June 7, 2026 | Modern Worship | Stained Glass Stories - Wk 1: Micah 7:8, Genesis 3:8-9

Devotional

Day 1: Fractured Glass in the Garden’s Shadow

The story begins with humanity’s first fracture—Adam and Eve hiding among Eden’s trees. Their choice to distrust God’s goodness shattered perfect communion, leaving shame’s residue on every human heart. Like stained glass cracked at its foundation, our relationships with God and others now bear jagged edges. Yet even in this brokenness, God’s voice echoes through the garden, not with condemnation but with pursuit. The question “Where are you?” reveals a God who leans into fractures rather than turning away. [53:19]

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:8-9, ESV)

Reflection: What “trees” do you hide behind when feeling distant from God? How might His question “Where are you?” be an invitation rather than an accusation?

Day 2: The Artist Holds the Broken Pieces

God sees shattered lives as raw materials for redemption. Like a stained-glass craftsman sorting colored shards, He gathers our failures, regrets, and hidden pains. The Creator who shaped Adam from dust still molds purpose from our fractures. Tim’s story of unemployment and pride reveals how God repurposes self-sufficiency into surrendered trust. Every jagged edge becomes a place for grace’s light to refract. [47:20]

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. (Psalm 139:13-14, ESV)

Reflection: What broken piece in your life feels beyond repair? How might God be holding it differently than you hold it yourself?

Day 3: When Light Pierces the Darkened Glass

Stained glass only reveals its story when backlit. So too our fractures gain meaning when Christ’s light shines through them. Before encountering grace, Tim’s self-reliance resembled dim, opaque glass—functional but lifeless. The moment he knelt in surrender became the crack where resurrection light poured in. Darkness cannot dominate where mercy floods the broken places. [46:32]

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12, ESV)

Reflection: Where in your life have you settled for dim self-sufficiency? What area needs Christ’s light to “turn on” today?

Day 4: Fig Leaves and Modern Hiding Places

Adam’s fig-leaf apron evolved into Tim’s “captain of my ship” mentality—and our own masks of busyness, humor, or perfectionism. Hiding persists because shame still whispers that God cannot handle our truth. Yet communion invites us to drop the foliage. The same voice that asked “Where are you?” now says “This is my body broken for you.” [52:03]

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, ESV)

Reflection: What “fig leaf” have you stitched together to cover shame? How might confessing it (even silently now) open you to cleansing?

Day 5: “Where Are You?” Echoes Through Time

From Eden’s garden to Tim’s unemployment office, God’s question reverberates. Micah 7:8 transforms from ancient text to present-tense promise when we answer honestly. Our fractures become not endpoints but apertures—places where the Artist’s light streams through redeemed cracks, projecting grace-patterns where others still hide. [01:06:21]

Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. (Micah 7:8, NLT)

Reflection: How might your current “darkness” become a canvas for God’s light? What would rising look like in this season?

Sermon Summary

The stained glass image sets the tone: the human story begins as fractured glass in a garden and ends as radiant light in a city. Micah 7:8 becomes the creed for the journey: do not gloat over me, for though one falls, one will rise; though one sits in darkness, the Lord will be light. The human story is fractured internally, relationally, spiritually. Genesis 3 explains the cracks and the void that every person feels. God, however, is still the artist. He sees more than fragments and keeps shaping a window. Light changes everything. Before light shines through, the pieces look dull and lost, but when light comes, the story becomes visible.

Genesis 3 names the first fracture. Adam and Eve lived in unbroken fellowship. Free will was the condition of love. The fruit did not sparkle; it represented the choice of trust. The tempter pushed suspicion of God, whispering that real wisdom and freedom could be found apart from Him. That lie landed, and sin entered. Shame, guilt, and fear took their place, and hiding began. Fig leaves went on in the garden, and modern fig leaves go on now: busyness, accomplishments, wealth, a strong opinion, a joke that keeps truth at arm’s length.

