Acceptance | Find Your Way Home Week 2

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- Have you ever lost something

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and you looked all over for it,

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but you couldn't find it, and you're looking and looking

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only to find out that you're looking for it

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in all the wrong places?

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I bet we've all looked for all sorts of things,

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small things like our phone or our keys,

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but maybe even bigger things

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like our purpose, identity, or acceptance.

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And we wonder will we ever find it?

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I believe I have the answer to that question,

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and it's from the beginning of time.

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Yeah, the wild talking snake beginning of time.

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I believe it holds the key to us finding

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what we've lost.

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It holds the key to us finding our way home

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to the acceptance we're all looking for.

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- The world is a broken place

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full of despair, heartache, fighting.

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We're back at 7:30 with the sights and sounds of war,

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something unfathomable, Russian helicopters

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attacking targets in Ukraine this morning.

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Ukrainian forces firing back.

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This is the most significant fighting in Europe

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since World War II.

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- On display as the world watches war unfold in Ukraine.

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God's design for us wasn't brokenness.

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Today we'll see how brokenness is redeemed

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by God's love for us and how we are accepted by Him.

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First, with the story of Jane.

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She walked on to the stage of America's Got Talent

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last year and wowed the judges with her song: It's okay.

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- I'm so happy to be here.

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- Well, we're happy you are.

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[music]

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- Yes, her voice was stunning,

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but even more stunning was her piece.

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She knew that despite cancer spreading through her body

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and her two percent chance of survival, it's okay.

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She wrote:

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But one thing I know for sure is this:

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Jane passed away this week.

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So how is it okay when it's not okay?

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To find out, we have to go

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back to the beginning of the story in Genesis.

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Hey, I'm Hannah, and this is Crossroads.

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Now we've all heard of the creation story

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in some form or another.

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And before I go any further,

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let's honestly just call out the elephant in the room,

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or in this case, in the garden.

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If we're honest, we all are wondering

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did that really happen?

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Am I really to believe that Genesis 1 is a literal story?

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Was it figurative? Was it symbolic?

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Or is it just a bunch of baloney?

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See, there's God, a man, a woman,

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fruit, trees, talking snakes.

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What's actually going on here?

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My wheels are turning because

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I've wrestled with these questions.

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Did this really happen?

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And the best answer I have is this:

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whether it happened exactly as it was written or not,

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I believe that it's in the Bible because

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God wanted us to read this story,

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to share an aspect of Himself with us.

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Now, when I was asked to teach, I was really excited.

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I'm like, "That's exciting. Use that opportunity."

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But then I found out I was going to have to teach

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Genesis 2-3, and I was like, "Dang it,

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you've got to be kidding me because

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this is such a complicated part of the Bible

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and it has a ton of baggage that comes with it."

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But then I start to read it again.

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And I believe the God show me something fresh

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that I really needed to hear.

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You know, people ask you when you're young,

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like, what you want to be when you grow up.

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And I think more than anything,

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I knew that I wanted to be liked and loved and accepted.

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And so as someone who's always sought

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and strived for acceptance,

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God used this wild creation story

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to show me something different.

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And I want to share it with you.

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So for now, let's not actually debate the nuances

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of whether this happened,

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but join me for a journey home to acceptance.

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And it all starts at the beginning.

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See, in the Wiz, not the Wizard of Oz.

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No, I'm talking about the Wiz,

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the one that has all the good singers

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like Diana Ross and Michael Jackson,

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and like Lena Horne.

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I'm getting carried away just thinking about it.

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See, in The Wiz at the end of the movie,

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Dorothy is singing about home.

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And she says, "When I think of home,

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I think of a place where there's love overflowing."

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That's like this.

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And she's singing beautifully, a beautiful serenade

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of how wonderful home is

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and how she longs to be back there.

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And she's longing to go back to her happy place.

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And she's painting, I mean, this wonderful,

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glorious picture of happiness, of hope,

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of love and of acceptance.

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Well, you see, just like that happy place,

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the happy picture that Dorothy painted,

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there was a place like that.

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Only it wasn't Kansas, it was a garden.

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A wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous garden.

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And it was love overflowing.

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And I imagine it looked a lot like this: Eden.

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Almost mythical, all glorious.

