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Good morning. How are you all doing today? Blessed. Amen.

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I like to start our services every week by saying welcome to anybody that's here in our sanctuary,

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if you're visiting us for the first time, whether it's the first time ever or you're back after a long time,

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or if you're watching us online for the first time, we want to say welcome to all of you.

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We're so glad you're here to worship with us today.

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I am Pastor Nathan, and before we get started, I'm feeling great. Thank you so much.

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I have a little bit of a lingering cough, but I'll try and turn the mic off if that happens.

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But today we are taking communion together. So hopefully everybody here in the room, you did get the communion cup as you came in.

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If you're online, I want to encourage you guys to get your communion emblems ready.

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We will be partaking of that together at the end of service.

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But this morning, we are moving from the grand overview of creation to a more zoomed-in focus, if you will,

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on really what is the pinnacle of God's creation, humankind, man and woman made in the image of God.

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And in that, we're also transitioning from a picture of God as the almighty, transcendent,

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all-powerful, eternally existing creator to seeing God as a personal, concerned for His creation, caring, loving God.

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In Genesis chapter 1, as we studied through that chapter, it was really a chronological picture of creation, a chronological outline.

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You know, we looked at how in the beginning, God, and then we went through that chronology,

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looking at the seven days of creation where God created the heavens and the earth.

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He created all life on the earth, all in six days.

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And then we saw in the very beginning of chapter 2 that He rested on the seventh day.

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Now, in that overview of creation, right, because we don't get every single detail of everything God did,

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it's really just the important parts.

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But we saw in that that humanity there is presented as God's crown jewel of creation.

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We are His wonderful creation. We're the pinnacle of His creation as humankind.

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And so there at the end of chapter 1, to keep the narrative chronological,

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only a general description of the creation of man and woman was given there.

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We were told that they were made in God's image.

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We were told that they were blessed with fertility to procreate and to subdue the earth and fill the earth.

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And then we were told that God gave them rulership, that they were to subdue all of creation,

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that all of creation was under man's authority as He was under God's authority.

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And then in the end of it, we saw how God took great pleasure in His creation.

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As He said, it is very, very good.

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He was so pleased with the balance of His creation, with the perfection of His creation.

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And we looked at that word when it says there in your Bibles that He called it very good.

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That word good meaning everything existed exactly as it should,

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able to perform its function exactly as it should.

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And really it points out an important thing in our world today.

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You know, a lot of people still are purporting a humanistic view of creation,

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and it just accidentally evolved from this to that and this to that.

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And the Bible paints really a starkly different picture,

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that everything was intentionally created, intentionally designed,

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made the way it's made on purpose, with intention behind it.

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And so what we ended up with there is a perfect everything.

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No sin, no wickedness, no evil of any kind,

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just a perfect God in fellowship with His crowning creation in a perfect paradise.

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Well, Genesis 2 starting in verse 4,

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we revisit this matter of the creation of humankind in a topical way rather than a chronological way.

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And we'll talk about that when we get into the study.

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From verse on in chapter 2, it's really a greater focus on the sixth day work of creating man

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and commissioning man and really just demonstrating love to man.

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And it shows us this wonderful picture of God's care and God's provision for humankind.

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God loves His creation. He loves you.

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He loves you so much.

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And we're going to see what everything was meant to be in the very beginning,

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how our relationship with God was meant to be,

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everything that God wants us to know about Him and His love and His care and concern,

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how it was meant to be in the very beginning.

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And that's the focus of this account in Genesis chapter 2 I want to look at this morning.

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And then, too, it's important to study through these in detail because it sets the stage for Genesis chapter 3,

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which is the fall, and we'll get to that in a couple weeks.

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But first, we're going to worship God.

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We want to spend time praising Him and celebrating Him and just expressing our love to Him.

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You know, for those of us that know Him as our Lord and Savior, He's changed everything.

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He's changed our lives, not just here on earth, but He changed our eternal destiny.

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We're so grateful for that.

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And one of the ways we get to express that,

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and one of the ways we like to open our services before we get into the meat of the study, is worship, to praise God.

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And so let's pray, and then we'll get into it.

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Father, we love You so much.

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We thank You, God, for everything.

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Lord, as we studied through the book of Revelation, we saw the hope, the future,

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the perfect paradise, the new heaven, the new earth, all that is awaiting for those who know You as their Lord, their Savior, their God.

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And then, Lord, as we've begun Genesis, it's just been such a neat picture to see your heart,

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to see your thought from the very beginning as you created the entire universe and created the earth, all in perfection,

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and then created us to have a relationship with You, to know You.

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And, God, from the very beginning, You have shown us, Lord, in Your Word, how much You desire to have a relationship with us,

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that we would be close to You and You would be close to us.

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And, God, we see in this chapter we're going to study today, Lord, how much You provide for Your creation.

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God, You really bless us more than we deserve, but, God, You don't love us because we deserve it.

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You love us because You choose to, and we're so grateful, God.

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So, Lord, bless us today as we look at the creation of man and what that means to us.

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But, God, be blessed as we worship You, as we give You praise, Lord, because You are so worthy of all of it.

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We love You, and we thank You.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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We are in Genesis chapter 2.

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We're going to be looking at verses 4 through 17 today.

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And verse 4 of Genesis 2 is really where this second account or this account of chapter 2 begins.

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It's kind of really where chapter 2 should start, in my opinion.

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But some people read this account, this second account of creation and the creation of man.

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They read it and say, oh, it's a different creation account or it's an account of a different creation.

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And there's some details we're going to be going through that cause people to think that.

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But it's an inaccurate understanding to think it's an account of a different creation.

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Genesis 2, like I said in the intro, is just simply a zoomed-in topical focus on day 6 with a special focus on the creation of man.

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It really is going from Genesis 1, the cosmos, to a garden in Eden in the east.

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It's the idea of God switching from His account of creating order from chaos, going from chaos to order,

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to God's creative activity in supplying what His beloved, pinnacle, crowning, achievement, creation, man and woman need.

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That's really what this focus is all about.

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So read with me in verse 4, we'll pick up the narrative here.

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It says, these are the records of the heavens and the earth concerning their creation.

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At the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, no shrub of the field had yet grown on the land,

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and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.

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So this section we're looking at today, it begins with just a quick snapshot of creation, right?

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Chapter 1, we had this chronological account, but Chapter 2 here, as it's revisiting the creation story,

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it just really quickly says, you know, there was a creation.

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But what it's focusing on here is not so much the chronology of things, it's focusing on topics.

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It's focusing on the conditions that existed that God addressed in creation,

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but we're going to see that he really only focuses on the details that pertain to man and the creation of man.

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And so he's focusing on really kind of what wasn't there and what he provided as a part of his creation.

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And the idea here is he's simply pointing out some particular moments during creation that happened in the overall narrative

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that again, as I said, apply to the main focus of this account, which is the creation of man.

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So verse 4, he says, at the time the Lord God made the earth and heavens, right?

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That's just at the time, right?

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That word time is referring to a span of time.

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It's not referring to one moment or one day, it's just going at the time, right?

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And there was a time when God created everything and it took place over the span of seven days.

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But at the time, what does he point out?

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Verse 5, no shrubs of the field had yet grown, no plant of the field had yet sprouted,

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for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land.

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You see, some people that think this is a separate creation or it's a different creation, right?

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They get into all these weird theories that there was a pre-edemic race and so there must have been a first creation

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and then there was a second.

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And all this stuff that I really don't see that the Bible supports, they say if chapter 2 is just about day 6,

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that's the focus, and then you go back to Genesis 1 and you see that vegetation was created on day 3.

