Mountain Life ChurchMountain Life Church

Message #3 in the series, “Beginnings”Message #3 in the series, “Beginnings”

March 13, 2011March 13, 2011

The Way We Were

The way we shall be

2

The Way We Were, The Way We Shall Be

I. Hanging Pictures A. The Sabbath

1. Jesus has become our Sabbath

2. Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, be-cause I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the bur-den I give you is light." Matthew 11: 28-30

3. And He was saying to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." Luke 6:5

4. Hebrews 4. We must be diligent to enter the “rest” of God. This rest is found in a faithful high priest, Jesus Christ, the Righteous.

B. The River 1. Geographers say this is an anomaly. One river

pours into 4 rivers. Typically, many rivers merge into one.

2. Jesus is portrayed by Ezekiel and Revelation by 4 living Creatures.

3. Jesus was portrayed by four evangelists in the 4 Gospels.

C. The Tree of Life

• See Revelation 2: 7, 22: 2, 14 and 19.

D. The Man 1. Jesus is the Second Adam (Romans 5) and restores

what the First Adam lost. 2. Jesus came to earth to find a bride (the Church).

3

II. The Man and The Garden A. Of soil and spirit

1. Man is made of dust, and is mortal. 2. Yet he has the breath of God in him.

B. A Garden Connection • God blessed man’s enjoyment of food from the

earth. • God empowered man to be a gardener.

III. Two Trees in the Garden A. The Tree of Life

1. An obvious choice between Jesus and evil. 2. They were welcome to eat of it.

B. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil 1. God first gave the commandment not to eat of this

tree only to the man. He was to protect the woman from eating of it.

2. Man would allow the woman to eat of this tree, leading to spiritual passivity.

IV. Man and Woman A. A Helper suitable

1. She is of the image of God too, and completes the picture of the Trinity.

2. Man must be put to sleep in order to let God bring the woman to him. The NEED Process.

B. Two into One 1. A picture of the Trinity. 2. A picture of community. 3. A picture of Covenant.

C. Naked and Unashamed 1. The healthy individual 2. The healthy family 3. The healthy church

4

Life Group Questions for Week #3-

“Beginnings” Ice Breaker: Tell about the best dessert you ever had, and why you liked it so much. Read Genesis 2: 1-15 1. Talk about the observations you make as you read the passage. 2. Have someone read Hebrews 3: 12-15. The writer of Hebrews

uses “The Rest of the Lord” as a picture of relationship with Christ. The Sabbath is a picture of Jesus. If you have become a follower of Jesus describe how the word, “Rest” describes your relationship with Christ.

3. Read Genesis 2: 9. God created two major trees in the Garden.

Why do you think there were Two major trees? (Leader: Love must have a choice if it is love. Man chose to eat from the forbidden fruit, rather than the fruit from the Tree of Life).

4. Adam’s name in the Hebrew is “Mankind.” Eve’s name means,

“life.” Many scholars believe Adam and Eve were allegorical, and that God created many people in the garden. What do you think about this idea? Do you believe in one man and woman or many? Do you know any scriptures to support your opinion?

5. Read Genesis 2: 15-25. Adam and Eve became the first man and

wife. They were a model of leaving parents to become their own family. They were naked and unashamed. What does this tell us about God’s vision for marriage?

6. The story of the creation of Eve is a Biblical theme of: I have a

need -God lets me try to meet the need myself –He puts me into sleep (My focus becomes Him instead of meeting my need) - and then God meets my need. Can you see this process happen in your own life when you have a need?

Pray for one another.

5

Personal Devotion Pages The following pages are designed to help you to enjoy a regular time alone with God. We have divided up the curriculum to help us grow wherever we are at in our relation-ship with God and in our knowledge of His Kingdom. LEVELS: Since we are a Colorado church, we use skiing imagery to communicate the different levels of intensity and time involved in relating to God. BEGINNER: If you are new in your relationship with God, we encourage you to try the exercises under this symbol: INTERMEDIATE: If you have walked with God for some time and would like a little more challenge and more time involvement, try the exercises under this symbol: ADVANCED: These exercises are for people who have walked with God for some time and display maturity in their walk with God. These exercises provide a practical way to encounter God and His truth on a daily basis. There are no rules here. Please don’t hurry through the process. Slow meditation and memorization seems to soak in bet-ter than cramming. Enjoy!

