We're going to read from Genesis chapter 3.
We are going through a series on Genesis 3 at the moment.
! This is the next section.
The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Then the Lord God said,
Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.
Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also off the tree of life and eat,
and live forever.
Therefore the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden
to work the ground from which he was taken.
He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden
he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword
that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
This is God's Word.
Today we're finishing a series that we've been doing on the chapter, Genesis 3.
Five weeks just in this one chapter looking at this little piece of the book that's called Genesis.
And Genesis means beginnings.
So it tells you about the beginnings of human history.
It tells you about fundamentally who we are, what we were made for.
The Hebrew word that describes the whole of the first five books of the Bible
is the word Torah.
Torah, and sometimes we translate it as law,
but actually Torah means more like the way of instruction,
the way of living life in general.
And so it's got underneath it questions like,
who am I?
Who made me?
You know, you don't get to any laws in the Torah until 69 chapters in.
So the first 68 chapters are about who made you,
where did you come from,
who are you made to be,
what are you for,
and fundamentally what's wrong with you?
What's wrong with this world?
And we all feel that,
that there's something wrong with this world.
There's something wrong with us.
We're not the way we're supposed to be.
So Genesis 3 exists to tell us from God's mouth,
what is wrong?
What is wrong with this world?
What is wrong with us?
What is wrong with me?
Our culture,
when it asks that question,
comes and says something typically like,
we are born good,
but we become bad.
Our culture tends to,
tends to think collectively that the reason that we do evil,
the reason that anybody does evil in this world,
is not because we're born that way,
but because we become that way through our environment,
through things that have happened to us,
through experiences,
through trauma.
And so the heartbeat,
I think of modern Edinburgh,
is that my,
is I want to be able to say,
my delinquency is a product of other people's actions against me.
And I think that what we're doing in our culture at large,
is trying to look for a way desperately to say,
it is not my fault.
It's not me.
I didn't do it because I'm bad.
I did it because somebody else treated me bad.
And while there are truths there,
while our environment does indeed,
create problems in our life,
and patterns.
Genesis 3 comes and asks you,
do you have the courage to say,
hi, it's me.
I'm the problem.
It's me.
Had to get that in somewhere in this series.
And some of you will have to explain it to your neighbor later.
That is the thing it's saying.
You know,
every broken clock is right twice a day.
And it really is,
I'm the problem.
It's me.
That's what Genesis 3 wants you to say.
And it's not that there are good guys in here,
and bad guys out there.
It's not that we are born good,
but we become evil.
But this text tells us that we are evil from the inside out.
And the word evil in the Bible,
in the Old Testament,
doesn't mean maximally bad.
It means that we are not who we should be.
Our desires are bent and broken,
and we lean towards trespass.
And so one of the ways you can talk about Genesis 3
is not just as the fall story,
but as the trespass story.
Where Adam and Eve cross a boundary
that they were not supposed to cross.
They were made in God's image.
But what they did was they said,
I don't want to be in the image of God.
I want to be God.
And so they crossed a boundary
and reached out and seized,
attempted to try and take divinity for themselves.
And that's me.
That's you.
That's every single human being
that's ever been made in world history.
And we've learned every week
that the product of that has been a state of sin.
We don't become sinners.
We are sinners.
We're in a condition of sin.
The Heidelberg Catechism says
we have brought misery into this world
by the condition of sin
that we introduced to this world from the beginning.
And so every week we've said
that our sin has cost us alienation from ourselves.
We don't know ourselves.
We're not honest with ourselves.
Alienation from other people.
Adam blamed his wife for everything.
Marriage is broken.
It's very difficult.
Alienation from the land.
Alienation from our work.
Alienation from all we were made to be.
And most importantly,
alienation from God himself.
We hide from God.
Today, finally,
we see at the end of this passage,
we're also, very importantly,
we're alienated from home.
We're not where we were meant to be.
We've been alienated because of our sin
from Edenic life,
from the Garden of Eden.
We've been kicked out.
And so let's think about that.
We are living east of Eden.
And is there a way back?
Yes.
Let's look at that secondly.
And then thirdly,
in the meantime,
let's think about some things we can do
to long and hope for Eden.
Okay, so first,
living life east of Eden.
That's where we are right now.
That's what the text tells us.
We were in,
my family and I,
we were in Harris last week,
last weekend,
not here on the Sunday,
and we were coming back from Harris.
