How the Enemy Uses The Culture to Distract You | Jonathan Evans

You are not called to just live a cover up. >> You are called to actually be covered up in the clothing that God has designed for you. >> As believers in Jesus Christ, we don't even get to die. the victory that we have. I'm just so thankful. Nobody knows how long you got, >> but while I still got it, I'm going to praise him. >> He's worthy of our praise.

((music playing)) And then on top of that, ((music playing)) >> he deserves the sacrifice of our life >> style. >> And how you live out of the building >> should be in correlation to how you worship while you're in it. that when you make decisions, you make decisions in gratitude of his decision to sacrifice his life because of our bad decisions. >> That when you leave the building, you're still the church. >> And that this type of worship, if you haven't noticed it or not, it is very contagious.

((music playing)) That is the same thing that happens in the culture >> when the church leaves and lives a lifestyle of total surrender and worship to God. It is very contagious. People will ask why do you live like that? >> And you can say because first he lived, died and rose for me.

And I am just thankful. >> I'm thankful. If you're thankful in the house, give him praise one more time. ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) Now, continuing in worship, we're going to hear a word from God >> from his word. >> You don't have to turn very far when you open up your Bibles or scroll in your app because it's Genesis 3. online.

Stay with me. Genesis 3. And today, you won't be standing much longer. I have one verse. Genesis 3:21. And this is what the word of the Lord says. It says, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." >> One more time, Genesis 3:21.

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Today I want to talk to you from the title, What Do You Have On? >> You may be seated. >> Y'all laughing at me. Got it. Evidently in this one verse you see that God cares about what you're wearing. >> He took the time to make garments for Adam and his wife.

People don't realize that God is the consumate designer and stylist. He cares about your spiritual drip. >> Don't think that you can walk around in God's kingdom looking any old kind of way. Evidently, God was saying, "Now, we going to have to make something that's suitable for where we're going."

He made garments of skin for Adam and his wife. And it helps me realize that there is a particular type of garment that God deems acceptable. In Matthew 22, it proves this at the wedding feast in verse 11, 12, and 13 where they were invited to the wedding feast, but there was one in there that the king realized was improperly dressed for the occasion.

And when the king realized that this dude came in unproperly dressed for the occasion, it says that he kicked him out to the outer darkness where there is weeping and nashing of teeth. So, it tells me that God pays close attention to what you have on. Now, what's interesting here is he did not clothe Adam and Eve because they were naked.

In verse seven, they had already put on fig leaves. That means he clothed them because what they were wearing in and of themselves was unacceptable to him. Okay. When I my wife Kenneka, I told you I talk about it. Um, my wife years ago told told me she was like, "Get dressed.

I'm taking you somewhere." I said, "Okay." So, I just went into the closet and did what I do. I just put on some joggers, a t-shirt, some Air Force Ones, and a ball cap. I came out of the closet. And now you got to understand, Kenneka has two types of smiles.

She has one type of smile that just shows her top set of teeth like this. Then she has another smile that shows both sets of teeth. It's not really a smile. I just call it that because she's showing her teeth, but it looks like this. ((applause)) When I came out the closet, she said, ((music playing)) and then she made the statement.

This is the Well, it was a question. >> Now, Kenneka is sweet, you know, she's a she's a good, godly woman, you know, gentle and quiet spirit. You know what I mean? However, when I came out of the closet that day, she said, "Uh, is that what you're wearing?"

Now, all men know that wasn't a question. Bible says, "Live with your wife in understanding." And I understood how to read between all them lines. Now, in my manb brain, I was going to say this what I got on. What kind of question is that? I'm wearing it, aren't I?

But I knew not to say that. Went to the men's conference and learned. ((applause)) I knew to read between the lines to know that this wasn't going to work. I said, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" And she said, "What you're wearing is not suitable for where we're going." >> I didn't know that she was trying to take me to a, you know, a Ruth Chris, a a Capitol Grill, a Eddie V's, an Al Bernese, a a Nick and Sams, um a Monarch.

I didn't know she was trying to take me to a DLincoln prime. You know, a Winom Prime. I didn't know she was trying to take me to one of the Del Frisco's double eagle. I don't know if you listening, but I just put y'all on game. And I'm not going to say it again.

Look at y'all going to be on YouTube like, "Write this down, baby. Write this down. He feeding us physically and spiritually." She was trying to take me up and I was dressed down. >> God is not going to let his people walk around in spiritual clothes that don't match the ambiance of the faith and the destiny that he has for you.

Many of us are walking around in resentment instead of forgiveness. We're walking around in division instead of unity. We're walking around in selfishness and not selflessness. We're we're walking around in take and not give. We're walking around in garments that totally compete with the salvation that we have received and the holy lifestyle we're supposed to be living.

