Blueprint - The Image

Welcome To The River. City Church podcast and a

message by our lead. Pastor Jason Powers our prayer

is that this message would Inspire and encourage you, build

your faith. And point you to the

life-changing love of Jesus, may you enjoy the goodness of God as

you follow him today. Have you ever wondered why the

week only has seven days? Nobody that happened?

Good, why would you write? Like, it's always just been like

that, right? Like, here's the deal.

Did you know that? There is nothing really like

Like the only reason that we know today is Sunday is because

we trust that all throughout history.

People have been like keeping track, right?

Like there was a day in the Gregorian calendar.

I remember exactly what your it was, whatever.

But we found out, oh my gosh, the years like 11 days behind.

So like in October some year, whatever Gregory Pope Gregory

fixed, it just like there's 11 days missing but the deal was

with seven days in a week during the 1780s and the French

Revolution, they try to 10 day work week.

They tried it for a little while and I went Couple years and it

just just didn't work, right? They went through and they tried

and they bring it back and it always kind of devolves to a

seven-day week. Well, my contention is that's

part of the creation story. I think there's something about

the Rhythm that just naturally works for Humanity for people.

And we've been looking for a couple weeks at Genesis 1, 2 and

3. We actually started in John

John 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 with this idea that Jesus announces his kingdom with

this, invitation to rebirth. He told Nicodemus a guy who is

it The top. He said, listen, if you want to

see the kingdom, if you want to see what God is really doing and

what is really up to in this world, you need to be reborn.

And the idea behind rebirth for Nicodemus was you need to learn

how to see the world apart from separate from indistinct from

the values and The rhythms and the structures of the world that

you've been in right for Nicodemus.

He existed in a system that valued, you know, kind of

religious Purity, right? Like you keep the law.

Exactly. And fundamentally, and all the

way through where you kind of Of value and worth was Financial or

position. And so Jesus just said, hey what

I'm doing with this kingdom is about, it's really different

from that and then we looked started looking at Genesis 1.

And today we're going to look at Genesis 2 and we're going to see

kind of God's design and intention for creation for

mankind, from the very beginning and you're going to be like last

week. I know it was a little bit long

so you're going to be happy to know today that this week I only

have enough content for like eleven messages so we'll be

good. It's going to be fun, right?

So we saw in Genesis chapter one, kind of the broad Strokes

of the creation story and one of the things that we said that was

really important for kind of grasping and understanding kind

of Genesis chapter 1 is this idea that God created

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

everything. I believed every atom in

creation was designed intentionally and deliberately

and specifically was designed by God.

I believe in intelligent design and all that.

And I believe that Genesis 1 is not the account of material

creation. I believe that everything

existed and I think the count of Genesis 1 is the story of God,

giving purpose and meaning to everything that he created.

And we're going to see kind of more evidence for that today.

But so far we've created this the physical structures, right?

We created Genesis 1, right? Where he said, let there be

light and we saw him separating. And he separated the light and

the dark, and then he separated the waters, and then he

separated the water from the land, and he separated sky, and

he separated all of these things.

And then we come to Genesis chapter 2, right?

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And so we have six days at the end of Genesis chapter 1 God has

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

created Mankind. And then there's Chapter break.

Now, listen, the chapters and the verses weren't in the

original. It's not like when Moses was

writing this down, he went chapter 2, right?

This was primarily an oral tradition, the chapters, and the

verses are there to help us know and understand.

So this was kind of a continuing narrative, but something happens

in chapter 2. We saw that Genesis chapter one

kind of its genre we called it elevated prose, right?

It's not pure poetry but it's also not pure narrative.

It's not a narrative. Script that doesn't have

instructions. It doesn't have designs.

It doesn't have metrics and measurements eight-foot like it

was building an ark. It's just kind of it's this kind

of poetic narrative Ellen of P elevated prose but then we get

to Genesis chapter 2 and it changes the language changes.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Here's a Genesis chapter 2 says thus after all of this thus the

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of

them. Right?

So now everything was done, he's saying that.

And then again you notice there's repetition in here and

on the seventh day God finished. His work that he had done and he

rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

So now just by the fact that God has stopped and ceased A7 is

different. They 7 has something about it on

day. One, God saw and God spoke and

got separated. And there was, and it was good

on day two saw spokes separated day two day, three, same like

that. And on day seven, there's

nothing left to say to speak. And so what does he do?

He sits and he rests and I'm verse 3.

So God God blessed the seventh day and made it.

Holy now this is a good opportunity to address some

language. Okay, so when F, I say to you

that God wants you to be. Holy your idea, first would

probably be something along the lines.

You would translate in your head, something alike God wants

me to be good, right? To Fair, God wants me to be

morally. Good.

Well, you'll notice what here, let's try to insert that in

here, right? And so God finish everything

that he Had created. So God blessed the seventh day

and he made it good. Is that what that means does?

That does that kind of make sense?

What if we take the word? Holy and we mean different, we

use it as set apart. Okay?

So and God. So God blessed the seventh day

and he set it apart because on it, God rested, from all his

work that he had done in creation.

The idea behind the Holiness of the Sabbath is that it is a day

set apart. It is one day out of seven that

is dated and inhabited for a different distinct separate

unique purpose. That's what Holiness means.

It means different. So now let's pause and let's

back up and let's remember where we've come from.

We remember Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 in Genesis chapter 3

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

is an ancient near Eastern creation text.

