He's Always Just Wanted to Be With You

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

Well, today we begin a new series, and the new series that

we are beginning today is called Faith Begins.

And the first message that begins the new series that we're

beginning today called Faith Begins is called In the

Beginning. To which I have to ask you, Are

you ready to begin? Are you ready to begin

Mezzanine? Hi.

Yeah. Not only are we beginning a new

series today, but we're beginning the journey that will

take us through almost the rest of the year and what's called

the biblical meta narrative. Look at you and every say meta

What? Meta What?

Yeah. A meta narrative is the thread,

the grand overarching story that brings all the smaller stories

into focus and gives them purpose.

So you have Luke and you have Leia and Yoda and Darth.

Somehow over the all those movies, the Star Wars universe,

there's an overarching story that's happening, not just the

individual stories. You have Harry and Hermione and

Ron. Seven books turned into 8 movies

and into 53 puke inducing rides at Universal.

Anyone? Hallelujah.

Velocicoaster. Oh, that's not a Harry Potter.

Anyway. OK, I love that ride.

But what ties it all together? What about Adam and Eve and Noah

and Moses and Ruth and Esther? In the first service I combined

them and called them Rooster. David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and

Daniel and Jesus and Paul and Peter and Ringo.

How do they all? It's a Beatles joke.

Some of you don't get it. OK, I get what?

What is it that ties all of it together?

That's the marinara. The marinara.

Some of y'all. I just decided your lunch for

you. Like oh, what?

What is the meta narrative? The biblical meta narrative, I'm

just going to tell it to you right here from the jump, is a

messianic narrative. That's the overarching story.

It's not a ROM com. It's not a war story.

It's a Messiah story, which means it's a story of a people

that have been trapped in the plague of darkness and a hero

that comes to rescue them. That hero is called the Messiah.

The word Messiah, the name Messiah, actually means deliver

or savior. People don't need delivering or

saving unless they're in trouble.

And the story of the Bible is there's trouble and there's a

savior who's coming to redeem it.

And I would tell you that the Savior, the Messiah, is not just

the star of the story, but it's the heart, the motivation of the

Savior that becomes this grand ark that we see from Genesis all

the way through Revelation. The heart of the Savior, His

desire unrelenting to be with his people that he loves so

much, even though these people revolt against him, even though

these people are hell bent on destruction, even though we

often choose our flesh instead of the Father.

Yet there was not a price he would not pay to try to ensure

this oneness. The lengths that he would go so

that he could have oneness with humanity.

And all of this begins in the book of Genesis, which as we

explore Genesis in this series, you're going to find it's not

just about faith beginning. It's about recognizing the

always faithfulness of God from before the beginning.

We're going to see a singular thread from Genesis into the

parables that we'll study this summer into the Book of

Revelation that we'll look at in this fall.

This thread is painted and Crimson.

It's woven together in love. And I pray that as we study this

great and grand thread of our Messiah, that you will fall more

in love with him than you ever have before to the extent that

you, you learn to worship Him by serving him.

You learn to worship him by honoring him with your choices.

You learn to worship him by bringing other people to know

this great God that has saved you and the saved myself.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Genesis.

Amen. All right, so why don't you do

this, open your Bibles to Genesis chapter one.

That's where we start because that's where it all starts.

If you need a Bible, raise your hand and our ushers will be glad

to bring you a Bible. We gave out 131 last week, but

we have more an endless supply of Bibles in Jesus name.

As you're getting your Bibles ready, I want you to know that

Genesis is our, is the story of our spiritual family.

It's where and who we came from. These often asked biographical

questions. When you're at a gathering with

people you don't know. They're like, where'd you come

from? Who are your folks?

Like our ancestors are in the book of Genesis.

All of us can look back and have the same answers.

Where are you from? Who'd you come from?

It all goes back to Genesis. Genesis, the actual word, is

derived from the Greek word, which means origins or birth.

We still got, we still need Bibles.

I see your hand. You're being so patient.

Thank you. Anyone else?

We're here. We're coming.

Andy's coming right in the middle.

I see you, ma'am. Right in the middle, too.

And he's literally running and Usher running.

Chunk it, Andy. Right in the middle.

There we go. Getting people.

The Bible matters to be. So we just slow down here.

Is that all right with everybody?

We're coming to you. Kerry's got you still back

there. We got it.

Everyone good. Say yes, Yeah.

