Eden Everyday: 1 God's Creational Intent

the story of the Bible the whole narrative of Scripture opens in a garden the Garden of Eden Genesis chapters 1 & 2 and one of my favorite things to do is to ask people when we're studying Genesis 1 & 2 or taking a look at the creation of the world is to ask people do you know what the word Eden means and more often than not I just get a bit of a blank stare people just look at me no I don't know what it means isn't it just the name of the place and I see surprise on their faces almost every time when I tell them that the word Eden means pleasure the garden of pleasure the garden of happiness the garden of delight and Genesis chapter 2 verse 8 says that God planted a garden a Garden of Eden a garden of happiness and he placed Adam and Eve in that garden right here we're standing in a beautiful macadamia nut orchard I wish you could hear the sounds that I'm hearing right now that the Magpies are calling and the birds are calling and it's just absolutely stunningly beautiful here about a half an hour from the kingscliff church just set in these beautiful volcanic mountains I don't know what happens in in your imagination when you think about the Garden of Eden but I picture a place very much like this and what we're gonna be learning in the course of this series titled Eden every day is that God had a desire not just for Adam and Eve to experience happiness and delight and pleasure that's God's desire for you to to be happy if we're going to be taking a look at these creational institutions creational streams there's going to be four of them we're gonna talk about marriage stewardship we're also going to talk about the Sabbath and health and diet these four creational streams that flow down through the ages from the Garden of Eden the garden of pleasure the garden of delight and we're gonna find out that God's intention for you and God's intention for me is happiness and it's also holiness and one of the keys to this series Eden everyday is going to be to understand that holiness and happiness are not two different things they're the same thing this is going to be an awesome series and I can't wait to explore the text Genesis 1 and 2 and many passages in scripture as we seek to bring Eden everyday into our lives it's going to be awesome [Music] [Music] all right our series is titled Eden everyday Eden everyday and it's going to be great open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapters 1 and 2 Genesis chapters 1 and 2 we're gonna spend the lion's share of our time today in Genesis 1 and 2 we'll venture out to some other passages some other texts but we're gonna be spending our time at least in terms of the larger series and the larger template that we're going to be discussing is gonna come straight out of the book of Genesis so we're gonna begin in Genesis chapter 2 verse 10 Genesis chapter 2 verse 10 fascinating little verse here and we don't have time to explore it in great detail but I do want to bring out one point Genesis chapter 2 verse 10 it says now a river went out of Eden what went out of Eden everyone a river to water the garden and from it it parted and became four river heads the name of the first is Pishon it is the one which skirts the whole land of havilah where there is gold and the gold of that land is good bdellium and the Onyx stone are there the name of the second river is Gihon it is the one which goes around the whole land of cush the name of the third river is he to Kel and it is the one that goes toward the east of Assyria the fourth is the river Euphrates in Genesis 1 and 2 we're told that there was a river that went out of the Garden of Eden and then it says that that one river broke up into four rivers four river heads the text says and these are the rivers here Pishon Gihon kita Cal and Euphrates we're not going to be spending our time in this series going through those for geographical rivers of course they're things of the past now largely because of the flood at least the names have carried over into the post-flood world but what we're going to be talking about in this series is not the the geographical rivers of eden but the healing rivers of eden so we're going to be talking about Eden's healing rivers right not only are there for geographical rivers that went out of Eden I'm going to suggest in this five-part series that there are four healing rivers that flow down through the ages down through the centuries down through the millennia to us today in 2018 and those healing rivers are marriage and parenting these are what you might call a Zdenek instance yusin's institutions that existed before the entrance of sin before the entrance of rebellion before the fall these are things that existed all the way back in Eden what we're going to be discussing over the next four weeks including today five weeks how do we take an import these identic ideas and ideals into 2018 right that's why the series is titled even everyday so marriage and parenting number one number two stewardship number three a template for health and diet and number four the seventh day seven I'm gonna try this one more time there we go so one of the privileges that I have is teaching at a school called a rise arises those of you that are local here would know is a school that we've been running since about 2002 we started in concert with the Michigan conference all the way over in the United States of America moved to the Oregon Conference excuse me California Conference central California then Oregon and then now also we have a branch here arise Australia and over about the last seven years when the arrive students come we teach the entire arise curriculum which is a three and a half month curriculum through what we call the story seven chapters that move narrative Lee through the story of Scripture and what you have up here is is what's on the classroom if you were to walk across the the campus grounds here and go over to the the arize classroom you would see large on either end of the board these two big story billboards that are up same thing in America as well we want the students to be continually aware of where we are in the in the course of a rise instruction and where we are in the narrative of Scripture and the narrative of Scripture moves through seven chapters pre creation creation fall covenant Messiah Church recreation and when we got together about six or seven years ago myself and James and Ty and Jeffrey and we put together this seven part story for the arize program we noticed and it's really the the the thing is born of course out of Scripture that that all of the the story is trapped between these ideas of pre creation and creation and recreation another way to say that is that that the story of the Bible moves from Eden in Genesis 1 and 2 to eat and restored in Revelation 21 and 22 and everything that happens between the two Eden's the first two in the last two chapters of the Bible is God seeking to bring the e Zdenek ideal into the lives of his people it was happening in the times of Israel it was happening in the times of the church and it's