Intro: Today church I want to talk to you about giving God a hand. This day and age we need to stretch forth our hands onto God; for there is a battle going on between the children of God and son of perdition that is Satan. Church I know that we are in the midst of war for our souls; Satan is fighting and playing dirty. We are in the time period that is like onto the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah. Perversion and self gratification are at there highest you can’t even turn the TV on without seeing perverse acting to sell a bar of soap or shampoo. Church that is why it is time for the body of Christ to stretch forth their hand onto God and into the fulness of Christ where there is good pleasure for ever more.
I. The price of knowledge.
A. It was by the hand of Adam that we gained the knowledge of good and evil. After Adam took of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil mans eyes were now opened to the world around him the innocence that man once knew was now taken away and replaced with the knowledge of evil and good.
1. Man now experienced shame for the first time when Adam and Eve saw that they were naked. They were in essence an open book ready to be read.
2. In Genesis 3:7 they covered themselves with fig leaves to hide there shame or there now open rebellion to the first Commandment given to man which was not to eat of the tree in which they partook of.
3. From that point on man was aware that there was evil and corruption in the world and within him; for a once innocent being was now defiled. And man sought to hide his sin himself with fig leaves.
4. Man by sewing fig leaves together showed that he tried to hide and restore himself without God.
B. It was by this act of rebellion that God made the statement that man was now as one of us by having the knowledge of good and evil.
1. It was by this knowledge and act of rebellion that man was to leave the garden the price he paid to taste of a tree that was forbidding.
2. It was by that act of sin that the world around us would take shape from. It is now why there is death, sickness, and evil. All generations since Adam and Eve would be born into sin; it is the inheritance of mankind for it is written in Psalms 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
3. It was by that sin children would take guns to school to murder there classmates and teachers, why a young man and his elder would go across the states on a shooting rampage, and why men in the name of an idolatrous god would crash airplanes into the twin towers and the pentagon. It is why we can slaughter the innocent in the name of convenience by abortion.
4. It was by these acts that Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 17:9 The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?
5. Solomon said in Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so [is] he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart [is] not with thee. Whatever man could conceive in his heart he could commit no matter how perverse or wicked it is; it is capable in mans hands whether your name is Saddam Hussein or John Brown it doesn’t matter for the Bible says in Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;.
6. It was by sin we are yielded over to the enslavement of Satan. John 8:44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
7. Envious of the relationship of God and man; Satan sought to take away God’s true love. And make man into workers of iniquity in which God hates, for it says in Psalms 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
8. Satan the minister of music in heaven had rebelled taken a third of the angels with him which many believe was his choir; which would make sense to why Satan uses music like he does, taking that which was to glorify God , and use it for his own perverse gratification. This act of rebellion led to all being cast out of Heaven and sentenced to Hell, which was created for the devil and his angels, and a soon coming judgment in the Lake of Fire.
9. Satan and his choir hoped to bring man down to hell with them, and ultimately into the Lake of Fire.
10. But God had a plan to restore man back onto Him; the Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9 ¶ The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Sin forged a gap between God and man but, Love was building a bridge. Satan sought to steal, kill, and destroy man; but God had a plan to restore, revive, and rebuild man.
II. Taking hold of the tree of Life.
A. That is why God made the statement in Genesis 3:22; lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
1. The tree of life is a type or imagery of Jesus Christ.
2. The Bible says in John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
3. The plan was instituted in the beginning for God to take man back from Satan.
4. The price would be great, but the purchase was of greater value.
B. The plan was in motion for God to send His son to redeem man from the law of sin and death. For it is written in Galatians 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: (4) But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, (5) To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
1. We would be bought with a price, of one life for the lives of many.
2. John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:(Speaking of His death on the cross) (15) That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (17) For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
3. The blood transfusion of the Cross would reinstate all that called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and repented to the inheritance of eternal life in Heaven with the Almighty God and His Son Jesus.
