Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Thank you for being here. If
you're joining us online this morning, thank
you for being part of worship gathering. And
this morning, I do want to continue on in this
message series about family. Family is incredibly
important, isn't it? It's a mainstay. It is the
foundational institution in our society, and
it is incredibly important. But I want to start
off talking a little bit about something that
James Clear says in his best -selling book, Atomic
Habits. James Clear, he argues the idea that
right systems, structures, and environments are
what create good habits in our life or even great
habits in our life. And that's versus the idea
of a lot of self -will to change a good habit,
right? And he even argues that it is the systems,
the structures, the environments that actually
help us break bad habits. And move into those
good habits. For instance, let me give you a
for instance for what I'm talking about. A lot
of us a lot of times talk about changing our
eating habits. How many of you committed January
1 this year? Yeah, why are you laughing? That's
what I want to know, all right? I am going to
change my eating habits. Statistically, by January
19th, you forgot all about it already, all right?
But, you know, a lot of times when we do that,
we're going to say, I'm going to muster up enough
willpower to do this. I am going to stay away
from the cookie. It is going to happen, right?
It will take place. And that seems to never work.
It's really about changing your environment,
your structure, your system. To keep you away
from the cookie. To eliminate it, right? If you
don't want to eat sweets, how many know you don't
go hang out at Chocolate World? Come on, it's
true. You don't stand there. If you don't want
to eat the cookie, you don't put it in a clear
cookie jar, set it on the countertop, right?
You give it to your spouse, tell them to put
it in the safe and tell them to change the lock.
Combination on the safe, right? Clear strategies.
And this is something actually that neuroscience
has known. and actually the Bible has stated
for thousands of years. And it really is the
systems, it's the structures, it's the environments
that we put ourselves in that begin to lead us
in the right direction. It can lead us to God.
It can bring our families together. And even
in the family, it's God's systems. It's his structures.
It's the environments we put ourselves in for
family that move us closer to God himself, and
it moves us closer to each other. God is the
inventor of family. He is the engineer. He is
the architect. He is the original design, right?
The design for family. And it is the systems
and the structures and really the plans of God
that are within God's word that help us build
family. A family that first glorifies God, because
everything we do should glorify God, and then
a family that is a system of support and help
for one another. So this morning, I'm going to
do something I don't think I've ever done since
I started preaching, and some of you may gasp
at this. I'm going to preach through an entire
chapter of the Bible, all right? You're like,
oh, we're gonna be here till three o 'clock.
I promise you it won't be. All right, so if you
got your Bibles, turn to Genesis chapter two.
Genesis chapter two, it's a short chapter. Thank
the Lord, right? And I'm gonna pray while you're
turning there. Father, I thank you for this day.
God, we thank you for your word. God, we thank
you for Genesis, that first book of the Bible.
God, that is a revelation of all things that
started as we know it. So Lord, I pray that you
would guide us, direct us, help us to pull out,
extrapolate the principles, God, the systems,
the structures that you have there so that our
family, These might be strong. And God might
bring glory to you. And we give you praise and
glory and honor in Jesus' name. And everybody
say it together. Amen. Amen. That was a great
hearty amen. Well, Genesis chapter 1, of course,
is creation. And Genesis chapter 1, as you come
to the culmination or the end of that chapter,
explains the seven -day creation that God talks
about. And chapter 2 is kind of a recap, a little
bit of that, or in addition to. So that's what
we're going to pick up. And it says this, thus
the heavens and the earth and all the host of
them were finished. God finished his creation.
And on the seventh day, God ended his work in
which he had done. And he had rested on the seventh
day from all his work, which he had done. Then
God blessed the seventh day. He sanctified it
because in it, he rested from all his work, which
God had created and made. This is the history
of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
And in the days that the Lord God made the earth
and the heavens before any plant of the field
was any earth and before the herb of the field
had grown for the Lord God had not caused it
to rain on the earth. And there was no man to
till the ground. but a mist went up from the
earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
Now, we could stop here in park and talk a lot
about what they believe some of this meant. It
appears that God had a subtropical environment
set up while creation was taking place and while
he was putting all this together that's around
us. And verse seven says this, and God formed
man from the dust of the ground and he breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life and man
became a living being. The Lord God planted a
garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the
man whom he had formed. And out of the ground
the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant
to the sight and good for food. The tree of life
was also in the midst of the garden, and the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now listen,
God creates Adam from the dust of the ground.