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Well, the Lord God just said there was no shrubs of the field, right?

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And they go, that doesn't line up.

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Well, verse 5 effectively is referring to the conditions of creation prior to day 3.

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That's all it's doing.

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It's just saying at the time the Lord God created the heavens and the earth,

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there was a moment where there was no plants, no vegetation.

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And it's really that no shrubs and no plants of the field had grown yet is the idea.

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And the reason those shrubs and plants had not grown yet, he tells us, because it had not rained yet, right?

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This is just topically, again, referring back to day 2.

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You remember on day 2, God separated the waters below from the waters above and created a sky, right?

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We looked at that when we studied through there.

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And at this point, what he's topically referring to is that water above had not yet come down as rain, right?

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So it's not conflicting with chapter 1.

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It's just topically highlighting moments.

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Now, that idea of the waters above are seen by some people.

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They interpret it as in the beginning there was this canopy of water vapor surrounding the planet,

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almost like a force field of water.

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And this theory is called the canopy theory that some people have in the idea of creation.

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And what the idea is is that when God separated the waters below from the waters above,

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those waters above surrounded the earth.

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And it created like a greenhouse effect on the earth.

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And that's why the earth was so lush and just so green and just this paradise that we see the picture of.

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The idea is that in the beginning, before the flood and other things, that there were no deserts.

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There were no polar ice caps.

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Like the entire planet was this lush, perfect paradise.

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People that support the canopy effect also say that this canopy vapor, this water above,

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is what supported some of the pre-flood phenomenon like humans living 900 years, right?

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They also purport that that canopy was where the five and a half months of rain came from during the flood, right?

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We were going to read in the flood that it rained for five and a half months consistently.

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Well, where did all that water come from?

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They say that up in this water canopy, all that water vapor fell to the earth, and that was part of the flood.

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And so, and then again, they'll go, so with this canopy being gone, you know,

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all the radiation and stuff that was filtered out by this canopy was now hitting humans.

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And that's why human life spans rapidly declined.

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You know, there's the kind of idea that we know that, you know, you get sunburned too much.

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You could get skin cancer.

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You could get all that stuff.

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And so, canopy theory, they go, before the fall, before the flood, people live forever, right?

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But when that canopy was gone, so on and so forth.

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The reason I bring that up is just because some people will argue that point and dispute those ideas.

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They say, you know, it couldn't possibly be that.

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And this is one of those things like we talked about when we went through Revelation.

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Was anybody there?

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Oh, you were there, right?

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Okay.

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Well, Bel, we'll talk to you after to get all the details, right?

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None of us were there.

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So all we have to go off of is what God gives us in His Word, right?

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And God's Word isn't, it doesn't say specifically one way or the other.

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There was a canopy.

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It just says water above, water below.

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So we're left to take the details of God's Word and we interpret.

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But it's nothing we should be dividing over.

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It's nothing we should be arguing about.

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No, I can't fellowship with you.

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You're one of those canopy weirdos.

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It might have been a canopy of water.

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It might not have been, you know?

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So also, you know, it tells us when it's pointing out at the time God created the heavens and the earth, there was no plants.

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There was no plants because it hadn't rained yet.

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And then it says in verse 5, and there was no man to work the ground yet.

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That's the context of this section.

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That's the context of what the author has given us here.

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It's all about man and man's creation and man's commissioning.

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But again, for those that argue this point, you know, I would just say that when you look at what it says here in verse 5,

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it doesn't tell us how long before man, there was no shrubs and no plants, right?

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So those that argue, no, it's happening right now on day six when He's created man.

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It doesn't say that, okay?

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So this account reconciles with chapter one without issue.

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And again, because it's not a chronological event, this is a topical recollection.

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But why are these few details included instead of others, right?

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At the time God created everything, there's no plants.

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Surely there was a lot of other stuff happening during the creation of the heavens and the earth.

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Why does He focus on that?

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And again, it's because the focus of this chapter is all about man.

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As we study through this chapter, we're going to see that there will be a garden in this place called Eden

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where all manners of plant and vegetation are going to grow.

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And man will be placed in that garden.

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We're going to be told to work that land and to watch over that land after its creation.

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And so the context, the point, the purpose, the setup of all of this here is that at a point during time

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when God made the heavens and the earth, there were no shrubs and no plants,

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that man is going to be watching over because there was no rain to water those plants,

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and man wasn't on the scene yet.

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But then when you read that, you go, well, how could Adam possibly fulfill God's call on his life, right?

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God's going to put him there to work the land.

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How could he do that?

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Well, verse 6, we see one of the first elements of God providing for man,

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providing for what he's going to call man to do.

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It says, but mist would come up from the earth and water all the ground.

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There was no rain, so God provided the water that the plants would need to be cultivated.

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Now, that word mist, it could mean a thick, like low to the ground, dewy fog, right?

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Canopy theory people, they go, oh, there was still an evaporation cycle, you know, condensation cycle.

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But the word could also be rendered as a stream, right?

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The idea of an overflowing river or flooding riverbanks, that type of thing,

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or even natural springs that bubbled up from the ground.

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So, but the idea is that God provided the water for the lack that existed at one point in creation.

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So God provides the water, he provides what is needed, this beautiful picture, the idea here.

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And really what I think this whole account is about and focusing on is, guys, God provides for those he loves.

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He provides.

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He provides for the needs he's going to expect us to do even before we're there, before we exist.

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God provides.

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If God calls you to something, God is going to provide the gifts, the talents, the resources,

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the means with which to fulfill what he's called you to do.

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And so we see that in the very beginning here.

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Now, verse seven, the author then skips over all the other creation details and we go right to what took place on day six.

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It says, then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust, from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils,

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and the man became a living being.

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So that's what this account is all about.

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That's what this chapter is about.

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God's creation of man and God's relationship to man.

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And we get to this point through a very subtle but incredibly important point that is made seven times in this chapter.

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It's a point that permeates all of scripture.

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It's who our God is.

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It's the character of God.

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You see, he mentions in this chapter over and over and over the Lord God.

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Did you guys notice that?

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It's seven times in this chapter he switches from God in chapter one to the Lord God.

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What does that tell us about God?

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What does that tell us about his relationship to us, his creation?

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Well, again, if you remember back in chapter one when it mentioned God, it would say God spoke, God said, God said it was good, right?

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That word there is Elohim.

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That's a Hebrew word that is a plural word referring to a singular entity, right?

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When we saw God say let us make man in our image, it's one God.

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But there's a plurality inside God and that's what we call the Trinity.

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That God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit.

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They're co-equal.

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They're co-eternal.

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And they're different from each other.

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But in essence, they're one God together.

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And yeah, our brains go, I don't understand how that works.

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Well, that's what makes him God and not us, right?

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But the Bible uses this.

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And so in chapter one, this word Elohim referring to God, the Godhead, God in his transcendent triune, almighty power and being creator of everything,

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we switch in chapter two to him being called the Lord God.

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And in Hebrew, it's Yahweh Elohim, Yahweh Elohim.

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Now, Yahweh is the personal covenant name of God.

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That's the name of God when we're talking about the fact that he wants to know you personally and he wants you to know him personally.

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That he's not this distant cosmic God that created the universe, but he knows how many hairs are on your head.

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That he knows every thought you think.

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He knows everything about you.

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And he wants to be in relationship with you.

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That's what this word Yahweh talks about.

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So the God, although mighty deity beyond comprehension, Elohim, relates to you,

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desires that personal relationship with you, and provides everything needed to those that he has made promises to.

