Sermon Central
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God’s Perfect Plan For Life On Earth Series
Contributed by T.j. Conwell on Feb 12, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: Man and woman both able to stand before a Holy God, both innocent, without fault or the need to understand what shame is. Because there was no failure, no fault to be seen, and no guilt and they were unified as a perfect picture of what God intended.
Alpha and Omega, Part 7
God’s perfect plan for life on Earth
Introduction
- We’ve begun 2023 with “one purpose”: Knowing there is a God!
-- Continuing our series, “Alpha and Omega”; examining the beginning to the end
- This morning, we will pick up some speed having our foundation set
-- The foundation is: God created all that we see and gave it to us to care for
-- APP: We were intentionally created to have dominion over all the Earth
- Last week’s big ideas:
1. The events surrounding Creation are not “unexplainable”
-- God created to bring glory to Himself and even made us in His own image
2. God’s completion of creation put an exclamation mark on everything
-- It is a finished work, a completed effort of God’s work
3. In order to move forward, we must see & believe God’s work
-- This is our choice (freely offered), and where the last 6 weeks have taken us
- Let’s read our passage for today … Read Genesis 2:4-25 / Pray
- TR: First, we must see how we are able to live …
Point 1 – We have been given God’s breath of life
- Level set: Know at our basic level we were created to worship God (GROW)
-- CHALL: Worship is not just our praise but also our obedience to Him
• We must obey the one we call God; else we are not truly worshiping
• Worship is more than singing, hearing a sermon, and even giving
• It’s more than saying we are a Christian – state of living completely
- Life challenge (angels in heaven today): Revelation 4:11 says, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”
- NOTE: Genesis 2 is an expanding of the creation of man (for our understanding)
- God’s name is given to us as a reference of everything He is (v4)
-- Hebrew is Jehovah Elohim; Lord God Name & nature is very specific
-- Get this: The universe was created by a very physical/real person
- He’s a personal God … one invested in you, explicitly
-- And His desire is that we would have a personal relationship with Him
- He took dust from the ground and gave His breath so we would live (v7)
-- See this: Nothing else is given the breath of life from God
-- APP: You and I are not accidents or were created by an undeliberate force
-- Hebrew: yatsar; to form, or fashion (God specifically made you)
- Bigger: Man is the product of God’s mind, of His thoughts, of His heart
-- Man’s creation, his very existence, came from the heart & mind of God
- From the intelligence and power of God Himself; we are formed to live
-- And at the very beginning, His command was to reproduce, this means …
-- (EXP) At the start you, right here in this place, were always planned (EXP)
- TR: His plan is so specific, He provided man a place to reside …
Point 2 – The importance of the Garden of Eden
- FACT: The Garden of Eden was a real place!
-- It was created so that His masterpiece would have a place of safety to dwell
-- He even provided nourishment for the plants through underground springs (v5)
-- This means that all life could be support (re: plants/trees need water)
- Love how specific God’s word is about its location (GARDEN IMAGE)
• Planted in the East, in the land of Eden
• Three real lands are outlined: Havilah, Cush (Ethiopia), Asshur (Assyria)
• Four rivers are described: Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris), and Euphrates
• All of this tells us … the Garden was in modern day, southern Iraq
- God knew man’s need, and that he needed a place to survive
-- He created the Garden, a most beautiful place, and charged us with its care
-- Hebrew: gan; an enclosure, protected, secure
-- This location would have been sheltered – secured from outside threats
- It was a place different from the rest of the Earth, a paradise that God secured
-- KEY: Man would have known it was special – why?
- Because it would have meet all of man’s physical needs (shelter, food, etc.)
-- And in the Garden, God put one tree that was special: the tree of life (v9)
-- Consider: God gave Adam a tree that he would have to choose to eat from
-- Understand this … with the choice to eat from this tree (tree of life) …
• He would be able to choose to have God’s presence in His life