It's a long trip,
the Isle of Harris,
back to Edinburgh.
Seven hours if you go quickly,
but when you've got five children in the car,
it's more like ten.
And we left Tarbert and Harris
to go to Stornoway to get the ferry.
And if you don't know,
that's an hour drive,
of a seven hour drive.
And about halfway between Tarbert and Stornoway,
the youngest in the car
who can speak English,
said,
ugh,
are we home yet?
And you said,
buddy, we've got eight hours.
Okay?
And of course,
every 20, 30 minutes,
the same question
would come back up and up.
And you've been there.
Every single one of us,
when we are on a trip like that,
we long for the moment
that you step through your front door
and you drop your bags
at 11 p.m. at night,
like us,
and you say,
sweet relief.
I'm home.
We,
let's get right to the point today,
we are not home.
We were made for life
in the Garden of Eden
with the living God.
And we've been kicked out.
We're not home.
And we see that right here.
It says in verse 23 and 24
that because of our sin,
God drove us out
from the Garden of Eden
away from His presence.
And we've been living life
east of Eden
ever since that moment.
But here's the big point today,
and this is the spiritual burden,
I think,
of the text for all of us.
And that's,
though we are not home.
Christian,
if you're a Christian today,
you are not home.
And if you're not a Christian today,
no matter what you believe in,
if you've come curious,
exploring,
you're not home either.
you were made for life with God
in the Edenic realm,
in Eden,
and you're not home either.
But we struggle to actually want that.
So we are far away from home,
yet we don't think about it.
We don't dream about it.
We don't imagine it.
We don't long for it.
We live life east of Eden,
yet we don't hunger most of the time
for Eden,
for the place that God put us.
We don't desire enough
the true home that God has made for us.
And so we just let it be.
We just get on with our daily life.
And so here in verse 24,
it says that God drove Adam and Eve
east of Eden.
About 200 years before Jesus was born
in Alexandria, Egypt,
a group of Jewish scholars
translated the Old Testament Hebrew Bible
into Greek.
And we call that the Septuagint.
And this is the Bible
that Jesus largely read from,
the Septuagint,
and it's often quoted
in the Gospels itself.
And in the Septuagint,
the Greek translation
of the Hebrew Bible,
the Old Testament,
this word Eden in Genesis 3
is just the Greek word paradise.
And so in the Old Testament,
it's very clear that
the Jewish understanding of Eden
is a garden paradise,
a place of,
you can translate the word Eden
very literally to all around delight.
It could read like that.
And when we get kicked out
of the Garden of Eden
in verse 24 here,
we learn that from the very beginning,
there was land outside
of the Garden of Eden.
So when God created the world,
he created lots of lands,
the whole world,
and he picked a spot
to make his holy garden temple,
his throne room on earth.
And he came into that spot
to dwell with humanity,
to partner with humanity,
to make home with us.
And so we learn here
that there are lands
outside of the Garden of Eden
in the early days.
And they are good,
but they're not Eden.
They're not the harmony,
the glory,
the abundance of Eden.
They're not life with God.
They're not home with God.
Not exactly.
But when Adam and Eve
are driven out of Eden,
they go east of Eden,
they bring corruption,
the state of sin,
the state of misery,
the condition that they're in,
into the rest of the world,
into the lands.
And so if you go and read
Genesis 4 to 11,
it's basically an account
of the cancer
that Adam and Eve
were and brought
in their sin
into the rest of the land,
the corruption
of the rest of the world.
But we were made for Eden.
We were made for a home
greater than just the land,
for the Edenic life itself.
Now, my burden today
is to say simply this,
that because none of us
have ever lived anything
but east of Eden,
we don't know
what we're missing.
We don't know
the abundance
of the life
that God had intended for us.
And so we don't really want it.
We don't want it
because we don't realize
what it is.
Abraham Kuyper
was a Dutch theologian
in the early 20th century,
prime minister
in the Netherlands,
and he spent
a good bit of his corpus,
he wrote a lot,
and one of the things
he did was he thought
a lot about Eden,
and he writes about it
in one place,
and he's just trying
to cultivate an image
of the Edenic life for us,
to cultivate desire
in our heart for true home.
And this is what he says.
He says,
There are flowers
so delightfully beautiful
as we no longer know them,
foliage that by shape
and intense color
entice the eye,
trees that far exceed
the cedar
and the palm in splendor.
