Failure Is Not an Option

July 28, 2019                NOTES NOT EDITED
FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!

Acts 18:24-26

SIS:  The eternal destiny of many souls depends upon our church successfully completing our mission—failure is NOT an option!

Four of the most incredible days in the chronicles of man’s accomplishments took place from April 13 to April 17, 1970.  The Apollo 13 spacecraft with three astronauts aboard was launched for a lunar landing.  Two days into the flight to the moon an explosion crippled the spacecraft leaving the crew to what appeared certain death stranded in outer space.  The agonizing plight of the crew was being watched by the Apollo 13 support team at Mission Control in Houston, Texas.  The team was supervised by Gene Kranz.  Two, now famous lines, entered the English vernacular from that experience.  The first, spoken in the movie about the event by Tom Hanks, playing the Apollo 13 commander, Jim Lovell, said, “Houston, we have a problem.”  Exactly what he said is disputed.  The second iconic phrase is spoken by the Mission Control leader trying to come up with a solution to this insurmountable problem.  His actual words are disputed, but the phrase summarized by the movie is, “Failure is not an option.”

Failure, in this instance would mean the loss of the lives of three courageous astronauts, and that was totally unacceptable.

We can learn an even more important lesson by looking at the life of another “Apollo,” or actually Apollos, a learned Jew and early leader in the Christian church.  Apollos was from the ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt.  Alexandria was one of the most intellectually established cities in the ancient world.  We know from ancient records that Alexandria had one of the most significant libraries in history.  This library housed and estimated 1 million books.  A fire destroyed this library and its great treasures were lost.  Alexandria was not only and intellectual center of learning but a major economic hub.  As much as 150,000 tons of grain a year were shipped to the Roman empire every year.  Apollos was a early Jewish convert to Christianity and a respected leader in the new movement.  Well-cultured, well-educated and a natural orator, Apollos had a major impact on early Christianity.  He is said in Scripture to have been, “powerful in the use of Scriptures.” (Acts 18:24).

Apollos realized the eternal importance of sharing the gospel message in the Scriptures throughout the entire world.  He, like all great Christians then and now realized that “Failure in this mission was not an option.”  Let’s read about Apollos and this important mission.

²⁴ A Jew named Apollos, a native Alexandrian, an eloquent man who was powerful in the use of the Scriptures, arrived in Ephesus. ²⁵ This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught the things about Jesus accurately, although he knew only John’s baptism.  ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. After Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him home and explained the way of God to him more accurately.  ²⁷ When he wanted to cross over to Achaia, the brothers wrote to the disciples urging them to welcome him. After he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace.  ²⁸ For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating through the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah. (Acts 18:24-28). 

Notice the adjectives and adverbs that demonstrate the passion Apollos had for sharing the gospel:  v25, “fervent in the spirit; v26 speaking boldly; v27, greatly helped; v28, vigorously refuted.”          

It is passion for the Lord that pushes believers out into the marketplace to share the gospel.  Successfully completing the mission for which Jesus saved us and gifted us is dependent upon understanding three important truths.  Failure is not an option for believers who understand:  1.  Natural ability is not a requirement for sharing the gospel;  2.  There is always room for improvement; 3. Sharing the gospel is a “Community Effort.”  First, let’s note that

1.  Natural Ability is not a requirement for sharing the gospel

Now, I will note that Apollos was a naturally gifted orator.  V24 says,

 Apollos was, “an eloquent man who was powerful in the use of the Scriptures.”  A brilliant man, but nevertheless Apollos had one great deficiency that is mentioned in verse 25,

This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught the things about Jesus accurately, although he knew only John’s baptism.

Verse 25 clearly reminds us that natural ability is NOT the key to effectively sharing the gospel.  The key component to effectively sharing the gospel is the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said, Himself, (Acts 1:8)

⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The Apostles were all “unlearned men” (Acts 4:13) When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.

The only qualification the early disciples had was, “a relationship with Jesus Christ empowered by His Indwelling Spirit.