We saw all kinds of similarities between the account in Genesis

and the account in, you know, the Anu, my Iliad.

I like all of these creation ethics around and what we said

is that doesn't diminish It's that doesn't mean that we have

to read the creation account in Genesis as less true.

In fact, for me, it lends veracity to it because I can

come around and just say, man, all of these people all the way

around, they're talking about the same thing.

Now, they ascribe different reasons to a different meanings

to it, right? But when we step back and we can

look at it, my take is this picture in this perspective of

God, creating it makes the most sense, it's the most logical.

It's the most Thoughtful. Okay, so let's unpack this now,

Genesis 2. Verse 1, through 3, we have God

creating this ancient near Eastern creation texts were God

is telling his people in the wilderness who he is.

He is the god who has over the the chaos, he is, the god who

speaks order into all that. Okay, so now we know that the

one who speaks the one who creates one who brings order is,

what deity. He is God, right?

So if you look at all of these creation text throughout the

ancient years, right from Babylon, from a series for Is

what you have is consistently a deity.

Who goes about the work of creation for precisely seven

days. And on the seventh day, wherever

you look at on the seventh day these deities, they quit.

Do you know why they quit after seven days?

Because on day seven they have created mankind, so they no

longer have to work because they now have slaves to do the work

for them. Okay.

So an ancient near Eastern Eastern, text God.

Creates for seven days and then he stops.

And what is the place where a deity stops to rest, so that you

can see the deity so that you can look at the DD so that you

can worship it. What do you call a place?

Where a deity is, worshipped a temple, right?

So, an ancient near Eastern Temple is a place where a deity

and we're a god reigns, okay? So here's what we have.

Genesis chapter 1, Portrays all of creation as God's holy

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Temple. This implies to me even more

that the Genesis want to count is not the account of God,

creating material stuff. But it is God, organizing

creative material stuff. So that it is a place where he

can sit and dwell and rain and it habit this Earth among his

people. We know that this is what our

God is. Like because when we get into

Exodus and he leaves the People out of slavery.

What does he do? He says build a tent and in the

tent there's going to be a place, right?

This is what the temple looked like, okay, this is a model of

the temple. Here's my little pointer that I

get to use again. This is fun for me.

Okay, right. So here's here's break it down

right out here. All this extra space out here,

right. When you read it, this is the

company of Israel. The people of Israel would have

camped outside of the tent, right?

And then there would have been this border and you could have

some Gentiles outside there and then you can have the core.

Women, right? What I want to show and I want

to point to a specific leave this place.

Do we see this? This is called the holy place.

The most holy place. This area right here is called

the holy of holies and this little box is the Ark of the

Covenant, okay? So what I want to draw attention

to particularly is this holy place within the temple, okay,

so everybody could come out here.

The priests have to enter into the table and you have like you

have a table with bread on it and you have lampstands this,

you can't read the writing. This is called The Altar.

And the purpose of the altar was to offer sacrifices.

Now, you know what sacrifices fall under the heading of right

worship. The sacrifices were the way that

God's people were made right with God through the sacrifice

so that there could be Holiness. And again, now we come down to

righteousness, right? Does righteous meeting, good.

There's certainly an element of righteousness.

That means good show me a person who lies and Steals and cheese

and all that. And I'm just going to say that's

not righteousness, but the idea behind Righteousness has to do

with Covenant. It has to do with God, saying, I

made a promise to you, and I'm going to keep that promise and

the Covenant is us than saying, and we'll make a promise to you

God, and we will keep that Covenant.

And God says, no, you won't because you're terrible and your

sinful. And when you do that, there's

going to be a way for you to know that the Covenant is an

operations. The way that you can know, the

Covenant is in operation, is you will go to the temple and you'll

give your sacrifice to a priest and the priest will offer the

sacrifice for - so that we can worship together.

Are we tracking? Do you see the purpose of a

temple? A temple is where God and

Mankind come together? Where mankind can worship God In

the Flesh in person from where he is?

So, in the ancient near East a temple was where people served

their God. We tracking Are you getting

anticipation because this is good, right?

Because you're always like, what is August?

What about the right was me. Look, we're gonna get there.

Here we go. Genesis chapter 4.

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

Okay, so now look, if you look in your Bible right here, these

verse 4 is kind of set off, right?

Like you can see its got like indentations, it's line and all

that. That indicates Rhythm meter,

that indicates a poetic interlude in here, right often

represents, create a kind of in other places.

Are the Scripture, it indicates, quoting another scripture but

let's see what it says. These are the generations of the

Heaven and the earth. When they were created in the

day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

So let's step back and unpack that right there.

Okay, so if you look in verse 4, it says created the word

created, there is the Hebrew word Bara.

Okay. You don't have to know.

That means right now, it says that it means created, but it

becomes very important because we're going to contrast that

with another word later. So just remember about, okay?

So these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when

they were created in the day that The Lord God.

So some people come SE, see it says right there, create a

literal 624 our literal create days.

Here's what I would say to you. I hundred percent agree.

I believe that what we're talking about in Genesis 1 is 6

literal 24 hour days of ordering and calling and filling and

purposing. Right?

And so here we have so what does it say when it says, so in the

generation and in the day, here's an example.

In the generation back in the day, they were heard that back

in the day, I used to follow a band around the country fish

right there. This hippie band had long hair

and hemp rope necklace and whatever.

He said, dude, lot and did all the stuff right that right now?

