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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Lectures
Well, thank you, Rosalyn. Good morning, everybody. I have a really fun question to start out and ask
you guys this morning. In light of the new year, is your life the way you want it to be?
Kind of an aggressive question to ask at 9 a.m., I know. But is your life the way you want it to be?
Because we have this phenomenon of New Year's resolutions every year that would suggest
that no, our lives are not the way we want them to be. We're not as fit as we want to be. We're not
as financially secure as we want to be. We're not as good at relationships as we want to be. And so
we make these resolves in the month of January that this year is going to be our year, this
semester, this year, it's going to be different. We're going to become the people we want to be.
And then January 1st, you see memes of, well, next year is my year because I already messed up this
here. Life's not the way we want it to be. But what about New Year's? When did this phenomenon
of New Year's start, New Year's resolutions? Well, the answer might surprise you. It surprised me.
How many of you thought it was 1,000 years ago that this New Year's resolution started?
How about 2,000 years ago? How about 3,000 years ago? We're actually going back 4,000 years ago,
5,000 years ago? Well, the answer is actually 4,000 years ago. 4,000 years ago. I thought it
was just an American thing to do New Year's resolutions, but it's actually a 4,000-year-old
tradition. In a National Geographic article, writer Emily Lawrence, she traces the practice
of New Year's resolutions back to the ancient Babylonians. People would make solemn promises
to their gods to pay off their debts, to return borrowed farm equipment, and they did this in
order to secure prosperity and a good harvest. And then in 46 BC, the Romans began the practice
of celebrating the new year resolution on January 1st. With this celebration, they offered sacrifices,
they made promises of good behavior to the Roman god Janus. This is a two-faced god who looks
backward into the old year and forward into the new year. And in the Middle Ages, this tradition
continued, knights took the peacock vow to reaffirm their commitment to chivalry. In the 1700s,
Christian leaders took this up, such as John Wesley, who began holding covenant renewal services
for Christians, renewals of their commitment to God for the next year. And even the New Year's
resolution, that term appeared in 1831 in America, and by the 1900s, resolutions took on a more
self-improvement focus in the world, swearing off bad habits, committing to better health,
finance, and productivity. This has been around for a long time, and whether you're a resolutioner
or not, the length and persistence of this practice tells us that we feel our lives are not
the way that they should be, or the way that we want them to be. In fact, we might even notice
through these resolutions that the world is not the way that we want it to be, and we notice
that the problem is much bigger than ourselves, much more than we can handle, even for our personal
lives. Because if we're honest, it's not just our goals that are amiss. Again, it's the entire world.
At a personal level, we feel that. We don't always get what we want.
We don't have the jobs we want. We don't have the relationships we want, or the relationships we have
are not quite right. They're not functioning well. We might have health issues that we want to avoid.
at a personal level. We feel that the world is not the way we want it to be. And beyond that,
we feel that at a local level too, don't we? The world is not the way we want it to be.
And it's much more than that. It's not just my wants and desires. The world is amiss. We want
the world to be better. I mean, we see this at the downtown campus. Our campus puts us in close
proximity to the brokenness of the world. I mean, look at this window this morning.
shattered broken i did not do that for a sermon illustration i promise
we're in proximity here in the greater kansas city area there are over 2 000 unhoused people
over 2 000 who are homeless they they might have shelter many of them don't have shelter
but a lot of them lack a place to call home with or without that shelter
we have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of drug overdoses in kansas city every year
we have many who are in the throes of mental health issues or or struggling with chronic
mental illness who cannot get help or don't have access to help and those are those are numbers
but when we're here in the downtown area especially we we feel that don't we we feel
the brokenness we know that something's not right with the world we live in the midst of that
brokenness we can feel it and it doesn't stop there we see it at a global level too at the
global scale the world is not the way it ought to be teenagers killed in a fire on new year's day in
in Switzerland.
There's war
and fighting in Ukraine.
That's over a thousand days now
of war and fighting
in Ukraine.
There seems to be
a never-ending conflict
in the Middle East.
It's happening even now.
