The Lord God said, “Since man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.”  Genesis 3:22 HCSB

Our guest pastor spoke yesterday about the devastating effects of sin in the world and how we need to suit up in God’s armor daily to be protected. The problem with sin is it’s appealing-it looks good, tastes good, and feels good. We like it. The devil convinces us that it’s no big deal. He did the very same thing with Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. But the truth about sin is, it has devastating consequences.

In Sunday school we are studying the fall and the curse which is in Genesis 3. The fall was when Adam and Eve committed the first sin. The curse is the consequences that God pronounced, not only on them, but on mankind for all generations to come behind them.

In Genesis 3, God tells Adam he will eat bread by the sweat of his brow. If you have food to eat, thank a farmer. It was his sweat and hard work that got that food to you. In the beginning we were all vegetarians and I’m pretty sure there was no weeding or tilling or anything like that. It was not until Genesis 3 when God told Adam that getting food would require hard work.

We have death, disease and suffering because of the original sin. Before that man had the opportunity to live forever. Our scripture passage says that since man ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would not be able to eat from the tree of life and live forever. God created the heavens and the earth. He intended for planet earth to be another heavenly abode, but the devil had other plans. We know that before the foundation of the world, God knew this was coming and had planned to send Jesus to save us.

Sin has devastating consequences. But, we can choose to live our lives in Jesus Christ and be saved from our sin. We will still suffer the consequences of sin, but we can go to our heavenly home and spend eternity there with our Lord and Savior.

Because of that original sin, sin continued. From Genesis 3 on, people have sinned. In Genesis 6, God was so grieved over man’s sin, he set out to destroy the earth by flood. Because he found favor in Noah, He spared Noah, his family, and two of each kind of animal on the earth. You must wonder how much God is grieved over what is going on in our world today.

If you read Genesis 3, you will see that God put curses on the serpent, Eve and Adam, that carry on throughout the generations. When we sin, it can also have generational consequences. When we don’t go to church, it teaches our children to skip church. When we take the Lord’s name in vain, it teaches our children to do the same. When we plot revenge against others, our children learn to do the same. Their children will do what they do and so on and so forth. Is this what you want for generations to come for your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and on down the line?

Another truth about sin is that it has both immediate and long term consequences. When we are sinning, we attempt to justify it. We attempt to tell ourselves that God will give us a pass or He’s okay with it. We lie to ourselves when we believe this.

The devil wants us to sin. He wants us to violate God’s commands. He wants us to put him before God. He wants our souls. As our guest pastor told us yesterday, “There is a war going on for our souls.”

While all of this sounds like really bad news, there is good news. The good news is- God has planned to destroy this universe and all the suffering that comes with it. We are told in Revelation 21:1-5 that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and the old heaven and earth will pass away. There will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, and no more pain.

If that sounds really good to you, I know it does to me, you can have that. You can live in a place where there is no death, no grief and no pain. You can have peace and joy for eternity if you will only surrender to Christ. Turn to Him, draw near to Him and trust in Him today.

Have a great day!