Home with God
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· 3 viewsBig Idea / Sticky Statement: God didn't just create a world for us; He created a home with us, designed for perfect presence and partnership.
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Transcript
Series: Dwell (Week 2)
Scripture: Genesis 2:4-25
Big Idea / Sticky Statement: God didn't just create a world for us; He created a home with us, designed for perfect presence and partnership.
1. ENGAGE: The Setup
Illustration: Blueprints vs. Belonging
* As some of you know, my family and I are deep in the process of building a new house right now.
It's fascinating, and sometimes overwhelming! You start with blueprints – detailed plans for walls, rooms, electrical, plumbing.
The focus is entirely on getting the structure right, making sure everything is functional and safe.
It’s all about building the house.
* But think about what truly turns any house, whether newly built or centuries old, into a home.
It's not just the structure; it's the life lived within it.
* Imagine a child who has longed for a permanent family.
Then, a loving couple adopts them and brings them to their house.
They show the child their new room, maybe decorated just for them, and say, 'This is your space. Welcome.'
That gift of a physical place, a structure, is huge.
* But the real transformation, the moment the house truly becomes home for that child, is when the parents say,
'More important than any room, we want you to know you belong here.
We want to do life together in this place – share meals, laugh, cry, be a family.
This isn't just a house we're giving you; it's a home we're inviting you into.'
* See the shift?
The structure becomes the container for the real gift:
belonging, shared identity, and intimate relationship.
Transition: "That feeling—not just receiving a place, but being invited into a shared life within it—taps into a deep human longing for belonging. But the tension for us is that our experience often feels far from that ideal home."
2. TENSION: The Problem
The Longing for Home:
* We all have a deep, built-in longing for "home"
—a place of safety, belonging, acceptance, perfect relationship.
* We search for it everywhere:
houses, relationships, careers, achievements.
The Disconnection We Feel:
* Yet, our reality often feels disconnected:
We feel like we have fractured relationships,
Our work feels like torture,
We feel alienated from nature,
Our connection with something bigger feels distant.
* Something feels fundamentally "off,"
like we're homesick for a place we've never been.
Transition:
This feeling of 'homesickness,' the feeling that there is something broken in our connection to
our world,
each other,
and our purpose,
isn't just a modern problem.
It goes back to the very beginning.
And the story of creation gives us a stunning picture of the 'home' we were originally designed for.
3. TRUTH: The Biblical Solution (Genesis 2:4-25)
* Alright, church, grab your Bibles or open your bible apps and go to Genesis chapter 2.
Last week: We talked about God being present before creation.
Today: We will look at God being present with His creation, specifically with humanity.
* A. The Personal Touch (vv. 4-7): God Forms Man
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,
6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Intimate Creation:
Unlike the broad commands of Genesis 1 ("Let there be..."), this passage zooms in.
God gets His hands dirty.
* He "formed" (yatsar) the man like a potter shaping clay.
This implies care, skill, intention, and personal involvement.
* He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life."
This is incredibly intimate.
God shares His own life-giving Spirit.
Humanity is uniquely animated by God's own breath, setting us apart from the rest of creation.
* B. The Perfect Place (vv. 8-14): God Plants a Garden
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.
13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.
14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
* A Designed Home:
God doesn't just make a generic world; He plants a specific garden (gan) – often understood as a walled park or paradise – in Eden (meaning 'delight' or 'pleasure').
This is a sanctuary, a place perfectly designed for human flourishing in His presence.
Think of it as the original "holy place," a Temple-garden where heaven and earth overlapped perfectly.
* Abundant Provision:
It's filled with beauty ("pleasant to the sight") and nourishment ("good for food").
The specific mention of trees (Tree of Life, Tree of Knowledge) highlights key elements of this environment.
The river watering the garden signifies abundant, life-sustaining provision flowing from God's presence.
* C. The Purpose Given (v. 15): God Gives Work
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
* Meaningful Vocation:
Work (abad - serve/cultivate, shamar - keep/protect) isn't a curse resulting from sin;
it's a gift given in paradise.
Adam is called to be a co-creator, a steward, partnering with God in cultivating beauty and protecting the order of the beautiful home God made for them.
This gives dignity and purpose.
* D. The Loving Prohibition (vv. 16-17): God Sets a Boundary
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
* Generous Freedom:
Notice the emphasis on abundance first: "You may surely eat of every tree..."
