Don’t Miss the Blessing
Genesis 2
If I were to ask you a question, “how blessed do you feel right now.” On a scale of 1 to 10 how fortunate or blessed are you at this moment? How would you answer that question? You might say, well about 4, I’m having trouble paying my bills, I want to quit my job and I really need a new car.
For a lot of us in our contemporary modern society, the way we would answer that question would depend on our definition of blessing. For so many of us, when we think of blessings we think in terms of material items like money and houses and cars.
And often we compare our “blessings” to other people’s blessings. For instance, last year I bought a new car. A Saturn Ion. It is a nice car, it runs, I was really happy with it. Until this Saturday. It was my sister’s birthday and her husband bought her a BMW 325I for her birthday. She took me and Dorota for a spin. Leather seating, security system, keyless entry, it even starts without a key. It has a V-6. Suddenly, I start feeling not so blessed. Not so content.
Our modern society tempts us to overlook some of the basic blessings we experience everyday. I would call these the simple blessings of life. God has blessed us in so many ways, but we often don’t stop to appreciate them. There was an old hymn Christians used to sing, “Count you many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
We come today to the second chapter of Genesis. This is a great chapter, it has naked people and fruit. What I want us to do is read through this chapter and see that there are many blessings from God, inherent in his creation, that often get overlooked in our modern contemporary culture. We take them for granted and fail to enjoy these blessings.
If you have your Bibles open them up to Genesis 2 and we are just going to go right through this passage. If you don’t have your Bibles, the passages will be printed on the screen. Genesis 2.
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
I. BLESSING ONE: REST
The first blessing from God I see in this passage is REST. It says, “On the seventh day God rested.” The seventh day in the Hebrew scriptures was called the Sabbath. The word Sabbath is derived from the Hebrew word shabat meaning “to cease, desist or rest.” In the Old Testament Jews were commanded to observe the Sabbath. It was a mandatory day of rest.
Exodus 31.4
Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people.
God really wants us to rest so much he said, “if you find someone not obeying the Sabbath, put them to death.” I don’t think you’d have to threaten me to get me to take a nap. The Sabbath was one of the ten commandments. God created this universe and he put into its rhythm this thing called rest. All of nature rests. (plants go dormant in the winter, animals hibernate) It’s just part of the natural order of life.
I like rest don’t you? I don’t know if there is anything better in life than an afternoon nap. Rest is a blessing from God. When I have a Saturday afternoon off, there is nothing better than crawling into my bed and sleeping for 3 or 4 hours and when I wake up I don’t know where the heck I am.
When is the last time you thanked God for a good nap? In fact, I think sleeping is one of the most spiritual things you can do! The Bible says that sleeping is a sign that a person trusts God.
Psalm 4:8 says,
I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
French Poet Charles Peguy wrote:
I don’t like the man who doesn’t sleep, says God.
Sleep is the friend of man, Sleep is the friend of God.
Sleep is perhaps the most beautiful thing I have created.
And I myself rested on the seventh day…
But they tell me that there are men
Who work well and sleep badly.
Who don’t sleep. What a lack of confidence in me.
A theologian named John Baille wrote an article in 1962 in Christian Devotion magazine entitled, The Theology of Sleep. I love what he wrote,
My subject is the theology of sleep. It is an unusual subject, but I make no apology for it. I think we hear too few sermons about sleep. After all, we spend a very large share of our lives sleeping. I suppose that on an average I’ve slept for eight hours out of twenty-four during the whole of my life and that means that I’ve slept for well over twenty years. What an Old Rip van Winkle I am! But then, what Rip van Winkles you all are, or will one day become! Don’t you agree than that the Christian gospel should have something to say about the sleeping third of our lives as well about the waking two thirds of it!
If there is one aspect of life that our modern contemporary culture has abandoned is sleep. Did you know that one hundred years ago – before electricity – people slept about nine hours a night, which is in line with what sleep specialists say we need. According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average American now sleeps just 6 hours and 58 minutes per night during the work week.