The focal point turns to God. God came looking. Where are you is not a GPS query but a relational summons. The first consequence of sin is not punishment. It was hiding. God did not hide. Humanity did. Sin cracks the image but not the artist. The deeper problem preceded the bite. Sin rarely starts with behavior. Sin starts with suspicion of God, with a heart-level distrust that assumes obedience is restriction rather than protection. The persistent temptation sounds familiar: life works better when the self is in charge.

Grace interrupts that script. Testimony names the fracture not as unemployment or pressure but as being on the throne of one’s own life. Rescue arrives, and a new path of reliance opens. Micah 7:8 is not optimism; it is a vow anchored in God’s pursuit. God seeks relationship, not annihilation. The question Where are you still moves toward reconciliation. So the call lands plainly: ask what the fig leaf is, stop hiding from the only One who can heal, and step into the light where grace shines through broken glass and turns fragments into a story.

Key Takeaways

1. The human story is fractured. Every person carries cracks that show up internally, relationally, and spiritually. Genesis 3 is not a relic; it is a mirror that explains the ache and the impulse to hide. Healing begins when the fracture is named, not managed, and when a person lets God locate them rather than self-protect behind fig leaves. [45:05]
2. God the artist keeps pursuing. God moves toward the hiders with a relational question, not a hammer. Where are you is grace’s first word, revealing a God who seeks, not a deity who abandons. The image may be cracked, but the artist is not, and His pursuit reframes failure as material for beauty. [54:40]
3. Sin begins with distrust of God. Before hands rebel, the heart suspects that God is holding out. That suspicion turns obedience into a cage and self-rule into a prize, and then behavior follows. Repentance starts where the fracture started, with a returned trust in God’s goodness and care. [56:09]
4. Light in Christ changes everything. Without Christ, shame and fear distort the story and keep identity hidden. With Christ, the same shattered pieces become testimony, because light makes the picture legible and the colors come alive. Stepping into light is not exposure for exposure’s sake but the doorway to healing. [46:32]
5. Name the fig leaves and step out. Hiding strategies can look respectable, even religious, yet they still keep God at a distance. Wisdom asks, What am I hiding behind, and where has trust stopped. Honesty before God is the beginning of freedom, because the One asking Where are you intends reconciliation. [65:27]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[42:01] - Summer setup and Micah 7:8
[42:33] - Stained glass story image
[44:28] - Creed: Though I fall, I rise
[45:05] - The human story is fractured
[45:43] - God the artist still working
[46:32] - Light changes everything
[47:50] - Genesis 3: the first fracture
[50:05] - The tempter and distrust
[52:03] - Modern fig leaves and hiding
[53:19] - God’s question: Where are you
[54:54] - First consequence is hiding
[55:20] - Image cracked, not the artist
[58:25] - Tim’s testimony: self on the throne
[65:27] - What am I hiding behind

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Genesis 3:8-9 (ESV)
"And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?'"

Micah 7:8 (ESV)
"Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me."

Observation questions

In Genesis 3:8-9, what did Adam and Eve do immediately after disobeying God, and how did God respond?
The sermon emphasized that sin rarely starts with behavior but with a deeper issue. What does Genesis 3 reveal about the root cause of humanity’s fracture? [56:09]
How does Micah 7:8 frame the relationship between failure, darkness, and God’s role?

Interpretation questions

Why do you think God’s first response to Adam and Eve’s sin was the question, “Where are you?” rather than immediate condemnation? What does this reveal about His character?
The sermon described modern “fig leaves” like busyness or humor as ways people hide from God. Why do these strategies feel effective, and how do they ultimately fail? [52:03]
Micah 7:8 declares, “When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.” How might this promise reshape someone’s perspective during seasons of failure or shame?