He places him in this area that God names Eden,
and he puts him in a garden in this location.
And verse 10 begins to describe a little more
about the garden. We got a little bit on the
front end. I'll give you a little more here in
verse 10. It says, The name of the second river
is Gihon. It is one which goes around the whole
land of Cush. The name of the third river is
Hittikal. It is one which goes toward the east
of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
And then the Lord God took the man and he put
him in the garden of Eden to tend it and to keep
it. I want you to picture what we just read.
I want you to get in your mind, and you can be
a little creative with this, what this might
have all looked like. God creates the heavens
and the earth, and everything that's included
in that, all the plant life, all the animals,
right, the clouds, everything that's in the heavens
and on the earth. And then God creates man. From
the dust of the ground, God creates Adam, and
he breathes life into him. Now, I know you probably
have the same plaguing question that I do at
this very moment. Did Adam have a belly button?
Come on. I know this has been a deep theological
discussion for a long time. We don't believe
he does, right? Because he was the first. But
some of you can look that up a little later.
But God designs a place for Adam to dwell. He
puts together a garden in this place called Eden.
And the verses describe this. And amongst all
the trees and the fruit and the... Plant life
and the food that he's provided for Adam. He
mentions two trees in particular. One, the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, right? And
one, the tree of life. Two trees in particular
that God puts in the garden, and we're going
to get to those a little later. And then he talks
about the four rivers. He talks about Pishon,
Gihon, Hittichel, and Euphrates. Two of those
exist today, the Euphrates, and actually the
Hittichel is now called the Tigris River. So
he gives us some information about where the
Garden of Eden might have actually been on the
face of the earth. Many scholars debate this,
but they believe it might've been in an area
of Mesopotamia, which is now modern day Iraq,
or it may have started or sprung from the Armenian
highlands, which is in East Asia, or I'm sorry,
West Asia. So we have an area. God places Adam
in this untainted, right? No sin in the world
yet, in this incredible garden setting and tells
Adam to do one. in these scriptures that we read.
He says, keep it and tend it. He creates this
place of no pain, no sin as of yet, right? He
has all the provision that he needs. There's
no sickness, there's no death. Adam has everything
that he needs to sustain his life and even more.
And then God tells Adam to go to work. He says,
keep it and tend it. This is family. God gives
family the gift of work. Can I get an amen? Right?
Tell somebody, look to somebody right beside
you. Tell them, get to work. Come on, get to
work. Get to work, right? Too many times we look
at work in the home. and out of the home, strictly
from a curse perspective. We look at God's word,
and if you go further in God's word, you'll see
that when sin takes place, that there is curse
that is added into work, and it's a difficulty
that we experience in work. But God gave Adam
this gift of work. And a lot of times we're like,
oh, I gotta go to work, right? I gotta do these
tasks. I've gotta manage this, it's so stressful.
And you're like, I gotta do this because I gotta
get a paycheck, and I gotta get a paycheck. to
sustain life so I can buy food. And it's such
a grind. It's such a ball and chain in my life.
And we need it for important things. How many
of you like to eat food? Yes, right? How many
of you like to live in your house? Enjoy electricity,
right? You have to pay for all these things.
We like all these things. We have to go to work
or we'll die, basically. It's true. We won't
make it. But in the beginning, God made a perfected
environment where Adam had every single thing
that he needed. All the food he was ever going
to eat was already there. He had every provision
that he was ever going to need in his lifetime.
And God tells Adam, get to work. Go to work.
