Fairhaven Sermon 2-22-2026

Well, as you know, today is the first Sunday of Lent, and it's also the first Sunday of our Lenten sermon series called Vital Signs. Pastor Dylan preached the first sermon in this series on Ash Wednesday, basically an introduction to the series. and to the idea that there is a parallel between the way we think of physical health and the way we think of spiritual health. And if you missed Flash Wednesday, that's okay.

We're kind of starting again at the beginning today. And I'm going to draw our attention to all three of the Scripture readings that we heard a moment ago, Genesis, the Psalms, and Matthew. Before we dig into the scriptures, though, I wanted to mention a book that I just finished reading called American Sirens by Kevin Hazard. And this is the story of the very first EMS service, emergency medical service, in the United States that employed people who were actually trained in medicine— And it happened right here in Pittsburgh in the Hill District.

The AMS was called Hill House. Do you all know about this? Have you guys heard? Okay, good. Some of you have heard about this. I did not know about this until like about a month ago.

I was thinking, this is cool. Back before there were ambulances, if there was a medical emergency, people would call and either the police or a funeral home for a hearse, for transportation to the hospital. And because there was no medical care given on the way to the hospital, many people died before they got there. But the men and women at Hill House were trained by a doctor who taught them to do first aid and do it on site before they were transporting people.

And that doctor's name was, I hope I'm pronouncing this right, Safar, Dr. Safar, originally from Austria, moved to Mount Lebanon and worked at Presby. and he was the inventor of CPR. And I'm wondering how many of us have been trained on CPR? Okay, so that was a world changer also right there.

We have Dr. Safar to thank for that. He taught CPR to the people at Hill House and also things like how to start an IV drip and how to intubate somebody who's not able to breathe on their own. And these men and women saved lives and were the model for services across the country.

So, we as God's people are sometimes, in a sense, called to be spiritual paramedics. And I think sometimes we're a little bit shy and uncertain about that, kind of like the first EMS workers were. We're kind of looking at, we can't do that. Can you do that? Really? You know? But we can do this because it's one of the things that God created us to do.

God has equipped us, and through scriptures we have been trained in God's truth and in God's love. Yeah. And we are here in this world with troubles around us on a daily basis, equipped by the Holy Spirit, which, like Hill House, was a new thing once. You remember in the Bible when Pentecost happened.

Before that, somebody needing spiritual help usually had to go see a priest. But now with the Holy Spirit equipping everyday believers, we are able to bring God's words and God's care to people where they are. like EMS, keeping folks on their feet until they can get to a church or a pastor or a spiritual counselor or even to God in prayer. Amen.

So kind of keeping this thought in the back of our minds as we head into today's scriptures. Our reading today from Genesis is kind of like a prequel to Matthew's gospel. It tells the story of why people need Jesus. In Genesis, we meet the first human beings ever, and in this passage, the human race, all two members of it, come down with a fatal condition called sin.

In this case, their sin took the form of not believing God, not trusting God, and they answers. In this passage, we hear a little bit from Genesis 2 and a little bit from Genesis 3. In the chapter 2 piece, God has created the man who is called Adam and placed him in the garden of Edom, and God tells him he can eat fruit from any tree in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God says, If you eat from that tree, you will die.

In Genesis chapter 3, we see Adam and Eve together. Our reading today skipped over the part where Eve is made from Adam and the two of them introduced and so forth. So a little bit later, Adam and Eve are walking in the garden and a serpent shows up. And the serpent tells Eve that God was lying about this tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

He says if they eat its fruit, they will not die. But God told them that they would because if they eat it, they'll become like God, knowing good from evil. So the snake is not only calling God a liar, but he's saying that God is holding out on them. So Eve takes two pieces of fruit from the tree, gives one to Adam, takes one for herself, and they both eat.

Amen. And their eyes are opened, and they realize that they're naked, and so they sew fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, and that's where our reading for today ends. But there's more to the story. When God found Adam and Eve wearing fig leaves, God was angry, and he asked them who told them they were naked.

And Adam and Eve told God the whole story, pointing fingers at each other, and then God kills a couple of animals and dresses Adam and Eve in their fur. - So, because fig leaves are not enough to cover sin. Only death can do that. It was a hard lesson, and Adam and Eve never forgot it.

It was a lesson that points to the cross, because only death can conquer sin. Before we move on to the other readings, I want to draw out just a couple of things from this Genesis passage. Number one, since the beginning—this is just completely aside, but point of interest—since the beginning of organized religion, theologians have pointed to the fact that Eve is the one who took the apple, and she was the first to be deceived. Believe it or not, this is the foundational reason why women have been barred for ministry for 2,000 years.

Amen. Theologians have other arguments, but when you dig down, this is what you find at the foundation. Secondly, notice that Eve had not yet been created when God told Adam not to eat the apple. Adam had to share this information with Eve, which I am sure he did.

And I point this out because they were both involved in the decision to eat. Third, looking at this from a health perspective, if something is poisonous and if it's eaten, which happens accidentally from time to time, we need to know what to do, how to save a life. Adam and Eve did not know what to do, but God did. So the diagnosis in this case was lack of faith or lack of trust in God.

The prognosis for lack of faith is death, because we cannot live apart from God, our Creator. However, death is not immediate in this case, it is progressive, but the lack of faith is fatal 100% of the time. The treatment is God's word and God's love. God's word has healing power, power even to bring the dead back to life.

And this is the good news of the gospel. So then we can move on to our psalm from King David, who is very aware of what we've just said. David was not a perfect person, far from it. But David loved God.

