What Could Be // Week 1 // Heaven Meets Earth

Broken Glass

Bible Passage: Genesis 1–3, Revelation 2:7, Revelation 21:1–4

Story of My Grandpa’s Truck with the burned windshield and broken glass

Just because we can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there

Glass Illustration

Same is true for our lives

We may have lost sight of the future, but it’s still there

How do I know this??

It is a pattern in scripture, we see this pattern from the very beginning

God brings about these patterns in scripture that we need to learn to recognize

1. Perfect

Genesis 1:1–2:3

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.* 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. (Genesis 1:1–3, NLT)

HEAVENS - šā·mǎʹ·yim heaven, sky

For the people of the time, the sky was mysterious and incomprehensible

Did God need light to see?

This is another of those patterns we were talking about

Why did He start with light? God always starts by bringing light to where there is complete darkness

What does light do? It brings the ability to see what is around us, in front of us, behind us

7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:7–9, NLT)

Side Point: Adam wasn’t created in the garden and he didn’t wander into the garden. God placed him there. God will take us to the perfect dream He has set before us

27 So God created human beings* in his own image.

In the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

29 Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. 30 And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.

31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day. (Genesis 1:27–31, NLT)

God said “it was very good”

The plan He has for you is very good, not just average, everyday, ordinary, or mundane but something SIGNIFICANT

V.29 -> We are meant to enjoy the perfect plan

Don’t settle for your imperfect plans when God has a great plan for you

2. Personal

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man* and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. (Genesis 3:8, NLT)

God didn’t leave Adam and Eve in the garden alone, He was with them

- ex. Peter walking on water but God was with Him through the whole experience

Not only is God personal with us through the plan, but the plan itself is personal to us

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5, ESV)

Not everyone is a prophet, not everyone is made for this time, not everyone is called to this place

ONLY YOU!

God has created something that only you can do

So much more than just making money or getting married or living a good life

3. Painful

17 And to the man he said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree

whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,

the ground is cursed because of you.

All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,

though you will eat of its grains.

19 By the sweat of your brow

will you have food to eat

until you return to the ground

from which you were made.

For you were made from dust,

and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17–19, NLT)

They can no longer see the calling and future that God had for them

In many ways it feels as if their future is gone

Example -> Getting kicked out of school & not being able to have a child

The future is gone right?

4. Promise

“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7, NLT)

Does this sound familiar?

The word in Greek for paradise is paradeisos which is borrowed from Persian and literally means “garden”

I thought the garden was gone?

23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 24 After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:23–24, NLT)

It’s not that the garden is gone but our vision of the garden has faded, however God’s mission is to take us back to the initial plan from the beginning

Do you see what’s happening??

5. Paradise

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.* 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” 6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. (Revelation 21:1–7, NLT)