think it only right that we start at the beginning…

Be turning with me if you would please… to Genesis Chapter 1… [Our life lessons this morning will be from the lives of Adam and Eve…] 

Firstly… let me read from Chapter 1 verses 26-27… 

Now let’s move to Chapter 2 into 3:13… then verse 20… 

Let’s Pray…

Have you ever thought what it must have been like to be the first and only person on earth?

You know… its one thing for us to feel lonely… but… in Adams case there was no one else… He missed much of what makes us… who we are…

He had no childhood… no parents… [as we know parents]… no family or friends… He had to learn to be human on his own…

Fortunately though… God didn’t let him struggle to long… He didn’t let him struggle to long… before presenting him with an ideal companion and mate… Eve… in our case… thank you ladies…

At the outset they had a complete… innocent… and open oneness… with out a hint of shame…

Have you ever been in a family gathering when a young child runs through the room unclothed without a hint of shame… the innocence of the child…

Oh how that speaks to us of how it was and could be… [not that we run around naked… but that we are without shame… and transparent before each other…] 

Maybe one of Adams first conversions with his delightful companion would have been about garden rules…

We know… that before Eve came along… God had given Adam complete freedom in the garden… with the responsibility to tend and care for it…

But… one tree was off limits… the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… No doubt… Adam told her all about this…

We know very little about Eve… the first woman in the world… yet… she is the mother of us all… She was the final piece in the intricate and amazing puzzle of God’s creation…

Adam… now had another human being to fellowship with… someone with an equal share in God’s image…

Here… was someone alike enough for companionship… yet… now hear this… different enough for relationship…Together they were Greater than they could ever be Alone… 

What an incredible truth for us to take in this morning… Together we can become something bigger than we ever can become alone… 

Fantastic….

We know how the story goes…

Eve was approached by Satan in the Garden where she and Adam lived… and he questioned her contentment… How did he do this…

He implied… how could you be happy when you’re not allowed to eat from one of the tree’s…

Satan… helped Eve switch her focus… switch her focus from what she could do and what she had… 

He moved her focus from all that God had done and given… to the one thing he withheld… sadly… Eve willing accepted Satan’s viewpoint without checking it out with God… or Adam…

Does that sound familiar or what?

How often is our attention drawn from the much which is ours… to the little that isn’t…?

We can sometimes get that… ‘I have to have it’ feeling… in many ways Eve was typical of us all… Our desires like Eves can easily be manipulated… if we’re not careful…

Can you see this…

Truly… we need to keep God in our decision making processes… His word… this book is our guidebook to life’s choices and decisions…

Our relationship with God… Jesus… and the Holy Spirit should always be the contentment of our lives… God’s word… it should always be there with us… so that we learn the lessons of Life…

OK then… let me give us some life lessons from Adam and Eve…

In Genesis 1 verse 26-27 we read…[Read Genesis 1:26-27….] 

Lesson 1: As Adam and Eves Descendants we all in some way reflect the Image of our God. 

Please… take hold of this truth… God loves us… he loves us so much that he made us in his image… his likeness… so that we would and could reflect his image to others…

That which was spoilt in the garden and damaged by sin… God put right in his Son Jesus… he brought all mankind back to himself… in that the gave his son Jesus to pay the penalty of sin…

That disease which was damaging Gods likeness and image in us…

In what ways are we made in God’s image?

I suggest to us this morning that we display Gods image in our creativity… our reasoning… our speech and our determination…

It is our entire self that reflects God… We can never be God… but… we can be like him… we can… reflect his likeness in and through our lives…

God showed himself to us in his Son… Each of us this morning are becoming like his Son… we are becoming more Christ like…

We can and do reflect God and Jesus in us through our Character… Our Love for God and others…

Our Patience… Forgiveness… Kindness… our Faithfulness… our Humility… our Generosity… Can you see this…

You’ve heard people say no doubt … Oh he/she are such a Godly man woman…

Notice… God made Man and Woman in his image…

Neither man nor Woman is made more in his image than the other… From the beginning… the bible places man and woman at the pinnacle of Gods creation…

Hear this Today… God wants to reflect his image and likeness in you… he does that as you and I become more like his Son… Jesus…

Lesson 2: Sin Spreads 

Satan here… tried to make Eve think that sin is good… pleasant… and desirable… and I suppose knowledge of good and evil seemed harmless enough to her… but… its root was disobedience…

In our lives also… we can often choose wrong things… choose wrong things because we become convinced that they are good… pleasant… desirable…