Inexpressible gloriousness
all around.
The Garden of Eden
throbbed with life
through the songbirds
and the branches
and the noble,
pure-blooded animals
that populated paradise
newly created by God
in undamaged perfection.
And he says,
The animal world,
in the animal world,
peace reigned.
There was no tormenting insects,
no midges.
He didn't say that.
I added that part.
But no midges,
if you're from the U.S.,
no mosquitoes,
no prowling tigers,
that raised its paws
against us.
And here's the big piece.
Listen to this.
He says,
Everything was,
of course,
still far more beautiful
and glorious
than our words
could possibly sketch.
Paradise is gone,
and the only imagination,
only the imagination,
can to some extent
bring it back to us.
Paradise is far gone.
We don't know yet
what we're missing.
C.S. Lewis writes about this
in his book,
Surprised by Joy.
So in Surprised by Joy,
he writes an account
of his own biography
and how he came
from atheism
to Christianity.
And it's a beautiful
little book.
But in it,
he says that
every time he reads
about Eden
in the Bible,
he thinks about
his childhood,
and he goes back
to this moment
with his brother
in their family home
in Ireland.
And he says his brother
would take a biscuit tin,
you know,
one of the really nice
biscuit tins,
the gift tins,
you know.
And he would take it
and he would put flowers
and plants from the garden,
wildflowers,
and he would organize
the flowers and the plants
and the grass
all on top of this biscuit tin.
And they would play
like they had built
their own little garden.
And then the light
in the back garden,
the sunshine,
would shine down
on the biscuit tin
and it would reflect
up from the metal
of the tin
and shine up
through the lights,
through the flowers,
the grass.
And he said,
every time he opens
the Bible
and he reads about Eden,
he images this tin,
the light refracting,
reflecting up
through the flowers
and the grass
that his brother made,
conjuring,
creating an imagination
of moments
of what it must be like
to be in the Garden of Eden,
life with God
from the beginning.
And if you've read that book,
you might know
that he attaches
a word to that,
a German word,
Zenzucht,
and he grabs hold
of this German word
to try to take hold
of something
we don't quite have
in English.
And for him,
what Zenzucht means
is something like
a description
of the intense longing,
the intense longing
for something
you've never
actually experienced.
An intense,
desperate longing,
a hole in your heart,
you know,
there's a hole
in your heart,
a God-shaped hole,
life in Eden,
an Edenic hole
in your heart,
and you've got
a longing,
a Zenzucht,
a deep desire
for something
that you've never
actually tasted.
True home.
And so,
long before C.S. Lewis
ever said that,
Abraham Kuyper,
he put it like this,
he said,
none of us
who have ever
been conceived
and born
in this sinful world
can get a full,
profound impression
of what that heavenly
paradise must have
been like.
Only one day
when we rise
from the dead
will we have
the receptive capability
to perceive
such inexpressible
glory and beauty.
He says,
we do not long
for enough.
We do not long
for more
because we have
never experienced
the more.
And he goes on,
he says,
we must not put
our highest desires
lower than what
God has destined
for us.
Friends,
when you read about Eden
and you read about
true home,
do not put your
greatest desires
lower than what
God has destined
for you.
long for an
overabundance
that you cannot
imagine.
Life with God,
life in the
Edenic realm.
He says,
we're homesick
for too little
because we desire
too little.
We haven't clearly
recognized from
how high a state
of bliss and
heavily overabundance
we have fallen.
We cannot gauge
the depth into
which sin has
thrown us east
of Eden.
We're in exile.
We're east
of Eden.
We are not home.
And because of
that,
we've got an
Edenic and
God-shaped hole
in our heart
that cannot be
filled until
this life in
Christ brings us
back.
There's no
win in this
life,
there's no next
thing coming in
this life that
will ever fill
the God-shaped
hole,
the Edenic hole
in your heart
for true home.
The next job
won't do it.
The next
relationship won't
do it.
The next big
win won't do it.
The step up in
career,
the step up in
reputation,
it won't do it.
There's a God-shaped
hole and the only
thing that will
ever fill it is
going home again.
Secondly,
is there a way
back?
Yes,
the text tells us
here.
This text actually
tells us.
You don't even have
to go to the rest
of the Bible to
hear that there is
a way back.
In verse 22,
we're told that
the Lord God
kicks Adam and
Eve out because
the man has
become like one
of us,
knowing good and
evil.