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That's what this word means.

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And so this point was just very subtly introduced there into this chapter.

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It started in verse four, then the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, and it repeats it all the way through.

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This theme actually runs through all of God's word.

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That he is a personal God who wants a personal relationship and to provide for those he's made promises to.

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You see, he provides the covering for Adam and Eve after the fall.

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They sowed fig leaves together.

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God sacrificed an animal and gave them skins to cover their shame.

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He provides deliverance from Egypt, which is a symbolic type of the world and sin.

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He provides his law that man would learn that relying on their own self-determination is inadequate.

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In the wilderness, he provides food and water that they would not starve.

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He provides access to the promised land.

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And it's always according to his ways, according to his terms.

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And this goes on and on and on through the Old Testament all the way until you get to the New Testament, right?

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Where God comes in the flesh and he lives a perfect life, providing for us an example of how we should be, how we are to live.

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He provides the ultimate example by dying on the cross.

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As we're told in the Bible that no greater love has anyone than this to lay down their life for their friends.

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And he provides that example to us.

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Ultimately, providing for us the atoning once for all sacrifice for every sin you and I have ever committed and ever will commit.

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And he did all that by dying on the cross in our place, providing a fully satisfying of God's justice and wrath against sin.

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He provided that.

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So this section gives us a glimpse at how things were supposed to be between man and God.

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The relationship that we were intended to have between his creation or him as our creator and us as his creation.

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But it's the beginning of the story that carries all the way through scripture that not only was this how it was supposed to be, but it can be again.

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It can be again.

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It can be restored.

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And that's when we get all the way through the New Testament and Jesus and all that that is about.

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But right here in chapter two of Genesis, in the very beginning, we see this all powerful, almighty, all knowing creator of everything, Elohim.

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Who says, yeah, but I desire to know you personally.

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I desire you to know me personally because I'm not just Elohim.

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I'm Yahweh.

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I'm Yahweh Elohim.

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So know me.

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Let me know you.

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Give your life to me.

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And we see all of that in that name, the Lord God.

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So the details of God's creation of Adam in this one verse really demonstrate God's great personal love and care.

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It's highlighting that aspects of that Yahweh personal covenant name of God.

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You see, it tells us there that the Lord God formed the man out of the dust.

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The word formed means to mold or to shape intentionally or carefully.

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It's a word in the Hebrew that that would typically be used to speak of an artist, a master artist creating his masterpiece.

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Right. We know that we look at certain paintings today and we go, wow, you know, that's a masterpiece.

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We look at different types of art and we go, we we admire it because it's so perfect.

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It's so well done.

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Right. That idea.

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And so when it says he formed man, it doesn't mean that he just kind of like whatever, whatever poof man.

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But he was careful.

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He was intentional.

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He made all the systems within us work together perfectly.

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Remember, he said it was very good.

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Exact existing exactly as it should.

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He made everything about us to be absolutely perfect.

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And God or the word of God goes on to use pictures like God is the potter.

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We are the clay. Right.

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You're familiar with that one where it's that idea of him molding and shaping our lives.

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And again, the picture here and we've had this repeated a couple of times just in these first two verses of Genesis is that man is no afterthought.

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Man is no accident of evolution.

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We're not just some random collection of gases colliding together, turning into some ooze.

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And then that ooze bumps into other ooze.

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And it was like, hey, let's make something living and poof fish.

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And then fish says, I want to crawl out of the water.

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They poof animals and animals says, you know, and then be like, oh, oh, oh.

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And then becomes man.

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And, you know, that.

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No.

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Man was intentionally.

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Purposefully created.

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And we are the intentional creation of the infinite mind that designed everything that exists.

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And so he formed us out of the dust of the ground.

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Right. I've been talking a lot about how special we are.

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We are the pinnacle of God's creation.

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We're the crowning jewel.

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We're what everything was leading up to.

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But lest we be prideful, never forget.

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Man was made from the dirt.

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You're made of dirt.

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All right.

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We haven't gotten a woman yet.

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So, guys, I'm really singling you out right here.

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Okay.

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Man was made from dirt.

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Before you start thinking you're all that and, you know, how important you are and how amazing and all that,

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don't forget that you're made of dirt.

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What makes you special is everything God is and what God does.

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Right.

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And it also speaks to the fact that this physical body we have, it's just a vessel.

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Right. It's a vessel.

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It's no different metaphorically than an empty jug without water.

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Right.

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You can see a jug and go, whoa, that's a masterpiece.

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Right.

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And the human body is a masterpiece.

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And it's a wonder absolutely.

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And it's beautiful to behold in its design and function.

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But what is it that really makes this dirt suit special?

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It says he breathed the breath of life into his nostrils and the man became a living being.

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That's what makes us special.

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You see, man is more than just the dust of his appearance.

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And again, what humanistic thinking tries to do is say, oh, no, man's just, we're just an animal.

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We're just nothing.

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We just live and then we die.

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And humanistic thinking tries to reduce this glorious creation of God to, it's just a meaningless nothing.

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But no, man is more than just the dust of his physical substance.

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He is made in the image of God.

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Now, when it says the man became a living being here, it's interesting because that is the same exact Hebrew word.

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Used in Genesis chapter one, verses 20 and 24 when it's referring to the animals.

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Right.

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Now, in Genesis one, 20 and 24, the same Hebrew word is rendered in the English living creatures.

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And what the Hebrew word means at its base route is any living thing with voluntary movement, circulation and respiration.

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So in chapter one, verse 24, when God said, let the earth produce living creatures.

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The creatures were produced of the earth or out of dust, if you will.

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But man is oh, so different than the animals.

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Oh, so different for man is the only living creature that was made in the image of God.

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What makes us different from the animals and really supreme over the animals is that God himself breathed life into man.

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Unlike anything else he created.

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Animals, he said, let them come up from the earth.

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But us, he personally fashioned our body and then breathed life into us.

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That word breathed, it is a warmly personal, beautiful word.

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It's the idea of the face to face intimacy of a kiss.

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It's the idea of just the most intense personal moment.

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It also is referring to the significance of the fact that this act was an act of self giving, self giving.

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What that means is God breathed some of himself into us.

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It doesn't mean we're gods or anything like that.

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But the spark of life we have, God breathed that into us.

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That ties into that concept that were made in his image.

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Some of what God is, God granted into mankind.

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It's a beautiful, beautiful word.

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And it's incidentally unique to humans.

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It's unique to humans, not with any other living creature that exists within our physical universe.

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And then what did he breathe into us?

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He says the breath of life.

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That word breath is the same word that is used of the Holy Spirit throughout the whole Bible.

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In the Hebrew language the word is ruach.

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That means spirit.

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But it also means breath.

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It also means wind.

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And then when you get to the New Testament the word is numah, which means spirit, breath or wind.

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And so when he says the breath of life here, he created man by providing his own breath.

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Or to use the other definition of the word, his own spirit.

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To then bring the spirit of man to life.

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To a sense of living that transcends animals and creatures in every way.

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Humans are alive in a way no animal is.

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And people argue that because sometimes your dog can look like it's smiling at you, right?

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They go, oh, he has emotions.

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They're so real, right?

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One of the things that always was funny to me, and I don't mean to put anybody on blast here with this,

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but the culture that we got into in the last 20 years is people say, no, we don't want to have kids.

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So they would get a dog.

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And they would treat it like their child.

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And I get that.

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I love animals.

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I really do love animals.

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I grew up with them.

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But they're an animal.

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They're not a person, right?