Pleasant and attractive sins are hardest to avoid… they don’t always look ugly…

But… God’s word tells us to prepare ourselves… we can’t always prevent temptation… but hear this… we can always find an escape…I Corinthians 10:13 says…

We have to use God’s word… God’s people to help us stand…

Notice what Eve did… She Looked… She Took… She Ate… then She Gave… She Passed it on… 

One of the realities of Sin is this… it Spreads… Eve involved someone else in her wrongdoing…

I put it to us… that can so easily be the case for us… by involving someone else… we relieve our own guilt…

Sin when left unchecked spreads… The bible clearly shows that to us…

The worst step we can take is to eliminate the guilty feeling without eliminating the cause…

It would be a bit like taking a pain killer for your rotten tooth with out taking the rotten tooth out… if we don’t remove the tooth… the pain comes back… but it comes back worse than before…

Left uncheck sin will spread… Adam and Eve show us this lesson…

Lesson 3: We cannot Hide from God 

Read Genesis 3:9-10… 

Hear… we have the first recorded game of Hide and Seek!!!

But… seriously how true it can be of us… when things happen… we think we can hide it from God…

But… our God is an omnipresent God… he is with us wherever we are… whatever we are doing…

Our God loves us unconditionally…

But… Our natural fear leads us to think that when we mess up… we don’t deserve his Love… let me say… Gods love isn’t dependent on us… and what we do… because if it where we’d all fail…

It’s about Jesus… [don’t try and hide in the garden]… bring it all to Jesus… He is our Saviour… he is the one who shed his blood for our sin and wrongdoing…

Understand this… God loves us regardless of our faults… There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less…

 Adam and Eve show us this lesson… We can’t hide from God…

Oh and by the way… he doesn’t want you to either…

And finally for this morning…

Lesson 4: When Confronted don’t Blame Others 

Read Genesis 3:11-13…. 

Notice… in both cases… their answers involved someone else… they both tried to deflect their fault to someone else…

Ever done that… No… Me… never…

How easy it is to excuse our wrongs by blaming someone else… or blaming a circumstance…

I’ll let you into a secret… God knows the truth anyway…

Another life lesson we can learn this morning is the need for us to stand up and face the consequences of our own actions…

##Growing up with my brother I can remember countless occasions when I and he did the very same thing…

Mum… it was him… no it wasn’t... it was you… he made me do it… no I didn’t... you made me do it…

In closing… Adam and Eve represent so much to us as we seek to learn from their experiences…

This morning we’ve only looked at a few… 

1: We are made in Gods Image and Likeness… faults and all…

God through the presence of Jesus in our lives is helping us to become… Never forget we reflect the very presence of God through our lives… Jesus said…we are the light and salt…

2: Sin Spreads 

Adam and Eve show us that from one act of disobedience the rest of the world was infected…

3: We can’t Hide from God 

Never try and hide in the Garden of Life… meet with the Father instead…

4: When Confronted don’t blame others 

Without doubt Jesus took it on the chin… Stephen when facing the stones of hatred… said simply this Father Do not hold this sin against them…

He didn’t try to deflect the reasons for his actions towards any other…

We serve a wonderful God who loves us muchly… more than we can ever think or imagine… his word presents to us People… Characters… Situations… Commands that are there to propel us into a life of fullness and joy…

Hear me today… Don’t allow the suggestions and the trickery of the serpent to get you out of joy and peace… because the joy of the Lord is our strength… 

I close with the word of the Apostle Paul… 2 Cor 10:3-5 

For though we live in the world… we do not wage war as the world does… The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world… On the contrary… they have divine power to demolish strongholds… we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God… and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ…

If nothing else this morning… realise this… Adam and Eve show us that disobedience to the word of God is not the way…

Listening to arguments against Gods word is not the way… allowing suggestions and thoughts to exalt themselves above God is not the way…

Our biggest life lesson from the story of Adam and Eve is simply this… Obedience will keep you in the Garden…  

Let’s Pray…

Series: Lessons for Life [Part 2]

Title: Noah ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’

Reading: Genesis 6:8-9; 6:22; 7:1; 8:15-9:1 

This morning we’ll be moving on a couple of chapters in the book of Genesis from last week… but… let me first ask us something…

If I was to put up a picture of the cross… whose name would come to mind…?

If I was to put up a picture of a snake or serpent… who would come to mind…?