The word Genesis means origins of birth, which means that the

book of Genesis is the origin of everything except God.

All the vast force of Scripture that come after Genesis have

their seedlings inside of Genesis.

Right here. We got facts.

We got first. We got faith.

Interestingly enough, at least to me.

Maybe it isn't to you. We'll see.

I've been knowing about this series since last August when I

go away with the Lord and listen about what are we going to what?

What do you want me to preach on in 2026?

And I pray and I listen and I write and I pray and I listen.

So since last August, I've been kind of thinking about Genesis.

And then during spring break, I went and spent a week just

studying Genesis, sitting at the table, reading the commentaries,

reading Genesis, praying, writing, taking notes, soaking

in Genesis. I just can't get enough of

Genesis. Well, Christine, myself, Eli, we

flew up to visit our daughter Audrey at Liberty University.

Any fans? Yep.

And we go to what's called Convocation.

I've never been to 1:00. They have them on Wednesdays and

Fridays. The entire student body comes.

There's like 10,000 people packed in the Vine Center and

they worship. And it's incredible worship led

by the students. And then you think it's a church

service and it kind of is and it kind of isn't because then they

bring up all these different kind of presenters, like famous

politicians that may or may not be believers.

Vivek Ramaswami, he's not a believer, but he was there,

right? They have athletes and actors.

They have influence. We have pastors.

They have all sorts of different people stand up and speak.

This last week they have Webb Simpson.

Anybody. He's a golfer and it's the

Masters week, so they have Webb Simpson.

Anyway, you don't care. I could.

I thought it was cool. So we go and the first time I've

ever been there and I don't know who's going to be to speak, but

randomly the guy speaking just three Fridays ago right before

I'm about to preach this series happens to be 1 of, if not the

foremost theologian in the world in regards to Genesis.

His name is Doctor Ken Ham. Maybe you've heard of Doctor Ken

Ham. He founded a ministry called

Answers in. Answers in Yeah.

He's a guy who created the Creation Museum and the

life-size biblical scale arc called the art Exhibit in

Kentucky. Because where else would the ark

be in Kentucky? Yeah.

So I'm like, I cannot believe that the one time I come to

convocation randomly, not randomly as I'm about to preach

Genesis, it's Ken Ham and he exposited for the next tower

long about Genesis. His main point is this and it's

the main point of the series. It it coincides with exactly

everything that the Lord has put in my heart, which is everything

we need to know about anything has its roots in Genesis,

specifically the 1st 11 chapters.

Genesis is the foundation for everything.

It's the basis for our Christian worldview.

If we want to know where all our doctrines come from, you find

them in Genesis. If you want to know where the

Gospels begin, it begins in Genesis.

Everything finds its origin, its design, its purpose.

In Genesis. You got questions about

creation, Genesis. You got questions about

marriage? Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you.

You got questions about the sanctity of life?

Way to go. I heard you.

You want to know why there's sickness and broken things and

death in the world? It's all in.

You want to know where the cure is coming for all that

brokenness and sickness and death.

It's found in the second book of the Bible is no got you.

The second book of the Bible is yes, after Genesis, Genesis,

yes. Let's begin Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And as you look at the scripture, I don't know how you

can possibly comprehend this, but I try to, when I read

Genesis 1, feel the poignancy of the moment before it all

started, the stillness, the expectancy of the Lord God and

what's about to happen. It all begins here.

Genesis chapter 1 verses one and two.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the

surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over

the waters Here church from moment one God and all the

fullness is present. Verse 3 begins and God said

before history exists, God is. In fact, many people want to

debate the seven day timeline as its found in Genesis.

Is it 7 literal days? Is it one day Is 1000 days?

Is it one day? Is 1,000,000 a million days?

Or is it one day is an age like the Ice Age or the Mesozoic age

or you name it. All of these ages, What is it?

Well, we can have those discussions.

I think they're worthy discussions.

Go to answers in Genesis. You'll get some very clear

answers about the timeline, but what I want to focus on today

that is absolutely clear in Genesis, that Genesis wants us

to know is not so much concern about the exactness of the

timeline as this. From the beginning, it was God.

Nothing existed without God. Everything is Genesis from the

person of God and God alone. All of our stories, no matter

how far you look back in your story, your family's history,

all the way back, no matter what path you walk down, go to the

beginning of that path and we'll all find the same thing.

