A newly-married man asked his wife, “Would you have married me if my father hadn’t left me a fortune?” “Honey,’ the woman replied sweetly, ‘I’d have married you, no matter who left you a fortune!”
Genesis 3:7-10 – 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 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. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Talk about what led up to this (ate the fruit, etc.)
Talk about verse seven you can’t cover up yourself.
Genesis 3:21 – The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them..
So many times when we mess up we focus on that mistake but the truth is. God loves us in spite of our mistakes.
I’m not saying we don’t need repent and ask for forgiveness, and that we just think it’s alright, we need to learn from them. But so often like Adam we run and hide from God thinking He’s going to come and find us and let us have it, but the truth is the Lord’s love is given to you without strings or conditions. He loves you in spite of you.
He saw your mistakes before you ever made them. You didn’t surprise Him by them. He didn’t look down from heaven and look at what you did and say oops didn’t see that coming.
Listen I’m not saying continue that way. Ask for forgiveness move on and move up. What I am trying to say is that just as He did with Adam, God clothed your nakedness.
How did he do that? Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21
2 Corinthians 5:21 – God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Listen church I think when you distance yourself or hide yourself from the Lord due to guilt or a feeling of condemnation that hurts Him far more than the sin that created those feelings. It’s like your saying I don’t think what Jesus did was enough, what the Word says is true.
Remember what Romans chapter 8 tells us:
Romans 8:1-4 – Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
See here’s the thing God loves you with an unfailing love. He called you from your mother’s womb. He calls you by name.
Just as He called Moses and think about this Moses was a murderer and he stuttered. He called David and he had an affair and then he tried to cover it up by having Bathsheba’s husband sent to the front line and he was killed. Then there’s Jonah he too tried to run from God.
Listen God didn’t call you because you had it all together He called you because before you were a thought in your parents minds He loved you.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 – The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Listen to it from the Message translation as a matter of fact I’m going to add verse 9.
(The Message) – God wasn’t attracted to you and didn’t choose you because you were big and important—the fact is, there was almost nothing to you. He did it out of sheer love, keeping the promise he made to your ancestors. God stepped in and mightily bought you back out of that world of slavery, freed you from the iron grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know this: God, your God, is God indeed, a God you can depend upon. He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him and observe his commandments for a thousand generations.
Without seeing yourself as He sees you, there will always be apprehension between you and the Lord.
Because of what the Lord has done to make us as pure as He is, we have no right be anxious, to worry, or be fearful. We have no right to an inferiority complex. We have no right to continual guilt. We have no right to see ourselves as unworthy.
You are in Christ. And that is where God sees you and me.
Jesus has removed your sins as far as the east is from the west and He has made you spotless in His sight by His shed blood
His love is not based upon your conduct, but upon His own.
Listen to this quote and story from Frank Viola in his book From Eternity to Here
“Jesus sees you as part of Himself. Holy and blameless. What you believe about yourself and how others have described you is the real lie.”
Now for the story:
“Billy is a seven-year-old boy who loves to draw pictures. But he’s not your typical seven-year-old who likes to draw. He has an unmatched talent as an artist. The pictures he sketches are riveting. Billy’s parents are highly moralistic. They are also coldly disengaged from their son’s talent. They fear that Billy will grow up very prideful over his unique talents as an artist. Plus, forging a career as an artist is not a noble goal in their eyes. So Billy’s parents tell him that his drawings are not very good and that he should stop drawing. So he does. Billy lays down his crayons, his colored pencils, and his markers. Ten years pass by, and Billy is a high school student. He takes health as one of his electives. One day his teacher gives her students an exercise in projective personality tests. Each student must draw a picture depicting the happiest moment in his or her life and the saddest moment. To his surprise, Billy finds himself doing something that he hasn’t done in ten years. He begins to draw pictures. Upon finishing his pictures, four students who are sitting nearby take a peek at the product of his pen. They are aghast. They blurt out, “My goodness, Billy, that’s awesome! Wow, you have a real gift, man.” Billy is shocked. He suspects that they are poking fun at him. “Yeah right,” he retorts. “I know I can’t draw, so save the sarcasm.” One of the four students waves the teacher over, saying, “You gotta get over here and see this.” As the teacher walks over to Billy’s desk, her eyes widen. She says to the young man, “Billy, these are the most incredible drawings I’ve ever seen. You really have a talent. Have you considered taking art class?” Still, Billy has a hard time believing what he is hearing. Why? Because for the last decade his parents have told him that he cannot draw well. Yet the reality all along was that Billy was a gifted artist. But that’s not how he perceived himself. The lie was easy to believe because it was repeatedly told to him by those he expected to tell the truth.”
See here’s the thing church, he goes on to say:
.We have been sold a bill of goods as to how God sees us. The fact is: There is love in your God that is more powerful than anything we can comprehend or imagine.”
I think there are two motivating powers there may be more, but these two are at the top of the list. One is guilt. The other is love. Unfortunately, it seems that many times guilt has a way of overshadowing love.
I believe the Holy Spirit brings correction not to make us feel guilty, but to make us better because he loves us.
For to long the church has made people feel guilt. But look at this verse. . .
Ephesians 2:4-10 – 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
That word handiwork could be translated as masterpiece. You are God’s masterpiece. He has signed His name and said look what I created I’m proud of this one. It was worth the cross. They was worth the ransom. They are a work of art, a masterpiece.
We need to stop hiding from Him and start running to Him. I know you have made mistakes. Run towards Him, I know the circumstances seem overwhelming, run towards Him, I know life hasn’t been easy, run towards Him. He he is able and he already has made a way to cover our nakedness. He became sin for us, so that we can be found righteous in Him.
He died so we can live.
1 John 4:15-19 – 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.
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