Roche Coleman Ministries: The Infusion Broadcast

Roche Coleman: When they sinned in the Garden of Eden, they partook from the fruit of the tree. God is going to be against man. God is going to be against the woman. God is going to be against creation, and God is going to be against the creature. Everything has an antagonistic relationship as a result of disobedient sin.

Next thing, man is going to have problems in his relationship. Who is the man's enemy? God is man's enemy now. He's against God because he becomes defensive because God comes in, asks him a question, and he blames God for the predicament that he's in. Because he said, "You gave me this woman." He's blaming Eve, and he's blaming God.

He's definitely blaming Eve and God because even more so than Eve, he's blaming God because he said, "Look, I was fine in here by myself. You said that I needed this woman." That's at the core of what Adam is trying to articulate here. You have to hear it. But see, Eve is tangible; he can get to her. He knows he can't fight against God. But at the core of it, the first person that he is against is he's blaming God for his predicament. A lot of times, we're blaming God and we're mad at God, but we can't get to Him, so we blame those around us.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Infusion Broadcast with the Roche Coleman Ministries. Thanks for joining us as Dr. Coleman continues teaching this series about relationships. Before we get to our lesson today, we request you pray that the Lord will use these broadcasts to bring hope and encouragement to many in your community and also globally.

Would you also partner with us through a financial contribution? Your gift of any size will help us greatly as we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and challenge believers to grow in faith. Please log on to rochecolemanministries.org to learn more about our ministry and to make a financial contribution. You could also mail a check to Roche Coleman Ministries, 594 Sawdust Road, Suite 185, The Woodlands, Texas, 77380.

We're grateful for your support. If you have any questions, please call us. Our number is 346-386-4621. Friend, maybe you'll agree that most of our worries concern relationships with others. Dr. Coleman takes us to the creation itself in the Book of Genesis to show how our relationships break down and God's solution. Let's go now to part one of the lesson, "How Sin Affects Our Relationships."

Roche Coleman: One of the challenges in life is so often for many of us to come to the place where we accept responsibility for our actions. It's tough for us to accept responsibility for our action. On many occasions when things go awry and someone comes to us and asks us to give an account of our stewardship in any context, one of the primary things we want to do is we want to find an alternative or find an excuse for why things are in the condition they're in.

We always want to find a reason to blame someone else for the predicament. It's rare where we find when people have made errors or accidents or mistakes, or when they've just been downright wrong, when they're confronted that they come to the place where they say, "You know what? I was wrong. I didn't do it. I will correct it." One of the primary things that will happen is people become defensive and they want to defend themselves. But not only do they become defensive, they want to point and blame somebody else and say it was their fault, it was their responsibility.

It's rare that when we confront people in situations they say, "Guilty as charged, but next time that won't happen." And so often that occurs. Today in Genesis chapter three, we're going to see one of the first places that man comes up with an excuse for his actions. Last week, we were looking at the fact that relationships originated with God. And we saw that God created man not to exist in isolation but within the context of a relationship. That was one of our impact facts, our thesis statement last week.

God has created us not to be in isolation but in relationship to other people. We saw there were two primary relationships that exist: man's relationship with the Lord and man's relationship with mankind. We said the vertical and the horizontal planes. Those relationships exist, and you can't miss that. It's imperative that you see that those relationships exist and you can't avoid them. There's nowhere you can go in this world and you won't be in relationship to somebody else. It just does not exist.

And so it's important that we understand that and we see this. We went on and saw in there also that God created us in His image and His likeness. We looked at that referring to the spiritual and intellectual. These are key passages. God created us in His image and likeness, meaning not in a physical representation, but in the image in the sense that we are spiritual beings. We are intellectual in character. We are to reflect God's character in the context of this world, in the context of our relationships.

That's what we're supposed to do, being in the image and likeness of God. In our administration, we are to reflect the image and likeness of God. What do you mean when you say administration? I want to make certain I say this because I feel like last week I didn't hit it the way I needed to. Administration is so important. One of the things you have to see is that God is a wise God.