So we're told
here in the
passage the
reasons that
we've been
driven out from
the garden.
The first
reason,
God says,
is because we
know good and
evil like God.
Now,
God knows
about evil.
He's gone
toe-to-toe with
evil.
He knows about
it.
But the word
know here is
very intimate.
It's saying that
we now,
because of our
choices,
we know evil
intimately.
And so the
first reason we're
told that we've
been driven out
of Eden is
because evil
cannot stand
inside the
garden temple
of God.
It cannot be
near unto God's
presence.
And so we're
driven away
because we've
made an intimate
relationship with
evil itself.
We've become
sinners.
But then he goes
on from there and
gives you the
second reason.
And here's the
real heartbeat.
In verse 23,
it says,
sorry,
the end of
verse 22,
lest we reach
out and take
and eat from
the tree of
life,
he sends us
away.
Lest we reach
out and we
take and we
eat from the
tree of
life and we
live forever,
God banishes
us.
Now,
the tree of
life,
this beautiful
tree in the
midst of the
garden of
Eden,
God tells you
that one of
the reasons
that you
cannot be in
Eden at this
moment is lest
you reach out
your hand and
you take and
you eat from
the tree.
The tree of
life is a
sacrament.
So in the
New Testament,
in the New
Covenant,
in our church,
we celebrate the
Lord's Supper,
and that's a
sacrament.
So we come
and we taste
physical bread,
physical wine,
and in that
physical experience,
God communicates to
us a spiritual
reality through the
physical experience.
In the same way in
the Garden of
Eden,
there's a
sacrament at the
heart of the
Garden of Eden,
this physical
reality,
the tree of
life,
and you reach
out and you
take of it,
you taste of
it,
and it's God
communicating to
you life.
And somehow,
someway in the
Garden of Eden,
the tree of life,
this sacrament,
gives the gift of
everlasting physical
life.
So when you,
excuse me,
when you take and
you eat of it,
it communicates to
you like a
sacrament,
physical,
enduring,
everlasting life.
And the reason that
God says to Adam and
Eve,
I'm kicking you out of
the Garden,
lest you take,
lest you eat,
is why?
It's because He's
saying to them,
you think,
Adam and Eve,
human being,
you think that you
can say to God,
I don't want you,
I don't want
relationship with
you,
I don't want my
father,
but I want to stay
in the home He
built for me,
and only take the
benefits.
I want to be able
to stay here and
get immortal life,
I want physical
life,
I want everlasting
life,
I want the goods
that you've made
for me,
but I don't want
you.
And God's saying,
you think,
you think that you
can reject the God
who made you,
the Creator who
made you,
trespass against
Him and say,
we want you
dead,
like the prodigal
son in Luke 15
who says to the
Father,
I will take my
third,
I will take my
inheritance,
I wish you were
dead,
I want your
benefits,
I don't want you.
And He says,
you can't reject
God,
human being,
and then come
and say,
but I really
like the benefits
you made for me.
You can't reject
God and say,
but I do want
the immortal life
that you had
promised.
I want to eat
from the tree of
life and take
that gift.
And you know,
what is God
doing here?
He's saying,
lest you continue
to take and reach
and reach and reach
and seize the
immortal life,
the gifts that I've
given you,
and continue to
reject me,
I banish you.
In other words,
what is He doing?
He's saying,
I am kicking you
out of the Garden
of Eden so that
you can be
redeemable.
You see,
if you're left to
the Garden,
in the Garden of
Eden,
with your sin,
all you will do
is loot the
tree of life
forever and
stay in exactly
the condition
you're in.
You'll continue
over and over
again to say,
I'm okay.
I've got pleasure
forevermore.
I'm happy to
take the goods
and leave the
God behind
who made them.
And you see
what God's doing?
He's saying,
I have kicked
you,
I have exiled
you from the
Garden of Eden
so that you
will be able
to come home
again.
It's mercy.
Lest they eat
of the tree
of life
and become
irredeemable
in their condition.
God says,
you're banished
so that you
will see your
need to come
home.
He's doing
nothing but
showing them
mercy.
Now,
how does
He do that?
Verse 22,
in verse 22
it says that
He clothed
them in skins
from animals.
So God,
on their way
out,
takes an
animal and
sacrifices the
animal and
puts clothes
on their naked
bodies,
gives them
new clothing.