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See, much like the home that Dorothy is singing about,

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it's the epitome of happiness and wholeness.

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See it's in this garden that all the good stuff started.

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And we see a little bit later that is also

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where all the not so good stuff started.

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It's in this garden that the familiar characters,

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Adam and Eve,

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are quite literally living their best life.

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I mean, have you seen it? How could you not?

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They're entirely comfortable.

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They're in perfect community.

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They're fully operating in their purpose,

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comfortable with each other and with themselves,

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and they fully know who they are.

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They were made in the image of God,

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and they know that they are accepted.

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See, well, I mentioned earlier that when I grew up,

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I wanted to be accepted.

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And I'm not sure I would have exactly called it that,

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but I know that is true.

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So true that one time this search for acceptance,

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it ended in disaster.

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See, growing up, my mom likes to say

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I came out of the womb cleaning.

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And while that's not actually entirely true,

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because one, it's not possible.

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She's right in that I am a natural helper, like,

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so if something needs to be cleaned, I clean it.

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And so when I helped people, I noticed

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that they were proud of you and they accepted you.

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And so I did it all the time.

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And so, of course, growing up,

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I wanted to be accepted by my mom because,

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like, who doesn't?

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So I would help out in the kitchen a lot.

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And I can remember I was young.

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I was helping my mom cook

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and we were making mac and cheese.

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Now I'm not talking about that nasty box stove crap,

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crap, Kraft, Kraft crap, the same thing.

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We're talking about, like, baked soul food kind,

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the kind that, like, has love and tenderness in it.

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It's good, I'm getting excited.

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I'm getting excited thinking about it.

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See, the macaroni goes into the oven

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and I couldn't wait for it to get out.

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So let me set this up for you.

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For the most part, I had free reign in the kitchen

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and liberty to do as much as I want it to help.

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But there was only one rule: don't touch the oven.

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Well, the timer goes off, beep, beep, beep.

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And I told myself that

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I'm not exactly touching the oven.

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I'm touching the mac and cheese.

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And so I go into the oven, by the way,

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with no oven mitts and I get the mac and cheese out

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and I close the oven.

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And it's then that I realized that I'm holding

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something that is 400 degrees and it's hot.

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So, I screamed, of course, dropped it to the floor.

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Now my poor, burnt hands, not the tragedy of the story,

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being scolded by my mom, not the tragedy of the story.

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The real tragedy is that nobody got to eat

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mac and cheese because it was on the floor

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and it had glass in it. Dang it.

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Anyway, maybe your search for acceptance,

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it doesn't quite look like mine.

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It's not an epic mac and cheese fail

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But maybe your search looks a lot like endless posting

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or swiping right, getting yet another unwanted degree,

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extra work, going to meetings that you know

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you don't actually need to be at,

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performing at the gym,

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dating that person that you don't even like,

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and it's all for acceptance.

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Maybe you're like me and you're always

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looking for acceptance and you think that

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you're going to find it in the next big thing,

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but you keep just getting burned.

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That was me too.

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But looking at the story of Genesis with fresh eyes,

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I found a different approach,

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one that doesn't require third degree burns.

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See, in the beginning, the Bible says God created a lot,

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a lot that He thought was good.

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And when He looked out over the Earth that He created,

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while there was not yet a garden,

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He'd had a plan for how to water it.

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You can see a little bit more about that

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by reading all of Genesis 2,

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and you can do that by joining us in the Bible Challenge,

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shameless plug.

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You see in this timeline God had a plan

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for watering the garden, but not yet something

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or rather someone suitable to work in that garden.

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And so He formed man.

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He formed a human who would partner with Him

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to work Eden and to tend to it.

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And He made this human in His image.

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And in exchange for this work,

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he'd be able to eat pretty much, like, you know,

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whatever he wanted in the garden with, like,

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little to no boundaries.

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He'd be able to indulge in, like,

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these little yellow things and the green things.

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And it would have been no big deal.

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He could do whatever he wanted, except eat from one tree.

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So as he's working, God, who's always creating,

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who's always perfecting, He looked out and He saw that

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the man needed someone suitable to correspond to him.

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And the Bible says this in Genesis 2:18:

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Then the Lord God said,

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See, it's in that moment that we realize

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what the garden really holds.