I mean, do these images,
do they shout to you wholeness?
Do they shout to you that the world's okay?
Or do they tell you something's wrong?
Right now, even, right now, something is wrong.
We can all look around at ourselves,
at the world, the local level,
And no, something's wrong in the world.
The world is not the way we want it to be.
We don't always agree what the problem is exactly,
and we certainly don't always agree on the solution to those problems.
But we can agree that the world is not the way it should be.
We have this universal feeling.
The why.
Why do we have that feeling?
Why is the question?
And why is the question that Gabe raised for us last week in last week's sermon,
why are we here?
And he gave us a great answer.
We are here to live life with God.
That's why we're here.
But this week's question is a different why.
It's why.
Why is the world such a mess?
Why is the world not the way we want it to be?
Why is the world not the way it ought to be?
Why is the world not the way it ought to be?
I mean, if life is with God, is this life with God?
That the world's a broken and shattered mess?
In fact, in all of this mess, where is God?
You know, when I was beginning my exploration of theology and personal faith,
I used to be afraid to ask questions like that.
Like, can I ask, really, where is God in a broken world?
Like, is it okay to ask those questions?
Is it okay to question God in that way?
Is it okay to ask an all-present creator of the universe where he is when I see brokenness?
But friends, we don't have to be afraid to ask those questions.
In fact, the biblical text invites us to ask those questions.
This biblical text invites us to ask those questions
and also invites us to keep reading the story
because that why question is not an unresolved question for us.
It's inviting us to dig further.
And here at Christ Community, we are inviting us to look at that whole story.
That's why all of 2026 is titled With God.
We're preaching through the whole story from Genesis to Revelation.
We're looking at the biblical story to answer questions like this
and to see what life with God is like
and how life with God actually addresses these deep questions of why.
Where is God?
Why is the world the way that the world is?
And we're going to find answers to that as we keep reading the story.
So this morning, let's go to our text with that question.
Why?
Why is the world a shattered mess?
right at the beginning before this morning scripture in passage in chapter
two we have to recognize that the world was not always this way this is not the
world that God created it's not the way God intended things to be there's once a
time when the world was the way it ought to be
and we see it in Genesis 2 25 both the man and his wife were naked yet felt no
shame. Both the man and his wife were naked yet felt no shame. This is a transition sentence that
the author of Genesis is putting here for us. Both the man and his wife points back to creation.
God created everything, including us. And then naked yet felt no shame both tells us the state
of creation and also kind of alludes to what's coming in Genesis 3. In the beginning, man and
women, men and women felt no shame. And what the author is getting at here is not necessarily that
they had no clothes. What's getting at here is that in the beginning, when creation was the way
ought to be, mankind had all that was required. In the presence of God, Adam and Eve lacked nothing.
Let alone their own nakedness. They felt no shame. They weren't uncomfortable. They weren't
disoriented they weren't confused they weren't unsettled by anything let alone
their nakedness because they were with God in the beginning it's in the
presence of God that they had all that they required but then another character
enters a scene Genesis 3 1 now the serpent was the most cunning of all the
wild animals that the Lord God had made. Now, to be cunning is not necessarily evil.
It's not a wicked thing. To be cunning means to be clever, and it means to be wise. And that can
be a good and godly thing, depending on how you use your cleverness and your wisdom. But friends,
the serpent did not use his cleverness and wisdom for God's glory. The serpent did not use his
cleverness and wisdom for God's glory, or for the good of the man and the woman in the garden. Instead,
the serpent used his cleverness, used his wisdom to subtly, slowly twist what God was actually
saying. In 3.1, he says, he said to the woman, did God really say, I mean, did God really tell you this,
that you can't eat from any tree in the garden?
In fact, he's so wisely and cleverly crafting his words
that even in the woman's response,
she's already being led astray.
In verses two and three,
the woman said to the serpent,
we may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden,
but about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden,
God said, you must not eat it or touch it
or you will die.
I mean, already she's being led astray.
How?
Well, God didn't say that they may eat of the trees in the garden.