And when He
says that,
He's saying,
I will clothe
you temporarily
by the
substitutionary
death of
another.
If you're
going to go
live life
east of Eden,
you need to
know that the
only way you're
going to be able
to come home
again is through
the substitutionary
death of another.
And through the
death of animals,
just in a
temporary way,
you see there's
a shadow,
there's a
prefigurement,
there's something
being promised.
By the death
of another,
you could be
clothed in
grace.
And then even
Adam starts to
realize that in
verse 20,
foolish Adam,
he's been very
foolish,
but in this
moment he looks
over at the
woman Eve and
it says that he
names her Eve.
So, so far in
the text,
in Hebrew,
Eve has only
been called
woman,
never named.
Adam's only
been called
Adam, which in
Hebrew just means
man, so he's
never really named
Eve either.
But in this
moment, the only
human to get a
proper name, in
verse 20, Adam
looks over at
Eve and he
says, Eve.
And this is not
like Adam in
chapter 2, naming
the animals with
authority over
them precisely.
This is Adam
recognizing something
in her.
You see what's
happening?
Adam looks at
the woman and
he says, in this
woman is the
possibility of
true life.
And so he
names her Eve,
the mother of
all living.
Eve in Hebrew
sounds like the
life-giving one,
the one from
whom life shall
come.
What is he
doing?
He is connecting
the pieces, the
dots, and he's
saying, Genesis
3.15, God had
promised one day
the seed of the
woman would be
born to crush the
head of the
serpent.
Now he's saying,
wait a minute,
there she is,
Eve, the mother
of all living, the
one from whom the
seed will one day
come.
You start to put
the pieces together
and you realize
that in this text
alone, God is
saying that one
day,
through the
son of Eve, a
son shall be
born by whose
sacrifice new
clothes, new
garments shall be
put on your
back.
Through
substitutionary
atonement, a
sacrifice will be
made by which you
could be clothed
and then maybe,
maybe the tree of
life would be open
to you again.
Maybe you could
step back in.
Friends, in the
New Testament, on
the day that Jesus
Christ died on the
cross, do you
remember that the
curtain was torn in
two?
And embroidered on
the curtain, what
is it?
It's plants,
foliage, garden
images, and
cherubs.
You see, there's a
cherub guarding the
way to the Garden
of Eden.
But when Jesus
Christ died, the
curtain was torn in
two.
And Jesus said to
the cherub that day,
you're fired.
You can go home.
Your day job has
ended.
And Jesus Christ's
dead body was put
into a garden.
Why?
Why did, why was, you
see, Jesus' dead body
was put into the
garden.
He was buried in a
garden.
So that by the
sacrifice through the
death of another, we
could say, he could
say, look, the debt is
paid, Father.
The victory has been
won so that on the
day of resurrection,
Jesus Christ could open
the gate to the Garden
of Eden and could say
to every single one of
you, the cherub's been
kicked out.
Now the cherub is
simply one who stands
by the grave, folds
the clothes and says,
come on and see.
Come and see.
The way of the Garden
is open to you.
The way of the Garden
is open to you.
True home is open to
you again through
Jesus Christ.
And the invitation
today is to simply
see one thing and
that's what sin has
taken away from us in
this life east of
Eden, Jesus Christ
will give far more.
Somehow, someway, when
we step into the
Edenic life one day, we
will look back at just
the faintest memory of
the pain and the toil and
the struggle and the
strife of this life and
we will say, for all the
pain we experienced, what
sin did to us, Christ has
given far more.
His plaster is wider than
the wound that sin ever
created.
And so let me finish
with this.
We now are living in the
time between Eden and
Eden.
We're living east of
Eden.
What can you do today
while you wait?
And let me give you two
things to do and we'll
close.
I was reading Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, the German
theologian who resisted
Hitler and was
assassinated, murdered by
Hitler for that.
But he wrote a
commentary on this text
and in his comments on
this little passage, he
says that ever since this
moment we have been
living east of Eden, we've
been living, he says, in
the twilight land.
That's what he calls it.
So he uses the two
Hebrew words here for
good and evil, which is
tov and ra.
And he says, the life we
live east of Eden is the
life between tov and ra,
the life in the middle of
good and evil.
And he calls it the
twilight.
He says, we live in the
time between the darkness
and the light.
And the reason he says
that, what's one of the
first things you need to
do with a text like this?
You need to realize all of
us today, we're living
between the light and the
darkness.