Listen, so when I say a back in the day, I'm not talking about

like, like, like a Thursday, right?

I'm talking about a season in the past, I'm talking about a

time period. So when it says poetically set

off in the generations and back in the When the Lord God made

the Earth. So here's what we've got right

now, right? We have Genesis 1:1 in the

Genesis 1:1

beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth and it's

like this, right? Then we have Genesis 12 through

125 and it looks like this right, God, created the heavens

and the Earth God created. In six days day 1 Day, 2 Day, 3

Day. 4 day 5 day 6, right? So now what we're going to do is

we're going to take that microscope and we're going to

zoom in even more, and we're going to look at this creative

process. From an even more zoomed in

label, right? And so what does it say?

In verse 5, when no Bush of the field was yet in the land, do

you remember on what day God created bushes in the field day

three. So we're not here right there.

They're going like a ha, it's wrong.

He said that the right now, we're just doing back down.

He's like, yeah, okay, so we're picking up the story Day 2, Day

3 and says, yeah, there was nothing yet.

So God, starting to work now. No Bush was in the field, right?

No, small planet filled for the Lord.

God hadn't caused it to rain on the land.

And there was no man to work the ground.

So there's like this mist and it's kind of like hovering over

the waters right? And then it says I lost my place

is already know pretty verse 6 and a miss was going up for the

land and was watering the whole face of the ground verse 7.

Then, now, this doesn't necessarily mean immediately,

chronologically, it just means there was nothing and God

watered and then at some point later down in the road, which we

know as day six in the creation, then the Lord God formed That is

the word and I want to make sure that I get it close to Craig.

That is the word Yachts. Todd re-formed, created baba,

got sorry created for we just go.

What's the same thing? God May got it.

No different words, right. The idea of you got Sade is like

if you take a piece of clay and you form it and you squeeze it

and you make it and you take your time and you look at it and

you screw it up and then you fix it again.

You take it to a right to say created as like plant Don't

plant, plant, plant, plant. Plant bhadra plant.

But Ahh Bra. Yeah, sorry.

Sits down. And he forms.

And he creates, and he makes any shapes, and he, and then, what

did he say? And he breathed into his

nostrils, the breath of life. And the Man became a living

being see breath Hebrew. Word is Hua, right?

And it can mean wind. It can mean breath in this case

Soul, right? And so, you don't know.

The difference is a question, we get all the time, right?

Like, there's an animal in the room right now.

Like, will animals be in heaven? Listen, here's my take on this.

You're not going to like this. Some of you.

My mom's going to reject me, right?

Going to be out of the family here in just a second.

The question is, will do you know All Dogs Go to Heaven?

Here's my take, like it doesn't say this in the Bible, don't

lose your salvation over this. I think I'm right, I could be

wrong mankind, man and animal are different, right?

A different form of creation. God breathes a soul into human

now, listen God, created everything that God created

dogs, you bet dogs are wonderful and if you don't I question your

salvation. But no, that's for real.

I really suggest your salvation but here's the deal.

The soul is what lives on, will there be dogs in heaven?

Of course. There will be dogs in heaven.

Will your dog be in heaven? Probably not.

Yeah. Listen, my wallet.

My mom right now already. Listen, I'm out.

I'm out of the will. She doesn't believe it.

It's the soul that sets mankind apart.

Do you know why? It sets, man kind of part.

Do you know what mankind has that beasts?

Don't the dogs and cats and deer and wombats and wildebeest you

know what, those don't have a soul it's the image of God

Genesis 1:26 and 27. What does that say?

Genesis 1:26

Right, this right. God said, let us make Mankind in

our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the

fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over

the livestock and over. All the Earth and over every

creeping thing that creeps on the earth, God gave mankind a

soul for the purpose for which he created.

He created animals and plants, and birds, all that to fill the

Earth to be beautiful, to be wonderful to make life have

Beauty and meaning and purpose on this.

But he created us distinctly, he created us uniquely, he created

us in His image verse 27. So God created, man in his own

image. In the image of God, he created

him male and female he created them.

So God created us unique. God gave us a soul, that's the

thing in this whole world that we have that others.

Don't. So now if I look at this, if I

just walked into this room and I see Gary's guitar right here,

I'm going to make an assumption about what happens here, right?

Because I see the tools, I have a sense of what kind of work

goes on, right? If I go to a, if I'm driving by

a field and I see big excavators right in front end loaders, I

can know because of the tools what kind of work is happening

in this place. Ace.

So the question is, what kind of work happens when a soul is

present when God sovereignly chooses, one being and all of

creation to give it a soul to give it the very Breath of God,

we sing that song. It's your breath in our lungs.

So, I'll pour out my praise. This is what he's talking about.

Literally made Alive by the Breath of God.

So, what's the tool? What's the resource?

What would God want us to do? Do with this special gift of a

soul. We go to verse 8, And the Lord,

God planted a garden in the East.

Now remember no. Plants Wilderness wild, you

know, missed. And then later.

God planted a garden in the East.

So we have all of creation. We have this one spot called

Eden and God. Plants, a garden in Eden, right?

And there, he put the man who had formed listen.

Did you know mankind wasn't created in the garden.

You're creating the Wilderness we've created.

Outside and God placed us there, he put us there.

The thing about that is, here's what that means.

That we weren't standing there. We had no part in making the

garden bloom, we just walked in, and our breath was taken away,

because it was beautiful and it was already there.