happening today in 2018 how do we get this identic creation ideal into modern times and so this is gonna be a five-part series titled Eden everyday today's sermon is titled God's creational intent we're gonna sort of set the table for the next four sermons this will be an introductory sermon to get us heading in the right direction we're gonna sort of go back and look through the eye of Scripture we're gonna we're gonna look at Genesis 1 and 2 and we're gonna say how do things work back then what are these identic institutions these priests in pre rebellion institutions and how can we import them how can we bring them into our lives our families our communities our finances our bodies today so that's we're gonna talk about today God's creational intent then all of the next four sermons begin with how to how to how to how to how to I've had a number of people come up to me and say pastor Eric we want the next series to be really practical super practical this is going to be Buber practical probably embarrassingly practical because it's gonna be an opportunity for me to sort of put on display some of our triumphs and a few of our failures as the family and I haven't talked to violet about all that but she's gonna love it's gonna be great so we're gonna talk about how to keep the Sabbath that's gonna be next week how to keep the Sabbath how to have a happy marriage and family how to live a long healthy and happy life and how to be a steward of God's good world how to how to how to how to how do we bring the institutions and ideals of Eden into 2018 how do we bring them into our lives today into our families today into our communities today so today we're gonna start with the opening of the five sermons titled God's creational intent what can we glean from Genesis wanted to I mean it's so long ago we're talking millennia ago so long ago so dusty so old so antiquated I mean can any good thing come out of Eden the answer is yes not only is it removed from us geographically not only is it removed from us chronologically but what we're going to see is that the principles and the institutions of Eden actually be siphoned can actually be imported into a modern situation and be hugely beneficial to people today and we're gonna talk about is gonna be absolutely great so God's creation on the 10th in order to get to the heart of God's creation intent let's go right to Genesis chapter 1 we've already read a little bit out of Genesis chapter 2 let's go to Genesis chapter 1 and start reading it about verse 26 Genesis chapter 1 of course describes the six days of active creation than the seventh day of Sabbath rest and on the sixth climactic and culminating day in terms of the act of creation we find these words beginning at verse 26 Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 then God said let you know this let us make man in our image you've heard that before many of you let us make man in our image according to our likeness let them mankind have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air over the cattle over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them then God blessed them and God said to them say it with me be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth and God said see look I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed to you it shall be for food also to every beast of the earth to every bird of the air and do everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life I have given every green herb for food and it was so and then the final verse of Genesis chapter 1 final verse of the opening chapter of the Bible and God saw what everything that he had made and indeed it was very good so the evening and the morning were the sixth day there is so much going on there in those few short verses there is so much going on there so many institutions so many little nuances so many subtleties so many ideals and what we're going to be talking about is how do we import these identic priests in pre rebellion ideals into the modern world it's going to be great in order to get our minds wrapped around a biblical picture the picture that Moses was painting the picture that God is painting in Genesis 1 and 2 how did Eton function what is the way in which even work we're gonna have to get our mind wrapped around for ideas for words right for words that contain ideas and the words are right here on the screen number one free number two functional number three flourish and number four fallible right we're gonna talk because all of these things emerge in the narrative of Genesis 1 and 2 and so basically it looks like this Adam and Eve primordial mankind male and female were free they were what everyone they were free we're gonna spend time talking about that in fact this is gonna be the four parts for our sermon this morning they were free part number one they were also functional and he might be sitting there thinking well what exactly does that mean and what sense are you meaning that Adam and Eve are functional we're gonna spend time on that as well most of our time will be on freedom and functionality but we're also going to spend some time they and all creation were made to what's our next word there they were made to flourish what a great word they were made to flourish we're gonna spend a little bit of time on that and then finally and we know the story we know that the story goes from Genesis 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 and beyond they were fallible they were fallible they were liable to error they were capable of making mistakes and in fact they did make a mistake and we'll come back to that so free functional flourish and fallible let's start talking about free tucked-away right there in Genesis 1 and 2 is this little textual hint this little information about how God works how God governs and even to some degree of course how God thinks how God Himself thinks about the world what is the ideal divine way in which the world should operate tucked away in perhaps an unusual place Genesis chapter 2 verse 16 when God is speaking to Adam and telling him how he's going to get his nourishment how he's going to get food maybe he was feeling a little hungry at the time it says the Lord God commanded the man saying from what are the two words that I've underlined there from any tree of the garden and then these two words you may want eat freely notice the the the abundance of provision here the ubiquity of provision from any tree right just go ahead and take your pick from any tree you can eat as much as you want you may eat freely you may eat what's the word freely and right here we have an intimation we have a little window we have a little keyhole into which we get an idea as to how God operates how God governs and how God thinks about how reality should work freedom is at the heart of the way that God intentioned things to work in Eden there was some restriction though this is not unknown to most people Genesis chapter 2 verse 17 if you're at all familiar with Scripture you'll be familiar with this idea God says but of what two words if I underline there the