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The way we are.

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And the idea is that when this physical vessel dies, this dirt suit that God gave us that is so beautifully complex

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and a masterpiece of creation, when this dies, we will live on.

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We will live eternally.

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God gave us some of himself in that sense, whereas he is eternal.

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He gave us a spirit that is eternal.

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Now, what that does mean from a point of interpretation, I'm sorry, but I don't think our animals are going to be in heaven.

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Some of you are like, dang it, I'm done.

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Don't want to be a Christian no more if, you know, Sparky can't go with me.

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But that's just a side point here.

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But the idea is that we are a living being as opposed to just a living creature.

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And I see that rendered here in the CSB.

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It's a very subtle point here.

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But we are a living being with a spirit, with a soul, with a body.

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00:31:54,000 --> 00:32:01,000
We are made in the image of God, which means we are a Trinity like our God is, our creator is.

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And we see this in 1 Thessalonians 523 where Paul says to the people he's writing to,

438
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:13,000
May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

439
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:16,000
Isn't that beautiful?

440
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:22,000
God loved us that much to give us that life.

441
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,000
Now in verse 8, we now see his commissioning of man.

442
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:33,000
Verse 8, it says the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed.

443
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:40,000
Verse 15 kind of restates this too where it says the Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and to watch over it.

444
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:50,000
So the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, provided a perfect place for the perfect man he created on a perfect earth in a perfect universe.

445
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:58,000
He provided the perfect special and unique life in his image so that we would have perfect fellowship with him, our creator, right?

446
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,000
Our spirit connected to his spirit.

447
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,000
He provided man with a perfect responsibility, right?

448
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:06,000
Work the land and watch over it.

449
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:08,000
That means to cultivate it and to maintain it.

450
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,000
You remember those shrubs and plants that he pointed out earlier in the chapter?

451
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:20,000
Those shrubs and plants, those words refer to bushes and herbs like cilantro and thyme and all that kind of stuff.

452
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:30,000
It's the idea of plants that have flexible stems as opposed to plants that have like rigid, woody components like trees, right?

453
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:37,000
These shrubs and plants are specifically the types of vegetation that thrives when cultivated and maintained.

454
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:42,000
And that's why this was the detail he included topically going we're not going to talk about all creation.

455
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:49,000
I'm going to tell you at some point in creation those plants that God was going to have man, they didn't exist and God provided them.

456
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:56,000
But hey, in order to be in order for them to grow and be cultivated, maintained, they need water.

457
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:57,000
But there was no rain yet.

458
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:00,000
So God made the mist come up on the land.

459
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:07,000
And then God created man, this beautiful creation, and then put him in the garden to work and to maintain it.

460
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,000
So Yahweh Elohim did all of this.

461
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:10,000
That's what we're learning here.

462
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:11,000
That's what we're seeing.

463
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:12,000
He did all of it.

464
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:19,000
He provided all of it so that man could do what God was going to commission him to do.

465
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,000
But the idea is man did none of it.

466
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,000
God did all of it.

467
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:24,000
Man did none of it.

468
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:31,000
So it tells us that the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east.

469
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:35,000
Notice that the garden is not named Eden.

470
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,000
The garden existed in a place called Eden.

471
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:39,000
And it says in the east.

472
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:44,000
Now, I believe Moses wrote these books, and I believe the Bible very clearly supports that.

473
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:46,000
So this was written by Moses.

474
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:51,000
And we believe that it was written probably when Israel was wandering in the wilderness.

475
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:55,000
And so as the author, it's from the perspective of his location.

476
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:56,000
Right?

477
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:59,000
So east of the wilderness is the place he's referring to.

478
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:05,000
Now, the location of this garden, east of Moses when he wrote it, nobody knows where it's at.

479
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:06,000
Right?

480
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:07,000
There's all kinds of speculations.

481
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:09,000
We'll touch on that in a little bit.

482
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:17,000
But verse 9, it tells us the Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food.

483
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:23,000
And then this important detail, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

484
00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:30,000
So again, there's no conflict with chapter 1 here because it doesn't indicate when God caused the trees to grow.

485
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:31,000
Right?

486
00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:33,000
I thought God created all the vegetation on day 3.

487
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:34,000
He did.

488
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:35,000
Right?

489
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:43,000
So the beginning of this phrase, the Lord God caused in the original Hebrew language, it actually suggests the Lord God had caused.

490
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,000
So again, it's just topically referring.

491
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:50,000
And we get this picture, though, that there's this beautiful garden that God created.

492
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,000
It's amazing.

493
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:58,000
These trees that he built in the garden among the shrubs and the plants were just, he says, pleasing in appearance.

494
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,000
They were desirable to look at.

495
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:01,000
They were just beautiful.

496
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:03,000
And they produced good food.

497
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,000
And so Adam had food and pleasing surroundings.

498
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,000
He was made in the image of God.

499
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,000
God had literally kissed life to him.

500
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:17,000
And he was the perfect sovereign, human sovereign of all creation under the authority of God, his creator.

501
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:18,000
He had God's blessing.

502
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,000
He had God's presence.

503
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:28,000
Bonhoeffer said about this, Adam speaks and walks with God as if they belong to one another.

504
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,000
Personal relationship.

505
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,000
Beautiful fellowship.

506
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,000
And then, like I said, he shares these little details.

507
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:38,000
He created all the trees and these two specific ones.

508
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,000
We'll come back to those.

509
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:41,000
Verse 10.

510
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,000
A river went out from Eden to water the garden.

511
00:36:44,000 --> 00:36:46,000
From there it divided and became the source of four rivers.

512
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:54,000
The name of the first one is Pishon, or Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havila where there is gold.

513
00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:55,000
Gold from that land is pure.

514
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:57,000
Bedelim and Onyx are also there.

515
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:03,000
The name of the second river is Gihon, or Gihon, which flows through the entire land of Kush.

516
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:07,000
The name of the third river is Tigris, which runs east of Assyria.

517
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:10,000
And the fourth river is Euphrates.

518
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:15,000
Now, again, this is pretty specific geographical details here.

519
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:19,000
And people have tried to use this interpretation to try and pinpoint where the Garden of Eden is.

520
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:23,000
And yeah, it is pretty specific, right?

521
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:27,000
You know, there's this river and there's this river and all that.

522
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:31,000
But again, we're not supposed to find the Garden of Eden.

523
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:33,000
I don't believe it's available.

524
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,000
Some even think it's not on Earth anymore.

525
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:41,000
I think if the garden even was discoverable, we would turn it into a theme park and charge for admission.

526
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,000
Right? That's what we would do.

527
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,000
And, you know, besides there's this flaming sword there.

528
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:52,000
And, you know, nobody really knows where the land of Havila is.

529
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,000
Nobody really knows where the land of Kush is.

530
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:56,000
Kush could be like in Ethiopia.

531
00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:00,000
Some think it's northwest up in kind of the Iran area.

532
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,000
But we do have two rivers today, right?

533
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:03,000
The Tigris and Euphrates.

534
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:06,000
We could find those on a map.

535
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:11,000
But the problem is, is there's no guarantee that those are the same rivers, right?

536
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,000
Like, people rename stuff from old names all the time.

537
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:16,000
So they might not be the exact same rivers.

538
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,000
But it's an interesting thing to conjecture on.

539
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:23,000
And some people think if you look at the rivers, you go down into the Persian Gulf.

540
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,000
The Persian Gulf wasn't always as big as it was.

541
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:29,000
So the water is maybe covering the garden.

542
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:30,000
Don't know.

