LIVING AND WORKING TOGETHER
Text: Genesis 2 & 3
Introduction:
All schoolteachers can tell you every class they teach is different. They all have different personalities. I had one class several years ago that was unique because of their humor. This was a small class of 11 or 12 students; and, it seemed that each and every one of them was funny. They were always talking about crazy and funny things.
One day I remember well, involved a conversation centering on the way God created the human body. One student said he wished that he had been born with 4 arms and 4 hands.
The other kids started suggesting all the different things they could do with 4 arms and 4 hands. One said, “Well, working at a carwash, I could wash and dry the top and the side of the car at the same time—and that would get me a raise.”
Another remarked that 4 arms and hands would allow him to sleep later, because he could get ready for school real quick. He said he could get dressed with one set of hands and shave and comb his hair with the other set. Another said if he got into a fight, he would grab the other guy’s arms with one set of hands and really pound him with the other two fist.
Maybe there is a good reason that God gave us just two arms and hands. Maybe too much body would overload our minds and we would get hurt.
I’ve thought how neat it would be to have an eye in the back of our head. We could see behind us at the same time we see in front of us. No one could sneak up on us. Maybe God created us with just two eyes looking forward for a reason. If, we had another eye in the back of our head we might not know if we are coming are going. Maybe He wanted us to look ahead and not at what is behind us.
Regardless, of what we think of the human body, we know that God created us exactly the way he wanted. He made us in his image and He put us in these physical-fleshly- bodies.
The inspired writers of the Bible quite often used our physical features to descr8ibe the nature of God. The speak of the hands of God, and the mighty hand of Lord. Jesus said on the croos of calvary, right before He died, “ Father into thy hands I commit My spirit.”
The Bible says God sees and the whole world is open before His eyes. It speaks of God’s ability to hear, and it says He hears the prayers of the Saints. Our physical bodies have a mouth and a tongue and it gives us the ability to speak. God also has the ability to communicate and to speak.
Now, do I mean that God has physical features like us? No! Jesus said that God was a spirit. But in some ways the writers used the attributes that God created us with to explain some of the attributes of God.
BIBLICAL FAITH
If we want to understand more about the nature of God and His creation we must go back to the beginning and learn the fundamentals of faith. The book of Genesis provides the fundamentals of faith, because it is the “ Book of Beginning”. If we truly want to know, “Who we are”, “ Where we came from”, “ Why we are here”, and “Where we are going” we must go back to the beginning- All the way back to the 1st book of the Bible called GENESIS.
In the book of Genesis God declared Himself to us by the world He created. When He created the world He brought order from chaos.
Genesis 1:27-28 27 “ And God created man in His own image, in the image og God He created him; male and female He created them”.
28 “ And God blessed them; and God said to them, “ Be fruitful and mulitiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over ervery living thing that moves on the earth”.
We learned two weeks ago that man was created with the freedom of choice and this brought tension, because mankind brought SIN into the world. We talked about the pain it caused God over our situation, and then we saw the GRACE of God. That GRACE would reveal a plan to bring order from chaos in our lives as He re-creates us into His image through His only begotten son- Jesus Christ. God was going to make us into a new creation, into His image, and bring us from chaos to redemption. Paul writes in Colossians 3:10
10 “ And have put on a new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him”.
See, God would provide the light
Genesis 1:3, “ Then God said, ‘ Let there be light.”
God would later bring light to us and we saw that when Jesus said in John 8:12, “ Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying “ I am the light of the world”.
John 1:9, “ There was the true light which coming into the world, enlightens every man”.
This morning I want to look at two ways we have been created in the image of God from Genesis chapter 2-3.
GOD IS A WORKER
When we consider being created in the image of God, we must be aware of the attributes of God. Many say WORK is just another 4- letter word, and we use terms like “ Thank God it’s Friday”. In the very first part of Genesis we can quickly discover that God is a WORKER. Listen to the words Jesus used when describing His Father in John 5:17
17 “ My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.”
God works! Obviously He doesn”t draw a paycheck, but He works nevertheless. I believe the Bible reveals that are at least 2 big reasons why God works. First, God’s work reveals who He is
Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, having been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”
We are finite physical creatures and the way that we can comprehend God is through His work.
I think there is a second reason and it appears that God’s work brings Him satisfaction. In the Genesis account of creation, God makes the heavens and the earth in six days. When all 3was said and done God stepped back and commented on it all.
Genesis 1:31, “ And God saw all that He had made, and behold. It was very good….”
God Himself had this written, and we can see that God’s work both expresses who He is and brings Him satisfaction.
Work should not be just another 4-letter word to us, because God created humanity to work. It’s part of our created nature. If we are created in the image of God , we can only conclude that We are created to work because God is a worker.
What was the first thing God gave the orginal man to do? The Lord God planted a garden in eastward in Eden and there He put man whom He had formed. (2:8) Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to tend and keep it. (2:15)
God put man to work! We can only conclude that originally humanity’s work had the same purpose as God’s work; expression of self and to bring a sense of satisfaction.
I believe that just like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, our work means fuilfilling our God-given design to make an impact on the world around us.
MAN THROWS A WRENCH IN THE PLAN
In the beginning, God gave us work and it was a good thing, but an event occurred that threw a wrench in the plan.