In one of the things I always go back to when I want to see God's functioning and especially administratively, look also in the creation order of Genesis one, but go and look at the Tabernacle. This is post-fall. If you look at the Tabernacle and you look at the Temple, God was very specific in how He wanted it designed. He was very specific in the dimensions as well as in its contents. He was very specific and He said, "There are certain things I want here, and I want to make certain that you do it."

He said, "I want it down to the tee. I want you to follow my instruction." He had a great blueprint. That shows us how God works when it comes to administratively working in things. So often what happens is that we come to the church, and that is where we start diminishing. We want to come to the church and we want to bring the church only our third, fourth, and fifth best. We don't bring God what's first.

The top shelf, the crème de la crème. That's why God talks about first fruits. He said, "I want what's off the top." He said, "Don't give me that which is diminished, and when you're tired." He said, "I want the best service for me." We have to make certain that we do that. A lot of times what happens is that we think we can just bring God seconds. But administratively, you see God had everything organized and He wanted it in a specific way that's administrative because He said, "I want what's best."

Then the individuals that He used, He wanted skilled individuals, and the Spirit of God gave them the skill and ability to accomplish the task. All of this reflects God when we talk about His image and likeness, and that's what He expects us to bring to the table. Stay with me now; you have to hear this. Because when we work and when we do things that reflect God, they have to be done on the level that God would do them.

What is Malachi all about? When He says, "Hey, don't bring me those lame and those blind sacrifices." He said, "That's second best. I want what's up top." Image and likeness. God says, "When I created you, I brought my best. When I created the world, the best." He said the same thing has to be here. Why is that important? Because it's the same when it comes to your relationships. You have to try to bring the best.

And we're going to see this in here. Because a lot of times, that's where we bring our worst in the relationships, and especially to those who are nearest and dearest to us. It's kind of ironic. So we see all of this took place and we see how God said this. Image and likeness. We saw in chapter two, which was very important, because in chapter two, He restates and He's very specific in His creating work. God is very specific because He goes in here and He talks about man, how He takes him and puts him into a deep sleep, creates Eve from man, from the rib, and He creates this helper.

She's there to help him. Not only that, she is of his kind. Everything had its kind except man. In the plant kingdom and the flora, everything was of its kind so it could reproduce. In the animal kingdom and the fauna, it had its kind so it could reproduce. Now He says, "Come down to man." He didn't have a like kind. It was not good, so He made one who is of his kind: Eve. And not only of his kind, but also who can complement, who can be his helper.

All of this is taking place. God setting up the need for relationship, not to be in isolation, and then He's going to come into chapter three and this is where things are going to change. Chapter three is one of those books where you're like, "Man, could we rewrite the chapter? Could we just extract chapter three out of the Bible?" If we could extract chapter three, then we could extract the other 65 books and all of the rest of the chapters in Genesis. It would be a different script. Relationships would be so much different.

Chapter three is a pivotal moment in the existence of mankind. I tell people all the time when they become a believer, so many people say go to John and read the Gospel of John. I'm like, that is cool, but I think you need to go to Genesis so you can understand how did we get in this mess? How did we get in this chaos and confusion? I want you all to stay with me this morning because I want to show you something out of Genesis chapter three. You've read it, you've heard the story a thousand times.

But I want you to really see what happened with one act of disobedience. Watch this in Genesis three and stay with me. I hope you brought a pen or a highlighter because you need to highlight this. If you're married, you really need to highlight it. And if you're thinking about getting married, you really need to highlight it because you need to understand why these contentions exist in relationships. I'm going to give you some insight and some help that will help you in relationships because you can go back and understand why the contention and the confusion is there.