Now, Adam might have been thinking, Lord, you
can hook me up here, right? God could have placed
a beach right in Eden somewhere. He could have
made a beach chair, put Adam on a beach chair.
He could have cracked open a coconut, drank coconut
water out of a bamboo straw, and everything would
have been good. Right? He could have. But God
told him, get to work. Go to work. Ten. Because
God designed us to do something. He designed
us to produce. He's designed us to manage, right?
He's designed us to use our heads and to use
our hands and to use our feet and to use our
backs. And he's designed us to work. He's designed
us to produce, to do things, right? God himself
as creator and manager of all that we see around
us worked. The word of God said he worked six
days and rested the seventh, right? And Genesis
chapter 127 tells us another thing, that we are
made in God's image. And in an image of God,
he created a male and female. He created them.
So we are created in God's image. God works,
and he told Adam, when he got it all done, he
said, Adam, now it's time to go to work. I need
you to attend this. I need you to manage this.
As a matter of fact, in another set of scriptures,
he says you have dominion over all of this. This
is not just a God thing, and this is not just
an Adam thing. This is a family thing. As a family,
we should go to work at something. We should
be engaged in something. If you're unable to
physically work, engage your mind, engage your
brain in something, right? Engage in some kind
of work. Now, I messed this guy's name up, but
I think I'm going to say it right. It's Nick
Vulacek. I should have looked this up ahead of
time for the pronunciation, but I don't know
how many of you have ever seen him. He ministers
all across the world. He has no legs and no arms
at all. He was born without any arms or any legs.
This guy goes all over the world and preaches
the gospel, ministers. How many of you have no
excuse now, right? It's true. We should teach
our children to work. We should teach them. We
should teach them what the reward of work really
is, the satisfaction of work, the gift that comes
along with work. And I'm not talking about child
labor. I'm not talking about putting your kids
in the factory like in third world countries,
right? And go make it, tell them to make a living.
That's not what I'm talking about here, right?
I'm talking about the joy. How many know the
joy of completing a task? Isn't there satisfaction
sometimes when you complete something? The benefit
that comes along with production and management
and creating something or engaging a sense of
accomplishment that comes. You know, there's
this thing involving yourself, helping out in
some kind of way. Sometimes our kids are so disengaged
because we don't engage them in something that's
important and true, right? Something that's going
to be rewarding for them. Put them to work. Some
of you should be going, amen. Hallelujah. Come
on. There's a sense of purpose that goes along
with this. Now, it shouldn't be your identity.
Our identity should be in Jesus Christ. But we
should have a sense of purpose. And part of that
purpose is to go to work. Sometimes people struggle
when they hit retirement because they quit working,
right? They're no longer at their job anymore.
Listen, retirement, it's just moving from one
job to the other. You just get to call the shots
in the second one, all right? You just get to
decide when you're going to work and when you're
not going to work. That's what retirement is.
Work is a God -given gift to the family, and
our family should go to work. Back in 2009, when
we started Lifehouse Church, I did not start
this church. Dixie and I did not start this church.
Our family started this church. We were in a
house. We started in a living room. And my kids
used to think it was so lame. We'd slide the
furniture back and have church, right? But do
you know who our first worship team was made
up of? Dixie was the worship leader. And my children,
they all recruited kids from high school. We
had junior high kids. We had senior high kids.
And they all came to my house because I fed them
pizza. Seriously. And we'd set up instruments,
and there were instruments all over the house,
and they would play. They were incredible. And
they went to work. My children, all three of
them still, are engaged in working here at Lifehouse.
And one of them lives in a different state, and
one lives in a different city. They're engaged,
right? Families go to work. You should work together.
