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Genesis 1 begins it says
in the beginning God created the heavens
and the Earth
and the Earth was without form and void
and darkness covered the face of the
deep
and the spirit of God hovered over the
waters
as we continue reading throughout
Genesis 1 we see over and over again
that the earth goes from being this
without form and voice space into
something akin to what we experience now
the sea was filled with life the sun was
placed in the sky and over and over
again as God is creating the Earth we
hear him in those moments of Creation
with and it was good
it was good over and over again God said
let there be light and then there was
light and God saw the light and said
it’s good
Genesis 1 continues to tell us all the
way through him creating Humanity how it
was good what he created and then in
Genesis 2 he let it he lets it be known
to humanity this is man and woman at the
time as they had not received names
until later on in Genesis 3. in Genesis
2 though he tells them I set this up to
be good for you
everything in it should function the way
that it is supposed to function the sun
is not going to fall out of the sky the
day is going to be day the night will be
night the fish will stay in the sea the
seed will continue to bring forth fruit
season after season it’s all good the
only thing you have to do is not eat
from the Tree of Life
or from the Tree of the knowledge
of Good and Evil
if you will obey this everything will
stay intact
your obedient seals the deal
God says I did my part
everything is good
but if it’s going to stay good you’re
going to have to be obedient
your obedience will ensure that
everything in this system will continue
to function in the way that I have
designed it to function the only thing
you have to do is just be obedient the
only thing you have to do you may not
understand how it’s going to function
you may Wonder in one season will the
tree bring forth fruit the way that it
did in the last season God says you
don’t have to worry about any of that
just be obedient to these rules be
obedient to what I told you to do in
this season and your obedience is like
shaking the hand of a deal that’s God’s
way of saying this is what I’m going to
do for you will you obey God says I’ll
take care of all of the rest you just be
obedient
and they had it made
baby
they had it made
okay
I believe Eve had all her edges I
believe
she never had to worry about a lace
front betraying her I believe
that they had a six-pack anointing I
don’t believe that they even had to
worry about the scale what is acne I
believe they had it made their children
was going to act right I believe God set
it up for everything to be good they
weren’t going to be worried there wasn’t
going to be any depression everything
was going to work out well but then
Eve and Adam
Adam and Eve
people just be bored we are people we
just
are supposed to act right but we just be
bored like everything’s got to be an
adventure like let’s just see what
happens
and now look at us
fighting for every Edge we got
God didn’t want that for us
can’t turn down Chick-fil-A we needed to
be closed on Sunday
now carbs have a strong coat on me I was
meant to eat fruits and vegetables
that’s how God set it up
I didn’t even need the bread of life at
that time I had everything I needed
I always wondered
why is it
that God did not want them to eat from
the Tree of Life
or from the Tree of the knowledge of
Good and Evil
then I recognized in studying that God
in his gracious generous wisdom and love
for us
did not want us to eat from the Tree of
the knowledge of Good and Evil not
because he didn’t want us to know good
because Genesis 1 makes it plain
that everything he created was good so I
don’t mind you knowing what’s good
I don’t even mind you knowing what’s God
as a matter of fact the only thing I
want you to know is good and God
the way I set this system up that’ll be
the only thing you even have a point of
reference for is good and God
but if you eat from this tree of the
knowledge of Good and Evil
you’re going to have knowledge of
something
that I never wanted you to know
the knowledge
of Good and Evil wasn’t necessarily just
the knowledge of good
but it is the reality that when you have
the knowledge of Good and Evil
it can be difficult to distinguish
between the two
talk for a minute
about the knowledge
of evil
that God never intended for you to know
it’s hard for us
when we think about the generational
disappointments and the generational
struggles that are all that we have ever
known
to come to a place where we can separate
our experience from God’s intention
because when we learn to separate our
experience from God’s intention then we
begin to recognize that it was never
God’s intention for me to know this evil
that I now know
this was never God’s intention that’s
why we ask things like where was God in
the middle of this the truth is that God
is in the middle of it now because of
the way that we acted out his plan but
the truth is that in God’s original
intention you were never supposed to
know betrayal and God’s original
intention you would have never known
heartbreak and God’s original intention
there would have never been mass
shootings in God’s original intention
the headlines wouldn’t cause
discouragement and God’s original
intention there were there was no broken
family and God’s original intention
there were no abandonment issues there
were no rejection issues this was not
God’s intention and so I try to be
careful not to place the blame on God
for what Humanity did for what evil did
because I recognize that in God’s
original intention it was never meant
for me to know this I was never supposed
to know this level of Brokenness I was
never supposed to know this level of
depression I was never supposed to know
this level of insecurity and the fact
that I know it is a direct reflection of
what happened in the garden where I was
receiving the knowledge
good
and Evil
you were never supposed to know it
and it broke God’s heart
now that you know it
oh so well
now that it’s in your bloodline now that
it’s in your family God says I never
wanted them to know that
but God is so good
that he says you can’t unknow what you
know
man oh I feel like ministering in this
place
I want to talk to somebody who wants to
unknow what they know
so you got to know some things that you
don’t want to know to even understand
what that sentence means
but I want to unknow that this type of
betrayal can exist in someone I want to
know that this type of weakness exists
within me there are some things that I
know now that I wish I could know and
sometimes I’m stuck because not because
of what I don’t know I’m set because of
what I do know I do know that people
will leave you I do know that you can
get in a situation where your pride
makes you fall I know some things that
have kept me stuck and God says I can’t
I know what you know but what I can do
is cover what you know
so in the garden
God comes down
and he’s asking Adam and Eve what
happened
when he recognizes that they’ve eaten
from the Tree of the knowledge of Good
