Welcome to the Together On Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and we seek to be like Jesus. As we begin our conversations each day with Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, prayer, and meditation. And then we continue that conversation with him from the rest of our day. Your host is Travis Feynman, the pastor at the In The Ninja Church of Fort California.
And this is a podcast we will be traveling toward the past and full of fights. Tays us all about living with the likes of the midst of family, civic, and cultural challenges that we regularly face. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this season of podcast.
This is Travis. It's Thursday morning and it's so good to be with all of you. It really is. I've got my coffee and my Bible open to Genesis 3 and I think my morning spot and I'm excited to just begin a conversation and enjoy that conversation throughout the day.
We've been looking at the first chapter of Titus and reading and praying every verse in the first chapter of Titus. And as I mentioned yesterday behind this incredible first chapter of Titus is the origin stories of humanity. Genesis 1, Genesis 2, Genesis 3, Genesis 3, Genesis 1, and Genesis 1, and 2. Today we're looking at Genesis 3 because when Titus chapter 1, contrast, you know, the good life with the life of the least of death or contrasting truth and lies or contrasting good and evil.
Genesis 1, 2, and 3 are behind the narrative. Sometimes it's just a kind of step-back and enjoy the sweeping, metanarrative of God's return to plan and see what God's up to and his heart and see what the enemy is up to. And so the title of the podcast this morning is Looking Good. And the reality is, the enemy is very good at making sin look really good.
The enemy is very good at making sin look attractive or fun or simple or satisfying or fulfilling. The enemy is great at making sin look like a really good way to get through the evening, a really good way to get through the season. One theologian, tongue in cheeks, says that, you know, a lie is a nomination to God and a very present help in time of trouble. And the enemy, if we can be honest, is very good at offering sin as a very present help in time of trouble.
And so often we get to see that the thinking that this evil is actually going to end up being good that this lie is going to work out in the end that of using money or alcohol or sex or anything that got treated to clear good. It will actually end up being okay or here's your lie that the enemy seeks to deceive me with, oh, try this. That's not a big deal. Other sin is a big deal.
But that or this is not a very big deal. So let's just pause for a moment. I've been reflecting on this this morning. I'd like to do it together.
What sin has the enemy held out to you that is looking quite attractive, looking simple, looking satisfying, looking fulfilling. What sin is the enemy holding out to you and saying, you know what, that's going to relieve a little bit tension. That's going to get you to the night of the season. It's not a big deal.
You know, what have you justified? Maybe you're arguing yourself into it. And maybe we're getting to thinking right now is we're talking and hanging out with each other in Jesus that the enemy's covered a little bit more ground than we thought of making sin look good and attractive and, you know, not that big of a deal. Again, a kind of chapter one with a contrast of good and evil and God's heart and what the enemy's trying to do is Genesis 3, the famous chapter of the fall of humankind.
And so in Genesis chapter three verse one, now this is more crafty than any other wild animals the Lord God had made and he said to the woman did God really say that you are not to eat from any tree in the garden. First of all, that word crafty and Hebrew means sneaky or subtle or deceptive. And so God really say, I mean, beginning to call God's word, God's truth, God's heart into question and then as we get into verse four, again, he says, you will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat, that tree eyes will be opened and you will know good from evil.
So notice the enemy's sneaking and subtle plan, right? Making sin, you know, look good. The enemy says to that to have an if your eyes are going to be opened, you know, it's not a big deal. Did God really say to us, we're calling God's heart into question and he's actually saying, hey, you're going to be enlightened if you reach out and eat from the street.
It's going to go well with you. You know, you're going to be better. You're going to be fulfilled and satisfied. You're going to know more.
You're going to be good because the reality is just when two guys or people's heart, he's written as goodness is true. This rest is freedom and then the enemy comes along and calls God's heart in question and says, how many God is holding out on you. His heart is not good towards you and he makes sin look attractive. Simple says something for me, not a very big deal.
He says, hey, you can become the determiner of what's good and what's evil. You can take control and authority of your life and that's deception. That's what the enemy's after. Of course, we see in verse six when the one that saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, desirable for any wisdom.
She took some and she ate some and that's after the title of this podcast and the strategy of the enemy, which is to make sin look good, and it's not like God treated all this good stuff and the enemy came along and created all this bad stuff. No, the enemy is just a financial. The enemy can't create all he can just take what God has created and twist it and pervert it and make the perversion of God's creation, make sin look good, look attractive, look satisfying, look fulfilling. So Adam, you eat the fruit of the tree and I'm just pondering the story.
I'm thinking about my life. I would love for you to ponder the story and think about your life. Where is the enemy game ground? Where is the enemy made sin look good for food, pleasing to be high desirable for any wisdom.
Where is the enemy so do I? Oh, that's not a big deal. I'm going to take you through the night through the season to where have we justified what the enemy is trying to see us in and through. And here's the thing, I don't know exactly how to say this, but I want to say this.
You know, Jesus died, paid the price for our sin. All aspects of our salvation have been complete in Jesus Christ and Jesus rose from the dead and the grace and the mercy of Jesus is available to anyone and everyone. All those that call the name of the word will be saved. The resurrection talks about the life and new life of the kingdom of God.
And sometimes again, I don't know exactly how to say this, but sometimes I think we move to the category of grace or mercy or forgiveness as a way to slither out of God's call for us to call evil, evil to call lies lies to call sin. Sometimes I think we move to the categories of grace and mercy to slither out of the call to holiness. You know, confronting the enemy and calling sin and choosing righteousness and holiness and that resurrected life. I guess I want to say that this is what's on my heart right now as I was reading this passage this morning that there's more to Christianity than being involved in continuous sin and continually asking for forgiveness for the same thing we got to week after week after year after year.
I'm not saying that God won't forget this. He really forgets before we can ask, but the journey of Christianity is so much more than a journey of sin management. It's a call in the life. It's a call in the truth.
It's a call in taking authority over the con job that the enemy and his craftiness and sneakiness is trying to do in making sin look attractive and satisfying and simple. And so the prayer that I'm going to pray as I land this plane, I'd like to invite you into is just a prayer of Lord open my eyes. Open my eyes to see the ground of the enemy's cover. Open my eyes to see where sin has become attractive has become not a big deal has become something that I think is simple and attractive and fun and open my eyes God to see what it is that by the power of the spirit.
I can only see but walk in for the glory of God. So let's pray what Christians in the praying for centuries is prayer of Lord open my eyes because the commission that I'm sensing from the spirit today for me and for you is this walk in the freedom of the resurrection of Jesus. Let's walk in the truth of the resurrection Jesus. Let's walk in the good life that Jesus was raised to deliver us and is inviting us into by the power of the spirit.
So let's begin that conversation which Jesus is morning and then continue it throughout the day and we will talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to this episode of Together on Mission podcast. We hope that you truly blessed and encourage by today. If you had any questions about the living in your industries or Sunday services, connect with us on our average, we find an apple and we will play our stories.
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