Oct. 04, 2026

Are you hiding from God right now, and don't even realize it?

Pastor Dave finished Genesis 3 this week, reading verses 10–19 and pairing them with Romans 1:20–28. His focus was two trees in the garden and the question each one asks of us: who gets to decide what is good? The message ended with a hopeful answer. God meets the fall with a covering, not condemnation.

Two Trees, Two Sources of Life.  -    The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Pastor Dave explained, was never about keeping Adam and Eve ignorant. It represented the ability to decide for yourself what is right and wrong, a role that belongs to God alone. He connected that to our culture's favorite phrase. "There's not your truth and my truth. There's only one truth," he said. Reading Romans 1, he showed how people who "did not like to retain God in their knowledge" end up with minds destitute of judgment, and he added Isaiah 5:20, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil." The other tree, the tree of life, points to Christ, who said He is the way, the truth, and the life. God gave Adam and Eve freedom, a fence, and guardrails, all for their good and His glory.

Four Questions from God.  -   Pastor Dave shared a story about kicking a hole in a bathroom door as a preteen, patching it with glue and paint, and then watching his mom follow the smell of paint straight to the damage. Her questions weren't about gathering information, and neither were God's. When God asked Adam, "Where are you?", He was inviting him out of hiding. Pastor Dave offered four questions for the congregation: Where are you in relationship to God? Who told you? Did you eat? What have you done? "Adam and Eve made a mess of it," he said, "but they're in good company, because you and I have made a mess of it too." The questions were never meant to shame us, but to draw us into the light.

The Results of the Fall.  -   Pastor Dave walked through the consequences in the passage: the serpent cursed to crawl, pain in childbearing and parenting, and toil, thorns, and thistles for the man. These brokenness touches every life.

Fig Leaves or a Covering from God.  -   Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame with fig leaves, and Pastor Dave said religion apart from Christ is the same thing. "It's dry and it's uncomfortable and it's dead, and it doesn't cover anything." God replaced the leaves with garments of skin, the first sacrifice, a picture of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The promise to the serpent in verse 15 points ahead to Christ crushing his head.

Pastor Dave closed by asking which tree we are eating from and whether shame is keeping us hidden, then led a short prayer asking God to cover us in the righteousness of Christ. We don't have to hide anymore.