Jesus choose ordinary men specially to be the stewards of His precious message.  The key to effectively sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a person’s “ability,” but their “availability.”  I wish I’d have said that, but this is actually a quote from Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ in an article about one of the greatest evangelists in modern history, Dwight L. Moody.  D.L. Moody literally shook two continents for Christ.  Abraham Lincoln visited Moody’s Sunday school, and President Grant attended one of his revival services.  It is estimated that Moody traveled more than one million miles and addressed more than one hundred million people during his evangelistic career.  When Moody was a young Christian and successful shoe salesman, he heard a Bible teacher say, "The world has yet to see what God can do with a man who is totally surrendered to Him." The young Christian said to himself, "I want to be that man."  And, indeed, Moody became a man who did great things for God.  But, Moody was not naturally gifted as a speaker.  In fact, shortly after Moody accepted Christ as the Lord of his life and set about to become a preacher, he preached a message in his own little church.  According to one writer, at the conclusion of his sermon, one of the deacons assured him that, in his opinion, he would serve God best by keeping still. Another critic praised Moody for his zeal but pleaded with him, saying that he should realize his limitations and not attempt to speak in public. "You make too many mistakes in grammar." Moody’s response according to that writer was to say, "I know I make mistakes, and I lack many things, but I'm doing the best I can with what I've got."
That’s what it takes to be successful in sharing the gospel:  doing the best with what we’ve got.”  As I heard a man sing on the radio not long ago, “I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody who changed my life!” (words from a song I heard)

Throughout the Bible, the greatest heroes were often painfully plain people and at times even pitifully flawed.  Availability to the Holy Spirit, not natural ability is a key component to successfully sharing the gospel with others.  When you think you lack the natural ability or intellectual prowess to do much for God consider this, “Engineers built the Titanic, but an amateur built the Ark!”

Though natural ability is not essential to success in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must realize that

2.  there is always room for improvement

Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷ and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. (1Pet. 1:5)

Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity.  (Heb. 6:1)

Notice in verse 26, that two seasoned followers of Christ, Pricilla and Aquilla, needed to take Apollos aside and instruct him “more accurately” in the way of the Lord.  Apollos was “highly skilled,” but like all of us, there was room for improvement.

The blessing of grace is that God will accept you just where you are . . . but, He never intends for you to stay there.  God saves us to sanctify us.  Sanctification is the process of “becoming like Christ through disciplined and righteous living.” 

We should never accept anything than excellence in our performance as bearers of the life-giving message of the gospel.  We should always seek to give our best.  Bad service is never acceptable.

A man and his wife had just ordered dessert in a new restaurant in town.  The man ordered apple pie.  After taking one bite he called for the waiter and said, “Sir, what kind of a pie is this mess?”  The waiter asked politely, “Well, what does it taste like.”  The man, somewhat disgusted blurted out, “It tastes like glue!”  Without any hesitation the waiter said, “Well, then, it must be apple.  Our peach pie tastes like putty.”

We must never accept giving the Lord the best that we can give, and along that line, we should always be studying and praying to improve our service to the Lord.  We cannot do much about our natural characteristics.  If we are short, we are short. If we are stout, we are stout.  There are many things we cannot control but we can improve our serve by controlling the things we can.  Apollos, as we read in chapter 18, verse 25, had not received the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  This was common during the early days as the Christian message was spreading out from Jerusalem.  We read in Acts 19,

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples ² and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

“No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ “Then what baptism were you baptized with?” he asked them. “With John’s baptism,” they replied. ⁴ Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.”  ⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in other languages and to prophesy.  ⁷ Now there were about 12 men in all.

Apollos had a lot of “intellectual knowledge” about the life of Jesus, but like these 12 men, lacked the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Apollos could no doubt have acquired a great following with just his eloquent skills in speaking.  Many do that even today.  But, had Apollos, and these 12 men—or any man or woman—continued without the Holy Spirit, they would be giving God less than their best and it would count for nothing.  Apollos had room for improvement. After we have been saved and received the Holy Spirit, there are still at least six areas we have control over in our life in which we can improve our level of service to the Lord.

1.  We can control the CLOCK.  We cannot control time, but we can control how we use it.  Eph. 5:115-16, “¹⁵ Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— ¹⁶ making the most of the time,  ^t because the days are evil.

2.  We can control our CONCEPTS.  Think right and you will do right.  Prv. 23:7 is a difficult verse in the original language, but the KJV and NASB give a good translation, “[As a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he.  To be effective gospel presenters in our day and age, we must guard our concepts.

3.  We can control our CONTACTS. We cannot control everyone that crosses our paths in life, but we can control which people we share the most significant times of fellowship with.  As one of my mentors in sales once said, “You can’t soar with the eagles if you spend all your time floating on the pond with a bunch of ducks.” The Bible warns us, “Bad company corrupts good character” (1Cor. 15:33).

4.  We can control our COMMUNICATION.  You will never have to apologize for something you didn’t say. Jam 1:19  let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.  God gave us two ears and only one mouth for a reason.

5.  We can control our COMMITMENTS.  Our time on earth is limited. We must set priorities.  If everything is equally important, nothing is important.  The Lord declared, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these [other] things shall be added unto you” (Mt. 6:33).