And we had the full trees and the running water and the fruits

and goes on to describe what this is like and out of the

ground. The Lord God had made to spring

up every tree. That is Pleasant to the sight

and good for food. And the tree of life was in the

midst of garden, the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil

and a river flowed out of To water the garden, and there it

divided, and became Four Rivers. So notice what he says, right,

this is there's a garden in the middle and the garden flows out.

And when it flows out, it becomes Four Rivers, right?

And it brings you've been to the Comal River right where the

headwaters rollout and it comes and it fits Atlanta Park and it

fills that little pool and then it goes and you can tube in it,

right? So there's the river that's

flowing out verse 11. And the name of the first is the

pie Shawn and the, it's the one that float around the whole land

of havilah where there is gold. So there, As you know, this

River There Is wealth, there was fine as there was gold there.

The name of the second river is the guy.

Han is the one that float around the whole land of cush and the

name of the third river is the Tigris which flows east of

Assyria and the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Right? And so, when we read in verse 8,

and right? That means also.

So we have also. So God is creating and he

creates the plants and he creates all the stuff and also

in the midst of this, God plants a temple in the East where he

and Mankind can do. Oh forever, right?

And notice the garden. Notice what the garden was like,

notice its aesthetic, right? It was beautiful.

It was pleasing. It was good for food, it was

good to eat. There was good stuff there,

right. We notice God, is there in the

presence with him, notice? That it was practical, it was

good. The food was good to eat.

It was good to see. It was all of those things,

right? Did you notice?

It says the river was there and then they float out there's no

boundary. It doesn't like when it talks

about the boundaries of the promised land later in Exodus

and Leviticus Lucas and Josh, right?

It says and you can go this far north to the Sea and to this.

And there were boundaries of Lent, There's No Boundaries in

the Garden of Eden, he placed Mankind in a blooming growing

thriving. Beautiful practice full

Limitless, boundless place, he set us in a temple with him to

no end, right? And so here we have the temple,

the whole world outside where there's no plants and there's no

animals. Just wild place.

And then we come in and starts and here's the garden.

And what does God tell mankind to do?

Be fruitful and multiply, and go and fill.

Right? Because here's the holy place

and the priests come in and they offer sacrifices on the altar to

restore and repair the relationship and it's called

worship God, created a space for mankind to worship God as God

listen. Verse 15 in Chapter 2.

The Lord God took them in and he put them in the garden to work

it, and keep it, put him to work it and keep it.

That's the purpose. And some of you are like, well,

that's terrible. I don't like to mow the yard.

I don't like to plant flowers, I don't want to do a garden.

We're in a that's next week. We're going to unpack all of

that wide 10 in your garden is terrible and Harden.

We don't want to. But for right now the question

that we ask that, we have to come to is up to this point.

There is one One precisely. What we haven't even got to

there yet, so far. Everything in creation is good,

right? It is.

Reflective of God's goodness. Okay, so what are you happy goes

on and the Lord. God commanded.

The man saying you may surely eat of every tree in the garden,

which is good. Because remember they're

beautiful and they're good. But of the tree of the knowledge

of Good and Evil you shall not eat.

Now, listen, how many trees do you think we're in the Garden of

Eden? At least two right?

Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil in the tree of life.

You think there are more trees than those two.

How many more Ball part a gazillion, right?

Why Adam and Eve camping around the freaking tree.

That's all. I want to know.

We'll talk about that next week. You may not eat it.

But of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not

eat front of the day. You shall surely die.

Right? So he put mankind there to work

it and keep it and to serve with later.

So, listen, here's what we're talking because I know, right?

We're talking metaphor, we have Temple, but it's not a temple.

There's trees. And this stuff like this.

I'm talking about worship and what we talked about, listen,

Romans, 12:1, I appeal to you, therefore, Brothers by the

mercies of God, to present your bodies, as a Living Sacrifice.

Holy and acceptable and remember what holy means right, good,

right because I go, I can't serve God I'm not good.

No set apart. Your life is created and

intended to bring worship and service to God which is your

spiritual worship. Your spiritual worship is the

service and the sacrifice. It is keeping the garden order

intact. So worship.

Now is the desires is identifying seeing the desires

needs and preferences of the other one first.

Okay. So now Who's the primary person

in the Garden of Eden? God, his Temple.

Not our Temple, right? We are priests in the temple.

What's our role in our mission and our service there to serve

God in that space, right? So listen, what does it look

like to serve God? Verse 9 be the tree of life was

in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of

Good and Evil. And you go down to verse 16 and

God said, don't eat that. So how do we serve God, we serve

God by going, right? It's your garden.

I can have everything I want. Except that one tree.

Simple enough, right? We'll talk about that next week.

You should come back. It's going to be fun.

Why would God say, leave me the tree of good of knowledge of

good news. First of all doesn't say the

knowledge of Good and Evil. It's not the knowledge of Good

and Evil it's just fruit. Maybe it's a persimmon.

I don't know. Why would God say, leave me that

one? Because it was better because it

was the best tree in the garden because God didn't want to give

it to mankind or because God wanted us to know.

At the end of the day, all of this is yours to enjoy but it's

mine. You are mine.

This is mine. What makes all of this work is

the understanding and the awareness, Adam, and Eve.

At this point Adam that you are created that you are not God

what God says when he just says, hey, don't eat from that tree.

You know what God says, Adam is Adam eyeballs right here.

Right? I sailed time, I tell you

listen, right. I'm bossy.

