Tony Evans — Adam, Where are You?
And God has another question. What God wants to know is, "Adam, where are you? This thing won't be right until you return to your role. You say, 'But my wife.' Stop talkin' to me about your wife. Talk to me about you. Let me provide the skin when you take back your role. Let me be God when you take back your role. Let me cover this situation. In fact, I wanna cover this situation so bad, I killed my Son to provide you a covering for your situation, but you gotta take back your role."
Well, hello, friends, I hope you're as excited to be with me as I am with you. We're gonna take a little pause today from our series "The Jesus Challenge" because I have a special message for men today.
As we think about Father's Day and the importance of men and the importance of fathers and the need to challenge us to be all that we're designed to be, we thought we would give a special focus on our men and on fatherhood today.
So let's go back to the Word of God, and we'll return next time to "The Jesus Challenge." But men, this is just for you.
I wanna ask a question that God asked the first man he made. The question is posed for us in verse 9 of Genesis 3 when the Lord called to the man and said to him: "'Where are you?'" So the question I wanna ask every man today on Father's Day is, "Adam, where are you?" This is the question that was posed by God.
Now, there is a crisis in the garden. You know the story of the subtle serpent who came in and who brought havoc to Adam and Eve. When they sinned against God's Word, the text lets us know that they hid from God. When they sinned against God, they ran from God.
God makes his presence, as was his habit, during the cool of the day, during that period of time each day set aside for his interaction and fellowship with Adam and Eve. God comes for fellowship during that time of day and Adam is not at his post. He does not say, "Adam and Eve, where are y'all?" It says, "He said to the man, 'Adam, where are you?'"
The question is posed to Adam because irrespective of who did what first, he was the responsible agent in the garden. So the reason that Adam is nowhere to be found is that Adam is outside of God's will.
No, you didn't hear that. The reason why the man was not at his assigned post is that the man was outside of the will of God. We are told that he hid, he and his wife, from the presence of the Lord.
Why are we having trouble today finding Adam, finding men manning their posts? At home, at church, in society, why are we having such a hard time finding men? We're having a hard time because far too many men have decided to function outside of the will and the Word of the Lord. And there's only one reason you function outside of the will and the Word of the Lord, and that is sin. And out of chaos and confusion came stability and order because God spoke. It says, "And God said, 'Let there be.'"
God stepped into history in the midst of darkness and he opened up his mouth. He spoke, and when he spoke in darkness and chaos, order and stability replaced it. Now, follow me. God then made man, male and female, in his own image. But he did not make them in his own image simultaneously. He made them progressively. That is, he made the male first, and then he made the female second.
Before he made the female, he made the male to get him ready for the female. So, in order to get the male ready for the female, God made the man first to prepare him for his role as head, leader.
The first thing he told him to do was to tend the garden. He gave him a job. Because if he was going to lead Eve, he needed to be responsible. If he was going to fulfill this divine calling of transforming creation and managing creation as the steward of God, then he was going to have to learn responsibility.
And so God gave him that in the garden before there was an Eve. Then he gave him his Word. He gave him work, then he gave him his Word.