If I was to put up a picture of a man with a staff being held up by 2 others… whose name would come to mind…

Finally… if I was to put up the picture of a large boat filled with animals… whose name would come to mind… 

You’ve got it!!! Fantastic… 4 out of 4…

Well… that tells me one thing at least… what that shows me is… Every picture tells a story… and every story reveals a person… 

This morning… the person we’re going to be looking at is… Noah…He is our Lessons for Life Part 2Character…our title is this… Every Picture Tells a Story…  

It would take to long for me to read through the whole story of Noah… but… what I will do is read a few portions from the story that reveal to us the major points and turning points in the story…

Ok then… Read Gen 6:8-9… 6:22… 7:1… 8:15-9:1…

Let’s Pray… 

The story of Noah’s life involves not 1… but 2 great and tragic floods… The world in Noah’s day was flooded with evil… as well as water… the flood of sin had swept the earth...

The number of those who remembered the God of creation… perfection… and Love had dwindled to one…

Of God’s people… only Noah remained… God’s response was a 120 year long last chance… during which time Noah had to build a graphic illustration… a picture… if you like… of his life..

Nothing like a great boat on dry land to make a point…

A bit like someone coming to Darton… then... once here start to build a great boat… what would the people think…

What on earth is that thing for…

For Noah though... this project meant a lifetime of commitment and obedience… even amidst the probable mocking and joking…

Many of us… I suggest… have trouble sticking to any project… whether it’s one from God or not… we can stick it out for a while… then… we gradually fall away…

Or… Is that just me or what…

Recently… I purposed to lose some weight… did it for a while… then everything started to slip…

A bit ago I set out on a project to trim my body up and do some weights… all started out well… couple of months and I was seeing the results…

Then everything started to slip…

It’s interesting here… that the length of Noah’s obedience was greater than the lifespan of people today… The only project to compare to this of the boat for us… would be our lives… 

Let me suggest… maybe this is one of the great challenges that Noah’s life gives us… the great challenge is this…# To live an entire lifetime in obedience and gratitude to God and his Grace 

OK then… let’s see if we can find some life lessons in these chapters… First lesson I want us to see this morning… and its number 5 in our series…

5: In Life we need to Influence others and not let others Influence us 

Read 6:5-9…. 

Here… we read that Noah… despite the conditions around him… despite the world around him… he didn’t let the majority rule his situation… he didn’t let the influence of others… the influence of the world dictate his lifestyle…

That can be an incredible lesson for us today in our society… we’re bombarded on every side… bombarded by the media… television… internet… by the world around us to live by its standards… and not our Gods…

Noah must have had incredible pressure placed upon him… but no… he was a righteous man… blameless among the people of his time…

Jesus said of us… we are light… and light does not mingle with the darkness… Light stands out from the dark…

Noah in building the arc… was building a picture for his life… a picture that stood out… a picture that would influence his generation…

We as ChristianS need to learn that we can’t be influenced by the world around us…

Secondly today… Number 6 in our series…

6: Noah shows us we find Grace in spite of the Sin that surrounds us 

Verse 8…

We live in a world that seeks… in the main… to reject God… we live in a world… that seeks to reject his ways…

But… our God is a loving… caring and merciful God… He sent his Son into the world so that we might find his Grace and favour in our lives…

For God so loved the world… that he gave his only Son… so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life…

Even amidst the sin that surrounds us God’s grace is here for us…

Number 7… Verses 13-22 of Chapter 6 say this… 

7: God is Faithful to those who Obey him 

This project wasn’t any project… this project would have seemed a bit way out… a bit far fetched… but notice with me… Noah did everything just as the Lord commanded him… 

In life… we’re always given a choice… to obey or disobey… in life we can choose to do as we’re told… or we can choose to do what we want to do… that’s cool… but… always in life… our disobedience has a consequence… as does our obedience…

Noah chose to obey God… and that had an outcome… in the same way Adam and Eve had a choice… and we heard about that last week…

The scriptures tell us that Obedience is better than sacrifice… what it really says is… its better to obey than to do it because you have to… we have to do it because we want to…

There is a difference…

Jesus obeyed the Father even unto Death… a Life lesson from Noah is simply this… Obey God…

Number 8… Life Lesson Chapter 7:1…

 8: God doesn’t always protect us from trouble… but cares for us in spite of it 

Things in life happen… hardship… trial… illness… tragedy…

But… let me say… God will always care for us… even in the midst of it…

Noah had to go through it… to get to the other side… Noah had to enter into the presence of God and be carried for approx 1 whole year… to come out on the other side…