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See, God saw man exactly for who He created him to be,

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and he accepted him for it.

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He didn't try to change him.

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He didn't try to make an animal correspond to him,

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but rather He created someone to correspond with him.

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See, I believe that we all

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actually do want to know who we are,

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and more than that,

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we just want to be accepted for who we are.

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So the man is in the garden,

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not able to find one that corresponds to him.

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And so you probably know this part of the story.

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God creates another human and the man calls her woman.

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And he is wowed,

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I mean, like eyes popping out of his head wowed.

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So wowed that when God brings this woman to him,

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he calls her wife.

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And he takes it a step further because this wife,

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his wife, is helpful and everything is lovely.

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And there's lovely harmony between man

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and between God and also between the wife.

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See, in God's order,

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the three of them are in perfect unity.

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And the Bible says that they were both naked

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and they felt no shame.

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Now there's a tendency for folks to kind of, like,

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sexualize this moment and for folks to be

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so overwhelmed with the idea of nakedness

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that they won't even teach it in Sunday school.

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Just kidding.

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We miss an important part of scripture

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if we only focus on that because

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the nakedness isn't about the sex.

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It's not about being sexy,

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although I've heard that it is helpful for sex.

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Whatever.

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This moment shows us that the man and the woman

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were accepted, they're completely open

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with all of their cards on the table,

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and they felt no shame.

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Can you imagine that? Never feeling shame?

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I genuinely don't think that I can.

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Can you imagine never feeling like you needed

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to strive just enough so that everyone,

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anyone could never, ever shame you ever again?

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And anyway, acceptance is actually a big deal.

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No, I'm not talking about validation

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where our reason for being is closely tied

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to somebody else's opinion or approval of us.

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I'm not talking about that.

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I'm talking about the very basic human need

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and the wiring that we have to be unashamed.

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See, to lack shame is to be accepted.

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See, well, the man and his wife, they were accepted

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and they were happy, very.

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And part of that reason is because

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they were living within the boundaries

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that God had given them.

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They were tending and working.

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I don't really know how to tend,

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but I imagine it looks something like this.

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And they're eating freely from all the trees,

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except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

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I want to camp out here for just a second.

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First, the way that that part of the Bible

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is translated is sort of seems like

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God was hiding something good from man and woman.

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And it's translated in such a way that it makes you

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think maybe He's keeping something from them,

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withholding evidence, even.

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But if you look at the original text,

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there's a very small detail that changes

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the seemingly negative power play

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to one that shows just how much

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God actually cared for His creation.

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The original text actually translate such that

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the Knowledge of Good and Evil actually reads

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a little bit more like the decision of good and evil.

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In God's order, He carried the burden of that decision.

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He had to be the one to decide what was good

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versus what was evil.

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He knew that that burden

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would be too heavy for humanity,

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and we might not actually do a good job at it,

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as evidenced by the many injustices

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in our world right now.

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And second, this was not God's first time

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making boundaries.

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There's boundaries for heaven and for Earth,

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for light and for darkness, for sea and for land,

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and finally, for the Tree of Knowledge and for man.

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See just as there are physical boundaries,

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like the ones I'm standing in right now,

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there are boundaries for humans living in God's world.

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- Hey, hope you're enjoying this message.

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I am. You're doing a good job so far.

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- Thanks.

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- Really quick, I want to talk to you about tithing

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and show you how you can do it in the Crossroads app.

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It's super simple.

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You open your Crossroads App,

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in the bottom right hand corner you click your profile,

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in the top right you click the gear

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and give is right there.

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And we use those funds to make things like this happen,

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just telling people about the story of God

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in a language that they can understand.

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We also use those funds to partner with people

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all across the world to make change.

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Here's just one of our partners.

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- Hey, Crossroads, I'm Clive Wetherill

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from Build the Future South Africa,

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one of your Reachout partners here in KwaZulu-Natal.

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Because of your faithful giving,

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we'd just like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

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The funds allows us to set up these preschools

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in the area and also build into the community.

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Just thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts.

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- That type of giving that allows us to do things

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like this and to partner with people all over the world

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to change the world.

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Now let's get back to the story.

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- Actually, I just want to warn you

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to look out for snakes in this garden.

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They're very bad. So, just so you know.