and Evil
it says in my text that immediately when
Adam ate from it that his eyes were
opened and he saw that he was naked
when God created him naked God said it
was good
he ate from the Tree of the knowledge of
Good and Evil and now he sees his
nakedness as evil
that’s why I said it’s difficult to
distinguish between what’s good and
what’s evil because now you have this
knowledge and what you’re calling good
God might be calling even with true
calling evil God might be calling good I
think that’s why the psalmist says it
was good for me that I was afflicted I
don’t think he stumbled into that I
think he sat back and waited long enough
to see that what I thought was an evil
Affliction was actually god making all
things work together for my good it
takes someone crazy to look at what the
enemy meant for evil and say actually I
think God may have meant it for good
because now what I thought I needed was
something that would feel good I thought
I needed something that would make me
better but maybe what I really needed
was something that would inflict me
enough that I understood who my friends
were that would afflict me enough that I
started praying differently that would
inflicts me enough that I started
worship differently some people thank
God for what he did and how he blessed
them sometimes I thank God for what he
didn’t do and there were tears streaming
down my face and I was crying and I was
heartbroken but then I waited about six
months and I said you know what God it
was good for me that I was afflicted
because I now I know you’ll never leave
me nor forsake me now I know who’s
really with me and who is against me now
I know what’s on the inside of me now I
trust the gift of God that you’ve placed
on the inside of me and I wouldn’t have
gotten there unless I was afflicted
[Applause]
I says
imma cover you
you weren’t supposed to know it but I’ma
cover you
you weren’t supposed to see your
nakedness as evil but now I gotta get
down on your level of thinking so that I
could grow you up into who I want you to
become if you’re calling it evil I’ma
cover you right here but I’m also going
to make sure that there is a plan that
takes you from the way you think now
into the discovery that your ways are
not my ways and your thoughts are not my
thoughts and so you think it’s evil and
so I’m going to allow you to vent on the
level that you think oh God help me to
say this the way I feel it in my spirit
sometimes God gets down on your level so
that he can speak the language that
you’re speaking I know you’re mad I know
you’re angry I know you’re upset I know
you’re lost and you’re confused if you
think God only speaks on a high level
then you miss out on the whole reason
why we’re here the whole reason why he
got in Mary’s room wrapped himself in
flesh is because sometimes there is a
job that requires I get down on your
level you serve a God who knows how to
get down in depression sometimes we pray
depression away sometimes we say God if
you could meet me in this depression
because it feels like it’s stronger than
me so I need you to Get Down On My Level
to break this thing off of me that is
why God gets down on your level because
sometimes you cannot fight this devil on
your own and while you’re busy trying to
get up God’s trying to get down with you
so that I can help you fight on a level
you didn’t even know was possible so
that I could breathe my words of wisdom
in a way that helps you to understand
that if they left you you didn’t need
them if they walked away let them walk
if they kept on moving so that you could
keep growing sometimes you just gotta
thank God but you gotta allow him to get
down on your level with it
Adam
[Applause]
serves
a God who doesn’t mind
getting down
on his level
Adam
and Eve
are in this Garden
having to distinguish now
between what’s
good
what’s evil
and what’s God
man
and in the process
of them trying to determine the
difference
between what’s good
what’s God and what’s evil
they recognize
that God has the ability
to take
what they are attempting to make good
and teach them and train them
so that it could actually become the
good that he had in mind
isn’t this why he gets upset with Cain
and he says to him why did you kill your
brother did you not know
that if you would have leveled up I know
you thought you had a good sacrifice but
it wasn’t good enough but I’m not just
going to leave you in the area of it not
being good enough God says I’ll also get
down there in there with you and teach
you how to take what you thought was
good and make it better
God knows how to take good
God knows how to take evil
and turn it into good
I had to use the word turn it Pastor
Phil
pointed out something in Genesis 50 and
20.
that we always say the enemy you meant
it for evil but God turned it for good
but that’s not what it says
it says you meant it for evil but God
meant it for good
there were two intentions that were
happening at the same time so when we
say that God turned it it makes it seem
like it did start off evil but then God
turned it around no no Genesis 50 and 20
actually points out that it’s not that
God turned it it’s just all while they
thought it was evil I actually thought
it was good I’m reminded of Jesus on the
cross when he said forgive me Father for
they know not what they do they think
that they’re doing something that’s good
but I actually know that it’s going to
be even better because when you get
finished with it they think it’s evil
but when you get finished they’re going
to see that it was actually good there
is something powerful about knowing that
there are two intentions moving at the
same time and so I want to know Potter’s
House which narrative are you going to
buy into are you going to buy into the
narrative that the Lord that they meant
it for evil and there’s a period on what
they meant for evil and that if God’s
going to change it he’s going to have to
turn it or are you crazy enough to
believe that God doesn’t even have to
turn it that even oh God
I know you mean one thing but God means
another thing so you can keep your
intentions God doesn’t have to change it
you can mean it for evil God still means
it for good you can talk about me all
you want to but God still means it for
good I didn’t have to get the job it
felt like it was evil that I didn’t get
the job but God must submit it for good
it felt like it was tragic that I went
through the breakdown but God meant it
for good I gotta hang on to this truth
that God meant it for good because my
mind is trying to convince me that God
meant it for evil or that God was not in
it at all but I am reminded because of
who he is that he knows how to allow the
wheat and The Tear to grow up at the
same time and it is not until Harper’s
season with a threshing floor will make
the difference the threshing floor is
when we will separate what you meant for
evil my God meant for good you thought I
was going to stumble but God says I’m
going to pick you up you thought it
would kill me but God says I know CPR
you’re right it took me out but he’s got
a resurrecting power you may and for
evil
[Applause]