543
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:35,000
There's really nothing down there that we found about or found or has been, you know, reported.

544
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:39,000
Some people think that the Garden of Eden was actually north in Turkey.

545
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:44,000
Because the Tigris and Euphrates rivers actually flow this way into the Persian Gulf.

546
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,000
They don't flow this way.

547
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:47,000
So anyways.

548
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:52,000
And then on top of that, you know, when the whole earth was flooded and everything changed,

549
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,000
the whole geography of the earth was radically different than it originally was.

550
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,000
So we don't know where the garden is.

551
00:38:58,000 --> 00:38:59,000
And there you go.

552
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:00,000
So verse 15.

553
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:04,000
The Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

554
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,000
And the Lord God commanded the man.

555
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:12,000
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

556
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:16,000
For on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.

557
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,000
So God provided the universe.

558
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:19,000
He provided the earth.

559
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:20,000
He provided the land.

560
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,000
He provided the potential within the land for plants to grow.

561
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,000
He provided the water.

562
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,000
Those plants would need to be cultivated and maintained.

563
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:27,000
He provided the garden.

564
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:30,000
He provided these trees.

565
00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:32,000
He created man, placed him within it.

566
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:35,000
And then you go, well, what did the Lord God provide here?

567
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:41,000
What was it was provided to man in these two specific trees that it points out?

568
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:46,000
I believe it's one of the most significant expressions of love that you can possibly give to somebody.

569
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:47,000
Free will.

570
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:49,000
Choice.

571
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:54,000
God provided free will and choice to man in these two trees.

572
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:59,000
You see, God wants a loving personal relationship with mankind.

573
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,000
He wanted that with Adam, his creation.

574
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:03,000
He wants that with us today.

575
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:11,000
But if he made Adam to love him without the choice not to, well, that's not love at all.

576
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:14,000
That would just make Adam a robot, right?

577
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:16,000
That would just make us robots.

578
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:17,000
That wouldn't be love.

579
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:20,000
That would be domination.

580
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:27,000
And so as God wanted to have this loving relationship with his creation, God wants us to choose him.

581
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:32,000
He wants us to be in relationship with him, to choose to love him, to choose to obey him,

582
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:38,000
to be in that and really in order to draw us onto himself and to receive what he has for us,

583
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:42,000
he demonstrates his love in so many ways.

584
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:47,000
And what we see here is in the very beginning of creation, all that he created for man,

585
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:53,000
he said, look, here's this planet, here's everything you need.

586
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,000
And God said, enjoy it.

587
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:56,000
Right?

588
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,000
That's a pretty sweet deal.

589
00:40:58,000 --> 00:40:59,000
You didn't make it.

590
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:00,000
Just enjoy it.

591
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,000
And this included work.

592
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:04,000
Right?

593
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:08,000
Work wasn't cursed or became a cursed burden until after the fall.

594
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:09,000
It was a pleasant thing.

595
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,000
It was enjoyable.

596
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:12,000
Man loved it.

597
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:13,000
This is so great.

598
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,000
I get to cultivate this and God's with them and they're just like, oh, this is so cool.

599
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:17,000
And man's like, whoa, what's that?

600
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:19,000
And he's like, oh, that's a such and such plan.

601
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:25,000
Oh, it was just this beautiful relationship.

602
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:34,000
But choosing God is only a choice if there was something else to choose.

603
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:38,000
And so God provided these two specific trees.

604
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:42,000
Now, in his instruction to man, he leads with permission, right?

605
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,000
Partake of everything in the garden to your heart's content.

606
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:46,000
Eat as much as you want.

607
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:47,000
You could eat from any tree.

608
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:52,000
Adam could partake of everything, including the tree of life.

609
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:57,000
And that's the tree that was introduced in verse nine with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

610
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:01,000
Now, some people go, well, what would eating from the tree of life do, right?

611
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:09,000
Biblically, it seems to have something to do with Adam's originally intended immortality.

612
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:14,000
The same type of immortality we'll have in the new heaven and new earth that we see in Revelation.

613
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:19,000
Where I get that is in Genesis 322 after the fall, it says, the Lord God said,

614
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:23,000
since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil,

615
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:28,000
he must not reach out and take from the tree of life and live forever.

616
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:38,000
So it could be speculatively that Adam's physical body was intended to live forever with his soul and with his spirit.

617
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,000
And this fruit was somehow part of it.

618
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,000
I don't know exactly because it doesn't tell us.

619
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:49,000
But the idea that this fruit was a part of that longevity is supported by the fact that after the fall,

620
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:53,000
it tells us that the curse of sin brought death to our bodies, right?

621
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:57,000
Death didn't exist per se before that.

622
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,000
And that was because we're barred from the tree of life.

623
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:01,000
We were kicked out of the garden.

624
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:03,000
And then when you go to Revelation, what do we see?

625
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:12,000
God gives us a new body, a heavenly body, one that is probably like the one we originally had, that it was eternal.

626
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:18,000
You know, that this whole idea of us partaking of the fruit of the tree of life and being in fellowship with God,

627
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:20,000
it has something to do with our immortality.

628
00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,000
We see it in Revelation 22, verse 2.

629
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,000
In the new heaven and the new earth in New Jerusalem, it says,

630
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:31,000
the tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month.

631
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:36,000
The leaves of the tree are for the healing of nations, and there will no longer be any curse.

632
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:38,000
Right? What was the curse? Death.

633
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,000
That was the result of the fall tied to this tree somehow.

634
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:45,000
And then in Revelation 2, 7, Jesus says, the one who conquers,

635
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:51,000
I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God,

636
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:56,000
a right we originally had, but was lost in the fall.

637
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,000
And so God gives us permission.

638
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:01,000
Freely eat. Freely eat.

639
00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:03,000
I've provided it all for you.

640
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:04,000
Freely partake of all of that.

641
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,000
But then this choice was paired with a prohibition.

642
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:09,000
And the prohibition was simply this.

643
00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:14,000
The choice was to whether or not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Right?

644
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,000
I've given you everything.

645
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:18,000
Just don't do that one thing.

646
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,000
Don't eat from that tree.

647
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:24,000
And in that, what we see is God provided choice.

648
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,000
God provided choice.

649
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:29,000
He also provided the consequence. Right?

650
00:44:29,000 --> 00:44:32,000
The day you eat of that tree, you'll surely die.

651
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:34,000
And then, you know, we're going to get into this in chapter 3,

652
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:39,000
but the idea of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil,

653
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:42,000
it was an act of moral autonomy.

654
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:48,000
It was Adam and Eve saying, we want to gain wisdom without regard to God's word.

655
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,000
That was really what it was.

656
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:52,000
We don't need God. We don't need to listen to him.

657
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:54,000
We don't need his word. We don't need him to tell us what to do.

658
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:56,000
We don't need to depend on that.

659
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:57,000
We could do it ourselves.

660
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:00,000
We could get wisdom ourselves.

661
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,000
Today, people call that moral relativity. Right?

662
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:06,000
What's true for you is true for you.

663
00:45:06,000 --> 00:45:10,000
And then we look at our world today and we're like, well, where has that gotten us?

664
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:13,000
Right? We can't even define what a woman is anymore.

665
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,000
Well, great wisdom, man.

666
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:19,000
So anyways, chapter 3, when we get to that, we'll see that, you know,

667
00:45:19,000 --> 00:45:21,000
they made the wrong choice.

668
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:26,000
There was a choice. Love God, obey him, or do it yourself.

669
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:34,000
Mad made the wrong choice, but ultimately what we see is through Christ, humanity gets a second chance, if you will.