In Psalm 32, we hear David confessing his sin and then sharing in the joy of God's forgiveness. When David prays to God, he asks for mercy. He knows that his sin is serious. He doesn't mince words about it.

And, He doesn't say anything like, well, hey, Lord, Moses wasn't perfect either. Look how you used him. David doesn't deflect. He says straight up, I acknowledge my sin to you, and I do not hide my iniquity.

Confession like this is one of the tools in our spiritual EMS toolbox. David assesses the situation correctly. He confesses, I have sinned and I need your forgiveness, Lord. And God hears David and the healing begins.

David says, Steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord. And then last but not least, we turn to our reading from Matthew, where we see Jesus kind of going through the spiritual equivalent of paramedic training. Even though he, even Jesus, he needed to practice a little bit before he went out to do God's work. So the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness alone to fast and to pray and to spend some time with God.

Jesus was not wandering around lost in this case. Matthew writes that he was led by the Holy Spirit in order to be tested, and he was not And Jesus' conversation with the evil one proves that he is indeed ready to be our Messiah. And he also sets us an example at the same time. So how does Jesus handle temptation? He's got three temptations.

We'll find three different things. Number one, in medicine, the rule number one, first rule is first, do no harm. In God's service, rule number one is trust God. Trust God.

If someone challenges God's authority, we answer the challenge with God's words and not our own words. Trust God. And Jesus shows us how this is done. So the first temptation is to turn these stones into bread.

So Jesus has been fasting for 40 days, and he's hungry. Now, this temptation is just flat-out cruel because most of us don't fast that long, but when people fast, usually after the first day or two, you're not really hungry anymore. Your body gets used to not having food, and you carry on with life. But there comes a point where you start to get hungry again.

And that's usually the body saying, okay, that's enough, now you need to eat something soon, right? And Scripture says that Jesus was at that point. He was saying, his body was saying, eat something. So this temptation is just absolutely cruel because the devil uses that against him. And he suggests that he doesn't need God's help at this point, he should just turn some stones into bread.

Now, could Jesus do this? Probably, yeah. But Jesus knows the point is he's here to do God's work in God's way and to set an example for us. Yeah. And that means trusting God his Father to provide.

So, it's interesting that in both Genesis and here in the Gospel of Matthew, the enemy's first line of attack involves food. Food is a very personal need. And in both situations, eating improperly would show a lack of trust in God. Same temptation, different circumstances.

But Jesus, who's sometimes called the second Adam, answers correctly. and He says, We don't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Spiritual paramedics trust God to meet physical needs. Second temptation is, Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the temple, where Satan says, Prove you're the Son of God, throw yourself off.

Because it says in the scriptures, God says, God's angels will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. We know that from our song, right? Eagles Wings, that song Eagles Wings. And what he's saying is, here's an easy way for you to get people to believe in you. Because if you jump off and survive, people are going to believe, they're going to know you're something special.

Scripture says the angels will keep you safe, so jump off. Prove you are who you say you are. But Jesus doesn't need to prove himself. He knows who he is, and people will believe in him because of who he is, not because he shows off.

Like Jesus, we need to be aware that not everyone who quotes Scripture is doing God's will or sharing God's truth. God's enemy knows how to quote Scripture, too. The key is to remember that God loves us and we can trust in that love. - No more.

And also, we love God. We don't need God to prove God's self to us, and we don't need to prove ourselves to God. God knows we love Him. So as Jesus puts it, don't put God to the test.

If we have doubts, and we will sometimes, bring them to God. Bring the questions to God in prayer. Trust God to verify the truth of God's Word. Spiritual paramedics.

.. Third and final temptation. The tempter shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, past, present, and future, all the great leaders and great nations, all the great and terrible events of human history.

And he says to Jesus, 'All these I will give you if you bow down and worship me.' Back in the 60s, the original Star Trek had an episode called City on the Edge of Forever. And whenever I read this passage, I think of that episode. Captain Kirk has landed on a planet where he finds a time portal, this big stone thing, time portal in which he can see what looks like a movie of the history of the Earth.

moving in front of him. You see ancient Greece and ancient Egypt and ancient Rome and the European civilizations coming up and all that kind of stuff, and he's watching all this go by through this time portal. It's really compelling to look at. Powerful.

Powerful. and I imagine the devil showing Jesus something like that, the grandeur and the splendor of all the nations down through history, and he says, I will give all of this to you if you will bow down and worship me. Now, this offer is tempting because it avoids the cross. Jesus is here to save the world, and if He can do it without the pain and humiliation of crucifixion, wouldn't that be worth it? Of course, there's always the question, Does this world belong to the devil in the first place? Is it his to give? And the answer is sort of yes and no, right? Scripture does call the devil the god of this age, but he is not all-powerful.

His power is limited, his power is temporary, and his power is not over everything. It does not encompass the whole ball of wax. So God, on the other hand, is the creator of the world and everything in it, and God made the world good, and this world belongs to God. So Jesus dismisses Satan with the words, away with you, Satan.

And for our benefit, Jesus quotes the commandment, worship the Lord your God and serve only him. So for spiritual paramedics, the word is, the rule is, worship only God. As we live our lives, we can remember these temptations from these temptations, that there is no place so difficult that Jesus has not already been there and done that. There is no temptation we face that Jesus has not already overcome.

So we serve in His name and in His power. As we go out into the world to care for others in Jesus' name, we take these three paramedic principles of the Spirit. Trust God to meet our physical needs. Trust God to confirm the truth of what we speak.

And worship only God. And we go then with God's blessing and God's guidance into a world that desperately needs spiritual paramedics. Amen. Thank you.