Slides: Fallen Sexual Intimacy and Pleasure – Always Looking for More

Fallen Sexual Intimacy and Pleasure – Always Looking for More

Henry and Pamela Reyenga

Satan Appeals to Lusting for More

Appears in the role of the intimate advisor: Better food, better opportunities, better pleasure. God is limiting your pleasures.

Genesis 3:1    Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Eve Dialogued with a Lusting for More

God did place a limit – One tree was forbidden.

Genesis 3:2-3     The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Satan’s “Enlightenment”

Genesis 3:4     “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.  “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing (YADAW) good and evil.”

Your pleasure and sexual intimacy (context of a man will leave) will be more.

Your eyes will be open to more.

Your power will be more.

Your knowledge (YADAW) will be more.

Eve and Adam “See the Possibilities”

Genesis 3:6-7     When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom (power and intimacy relationship), she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized (YADAW) they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The first implication mentioned is the implication to their sexual identity

The first thing they KNEW is that their sexual identity was different!

Shame was introduced to their sexual intimacy.

The first enterprise was making coverings.

Coveting More Pleasure: a Central Characteristic of the Fall

Their sexual intimacy was moving from oneness with another person to erotic pleasure itself.

More dopamine for our senses – taste and sight.

More dopamine for our thinking – desirable for enlightened insights to be like God.  

God Shows Up – Innocence Lost

Genesis 3:8-9     Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

Hiding among the trees, now they had fallen pleasures. We still do this. God is seeking us, and we hide ourselves in the trees of the garden.

“Where are you?” God asks us.

They Are Hiding for Some Reason and Naked

Genesis 3:10-11a     He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?

Were they indulging in fallen pleasure? Adam’s covering was off, and he felt guilty about it. What was he doing? What were they doing?

Like a Cheater Caught in an Affair…

Genesis 3:11-13     And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

What were they doing in the bushes when God showed up? Adam and Eve were caught uncovered. Shame was the first things addressed by God. Blaming starts then including all three characters. The serpent was there too.

God Judges all Three Parties Involved

Genesis 3:13-19

Serpent becomes a snake.

The Devil continues his fight with God.

The Devil is our enemy.

Jesus will defeat the work of the Devil.

Pain enters into childbearing for women.

Men are given the responsibility to lead their homes.

Work would be hard.

There would be no tree of life or garden of Eden for Adam and Eve.

Sexual Pleasure Conclusions

God created sexual intimacy and pleasure to be experienced in marriage with the marriage worldview.

God hardwired the seeking of sexual intimacy and pleasure in every human. The fall of Adam and Eve shows that Adam and Eve were introduced to good and evil pleasures.

They wanted more.

This is the fallen tendency that affects our pleasure centers. We want more food, money, wisdom, and/or sexual pleasure.

We need a Redeemer to be saved and sanctified to a new life!

Jesus is the Way!

 John 14:6     Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.