tree the that's singular the tree not the trees of every tree of the garden you may freely eat that's lots of trees but of the tree singular of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day you eat of it singular neuter and the day you eat of it you shall surely die now let's just do a little thought experiment here a little thought experiment but I think I might have actually done at some point in this church in years past but I've done it all around the world right I've asked people to engage in this simple thought experiment all around the world and it goes something like this imagine in your mind's eye how many fruit bearing trees there were in the Garden of Eden right now I don't know how you are but I love fruit in fact we got a lovely passion fruit from Karen's vine just this week it was amazing by the way his absence okay I'm sorry from Karen's mom's mind sorry correction who out there is just a fruit lover you love fruit come home bring it to me my son my son Jabil will eat more fruit than the rest of the three of us in the family combined right so the one just loves fruit so I can imagine in my mind's eye there is not only a copious variety of fruit trees there but there are there are there are lots of the individual trees so in your mind's eye how many fruit trees are there that are that are available to Adam and Eve yeah okay very good somebody said a thousand I wondered that might be exactly right maybe there were a thousand trees that God said yep you can eat of that once you can just imagine Adam sort of taking an inventory and and going down and saying but but but can I eat of this one yep you can eat of that one okay yeah but what about this one but this this really shapely rainbow colored fruit that's a mango and yes you can eat of that one now what about the key from this yeah you can eat up that one what about this one yes what about this yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes what about this one no that's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that is the only tree that you can't eat up every other tree is a yes and that's the only no so and well in whatever your imagination and whatever ratio you have in your mind if there were 500 fruit bearing trees than it was 499 yeses to a single number if there were a thousand and one what if there were 5,000 fruit bearing trees then that's roughly 5000 to 1 in terms of a ratio what if there were 10,000 what if there would see the point that Moses is driving at and that the narrative is driving at is clear this passage and intent is clear God governs more by permission than by prohibition there were a thousand yeses in a single note there may have been five thousand yeses and a single note we'll get to this a little bit later but how many people in this room would be vulnerable enough and brave enough to testify that at some level you felt like your parents primary job was to tell you no anybody feel that way who Annabelle's got her hand going up up here Mel we're gonna have to have that conversation with you and Ken okay so so many of us sort of have this idea that hey Dad can I know hey mom can I know hey Dad no no no no no no we might feel like our parents were the inverse of this it was one yes for every 5,000 knows it was one yes for every 1000 knows and God yet he governs we're gonna get to this later when we unpack this but just right at the outset we can say when God governs when when God chooses to operate something in an ideal circumstance there's lots of yeses and a single know God governs by permission yes your I give you permission I give you permission I give me permission I gave you permission I give you permission I give you permission and on that one alone there is a prohibition he governs more by yes than by no can somebody say Amen now this is an insight and do Eden's ideal it's an insight into how we can import the the identic ideal and the institutions of Eden and we're going to take these in every case when we go down how to keep the Sabbath when we go down how parent when we go down how to be happily married when we go down how to be a good Stewart we're gonna import this is a basic driving narrative philosophy think yes not know think yes not know because God is more in the business of yes than of known okay we're gonna come back to that we're gonna come back to that a lot so freedom is fundamental to how God governs and how he's designed the universe to work freedom is fundamental I want you to say those three words with me if you would freedom is fundamental the word fundamental comes from the Latin fundament it means foundational freedom is foundational we're gonna spend quite a bit of time on this right now when we think about the larger narrative of Scripture the larger picture of Scripture how did the New Testament writers how did the Old Testament writers look back and relate to Eden's ideal how did they look back did they see what we're seeing here today about freedom and functionality and fallibilities and flourishing the answer is yes and one of my very favorite passages in fact probably my single favorite New Testament passage describing and relating to the eidetic ideal in the New Testament in the New Testament is from Romans chapter 8 in Romans chapter 8 we find the Apostle Paul saying this in verses 19 to 22 this is from the New International Version notice the creative poetic language here Paul actually he actually personifies the earth he has the earth groaning and the earth speaking and creation itself look I'm getting ahead of myself just listen to the text for the creation White's personification the earth is waiting creation is waiting the animals are waiting the ocean is waiting what's it waiting for creation was subjected to frustration not by its own choice creation didn't choose this but by the will of the one capital o God who subjected it to this frustration to this futility some translations and notice these next two words in hope something went something went sideways something went pear-shaped there in Eden and yet Paul says creation waits it yearns and notice this creation itself will be liberated from its bondage yeah I love that creation will be set free to decay from its bondage to the hey and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God there's so much going on here in Romans chapter 8 and sometime God willing will preach a whole series on the book of Romans it'll probably take us only a year to do it right a whole series of just be absolutely astonishing but what's going on here there are layers upon layers of beauty here but one of the things that's going on here is that Paul is saying that the destiny of mankind and the destiny of the earth are bound up together creation groans the earth groans the oceans groan and they're waiting for something to happen in God's children there is a symbiotic synergistic connection between mankind as the steward of the earth and the earth itself over which man is not stewarding well ah look at this we know that the whole creation has been groaning there's that personification again as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time