The Fall - Genesis 3

Last Sunday in youth group we took Genesis 3 and treated it as a crime scene investigation.  As a large group we read through chapter 3 and then answered some basic questions.

• Who was involved?
• Where did it happen?
• When did it happen?
• What happened?
• What was the motive?

We then broke into groups and discussed "Who committed the first sin, Adam or Eve?"  Coming back to the large group, we discussed what the groups had said (both said Eve) then took a closer look at just what happened, and what the Bible says about it (Romans 5, Adam sinned first).  Following that, we explored as small groups what sin it was that Adam committed, since he didn't eat the fruit first.

As a large group, we talked about it more, and discussed sins of commission versus omission.  Application was brought home in the following ways:

1. Don't stand by and stay silent when you see someone doing something you know is wrong.
2. Sin is never private, someone innocent always suffers (initially the animals who God used to make clothes of skin, and later, Jesus)
3. God pronounced them guilty, but did not shame them.  Their shame was internal, God sought to restore them.
4. Adam and Eve were near the tree when they had a whole garden to be in.  Don't hang around the edges of temptation, but live in the freedom of what God has given you.
5. Temptation uses kernels of truth to make a lie sound believable, and often starts with a false question. Adam and Eve didn't need to be more like God than already were, He had made them in his image.
6. God is God, we are not.  The biggest problems come from when we try to be the gods of our own lives, rather than letting God be the God of our lives.