God Provides Paradise! Series

In general, how would you define “paradise”??

The first man and woman lived in paradise.

Please open your Bibles to Genesis 2, page 2 of our red church Bibles. Read along with me verses 7-16……….

These verses talk about man. But again, in context, man in this passage can refer to both male and female. Gen. 1:27-28 reads…… And Gen. 3:1-2 states …………

And so, when God talks about man in Gen. 2:7-16, man represents both male and female.

What did God provide for the first people, Adam and Eve?

In v7, God provided life.

V8 tells us about a beautiful Garden made by God.

The first part of v9a, God provided all sorts of trees for enjoyment and for food.

And God provided 2 specials trees in the second part of v9b; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In v10-14, God provided precious water and other resources. In v15, God provided work and responsibility.

Did Adam and Eve needed anything else in the Garden of Eden??

God provided everything for the first people on earth! What does this tell us about God? God is a good, wonderful, loving, providing God!

There is one more thing that God provided for Adam and Eve. We read a command in v16. Are all commands bad?

Absolutely not!

When your parents tell you “Watch out where you are going when you’re talking on the cell phone”, that’s a good command! A girl was recently killed as she was talking on her cell phone and walked right into a running train.

If God is a good, wonderful, loving God, shouldn’t His commands also be good?

Because God is always good, God’s commands are always good! And so in v16,

God’s command provided man the power to choose.

Think about this for a moment; If God didn’t give man the power to choose, what kind of a God would He be???

If God created people without power to choose, people would be like “robots”.

If God created people without the power to choose, people would just be slaves to God.

If God created people without the power to choose, God would just be a bullying tyrant!

God is not a tyrant, He is a loving God!

Because God gave man free will, knowing that man would fail, what else can we say about this God?

God is a powerful God who can handle man’s sins!

Why would God create man who would disobey Him if God didn’t have an answer to this disobedience?

God was very clear in v16, if man disobeyed God, man would surely die! God provided everything for Adam and Eve, including the power to choose. But God made sure Adam and Eve knew the difference between right and wrong! Choose rightly and follow God and you will live! Choose wrongly and disobey God and you will die!

Turn with me to Genesis 3:19-22……..

We can read in Gen. 3:19 that sin caused physical death.

And we read in Gen. 3:22, sin also caused spiritual death.

Did Adam and Eve have the power to choose rightly??

Absolutely! Yes, Adam and Eve were given a choice, but they were also given the power to choose rightly!

What did Adam and Eve had right in front of them along side the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Adam and Eve had the tree of life right in front of them! God was allowing Adam and Eve eat all they wanted from the tree of life! God gave Adam and Eve eternal life right in front of their noses!

God provides! God is a good, loving God! God’s commands are always good! God is not a tyrant! God gives people the power and freedom to choose right or wrong. God can handle anything man does. God reveals the consequences for choosing right or wrong. God revealed all of this at the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was paradise for Adam and Eve.

Does God still desire paradise for people today?

Let’s all take a deep breath………..

Do we have life giving oxygen available to us?

How many of you have food in your refrigerator and freezer for a day?

How many of you have food in your refrigerator and freezer for a week?

How many of you have food in your refrigerator and freezer for a month?

I found in our freezer last Wednesday a box of Salisbury Steaks dated January 2007!

God still provides for our lives today!

Now, how do we know if God still loves people today?

John 3:16 tells us………………

Do we have commands from God today?

Our church has a motto, what is it?

This of course is from Matthew 28:19-20………..

God gives His commands through Jesus Christ.