The Lord God, benevolent God, the loving God, the all powerful

God at the beginning, He's an ever existing God and he creates

everything that you see, the chair you're sitting on, all the

things you smell and hear, everything he created.

Listen to this from absolutely nothing in Latin is called ex

nihilo. From nothing.

The Hebrew word is Bora. Can I Bora a dollar?

That's not what it means. Bara is Bara.

In the beginning, God borrowed the heavens and the earth.

He creates from nothing. This word is found about 50

times in the Old Testament. It's a verb create.

And every time that we see this word Bara, God is the subject.

And if you remember grammar, the subject is always the one who

performs the verb. So Bara create is always

connected to God. It only happens when God does it

every single time. When David prays in Psalm 51, he

says create in me a clean heart. The Hebrew is Bara me a clean

heart. David has some sort of knowledge

that in him was nothing, able to regenerate his soul and his

spirit, and so he had to look to an exterior agent, a

supernatural agent, the Lord God, who can and does create and

say God says I can't, I know that you can, so you borrow,

create in me from nothing, because there's nothing in me.

A clean heart. Only God can do this work of

creation, and he's done it from the beginning.

It has always been this way. Only God, no other being, no

other Angel, no other human, no one else borrows except for the

Lord our God. Amen.

Indeed. Maybe you've heard this

illustration before. I love it.

But God is in the sandbox creating aardvark palm tree,

right? Human.

And Satan walks up. He's like, anyone can do that.

What's up? Anyone can do what you do, God.

I could make an aardvark. That's this.

I could do that. I may, I think I can make a

human. And guys like, OK, you think you

can make these things and go ahead and make them and Satan

steps into the sandbox and God's like, wait a second, first you

need to make your own sand. Do you understand what I'm

saying? He creates from nothing.

There was nothing and now there is everything by his own will

and nature from the beginning God creates and therefore God

owns everything. This ever existing, all creating

God is in fact the Godhead present at creation, the Person

of God, the Word of God and the Spirit of God, Creator, Agent

and Presence, the three in one Trinity of God.

A special note here, the Spirit is present and we begin to see a

biblical theme from the beginning that extends all the

way through Scripture. Know this from the beginning, it

is the Holy Spirit that brings order, excuse me, out of chaos.

It's part of the meta narrative. It's part of the overarching

story. In Luke chapter one, verse 35,

it is a spirit that once again hovers over Mary and suddenly

where there is nothing, there's the Messiah.

It is the Spirit of God that comes and hovers over Jesus when

he is raised out of the waters of baptism.

All four gospels record this. The Spirit alights on him as if

to say I'm anointing the one who will bring order out of the

chaos in the tomb. In the chaos of death, Jesus is

raised to life. How?

Romans chapter one verse 4. He was shown to be the Son of

God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy

Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.

From the beginning. The Holy Spirit has brought

order out of chaos. I'm wondering how your

relationship with the Holy Spirit is.

It's not the point of the message, but it's a point of the

story. This ever existing, all

creating, three in one. God then makes the earth and

everything in it. And let me just pause here.

You're going to feel like you're eating, drinking from a fire

hose today. There is a ton of information

coming and I want you just to think I'm receiving all these

things like it's going into a pot and we're cooking something,

all these ingredients and we're headed somewhere.

And here's where we're headed. We want to understand why on

earth did God create the earth. We want to understand why in the

world that God put us in the world.

What's He up to in Genesis 1 and 2?

Because it's the beginning of the story.

It tells us the why for everything.

And if we don't understand it, the rest of the story is just

like some episodes. You can watch this one and that

one, but they're not connected together.

You have to understand it from the beginning.

So here God goes creating. I'm going to read these very

quickly. They're going to come on the

screen very quickly. If you take your notes, it ain't

going to happen. Day one light and darkness are

created. Day 2, the sky, the expanse, the

atmosphere is created. Day three, dry land, seas,

vegetation. Day 4, the sun, moon and stars.

Day 5, the sea creatures and birds.

Day 6, land animals and us humans.

And then day 7 God creates rest. He creates the Sabbath.

Now you may know this, but there are plenty of creation myths in

antiquity. How the world came to be.

Which one is correct? Let me tell you a few of them.

The Egyptians believe that there was an egg in an ocean.

They never explained where the egg or the ocean come from.

They don't have how they made their own sand, right.

This egg births somebody. And that somebody is the sun

God. The sun God has four children.

