VBS July 12th-16th

Children through the 6th grade are welcome. We will be meeting in the auditorium nightly at 6:30 PM through 8:00 PM.

Adam’s Dictionary

INTRODUCTION (These are notes from a sermon I preached on July 7, 2021)

The Bible begins and ends with an Edenic state, but I invite you to live in Eden now.

READ Genesis 2:7-25; Genesis 3:8

God creates Adam and Eve in a way much more special than that of the animals.

God prepared a special place for Adam and Eve to live: The Garden of Eden which was in the land of Eden. The garden provided everything that Adam and Eve would need to live an abundant life. It was also a place where God communicated with them. There may have been milk, cheese, butter, as well as all kinds of fruits, grains, and vegetables. There was much work for Adam and Eve to do: possibly make tools, prune trees, build fences, collect seeds, plant vegetable gardens, milk cows, sheer sheep, build a house, make furniture, etc. Yet they could rejoice in the beauty of God’s creation. They spoke kindly to one another. They could sit and eat a meal together without offence. They could work together without bickering or complaining.

God had provided everything they needed to meet their physical, emotional, spiritual and social needs. Everywhere they looked, there was beauty that testified of God.

ADAM’S DICTIONARY

Adam and Eve were able to speak intelligent words from the moment they were created. It is not beyond our imagination to believe that Adam could also write. But whether he could, he did build a vocabulary that included the names of the animals, rivers, trees, colors, etc. I believe that he had words to express beauty and worship God. His vocabulary probably included words like love, joy, peace, good, goodness, humility, gentleness, and faith.

Sadly, after Adam sinned, he would add other words to his vocabulary: fear, hate, bitterness, envy, jealously, shame, guilt, emotional hurt and pain, pride, etc.

Yesterday, I read Proverbs 6 as part of my devotion. As I was thinking about this sermon, I decided to write down some non-Edenic words from Proverbs 6: sluggard, poverty, naughty, wicked, froward, wink, destroyeth, vengeance, mischief calamity, pride, proud look, lying tongue, shed blood, wound, ransom, wicked imagination, false witness, discord, flattery, whorish, adulteress, dishonor, jealous, discontent. From Psalm 131 I got proud heart and lofty eyes.

Yesterday, I also went to the eye doctor. I had to fill out a questionnaire that listed many diseases and health issues. Adam may have had to add many of those to his dictionary after God removed him from the garden.

OUR FUTURE STATE

Though we or creation itself suffers, there is coming a day when all will be restored. Romans 8:22-23 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Our future state will be like Eden, minus Satan and those who follow him. There are many words that Adam had to add to his dictionary that we won’t need to know in the New Jerusalem: words that describe sinful behaviors and illnesses for an example.

Revelation 21:2-8

Read Revelation 21-22 to see what God has in store for you. But don’t stop there. Yes, we do live in a world of pain, and we suffer pain.

But God has something more for us now.

LIVING IN EDEN TODAY

God can take care of all our physical, emotional, spiritual, ethereal, and social needs. Everywhere we look, there was beauty that testifies of God.

Do you enjoy the beauty of God’s creation? Do you enjoy a meal with you family? What can you do to make church, home, family, work, school more of an Edenic place?

Enjoy God.

Eden was designed as a place where God could have fellowship with man. Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. Before they sinned, they had perfect fellowship with God. We can have that fellowship with God today.

Philippians 2:1,2a If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy…

1 John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Enjoy family, friends, church, and creation. If we implement what Paul says in Ephesians into our live, we will be closer to living an Edenic lifestyle: Ephesians 4:25-32 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

• Are you living in Eden or a desert land?         
• Are there some words in your personal dictionary that would be better left out?
• How can you make your environment a better place that gives glory to God?

 Ron Cox   July 7, 2021

New Testament Baptist Church | ntbctucson.com