4. John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand.
5. John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Church Christ loved you enough to die for you not to make you slaves unto Him, but as sons or daughters, FRIENDS.
6. All you would have to do is stretch forth your hand to the tree of life and taste and see that the Lord is good.
7. But it doesn’t stop there…
III. After tasting eternal life and reconciliation in Christ; take hold of the fruit or fulness of Christ.
A. Jesus said in John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly. The word abundantly in the Greek means to have excessive, or very highly, or beyond measure, or superfluous.
1. This abundant or superfluous life not only applies to eternal life but, living an abundant full life in Christ here on earth.
2. Ephesians 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (20) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
3. After receiving or stretching forth your hand to Christ as our personal savior the faithful are not only given eternal life, but an abundant victorious life here on earth.
4. Where we need not to walk in shame and defeat but in the fulness of Christ.
5. Death has lost its sting the grave has lost its victory and sin has no more rein or dominion over our mortal bodies.
6. The Son has set us free and we are now free indeed, the shackles are off and the chains are broken.
7. We are now given life for Jesus said in John 11:25 …, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
B. For this life God gives us in Christ there is readily made available for us blessings for it is written in Romans 8:29 ¶ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (31) ¶ What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us? (32) He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
1. Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
2. Church whatever you are in need of God has it for you.
3. When Christ saves He doesn’t come to your house the next day with a Certificate of Eternal Life and a guarantee that life will be perfect, and a check for a million dollars with the guarantee that others will follow.
4. He does though offer Eternal Life to the faithful and over comer with the John 16:33 guarantee …, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Christ is saying in life we will have trouble no matter what but, if we trust Him there will be peace in the midst of adversity, as far as what we are in need of God will supply, for it is written Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
5. Psalms 34:15 The eyes of the LORD [are] upon the righteous, and his ears [are open] unto their cry. Church all you have to do is Matthew 7:7 ¶ Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
6. Church God is the sustainer of all life if he will take care of sparrows he will take care of you and I.
C. If God is willing to give, then we must be willing to receive. Psalms 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is] fulness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for evermore.
1. Church it’s time to stretch forth your hand unto God and taste and see that the Lord is good.
2. The good pleasures are available to all that will reach out and take from the Lord.
3. There is Healing in name of Jesus, by whose stripes we are healed. Sickness and disease may be a product of the fall but it’s not permanent. Christ came to heal and set free.
4. There is deliverance in name of Jesus; Romans 8:1 ¶ [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Satan has no right to buffet you with your past or mistakes. There is no reason to get sad or mad but only GLAD in Jesus name. We are free; so devil can get thee hence behind us!
5. If you’re brokenhearted He can mend you. Psalms 147:3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
6. If you are in need of a blessing He has one for you.
7. If you need a miracle it is there. There is no job to small or to great for God; with God all things are possible. With God as your pilot when you come to a mountain in your life he doesn’t go around it He moves it.
8. In Christ there is joy, for your sadness. Psalms 5:11 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. Psalms 126:5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
9. Peace, for your tribulation. Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
10. Hope, for the hopeless. Romans 15:13 ¶ Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
11. Strength, for the weak and weary. Psalms 18:2 The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, [and] my high tower.
12. Wisdom and knowledge, for life’s answers. Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth [cometh] knowledge and understanding.
13. Direction and guidance, when there is no way to go. Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (6) In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Conclusion: Whatever you are in need of it is available, all you have to do is stretch forth your hand and lay hold of your need. Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint. If you need the Lord to stomp a mud hole in the devil, it is already there cause when Christ arose on the third day He bruised the heel of Satan and what the Hebrew Language was basically saying was that as Christ stepped out of the tomb He knocked Satan off His feet dethroning him and TAKING BACK WHAT THE DEVIL HAD TAKEN FROM HIM. Church whatever the need is come to these altars stretch forth your hand unto God take hold of His, and together take back what the devil stole from you!
