God’s Perfect Plan For Life On Earth Series

Alpha and Omega, Part 7

God’s perfect plan for life on Earth

Genesis 2:4-25

Introduction

- We’ve begun 2023 with “one purpose”: Knowing there is a God!

-- Continuing our series, “Alpha and Omega”; examining the beginning to the end

- This morning, we will pick up some speed having our foundation set

-- The foundation is: God created all that we see and gave it to us to care for

-- APP: We were intentionally created to have dominion over all the Earth

- Last week’s big ideas:

1. The events surrounding Creation are not “unexplainable”

-- God created to bring glory to Himself and even made us in His own image

2. God’s completion of creation put an exclamation mark on everything

-- It is a finished work, a completed effort of God’s work

3. In order to move forward, we must see & believe God’s work

-- This is our choice (freely offered), and where the last 6 weeks have taken us

- Let’s read our passage for today … Read Genesis 2:4-25 / Pray

- TR: First, we must see how we are able to live …

Point 1 – We have been given God’s breath of life

- Level set: Know at our basic level we were created to worship God (GROW)

-- CHALL: Worship is not just our praise but also our obedience to Him

• We must obey the one we call God; else we are not truly worshiping

• Worship is more than singing, hearing a sermon, and even giving

• It’s more than saying we are a Christian – state of living completely

- Life challenge (angels in heaven today): Revelation 4:11 says, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased.”

- NOTE: Genesis 2 is an expanding of the creation of man (for our understanding)

- God’s name is given to us as a reference of everything He is (v4)

-- Hebrew is Jehovah Elohim; Lord God Name & nature is very specific

-- Get this: The universe was created by a very physical/real person

- He’s a personal God … one invested in you, explicitly

-- And His desire is that we would have a personal relationship with Him

- He took dust from the ground and gave His breath so we would live (v7)

-- See this: Nothing else is given the breath of life from God

-- APP: You and I are not accidents or were created by an undeliberate force

-- Hebrew: yatsar; to form, or fashion (God specifically made you)

- Bigger: Man is the product of God’s mind, of His thoughts, of His heart

-- Man’s creation, his very existence, came from the heart & mind of God

- From the intelligence and power of God Himself; we are formed to live

-- And at the very beginning, His command was to reproduce, this means …

-- (EXP) At the start you, right here in this place, were always planned (EXP)

- TR: His plan is so specific, He provided man a place to reside …

Point 2 – The importance of the Garden of Eden

- FACT: The Garden of Eden was a real place!

-- It was created so that His masterpiece would have a place of safety to dwell

-- He even provided nourishment for the plants through underground springs (v5)

-- This means that all life could be support (re: plants/trees need water)

- Love how specific God’s word is about its location (GARDEN IMAGE)

• Planted in the East, in the land of Eden

• Three real lands are outlined: Havilah, Cush (Ethiopia), Asshur (Assyria)

• Four rivers are described: Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel (Tigris), and Euphrates

• All of this tells us … the Garden was in modern day, southern Iraq

- God knew man’s need, and that he needed a place to survive

-- He created the Garden, a most beautiful place, and charged us with its care

-- Hebrew: gan; an enclosure, protected, secure

-- This location would have been sheltered – secured from outside threats

- It was a place different from the rest of the Earth, a paradise that God secured

-- KEY: Man would have known it was special – why?

- Because it would have meet all of man’s physical needs (shelter, food, etc.)

-- And in the Garden, God put one tree that was special: the tree of life (v9)

-- Consider: God gave Adam a tree that he would have to choose to eat from

-- Understand this … with the choice to eat from this tree (tree of life) …

• He would be able to choose to have God’s presence in His life