God said that they are free to eat of any tree in the garden.
Not just some of them, not just some of the trees, but they're free.
They can go anywhere and eat of any tree save the one.
And also in following the serpent's wording,
the woman omits that it's the Lord God who gave these instructions.
Already, subtly, cleverly, the serpent is leading them away from God,
sowing seeds of discord in the minds of this man and this woman.
Verse 4, the serpent says,
No, you will certainly not die.
The serpent said to the woman,
In fact, God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God,
knowing good and evil.
you're not going to die just god's just keeping things from you
cleverly wisely he's convincing this man and woman that god is
withholding what is good and what is beautiful from them he's convincing them that god is
withholding what is good and beautiful from them he's using this cleverness to get them
to partake it's not a hard push into sin he didn't take from the tree and shove the fruit
in their mouths. It's crafty, it's cunning, it's clever, it's a wooing away from God's presence
and God's goodness. This is what sin does. Sin draws us away from the goodness of God.
Not a push, not a pull, it's a subtle drawing away from God's goodness.
And it reminds me of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion.
Now, one thing to know about me is that I tend to work in extremes.
I've not read Lord of the Rings.
I've not, yeah, exactly.
I've not read The Hobbit.
I'm working on it.
I have read The Silmarillion.
It's one of Tolkien's deeper.
Yeah, see?
You're learning more about me.
If you ask them where to start with Tolkien, they'll say,
don't start with The Silmarillion.
So that's where I started.
That's where I started.
But it reminds me of a story in here.
Lastly, Gabe mentioned that in C.S. Lewis's Narnia, Aslan sings creation into existence,
and there's a similar theme, a similar genesis that Tolkien puts in his world building.
Nerd out here with me for a second.
Iluvatar, he sat and hearkened, he listened for a great while, and for a great while it
seemed good to him, for in the music there were no flaws, this music that he started.
There were no flaws.
But as a theme progressed, it came into the heart of Melkor, the evil one in this story.
To interweave, not take over, not get rid of Iluvatar's song,
but to interweave matters of his own imagining that were not in accord with the theme of Iluvatar.
For he sought therein to increase the power and glory of the part that he was assigned.
And straightaway, discord arose.
It arose about him, and many of that saying near him or nigh him,
they grew despondent, and their thought was disturbed, and their music faltered.
But some, somewhere near to him, began to attune their music to his,
rather than to the thought which they had at first.
Then the discord of Melchor spread ever wider.
Friends, the enemy works in the same way.
Tolkien's not far off from what actually happens in our world.
It's not a sudden push into sin.
It's a wooing away from God's presence.
It's a soft and subtle song.
True goodness and beauty are over here, away from God.
Come near over here and be away from God.
Soft and subtle singing.
Can you hear it?
Maybe it's a song of pride.
You don't need God's limits.
You're capable.
You're insightful.
You're exceptional.
Trust yourself.
Come this way.
Trust yourself.
Shape your own life.
Claim the glory that you deserve.
Soft and subtle song.
Maybe it's a song of envy.
Singing, if God are really good, your life will be better.
Your life will be like theirs.
You deserve what they have.
God's withholding something from you.
Listen to this song.
Come this way.
Maybe it's a song of greed.
Security comes from what you have, not from God.
Just a little more margin.
Just a little more money.
A little more control.
Then you'll be at peace.
Maybe it's a song of lust.
God wants you to be happy.
This desire is natural.
Fulfill it now.
Don't deny yourself what feels so real.
These are the songs that sin, death, and the devil sing to us.
And if we are not near God, we will attune ourselves to those songs.
They sound enticing.
They woo us away from God's presence.
They draw us away from what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful.
This is a song that the serpent was singing to the man and the woman.
Scholar John Selhammer says,
And Snake implied by his question that God was keeping this goodness from the man and the woman.
Well, the story in the first two chapters has been God was keeping this goodness for the man and the woman.
It is good, good, good, good, good, very good.
He says, Adam, this is not good for you, so let me give you what is good.