6

1. Take some time to quiet yourself before God, and then to praise Him and thank Him for whatever comes to your mind.

2. Read through Genesis 2: 1-14. RE-read the passage slowly, and

ask God to give you insight into these two things: • Do you think it is a God idea to take time to rest regularly

and spend time with God? Is this a practice in your life now? • God placed both the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowl-

edge of Good and Evil in the Garden. God gave Adam and Eve a choice to follow Him, or to rebel. Tell God which tree you want to eat of today.

3. Pray for God to show you what he is doing in your family and

ask Him how you can minister to them today.

Meditate on, and memorize Matthew 11: 28this week

Meditate on and memorize Matthew 11: 27-30 this week.

Meditate on Matthew 11, and memorize Matthew 11: 27-30

7

The Sabbath. What a funny concept. Take a day off. The God of the universe commands you - you must take a day off! It all started when God spoke the entire universe into being with the words of His mouth over a six day period. After that, He stepped back, told Himself what a great job He did, and declared all of creation good; and then He took a day off. He blessed that seventh day, and called it Sabbath.

A few hundred years went by, and the Jews heard the command to take a day off in the Ten Commandments. The Jews weren't too sure just what God meant by this, "take a day off" idea, so they wrote "the traditions of the elders." The extra-biblical text tried to help us all know just exactly what a day off is. "You can only go about 1/4 mile away from your property before it's considered work," says the tradi-tion. So, many devout people at the time of Jesus would take some of their belongings on a long trip, and lay them down each 1/4 mile - just to make sure that they didn't break the Sabbath!

About half of the arguments Jesus had in the Gospels were with religious people concerned about keeping the Sabbath. When you look at the whole Bible, you can see why. You see, the Sabbath was a picture of finding rest in God. Jesus brought that rest through His substitutionary death on the cross. He took my sin, and gave me rest. The writer of Hebrews had the gall to actually point out that Jesus IS THE SABBATH! (Hebrews 3-4). The Sabbath was a big picture God hung of His Son, Jesus. Taking a day off is a direct pointer to the Son of God, "whose yoke is easy, and His burden is light." The Sabbath is not something I do to obey the Law, it's all about relationship with Jesus.

Take on Jesus' invitation today. "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy- laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11: 28

The Sabbath

8

1. Take some time to quiet yourself before God, and then to praise Him and thank Him for whatever comes to your mind.

2. Read slowly through Genesis 2: 15-25. Write down your obser-

vations and questions here. 3. Take some time to pray for any people you know who are sick

today. 4. Continue memorizing the verse or verses for the week.

9

Genesis 2 is full of pictures of Jesus. Like a proud Father, Jehovah God hung pictures of His Son all over the Bible, and all over the story of Creation. As we saw yesterday, the Sabbath is a picture of finding rest in - yup, Jesus!

There was a river that flowed through Eden, then broke into 4 other rivers. Geographers tell us this is not normal. Rivers tend to start out with several smaller tributaries that flow into one big river, not the other way around! When things are not normal in scrip-ture, that's when you must start looking for pictures of Jesus. Jesus said, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his inner-most being will flow rivers of living water.’" (John 7: 38) Both Ezekiel and John (in the book of Revelation) saw the throne of God. The throne in both texts has 4 living creatures flying around the throne. Most scholars believe these are pictures of Jesus. Hmm, 1 river into 4 rivers, 4 creatures represent 1 Son of God. There are 4 Gospels telling about the 1 son of God. Wow!!!

Then there's the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. That's a no brainer! Jesus is the Tree of Life! Come to Him, and find eternal life!