Geb or Jeb Shoe, Tefnut and Nut. I want to see is there anyone

here who is descended of the tefnuts?

You Pastor Kim Tef? Yeah, Anyone here descended?

Just. I'm from the nuts.

Any ladies here say I think I descended from shoe.

Not funny. I I Yeah, I feel the.

The story goes that these children fought in sibling

rivalries. And as they fought, continents

were formed. Oceans were dug up by their feet

and swiping. The same thing with the

Babylonians. The Babylonians believed that

there were gods and these gods would war together.

There are plots and subplots and as they fight, when they strike

their sword over Yosemite and denial, right?

The Greeks believe that there's a God who holds the earth, but

they don't tell us how they created the earth.

Atlas just has the earth on his shoulders.

That's all we know. The Hindus believe that the

world is rested on three elephants, and those elephants

themselves are sitting on top of a giant tortoise, and the giant

tortoise swims around in a cosmic ocean.

And here we are. The point is this.

Genesis 1 stands as the only document that comes to us from

ancient history that is seriously considered.

When the origin of the universe is discussed, it's typically the

Bible or The Big Bang, and we can have the discussion that the

two of them might be both true. So which do you believe?

I'm going to give you a proof of why maybe you should believe the

creation story. Doctor Peter Stoner, he lived in

the 50s. He was a mathematician,

theologian. In 1958, he came out with a

study that says essentially, there are 13 essential

components to creation. For Earth to become into

existence. And he notes that not only did

Moses, who was not a scientist, had no telescopes or

microscopes, could not understand what an atmosphere

was, lived his entire life in a small portion of the world,

doesn't even know the circumference of the world,

hasn't even seen the magnitude of the oceans, of the mountains,

the stars flowing in the sky. Moses got all 13 components

right, and he got them in the correct order.

Like, what's the big deal? Doctor Stoner estimates that in

order for Moses just to have guessed this, like, I'm just

going to throw something out there, see if it's right because

Moses was southern. Yeah, Southern Israel, in order

for him to have just guessed it right by chance, it would be one

chance in 31 sextillion. That's a 31 with 21 zeros behind

it. He goes on to say, I, I don't

think you understand what I'm saying.

And he goes on to say that the chances of this happening

because we don't understand how big a #31 sextillion is, is like

finding one lottery ticket marked with the right creation

order in a bucket of 31 sextillion tickets.

You reach in your hand and find one.

You still don't understand how big 31 six trillion tickets is,

he goes on to say. It would take 8 million printing

presses, 8 million hello, 8 million printing presses,

printing day and night, 2000 tickets a minute for 5,000,000

years to get 31 sextillion tickets.

Then you put them on the earth somewhere and you fly around,

you drop in one place, you reach in your hand and pull out the

right one. So all I'm trying to say is

there's no way Moses just guessed it, and he wasn't a

scientist, so there's no way he reasoned it, for it was not

reason. He has a creation story because

it came to him by revelation. The one who created downloaded

it to Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, and we have it now

into antiquity. It's when, when, when you think

of something this incredible happening in this revelation

happening, it begins to help you understand me.

Maybe, just maybe, the creation account in Genesis is the actual

account that we ought to put our faith and trust in. 1st the Lord

frames everything. He gives us light and limits and

land, and then He fills everything beyond lights,

limits, and land. Then he gives us life.

Animals, birds. Do you know that animals display

the glory of God? Not a lot of pet people in here,

I guess. Yeah.

The variety, the colors, the uniqueness.

In fact, do you know that all of creation speaks of His glory the

way He intended it? Romans chapter one.

For since the creation of the world, God's invisible

qualities, He's spirit, we cannot see him.

His eternal power and his divine nature have actually been

clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that

the people are without excuse. God created a sunset so that we

would say Oh my God, intelligent design, purposeful design.

Even Darwin looked at the eyeball and it said he it's

recorded that it made him shudder.

Darwin, who believes in evolution, looks at the eyeball

and like maybe, maybe we didn't come from pond scum.

How about that we think that David and Solomon built the 1st

and most fanciful temple in human history, but God in

creation built a temple for himself more glorious than

anything humanity can or ever will build.

And you have to begin to ask yourself why?

Why do you do it? We're headed somewhere.

Stay with me. Why did he create the earth?

And secondarily, why did he create humans?

Why? What's going on?

Let that simmer as we continue next in the book of Genesis in

chapter 1 and continuing on in the chapter 2, we get some major

themes of origin, the origin of humanity, the origin of

marriage, the origin of rulership.