670
00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:36,000
Mankind gets a second chance, if you will.

671
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:42,000
And only God is the one that has the right to determine what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is evil.

672
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:46,000
God is the one that gets to do that, nobody else.

673
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:52,000
So not only did he provide all these things to Adam, provide the life, provide the free will, provide the choice,

674
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:57,000
provide the consequences, he also provides the definitions in his word.

675
00:45:57,000 --> 00:46:00,000
What is good? What is evil? We don't get to decide that.

676
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:02,000
God gets to decide that.

677
00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:06,000
When we disagree with God, we're wrong, not him.

678
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:12,000
And that's why we have his word, so that we would know him, his character, and what he wants from us.

679
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:19,000
And really, only God is the one that has the right to determine the consequences of defying him and denying him.

680
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:24,000
And so that's as far as we're going to get into the chapter today.

681
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:27,000
But, you know, why the focus on God's provision, right?

682
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:31,000
That is what I see through this chapter, is just God providing, God providing.

683
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:35,000
Why did Moses write this with a focus on that?

684
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:40,000
I believe Moses wanted to teach his readers this most important characteristic about God, right?

685
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,000
We talked about Almighty God creating the universe.

686
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:48,000
Now I want you to understand Israel as we're wandering in the wilderness, who your God is.

687
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:53,000
He's personal. He wants to know you. He wants to have a relationship with you.

688
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:59,000
He cares about you. Right? In the very beginning, look what he provided for man.

689
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:03,000
It might have been because they were complaining about the manna God was providing from the skies, right?

690
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,000
We're going to get to that in the wilderness.

691
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:09,000
God's like, okay, I'll provide food for you. Just wake up every morning, it's there.

692
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:14,000
I don't like it. It's like, whoa, right?

693
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:17,000
But God will provide it. He wanted us to understand that.

694
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:20,000
He wanted them to see that. He cares for you. He loves his creation.

695
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:27,000
He's not aloof. He's not distant. He didn't start evolution. Boop, push play and leave.

696
00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:32,000
He's intimately connected all the time, regularly.

697
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:39,000
That in the beginning, originally, we had this personal, loving, intimate, two-way relationship with our Creator.

698
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:44,000
This relationship where he provided for Adam the way a loving father provides for their children,

699
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:48,000
just to bless them, just to see them smile.

700
00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:56,000
God loves to see his kids smile. He loves to bless us.

701
00:47:56,000 --> 00:48:01,000
And then we get mad when he doesn't bless us and we're just being disobedient punks.

702
00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:04,000
He doesn't bless.

703
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:07,000
You know, there's a relationship we're having here.

704
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:12,000
Little James at my house who I get to play bonus grandpa to.

705
00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:16,000
You know, I just, I, I, parents have always said this.

706
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:19,000
You don't understand God until you have a kid, you know, and I never had children.

707
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:23,000
But I've got to be involved with a lot in my life.

708
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:32,000
And I get now that whole idea that he's learning, he's growing, he doesn't understand certain things yet.

709
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:37,000
He could be radically annoying and, oh, my gosh, stop grabbing everything off the table.

710
00:48:37,000 --> 00:48:42,000
And, you know, and why are you trying to kill yourself every two seconds?

711
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:45,000
But none of that matters.

712
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:52,000
Because what I live for in that moment is just to see him smile, just to see him turn around and smile.

713
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:58,000
And he's figured out that when he's about to do something wrong and you go, don't, he goes.

714
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,000
I'm like, bro, OK, do whatever you want. Right?

715
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:04,000
It's wow.

716
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,000
And that's how God is with us. But Adam blew it.

717
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:10,000
Adam broke that relationship, lost it. He had the whole garden before him.

718
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:13,000
He had everything he could want provided in abundance.

719
00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:16,000
He could eat from the tree of life and partake of all that it promised him.

720
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:24,000
But instead, he chose to disobey God's word, disregard God's provision and do the one thing God said not to eat of the tree.

721
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:27,000
He was expressly forbidden from eating from.

722
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:35,000
And as I mentioned, that was Adam deciding to be autonomous, willfully disregarding God's revealed will.

723
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:37,000
He went to seek wisdom on his own terms.

724
00:49:37,000 --> 00:49:40,000
And yeah, he obtained the knowledge of good and evil.

725
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:45,000
Congratulations, because it ultimately killed him.

726
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:52,000
And it brought this curse that's been on mankind ever since and a curse on all the creation that God created for him to rule over.

727
00:49:52,000 --> 00:50:00,000
But the beautiful truth, the hope is that by contrast, Jesus Christ, the second Adam that the Bible explains him to be,

728
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:05,000
it says, lived by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

729
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:12,000
He did it right. He lived every second of his earthly existence in radical dependence on God's word.

730
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:18,000
He believed God's bare word submitted to his heavenly Father's will.

731
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:23,000
That idea is when God said, do this, it wasn't a situation of like, well, I don't know.

732
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:29,000
It was just like God said so, therefore it's true, I obey.

733
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:35,000
And in time, in time, he went to the cross to die in our place for our sin,

734
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:44,000
the sin that we've inherited from the very beginning to provide for us a means of regaining all that God originally provided for his creation.

735
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:53,000
That eternal life forever in joyous fellowship with him, with all our needs eternally supplied,

736
00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:58,000
free from this corrupted body of sin and death, free from the temptation and seduction of sin,

737
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:07,000
free in paradise, regained in perfect fellowship in the presence of our Creator.

738
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:10,000
But today we still have that choice that Adam had.

739
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:16,000
And it's not a choice about eating from this tree or that tree, you know, specifically.

740
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:18,000
It isn't about doing good or bad.

741
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:29,000
The choice today that we have is whether or not to put our trust, our faith, and our dependence in what the Lord God has provided for us now.

742
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:35,000
Jesus Christ, God the Son, the atonement for our sin.

743
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:41,000
If we choose that, all the promises of our Lord God, the promises that the Lord God has covenanted with his people,

744
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:45,000
the promises that he says, if you trust me, you put your faith in me, these will apply to you.

745
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:51,000
A new heart, a new nature, a new life, now and forever.

746
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:56,000
If we make the right choice, those are ours, now and forever.

747
00:51:56,000 --> 00:52:02,000
But if you don't, if you don't choose Jesus today to submit your life to him,

748
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:10,000
if you metaphorically say that one thing that you told me not to do, deny God, right?

749
00:52:10,000 --> 00:52:12,000
I'm going to do that.

750
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:13,000
I'm going to go at it on my own.

751
00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:14,000
I'm going to do it alone.

752
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:24,000
If you choose to live by your own wisdom, outside of God's word, then you're going to receive God's promises too.

753
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:34,000
But those promises are promises of judgment, promises of eternal separation from God in hell forever, paying the price for your own sin.

754
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:36,000
But that's not what God wants.

755
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:40,000
That's not what God intended in the beginning.

756
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:42,000
That's not the relationship he desired to have from us.

757
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:46,000
He's loved you since before this universe was created.

758
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:51,000
And he provided for you to have a restored relationship with him 2,000 years ago.

759
00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:57,000
And there's no other name under which man can be saved but the name of Jesus Christ.

760
00:52:57,000 --> 00:53:05,000
There's no other way to restore that original, personal, loving, intimate, two-way relationship with your creator.

761
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:15,000
But by putting your faith in God the Son, the creator that came to this earth to live and die for you.

762
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:27,000
And when you do that, we are restored partially now, but ultimately in complete fulfillment to what God originally intended for us.

