Beginnings
Part 4 – Gardens Grow Pansies!
I. Introduction
I have asked some tough and challenging questions during this series. Questions like “What is the indicator to those around you that God is at the beginning of your entire life?” In week two, I asked you if you have a Word? Then last week I asked you if you were caught up in the blame game?
So, let’s continue our examination of the beginning and see what it will teach us.
II. Text
Genesis 1:26-31
26-28God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth." God created human beings; he created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth." 29-30Then God said, "I’ve given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth and every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food. To all animals and all birds, everything that moves and breathes, I give whatever grows out of the ground for food." And there it was. 31God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!
III. The Utopia Experience
God is constantly evaluating His own handy work. We are told on at least 7 occasions that when God examines His creation that He awards Himself an A+ for creativity. He determines that what He has done is good and then even goes one step further on Day 6 and says it is very good. Take a moment if you will and think about God’s accomplishment. He had created paradise on earth. There is no harsh weather. No fear of earthquake, tornados, or tidal waves. There was no strife in the animal kingdom. No death. No sickness. No tears. No stickers. Perfection at its most perfect. Unrivaled in beauty. Everything in perfect condition. Pristine. No pollution. No wars. No politics. No poverty. It was heaven on earth. Utopia is an understatement.
And so it was that on Day 6, surrounded by this postcard like environment, that God creates man and as His masterpiece takes shape and form God speaks. The first sound Adam ever hears is God Almighty speaking destiny over his life. The first words that cause the ear drum to vibrate and send nerve signals for the brain to translate from sound to thought was God giving him marching orders. God has issued Adam’s call. The dossier for his life has been delivered. In a simple statement, God puts Adam and consequently Eve on the path to purpose. “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This was the job description. This was the vision statement. This was the mandate of their lives! And this word came in utopia.
But as you know from Genesis Chapter 3 that I read to you when we were together last . . . Bad invades the good. Utopia is interrupted and order is shattered by chaos. Their conscious decision to make bad choices drags them kicking and screaming out of the paradise into an environment where there is now strife, hardship, sweat, blood, tears, and even death.
It is as you read the rest of the story in Genesis 4 and beyond that you discover the Beginning lessons for today.
IV. Utopia Lost
A. Bad choices changed environment, but did not change the call.
Adam and Eve made a choice. They chose to disobey and justify their clear disobedience. They know the will of God and yet they willing go against it! Their choice changed their environment. Utopia is lost. Paradise is forfeited. However, for all of the bad choices and the disobedience tehir call didn’t change!
Another element of this is that the consequences didn’t change the call. The call is consistent!
There were definite, severe and painful consequences brought about by the choices they made, but even the consequences didn’t change the call.
Many of you think because you have made some bad choices that you have also forfeited the call that God placed on your life. However, just because the environment has changed doesn’t mean the mandate on your life has changed. The call of God is without repentance. You can’t get away from it. You can’t outrun it. You can’t change God’s mind about you even if you have changed your mind about God. God won’t change His mind about you even if others have changed their minds about you. The call is there. The call is secure. The call is alive.
Will you suffer the consequences of your actions? Absolutely. There will probably be pain, sorrow, and results of your choices. However, God’s call on your life is bigger and stronger and can reach further than your mistakes or screw ups. Your call can outlast the consequences.
Some of us have allowed the bad choice we made 10 years ago or 3 days after our new experience with God to derail us for the rest of our lives. We allow shame to hamstring us from standing back up and walking into our purpose. The garden experience teaches us that the bad choice doesn’t have to be the end!
B. Purpose is seldom fulfilled in Paradise!
Adam and Eve didn’t fulfill their call in utopia! They fulfilled their call in exile.
Many of us have received a call in the utopia of our lives. We hear the voice of God speak over us when we were unfettered by bills, kids, responsibilities, and we had made no bad choices. The garden is gone!
Paul knew the desire to operate in the easy place. He begged God to remove the thorn from his life. However, it was in light of his hardship that he learned that Jesus’ strength is perfected in our weakness. It is in the painful place that he discovers that God’s grace is sufficient.