And I want you to know that all of these speak to one thing as

God's creating this, what you should when you read Genesis 1

and two, what He's also creating is order through humanity,

through marriage, through rulership, order.

In Genesis, God gave order to creation.

Meaning I'm going to set this up so that it's going to thrive.

I'm going to have you participate with me under my

instructions so that the earth and you all as humans will

thrive. Let's see how He does that

together in Genesis chapter one. Look down at 26 verse 26.

Then God said, let us make mankind in our image and our

likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the

birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild

animals and over all the creatures that move along the

ground. So God created mankind in his

own image, in the image of God. He created them, male and

female. He created them.

God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase

in number, fill the earth and subdue it.

Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and

over every living creature that moves along the ground.

Then God said, I give you every seed bearing plant on the face

of the whole earth and every tree that is fruit with the seed

in it, they will be yours for food.

And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the

sky and all the creatures that move along the ground,

everything that has the breath of life in it, I give every

green plant for food. And it was so God creates humans

in his image. Then he gives order saying be

fruitful and multiply so that you can rule the earth.

It's going to take more and more image bearers to carry my heart

into the world and rule it, Keep it in order, not in chaos.

Then we get another angle in chapter 2 of the same story but

very much the same themes. Genesis chapter 2 is a zoomed in

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

snapshot of creation day six. Genesis 2 gives us more detail

and what we as image bearers are and what we are to be.

Verse 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the

ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and

the man became a living being. Hey come on, it gets me too.

I want you to know that image bearers, us humans are created

differently than all of the creatures and were created

personally. Maybe it's because we're created

personally that we are created differently.

Everything else is spoken into existence.

Humans, however, are formed from the dust.

The Potter's hands, personal, intricate.

Psalm 139 says that he knit me together in my mother's womb.

His hands personal, intricate. And then he bends low in a very

intimate moment. And he breathed his own breath

of life into our lifeless bodies, which he does for no

other creature, at least that we read of Hallelujah.

He's a personal God creating you differently.

In chapter 1, his name is God. And God said and God said God

created the heavens and the earth.

God, God, God, God. This is the name Elohim.

Everyone say Elohim. Elohim is the name of God.

That means God as power. God is the generator of

everything. And then you move to chapter 2

where we zoomed in snapshot of the creation of humanity and we

go from God. And now Moses says Lord God.

Look at your Bibles chapter 1, God chapter 2, Lord God.

Lord God is a different name. It's the name Yahweh.

Everyone say Yahweh. Yahweh is the personal name of

God. In chapter 1 it's God as power.

In chapter 2, it's God as person.

You're made intimately, you're made differently, you're made

personally. Every single human being

reflects the image of God in the womb, out of the womb unto

death. It's why the sanctity of life

should matter intensely to the Church.

In the womb and out of the womb and on to death all the way

through. Each person has his image

bearer. We're to personally reflect his

character, his conviction, his calling, his culture, his

community. This account of humans creation

in Genesis chapter 2 is not primarily, if at all, a

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

scientific description of how we were made.

We don't read in Genesis 2. This is how I made an aorta or

your amygdala, or your hypothalamus are just other fun

words to say. We don't get that.

What we do get is a theological account about who we are in

relation to God. We are valued because He made us

personally, but we are humbled because we're made from the

dust. We are physical because we're

made from the dust, yet we're spiritual because He's put His

breath into us, which again, He's done for.

No other creature valued A humbled physical, yet spiritual.

You are created differently and personally this matters.

I love it. Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Now look at verse 8. Now the Lord God had planted a

garden in the East in Eden, and there he put the man he had

formed. The Lord God made all kinds of

trees go out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the

eye, good for food in the middle of the garden where the tree of

life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now skip down to verse 15. The middle verse is about a

bunch of rivers. Verse 15, The Lord God took the

man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of

it, and then the Lord God commanded the man.

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, for

when you eat from it, you will certainly die.

I don't know if you're picking up on this, but first Adam is

created and the next thing that happens is he's commissioned.

It means that every person is born with purpose, means that

nobody is born on accident. Nobody is created without the

commissioning that God has given to Adam, and thereby all of

Adam's descendants, of which we are, many of them, lots of them,

billions of them. Your purpose is this image

bearers are created to rule under rule.