Our work was frustrated by the “FALL”. Humanity rebelled against God. God created man and woman as sinless beings. He gave them one command, and that was “ Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Satan disguised as a serpent tempts Eve to break that one rule. She ate and gave to Adam and he did eat, and their sinless status was broken. As their heirs all humanity is infected with sin, because we are after their nature. Paul tells us in the Book of Romans that this true because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
After this event of sin, God revealed to the man that his sin had effected his relationship to God, His relationship to his wife, and even His work. Listen to what is said in Genesis 3:17-19
17 “Then to Adam He said, “because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, “ You shall not eat from it;
cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
18 “ Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field;”
19 “ By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
Because of the sin, rebellion against God, the purpose of work was altered. Rather than work as a means of self-expression and to bring satisfaction our labor meant providing food and other necessities to live. We had to work to survive and live! God didn’t do this to us . In the Garden of Eden, food and shelter was provided. Clothing was optional. Adam and Eve worked for the pleasure of it. That all ended because of sin.
Today we perpetuate what began way back then. Our work continues to be frustrated by faulty perspectives. It’s like the bumper-sticker philosophy that says “ I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.” Many people will say this is the reason they work.
I can give you a good illustration of this using Henry Ford. He was the first to use an assembly line to make cars. This brought our modern mindset into being about work.
Ford’s assembly line shortened the time it took to contruct an automobile from 12.5 hrs. to 1.5 hrs., but this technical efficiency came at a high human price. As workers boredom increased so did his absenteeism. As production quotas continually increased, the workers began to suffer from stress-related ailments. After a while Ford found it difficult to keep enough workers on his assembly lines to meet the production schedule.
Well, what happen? The assembly liner worker was separated from his work. Once, work was the deepest expression of who a person was; NOW there was nothing of the person in his work- he had become like a piece of machinery. They did the same monotonous job day after day, and they couldn’t even see the end of the line and the finished product. Something terrible had been sacrificed-the meaning of work.
Ford’s solution was to double the salary from $2.34 for a 9 hour day to $5 for an eight hour day, and that solved his problem. Now work means only means money for so many, and that still torments us.
God created us in His image to work, where we can express ourselves, find satisfaction, and make an impact on the world us. We can only get back to the original intent only when we take God to work with us.
I know many here this morning are retired, but I’ve learned that even in retirement we still work. Maybe it’s not for a living anymore but we still work. So as we work, let’s take God to work with us.
We should view the workplace, where ever it is, as a sacred place. The problem we have in modern America is that we tend to compartmentalize our lives. We confine work to this little box. Family time goes in that box over there, and God and religious stuff stays in the church building.
If we take God to work with us we will not just say “ thank God it’s Friday”, but with equal enthusisaim “ thank God it’s Monday”.
All work for a Christian-the re-created- is spiritual, not because of the nature of the work, but because of the presence of God.
Colossians 3:23, “ Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.”
God created the world, He created mankind, and He created them in His image. God works, and He put mankind to work, for a reason. If we want to recreate our original purpose from the book of Genesis we must look on our work as a sacred thing!
HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
To rediscover why God made things the way that He did, and why He made us the way that He did, we must understand the dilemma of Adam.
On six different occasions God made the comment that what He had created was “ GOOD”. When He had completed all the days of creation, He looked at it and said it was very “GOOD”.
But in Genesis chapter 2 God made a startling statement. God saw something in His creation that led Him to say this is “ NOT GOOD”.
Well, what wasn’t good about it? Adam had a perfect enviroment. No pollution, no traffic jams, and no disease. His mind was not corrupt, his heart was pure. What wasn’t GOOD about this perfect place?
He possessed everything. He had access to everything he wanted. No worries about food or clothes, no bills to pay, no IRS, no budgets, and no worry about retirement funds. What wasn’t GOOD about that?
Adam had an excellent position. God had put him in charge of everything. There was no need to climb the ladder, he was already on top. No insecurities, no jealousies, no pressure to perform. What wasn’t GOOD about this place god created for Adam?
If you will notice that Adam had everything most modern people think is important. God knew something wasn’t GOOD. We live in a society that tries to CON us into believing that a perfect environment, more possessions, and exalted position are what you need to live a happy and fulfilled life.
Adam had a relationship with God, and he talked with God on a daily basis. We have needs in life that only God can meet, but God created us with needs that are unique only to man.
What wasn’t GOOD about man?
Genesis 2:18, “ Then the Lord God said, ‘ It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
TODAY, we can be plagued with an attitude of self-sufficiency. Some might believe they don’t have any needs, or believe that we can meet our needs all by ourselves. This is one of the problems found in the Church at Laodicea as recorded in Revelation 3:17 which said, “ We are rich, increased with goods and have need of nothing.” They are told to repent!
God created us with a need for relationships. We are to have a relationship with Him and with others. God saw man’s dilemma and solved the problem for him. He created woman and instituted Marriage. You can read about in Genesis 2:21-25.
A NEW CREATION
The New Testament tells us that in Christ we are a NEW CREATION, and that we are being re-created in the image of our creator. Under the New Covenant God has provided 3 divine relationships that solves our DILEMMA of loneliness. God sanctions marriage as in the beginning as a Holy institution. The Apostle Paul quotes from Genesis 2 in his letter to the Ephesians in Chapter 5.
Now some may ask well does that mean if I’m not married I’m incomplete? Paul says in 1 Cor. 7 that to marry or not marry is your choice, either way you have not sinned. Most need this relationship and some don’t. God provides it if you do.
But God still created us needing relationships! Some find this in the family. The New Testament talks a lot about the roles of husbands and Fathers, wives and mothers, and children. Everyone fits into a relationship in some way.
The 3rd divine relationship is found in the body of Christ-the Lord’s church. When we are converted to Christ we are all brought together into one body. We need this relationship with each other.
Marriages may break apart and sometimes families may become dysfunctional, but the body of Christ can and should minister as God’s “Safety Net” to meet people at the point of their need.
A wonderful thing happens in marriage, the family, and in the Church as we all work together with God. We are fulfilling His perfect design.
1 Thessalonians 2:8, “Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our on lives, because you had become every dear to us.”
INVITATION