And so in this life, when
you get closer to moments
of life, of light, the
best possible moments you've
ever had, the most
enjoyable moments, the
best relationships, the
best moments of light, you
get really close to the
light, you start to think
this life is really great.
It feels a little bit like
the Garden of Eden.
But on the flip side, some
of us may be walking a lot
closer to the darkness
right now and getting
really close to the
darkness and feeling like
this life is pretty close
to hell.
And Bonhoeffer says one of
the things we've got to
see is Jesus, God, did not
banish us into hell.
He did not banish us into
torment.
He banished us into the
twilight land, the land
between good and evil, the
land between light and
darkness.
And that means that in the
moments, the best possible
moments you've ever had in
your life, you've got to
remember, you've got to
remember, you are not yet
home.
In the worst possible
moments you ever have in
this life, the darkest
moments in this life, you
are not in hell.
This land is east of Eden,
but it is not hell.
And so that means that we can
look up and we can say,
I'm so grateful for so
much of the good that God
continues to pour into my
life.
I'm so grateful for the
sunshine coming in today
and the beauty of a city
like Edinburgh and all the
good moments.
And at the same time, boy,
I'm made for far more than
this.
I long for so much more.
I long to return to the
Edenic life, to true home.
Now, this gives you
incredible explanatory power
because you can say today,
this is why the best things
in this life never really
satisfy, right?
So you come and you get
the next job you were
waiting for.
And you get that job and a
week or two in, somebody
asks you, how's it going?
And you say, you know, I
like it, but it's kind of
meh.
And you get into the next
relationship you've been
longing for for so many
years and you finally get
there and you realize in
the midst of it, this is so
hard and it's a little bit
meh sometimes.
You know, that theological
word meh.
You feel that.
We always, you get the next
thing you desire so much
and then it's not really
filling the hole.
And that's because you're
living east of Eden.
You're living in the
twilight land.
Life between the tov and
the ra, the good and the
evil.
And so nothing's ever going
to do it.
Nothing is ever going to do
it.
I hope this will sound the
way I intend it.
I came and moved to
Edinburgh to do a PhD and I
did that.
And I really, in my
younger years, thought, oh,
this will be very fulfilling
and I will be, it will be
very special to get a degree
like this, you know.
And I remember turning my
PhD thesis in, down in
George Square, and I handed
it in and the lady that
received it, the printed
copy, asked me if I would
like to take a piece of
candy from the candy box.
I'm very serious.
That's what happened.
And I thought, life is
meh, you know.
You think you've accomplished
something and no one cares.
And that's exactly right.
You live east of Eden.
Nothing will fill you.
Nothing will bring the
abundance to your life that
you long for apart from home
with God.
So finally, what can you do?
What you've got to do until
then is you've got to see that
and you've got to come to
Christ who clothes you with
better clothing than your
naked shame, who clothes you
with better clothing than
anyone else can give you, who
will usher you into Eden.
And one of the things you can
do with that is you can go to
the book of Revelation,
Revelation 22, where we see
the Edenic life imaged.
And you've got to meditate on
it.
And you've got to read lines
like, when the Lord Jesus
brings heaven to earth, when
he brings the new Eden to us,
it says that the leaves of
the tree of life will heal
all the nations.
So if you're burdened by the
wars that are going on right
now, by the pain, the toil,
the strife, the earthquake
that's killed at least 2,000
people in Myanmar this week,
you've got to come and say,
one day in the Edenic life,
the leaves of the tree of
life himself will heal the
nations.
And it will cure the land.
And it says right after that
in Revelation 22, that the
curse will be dismissed and it
shall be no more.
And if you're facing death
right now, you're facing this
physical life that's so hard,
you've got to say, he will
kick the curse out of the
garden.
He will heal the land.
He will bring us back from
east of Eden.
He will bring us back to true
home.
Jesus Christ gives far more
than sin ever took away.
Let us pray.
Father, we ask that you would
cultivate in us longing for real
home.
And we pray, Father, that in
the midst of the times we are
too satisfied with this life,
you would break through that
and show us we're not where we
were meant to be, who we were
meant to be with.
And in the moments where we are
very close to darkness in this
life, you would remind us that
this is not hell.
You are giving us time.
You are patient.
You are drawing us back, Lord.
So help us to come back, to come
home today.
And I pray that in Jesus' name.
Amen.