We are to rule under His rule. Genesis chapter 2 uses the word

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

work. We are to work the land to care

for it. What does this word mean?

The best way I can describe it to you is if you look ahead to

Numbers chapter 3, you don't have to turn there.

Numbers 3 · chapter mention

And Numbers chapter 3, God is building the temple where He's

Numbers 3 · chapter mention

going to bring His presence, and He appoints the Levites as

priests over the temple. He says you're going to work in

chapter chapter 3, verses 7 and 8.

You're going to work at this temple and it's not just like I

got to go punch the clock and do my job.

My trabajar? Is that how you say it in

Espanol Trabaja Trabajar Trabajo.

I'll just stop. I'm quitting Duolingo today.

Useless 285 day streak, OK? He says work it and it's not a

job, it's an honor. Is the responsibility to care

deeply for the furnishings and the practices of the temple, The

responsibility of it, the reverence in the work to care

for this temple and this word work is the exact same word that

God uses for Adam here in Genesis.

I want you to care for this place like the priest will one

day care for my temple, diligently, reverently care for

it. God wants us to care for this

creation. This is His first order to us,

this temple that he has built for himself, our first

responsibility. And just a major note here,

every time that God gives orders and which starts here in

Genesis, the first thing He tells us to do is to care for

the earth. Every time that He gives an

order, He is saying to us, this is how it will go well on the

earth. This is how you can sustain this

temple. I'm putting it in order and I'm

entrusting it to you. And note this, every time that

we do not follow the orders, some not good stuff happens,

which we'll talk about in a minute.

God continues His instructions. First of all, He leads with what

we can do before stating what we can't do.

He says you may eat from every of these bazillion trees that

are here, but you can't eat from this one.

And don't you know that the devil will often have us fixated

on God's prohibitions at the expense of His permissions?

Everything that He has said that we can do, that He wants to do

in US. Love, peace, joy, all of these

permissions, life, freedom, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and a

few things those aren't good for you, withhold from them.

But our minds, through the devil, through our own minds, we

fixate on the prohibitions. I wasn't going to do it anyways

until you said no, and now I think I might.

I wonder if Adam and Eve would have just been satisfied with

what they were permitted to do as opposed to what God limited

them from doing, if the whole story would have been different

for them and for us. By the way, the permissions and

the prohibitions of God were for their good and for our good

today, both of them. What He says we can do is for

your good. What He says we can't do is for

your good, and not just your good, but the good of the place

that God created. It's the order of God for how

things will go well on the earth if we do them.

And if we don't, we get Genesis chapter 2, verse 17, the first

Genesis 2:17

mention of death. It's the outcome of

disobedience. We are going to need help here

lest we die. We're going to need a Messiah.

You put this all together, our Trabajo.

Our job here on earth is to rule the earth for the benefit of all

humanity of the earth, of all the animals, according to the

rules of God. He's calling us the stewards.

That's the modern day word, to care for another person's

property of the earth so that it will all go well with humans and

animals. And if we don't, if we don't

abide by His rules and His orders, then we and the earth

will experience death first spiritually for us as humans and

for us and the earth, eventually physically death.

I want you to know that death is not the punishment of God for

disobedience. He's not up there to say, oh you

messed up, guess what, you're going to die.

What kind of guy would that be? Did I miss something?

Death is an outcome of our choices, not a punishment of

God. If I went home and chose to eat

my laptop, it would not go well for me, nor for my laptop.

It sounds silly, but there's a design and we know the way that

things should work and if we don't use them as they were

designed to work, it's painful, it's destructive.

I've told you this before, if you put milk in your gas tank of

your car, it's not going to go well.

It's not a punishment, it's just an outcome of consequence of

what you've done. And when we don't live according

to the order that God has given us in Genesis, the roots, the

design, the purpose in Genesis, that it all begins to fall

apart. It begins to break down, which

we'll talk about next week. Aren't you excited to talk about

sin entering the world next week, Everybody?

No, Here's an example of God's order and rulership.

The next thing that happens, marriage.

Genesis chapter 2, verses 18 to 24.

Genesis 2:18–24

I'm not going to read the creation of marriage account,

but I want you to know it falls under the same wisdom.

God created marriage as he created it, a husband and a wife

and he put them in place as part of the created order so that the

new creation will continue to operate well.

Go and produce more image bearers and allow them to

flourish on the earth. To continue to rule over the

earth, to care for the earth. When you hear the word rule,

it's really to care to steward the earth well.