He's keeping goodness for the man and the woman.
so the temptation is not presented as a rebellion from god's authority rather it is portrayed as a
quest for wisdom and the quest for the good apart from god's provision
and so turning themselves tuning themselves i'm sorry to the song of the serpent the man
and the woman they take and they eat we're six the woman saw that the tree was good
for food and delightful beautiful to look at it was desirable for obtaining wisdom
notice the extreme lack of god in her vision
so she took some of its fruit and ate it she also gave some to her husband who was with her adam
whose eyes were not fixed on god but on the woman on the serpent on the tree and he ate it and then
Then the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew they were naked,
so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
This men and women wanted to enjoy what was good and beautiful on their own, apart from God's goodness.
But when they ate, it was not the goodness and beauty of God that they saw, but their own nakedness.
Their goal was to be like God, but now all they see is the differences between themselves.
They're not even like each other, and so they seek to cover that up and hide those differences
and hide themselves.
Drawn away from the goodness of God, this man and this woman, they learn that life apart
from him does not lead to freedom.
It's not goodness they experience, or beauty, or wisdom, but fear, fracture, and burden immediately upon taking the fruit.
But what we see is that immediately, as God approaches, that they hide from that good presence.
The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord.
They hid among the trees of the garden.
This man and woman, they once walked with God in the cool breeze of the evening,
enjoying fellowship with him.
But now they have sought goodness and beauty away from him.
And fear is their response.
They want to hide.
You know, I experienced this a lot growing up with my own father
because my little sister used to play these tricks on us when we were growing up.
She'd walk up to me, I'm minding my own business, doing nothing.
Nothing was a problem.
And with a concerned look on her face, she'd say, Jacob, dad wants you.
And I'd be like, oh man, all of a sudden, immediately, all the chores I didn't do,
all the things I was supposed to be doing, they flooded into my mind.
And I was scared to approach my dad.
What if he gets angry with me because I haven't done my chores yet?
What if I have to do more chores?
Or the worst thing that could happen to about eight-year-old Jacob,
what if I have to pull weeds?
So I would be scared.
I'd draw near my dad.
And the trick was, my dad wasn't actually summoning me,
but my sister thought it was so funny to see us worried.
Come and say, yeah, dad.
He's like, I didn't call you.
Like, oh, man.
But like little Jacob, the man and the woman,
they're afraid to approach their father.
As soon as they hear God walking in the garden,
all that they've done wrong floods into their minds.
And they're afraid to approach God,
The God who handcrafted them into existence.
The God who gave them everything good.
They're scared.
And friend, this is one of the signs that sin is still at work in our lives.
Because when we are drawn away from the goodness of God, we don't want to approach him.
We don't stop believing in God.
We do start to avoid God.
And this is where the story is going.
away from God's goodness, life unravels into death. It unravels into death. Away from God's
goodness, life unravels into death. We still come to church. We still talk about God. We still pray,
but prayer becomes hard. Confession becomes a little scary. Life-giving scripture starts to feel
threatening. And when God draws near to us, instead of running to him and enjoying his presence,
his presence becomes scary to us, and we run away from him and reach instinctively for cover.
And we don't do this because God has changed. We do this because we have changed, because we
recognize the gap that's been created as we've drawn away from God. And like the man and the
woman we hide because we know we are no longer walking in the goodness that we
were created to enjoy this chasm between mankind and God has consequences for our
relationship with God also for mankind's relationship with one another we see it
in verse 11 God asked Adam who told you that you were naked did you eat from the
tree that I commanded you not to eat from? The man replied, the woman you gave to be with me,
she gave me some of the fruit from the tree, and I ate. Already there's division between these two
human beings, shifting blame. Hey God, you know that good woman you gave to be with me?
Yeah, she turned out to not be so good. She's kind of a problem, right? She's taking trees from
trees and giving to me, shifting blame away from himself onto the woman, causing relational
strife. He distances himself from her. The one who was his partner now becomes his problem in his eyes.
And this is what sin does to our relationships. We move away from the goodness of God. We move
away from each other as well. We stop taking responsibility and we start protecting ourselves.