You will see the why, and then it will help you start going toward the place of saying how we're going to resolve it. Because a lot of times if we can get the why down, it will help us to get to the place where we can understand about resolving it. Impact statement for the day: Man's disobedience in the garden permeates through every sphere of his existence, but primarily in his relationships. Genesis three: God had put man in the Garden of Eden. A utopia. Beautiful. We can't even imagine how beautiful it was.

Probably manicured lawns, fruit, luscious grapes, and pomegranates, peach, whatever he wanted, it was there. He was basically a vegetarian; that's all he was eating. Steak was not on the menu. Everything in this garden was wonderful, beautiful. God placed Adam and Eve in the context of this garden. The garden symbolized being in the presence of God. It symbolized having the protection of God and the provision of God. Just think about being in a lush place where you have no worries, no concerns.

Think also about this: there was no such thing as sin. It's hard for us to imagine that. Adam and Eve had no friction between them. God continually was in the presence of the garden. He was always there. I'm going to prove that in a moment. He was always there in the garden walking amongst them. They had great communion and fellowship and relationship. But all of a sudden, some things change. The Bible tells us the serpent was crafty. The serpent comes into the garden to have a conversation with Eve.

Eve is in the garden, serpent comes in and starts talking to her. And the interesting thing I always bring out in this text: He didn't speak to Adam one time. He shows up in the garden, bypasses Adam, goes directly to Eve, and starts having a conversation. He didn't say, "Hey, Adam, how you doing?" No, he bypassed him. Why? One reason: authority. He wants to undermine and usurp the structure that God has put in place. And remember, we already understood, it's not that Adam was better, but God had put in structure.

He says, "This is how I want it to flow." Anything contrary to that, you're going to have problems. Serpent comes in, has a conversation: "Indeed has God said, you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?" The very first thing he starts, he starts questioning the word of God. Notice that now. He's questioning the word of God. Woman says to the serpent, "From the fruit of the tree to the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God says you should not eat from it."

She's pretty good. She might not have quoted it verbatim, but she has the gist of the law. We know about that. We might not know the law verbatim, but we know it well enough to keep us out of trouble. Here it is. She says, "We can't eat from that tree." Serpent says to the woman, "You won't die. Surely not." Questioning the word of God again, putting doubt in her mind.

Anyway, you know the story. She looks at the fruit, she makes some decisions about the fruit, and she eats from the fruit of the tree of the garden. The Bible tells us in verse six, she gave some to her husband who was with her. She gives this fruit to her husband who was with her. Out of all the fruit she had in the garden, why does she have to touch the fruit that He says don't touch? What's up with that? Why are we like that?

Nobody would touch this podium as long as I sit here, but if I put a sign on it that said, "Do not touch," you'd have to just come touch it. You wouldn't want to touch this thing, this big box, but if I put a sign, "Do not touch," you'd say, "Why? Why can't I touch it?" Kids will come by and look and they'll say, "Gotta touch it. I just gotta touch it." There is something within us that just desires to rebel. We're rebels at heart.

Once we see the sign that says "do not," it seems like we just have to. One of the things right over here in the parking lot: I asked people at the school, I said, "Please let the parents know that we would love for them just to park in the designated areas. We don't want them parking over there because we have sprinklers, and sometimes they go off the sidewalk and hit the sprinklers or they get out of their car and they'll step on them. We don't want them turning around over there because they get in the grass. Please ask them to just park in the designated." We want to be good neighbors, but please ask them to do that.

Why is it they just have to park in the fire lane? There's a lady I went to and asked, I said, "Ma'am, we don't mind parking, but would you please park in the designated areas because we don't want to mess up our sprinklers and we're trying to maintain the facility." She just can't obey. Every morning I come in, she's right there hit on the sprinklers, just will not do what is right. I took pictures of all the cars parked in the grass, gave them to the principal.

I said, "Please ask the people to stop parking on our grass. We have place for them to park." Just will not do it. Why? Because we are rebels at heart. Rebels at heart. And if I told them park on the grass, they wouldn't do it; they would park in the designated areas. It's the same happens right here with Adam and Eve. We are no different. We are just like Adam and Eve. Even though we want to believe we would have made a different decision, we're just like them.