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- I've heard that before.

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- Second, this wasn't God's first time

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making boundaries.

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See their boundaries for heaven and for Earth,

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for light and for darkness, for sea and for land,

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and finally for man,

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and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

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Just as there are physical boundaries for creation,

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there are boundaries for humans living in God's world

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and there are repercussions

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when you cross that boundary.

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The freedom that man and his wife had

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is representative of our own freedom.

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We have a choice in how we live and obtain

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what we may consider to be the good life.

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The obedience to the one boundary that God set

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is what guaranteed all the other endless freedoms.

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But this boundary,

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it's also connected to a deadly decree.

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As God promised the man and his wife that

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if they eat of the tree, they will die.

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And this, this is the first we hear of death.

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See, to this point, we've only actually heard of life

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and acceptance and freedom, and it sounds amazing,

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and it is amazing.

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But this little consequence reminds us

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we're living in God's world, not our own.

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And so enter the Serpent.

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Imagine weaving through the garden.

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Many relate this serpent to the devil or Satan.

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And although the author doesn't actually mention it here,

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we know that it's representative of the devil,

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because at the end of the Bible,

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there's called the ancient serpent,

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which is in Revelation 12:9.

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They're talking about the devil.

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So this evil serpent,

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he's not just here slithering around.

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He starts talking. Crazy.

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I think he intentionally starts talking to Eve on purpose.

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And he's saying that that boundary that God set,

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that thing that they shouldn't touch the tree,

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that's merely a hoax.

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It's a facade designed to keep them

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from truly knowing the truth.

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And so the wife, she starts to talk back.

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She lets him know that God did say that

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they should not eat from the tree.

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But she also says that they should not even touch

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the tree or they will die for sure.

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Well, if you actually read that fast, you miss it.

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She changed what God said.

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She said, "You must not eat from the tree

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from the garden that is in the middle of the garden.

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And you must not touch it, or you will die."

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Did you see the difference?

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Did you see that she iterated on God's demand

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and she made it into something

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that was likely almost impossible?

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God didn't say that.

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He didn't say don't touch the tree,

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because honestly, that's kind of ridiculous.

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How do you expect me to tend to it?

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Remember, I don't know what tending is,

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but I definitely -- you can't tend to something

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that you don't touch. Come on.

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See, it's this little deviation

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that lets us see ourselves in the story,

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or at least I see myself.

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Because when we have unrealistic demands,

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it sure is a lot easier to break rules.

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And I bet many of us can identify with the wife

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in this moment, maybe even humanize her

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because it's really, really easy to disobey,

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to get out of alignment with God,

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especially when we think it's on things

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that don't make any sense.

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And so the wife does eat.

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I think it was a mulberry.

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Some people think it was an apple,

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but she eats and she invites the man to eat as well.

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And they're chomping away.

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And it's immediate that their eyes are opened

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and they see themselves naked.

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Immediately, that feeling of harmony,

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that acceptance is gone.

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That order that God has set, that beauty is tarnished

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and they know it.

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That shame, that unashamed feeling it's vanished

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before they can even savor its last moments.

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They somehow no longer feel that feeling of acceptance.

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So their life is in their own hands now.

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And you know what, they plan to do something about it.

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So they create a substandard level of acceptance.

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They do whatever it takes to feel okay

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in this new naked space that they're living in.

00:21:30

And so they sew together some fig leaves,

00:21:32

some that I imagine look a little bit like this.

00:21:35

The ones I'm holding here.

00:21:37

And, you know, people like to think

00:21:38

that maybe they covered themselves in the parts

00:21:40

that we like deem private,

00:21:42

a little bit something like that.

00:21:44

But honestly, I think that they used these leaves

00:21:47

to cover everything, their entire body,

00:21:51

including their face, because that's what shame does.

00:21:54

They tried with everything they had

00:21:57

to just fade into the background of the garden,

00:22:01

to disappear into hiding

00:22:02

so they would not have to face their Father.

00:22:05

You see, we humans actually,

00:22:07

we've been doing this for years.

00:22:09

We've been searching for a way to cover up our shame.

00:22:13

And we've been looking for an artificial way

00:22:15

to be comfortable with ourselves, with our world,

00:22:18

and with each other.

00:22:19

And we've been looking for ways to get accepted.