I think this is God. Adam eyeballs donate that and

here's what he's saying. Hey, I want you Adam to trust

me. Me to tell you what is good and

evil Adam, I want you to trust me.

Here's the thing all Adam and Eve Al Adam had to do is look

around Gomez. A lot of good bro that's a lot

of good. Lot of good man.

Whoa that one trees. Not bad.

Great. I just won't look that way and

I'll go this way because I can have everything in that

quadrant. Just don't eat that at me.

Just trust me to lead you into tell you what is good to leave

in to tell you what is right? And so God created us and he

placed Us in the garden, he created a garden for us and he

placed us there and he told us to fill it with goodness.

He told us to take all of those good trees, right?

The trees that are good for food and for their Pleasant to look

at and they're useful and you can build houses and boats and

buildings out of. He says, I want you take all

those things. I just want you to make them

feel their, listen, the garden. Didn't the fill the whole earth.

The garden was one spot. It was like the stage and God

said, Adam, just expand it and pick the fruit and Planet, let

trees growing plant crops and harvest and just go, Adam, go do

all that because he created you. Listen infusions to 10, Paul

tells the Gentiles coming back. He says listen for years

workmanship, you were created in Christ.

Jesus to do good works which he prepared beforehand when was

before him like on day. A six not day six of the month.

Like, on day 6, he created good works for us to do to manage to,

multiply to tend to, to care for his creation, to work it, and to

keep it for his goodness. Not for ours.

So now we're talking about, let's get this was bringing this

all home and let's make some applications, right?

The Earth is a temple where people can experience God's

goodness and creation and express it through living

worship. River Cities mission statement

where a church for New Braunfels experiencing and expressing

God's love in our lives and Community because I believe

because we believe is a church, this is the very substance of

what we were created for. We were created to experience

God in a blooming place. We were created to know, God in

his goodness, and his faithfulness and his

righteousness. And in his Holiness, we were

created to know. No, his plan and his purpose in

our lives. And for our lives, we are

created in the image of God. We are created to look like him

in this world and that's what our work.

That's what are our vocation is supposed to reveal, right?

So, I'm going to read this passage and then we're going to

pull real quick 3. Like, remember last week, what

does it say? What do we say?

What does it mean? What do we do, right?

We're going to pick out, three kind of, what does this mean?

Well, that's what verse 18. Then the Lord God said it's not

good that the man should be alone.

That's the very first time in the scripture that something is

not good. Every single thing that God has

created up to this point has been either good or very good

but what's happening? We're going to find in just a

second as God gave him, the work, God brings the animals to

him and the animals are walking by.

And so, he's sin to elephants. They look the same to leopards.

They look the same to platypus. They look the same too.

Two African Violets, they look the same, what's going on here,

right? So he sees the man.

He says, it's not good. That man should be alone.

I will make a helper fit for him, Hebrew word.

For helper, is there connect do weren't talk about that later.

This year, we're going to do a family series.

We're gonna talk about marriage, we're gonna talk about money or

going to talk about kids. We're going to talk about a lot

of that stuff and we're going to unpack.

The whole is there connect do help meet this, suffice it to

say if you'll give me one second just unpack.

This, it does not mean In worker.

It does not mean slave. It does not mean servant.

It does not mean woman. You do what I want?

That is not what it means. That is not how it goes.

If you've been told that, I'm sorry, they told you wrong.

It is a helper, is taken out of his side, not out of his foot,

not out over his head as a partner, it is the completion.

And finally, when he says he has, this is I should just read

it. It says it right here.

I'm stopping, right? I'll make a helper fit for him.

Now, out of the ground, the got keep going right out of the

ground. The Lord, God, formed every

beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and they

brought them to the man, to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature.

That was his name. The man gave names to all the

livestock into the birds of the heavens and every beast of the

field. But for Adam, there was not

found a helper for him. So now we see it, right?

He was naming. He's like, man, what, why didn't

that work, right? Like the male lion goes and

hunts in the female line stays home?

Why don't I don't have that? That what's going on right verse

21. So the Lord God caused Adam to

take a nap. The Deep Sleep to fall upon the

man and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up

the place with flesh. You may have heard that women

have one more ribs in their body because of whatever that's dumb.

It's not true. Don't have to believe that.

Don't listen, it's okay. We have, we live, we trust

doctors, we're doctors, tell us. They don't have extra, we can

just believe them. That's that's good, right?

Okay. Don't have to get crazy and

silly verse 22 and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the

man. Made into a woman.

And he brought her to the man, and the man said this at last is

bone of my bones and Flesh of My Flesh.

And she shall be called woman because she was taken out of,

man. Some people later on after this

was came back and said, oh yeah, it's woman because the woman was

woe to the man because she's so have this is before.

Don't listen, listen, if you hear something and you just go,

that sounds just goofy screwy lean into that, go search for

it, find it maybe. B, it is Goofy and screw, we

don't know, right? That's not what it says.

It's just, she's just called woman for out of man.

She was taken right verse 24. Therefore a man shall leave his

father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall

become one flesh. And the man, and his wife were

both naked and were not a shame, so God created purpose.

And so, as we see mankind, I'm going to tell you real quick,

three things that we can see about the design for man that I

hope have influence and impact for you because here's the deal,

we still live in this world. And the goodness that God

created for it, I believe that it's still late and in this

world, that's what God is redeeming.

That's what God is calling forth.