so for Paul what's taking place here is that Eden has been lost with the creation longs for the end identic ideal creation longs to be back to the circumstance in which it finds itself we're gonna spend some time on this but it's no mystery to if you are even in a perfunctory manner in a shallow manner in a cursory manner aware of the environmental struggles that the earth is facing right now the earth is groaning I mean if it was groaning when Paul wrote this 2,000 years ago lord have mercy what is it doing today it is groaning crying out waiting for the revelation of this symbiotic connection between the destiny of the children of God let us make man in our image and the destiny of the earth itself I'll say it this way God is not only saving people God is saving creation in this idea that creation is going to be set free that creation is going to be liberated the idea that that that there's bondage that there's slavery and that you have to be set free is central to the healing and teaching Ministry of Jesus and the Gospels it comes up over and over and over again I'll just give you a few of them Luke chapter 4 verse 18 Jesus when he announced the the template the framework for his own ministry he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor he has sent me to two words to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and to uh set the oppressed free Jesus identified in some significant sense his ministry and his calling around bringing about freedom bringing Liberty mark chapter 5 verse 34 jesus speaking daughter your faith has healed you go and peace and be freed from your suffering you're free now you used to be in slavery you used to be in bondage he used to be in pain and now you were free Luke chapter 13 verse 12 this is when jesus heals the woman there in the synagogue who was bent over the Bible says and she couldn't lift herself up jesus heals her when Jesus saw her he called her forward and said to her woman you are set free you are set free from your infirmity what Jesus is doing here in every instance of healing he's giving us a window into Eden's ideal God did not create people in the Garden of Eden to be bent over God didn't create people in the Garden of Eden to be bleeding uninterruptedly God did not create people in the Garden of Eden to be blind or to be lame or to be paralyzed so when every act of healing Jesus is as it were bringing Eden into the present bringing Eden into the situation it's a woman you're free now you are free Luke chapter 13 verse 16 should not this woman this is Jesus speaking of that same healing a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years be set what's the word free on the Sabbath and we'll come back to that the Sabbath was a day for freedom the Sabbath was a day for setting people free shouldn't she be set free from this burden on the Sabbath and it wasn't just physical healing Jesus spoke in large or sort of larger terms about what it meant to be set free not just that free from blindness or paralysis or some disease Jesus says and you shall know the truth and you know this the truth shall make you free many people have heard that you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free and a little bit later in John 8 verse 36 if the son sets you free you will be truly free so Jesus described and defined the parameters of his basic mission to the earth around freedom God created Adam and Eve free they were free now we're going to talk about what that means to be free let's do that now God's highest will for Humanity is that they are perfectly free can somebody say amen to that I just want that to soak into your soul right now just just let that truth soak into your soul that God's highest well for you God's highest well for me God's highest cool for your family God's highest cool for this church is that you are perfectly free but now watch this this is key I've purposely left this part of the bottom blank so that I can fill it in and you can see it and voluntarily holy God wants you to be perfectly free to do whatever you want to do whatever you choose to do whatever you decide to do whatever you will he wants you to be perfectly free and then he wants you to be voluntarily holy when we talk about being holy what does that mean well the the the the for healing rivers that flow out of Eden marriage and parenting stewardship health diet seventh-day Sabbath all of these healing Rivers of Eden are points of access to true freedom and authentic holiness how can we be free huh what does it mean to be free we just say these words the Sun shall make you free you shall be free indeed the truth will set you free what does that mean in a practical a substantive sense how can I David actually today 2018 be free how can you be free and a big part of the answer to that is to take and bring these identic ideals in these identic institutions and apply them to your life today and you will find holiness in doing them and you will find freedom in doing that it's absolutely amazing I love this passage one of my very favorite passages in the whole of scripture Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 look at this text it was for freedom that Christ set us free let me ask you a question based on that text based on that text right there why were we set free according to the text to be free that sounds almost like a redundancy it sounds almost like you're stuttering but just listen carefully God set us free in Christ so that we could be free what this tells us this is huge mind-blowing idea here is that freedom is not merely a conduit or a vehicle or a means to some other higher virtue or value freedom is a virtue and a value in itself God set you free not just to some other end not just to some other purpose the text of Galatians says God set you free to be free we know this when we punish people we take away their freedom right we understand intuitively that there is something right there is something inalienable we'll get to that in just a moment there is something that is that is ontologically connected to humanity to be free because when somebody does something really a sociopathic or a really criminal are really terrible what we do is we take them and we lock them away we say you don't get to be free anymore you're no longer free we understand that taking away freedom freedom to to write your bike in the morning freedom to go down to the store and purchase something freedom to have a hot drink at a local cafe freedom to travel to France freedom to go fishing freedom to go rock climbing the freedom that you possess we understand that that's just we want to be able to do what we want to do and if somebody behaves in ways that are sociopathic or non civil or unsafe we take away their freedom we understand intuitively and incorrigibly that we were called to freedom not just as an end to something else God made Adam and Eve free to be free and God has made you free in Christ to be free free to be well now the answer is free to be wholly free to be what you were designed to be but I'm getting me slightly I'm getting