But anytime that we live outside of that, any aberration of his

created plan leads to the same place, death and the need for a

Messiah. You, you better believe it's

from the garden that the devil start attacking marriage.

The devil didn't show up till Adam was married.

Any aberration of his creative plan leads to the same place,

death and the need for Messiah. But let's have some good news.

Genesis 2 ends in a very great place.

We get the perfect picture of things as they should be for all

image bearers. Genesis chapter 2 verse 25.

Genesis 2:25

Adam and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.

Image bearers rest with God, at ease in creation with the Lord

our God. And Genesis chapter 2 verse 25

Genesis 2:25

where it's like an aha moment. I see it now.

It's all becoming clear. Why did God create the heavens

and the earth? Why did God create humans?

What's going on here? This is the original design from

the beginning, the intent of God to forever dwell in a glorious

place with a glorious people. This is what's happening in the

beginning. This is Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 2, we see the heart of the Father say I'm

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

going to create a beautiful place and I'm going to go and be

there with these people that I love intensely and spend all of

eternity living like this in this place with these people.

I can't wait. And he starts creating and now

y'all take care of it. It's going to go great.

Just take care of it. Do what I say, it's going to be

great. This is another view of Sabbath

by the way, not just time set apart for the Lord, but it's

time set apart with the Lord. Genesis 1 says that he rested on

the 7th day and he's not like laying back in a hammock

drinking lemonade. He's not tired.

The word rested here. Is better understood as like, I

took my glory, my presence, and I rested it in this space.

I created all this and then I rested.

I decided to make this my home. I'm resting my glory here.

I'm setting it down. His intent to dwell with

humanity in a glorious place is the single driving theme of the

entire meta narrative. You'll see it all throughout

from beginning to end. It's here in Genesis in the

garden. His intent to dwell with us in a

glorious place. You'll see it in the wilderness

Tabernacle. Exodus chapter 40.

Exodus 40 · chapter mention

They build this beautiful movable temple and God comes and

he rests his glory there. They build this the temples

David and Solomon the one that Solomon inhabits First Kings

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8 Second Chronicles 5 and God rests his glory there.

John chapter one verse 14 says that the word Jesus became flesh

and dwelt among us. He made his glory present here

Matthew chapter 28 verse 20. Jesus says I'm going to be with

Matthew 28:20

you forever. Lo, to the end of the age.

I'm going to be with you, my intent to dwell with you.

And then he backs it up in Acts chapter 1 and 2 by imparting the

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Holy Spirit to the church to be with us now until the age to

come, which is in Revelation chapter 21, verse 3.

Revelation 21:3

This is the end of the story from the beginning.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's

dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with

them. They will be his people and God

himself will be with them and be their God.

From the beginning, God has just wanted to be with you, and in

the end, he'll do everything necessary to ensure it.

And one day, pray it, soon he will return.

And these bodies, these temporary failing tent suits

that we wear, this earth which has now been corrupted by sin,

will fade away and we'll be given glorified bodies.

It'll be a new heaven and a new earth and Revelation 21 three

will look like Genesis 225. We will be with God naked and no

shame. Amen.

Go ahead. When you hear the word naked,

don't think about the removal of clothing.

Think about the removal of anything that would keep us from

the presence of God. No sin, no shame, no guilt, no

condemnation, no regrets, no tears, no cancer.

Just you and the Lord and the cool of the evening and His

intent fulfilled. We get a snapshot of it briefly

in Genesis, and we'll live it eternally when He returns.

So just a question for you. What do you choose to believe?

Because the creation story, the creation of marriage, the

creation of order all gives us a choice.

Do I believe that God has set up this earth as his temple with

Eden as the most holy places, throne room, And his intent was

for us to always be with him in this throne room.

And then sin comes, which we'll talk about next week.

And we're kicked out because of our own choices, not because

he's you're out. But in the design, our reward,

what we've earned is a removal from Eden, the removal from his

presence. And then the Messiah comes and

it restores the ability of any human to enter in to Eden again,

enter into the most holy place in the throne room and begin to

live life even today in His presence, where He will be your

God and you will be His person. All He's ever wanted is to be

with you. Sin separates you.

Jesus makes the way that you can be with him again.

Thanks for joining us today. We hope God is speaking to your

heart through this message. If you'd like to connect with

us, you can text connect to 407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate

dot church. Have a great week.