Start them young. Find projects, right? Well,
listen, make memories. I remember working with
my dad. My dad, he's a quiet man. He's not like
me at all. He doesn't talk hardly at all, but
he engages in work. He's a craftsman. I remember
standing with him and working and him showing
me things. I remember being in my grandfather's
wood shop and working, right? Teach your children,
give them the gift of work. Embrace it. Teach
them to embrace it. Colossians 3 .23 says this,
and whatever you do, do it hardly as to the Lord
and not to men, knowing that. From the Lord,
you receive the reward of your inheritance, for
you serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Every time you
go to work at anything, do it with all your might,
because you're doing it for him. He's going to
reward you. Even if your boss overlooks you,
he's going to reward you. It's true, amen? It's
part of God's family system. It's part of his
design. It's part of his structure. I love when
Dixie and I go to work on something. We like
refinishing stuff sometimes, and we get busy
doing that. We enjoy it. right? Embrace the gift
of work. God's got a plan for the family. He's
got a system. He's got a structure, and it involves
work. Genesis 2 .16, we're going to go on a little
further. I'm going to take you a little further
in this journey through Genesis chapter 2. And
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every
tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I
told you we're going to get back to this tree,
right? These trees. You shall not eat, for in
the day that you eat it, you shall surely die.
God puts Adam in the garden, tells him to get
to work, all right? Tend it, keep it, gives him
the gift of work. And then he tells him, hey,
by the way, there's a tree I placed in the garden.
And the tree, I named the tree, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And you're not allowed,
I don't want you touching that tree. That's forbidden
fruit, stay away from that tree. Now, believe
it or not, this was a gift to Adam and this was
a gift to his family. And you might think, well,
how's that so? Because this tree is actually
the gift of love for Adam's family. Part of God's
system and structure is love. And love in family,
love in anything, always is accompanied by a
choice. You cannot have love and not have a choice
to love. Love is always accompanied by a choice.
Love is never lived out by demand. You can't
demand love. You can, you can try, but that's
manipulation. You can't have demand in love,
but you can have commands in love. Love is always
accompanied by a choice. And God loves Adam and
is providing for him. He's got food, he's got
safety, he's got shelter. He's got the gift of
work. And now he gives him the gift of love and
he says, Adam, you got a choice in the form of
a tree. And this is what love, this is love.
Adam, you can, and I worked on this rhyme. You
gotta listen to it, okay? It's terrible. Adam,
you can choose to love the forbidden tree or
you can choose to love me. What's it gonna be?
That's as good as it gets with me, all right?
Yeah, thanks. That's all I got in the poetry
area, all right? Adam, you can choose to love
the forbidden tree or you can choose to love
me. What's it going to be? You can engage in
a relationship and have it all, or you can choose
to break that relationship by choosing the tree.
Breaking the command. You can have a command
in a relationship. You can't have a demand. Adam
and Eve will have the opportunity in this garden
to choose. to reciprocate God's love back in
the form of complete obedience to what God said
about one tree. He gave him all the other trees
on the face of the earth, fruit everywhere. He
says, just one tree. Don't touch this one. Don't
leave this one alone. This is the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. If you love me, you
won't touch this tree. Love always has commands,
but not a demand, right? Love always has commands
in relationship and not a demand in relationship.
I don't demand my wife's love and affection.
That would not go well, all right? I don't tell
her, you will love me. Go ahead and make that
declaration in your house once and get ready
to get slapped, right? Yeah, you don't do that.
But there's a command in our love. right? Well,
when we said, I do, when we got married, here
was the command. You're not going to date other
women. And I told her, you're not going to date
other men, right? That's the command. I expect
that to be kept, right? She expects that to be
kept on my side. And if we break that, how many
of that breaks the relationship? Because it begins
to break that. It's the command, right, of our
relationship. Love always has a choice. Love
has commands and not demands. Love for my spouse
dictates that I follow the commands and my affection
stays fixed on her and her alone. God gave Adam
and Eve the gift of love in the form of a tree.
People ask this question all the time. Why did
God put that forbidden tree in the garden? Why'd
he stick that there? Why'd he put that temptation?
Was that some, you know, sick, twisted, sadistic
thing that God did just so Adam and Eve would
fail? No, God had to do that because God is love.
1 John 4, 7 tells us that, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God, and everyone
who loves is born of God and knows God. He who
does not love does not know God, for God is love.