slightly ahead of myself we've already said these three words freedom is what's the word everyone fundament freedom is fundamental and we could spend a long time on this but I'll just briefly mention this part in the whole framework of Scripture and how God calls to holiness and yet allows for sin we find this freedom this love freedom risk growth framework okay and it basically proceeds on on four axioms or at least I regard them as axioms for truths for for irrefutable truth and it goes something like this number one love requires freedom - freedom involves risk number three risk and tails responsibility and number four responsibility enables growth and not just I don't mean physical growth here I've inserted the words here for you moral so you get the picture here love requires freedom freedom involves risk risk entails moral responsibility and moral responsibility enables moral growth we're going to talk a lot about this when we get to our sermon on parenting and when we get to our sermon on marriage how do we see moral growth in our spouse how do we see moral growth in our children the answer is through risk there is no other way there's no other way you cannot get to it you can't get from A to C without going through B we're gonna spend a lot of time on this but what I want you to notice about this whole equation love freedom risk responsibility growth that what is fundamental is freedom you can't even get the conversation started you can't even get the formula moving unless you have freedom because notice the first line love what's the next word requires what so in this sense since love requires freedom freedom in some significant sense is actually more fundamental to the nature of the universe and thus to the nature of God than love itself freedom is even more fundamental to the nature of the universe and thereby the nature of God God of course as the creator of the universe operating in principles that are in keeping with his good character and his good nature freedom is essential you can't even get the love growth responsibility risk equation going in the absence of freedom this is what we mean when we say freedom is absolutely fundamental and as the the framework there suggests freedom implies both responsibility and consequences which is exactly what we see in evening of every tree of the garden you may what were the two words do you remember of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree singular of the tree of the garden don't eat of that one because in the day you eat of that if you choose to eat of that you will surely die consequences it's all there love freedom risk responsibility opportunities for moral growth all right they're in this primordial identic story all contained wrapped in this simple little story beautiful story of Genesis chapter one and two and there are layers upon layers of beauty and Genesis 1 and 2 but right here at the outset we're getting our mind wrapped around the idea that Adam and Eve were made free that's the first of our four FS Bob Dylan singer-songwriter music legend said I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom responsibility comes with freedom they are inseparable Cicero the Roman politician from the century before the time of Jesus says what then is freedom and he gives a very philosophically sound answer a very biblically sound answer even though it wasn't coming from a biblical perspective Cicero says freedom is the power to live as one wishes let me translate that to do what you want to do the freedom the ability the venue to do what you want to do and there's not a person in this room that doesn't want them you want to be able to do what it is that you want to do this is axiomatic it's it's it's Axia logical if it's necessarily the case of course you want to do what you want to do the Declaration of Independence July 4 1776 we hold these truths to be self-evident they are irrefutable they are inherent to the human situation self-evident said the founding fathers of the United States of America then all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator capital C with certain unalienable rights what an important word unalienable means it's native to the thing it's describing it cannot be detached or disconnected from the thing it's describing that we are we are given certain unalienable rights that among these are life what's the next one liberty and the pursuit of this sounds like cicero to be able to do what it is that you want to do the definition of freedom is is to do what you want to do or in philosophical terms philosophers sometimes describe freedom and don't get me I can't even begin to get started on the various schools of thought and perspectives on the philosophy of freedom but just to sort of simplify it make it really easy philosophy a freedom excuse me the power of self-determination that I choose to wear this bowtie I choose to wear this shirt I choose to wear this belt I choose to wear these shoes I choose to marry Violeta it's the power of self-determination I have made a determination and then I can then actualize that determination external to me this is what's called agency now I might get a little too technical here and if I do forgive me but agency is the ability to affect the world around you right to take a drink of water the drink of what the glass of water is external to me so I want to take a drink of water and now I act as an agent upon the world that is external to me I take a drink of water I wanted to I did it and because I possess certain in native agency given to me by God I can do that I can do things as simple as taking a drink of water and I can do things as as amazing and beautiful and complex as marrying another woman and covenant in my life to be with her and raising two sons I will to do this I choose to do this and God has invested me and he's invested you and he's endowed you with the capacity to be free it's the power to be free in fact there's a really crazy thing here I'm gonna say it real simple and I'm gonna move on from it because it would spend me hours to explain hours to explain it satisfactorily Tom's gonna say this the freedom that you possess is simply power on loan from God the freedom that you possess is simply power that God has loaned you freedom is the power self-determination Nelson Mandela in his lengthy beautiful autobiography the long walk to freedom says to be free is not merely to castoffs one cast off one's chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of what was the freedom of others Wow that sounds like Galatians chapter 5 verse 13 Paul says you brothers and sisters have been called to be what are we called to be we're called to be free were created to be free were made to be free were designed to be free Paul says you were called to be free but do not misuse your freedom freedom by nature has to be able to be misused or it's freedom so Paul says you've been called to freedom you've been designed for freedom you've been created to be free but don't use that freedom do not misuse your freedom to indulge the flesh but use your freedom I love this to serve