Finally, Adam is a foreshadowing of Jesus. Where the First Adam failed, the Second Adam triumphed - bringing life where the first Adam brought death.

As you go through the day today, look for Jesus. God has hung pictures of Him everywhere! He's in the sunrise, the sunset, and the cute little curly haired child in your arms.

"When you seek me, you will find me, when you search for me with your whole heart." Jeremiah 29: 13

The River of Life

10

1. Take some time to quiet yourself before God, and then to praise Him and thank Him for whatever comes to your mind.

2. Read Revelation 22, the last chapter in the Bible. See if you can

see if any of the themes in Genesis 2 are finalized in Revelation. Write your observations here.

3. Ask God to show you any hidden sins you’ve not asked Him to

forgive. Write them down here, and then receive His forgive-ness.

4. Continue memorizing the verse or verses for this week.

11

In Genesis 2, we are introduced to two major trees in the Garden of Eden: The Tree of Life, and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I'd say the Tree of Life is the most underrated tree in the story. God told Adam he could eat of every tree in the garden, except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That means the Tree of Life was fair game.

Obviously, this was a choice. Man could choose to obey God, or to choose his own way. Based on the rest of scripture, O-B-E-Y is how God spells love.

A while ago, I was in an airplane seated next to one of the smartest people I ever met. He had a PhD in both Biology and Physics. I re-member hearing a voice in my head say, "Randy, share LIFE with this man." At that moment, I knew I had a choice - obey, or be standoffish and pretend to really listen to the safety procedures. I began a fun conversation with him. The fun stopped when he found out I was a pastor (this is usually the best way for me to end conver-sations - tell people what I do for a living). He kindly told me that the Bible taught things that went completely against what he knew to be true.

The tug came on me again from inside. "Don't argue with him. Just love him, and tell him of Me." Oh good! I don’t have to argue and act smart. Besides, my knowledge of physics and biology fits in a thimble. I spoke of how Jesus had changed my life, and I told him that God was more than religion, He is LIFE.

I ended the conversation saying, "My friend, I'm going to pray that God will reveal Himself to you. And I think He will do it!" He skepti-cally, but kindly told me that it probably wouldn't ever happen.

I look forward to hearing him tell me how Jesus introduced Himself to him one day when we both get to heaven.

Obeying God is the way to LIFE. What is God telling you today? Step out and obey. There is no greater JOY in life.

12

1. Take some time to quiet yourself before God, and then to praise Him and thank Him for whatever comes to your mind.

2. Read Psalm 27 slowly. Ask God to speak to you through this

passage. 3. Write down what you think God’s purpose is for you life. 4. Three weeks ago, we began praying for three people who don’t

know the Lord. Lift up those people to God by name and ask Him how you could practically love them this week.

5. Continue memorizing the verse or verses for this week.

13

Running around naked in a garden. Most of us squirm with embarrassment just thinking about it. I wonder if God ever thought of the TMI rule (Too Much Information) when inspiring the Bible. Adam and Eve spent a short time in paradise with absolutely no knowledge that they were even naked. Innocence and purity filtered their thinking and their perspective.

Genesis gives a glimpse into the average Adam and Eve day. The two of them lived in blissful relationship. God would take time to show up in some ethereal way and walk with them in the cool of the day. Don't miss that! God was all about hanging out.

They related to one another with no bitterness, no shame, and no secrets. They related to God with open and receptive hearts. They stood before one another and before God with no sense of condem-nation.

Of course, the Fall of Man changed all that. After that day, relation-ships got hard. Today, people relate together with bitterness, shame and lots of secrets. They were naked and unashamed, we are dressed and many of us deal with shame and condemnation.

After Jesus died and was resurrected, the Holy Spirit came to help us approach God with old new boldness. The kind of old boldness that Adam and Eve had in their innocence, we have today because He has made all things new (II Corinthians 5: 17).

God hasn’t changed. He still wants to hang out. The lie is that we’re still covered with shame. Because of Jesus, I can relate to God with no condemnation, no shame, no secrets. I can be naked and unashamed before God.