00:22:23

Some of us might work 80 hours

00:22:25

and neglect our families to do it.

00:22:27

Some of us might veg out on television

00:22:30

instead of actually facing life.

00:22:32

Some of us might over or even under eat just to cope.

00:22:37

And some of us might just pretend

00:22:40

that everything is okay, even though there is

00:22:42

this deep gnawing pain in our soul

00:22:46

from our own striving.

00:22:48

And we know that it's not, and it never will be enough.

00:22:53

See, the Bible says this:

00:23:39

See, its just like a guy to blame a woman, am I right?

00:23:42

No, I'm just kidding.

00:23:43

But what the man did, he deflected.

00:23:46

And what the wife did, she deflected.

00:23:48

She's like basically a scene from Into the Woods,

00:23:51

except it's like into the garden

00:23:52

where they're all yelling at each other saying,

00:23:54

"No, it's your fault. No, it's your fault."

00:23:56

And he's saying it's her fault,

00:23:57

and she's saying it's the serpent fault.

00:23:59

Nobody's ready to take the blame,

00:24:00

and everyone is looking for a place to place the blame.

00:24:07

After God's order is broken and messed up,

00:24:09

all types of division come.

00:24:12

And I told you, this is why I think

00:24:14

the Serpent intentionally chose

00:24:15

to speak to the woman first,

00:24:17

not just because women are bosses

00:24:19

and we like get things done. Can I get an amen? We do.

00:24:22

But no, he did it because he knew

00:24:24

it would cause more division and strife later on.

00:24:29

And in fact, there are still people who believe

00:24:32

that women are inferior because of this moment,

00:24:35

because she sinned first.

00:24:38

And we see that division further play out

00:24:40

in the way that the man names his wife.

00:24:43

See, before this sinful moment, she was just wife.

00:24:46

She was near and it was a dear term.

00:24:49

And it's through this ritual act of naming

00:24:52

that we see the division come to life

00:24:54

because when you name something,

00:24:56

you declare dominion and responsibility over it.

00:24:59

And that once balanced scale, it's tipped horribly.

00:25:05

So he calls her Eve.

00:25:07

See, God, He can't stand it.

00:25:11

He cannot stand to live in a world

00:25:13

where man and woman no longer correspond.

00:25:16

They're no longer equal, where they have to decide,

00:25:19

and often wrongly,

00:25:20

for ourselves what's good or what's evil.

00:25:24

See, there's a reason that I chose to read

00:25:26

the version of scripture that I did because

00:25:29

that word correspond literally means to have similarity,

00:25:34

to match, to agree perfectly.

00:25:38

It's perfection. It's gone.

00:25:41

They don't match anymore.

00:25:43

See, Eve sinned in temptation and Adam blamed Eve

00:25:47

and now God's order, it's no longer set,

00:25:50

His boundary is no longer upheld.

00:25:51

And if you remember, crossing His boundary,

00:25:55

it meant death.

00:25:58

And some people, they try to spiritualized this moment

00:26:01

and they're like,

00:26:02

"Oh, God totally meant a spiritual death."

00:26:05

But I really don't think He did.

00:26:07

See His loving order was set in such a way

00:26:11

that He would never, ever have to utter the words,

00:26:14

"Where are you?" He would just know

00:26:16

because that's how connected they were.

00:26:18

And since we're made in His image, I got to imagine,

00:26:21

I know that when my plans change, I get mad.

00:26:24

So I expected to fully see a death.

00:26:27

There should have been a physical death, the end,

00:26:30

Genesis 1 and 2, the Bible, it's over.

00:26:32

We're done because they're dead.

00:26:34

But instead, you realize that the garden,

00:26:37

see, it's home, not just to acceptance, but Grace.

00:26:43

God does something that only He can do.

00:26:47

His mercy, He gives them mercy,

00:26:50

and then He gives them grace.

00:26:52

See, although there was a violation

00:26:54

and thus consequences that He must implement,

00:26:56

like this darkness, He doesn't choose death.

00:27:01

Instead, He sorrowfully cares for them.

00:27:06

The shame that Adam and Eve felt,

00:27:09

that was never going to be solved with fig leaves.