one another humbly in love just this week I got a beautiful text a beautiful text from from Melbourne she sent me a it's a term I heard you use it in a conversation as well she said something something something something and truckloads of love I like that truckloads of love that's what we need he says don't use your freedom don't misuse your freedom selfishly to indulge the flesh use your freedom to serve one another with truckloads of love can somebody say Amen yeah the American bees do it see the American knows when to say Amen I just have to coach the rest of you into it first Peter chapter 2 verse 16 live as people who are free but do not misuse your freedom as a cover-up for evil but living as servants of God notice that in both instances Peter and Paul they say freedom is for service oh this is big this is this is big freedom is service oh this is gonna be so big I'm gonna say something right I'm gonna drop a bomb on you you are in service to your children I know that's gonna be a paradigm changing thing for some of you some of you think your children are in service you hey I brought you into this world I'll take you out of it boy no no no no no in the biblical paradigm in the godly paradigm you are in service to your children and check this out you're in service to your spouse did you know that you thought you signed up for all the good stuff you were gonna get I got to tell you something if you're unhappy in your marriage it's because you're not getting enough if you want to be happy in your marriage you've got to start giving more you you go in the the modality you go with the with the paradigm not of getting but of giving of being a servant you're free to not be married but once you are married you use your freedom with truckloads of love to serve I'm getting ahead of myself true freedom is not found in getting to do whatever you want to do that's what we think that's the that's the counterfeit perverse perverse version of freedom freedom is you get to do whatever you want to do no no no no no true freedom is being able to do what you were created and designed to do right this is what the Declan of the founders of the United States of America got writing the Declaration of Independence they said that these inalienable rights these unalienable rights are given by the Creator if there is no creator if there is no God if there is no transcendent reality then you can do whatever the heck you want to and if there is no God I wouldn't have said heck there you do whatever you want you are free to do whatever you want but it's not freedom in fact that freedom leads to bondage that freedom actually leads to slavery true freedom is found in executing the task that you are created to execute and being the person you were designed to be and guess who I guess what's awesome we see the nature of our calling and our design in the Garden of Eden you were made to marry you were made to reproduce you were made to steward God's good earth you were made to keep Sabbath you were made to live a long healthy and prosperous life do you want to be free you're gonna have to import Eden into your life every day we spent the lion's share of our time on freedom but let's spend a moment here talking about functional flourish and fallible as well what does it mean that Adam and Eve were functional Oscar tells us that functional is having a special activity purpose or task relating to the way in which something works or operates designed to be practical and useful rather than merely attractive this is the age-old debate about function and fashion function versus fashion and it would be appropriate for us to ask this question where Adam and Eve actually functional in the Garden of Eden in other words was there some action some some necessary thing that they were called to do or were they merely fashionable were they merely the appearance of and this gets to the heart of how God governs does God governed by ordaining and pre destiny what everybody does in which Adam and Eve just become marionettes or puppets on the larger stage of God's will and actions or we're Adam and Eve invested with true freedom the ability to use and misuse their freedom was it merely an appearance thing Adam and Eve I mean did they really not have freedom was all of this fall and everything a part of God's foreordained plan the answer is no we find many instances in Genesis 1 and 2 where God is delegating where God is passing off responsibilities that he himself tasks that he himself could do better than the persons to who he's delegating the tasks for example God says let us make man in our image but God already bears his own image well why does God need someone else to bear his image because and we're gonna get to this God appears you read scripture it appears that God delegates everything that can be delegated it looks like in Scripture God lets others do everything that they can do and God only does the things that only he can do God he said let us make man in our image so they bore God's image he gave them ruler rule or dominion over the earth well why to what end couldn't God rule the earth better certainly he could would God have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil certainly he would not have so why Ella gate responsibility number 3 be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth why create mankind as sexually complementary beings why give them the responsibility of procreation and of sexual intimacy that brings about crashing why he can do that he made Adam and Eve he made he made he made Adam of the dirt and he made even dust so it's available to him the resources of omnipotence make it possible for God to create a sexually so why does he then pass on the responsibility of filling the earth to them he could do a much much better job but he could just speak a filled earth into existence I have given you every fruit for food why do we need to eat food at all right God could just make us as perpetual motion machines as as like a like a like a biological Tesla that we just generate the much of the energy that we need internally and he could just miraculously provide that that energy God tells him tend the garden and you keep it take care of this garden that I have made and that I have created God God trusted Adam and Eve with morally significant decisions we talked about that a little bit he said to Adam hey you name the animals and the Bible actually says whatever Adam named them that's what they were named oh why why and and and then God says you take care of her and you take care of him they are charged to take care of one another so we see I'm a delegation just the the narrative of Genesis 1 and 2 drips with delegation what this tells us is that mankind in the Garden of Eden was given and still possesses a significant and irreplaceable role in God's purposes on and for the earth I'll say it this way God has bound his own destiny up with the decisions of human beings God has found his own rain up with the decisions of human beings not to be really honest with you here that looks like a manifestly irresponsible decision are you