763
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:30,000
I'm not even going to say bow your heads and pray.

764
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:38,000
If God is speaking to you this morning before we take communion together, if God has been speaking to you about his desire for your life,

765
00:53:38,000 --> 00:53:44,000
to restore your life, to bring back purpose and meaning to your life.

766
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:52,000
If you've heard God's word and you realize that you're not just an accident of evolution, you're not just a spark of consciousness with no purpose,

767
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:57,000
but you are a very special creation loved by the God of this universe.

768
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:04,000
And you desire to have that restored relationship with him, not just now, but then to know you're going to go to heaven when you die.

769
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:08,000
Back into the paradise he intended for you.

770
00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,000
It comes through putting your faith in him.

771
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:15,000
It comes through receiving Jesus Christ.

772
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:21,000
It comes from having the spirit that he originally gave you that died in the fall and is dead because of sin,

773
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:28,000
and then have it be born again and connected back to the spirit of God.

774
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:35,000
He wants to do that in your life now, but you have to exercise your free will.

775
00:54:35,000 --> 00:54:41,000
You have to say, God, I recognize everything you say about me.

776
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:46,000
I know I'm a sinner, but please forgive me. Please come into my life.

777
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:48,000
That's getting saved.

778
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:52,000
Anybody in this room, if you want to do it, I just want you to raise your hand where you're seated and let me pray with you.

779
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:55,000
Because God will save you today.

780
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:59,000
God will change your eternal destiny today.

781
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:02,000
And I want to pray this prayer with you. So just raise your hand if you want to do that.

782
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:08,000
If you're watching online and you want to receive Christ this morning, simply let us know in the chat,

783
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:10,000
I want to receive Christ.

784
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:17,000
Because not only are we going to pray with you, but we want to give you some resources to help you on this relationship you've started with your creator.

785
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:19,000
So if you're online, just let us know in chat.

786
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:23,000
And anybody in this room, just raise your hand where I can see it and I will pray with you today.

787
00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:25,000
All right.

788
00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:29,000
Father God, we pray.

789
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:32,000
Lord, we pray for those that don't know you.

790
00:55:32,000 --> 00:55:37,000
We pray for those that are enslaved by their sin, thinking that they're free.

791
00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:46,000
We pray for those that are living a life of hurt and disappointment and all that sin brings into this world.

792
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:55,000
But God, have come to the place of recognizing that you bring freedom, that you bring hope,

793
00:55:55,000 --> 00:56:01,000
and that God, we enter into that through faith in you.

794
00:56:01,000 --> 00:56:08,000
And so God, we pray for all of those that know they need you, that they would pray right now.

795
00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:12,000
And if you know you need Jesus Christ, just pray with me.

796
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:18,000
Say, God, I know I've sinned. I know I need you.

797
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:22,000
Please come into my life. Be my Savior.

798
00:56:22,000 --> 00:56:25,000
Please forgive me of all my sin.

799
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:29,000
Please forgive me of all the sin I've ever committed and ever will commit.

800
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:32,000
Wash me clean.

801
00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:38,000
Restore the joy of fellowship with you, my creator.

802
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:40,000
I trust you.

803
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:47,000
Teach me how to live for you, how to depend on you, how to shine for you,

804
00:56:47,000 --> 00:56:52,000
that I would be able to share this hope with others that don't know you.

805
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:55,000
Thank you for loving me so much.

806
00:56:55,000 --> 00:57:00,000
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

807
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,000
All right, we're going to close today with communion.

808
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:09,000
And you know, communion is that time that we have as the church

809
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:13,000
to specifically remember what he provided for us.

810
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:15,000
Right? He provided everything.

811
00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:20,000
We gave it up. Then he provided the means to regain it.

812
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,000
And he gave us that in his death.

813
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:24,000
It's remembering the death of Jesus on the cross.

814
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:26,000
That's what communion is all about.

815
00:57:26,000 --> 00:57:29,000
I didn't get a communion thing.

816
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:32,000
Anybody want to throw one out? No, don't throw it at me, please.

817
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:34,000
Thanks, brother.

818
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:37,000
You got it? All right, thank you.

819
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:40,000
So if you got one of these communion cups in the room,

820
00:57:40,000 --> 00:57:43,000
if you've never seen it before, there's like two tabs on the top.

821
00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:47,000
There's a very thin plastic tab and a thicker plastic tab.

822
00:57:47,000 --> 00:57:50,000
If you pull back the very thin one, it will reveal the cracker

823
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:52,000
that's in the top of the cup here.

824
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:57,000
Now, when Jesus took the bread, it tells us in the gospels,

825
00:57:57,000 --> 00:58:00,000
it says he gave thanks and he broke it.

826
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:05,000
And he told his disciples, this is my body, which is for you,

827
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:08,000
and it's provided for you.

828
00:58:08,000 --> 00:58:10,000
And he said, do this in remembrance of me.

829
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:14,000
You know, our bodies, our perfect bodies that God created for us,

830
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:16,000
that he breathed the breath of life into,

831
00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:19,000
that had a perfect spirit and perfect fellowship with God,

832
00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:22,000
in the fall, it was all corrupted.

833
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:25,000
When man disobeyed and ate from the tree he wasn't supposed to eat of,

834
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:29,000
his perfect righteousness was lost.

835
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:32,000
And as I've been saying, to regain that fellowship,

836
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:37,000
to regain that relationship, to regain that place,

837
00:58:37,000 --> 00:58:39,000
where we would just walk with God and talk with God

838
00:58:39,000 --> 00:58:41,000
and be in his perfect presence one day,

839
00:58:41,000 --> 00:58:46,000
only a perfect atonement could pay the price to regain that.

840
00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:48,000
And that's what Christ did when he gave his body on the cross

841
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:50,000
for you and me.

842
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:52,000
He atoned for our sin.

843
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:55,000
He satisfied God's wrath, God's judgment.

844
00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:59,000
And as a man who never sinned in any way, Jesus was perfect,

845
00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:03,000
he willingly gave himself that you could be forgiven,

846
00:59:03,000 --> 00:59:04,000
that I could be forgiven.

847
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:07,000
And he did it all to pay our penalty,

848
00:59:07,000 --> 00:59:09,000
to fulfill that justice of a holy God for our sin.

849
00:59:09,000 --> 00:59:12,000
It's his body given for us.

850
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:14,000
It's his body given for you.

851
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:17,000
It's his body given for me.

852
00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:22,000
That paid the price to restore our eternal life with God,

853
00:59:22,000 --> 00:59:27,000
to restore that possibility of fellowship with our Creator again,

854
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:28,000
to be with him again one day.

855
00:59:28,000 --> 00:59:34,000
And when we put our faith and trust in his death for our life,

856
00:59:34,000 --> 00:59:37,000
although this body of sin and death will still die,

857
00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:41,000
the salvation of who we really are is secure forever.

858
00:59:41,000 --> 00:59:44,000
And we thank God for that,

859
00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:46,000
because we couldn't do it ourselves.

860
00:59:46,000 --> 00:59:48,000
It was only him.

861
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:49,000
Let's pray.

862
00:59:49,000 --> 00:59:57,000
Father, we're so grateful that you died for us.

863
00:59:57,000 --> 01:00:01,000
God, from the very beginning,

864
01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:05,000
I believe, Lord, in the very moment where you contemplated all that

865
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:08,000
you were going to do in a split second,

866
01:00:08,000 --> 01:00:12,000
seeing everything from the creation of the universe,

867
01:00:12,000 --> 01:00:13,000
the creation of earth,

868
01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:15,000
the creation of man,

869
01:00:15,000 --> 01:00:16,000
the creation of woman,

870
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:17,000
the fall,

871
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:20,000
and everything, your plan to fix it

872
01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:22,000
and to make it so that we could come back to you, God,

873
01:00:22,000 --> 01:00:28,000
all in the instant you saw all of that,

874
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:31,000
you chose to do it.