So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, ac-cept the help. Hebrews 4:16 (The Message)

14

1. Take some time to quiet yourself before God, and then to praise Him and thank Him for whatever comes to your mind.

2. Read Psalm 30 to help you worship the Lord. 3. Write down what your needs are that you need God to meet

today. 4. Finish memorizing your verse or verses today. See if you can

quote your memory verses or passage to a friend or spouse.

15

Everything was “good” about creation. Everything that is, except that Adam was alone. God looked at that pre-dicament in Genesis 2: 18, and said, “this is not good for the man to be alone.”

God then does something, well, strange. The text tells us that the very next thing God does is bring all the animals before Adam to see what he would name them. It’s implied that Adam hoped to find a mate as he named the animals. “I’ll call this a rhinoceros. Is this her, Lord (I hope not)?”

Then God puts Adam into a deep sleep (God is not only the Great Physician, He is the Great Anesthesiologist). God takes one of Adam’s ribs and makes a woman and then brings the woman to the man. It’s an amazing story with a theme that runs the course of the whole Bible.

Here’s the theme. I need something. I try to get that need met. God has to put me asleep (in other words, seek first His Kingdom and quit worrying about meeting my own needs), then He meets the need.

Wait a minute! This isn’t just a Biblical theme! I see this theme sewn throughout my own life! How about you? Do you see yourself running around “naming animals” looking to get your needs met? Go to sleep. Seek Him with your whole heart, and He will meet your needs supernatu-rally!

Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Matthew 6:33 (The Message)

16

This section of our curriculum is aimed at helping parents disciple their own children. We hope you will take a few evenings a week to open the scriptures and talk to your kids about kingdom things. You can mix and match these ideas to meet the needs of your family’s children.

Babies through preschool: Table Talk: During the week read your children the story of the Garden of Eden from a children’s Bible or read Genesis 2:8-10 Ask your children: Who gave us plants? What do plants provide? Fruit, vegetables, flowers etc. Does God want us to take care of the garden? Bible Verse: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15 Daily Prayer: Thank You Lord, For food and clothes and toys and such, We thank you, Lord, so very much. Activity: If you have plants in your home show your child how you care for it by watering and feeding the plants. This is what God had Adam do in the Garden of Eden. Or if you are preparing for an outdoor garden by starting the plants indoors show your child how to plant seeds. Visit a nurs-ery with your child and show them the variety of plants God has given us to grow.

17

Elementary: 1. Read Genesis 2: 4-14 as a family. Talk about what the Garden of

Eden might have looked like. Have everyone in the family draw a picture of what they think the garden would have looked like.

2. Read Genesis 2: 15-22 as a family. Ask children to think of what

they would have named all of the animals if they had gotten to name them like Adam did. Come up with different names for the different animals. Talk about why none of the animals were the right helper for Adam. Summarize Genesis 2. Talk about how humans are very connected to nature and what this means to mankind.

3. Discuss how when Jesus returns, this will be how it is again.

Hang up the pictures of the Garden of Eden from the first day in order to remember that we are connected to nature.

18

Teens Meal One: As a family read Genesis 2, then ask these ques-tions: 1. Why do you think God says in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for the man to be alone”? 2. God wants us to connect with each other. How do you connect with your peers at school and with your parents at home? What are some examples of what you have seen or experi-enced how the world tries to disconnect us from God and one another. Meal Two: In Genesis 2, God reveals His purpose for mankind, which is to love Him and to be relational. Describe in your own opinion what are examples of healthy relationships? How do you see your community and the world’s example of healthy relationships? Meal Three: Have everyone at the table either put on their I Pod’s, email on the computer, text on your phone or watch TV. Do you feel today’s technology helps us to be more connected or disconnected. Have fun with this exercise. Instead of the I Phone or the I Pod, if you were a creator how would you create a more re-lational devise (like the We-Phone?) Memory Verse: The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Genesis 2:18

19

Write any notes from the week here

20