Application questions

What “fig leaf” (e.g., achievements, humor, perfectionism) do you most often use to hide your struggles from God or others? How could you begin to let go of it this week? [01:05:27]
Reflect on a time when distrust of God’s goodness led to a choice that fractured a relationship or your peace. What practical step could you take to rebuild trust in His care? [55:52]
The sermon stated, “Light changes everything” when Christ shines through brokenness. What shattered part of your story could you invite Him to reframe as a testimony? [46:32]
How would your daily decisions shift if you truly believed God’s “Where are you?” is an invitation to reconciliation, not condemnation?
Identify one area where you’re tempted to believe “life works better when I’m in charge.” What would it look like to surrender control to God in that area? [57:25]

Sermon Clips

Don't miss this because that's an important just simple little phrase, it's one of the first great revelations of God's character in the entire scripture. Humanity runs from God. God moves towards humanity. God never abandons those fractured pieces. You could say that's the first whisper of God's grace in all of the bible. Right? It tells us about who God is. That to us is the gospel truth. [01:03:46] (36 seconds) #GodMovesTowardUs

Think about our God. What does that say about God? That's our God. I mean God is a pursuing God. He's a loving grace filled God. God is still shines through the light of this broken glass. And so sin cracks the image but not the artist. God was never cracked by what happened. He's still the artist. The real human problem though began before Adam or Eve took a bite of the fruit. It began when trust began to be eroded. [00:55:10] (35 seconds) #GodPursuesUs

the bible's primary story is God seeking to be in a relationship with humans, with us. And he is searching for us with this question, where are you? Where are you? He's seeking in that question, that is a question of reconciliation and relationship. Where are you? Come back. It's not annihilation. If that's the God that you have pictured, that's not the God of the bible. That's been distorted. [01:05:46] (34 seconds) #GodSeeksUs

And I want us to look at this story from a different vantage point because a lot of times what we do is we focus in on Adam and Eve. Okay? And I want us to look from it doesn't change the story and what's said, but what it does is it gives us the true vantage point, a different focal point. I want us to focus in on God. Notice what God did. God came looking. The Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? [00:52:53] (32 seconds) #FocusOnGod

But true love always contains a choice, doesn't it? Free will existed since the beginning of time. God created it that way because without free will, you don't have true perfect love. So Adam and Eve had everything that they needed and God had asked them not to eat of a particular food, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's what he had asked of them. [00:49:09] (31 seconds) #FreeWillAndLove

Every single person in this room has fractures, but we also have the possibility of stained glass stories don't we? In the midst of those fractures. And we all come with a need of God's grace. So praise be to God the artist. Right? The artist God that we worship, we celebrate, who never stops working with broken glass. Praise to him. Praise to the one whose light shines bright in the midst of fractured people. I love that. [01:06:52] (33 seconds) #StainedGlassStories

Maybe it's just you're disappointed by a person or something that's going on in your life. Maybe you're carrying this hurt no one else knows about. So you hide. You hide because of shame or maybe it's failure that you're dealing with or a fear or regret, and that's where you find yourself. So what what do we need to do? What can we do? I think first of all we need to ask ourselves what am I hiding behind? [01:04:49] (36 seconds) #WhatAmIHiding

Adam and Eve lives in this perfect fellowship with god. They didn't wonder if he was there. They didn't wonder where he was. They didn't wonder if he was gonna protect them or provide for them or guide them or talk to them. It was exactly exactly the way it ought to be. That's where they lived. And there was no shame. There was no fear. There was no conflict. There was no separation between humanity and God. It was this unadulterated truly perfect love that existed. [00:48:30] (40 seconds) #PerfectFellowship

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June 7, 2026 | Modern Worship | Stained Glass Stories - Wk 1: Micah 7:8, Genesis 3:8-9

Devotional

Day 1: Fractured Glass in the Garden’s Shadow

Day 2: The Artist Holds the Broken Pieces

Day 3: When Light Pierces the Darkened Glass

Day 4: Fig Leaves and Modern Hiding Places

Day 5: “Where Are You?” Echoes Through Time

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Chatbot

June 7, 2026 | Modern Worship | Stained Glass Stories - Wk 1: Micah 7:8, Genesis 3:8-9

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