with me on that I mean it just looks like it looks like a bad call let's be honest it looks like a bad call but God sees what we don't see he discerns what we don't discern and for reasons that will become clear to us as the series goes on God allows people to do things that he himself could do better he delegates he stewards his power to us not only do we have delegation in Paradise we have delegation all throughout Scripture I mean the whole narrative of Scripture is predicated on the idea that God has delegated people to do things that he himself could have done better for example Adam and Eve were called to bear God's image we've already noted that but Noah called God called Noah to build an ark but what God could have built it quicker and more efficiently and certainly better Abraham was called to bless all nations why is God working through the Abrahamic covenant to bless all nations why doesn't he just do it through some angelic means or why angelic means at all he can just do it himself through divine means he can advertise it across the sky he can supernaturally implant the idea in everybody's brain that God is the true God and that you should worship Him in spirit and in truth what do you need Abraham for what do you need Adam and Eve for Moses was called to deliver God's people I mean really you need Moses what do you need Moses for he's a shepherd Israel was called to advertise God's ways and his name the prophets were called to speak God's Word the priests were called to intercede for God's people Jesus as a man was called to rescue creation the disciples were called to teach preach and baptize in the churches called further God's kingdom and if you read through the New Testament man at every possible opportunity Jesus is delegating he's giving other people opportunities to do things that he himself can do in fact there's some fascinating text in the New Testament that say things like this that someone's so seven so and so and so we're being baptized and then the gospel writer says but Jesus himself didn't baptize only his disciples well let me just ask you this who would you rather be baptized by the Messiah or one of the knuckleheaded understudies of the Messiah right you'd rather be baptized by the Messiah but apparently and there's just so many instances of this in Scripture so many instances where where Jesus gives to others gives others the opportunity to do what he himself could have certainly done better delegation and stewardship of God's sovereignty is something that is just right on the surface in fact I love this Adam and Eve were given something meaningful and consequential to do you know what we call that meaningful consequential thing that we spend most of our lives doing we call it work we call it a career we call it our job but I got bad news for you I got bad news me that's not the right word a better word is vocation we should call it a vocation because the word vocation comes from Latin vacati and bukhari means to call see the reason that many of us cannot wait for the holidays is that our job is just a job it's not a vocality it's not a it's not a calling it's not a vocation and there all be going to be people in this room of course there are people in this room that love their jobs that love going to their jobs that yeah they're happy to take a holiday but they even at the end of their holiday they're looking back to getting to their work because it's not just a day-in day-out diz Merle dismal meaningless grind they feel of okada day they feel a calling and God didn't just give Adam and Eve a job a menial insignificant task that doesn't really bring about any larger good in the a greater good in the larger world God gave Adam and Eve a calling be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and take care of the garden and keep my Sabbath holy that's your calling Adam yes your calling you see friends you take holidays from work but you don't ever take a vacation from your vocation if you have been called to a task if you feel the call of God and the consequential responsibility of God to use your freedom to be functional in the world to be an agent of good in the world you don't take a break from that and this is a way to sort of gauge whether or not you are in a job or a calling is how much do you long for the weekends and how much do you long for the days I don't get me wrong there are people who can work long hours and hard hours and they can feel of okada they can feel a calling certainly but let me just speak to the young people here never mind money just never mind money study after study and anecdotal evidence after anecdotal evidence has confirmed absolutely confirmed that there is only a negligible correlation between money and happiness there's a threshold beyond which money doesn't produce increased happiness what produces happiness is a sense of purpose and a sense of peace you need a vogue odda you need a calling you can be poor with a calling you can be rich with a job and you're going to be happier being poor with a calling so choose your calling don't just go looking for a job find a calling what is God calling you to do they possess we talked about this briefly what is called agency agency is the ability to affect the world around them in real and meaningful ways and I tell you when you get yourself a vocation right you could be a teacher that can be your vocation you can be a nurse that can be your vocation you could be a builder that can be your vocation you can be a supplier of some good that can be your vocation and for disciples of Christ for disciples of Christ even those vocations even those things that you do as it were to put bread on the table are simply things that you do to further the kingdom of God when you're doing it right when you have really embraced your god-given vacati when you've embraced your god-given calling your god-given vocation the things that you do to make money are simply points of access opportunities and influence to talk about the goodness of God and the goodness of Jesus to the wider world you that's a column that's a calling that's not a job they possessed agency the ability to affect the world in ways okay functional they were actually functional they weren't just you know pieces of ornamentation that you stick on a table they weren't a a centerpiece on the table no they were they were actual beep creaturely beings possessing agency and of the ability to make morally significant decisions and so are you they were called to flourish to flourish what a great word to flourish Nelson Mandela we've already mentioned this quotation use your freedom in a way that enhances the freedom of others and right at the core of this is two quotations from one of my favorite New Testament Thiel actually New Testament theologians but is just a theologian of a great many things but especially the New Testament and especially Paul Indy run and in his book justification NT right says this the great story of Scripture we talked at the beginning about the rise story Wright says the great story of Scripture from creation and covenant right through