That is what our role and responsibility in this world is

when he says, you have to be born again and he created, good

works for us to do, it's not some new unknown thing.

When we read Revelation, 21 and 22, it's putting back things.

The way that they were at the end, it's a city and you know,

what a Sit, you know, what? In the UK, you know what?

They call yards, week, own backyards, they call him

Gardens. The be the world begins in a

garden. It Is in gardens and it's our

Priestly role to tend to the garden and manage them for

fruitfulness. It's our job to tend to the

Garden to work it and to keep it to fret reflect his goodness and

His glory. But in order for that to happen,

we have to be, right. And we have to understand how he

made us to reflect that. Are you ready to hear that?

You want to know how you were created, and why you're creating

what it means? And what God has done to do

that. First thing mankind was designed

for company. Yeah.

It's not good for mankind to be alone. if you've ever left,

husband alone in a house for a weekend, you know, it's not good

for mankind to be alone. We find at the beginning.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.

And then we're told that God said and in John chapter one,

we're told that the word was with God and the Word was God.

So we have the speaking voice of God is Jesus and we're told that

the spirit hovered over the waters.

So in the very beginning of creation, God already existed in

three parts, a father and a son, and his Spirit, we called that

Trinity, that's a doctrine of the Trinity and it will melt

your Blaine's, because you're like, there are three were not

polytheists, right? Like, we don't believe in three

Gods. It's one.

God, it's a father to son and it's a spirit.

And it's hard right now. I'm not there's analogies

breakdown, right? It's not like a shamrock.

It's not like ice, it's not-it's, not those things,

right? But we exist the got in.

Here's the idea. Since before the beginning of

time, God has existed in relationship to himself the

father perfectly relating to the sun, the sun, perfectly relating

to the spirit. Now I want you to imagine

spending eternity with your father-in-law or your

mother-in-law. It's hard, right?

It's hard. I don't like being like 15

minutes. And with people, I'm just like,

I'm an introvert. I need a nap, right?

Like that, for all of eternity, God has related perfectly to

himself. That tells you what God's

character is like. Can you can't, can you imagine

spending an eternity with someone and they never like, get

on your nerves? Jesus is like, is never like

need D. The holy spirit is never like

kind of codependent. Well, I'll just do whatever you

want to do, know perfectly, loving kind and generous towards

God for all of mankind. So when God says, it's not good

for man to be alone, what he's saying is that loneliness is

incompatible with the image of God in us.

Listen, if you just come and say, listen, I like the church,

I'll read the Bible. I'll do all the Bible studies.

I'll read them that, but I'm not going to have a connection.

I'm not going to have people in my life that I gather with that.

I connect with that, I give inside of myself.

I'm not going to get, you don't have to do it, but I'm telling

you, you're missing a gift from God.

God created us for company and when he saw that, we didn't have

the appropriate company. Right, first of all, God knew,

you know, who added, you know who didn't know Adam.

Do you know why? Adam didn't know?

Because how are men? I'm fine God, I'll do this

myself, right? He probably since Eve going,

what do you think we should call this one?

And he's like, don't worry honey, I got this right.

So he's all by himself and God says, no, that's not good.

And so, God gave adam a partner. And what I would say for you is,

God has given you a partner and maybe it's not, maybe it's not a

spouse. My name is not a husband, maybe

it's not a wife, but it's somebody God did not intend for

you to walk through this life. This life, this spiritual

journey alone. And I don't mean someone that

you wave to over the fence. I mean, somebody who was walking

through this life, someone who like Adam said, bone of my bone,

and Flesh of My Flesh, someone who is like me, someone who will

kill to help carry this load and bear my burdens and listen, do

you know why we don't want to do that?

That because it's embarrassing because if we get close to

people, they're going to know things about us that I don't

want them to know that's next week.

That's very, very important because we're going to talk

about how do we unpack that next week?

What does that mean? But for right now I just want

you to know the very first time that God and all of creation saw

something that he said, whoa, we need to address.

That was the man standing by himself and I believe he does

it. Say listen every time if you

step back and you look Another churches, right?

And, and you it's like it's like the decade of pastoral moral

failure, right? And it breaks my heart.

Here's where I promise you, every single time.

You see a pastor is that a moral failure who has gotten into

sexual sin or has gotten into drugs or so.

I've gotten into some kind of thing every single time.

Without exception, I would bet a month's pay that that Pastor has

rejected accountability. He is a cat.

He has rejected Authority in his life.

There is nobody who has permission to go to that Pastor

and go. How are you doing?

Really Lee there's nobody in his life that has the permission to

go to that Pastor and go. Hey, we heard this can we look

and I want you to tell me the reason that we have Elders, the

reason that we have staff here, the reason that I will get up

sometimes and just go, I have OCD and today's terrible and I

don't know whether I'm coming or going.

The reason I do that is so that, you know, I'm not different.

I'm not above the law, I'm not above the rules.

There aren't a separate set of rules and Authority, for me and

for you. I am a Christian.

I am a human. I am a person.

And I have my section of the garden to tend and so we're

submitted. It's not good for mankind to be

alone. Listen, I'm when we talk about

small groups, when we talk about Bible studies, when we talk

about relationships, it's not because I just need you to do my

stuff. It's because I believe that God

created us for an experience of life and his love in this world

that we cannot find a part from meaningful relationships.

That's what I want for. You reborn means we get, we are

born into a World War people know Show us where we are known.

Like Adam said, bone of my bone and Flesh of My Flesh.