God's primary posture is generosity.
* One Loving Boundary:
The prohibition isn't arbitrary restriction, but a loving boundary designed to protect the relationship and maintain life.
It provides the crucial element of choice: will humanity trust God's wisdom and live in dependence (finding life), or grasp for autonomous knowledge (finding death)?
Real relationship requires freedom and trust.
* E. The Partnership Created (vv. 18-25): God Makes Woman
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
* Relational Beings:
God Himself declares loneliness "not good."
We are fundamentally designed for relationship, reflecting the relational nature of the Triune God - God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.
* Complementary Partnership:
Eve is created from Adam's side—intimately connected, equal in essence.
She is described as a "helper fit for him" (ezer kenegdo) – not a subordinate, but a strength corresponding to him, an essential counterpart, completing the picture of shared life and mission.
* Joyful Recognition:
Adam's response ("bone of my bones...") is poetic, expressing joyful recognition and deep connection.
* Intimacy & Vulnerability:
They were "naked and not ashamed" (v. 25)
– perfect openness,
vulnerability,
and complete acceptance in their relationship with each other
and implicitly with God.
No barriers, no hiding.
Transition:
This is the original blueprint for 'home.'
Not just a physical place, but a state of being:
intimate relationship with a personal God (forming, breathing),
dwelling in His perfect provision (garden),
engaged in purposeful work (cultivating),
enjoying harmonious connection with creation,
and experiencing intimate partnership with each other (no shame).
Its the world as it was meant to be, the world God designed to dwell in WITH us.
4. APPLICATION: The Choice
* 1. Recognize Your Homesickness as an Echo:
That ache you feel for deeper belonging, purpose, connection isn't a flaw; it's an echo of Eden.
It's a God-given signal pointing you back to the kind of relationship and life you were originally designed for with your Creator.
Don't numb it or chase substitutes;
listen to it as a homing beacon.
2. See Your Work as Sacred Stewardship
* Whatever your job is – paid or unpaid, CEO or stay-at-home parent, artist or accountant –
it's an opportunity to reflect the Creator and partner with God in "working and keeping" His creation.
Find ways this week to bring order, beauty, care, and flourishing to your sphere of influence as an act of worship.
Ask: How can I reflect God's creative goodness in this task?
3. Cultivate Intentional Partnership
* God hardwired us for relationship ("It is not good... to be alone").
Isolation is contrary to our design.
Intentionally invest time and energy this week in your key relationships –
your marriage,
your family,
close friendships,
your small group
Your Church Family
Be the kind of "helper fit for" others that God designed – offering strength, support, and companionship.
5. INSPIRATION: The Vision
* Imagine recovering, even in glimpses now, that sense of being truly "at home" with God,
experiencing His presence not just on Sundays but in the "cool of the day" (Gen 3:8)
– in the ordinary, quiet moments of life, walking with Him without shame.
* Imagine finding deep satisfaction and dignity in your daily work,
seeing it not merely as toil or a means to an end,
but as a holy calling,
a vital partnership with the Creator in His ongoing work in the world.
* Imagine relationships marked increasingly by the kind of
vulnerability,
trust,
unity,
and lack of shame that Adam and Eve shared before the fall
– being fully known and fully loved.
* This isn't just about wistfully looking back at a lost paradise.
Because of Jesus—the Last Adam who obeyed where the first Adam failed
—the possibility of returning home,
of restored relationship with God and others, is opened up.
It's a future hope guaranteed, and a present reality we are invited to grow into day by day.
6. Action: Your Next Steps with God:
This week we want to:
Walk With God
intentionally schedule time each day to simply walk with God
perhaps literally outside or just sitting quietly with him
focusing on his presence with you
Work With Purpose
Identify one specific task you have to do this week
and consciously do it as an act of worship,
partnering with God to bring order or beauty to this world.
Connect with Your Partner (or Others)
Take one specific action to cultivate a deeper partnership with your spouse if you are married, or with a close friend or church member.
Closing Line:
Eden may seem like a distant memory,
but the God who walked in the garden
is the same God who walks with us now through His Spirit.
He hasn't given up on His desire to make His home with you, starting today.
The same God who walked in the garden with Adam and Eve,
Is the same God who sent his Son Jesus to save us from our sin through the shedding of his blood on the cross.
Go to song When I See the Blood
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