to the New Jerusalem is constantly about God's overflowing generous creative love God's concern for though what's that word God's concern for the flourishing and well-being of everything else he says that's the big story of Scripture the big story of Scripture is that God is deeply concerned about everything else in the love chapter it says it like this love does not seek its own love is concerned about everything else love is concerned about everyone else love is concerned about others he continues of course this to God's concern for the wider world we'll read down to God's glory because God as the Creator is glorified when creation is flourishing and able to praise him gladly and what's the word there freely creation is designed to flourish under the wise human stewardship reflecting the love of God the Creator when humans Ravel creation suffers too and that's Romans chapter 8 creation groans creation waits the destiny of creation is bound up with the bad decisions that human beings have makings continued have made and continue to make and what what what NT Wright says here is that God made creation to flourish he made it to prosper he made it to good this is why you find in the text in Genesis 1 & 2 especially Genesis 1 you find God saying let the earth bring forth let the earth bring forth let the waters abound built in I mean we know this anybody who's who's planted a garden or anybody who's kept bees or anybody who's planted an orchard you know that the earth itself in built to the very way the very biology and ecology of the earth is that God has created the earth to prosper he's created the earth to flourish he creates you know takes one seed to make an apple tree but an apple tree in a season will produce thousands of apple seeds the earth is designed to flourish it's designed to grow is designed for abundance no wonder God looked out at everything that he had said that he had made and he said man that's really good when I see the animals flourishing and I see the oceans flourishing and especially when I see human beings made in my image flourishing man I just makes me so happy back to NT right second quotation Paul for everyone the prison letters NT Wright writes there are two lives which the world often tells us about God's intention for human behavior two lies he says first people say that God doesn't want us to have a good time wrong lie second they say that if we try to live as he really wants us to live if we try to live free and we try to live in access to authentic holiness we'll never all we'll ever get is God's grudging approval well I guess you did all right you could do better now people often imagined that God is eager to spot the slightest wrongdoing and then tell us off for it but God's intention is for human life to what's the word what's the word what's the word to flourish and bear fruit be fruitful and multiply and when this happens God is personally delighted I want you today to feel the delight of God in your life if you are living in harmony with the freedom and the functionality and the flourishing to which he has called you you can feel the delight of your heavenly father not the scowl of somewhat that is unrelated to you your heavenly Father looks upon you with delight and with happiness when you live according to the design and according the purpose for which you were created somebody better say Amen think of God's creation 'el intent for you and for human flourishing as a strong flowing river this is an illustration we'll come back to several times in this series if you have a river that's flowing here a strong River a deeper river a mighty river that's flowing here and you just run and jump into that river you are carried away by the strength of the current you are moved by the river right even if you even if you try not to be here the movement the river is so strong there's so much volume you are going to move friends I want to say this when you when you marry and you conduct your marriage in the way that God has intended you to even if you don't believe in God you'll be blessed if you eat the way that God says we should eat in the Garden of Eden even if you don't believe in the God of the Garden of Eden you'll be blessed if you parent in the way that God parented and Eden even if you're an atheist you'll still receive a blessing because the creational stream flows for everybody the creational stream flows for everybody it's not just people who believe that God is good that get the blessing it's everybody so if you jump into the creational stream you get carried away you get to receive the blessings that God designed and created you to receive through marriage and through stewardship and through healthy happy living through the Sabbath and other things we can bring even into our what's the word every day into our marriage into our family into our relationships into our work into our health into our finances we're going to talk about how to do that our final point here Adam and Eve were fallible fallible and the word fallible according to Oxford is simply capable of making mistakes or being wrong any fallible people here this morning like 60% of us if you want to if you want to think about the word fallible just think of it as being fallible right just think of it as being able to fall and Adam and Eve were able to fall because they were invested with the trust and ability to make morally and eternally significant choices and you have been to choosing your volkov a choosing who you marry choosing whether or not to keep God's Sabbath choosing how you spend your money choosing how or if to raise children are all morally significant decisions and listen to me carefully they are eternally significant decisions they are pregnant with eternal ramifications decisions that you may because you possess real agency and how you act actually influences the world it influences the world in innumerable and wonderful ways because we possess authentic agency and real influence for better or for worse and because we are fallible we need grace forgiveness and healing can somebody say Amen yeah we got to have that we can't just close with this because friends there is the ideal and there is the actual come on there is the ideal and there is the actual and there's going to be some instances in this series where I'm going to tell you what the ideal is and then I'm going to say you know my wife and I have done pretty well we're pretty close to the ideal or at least from human terms we're approaching what we think the ideal is but there are going to be some instances and we'll see how vulnerable I'm willing to be here there are going to be some instances where I'm not going to reveal to you the ideal but I'm going to reveal to you the actual and what this series is about is getting us closer to the ideal how do we get closer to the ideal for our families for our marriages for our finances for our health for our spirituality how do we practice Eden everyday father in heaven [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Id: OU8CMvZUPpA

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 14 2018