Now, it's different for spouses, right?

But I don't believe everybody's called to be married and that

can mean like if you're single right, that maybe your thing,

God may have caused you. Any like, well, that's terrible,

I don't want that. Listen, you're not exempt from

needing community of God has called you to walk in single and

holy singleness. I want to tell you that we're

here for you. But Union relationships to you,

need people to help you to encourage you to walk with you

to love You to support you to do.

All of the things that helped make us fruitful and this life.

So that's the question who points you to God?

Who points you to others? Who celebrates you when the Lord

does something in your life, who celebrates?

Because here's the deal. If you have friends who are

cynical, if you have friends who are a burden to you, if you have

friends who use go, man, I would never share that with them

because they would hurt me or use me or not care.

What I would say is those aren't the kind of relationships that

God created you for. Now, those relationships have a

purpose and a venue can talk to people about those people about

God's goodness, you can invite them to your birthday party if

you want. You can do all of those things,

but I'm telling you, you need. Need relationships with people

that are deep and close and intimate so that you aren't

alone. So, who is that for you?

If not, you can text connect our C and here's the deal, you know,

you're going to get me in and smoke great, you're gonna go to

smoker and you're going to show up the first one.

You like? Well I don't know, any of these

people either write, it takes time would have been great if we

had done that a year ago, right? We'd be set, we'd be better off

in this place. But start today keep going

connect our seat to the number nine 4000 will help you will get

you plugged in will find a Place, I'll do it.

The second thing mankind was created for Meaningful work.

Once again, Eden was borderless and what was God's command?

He told Adam, be fruitful. And multiply fill the Earth.

We were created for Meaningful work and so God commands

fruitfulness. So I have for the last month I

have been insistent on taking a Sabbath Friday, is my Sabbath.

If at all possible, I don't answer the phone.

I certainly don't answer emails, I don't answer.

Answer text messages if you try to get a hold of me on Friday.

I'll talk To you on Monday, it'll be good, right?

And the idea is, the reason for that is because I know, if I

don't stop, I will die. And I will think that I am God.

And I'll think that this whole thing depends and runs on me and

it didn't, right? I don't know why I said that God

created this Garden of Eden and it was borderless and he said,

go fill the Earth with it. Go make it happen and then God

stepped back and he said be fruitful God.

God commands, fruitfulness, listen.

We were created outside the garden outside the garden.

And when we were in the garden, we knew it was going to you know

why? Because it was already blooming.

I already told that you know, why?

It was already blooming because God made it Bloom.

Listen, God does not need you at your work.

He's not like oh my gosh. Who's gonna make those O-rings

have Bob's not there. He's fine.

Do you know why he sends you to your work so that you can

experience His Image in you as you?

You bring order to a chaotic world.

Yeah, I don't do chaotic where I'm just a teacher.

Don't think a middle schools world is chaotic.

No, seriously you go to your job.

You don't think the guy that sits at the dead, right?

That lady at work that just complains them constant.

Relational drama. You don't think that.

That lady's life is chaotic, you serve the Living.

God. The one who with a word, says

peace and the storms calm. You have that spirit inside.

You, you live, you were placed in a garden and told it to

expand it, but it's not Adam and Eve going to, I am I gonna get

out there. I gotta go to then grow.

It. Do you want peace in your life?

Make peace. That's your job.

That's what you were created for.

It's not somebody else's job to make peace.

You make peace. Do you know why the world is

torn up? Because the church we've set

back we want someone else to do it.

Don't do that. You were created for Meaningful

work. And God gave you a command go.

Bring order to the world, don't step back and yell at disorder,

go get in it, go walk in it. That's why churches that

Retreat. That's why I turned Churches,

that throw bombs that lob stones at the enemy from behind

protecting with, that's not what it's about.

That's not what Jesus came and saves.

You Jesus left heaven? Where it was real safe to come

here where they murdered him? He's not up there going Jason,

just be careful that people can say mean things to you.

If you go there I just don't want that for you.

Is that bro they try to kill you you'll make it you'll be okay

even if they do kill you you'll be fine.

Eternity God I don't want to die.

Yeah well maybe that's not in it right.

The question is what in your life qualifies as spiritually

meaningful work And you may be in this place today where you

just go, like I'm a teacher but I've never really thought of my

students as K. I mean, I think of them as

chaotic mess all the time, but I never thought of them as like my

role and responsibility to fix them.

So maybe you haven't been operating in that, but identify

a place. Where is a place that you could

go tomorrow with eyes to bring order to chaos?

And here's what I would tell you, if you go to a job and you

look and you go, I cannot bring order to this place for whatever

reason. Here's what you cannot do, you

cannot stay at that place? And be a terrible worker.

You cannot walk around the Garden of Eden going.

God, why is there all this Cedar here?

God? Why you too?

Yeah, got you messed this up, right.

Listen, get in or get out. But just know wherever you go,

there you are. Do you know the tie that binds

between you and all of your terrible jobs?

Sorry, it's you how create us for Meaningful work.

But it means that my job is not about my personality, it's not

about my ego, it's not about my Effectiveness, it's not about my

fruit. It's not about how much money I

wake. It's not about my identity.

It's not about my provision. It's not about power.

It's about purpose. It's about me experiencing The

Unbelievable power that God put in me.

So what in your life is spiritually, meaningful work,

and Mankind was formed for vulnerability.

And this really goes with the first one with company.

