Gtcotr/ss032711
I absolutely love the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. Genesis introduces us to God, explains who we are, how we got here, and where we are going.
As many of you know, I am in love with teaching. When my life is all summed up one day in heaven I know that it will confirm the passion of my call to teach the eternal principles of God to all mankind. I can hardly recall a moment in my life when I am not motivated and inspired to teach others what I have learned. I am continually consumed with its potential to meet needs and change lives.
I have an overwhelming zeal to impart the principles of God’s Word to people and see them embrace the revelation, commit to the truth and begin ordering their lives and families according to God’s plan.
My greatest fault lies in my sensitivity to rejection, not personal rejection, but rejection to the Word of God of which I have been made but a messenger. At times the burden to teach others the way of the Master is overshadowed by the pain of seeing them ignore, discount, disregard, or discontinue the very Word which would give them life, love, joy, peace, and a future.
So, you can understand why each time I approach this pulpit I am, on the one hand confident that I have a Word from God and am well prepared to teach, while on the other hand so very concerned that some might not be listening or might not realize the opportunity they have to hear the Holy Spirit of God speak directly to them through the scriptures He has given me to share.
With that in mind I pray this morning that you will listen and be attentive to the Word – it might be the Word which will save your soul from an eternity in hell or from the hell of this life. Or perhaps, it is has the potential to forever change the person beside, in front of or behind you, if only they are encouraged to listen without undue distraction.
Won’t you turn to the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, and we will look at a brief outline I wrote this week in preparation for what the Lord wants to teach you today. I’ll put the outline up on the big screen for you to see while I set the stage for the meat of today’s message.
Genesis
Chapter 1
· The Law of First Mention
· Creation
· The Law of “After Its Kind”
· The First Five Commandments (Adam’s Law/Eden’s Law)
1. Be Fruitful
2. Multiply
3. Replenish the Earth
4. Subdue
5. Have Dominion
Chapter 2
· The Sabbath
· Covenant
Chapter 3
· The Fall of Man
1. Spirit
2. Soul
3. Body
4. Flesh
· The Parenthetical Process
1. Dealing with Sin
a. Its Right
b. Its Power
2. Restoring Relationship
a. Redemption
b. Reconciliation
c. Restoration
i. Salvation
ii. Justification
iii. Sanctification
From Genesis 3 through Revelation 22, we are in a parenthetical moment of God dealing with sin. After God fully deals with sin, He will pick back up with His original plan for mankind and planet earth. Sin, sickness, poverty, and defeat will be locked up forever along with the devil, his angels, and all who would offend the grace of God. There will be a new heaven and a new earth and we will get back to the life God originally intended in the Garden of Eden.
At that time, the laws of Eden will once again be the commandments under which the children of God will live. However, I do not believe that we have to wait until God locks up the devil and destroys the earth with a fervent heat for us to get right with God and start living according to His original plan for our lives.
If you have been born again by the blood of Christ and are living a life that is right with God, there is no reason why you should wait to follow God’s original and eternal design for your life. With that in mind, let’s look at the original 5 commandments of God, which I also call:
The Law of Eden
Genesis 1:28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
1. Be Fruitful
2. Multiply
3. Fill the Earth
4. Subdue
5. Have Dominion
Simply put in today’s terminology:
1. Be Productive
It is the will of God that once you are born again by the blood of Christ and have become a child of God that you begin living a life of productivity. Idly wandering or aimlessly moving from one dream to the next, one goal to the next without sticking to anything long enough to make it productive is not the will of God nor the life which God intends for His children.
Productivity, fruitfulness takes time, hard work, and an enduring commitment.
To have any lasting fruit there must also be an enduring root.
God is a God who is not just active, but rather productive. At the end of the day He has something to show for His labor … and His mind is always on His work.
2. Increase
To take what we have been given and make more of it. Whether it is our talents, our time or our money. The blessings of the Lord are but opportunities for increase. Your job is an opportunity, your children are an opportunity, your hobby is an opportunity, your day off is an opportunity, your life is an opportunity. God wants us to make the most of the opportunities we are given and increase.
When Adam and Eve were right with God He told them to be fruitful with what they had been given charge over but also to pay close attention to it and work it in such a way that it brought them increased opportunities. Increase is one of the first 5 commandments of God.
3. Expansion
Don’t just produce and don’t just increase, but also – Reproduce! This is the concept of filling the earth with others just like you who do what you do. God made it Adam and Eve’s responsibility to make disciples who would go into all the world and work God’s plan throughout the earth.
It is not enough to simply increase for our own purposes but we must increase for God’s purposes, so that the whole earth can be filled with the Children of God living right with Him and obeying the laws of Eden. To replenish the earth means to give the earth what the earth so desperately needs – like rain to cure the drought … God wants His Kingdom to expand.
This Hebrew word translated, “Fill” or “Replenish” means to “Abundantly Satisfy”. The Law of Eden requires that we who are right with God, go beyond the pursuits of our own increase and abundantly satisfy the whole earth with the glory, the grace and the gifts of God.
The Apostle Paul brings this into its New Testament reality with the verse:
2 Timothy 2
2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
He goes on with some of the other tenets of the principles from Genesis by saying:
2 Timothy 2
3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
Jesus gave the same commands with the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20. Basically, go and make disciples …
4. Subdue
To subdue means to conquer and bring into subjection. Sound familiar? Under the Law of Eden, Adam and Eve were commissioned to go forward and conquer the whole earth bringing it into subjection to the Kingdom of God. From animals to angels, whatever resisted must not be allowed to win. Adam and Eve were given an aggressive, decisive, and determined spirit to resist temptation and defeat the serpents of life.
It’ no different today. There is a battle waging for the souls of mankind. It is a battle in the mind and it is a battle for the mind. Spiritual wickedness in high places desires to captivate lives, destroy families, and bring this world into chaotic ruin. We who know Christ must be willing to fight and lay down our lives for the Kingdom of God.
Our fight is not with men for we do not wrestle with flesh and blood but with the forces of evil which try to take us captive, make us ineffective, and keep us busy, distracted, and worried, in bondage to debt, lust, idolatry and sin.
If we cannot win the battle in our own minds how can we win the battle for the world. If we cannot conquer selfishness in our own lives how can we ever conquer the devil in the lives of our children, our community, our church or the world.
The Law of Eden demands that we:
1. Be Productive Where God Has Placed Us
2. Increase Our Opportunities
3. Expand the Kingdom
4. Overcome the World
5. Have Dominion
God is desirous for each of His children to live in victory … to be in control, not out of control … to overcome, not to be overcome … to have dominion instead of being dominated by circumstances and situations of life in this world.
God established His family on planet earth to govern and rule over, not to be governed and ruled over by the elements of this demonic world system.
It begins with you! And it begins today!
Psalms 8:6 You have made man to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.
We were created to have dominion and have been given the right and the power to govern and control. It’s high time that we started acting like children of the most high God. God is saying to you today: Be productive; Increase; Expand; Overcome; Live In Charge of Your Life.
Take control today!