Last year the Washington Post reported that naptime is increasingly “a luxury that 4-year olds can no longer afford.” Many Washington area schools are eliminating naps from the kindergarten curriculum, so that 45 more minutes can be devoted to instruction. Administrators seem unconcerned that their students would learn better if they were well-rested.
A study from the University of Minnesota recently showed that when high schools started the day 85 minutes later, at 8.40 am instead of 7:15 am, students got more sleep at night, fell asleep in class less often, and got better grades. Michael Irvin from UCLA says, “When we’ve gotten good sleep, we are happier, nicer and healthier.”
How many of you remember these two accidents?
• The first is a picture of Chernobyl? It was a nuclear reactor in the Ukraine that exploded.
• The second is a picture of the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker that crashed and spill oil into the ocean in Alaska.
Both of these are considered the greatest environmental disasters in human history. What was the cause of these two accidents? Sleep specialist Stanley Coren says “sleepy employees not working at top efficiency and were not motivated to check details closely.” How many disasters occur in our personal lives simply because we are tired?
Michael Irvin from UCLA says, “When we’ve gotten good sleep, we are happier, nicer and healthier.” It is no wonder so many of us are freaked out, miserable, depressed, anxious, over stressed and just cranky all the time. What most of us need is not a counselor or more prayer or Bible Study. Maybe what you need to get back on track is a good nap. Imagine how much better your relationships would be, your attitude would be, if you just got a good nights sleep on a regular basis. Imagine how much better your spiritual walk with Christ would be if you were rested.
I usually don’t give homework as a pastor. But there is something I want to encourage all of us to do when we get home today and I am not going to take no for answer. Go home today and take a nap. Enjoy the blessing.
Psalm 127:2 reads,
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat – for God grants sleep to those he loves.
Let’s move on
Verse 4
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground,
6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground- 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
II. BLESSING NUMBER TWO: THE BREATH OF LIFE
There is a second blessing I see in these verses: LIFE. God breathed into the man the breath of life.
Life is a blessing isn’t? I like life. Henry J. Tillman said, “Life is something that everyone should try at least once.” I agree.
What you will notice about the creation passages in Genesis 1 and 2 is that in Genesis one when God created the heavens and the earth he spoke them into existence. But when God creates man in chapter 2, it says he formed him and he breathed into him. This word formed means that God crafted man with his hands.
God took extra special care when he created man. He crafted him with his own hands and then he put his lips on man and breathed into him. The universe is pretty amazing, the stars and the galaxies, but as John Wesley said, “man is the crown of creation.” God put special care into making us.
Job said,
Remember that you molded me like clay…Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit. (Job 10.9-12)
There is a reason that God has given you and me life. Our lives are not the result of chance and Darwinian evolution. We are not just animals who when we die we go onto the great “perhaps”. We are significant creations, whose lives have meaning and purpose. We have the breath of God inside of us. You are not an accident. God formed you for a reason.
Psalm 139:13
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Rick Warren says, “You were made by God and for God – an until you understand that, life will never make sense.”
God gave you life and he wants you to enjoy it and to make the most of it. A lot of times we don’t say this enough in the church, but God wants you to enjoy your life and to look back on your life and say I made the most of it. God wants you to be happy and fulfilled. He does not want you to waste the most precious gift he has given.
In a USA Today article with Mike Tyson, Jon Saraceno revealed what went wrong with the fighter’s life.
Almost 39, Tyson is anything but at peace. Confused and humiliated after a decadent lifestyle left him with broken relationships, shattered finances, and a reputation in ruin, the fighter cannot hide his insecurities, stacked as high as his legendary knockouts….
"I’ll never be happy," he says. "I believe I’ll die alone. I would want it that way. I’ve been a loner all my life with my secrets and my pain. I’m really lost, but I’m trying to find myself. I’m really a sad, pathetic case." The divorced father of six is blunt, gregarious, funny, vulgar, outrageous, sad, angry, bitter, and, at times, introspective about the opportunities he squandered over the last two decades. He discusses his drug use ("The weed got me"), lack of self-esteem, and sexual addiction.