00:27:11

The shame that I feel, that maybe you feel,

00:27:16

that's never, ever going to be solved

00:27:18

by our own doing or our own undoing.

00:27:22

There's never, ever going to be enough

00:27:24

metaphorical fig leaves to cover up our shame.

00:27:29

But God's way is better.

00:27:31

He takes those sorry fig leaves, and for the first time,

00:27:34

He kills to make animal skins to wear.

00:27:38

And this is the first leather jacket.

00:27:40

You know, I call it the Genesis OG.

00:27:43

And it's through sheer heartache, I imagine,

00:27:47

that He's dressing them, knowing that

00:27:50

He's got to send them away from garden.

00:27:53

And He knows that even His animal skins

00:27:56

won't last forever.

00:27:57

He knows that humanity will never stop looking

00:28:01

for a place to lay the blame.

00:28:03

They'll never stop trying to cover up the nakedness.

00:28:07

So He sets the plan in motion to fix this shame forever,

00:28:11

a plan to make sure that everyone finds their way

00:28:13

home to true acceptance.

00:28:15

And that plan is Jesus. Jesus, the great rescuer.

00:28:20

And you know what? That's good news.

00:28:23

Because that unacceptance that maybe I feel at times

00:28:26

and that you feel at times,

00:28:27

that striving that maybe we both been doing,

00:28:30

when you realize that through Jesus

00:28:33

it no longer has to be that way,

00:28:35

you get a taste of the original garden freedom.

00:28:40

Knowing that Jesus went to the Cross

00:28:43

to die a death that He did not deserve,

00:28:45

and in doing so He took all of our sin.

00:28:48

He took all of the blame, all of the shame

00:28:51

and He hung naked in a shameful way on the Cross

00:28:56

so that we would never have to

00:28:58

and we would never, ever have to look

00:29:00

for artificial fig leaves again.

00:29:03

The Bible let us know that He rose on the third day

00:29:07

as the defeater of death, but not just death, right?

00:29:10

He defeated shame.

00:29:12

He defeated pain, anxiety, depression, stress, fear.

00:29:16

He defeated all of it.

00:29:19

And so you're like, "Man, Hannah, that's really cute.

00:29:22

I actually love that for you.

00:29:24

But what does that mean for us?"

00:29:27

And I got to be honest with you.

00:29:30

Knowing all that I know, it's actually still really easy

00:29:34

for me to pick up my fig leaves.

00:29:37

It's really easy for me to try to put on

00:29:40

a perfect Instagram post so that everyone

00:29:42

can like it and love it.

00:29:44

And that's how I know I'm accepted.

00:29:47

It's really, really easy for me to outwork my coworkers,

00:29:50

to stay the latest, to arrive as earliest,

00:29:52

just looking for somebody to pat me on the back

00:29:55

and say, "Hannah, good job."

00:29:58

See, I know it's actually hard,

00:30:00

and it's not as simple as I'm making it sound.

00:30:02

So, if you're there, if you're like,

00:30:04

"Hannah, this is too simple."

00:30:06

I'm with you.

00:30:08

But I want you to ask yourself:

00:30:12

What are you covering yourself up in?

00:30:15

What's your fig leaf?

00:30:16

What's that artificial thing that you've chosen

00:30:19

to hide that acceptance,

00:30:21

that unacceptance that you feel,

00:30:23

to hide that shame that you feel? What is it?

00:30:26

You have to call it out, because the reality is,

00:30:29

ya'll, we need a covering.

00:30:31

I need a covering,

00:30:33

and not this artificial fig leaf mess. Not that.

00:30:36

Because I will always try to cover up myself.

00:30:40

I'm always going to be looking for something

00:30:42

to make me feel the love that Jesus offers so freely,

00:30:45

but by myself.

00:30:48

See, but here's the good news:

00:30:50

when we accept Jesus, that is exactly what happens.

00:30:54

He covers it for us and we no longer have to hide.

00:30:57

We don't have to strive

00:30:59

because we're fully covered by the Cross.

00:31:01

And it's this perfect covering.

00:31:04

I could run, I'm so excited.

00:31:06

And it won't fade. It doesn't go away.

00:31:09

And it's through Jesus that we find,

00:31:12

we find our way home to acceptance.

00:31:15

See, because He already loves us.

00:31:18

He already loves you.