They make the decision to eat. All of a sudden when they make this decision, I want you to see the results of their decision. Because see, this is where it really gets murky and you see the confusion. Once they make this decision to eat from this fruit, watch how their relationships are going to change. Prior to this, God would come in there. The Bible tells us chapter two, they were naked and unashamed. You see that?

Look in chapter two, He tells us the man should leave his wife. Verse 23 in chapter two: the man said, "This is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man." For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become what? One flesh. What did it say in verse 25? And the man and his wife were both what? Naked and unashamed. There was no shame, no inhibitions at all existed. They were free.

You see it all the time with little children. They don't know what—they're like, "Hey, what?" You're like, "Go back there and put on some clothes." They run out, they don't think anything at all in their glory. Because what? There's no shame. You gotta understand this. Sin and disobedience brings about guilt and shame. And see, God was trying to protect Adam and Eve from it. He said, "Don't do it. I'm trying to keep and protect you from something. I'm trying to protect you from yourselves."

Adam and Eve disobeyed, and the first thing we're going to see is they're going to be ashamed and they're going to try to clothe themselves. Because why? Because sin, disobedience brings it in and it permeates and metastasizes through every relationship that exists. Here it is. Verse nine: The Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you, Adam?" Serpent comes in the garden, he's looking for Eve, calling for Eve. God comes into the garden, He calls for Adam.

He said, "I created you first. Where are you? We were in perfect relationship, harmony. Why all of a sudden are you running and hiding from me? What are you doing?" Why? He's doing that because the relationship has been impaired by sin. And this is the thing what exists in our relationships. Because we have violated the word of God, there's confusion and contention within the midst of our relationship.

He said, "I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself." He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I've commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman whom You gave me." She gave from the tree and I ate it. Adam, I thought a couple chapters before you said, "Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh." But he starts the blame game. See this? This is us. Blame game. Because what? Sin caused contention within relationship.

This is where it begins. You gotta see where it begins. He blames her. The Lord said to the woman, "What is this you've done?" "Hey," she said, "The serpent deceived me. I got tricked. I didn't see it coming; he got me." Serpent didn't have anybody to blame. And then the Lord is going to go into the penalty phase. This is what I want you to see before we get to the penalty phase. I want you to see these relationships and I want you to see how these relationships are affected because of how sin affects relationships.

Because of this sin, there are going to be enemies of God because of the sin. Watch this. When they sinned in the Garden of Eden, they partook from the fruit of the tree. God is going to be against man. God is going to be against the woman. God is going to be against creation, and God is going to be against the creature. Everything has an antagonistic relationship as a result of disobedient sin.

Next thing, man is going to have problems in his relationship. Who is the man's enemy? God is man's enemy now. He's against God because he becomes defensive because God comes in, asks him a question, and he blames God for the predicament that he's in. Because he said, "You gave me this woman." He's blaming Eve, and he's blaming God. He's definitely blaming Eve and God because even more so than Eve, he's blaming God because he said, "Look, I was fine in here by myself. You said that I needed this woman." That's at the core of what Adam is trying to articulate here. Eve is tangible; he can get to her. He knows he can't fight against God. But at the core of it, the first person that he is against is he's blaming God for his predicament.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Dr. Coleman, for such clear reasoning about why we constantly face challenges in our relationships. You touched briefly on shame and guilt. And friend, to help you understand and resolve these issues in your own life, you'll find Dr. Coleman's book, *Debilitating Duo*, helpful. It's a book about shame and guilt and how God has provided these as mental guardians that deter us from immoral choices.

I hope you'll visit us online at rochecolemanministries.org, where you'll find this as well as our other resources. Be sure to order your copy today. Now our impact thought for today is: man's disobedience in the garden permeates every sphere of his existence, but primarily his relationships. Friends, let's humble ourselves before God and be rightly related to Him before trying to fix our relationship with others.