He says, "My whole life has been a waste I’ve been a failure.”
I want you ask you a poignant question today? How are using the life God has given you? Are you satisfied that you’ve made the most of it? Are there something’s that need to change? Are there some regrets you have?
Someone once said, “Life is God’s gift to you, what you do with it is your gift to him.”
Joe Kita is an author and he has written a book entitled, “How I Lived My Life in Less Than a Year.” Kita says he has a good life — happily married, two children and a successful writing career. Then he turned 40 and an attack of "could ofs", "should ofs" and "would ofs" inspired him to do something extraordinary. He took 20 of his most personal regrets and set out to relive them in a year.
One his 20 Regret was he said, “Missing Our Wedding.”
Our wedding was a whirlwind — parents, photographers, relatives, caterersš Joe and his wife felt pulled in so many directions they wished they had been guests instead of guests of honor. And so they re-did their wedding their way and they enjoyed it.
Another regret was getting Cut from the High School Basketball Team.
Over 20 years ago, Joe didn’t make his high school basketball team and he felt as if he wasn’t wanted. "It’s the adolescent equivalent to being fired." So, he decided to call the principal and coach of his alma mater and asked for a second chance. Joe trained for two months, and after three weeks of tryouts against 18 teenagers, he made the cut! "When the coach said I made the team I wanted to hug him." Even though he didn’t make the starting line-up, he proved to himself that he belonged.
Is there something that you’ve always wanted to do but you’ve never done it and you regret it? Michael Herman submitted this question to a website to entitled, thisdaysthought.org.
"If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?"
Would you remember that life is a blessing from God, make the most of it. If there is something you need to do with your life, do it. Life is a blessing.
Verse 8
Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.
14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
III. BLESSING THREE: THE ENVIRONMENT
There is another blessing that I see in these verses: The blessing of the ENVIRONMENT and the OUTDOORS. God created a garden named Eden. In fact, Eden Park in Mt. Adams was originally named The Garden of Eden Park.
But the Garden of Eden was a paradise. And God put Adam in the garden. He didn’t put Adam inside a tent or a mobile home and give him a computer and television set. He put him outside. Is it possible that we were created to spend more time outdoors than indoors? In our modern society we spend so much time inside, I wonder how that affects us both physically and mentally?
One of the things that has aided my spiritual life more than anyone thing else that I’ve done, is about three years ago, I made a decision to take a walk everyday for an hour. If the weather is nice, I try my best to fit a walk in. Not only have I lost weight, but there is something about being outside and breathing the fresh air and looking at the trees and the scenery that’s just benefited my life. If I am stressed or depressed or anxious, I go and take a walk and it is amazing how my perspective on life changes. I can explain it but there is just something about begin outside that improves the quality of my life.
I talked this week to our resident counselor at Pregnancy Care named Carin. She counsels a lot of people who are depressed. And one of the first things she advises her clients to do if they are depressed is to go outside and take a walk. She says that being outside enhances your experience, engages your senses, you are able to think more clearly.
That’s why during the winter a lot of people get depressed. They call it the winter blues, or seasonal affective disorder. People can’t go outside as much during the winter and exercise and they get depressed. Studies have shown that spending at least 30 minutes outdoors every day may help prevent seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
Duke University researchers say a brisk walk or jog around an outdoor track three times a week may be just as effective in relieving the symptoms of major depression as taking anti-depressant medications.
New research indicates that exercise may be as good for your head as your heart. A recent study conducted by the University of Illinois and published in the March 2004 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that walking, and other aerobic exercises improve the brain’s ability to focus on a specific task and its mental ability to concentrate.
When is the last time you just went outside and enjoyed the blessings of God’s creation? I remember as a kid, we’d always be outside during the summer playing baseball or riding our bikes. We would beg to go outside. But I understand that things have changed in our modern context.
