Lessons From The Expanded Creation Account Series

Genesis 2

- Read Genesis 2

In Genesis 1 we are told God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. We know the Father was involved in creation. Genesis 1:1 the first Bible verse we learned together tells us that. We know the Holy Spirit was involved in creation. Genesis 1:2 tells us, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” We know God the Son was involved in creation for John 1:1-3 tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the Holy trinity, 3-in-1, labored together in creation.

In Genesis 2 the Lord fills in the blanks a little bit, and gives a little more detail about HOW He created everything in the universe.

In this more detailed account of creation, there are several lessons we learn, which we may have missed if the Lord hadn’t seen fit to give us these additional details. This morning I would like us to look at a few of the items we learn from the second chapter of this book of beginnings.

I. MAN WAS CREATED WITH A PURPOSE

First, I want you to understand that man was created with a purpose.

- Genesis 2:15

God planted a magnificent garden and then placed man in the garden to what, lay in a hammock, sipping pink lemonade and waiting for woman to be created so he’d have someone to refill his glass?

No. God placed man in the garden, and later woman, to tend the garden and to watch over it.

From the very beginning, it was in the plans and mind of God for you and I, for all of mankind to work, to have something productive to do.

There in the Garden of Eden, in a place and at a time many consider to be paradise, God intended for man to work. Work is not a result of the fall. Labor is not a result of the fall. Unproductive labor is a result of the fall. Disappointing labor is a result of the fall. Mind-numbing, body-destroying labor is a result of the fall. Fruitless labor is a result of the fall, but work in and of itself is not a result of the fall. Man was created with a purpose. We were placed in the Garden to tend it and to watch over it.

Now some of you are saying, “Brother Gene, that was in the garden of Eden. Man had an assignment then. That doesn’t apply to now.”

Really? Think of some of the assignments God has given us since the time of Jesus.

1. We are to share the Gospel and to make disciples

> Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

This commandment isn’t given just to preachers, and teachers and such. This assignment is given to all people.

My goodness, there are people you know that I’ll never meet. There are people who will never listen to me because they’ll think to themselves that I am a preacher. It’s my job to tell people about Jesus. But, if they encounter someone like you, a satisfied customer who can tell them how Jesus has worked in your life, they will be much more inclined to listen.

2. We are to pray.

You and I can labor all our lives physically, and never accomplish what God can do in an instant in response to our prayers.

> 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing.

> Matthew 9:36-38 We read But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Someone may ask, “Brother Gene, do you really think of prayer as work?”

You better believe I do. There are times when praying and fellowshipping with the Lord it is nothing more than glory. You’re praying, you’re singing, you’re worshipping, and it is nothing more than glory, enjoying the presence of the Lord. But there are other times, when the Lord can place a burden on you to pray, when there is no joy in that time at all.

Right now, when I think of how Hamas, in an attempt to distract from their failed polices, and their lack of concern for their people have stirred up the people, and are firing thousands of Iranian-produced rockets onto innocent civilians in Israel; when I think of how Israel has had no peace from the time that nation was reestablished in 1948, there’s no joy in those prayers.