See, the reason that our relationships are shallow,

sometimes reason their surf yet Services because we don't like

to be vulnerable. And we know, you know, why we

don't like to be vulnerable because we live in a world

marked by sin where people will take our weaknesses and they use

them against us, they will use us.

They will come to us with things that we have told him in

confidence and they will ostracize us, and they will

exclude us, and they will make fun of us and they will hurt us.

And they will kill us. And then our hearts we will die.

And what I wanted want to say is in that moment, are you

listening to me? Because in that moment you have

never been closer to the heart of God.

Jesus himself said, blessed are those who mourn for they will be

comforted, have you ever wondered whether our God could

come for you in this moment of morning?

Maybe the reason he hasn't comforted us and our morning is

because we Breeze past it and we do every shortcut, we can to get

around it. No, no pain.

I don't want to tell anybody I won't say anything.

Nothing bad will ever happen and We never know this comfort.

And so what happens in our brain is then our own weaknesses.

Become the worst thing in the entire world rather than our

weaknesses, becoming the very place where we see God going, I

can handle that. I can handle that, I can deal

with that. I can do that.

I can make that weakness Bloom. We're running around covered up

hardware and trash bags. So nobody sees us hiding in the

dark. Not gonna so nobody sees us.

And Jesus says, that's not what it was about.

And so what happens is, What? Now we got a fast forward to

Jesus. Because this is what Jesus did

for us. Jesus left a kingdom to come to

a world in disarray, where he would be misunderstood.

And you know what he did, he walked with his friends anyway.

Do you know what he did? He gave Judas the money bag.

See the thing that shocks me about Jesus is that he really

wasn't afraid of being hurt by pi, he wasn't stupid, he wasn't

codependent, he didn't give people inside in a right into

his life. To overtime said there's a

passage where he says they were people just trying to set him up

and he said he didn't trust himself to them because he knew

what was in his heart. You have to be wise and you have

to be Discerning but I'm just telling you you will never come

to an achieve, the life that God has for you by staying isolated

and staying alone. And by just sitting and by

learning about Working God, created a World In Bloom with

purpose with action with motivation with.

Garden for you to walk with him and to know him in this world.

He formed us for vulnerability Eve was not Adam Eve, just like

Adam was created. She was created by a kind of a

unique expression of creation but when they were born and says

they would says, when they were created, they were naked.

And it says, they were not ashamed.

That means that Eve not for one. Second was worried what Adam

thought about her. A body.

Wouldn't it be neat to live in a world like that?

where the things that are on the outside, where your weakness is,

where your frailties, and we were deficiencies Aren't

trouble. They're not punishment for you.

We're different, doesn't equal suspicion.

So the question is, how much of your life are you missing hiding

from vulnerability, responsible, vulnerability, revolver ability

with a group of people. This is what, when we have

group, we have a small group that meets in our home and we

love it and the idea is what happens in that room stays in

that room. And so we've walked with our

group, through all kinds of wonderful, and beautiful, and

difficult things. That's what God has for us.

Gardens at Temple where we walk with him and there's all kinds

of creation stories in the ancient near East where there is

a temple in creation but Genesis paints, a picture of creation is

the temple wherever you go you have access to the person of God

wherever you go you have access to the order making wisdom and

power and might of God because that spirit that hovered over

the waters is in you. Jesus died so that you could

have that. So that means that you're

hopeless. Child is not hopeless.

That means you're hopeless job, as not hopeless, and you're

hopeless. Financial situation is not

hopeless. Now you may have lots of

disorder to get rid of, but that's okay.

We can do that. We can figure that out.

God's desire for you as a garden blossoming with goodness and

faithfulness and order in his presence with him because it's

not meant good. Mankind to be alone.

So Jesus, I pray that as we walk through this life, will sense

your presence. Will sense.

Your goodness will see you with us.

And I pray father that you'll give us a vision for your

creation. Maybe we've never thought about

our jobs as places where we can find you where we can.

Help those Blossom and Bloom into Garden.

So father, I pray for each person as they think about their

context where they're going. I pray that they would see

themselves in this. And I pray that they would be an

excitement. Maybe that wasn't there before.

Father, I pray for anybody that's in here right now.

That doesn't know you. They haven't heard of you, they

don't know what it's like to walk and maybe they've heard,

and they think that you're a God who wants to take from them, who

wants to make their, like difficult or or ugly or small.

I pray, that is they meditate as we meditate over this.

Account of your creation and the love that you demonstrated in

this Garden. I pray that we will see your

heart and will know that you are good.

You are for us. So Jesus, we love you.

We thank you. Father God.

We thank you that you created a world compatible for us and you

and I pray that we would see that and realize that in walk in

that this week, Lord. We love you.

And we thank you. And we praise you.

And we ask all these things in your name.

Amen. Thank you for joining us today.

River City Church is all about experiencing and expressing

God's love in our lives and community.

And we hope that you've been able to experience that today as

grateful. As I am, that you've spent this

time, listening in this morning, this podcast is no substitute

for full participation in a local church.

I love it. When River City people listen to

other, Stirs, but it is those who show up week after week

Faithfully, giving their support and time and resources that make

all of this possible. If we can help you get connected

to a local church, pray for you or support you in any way.

Click the link in the description and let us know if

you'd like to financially support the ministry of River

City. Click the give link on our

website in the description. Don't forget to subscribe, and

don't forget to share this with your friends.

Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless, and keep you

in all Grace and peace.