2025.06.01 Re-Group : It's Not Good!
Notes
Transcript
15 Then Yahweh God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.
16 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”
18 Then Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
19 And out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
21 So Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
22 And Yahweh God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
►►►CLICK [title]
Re-Group : It’s Not Good!
Re-Group : It’s Not Good!
We are kicking off a 4-week series this morning. Next week is Pentecost, so Pentecost is sort of the meat in the sandwich of this series. The series is based on a series a friend of mine preached a few years ago. When I told him about what we’re doing with Life Groups, he sent me his notes and recommended I not just preach one week about this important part of the lives of Christian folk.
Pentecost, like any other holiday, leaves us with a choice. Do we want to simply remember the historical event we are celebrating, or do we want to live into the event?
Consider Independence Day for a moment! Why do we celebrate the fourth of July? [non-rhetorical]
It’s not just to remember the historical event. It is also to remind us that if we fail to live into our independence, we’re likely to lose it — or perhaps unwittingly give it up! John Adams wrote these words in a letter to his wife Abigail:
“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America,” I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival … It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
I hope this Re-Group series will help us live into a deeper Christian life with the Holy Spirit and with each other! That’s what Pentecost is about.
We are going to lean in by pushing beyond our comfort zone! Hopefully we get uncomfortable, but while loving, challenging, and inspiring each other to live into this part of our design; community!
World-renown theologian Maria Von Trapp once said, “Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.”
►►►SLIDE [Creation Order]
Let’s start with a pop quiz: (work on putting these in order together
Day 1 [e) Created light/dark and water/ day and night]
Day 2 [c) The sky/heavens]
Day 3 [f) Land/ sea and plant life]
Day 4 [a) The sun, moon and stars]
Day 5 [d) Birds and fish]
Day 6 [g) Land creatures including Adam and Eve]
Day 7 [b) God rested]
►►►CLICK [title]
Re-Group : It’s Not Good!
Re-Group : It’s Not Good!
We can observe a couple of things in the creation story:
God had a plan! NOTHING was random.
I want to spend some time in the second observation today: God’s plan revolves around fellowship and community!
►►►SLIDE [Gen 1:1]
In the beginning God created…
This is the very beginning of Genesis 1:1. It is a small portion, but these few words say a lot!
When we talk about God, what comes to your mind? [non-rhetorical]
God is one being, but He interacts with us in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you can explain the Trinity without wandering into a heresy, I’d like to sit under your teaching. This is a very difficult doctrine, but the fundamental element is the important part for today!
Let’s jump forward a bit and take a look at Genesis 1:26-27
►►►SLIDE [Genesis 1:26-27]
26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Did you notice the key words?
►►►SLIDE [side-by-side]
Let’s compare two examples of God’s creation side-by-side:
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness;
Did you notice that God’s creation of humanity sounds really personal? He just spoke the other things into existence, and all of those things are good, but we are the only created things that’s created in God’s image.
We see God as three persons … discussing humanity’s creation. And we’re created to reflect God’s image … THEIR image. The doctrine of the Trinity tells us God is one being in three persons. There is community within the Godhead … and we were created to reflect that image!
The word translated “us” here is a Hebrew word that has no singular form. It always refers to a group or fellowship! It shows us that from the beginning of time, God has revealed Himself to us as one being in three persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We are made in the image of God. So then it is only natural for you and me to be pulled to … to crave … to fundamentally NEED community and fellowship!
Think I’m exaggerating?
Check out Genesis 2:18
►►►SLIDE [Gen 2:18]
18 Then Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis Chapter 1 lays out an orderly creation, but leaves out a lot of the “how” in that process. Chapter 2 fills in some of those gaps and tells us more about how things happened in creation.
Chapter 2 tells us that God made Adam first. But God knows humanity cannot live into the plans that He has for us without community.
Don’t miss what’s going on here! Prior to God creating Eve, God and Adam were in fellowship together. Go back and read all of Genesis 2, it tells us that God created Adam, then He planted the garden. God moved Adam to the garden to take care of it and watch over it. Once Adam got settled in, God even brought all of the animals He had created to Adam so that he could name them. They were “buds”, they hung out! For a period of time, it was just Adam and God; and apparently it was not good! Adam has the God of the Universe walking with him … and God says “It’s not good for him to be alone...”
►►►CLICK [title]
Re-Group : It’s Not Good!
Re-Group : It’s Not Good!
If it is just you and God, how can that be “not good”?
It’s not good because we are created to be in community! We can not be in fellowship with God if we are not in fellowship with other people! The life God calls us to cannot happen in isolation! It couldn’t from the beginning of time, and it still can’t today.
►►►SLIDE [Remember]
Church and Community are intertwined. Without one, you cannot have the other!
No church = no community & no community = no church!
You, me, we, cannot serve God, worship God, Fellowship with God all the time by ourselves; God says: It is not good!
►►►CLICK [title]
Re-Group : It’s Not Good!
Re-Group : It’s Not Good!
So God made Adam and Eve the first life group! The first church! The first fellowship of people who spent time with Him and worshiped Him! But the only way it was good and pleasing to God is if they did it together!
Anybody remember what happens next in the story? The serpent! Here are the Cliff’s notes of Genesis 3. Adam and Eve where in the garden living their best life. They were hanging out with each other as well as hanging out with God. We know that because scripture tells us that God would walk through the garden in the cool of the day! This was paradise!
Satan knew that his only hope to break their fellowship with God was to break their fellowship with each other!
Pay close attention to this:
In order to destroy paradise, Satan isolates Eve!
When Satan lies to Eve, she sees how beautiful the fruit is and thinks, “I bet this fruit will be amazing.”
Notice Genesis doesn’t include any account of her thoughts about what this would do to their fellowship with God or each other.
Satan has her right where he wants her: isolated from her source of fellowship … left only to her own thoughts.
Now don’t get me wrong, Adam is just as much to blame as Eve is. But when we insulate ourselves from the accountability and strength of a community, we think stupid thoughts … and we end up doing stupid things.
[If time, tell the Debby story]
He gave us Jesus as Immanuel: God with US! Next week is Pentecost, when we celebrate God the Holy Spirit being given to every believer. God created us with a NEED for faithful community. But when Adam walked with God, just the two of them, God said, “It’s not good...” What makes us think we can just walk alone with God and be “okay” much less “good”. If you’re walking with God alone, I want to warn you … “It’s not good!”
Two things happened to cause Adam and Eve’s life group to fall apart! First, Eve isolated and was convinced of a falsehood by the world. Second, Adam made excuses. Their relationships with each other and with God were damaged by their choices, and Adam looked at God and made an excuse and blamed Eve!
Our community is broken, it is not what it should be or what God wants it to be! So we have a choice, we can continue to make excuses and blame other people and circumstances for why we are living selfish, or we can regroup and start to do life together again!
Let’s pray [include Communion elements]