00:31:21

He already accepts you.

00:31:23

And you don't have to put on any fig leaves

00:31:25

to get His attention.

00:31:27

There's nothing that we have to do,

00:31:29

but choose to accept Him.

00:31:33

And if you want to do that right now,

00:31:36

you can pray with me right now.

00:31:37

We can do that together.

00:31:39

Because Romans 10:9 says that

00:31:40

if we confess with our mouths,

00:31:42

if we believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord

00:31:45

and that He died and He rose on the third day,

00:31:48

then we are saved.

00:31:50

And that just means that we can come back

00:31:53

into perfect harmony, into perfect community

00:31:56

that they had in the Garden of Eden.

00:31:58

We can have that with God.

00:32:00

We can come back to true acceptance.

00:32:03

Hey, if you want to pray that prayer,

00:32:05

you can repeat after me.

00:32:07

Lord Jesus, it's me, your kid.

00:32:12

I've been looking for acceptance everywhere,

00:32:16

and nothing quite seems to work.

00:32:20

I confess my sins, that I've done things my own way.

00:32:27

But I want to go Your way now.

00:32:30

I believe that Jesus died

00:32:33

and rose again on the third day,

00:32:36

through God the Father.

00:32:40

And I ask that You would come into my life

00:32:42

and be the Lord of my life.

00:32:47

In Jesus's name, Amen.

00:32:49

We're about to go in a song

00:32:51

that is talking about the goodness of God.

00:32:55

And I think the reason that I know I can sing that song

00:32:58

and call it good is because I know

00:33:00

what Jesus did for me on that Cross.

00:33:02

I know what He's doing for me daily

00:33:04

by taking away my artificial fig leaves.

00:33:07

There is a redemption that Jesus had for me,

00:33:10

that He has for you.

00:33:11

And if you just prayed that prayer, you're receiving it,

00:33:13

maybe you need a little bit more time to think about

00:33:16

if you want to pray that prayer.

00:33:18

You can do that right now as we sing

00:33:21

and reflect on the goodness of God.

00:35:48

- Do you know where you're going?

00:35:50

To get different results in life,

00:35:53

you're going to have to do some different things.

00:35:56

And if you're up for adventure this year,

00:35:59

do the Bible Challenge with me.

00:36:01

Read every day, get inspired,

00:36:04

and see what others are saying.

00:36:07

I believe the Bible is more than a book

00:36:10

that's meant to sit on a shelf and just collect dust.

00:36:13

It's meant to take you somewhere in life.

00:36:16

What about you? Where are you going?

00:36:19

Download the Crossroads App

00:36:21

and do the Bible Challenge today.

00:36:26

- First, great job. - Thank you.

00:36:28

- That was a fresh take on the story. Awesome.

00:36:30

- Thanks.

00:36:31

- Second, you mentioned the Bible Challenge.

00:36:33

- I did.

00:36:34

- And people can actually do it with us.

00:36:35

Our whole community is doing it,

00:36:37

Hannah and I are doing it. It's super easy.

00:36:39

All you got to do is download the Crossroads app

00:36:41

for free, you can read and journal right in here.

00:36:43

I've got three days down for the week.

00:36:45

My goal is four, so I'm almost there.

00:36:47

- Almost there. - Jump in with us.

00:36:48

- I think I'm right there too. You know what?

00:36:50

If you want to find out more information,

00:36:52

you can go to Crossroads.net/BibleChallenge.

00:36:53

When you get there,

00:36:54

it's not only going to tell you about that free app,

00:36:56

it's going to tell you about

00:36:58

this sweet Genesis guidebook.

00:37:00

And honestly, there's some stuff in here

00:37:02

that I just didn't have time to go into in my message.

00:37:05

And it talks about all things Bible.

00:37:07

So, you want to get this guide book

00:37:08

and we'll mail it to you for free. So check it out.

00:37:11

- That's it. See you next week.

00:37:13

- Tests take us higher.

00:37:16

To find out how, we need to go back

00:37:18

to the beginning of the story in Genesis.

00:37:21

God knows that He can trust you based on what you do.

00:37:26

God knows that you're ready for more

00:37:29

based on how you obey.

00:37:30

God knows what you're up for

00:37:33

based on how you follow through.

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