6.  We can control our CONCERNS.  Related to controlling our commitments, we must control our concerns.  Not all ills in the world are equally worthy of our grave concerns.  Our tears are precious.  We should save our tears for those things that are most worthy.  In the Bible Jesus is only recorded as weeping three times.  Once, when His friend Lazarus died (Jn. 11:35); and once, when He realized how lost and hopeless the world was without Him (Lk. 13:34).  In general, the Bible says Jesus wept when He prayed for others (Heb. 5:7). 

We do not all possess natural talents for speaking eloquently like Apollos, but we all can improve, and should improve, our skills by controlling the things in life we can control.

Being an effective communicator of the gospel of Jesus Christ does not require natural ability, but does require diligence toward improvement.  Sometimes, the most important component guaranteeing that our gospel mission will not fail is to realize

3.  evangelism is a COMMUNITY project. 

Notice the gospel partnerships in just this one story of Apollos.  In Acts 18:18 we read, “And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila.”

The Great Apostle Paul was no “Lone Ranger.”  He often travelled with partners, like Luke, Silas, Barnabas, Mark and here we see him with Pricilla and Aquilla.  Then as we read earlier this morning that Pricilla and Aquilla partnered with Apollos by, “[taking] him home  and explained the way of God to him more accurately” (Acts 18:26).

One of the most important, and one of the often neglected, components in the gospel mission is the importance of COMMUNITY.  The Gospel Mission is a partnership, not only with God through the Holy Spirit, but also through the encouragement and support of the fellowship of God’s people.  The concept of “community” arises from the very nature of God and is the first important Biblical presented in the Bible, even before the doctrine of creation (though only one word before). 

In the beginning GOD (Gen. 1:1).  The word for God is “Elohim.”  The “im” at the end of the word is the Hebrew equivalent of adding “s” to the end of a word.  “El” is the general description of the Creator.  (“o” is a connecting vowel).  Now, do not confuse this with meaning there is more than “one” God.  This is an expression used in Hebrew referred to as the “plural of majesty.”  There is only One God (Deu. 6:4).  But, within One Being of God, three Perfect Person exist in perfect community with each other.

Don’t try too hard to wrap your brain around the concept of Three Persons, but One God. It will make your head to explode.  Just accept the way God presents Himself to us, and marvel that within His glorious nature is the principle of perfect community.  God has never been “alone,” and He does not expect us to fulfill His mission alone.

A person can endure hardship with even the very minimum of possession, but one will shrivel and die without “community.”  One heartwarming example of this is the situation with the prisoners captured in Viet Nam and kept in solitary confinement at what became known as the Hanoi Hilton.  Though kept separated in small, concrete rooms, they devised a way to communicate with each other through the thick concrete walls by tapping on the walls with their tin drinking cups.  Through their tapping they shared Scripture, stories, and hope.  The most commonly tapped message was:  “Tap, Tap, Pause, Tap, Tap.  That represented the letters, G-D-God Bless.” 

Nothing is more precious in this life than our relationships, and that is a key component to sharing the gospel.  Just sharing our lives together in worship, study, prayer, and fellowship supports the gospel mission.  The motivation for sharing the gospel comes from our relationships:  first to God through Christ, and then with others through community.  It takes both components to make sure the mission does not fail.

The older I get, the more I understand the importance of community.  I don’t like to be alone with my thoughts—and many times, they don’t like me much either.  I am so thankful for my wife, my kids, and now my grandkids.  This reminds me of a story I read about a man who loved his wife more than anything in life. Like most husbands, he realized how lost he’d be without her.  He would do anything for her.  One day the man was brought before the judge. He protested the charge saying it was all a misunderstanding.  The judge asked, “How, Sir, was this a misunderstanding?” The man explained, “Well, Judge.  It was my wife’s birthday.  She said, ‘I would love to have a mink “stole” for my birthday.’  So, Judge, when her birthday came, so I went out and “stole” one for her.”

Perhaps our love is not always perfect, but it is always needed.  Being a part of a warm, friendly, generous, godly “community” protects us from the stresses of life—and especially from the stresses of sharing the gospel with others.  Community helps guarantee our mission will not fail.  Will you commit yourself to God’s Community so that together we can fulfill the Mission to which He called us?

The eternal destiny of many souls depends upon our church successfully completing our mission—failure is NOT an option!  This mission does not require natural ability; it does require continuous improvement; but is also a community effort.  We simply must not fail in this mission.

3 Circles: God's Design

July 7, 2019                  NOTES NOT EDITED
3 Circles:  God’s Design

Genesis 1-2 (esp. 1:31)

SIS:  God designed us to delight in Him and His perfect creation.