We justify, we deflect, we rewrite the story so that someone else is at fault.
Where there was once trust, there is now suspicion, where there is unity, there is now accusation,
because sin doesn't only break our relationship with God, but with each other as well.
We were created to have long and lasting and fulfilling relationships with other human beings,
and sin has shattered that.
We sought goodness away from God, and what was once meant to be fulfilling and joyful to us
now becomes exhausting and painful to us. In fact, it's the consequences that God hands to
the man and the woman that become exhausting and painful. These things that once felt like joy,
once were good things. They don't change, but what changes is how they now feel heavy,
they now feel painful. They now make us tired and weary. God does not curse the man and the woman
in Genesis 3. Again, God does not curse, does not curse the man and woman in Genesis 3.
Instead, their punishment is that the good work that they were created for is now a burden to them.
God tells the women that the good work of bringing life forth will now become painful,
and that the harmony in human relationships will be replaced by tension and imbalance.
And God tells the man that the good work of cultivating the world will become hard.
Work will be difficult, frustrating, exhausting,
and human life will be lived in the shadow of coming death.
But it's not just about farming and childbearing or even marriage.
It's about vocation.
It's about the good work God created us to do in his beautiful world.
Work itself is not the curse.
Responsibility to work is not the curse, not the punishment.
Meaningful contribution to human flourishing and your role in that is not the punishment.
The punishment is that the very work we were created to enjoy and pursue becomes a burden,
becomes hard, becomes difficult for us.
It actually pushes back against us as we engage it.
the thing that once felt life giving now drains us
the work we long to do well feels heavier than it should the calling that god has given us whether
in our homes our jobs our relationships or our service to others it's exhausting instead of
joyful that's the punishment and again it makes us question where god is doesn't it where where's god
why is this hard have you ever felt that in your vocation why is this hard
it's not because you hate the work but because you care about it and you ask why there's so much
resistance to the good work that i'm doing well genesis 3 gives us language for that experience
it's not a failure of faith it's a lot it's not a lack of effort it's the weight of life lived in
a world that is broken and shattered. A world, and maybe even a soul, that is not aligned with
God's goodness and beauty. A world, maybe even a soul, striving to live life without God.
But away from that goodness, any life we seek starts to unravel slowly into death.
Now, the serpent might seem right. You're not going to die when you eat the fruit,
certainly Adam and Eve didn't die. But it's not the cessation of biological life that God was
talking about. It's a cessation of enjoyment of God's beauty and goodness. It is a ceasing
of living life with God, who is a source of all life. And so when we go away from that,
it's a sort of death we experience. Life is more than simply existing on earth. Life is about
living with God and enjoying his goodness and beauty. It's about being in that presence.
And so when we see the world in a fallen state, when we know that the world is not the way it
should be, and we know that living life with God is a solution, we have to ask, where is God?
Where is he? If he's present, is that going to fix these things? And if he's not present, where
is he? And Genesis 3 surprises us because God does not respond to our hiding with silence
or abandonment or drawing away. Instead, God re-enters a story and asks a different question
of us. In verse 9, so the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, where are you?
where are you in that question he's revealing his heart to be with his people he's not slamming down
judgment or hunting down rebels he's pursuing his creation where are you friends God is drawing us
by his goodness and beauty back to life with him he asked the question where are you who told you
that you were naked? Did you do this thing I asked you not to do? These are not questions of why did
you do this? It's what did you do? Share with me. Come back to me. And he also, beyond asking
questions, makes provision for them. Despite their failures, God moves towards the man and the woman
in the garden. He moves towards them in a loving pursuit, not abandonment. And this is true today.
before we pray, before we confess, before we tidy ourselves up, even in the hiding,
even in the avoiding, even in the reaching for cover away from God's presence, God is moving
toward us. God is drawing near in faithful pursuit of us. And he's asking right now,
where are you? Where are you? And it's not because he lacks the information,
it's because he wants to invite us into relationship with him he's seeking us out
you might experience going into a big crowded room and one of the first things that i do maybe
you do as well is you look for someone who's looking for you and what a great joy it is to
see oh there's my friend and they're excited to see me and we go about and have a good time
god is that friend who when you walk into the room he's looking for you he wants to be with you
he's inviting you into relationship. And those questions are God's song to us,
wooing us back into his beautiful and good presence. He's drawing us out of hiding and into life with
him. But he doesn't invite us into the good life without addressing the real hurt and pain that we
feel. He doesn't invite us into the good life without addressing our very real needs.