And he's saying, "Is that what you're wearing?" Adam and Eve went ahead after they sinned and found fig leaves in the garden. When they sinned, they realized that they had lost their covering and they went in and of themselves to the closet of the culture to get dressed. >> They didn't go to the God they offended.

They went to the environment they offended God in in order to cover themselves from the one they offended. Another word, In other words, in the garden and in the church, we have learned how to cover up >> while still being improperly dressed for the kingdom. >> And they use fig leaves.

The reason why they use fig leaves is because fig leaves are big, strong, and valuable. I got a picture of one. Put the picture up on the screen. Fig leaves are big. They have nice size. They felt like this is something that can cover me. This is a hand in a fig leaf.

They have good size, so you can imagine them stringing those together. But not only are they big, they're also valuable. They're still used in marketplaces today. Switch to the next picture where they would wrap up your produce in a fig leaf, tie it up, and give it to you in certain marketplaces still around the world.

They use fig leaves that way. They will wrap up your fruit or they'll wrap up your cheese or they'll wrap up whatever you buy in a fig leaf not only to wrap it up but also the fig leaf will season your food by the time you get home.

So they have value in the marketplace. So they figured, let me go to the culture because I'm a sinner now and let me find something I feel like is big enough for the cover up. Let me find something that is strong enough for the cover up and let me find something that is valuable enough for the cover up.

Okay. You ain't >> This is why we naturally run to the biggest and what we feel like is the strongest and the most valuable stuff to make us look like something we're not. >> We're striving after the worldly success and the money and the followers and the fame and the and the designer stuff.

And nothing is wrong with it in and of itself. But what they wanted to do is use those things to try to portray and project a righteousness that they no longer had. >> So they're covering up and using that to do so. I need you to understand they went to sin's environment and thought that that meant they met God's requirements.

Some of us would rather look Christian than be Christian. ((applause)) >> Just because you dress well does not mean you're well-dressed. >> We have gotten so used to filters, we think that it's the reality just because we can make other people believe it is. It's the cover up of the church where we look so good to one another, we still think we look good to God.

And God is looking us with two sets of teeth talking about, "Is that what you're wearing?" You think that's what's going to work? We've gotten so good at making ourselves up, we messing ourselves up. in the garden. They they got dressed up because the devil said the devil said, "Hey, if you eat this, you going to be like God." >> Okay.

Now, let me jump over here with a parenthetical statement real quick. I'll come back to the sermon in a second. The devil will try to get you to sin, to go claim stuff you already got. When you eat this, you going to be like God. Genesis 1:26 says, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness."

They were already like God. >> He did the same thing to Jesus. Bow down and worship me. Matthew 4, "And I will give you the kingdoms of this world." Jesus like, "That's my whole inheritance." What are you talking about? >> I'm already the king. >> You're trying to give me You're trying to make me sin to go get something I already got.

That's why the enemy will confuse you to look at another woman like you ain't got one at home >> and vice versa. Look at the ladies. Talk about her. I'm talking about you, too. ((applause)) >> He got us running around trying to claim stuff that's already in our spiritual pocket.

Amen. >> And he told that to Adam and Eve and they decided to eat the fruit. And what they realized is that they were actually much different from each other than they've previously knew. So what they did was, watch this, they hided what was private that they had shame about.

What they did was is take the culture and take what I'm shamed about and make it private and cover it up. So at least they would no longer see what we're shamed about that we want to hide. Okay. What they were trying to do is avoid transactional human judgment. >> So now you won't judge me and I won't judge you because I was able to hide what's private in my life that I'm ashamed of. >> The church has become a master at this. >> To take the culture and we're able to smile with the best of it.

Meanwhile, some of the people that dress up the best have the dirtiest closet. >> And they're so good. We're so good at fooling other people because the goal for us has been to dress up to avoid human judgment. But you're dressing up for the wrong judgment. >> So, we have become professional hiders.

That's why we're not getting healed. >> This doesn't mean that you're supposed to go about and tell everybody your business. Let me make that clear. But there are some of us that don't tell nobody our business. meaning we avoid a biblical principle of accountability >> because we don't want to be accountable.

We just want to avoid judgment. >> So we are professionals at looking good while being messed up. >> Somebody told me the other day she said they said uh man I got to tell you something. I mean I know you going to be shocked at this and then they told me and I said I ain't shocked.

I may be disappointed. I may be, yes, I'll pray for you. Or if I tell somebody and all that kind of stuff, I'm not shocked because you may have been able to hide it and look good for a while, >> but I know, okay, let me just help y'all understand something.