You don’t need everything to be perfect for you to accomplish your purpose. If everything was perfect you wouldn’t need His assistance. You may think you have been exiled and circumstances, surroundings, and environment may fight you and try to derail you, but the truth is that it is from the exciled place that you must press on and fulfill your call anyway.
Daniel is in an environment that was not conducive or comfortable to fulfill his call. Every garden aspect was gone. Captive. Foreign names forced on them. Foreign foods mandated. Editcs about worship and prayer that went against their religion. And yet Daniel still fulfilled his call.
You are going to have to learn to hang on to the call, answer the call, and fulfill the call in the harsh place of life. Bills piled up. Choices may have taken you out of the way and perhaps delayed you on the journey. Lessons might have been flunked and repeated. Kids and responsibilities may seem almost too difficult to bear. But the call can still be answered. The purpose can still be found.
You may have to break an addiction to fulfill your purpose.
You may have to work a minimum wage job while you get the education you need for your purpose to be fulfilled.
You may have to deal with a physical limitation for the rest of your life while you still push through to your purpose.
Quit waiting for everything to feel or look like a garden before you answer the call. Sometimes you just have to get busy in the briar patch! If you sit around waiting on the garden you will never fulfill your purpose or call in life. Quit saying I will do this when I have enough money, time, friends. I will do this when I am older. I would do that if I was younger. Quit waiting on the right job. Quit waiting on the right relationship. Get busy and fulfill your purpose now.
Some of you are waiting for pain to stop before you answer the call of God on your life. But I have taught you and will continue to remind you that pain plays a vital role in your path to purpose. Those that impact the world are not those that fulfill the call when there is lack of pain, but in spite of the pain!
Quit waiting on the garden and fulfill your purpose in the grind!
(This story is from Steven Furtick) Chuck Close is one of the greatest portrait artists of our time. If you glanced at his work, you would think you were simply looking at a photograph. In reality, you’re looking at paint. Sometimes pencil. Other times, thread. That’s just how brilliant he is.
But if you knew his backstory, you wouldn’t think it would be possible.
Close can’t remember a single face that he meets. He suffers from prosopagnosia, a condition that leaves him unable to recognize faces. He can create a masterpiece with your face, but he can’t remember it.
You would think that for a person in Close’s situation, creating portraits would be the last thing he’d be doing. After all, faces are his greatest weakness. But it’s just the opposite. It motivates him, even to the point of him saying, “everything in my art is driven by my disability.”
And that’s what makes his work that much more brilliant. It shouldn’t be coming out of him. But it is. His greatest weakness has become the source of his greatest strength. It’s provided a platform where his greatness can be amplified.
Few if any of us will ever have a condition like Close’s.
But we all deal with weakness in one shape or form.
Some of you feel completely inadequate for what God has called you to do.
Some of you feel like your marriage has about a week left before it falls apart.
Some of you have lost your job and you don’t see how you’ll make it.
Some of you are battling physical limitations and pain and you don’t know how much longer you can fight.
For every person, there is a place in their life where weakness exists. And it’s for that very reason that in every person, a platform exists. An opportunity exists. An opportunity to amplify the greatness of God in a way that your strength alone will never be able to.
Your greatest weakness may actually be God’s greatest platform for showing His power and glory in your life.
Through saving your marriage when all seems lost.
Through using your cancer to shine a spotlight on His sufficiency.
God’s power is the perfect counterpart to your weakness. And God isn’t scouring the universe looking for a perfect person through whom He can display His power and glory. He’s looking for the perfect person. And the perfect person is a person whose weakness provides God an opportunity to make their life unexplainable.
The truth is some of us have to be driven out of paradise to fulfill purpose. A baby can’t stay in the mother’s belly forever. Eventually, we have to be removed from paradise so we will get to work! Your hardship is God’s way of trying to get you to get busy! If you stay in the garden you might just grow up to be a pansy!