CNN reported on a study that pre-schoolers are likely to spend as much time in front of the television or computer as they are playing outside. I wonder how being inside so much affects our kids and they don’t learn to appreciate the creation of God? Just wondering how that affect us?
I heard about a father who was so excited about taking his family to the Grand Canyon. They drove for days and finally they got there and he got his 8 year old son out of the car and stood there looking at the great creation of God and the father was so awe struck that he lost awareness and noticed that his son wasn’t there. He found him in the car, playing on his play station. What a parable about the dangers of modern society.
One of the great blessings of God is the outdoors. When is the last time you took advantage of that blessing and enjoyed it! God made it for you.
Verse 18
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ’woman,’ for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
IV. BLESSING FOUR: COMPANIONSHIP
There is more blessing here: companionship. Eden was a paradise, a perfect place. Yet Adam was without a companion. The animals were nice but they did not suffice. And so God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. Removing one of his ribs, God made for Adam a woman named Eve.
A little boy, seemed especially interested when his Sunday school teacher told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and asked, "What’s the matter?" The little boy responded, "I have a pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife."
Eve was Adam’s perfect companion. An old rabbi said that, “Eve was not taken from Adam’s head so that she would rule over him. She was not taken from his feet so she would be under him. She was taken from his rib, so she would be beside him.” Eve would be at Adam’s side, they would be companions. And they would have the perfect marriage.
Adam always left the toilet seat down. Eve never burned the casserole. Adam never came home late from a busy day naming the animals. Eve let him play golf anytime he wanted. It was a perfect marriage…
God blessed Adam with a wife. A lifelong companion.
Proverbs 18: 22
He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.
If there is anyone who knows the truth of that verse it’s me. I was a depressed, faithless, poorly dressed buffoon before I met Dorota. I was terribly overweight, disorganized, had no social skills. Many of my friends from college see me now and say what happened to you. You don’t cuss anymore, you’re actually a nice guy. Your clothes match. And I say two things happened to me, “I found Christ, and I found a good wife.”
Proverbs 31:9
A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.
I love being married to my wife. She keeps me in line and helps me so much. She is such a blessing. (e.g. Chad Doerr story, “Aaron, love your wife, it is so special.)
One of the great blessings in life is companionship. I am so blessed with so many great friends. Yesterday, Scott Duebber and Jason Bast and Greg and I had our monthly staff meeting and those guys are just such great friends and I am so thankful for them.
And I am so blessed to have you all in my life. I love you all so much and I am so thankful for this church. When my wife’s father died, this past week, people sent cards and asked me how she was doing. That means so much. I know your prayers have helped us tremendously.
When is the last time you thanked God for the people in your life? People are such a blessing. That is one reason I think God created the church. Companionship. We need that support system. Life can be hard. Life can be lonely and that it is not good to go through life alone. So many of us have experienced loneliness as the result of abuse or divorce and that’s why the church is so important to us. The church is one place where we can experience God’s blessing of companionship.
If you feel all alone, I want to tell you that God did not intend for you to be alone. Please understand that this church, wants to be in relationship with you. Would you seek fellowship with us and with Christ. Join one of our small groups, participate in any of our activities, you are welcomed here.
A U.S. News & World Report article stated that although the total number of Americans who attend weekly worship services has declined from about 40 percent in the 1960s to around 25 percent now, religious congregations remain the single strongest influence to bring isolated, solitary people to community events.
One of the main things we want to do at Impact Church is let you know that God is good. He has blessed you, even when you didn’t know it. One ways that God has blessed you, is that he has given you forgiveness and grace and salvation through his son Jesus Christ. And if you have Jesus Christ you are never alone.
Let’s pray: Dear Lord thanks for revealing to us just how blessed we are. We have so many blessings that come from you, forgive us when we take them for granted. Forgive us for overlooking them. Help us to take advantage of your blessings.