Notice… Noah walked in… and Noah walked out… God’s presence cared for him…

In our lives we may be going through some stuff… we may have been through some… there may be some stuff around the corner… be encouraged… God cares for us in spite of it…

Number 9…

9: Obedience is a long Term Commitment 

Noah stuck it out… he didn’t give up… he went on to complete that which God had given him to do…

Here’s a word of wisdom for you… Don’t give up… it might take a lifetime to fulfil…  

That which God has purposed for us might take longer than we think… No doubt… Noah could have thought… this is stupid… what am I doing…

Obedience to God will reveal itself… maybe not today… but hear this… In days to come you will understand… 

The plans and purposes of God are past finding out… he knows what he is doing… whatever your going through… time will reveal… keep obeying… keep committed and you will see the picture reveal itself as God has his perfect way in your life….

God is not a man that he should lie… or the son of man that he should repent… Numbers 22  

Be encouraged this morning… be encouraged… to keep obeying… whatever the cost… truly… it’s a life long commitment…

Finally this morning…

Number 10…

10: From Noah we see that we need to Build in our lives 

Noah built 3 things in his life…1: He built a Reputation 

We know this to be true because verse 9 of chapter 6 tells us…

‘Noah was a righteous man… blameless among the people of his time… and he walked with God…’

What a statement… what a powerful verse of truth…

What reputation are we building…

Our lives have to be built on Character not gift… our character allows us to stand in front of the people of our time…

God is more interested in who we are than what we do… God wants us all to walk with him… and… as we looked at recently… he wants us to keep in step with him…2: Noah built the Arc

If we are to build anything in life… we need to build under God’s direction and guidance…

Whatever we build it must be in obedience to God…3: Noah built an Altar 

8:20… ‘Then Noah built an Altar to the Lord’…

Is worship built into our lives…

Let me conclude to bring it all together…

What are we building… corporately and individually… are we building a lifestyle… are we building Obediently and does what we are building Worship our God…

I opened with the illustration of a picture…

And I said… every picture tells a story… and every story reveals a person….

What picture is being built around our lives…Jesus’ was the cross…

Moses’ was the staff…

Satan’s was the snake… the serpent…

Noah’s was the boat… the Arc…

What is ours… 

God wants to build with us… he wants to shape and mould us… God wants to reveal the picture…

Key lessons we learn today… Obedience… Patience… Perseverance… these keys will assist us as we build…

Key overriding thought… God built to bring about salvation… the Arc was Gods way of cleansing the earth…

Sin had to be dealt with… God said never again will he flood the earth… But let me say... God flooded the earth with Jesus his Son…

Jesus calls us all to come in… step in and allow Jesus to carry you to a new life with him… A life that you can step out into to…

What picture does our life paint?

Amen

Series: Lessons for Life [Part 3]

Title: Lot ‘Don’t be a Drifter’

Reading: Genesis 13:1-11; 14:12-16

This morning our Lessons for Life will be taken from the life of Lot… and the title of what I want to say today is… Don’t be a Drifter… 

We read of Lot in Genesis 11-14 and in 19… his life takes many twists… lets see if we can learn some lessons for life…

2 Reading this morning… Please turn with me to Genesis 13:1-12… 14:12-16….

Let’s Pray… 

Some people simply drift through life… don’t they… Their choices… when they make them… that is… tend to follow the course of least resistance… Lot… Abram’s nephew was such a person…

While still young Lot lost his father… but… he wasn’t left without strong role models… he had his grandfather and he had Abram his uncle…

It’s good to have role models around us… its good to learn from the lives of others…

Unfortunately in Lot’s case… he didn’t develop their sense of purpose… he didn’t build his life upon their example…

Throughout his life he was so caught up in the present moment that he didn’t see that there were consequences for his actions… And… if we just drift through life… it will be the same for us… negative situations and circumstances will creep up on us…

When we read this story of Lot it’s hard to image what his life would have been like without the intervention of Abram…

By the time Lot drifted out of the picture his life had taken an ugly turn… He’d so blended into the sinful culture around him that he didn’t want to leave it… In our world today… people are so blended in… so blended in that they don’t want to leave the sinful culture they have blended into…

In the final part of his story we read in Chapter 19 about his incest… he had drifted so far… that he was approaching a destination… and that destination was disaster and destruction…

But… In the New Testament… Lot is called righteous [2 Peter 2:7] Ruth a descendant of Moab was an ancestor of Jesus… even though Moab was born as a result of Lots incest…