It doesn't say he just loves. He is love. Come
on, it's true. He loves. There had to be a choice.
Love dictated that there was a choice. Jesus
said in John 14, 15, if you love me, keep my
commandments. Keeping his commandments is the
evidence of the love that you have for him. That's
how Jesus sees it. If your passionate words for
Jesus are not matched up with obedience to his
word and what he says, you're just talking out
loud. You're just talking to yourself, right?
If you have a deep desire to serve and do the
work of God, and it's nothing more than religious
activity if it is not coupled with a deep desire
to follow God's commands, because that's the
commands in this love relationship. God put command
there, a choice, a tree, and it was in the first
family, and it was all about love. Isn't it interesting
that when man did fail, it was Jesus on the tree
who reconciled us back to him, amen? It's true.
Love for God, love for each other. Ephesians
6 .1 says this, children, obey your parents in
the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father
and mother, which is the first command with promise,
that it may be well with you and that may you
live long on the earth. They need to choose.
They need to choose. There's commands in your
family. There should be commands in your family,
right? How many know if you're the husband and
the wife, you are the king? Yeah. Some of you
need to declare that in your home. You're the
king and she's the queen, right? You need to
talk about how things are going to work in your
home and what things look like. Well, God continues
with this provisional plan for Adam and for Eve.
Worship team, if you'd come. That doesn't mean
I'm quitting yet. That just means they're coming.
But it says this in Genesis 2 .18. We're not
to the end yet. We've got 25 verses. And the
Lord God said, it is not good that man should
be alone. Now, God sets out some things, right?
He already puts in place provision. He already
puts down some work. He gives Adam love, understands
what choice is. And then God adds in something
else. And he begins to grow what would be a family.
As God said, it's not good that man should be
alone. I will make him a helper comparable to
him. And out of the ground, the Lord formed every
beast of the field and every bird of the air
and brought them to Adam to see. what he would
call them. He put them to work again. And whatever
Adam called each living creature, that was its
name. So Adam gave names to all the cattle, to
the birds of the air, to every beast of the field.
But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable
to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall on Adam and he slept and he took one
of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.
Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from
man, he made into a woman and he brought her
to the man. Now up to this point, Right? Every
living creature that was on the face of the earth
was made from the dust of the ground, including
Adam. God took some dust, took some mud, put
it together and created these creatures. And
in God's continued engineering genius for the
family, he doesn't do the same for the woman.
For the woman, he puts Adam into a deep sleep.
A divine anesthetic. I don't know what it was
that God put on Adam, but I think one day he
just got really sleepy, right? And while Adam
is asleep, God removes one of his ribs from his
side. And from that rib, the Word of God says
that he makes a helper that is comparable to
Adam. Right? Now, I want you to just imagine
this a little bit. You know, Adam being in the
garden, there's the plants, there's the animals.
He's in charge. God gave him a plan to work,
right? All these things are placed. The tree's
there, the knowledge of good and evil, the tree
of life. He's got this choice. And all of a sudden,
he gets sleepy, right? And he doesn't know why,
but God's just putting him to sleep. And he goes
into this deep sleep, deeper than he's ever been
before, right? And then he begins to groggily
wake up. And all of a sudden he feels his side.
He's like, what's going on, man? My side hurts.
He starts feeling around in his grogginess, and
he's missing a rib. I don't know if he counted
them or not. The Word of God doesn't tell us.
But then he begins to rub his eyes just a little
bit like, man, this is a rough morning, right?
And there she is, Eve, wearing nothing but a
smile. Come on. Adam's like, this is a good day,
right? That's what happened. It's what the word
of God says. And he brings a comparable helper.
And Genesis 2, 23 says, and Adam said, this is
now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She
shall be called woman because she was taken out
of the man. And in God's infinite wisdom and
his design and his system and his structure and
environment that he's creating, he includes provision,
he includes work, he includes the gift, right,
of love and choice. And now he includes a helper,
a comparable helper, an equal to Adam. He takes
her out of his side to be beside him, right?