And so God makes provision.
We see it in 21, verse 21.
The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife.
And he clothed them.
It is a sacrificial act of God that covers their nakedness and their shame.
It's not symbolic or imaginary.
It comes at a cost.
Life must be given.
Blood has to be shed so their shame can be covered.
this is the first moment that we see in scripture where something has to die
something has to die because of human sin and it's not the humans themselves god bears the cost
of covering them god bears the cost of restoring their dignity and the way god bears this cost
tells us about himself his heart to restore us not by force but by grace
god does not force the man and woman back into obedience he draws them by his kindness and his
goodness and his beauty and restores them to relationship with himself and this story does
not end with god pursuing it pushing humanity away but with god drawing them back in and this
is how god works today not pushing you away but drawing you back and we're brought back to god
because we gaze upon and are drawn by his beauty and goodness.
The glorious truth about scripture is that God's question and pursuit don't end in the garden.
This question continues throughout the whole story.
Where are you echoes throughout the whole story of scripture.
God continues to pursue his people through prophets, through kings, through promises,
and ultimately through a person.
The clothing God provides in Genesis points forward
to a greater clothing that we receive in that person.
In Jesus, God does not merely cover our shame.
God bears our shame.
The goodness that draws us home is not an ideal.
It's not a principle.
It is a person who came to live with us, looking for us.
And friends, if you want an example of what it's like to live a life with God,
a life without lack, even in the midst of a broken and shattered world,
you must look to that person.
Look to Jesus.
If you want to know what life is like, what it's like to live life with God,
look to Jesus.
And look to three things in particular.
These are three things that you're going to hear me say again and again
in the coming days, weeks, months, and years.
jesus lived a good life with god by one growing closer to his father
two by becoming a safe friend to those around him and three by drawing near and moving towards pain
this is a good life jesus lived growing close to his father becoming a safe friend and moving
towards pain jesus lived a good and beautiful life because he was intimately connected with
his father he was intimately connected with his father he beheld his father's glory he took time
to be curious about the work his father was doing he took time to sit in on beauty of his father
and this was such a way of life for jesus that he says this in john 5 19. truly i tell you the son is
not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the father
does, the son likewise does these things. Why? Because the father loves the son and shows him,
shows him goodness, shows him what is true, shows him what is beautiful, shows him what he's doing.
If you want to live the good life, even in the midst of that broken and shattered world,
Be like Jesus and growing closer in intimacy with God.
Yoke yourself to Jesus and follow him.
But Jesus' good life doesn't begin and end with his own enjoyment and his own union with his Father.
No, it's out of the abundance of this deep union with God that Jesus moves outward.
He's drawn towards others.
He makes friends with others.
He shares that intimacy with others.
In fact, the triune God opens its fellowship to you and to me.
And more than just Jesus moving towards other people,
he moves towards their pain.
Because of his rich and vibrant and beautiful life with his father,
he was able to bring about the flourishing of the sick,
of the blind, of the deaf, of the dead, of the oppressed.
Jesus brought flourishing to those in pain.
And so the question that we ask
when we're faced with this broken world
is not, where is God?
The question is, where are you?
Where are you?
In the scriptures, indeed, God himself
is inviting you to draw near to him
for his glory and for your good
and for the flourishing of all people.
Amen?
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your faithful pursuit of us.
God, I pray, keep us.
Keep us from those songs of sin, death, and the devil
that are singing to us constantly
and wooing us away from your presence.
Shut our ears to such falsely soothing music
and draw us into your beauty and goodness
so that we may live life with you just as Jesus did.
We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.