Including me, everybody in here whack. ((applause)) Let me let me tell you how offensive the gospel is. God from up there had to come way down here to descend a long way to come down here and allow himself to be beatily br beaten and mocked and nailed to a cross and killed in order for you to be saved.

Do you know how sinful that means you are? And we be walking around here like, >> "Okay, let me help you know already. I know that me and you got garbage in our lives." See, we done got that out the way. >> Because many of us have become professionals at coming in the church smelling good and smelling like weed in the culture.

Many of us have become professionals coming in here with crystals in your ear looking pretty, but you also have satanic crystals at your house. Come on. >> Many as many of us have been professionals at looking good with one another. Meanwhile, you mean as all get out when you come into this parking lot and the way you treat your husband and your wife and the way you raise your kids and God knows the closet. >> Just because you got fig leaves out in front.

You may look good to me and get my top set of teeth, but to him he doing >> you mean to tell me that's what you're wearing? >> This is a sermon on be real as a Christian. >> Many of us are dressing up for the wrong judgment.

We playing games like they thought if they were okay to one another that simultaneously meant that they were okay in the eyes of God. And by the time you get to verse 21, he had to change their clothes. That was not going to work for my kingdom. >> And time is running out. >> There is a a judgment that's coming. and he's going to be looking at your outfit and he wants to know if you're properly dressed.

And every day I live my life not in fear but by grace. >> I fear the Lord but the word fear has to do with a mixture of yes trembling but also taking God seriously. >> It's it it's it's fear tremble but it's also living in awe. So when you take the tremble and the awe of God and you put it in a pot and you stir it up, you come with this is a person who takes God seriously in their life. >> They are not playing dress up. >> And here they are playing dress up in the garden thinking they're okay because they're now have hidden what's private and shameful to them from one another.

Now they found out they were naked after they sinned. But before they sin, they were already naked. So they were in the same skin, but they were not comfortable in the skin they were in. The outfit didn't change, but the perspective of the outfit did. Which tells me there is a covering that exist in obedience that evaporates in disobedience.

There is a covering church that exists in obedience. The protection of God, the covering of God. Isn't it nice to live your life not having to look over your shoulder >> or try to figure out who's going to catch you in your life? >> Because once you start moving into disobedience, the covering of God that is natural evaporates and now you are left realizing you're naked.

They went from naked and unashamed to naked and ashamed. >> Because through disobedience, that covering is gone. >> You can look the same but not feel the same about how you look. >> And Adam and Eve experience what it was to no longer be covered through the context of obedience.

There is a covering church in obedience that doesn't exist when you go your own way. Okay. Okay. Watch what they did. Uh-oh. Um, let me go figure out how to be covered and righteous again. Okay, I have to go figure out how to return to what I had.

Before sin, they did not know what righteousness was because you can't know what it was because you were created for it and you were living in it. So, you didn't know not to to know what it was. >> Okay? If you're created, if you feel purposelessness, that is evidence that purpose exists. that the purposeless, the hopelessness that you feel is the evidence that hope exists. >> If you were created for darkness and you were living in darkness, you wouldn't know what darkness was. >> Darkness only has meaning because you understand light.

In other words, it takes the opposite for you to understand what you're dealing with. Fish don't know they're wet. They don't know what wet is, but we do because we were created to be. So when we get wet, we come and we start trying to return dry off with a towel to the state that we're supposed to be in.

((applause)) Their attempt was through the knowledge of their sin. Now they knew what righteousness is. So now they made the effort to return to a righteousness that they previously didn't know what it was. >> So when you're doing this and you're chasing after things to portray yourself as okay and righteous and all of these things, that is evidence to you that that's the real life you're supposed to be living and the life you were created for.

Otherwise, you wouldn't even do it. >> If raggedy was what you were created for, you would just step out the closet raggedy. Okay, y'all wait y'all wait with me. >> Ducks desire water and water exist. Men and woman desire food and food exists. Men and women desire relationships and relationships exist.

Um, a monkey desires a tree. And guess what? >> And trees exist. >> Humans desire righteousness and justice. That means it must exist. Just not in this world. It's in the next one. until you get there. You are called to be the very desire you have from your homeland. >> You are not called to just live a cover up. >> You are called to actually be covered up in the clothing that God has designed for you. >> Okay, >> y'all still with me?

So, what did God do when he saw Adam and Eve? Notice they were covered up and hiding from God. Genesis 3:8 says that they they were hiding from God. It says in Genesis 3:8, they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees and the garden.

So, they were covered up for the world, which automatically means you're hiding from God. And God found him and he said, "Is that what you're wearing? That's not going to work." So, what did he do? ((music playing)) God made means tailored. garments of skins for Adam and his wife. Okay, let me tell you why this is beast mode.