God knew Adam didn't have all the goods. He knew
Adam didn't have everything he needed to run
and to manage all that was around him. So he
brings this comparable. He knew Eve wouldn't
have enough on her own. He brings them together
to become this man and woman to manage that everything
that God places in front of them. It is God's
system. It is his structure. It is his design
and his word. And I know, listen, I know there
are plenty of people in the world trying to redefine
the family. They're trying to change it up, right?
But this is what the word of God says. This is
biblical. This is scriptural. This is the only
core prescription, right, for family and the
design for family. And it is foundational. And
if you move on to verse 24, you start to see
the depth of this. And 24 says, The creator of
the universe and his core structure of the family.
Bring something that glues all the family together.
And it is unity. It is being in one. This happens
in a marriage relationship. It happens in a family
relationship. The glue, the God glue. Say God
glue. There's such a thing, all right? Not gorilla
glue. God glue. Unity is the God glue of the
family. Unity is the God glue that holds a family
together. And that starts with the husband and
wife and goes right down to the children. And
in the provision and in the work and in the choice
and in the love and all the things that he provides,
he says the two are gonna become one flesh. They're
gonna come in unity with one another. And you
can begin to dive into this in God's word and
you see unity all through God's word. And this
is gonna be the glue that holds the family. And
he goes one verse further, which is the last
one in this chapter. And he gives the depth,
he gives a picture of what this looks like. And
it says this, and they were both naked and the
man and the wife were not ashamed. The unity
of love for God and the unity for love for each
other ran so deep with Adam and Eve pre -sin,
right? That they were naked and ashamed in front
of one another and before God. unashamed nakedness
to their existence and unity with one another
and with God. There was nothing hidden in this
relationship. There was nothing hidden from the
creator. There was no hidden agendas of sin.
There were no evil thoughts of one another. There
were no judgmental glares at one another, right?
There were no sinful thinking or actions to cover
up and no divided affections for something else
or someone else. There was none of that. I have
grandchildren. I have five grandchildren and
several of them are under the age of four. They
will get buck naked and run around the house
like a bunch of banshees, right? Saying anything
and doing anything. They are unashamed, completely
unashamed. They will. And this was Adam and Eve
before the creator. Because one of the first
indicators of sin in someone's life is cover
up. It is. When the glue starts to come apart,
cover up. Sin always brings division, it always
brings disunity, and it always brings cover up.
Cover up of some kind. Shame, guilt, right, hidden
agendas, all of it, you want to cover it up.
Disunity in a relationship. And when Adam and
Eve eventually sin, and they do, they disobey
God, they go eat from the tree that God said
not to eat from, right? They buy into the idea
that the enemy brings, that all the benefits
of the tree are going to bring them is far more
than the creator of the universe is going to
bring them. They engage in this sin. And if you
go into Genesis chapter three, verse eight, it
says this, then they heard the sound of the Lord
God walking in the garden. God used to come down
and walk with Adam and Eve physically every single
day in the garden in the cool of the day. And
Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord. God among the trees of the garden.
And then Lord God called to Adam and said, where
are you? So he said, now God knew, right? But
he's calling Adam out. So he said, I heard your
voice. This is Adam talking. I heard your voice
in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked
and I hid myself, right? And he said, who told
you that you were naked? Have you eaten from
the tree, which I commanded you, you should not
eat. They hid, they covered up. They started
covering their bodies up. They started covering
up. They hid in the trees. Unity is the glue,
right? Unity. You cannot have division, divided
ideas, divided directions, division of any kind
and commit to unity. They're complete opposites,
right? Die, if you say division or divorce or
any of those words, die means two. It means two
different directions. It is unity. Unity with
God and then one another that begins to be the
glue in your family. I'm going to ask you to
stand. Thank you for tuning in to this message
from Lifehouse Church. We pray that you were
impacted powerfully by this message. If you have
been personally affected by our ministry and
you would like to partner with us as we love
God, love people every day, visit our website
at www .lifehousecog .com.