875
01:00:31,000 --> 01:00:33,000
Instead of saying, no, I'm not going to create mankind,

876
01:00:33,000 --> 01:00:40,000
you loved us enough to risk the opportunity of us denying you

877
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:45,000
that we would have the opportunity to have relationship with you.

878
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:50,000
And God, surely we did deny you as a people,

879
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:52,000
and you made the way for us to come back.

880
01:00:52,000 --> 01:00:55,000
We thank you so much.

881
01:00:55,000 --> 01:00:58,000
God, it was your body given for us

882
01:00:58,000 --> 01:01:00,000
that we would have the hope that when we die,

883
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:04,000
we would be restored to how we originally were created to be.

884
01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:06,000
We thank you.

885
01:01:06,000 --> 01:01:10,000
We thank you, God, that you did something we could never do

886
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:16,000
by satisfying the justice, the wrath against the sin in this world.

887
01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:17,000
We remember.

888
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:18,000
We receive it, Lord.

889
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:19,000
Let's partake together.

890
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:22,000
And if you're in the room and you have the communion cup,

891
01:01:22,000 --> 01:01:28,000
just pull back that thicker tab very carefully.

892
01:01:28,000 --> 01:01:31,000
And in the Gospels again, when we read that Jesus was with his disciples

893
01:01:31,000 --> 01:01:35,000
in that upper room, it tells us that he took the cup.

894
01:01:35,000 --> 01:01:37,000
And he said, this is the new covenant in my blood.

895
01:01:37,000 --> 01:01:42,000
Do this in remembrance of me.

896
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:45,000
The old covenant was one where we were covered.

897
01:01:45,000 --> 01:01:47,000
We had a band-aid over our sinful nature,

898
01:01:47,000 --> 01:01:50,000
our sinful ways.

899
01:01:50,000 --> 01:01:54,000
It was temporarily covered by the blood of goats and lambs.

900
01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:57,000
But it never really changed our heart,

901
01:01:57,000 --> 01:02:01,000
restored our heart to a place it originally was,

902
01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:05,000
one connected with God with a desire to love him and to serve him.

903
01:02:05,000 --> 01:02:08,000
But when Jesus came and shed his blood on the cross,

904
01:02:08,000 --> 01:02:12,000
that perfect blood, it wasn't just covering up.

905
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:14,000
It was a new covenant.

906
01:02:14,000 --> 01:02:17,000
Because if you do this and you trust me, you are saved.

907
01:02:17,000 --> 01:02:19,000
You are washed clean from sin.

908
01:02:19,000 --> 01:02:22,000
There is no more stain.

909
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:25,000
That's how God sees us through the blood of Christ when we receive him.

910
01:02:25,000 --> 01:02:28,000
It meant a permanent, once for all,

911
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:31,000
satisfying of the wrath of God against our sin forever.

912
01:02:31,000 --> 01:02:34,000
He provided that for you.

913
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:36,000
He gave that you would be saved.

914
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:40,000
He gave that blood that would wash away all the effects of our sin

915
01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:47,000
so that what was once provided for us can be restored to us.

916
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:49,000
God did that for every single one of us.

917
01:02:49,000 --> 01:02:51,000
Only God could do it. It's amazing.

918
01:02:51,000 --> 01:02:54,000
And you, he said he did it for his greatest creation,

919
01:02:54,000 --> 01:02:57,000
the joy that was set before him.

920
01:02:57,000 --> 01:02:59,000
You.

921
01:02:59,000 --> 01:03:03,000
The thought of having a relationship with you again,

922
01:03:03,000 --> 01:03:06,000
that's what took him to the cross.

923
01:03:06,000 --> 01:03:09,000
And in him we receive all that God wanted for us

924
01:03:09,000 --> 01:03:12,000
and all that God wanted with us in the beginning.

925
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:16,000
We remember the blood that was shed.

926
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:20,000
That opens up the access for us to be reunited with our creator.

927
01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:22,000
Let's pray.

928
01:03:22,000 --> 01:03:27,000
Father, we are so grateful that you shed your blood.

929
01:03:27,000 --> 01:03:32,000
God, the body, your body that you gave for us, Lord,

930
01:03:32,000 --> 01:03:36,000
that was brutalized, that went through everything on the cross,

931
01:03:36,000 --> 01:03:41,000
that was what our sin deserved.

932
01:03:41,000 --> 01:03:43,000
And you took it on yourself.

933
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:48,000
But then, Lord, you shed your blood

934
01:03:48,000 --> 01:03:51,000
that we wouldn't only avoid getting what we deserved,

935
01:03:51,000 --> 01:03:55,000
but then we would be able to get something that we definitely don't deserve.

936
01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:57,000
That you made a new covenant.

937
01:03:57,000 --> 01:04:04,000
You made new promises with your people that, as we trust in your sacrifice for us,

938
01:04:04,000 --> 01:04:09,000
that relationship we had in the beginning would be restored.

939
01:04:09,000 --> 01:04:14,000
And that, God, we would have the hope that one day when this physical body dies,

940
01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:18,000
we will enter into eternity with you

941
01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:20,000
in the bodies we were meant to have,

942
01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:23,000
forgiven, saved, free from sin,

943
01:04:23,000 --> 01:04:25,000
with perfect joy and perfect fellowship.

944
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:28,000
God, we thank you so much for that.

945
01:04:28,000 --> 01:04:30,000
It was something we could never do on our own,

946
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:32,000
and yet you provided it for us.

947
01:04:32,000 --> 01:04:34,000
We love you, and we thank you.

948
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:36,000
Let's partake together.

949
01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:42,000
Well, I pray God blesses you all as you just seek to serve him and to know him more.

950
01:04:42,000 --> 01:04:47,000
I pray God continues to reveal himself to you in all things and in all ways.

951
01:04:47,000 --> 01:04:55,000
I pray that we don't forget the relationship that God fought for and paid so much for.

952
01:04:55,000 --> 01:05:00,000
The relationship that is given to us because of what he did,

953
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:02,000
our restoration and fellowship with God our creator,

954
01:05:02,000 --> 01:05:05,000
that we never take that for granted,

955
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:10,000
that we never consider it something cheap

956
01:05:10,000 --> 01:05:14,000
because it is the most precious thing.

957
01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:17,000
It is the most beautiful thing.

958
01:05:17,000 --> 01:05:22,000
And so walk in that. Dwell on that. Remember that.

959
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:24,000
When you're down, when the devil's beating you up, say,

960
01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:31,000
No, I'm a child of God. God loves me. God forgives me.

961
01:05:31,000 --> 01:05:35,000
When the devil says, Oh, you deserve to go to hell because of what you just did,

962
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:39,000
what you just thought, we say, Yeah, I was wrong.

963
01:05:39,000 --> 01:05:42,000
Then we say, God, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me.

964
01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:48,000
And he does every single time. How beautiful.

965
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:50,000
So I pray you guys are blessed.

966
01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:53,000
Remember, we got so many opportunities coming up to let people know

967
01:05:53,000 --> 01:05:56,000
about these wonderful truths. Take advantage of those things.

968
01:05:56,000 --> 01:06:24,000
Let's close in worship and praise him for who he is. Amen. God bless you.