Because you have to ask yourself the question, where did he get the skins? There is a clue in verse 20. Verse 20 says, "Now the man calls his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all the living." Wait a minute. Genesis 21:17 says, "The day you eat from this, you will surely die.

Where did Adam get the hope to call his wife's name to live? >> Mother of the living. Why does he have the hope enough? Cuz you know his job was to name things. And whatever he called them, that's what they >> Now he calls his wife, I'mma call you Eve.

You know why? Because your name means to live. >> Wait a minute, Adam. You supposed to die. He said the day you eat from this. Now what people do is they'll say, "Well, yeah, he's talking about spiritual death, separation from God." No, no, no, no. We know that the wages of sin is >> Yeah, that that's that's physical, too. >> You supposed to die. >> Adam said her name is now Eve. >> Okay, let's track through the Bible, shall we? >> Abraham was walking his son up, Isaac, to sacrifice him.

Isaac was supposed to die. But then there was a ram in the bush. >> The ram died. Isaac lived. >> In Exodus 12, you have the Israelites. They killed the lambs and they put the blood on the doorpost. And because the lamb died and the blood was on the doorpost, when the death angel came, it passed over them.

So they didn't die, they lived. Leviticus 1:3 says, "You have to get a male who is perfect from your livestock, and you have to kill it in order to have a burnt offering, which is atonement, so that the wrath of God will not be on the people." 2 Coronicles 29, King Hezekiah said, "We must kill the livestock in order to atone from sin, so God's wrath will be off the people of Israel."

That's just a few clues from the Old Testament. In the New Testament, John 1:29, it says, "Behold the lamb of God that comes to take away the sins of the world." 1 John 2:2 says, "Jesus Christ is the propitiation of our sins, satisfying the wrath of God so that we don't die, we live because he died for us." >> Ephesians 2:4 and 5 says, "We were dead in our transgressions and sins, but God made us alive with him through Christ Jesus."

So maybe, just maybe, just really, based on the Bible as a whole and Jesus Christ as our sacrifice that atones for our sin, and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through and in Christ Jesus. Where do you think he got them skins from? >> In the garden. between Genesis 3:1 and Genesis 3:21 was the first sacrifice. >> The Bible starts with perfection, sin, atonement, so Adam and Eve can live.

God stripped the skins off the perfect lamb that was in the garden and made Adam and Eve walk in it. To always remember that the only reason you live is because that lamb died. Yes sir. >> This means >> that the son >> is in the garden. ((applause)) >> And he said, "Now I want you to walk forever more in the atoning work of the lamb on your behalf.

Your life should be a visible representation of the salvation you receive that has you living even though you are supposed to die. That lamb Jesus Christ is the propitiation of your sins that satisfied my requirement Adam and Eve so that you and your wife can go forward. Which is why Adam said, "Thank you, Lord.

I'mma call my wife to live because a lamb has already died." I don't know if there's anybody in here who knows that on Friday they put him in the earth, but three days later, he rose from the grave with all power. And you mean to tell me he lived for me, he died for me, he rose for me, and I'm going to wear fig leaves.

((applause)) >> What does it look like for Adam and Eve to just stay in their fig leaves after they get to live because a lamb was slaughtered? No, we just going to stay culture. >> And you wonder why at the judgment he not going to let you walk up there with anything. >> You don't think he loves his son, is going to honor his son, >> and you're just going to walk up to the judgment seat of Christ wearing anything, >> wearing any old kind of life. >> What are the clothes?

It tells you in scripture. Isaiah 61:10 says, "And he clothed us in garments of righteousness >> and garments of salvation." Revelations 19:8 says, "And the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Your clothing is your life." >> And so the Bible tells us over and over again, Romans 13:14, it says, "Put on Christ."

Galatians 3:27, >> it says, "Clothe yourself in Christ." >> Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10, it says, "Put on the new self." >> He's telling you, you need to wear the garments of salvation. >> How can we receive the grace of God with the lamb slaughtered? and continue to walk around in the fig leaves of the culture. >> If we as Christians want to not strong statement but kind of real spit in the face of God, we'll accept salvation and not put on Christ.

We want people to smile while God says we need to flip that. >> Let people look at you like this >> cuz you want God to do you like this. >> Let's stand to our feet. ((applause)) Hey, we get um OCBF, we get and online you two, we kind of get one shot at this.

Get one shot at this life. God has done the work. He has saved us. He's allowed his son to be slaughtered. Certainly we can wear the right clothes. >> The life of righteousness that he has called us to. Certainly you can too because we want to put on Christ.

Y'all give him a hand clap of praise for his word.