Lots story gives hope to us… hope to us that God forgives and often brings about good from evil…

All that led me to think of my life… and what my life would have been like without the intervention of Jesus… I was drifting… just imagine a raft on open the sea… drifting toward disaster and destruction… that was me… How about you…

A question and a lesson… what direction are we headed in… lesson… be careful not to be a drifter…

Today as we look at the life of Lot I want us to see some Lessons… Lessons that will help us… help us as we seek to keep on course and keep in step with God…

It’s a truth of life isn’t it… that we can learn from the mistakes and bad experiences of others... of our own…

Most of us… I think… could name people who through the ages... have wasted their lives… people who have had so much going for them… yet… there lives have ended in disaster…

Over the years there have been many footballers… pop stars… people in the limelight and people out of the limelight who have let their lives slip… let their lives slip and drift…

I think I’ve said this before about George Best… (any of us remember him… ) George Best was a great footballer… but… when it came to living life… I suggest that… as youngster was allowed to drift… he wasn’t handled in the right way… a lot of bad calls were made… and from a team and football club point of view Manchester united learnt a lot about life… and how they should mentor there young stars…

In fact… they now adopt a completely different approach or strategy when it comes to the young men they employ...

Take David Beckham for example… even though they took David Beckham on at a very young age it wasn’t for a very long time that he was even allowed to talk to the press or go mixing with the older generation of his time… he’s now moved on… but… we can’t argue that he is a successful young man…

He was protected… protected more than George Best… he wasn’t allowed to drift…

The point I make is this… they learnt by there mistakes and handled the life of David Beckham in a completely different way than the way they handled George Bests’…

So keeping that thought in our minds I want us to see if we can’t learn something from the experiences of Lot…. Abraham’s relation…. Especially… learn from the mistakes and negatives we can see in this story in scripture…

OK then…

Lot was a person with incredible potential and unlimited opportunity… but… these things aren’t and weren’t the only things that were and are required…

I suggest we need more than potential and opportunity… if we are to reach happiness and peace in life…

Fact… Lot was a person just like you and me… So we can learn lessons from Lot…

When you read through the life of Lot… He began his life in a city and ended it in a cave…. He enjoyed great wealth… yet died in poverty...

A bit like Mr Best… he began his life as a footballer in the city and ended it in and out of Alcoholic wards and clinics… He had wealth… but he has lost so much…

Can I say…? It is wisdom to look at the lives of others and learn from the mistakes… It is also wisdom to learn from their successes… today by identifying Lots actions and turning then around… Negatives can become positives and foolishness can become Wisdom to us...

4 quick lessons to start with…

Life lesson number…

11: Don’t Always Choose the Easiest Course of Action 

That’s what Lot did when he was asked to choose…

13:9… ‘Let’s part company… if you go to the left… I’ll go to the right… if you go to the right I’ll go to the left… Lot looked up and saw… 

To Lot his way seemed the easiest…

12: When Given a Choice Don’t always think of Yourself First 

That’s what Lot did…

13: Don’t Blend in with the Culture of your day… if you do you’ll find it Hard to Leave 

Lot did…

14: Remember Drifting can lead us in the Wrong Direction… it can lead us to Disaster 

Read Genesis 19 Lots life had drifted…

Lets look at some more lessons in a bit more detail…

15:Lot should have stayed close to uncle…

As people we need to understand that relationships are vital… Lot’s initial peace and happiness came from his relationship with his uncle…

But… he failed to recognise it…. Lot lost his key to peace and happiness… Relationship... 

When Abram suggested they parted... he should have said… No way… I’d rather loose all my possessions than lose you…

But… he failed to value relationship…. We can learn today that relationship is key to happiness and peace… Relationship is fundamental to living life and living it to the full…

God placed so much importance on relationship that he sent his Son to die… he sent him to die that we might be brought back into relationship with him…

(Ever thought about it like that… ever thought about that when you’re having your latest quarrel or squabble over nothing… and allowing that to separate you from the loving relationship that God has purposed for you and for me...)

The point about Lot was… he should have stayed close to Uncle… the application to us is… we should Value Relationships at all times…

16: Watch where Your Looking 

Vision is a vital part of a fulfilled life... What you see in life will take you further… lift you higher… and… what you see will keep you moving in the right direction… 

[THE REMAINDER OF THIS SERIES CAN BE OBTAINED ON SERMON SERIES PAGE]