What can we learn from the story of “Fred and the Four Mongooses.” My son and his fiancé live in Hawaii. They are one month into a new stage of life as parents. My grandson, James, is the focus--the near totality of their lives. His birth has brought so much joy and such a sense of purpose.

But, there is also sad news to report--in fact, there is ALWAYS sad news to report. Fred is no longer with us. Fred was a beautiful Red Rooster who lived in the palms behind my son's house, and spent the mornings--every morning at 4--crowing from the top of the roof. When a cool breeze was blowing and the front door was open, Fred would strut into the living room to say "Hello."  Last week, Fred seemed to be "under the weather" (whatever that means for a rooster). He just wasn't himself. Later in the day, four mongooses (or is it mongeese) attacked Fred--and yes, ate him.  My son devotedly scooped up the pile of feathers left behind and buried them in the palms where Fred had made his home.

This sad story is but one of millions of stories--just last week-- that show the "Brokenness" of the world in which we live in. We live in "dog eat dog world" (or mongoose eat rooster), where tragedy abounds. Death, despair, discord, and decay abound in our world. However, God never intended our lives be filled with what the quartet on Hee Haw used to sing about: "Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all *slobbering lip sound* Gloom, despair, and agony on me!"
[VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAAKPJEq1Ew]

We will examine several aspects of God’s Design in our lives.  We will anchor our study with God’s conclusion of His creation, with the crowning jewel of that creation being man.  READ Gen. 1:28-31.

           

1.  First and foremost, God designed us to bring delight TO Him.

Let us go all the way back to the very beginning, actually we can glimpse philosophically beyond the beginning when there was only God.  Your life will continue to be broken, chaotic, and meaningless until you realize one overriding principle in the Bible:  “It is NOT about you!”  Peace, harmony, and wholeness is “all about God.”  Let’s go all the way back to the beginning to see this principle at work.  Genesis 1:1 says,

“In the beginning God . . . “  In fact, it literally says, “In beginning, God.”  The lack of the article could be incidental. Sometimes, the text just assumes the reader will supply the definite idea to the noun—especially when the Hebrews only accepted One God leaving no need to always supply the article.  But, it could also be a means to highlight the Person, or Who of creation, rather than a specific time, when before God created it, there was no time in the first place.  I believe the focus in Genesis 1:1 is the Person of creation, not the time.  God is eternal.  Without Him, and without creating time, the idea of a beginning is a moot point.  Here’s my conclusion:  from the very first verse of the Bible, God is the central figure.  All creation points back to Him, and by His design all our praise is to bring glory to Him.  In one of the most beautiful passages in the Word, Ephesians 1, Paul uses the phrase, “to the praise of His [that is, God’s] glory,”  three times (vv. 6,12,14).  Beginning in verse 4 we read:

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.  ⁴ For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.  ^h In love  ⁵ He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, ⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace  that He favored us with in the Beloved. 

Again in 11-12, ¹¹ We have also received an inheritance  in Him, predestined  according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will, ¹² so that we who had already put our hope  in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory.  And yet one more time in verse 14, He [God, the Holy Spirit] is the down payment  of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession,  to the praise of His glory.

Above all, God’s design for our lives is to “give Him praise and glory.”  We call that, “worship.”  Worship, in the most fundamental sense, is recognizing there IS a God—and it is not you!  God designed us for His pleasure and we never find fulfillment until we find it through worship.  Augustine, a great Christian thinker said long ago, “My soul is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.”  That is how God designed us.  That is how we are supposed to function.

Worship is more than what we do: that is, more than singing songs, voicing prayers, listening to sermons, or taking up offerings.  Worship means to totally immerse ourselves in God’s Presence to give Him glory with our praise.  Glory carries the idea of “weightiness.”  Praise gives the picture of “shining forth.”  Worship means we feel the full weight of God’s Being in our everyday life and we shine forth His Light in our world.

When we are living in such a way that our very existence is “worship” to God, we experience sublime, existential ecstasy as we bask in the glow of God’s glory.  When we are worshipping God, according to His design, we have perfect peace and harmony in fellowship with Almighty Yahweh.  Adam and Eve surrendered this peaceful and harmonious fellowship with God when they sinned.  Sin entered the world, and with it came disharmony, destruction, and death.  God designed us to radiantly praise Him through worship, and when we depart from that aspect of His design, we experience brokenness.  We will experience this aspect of brokenness, and others next week, Lord willing.  God designed us to bring delight to Him through our praise and worship, and as a result God.

Years ago a man got lost hiking trails in the mountain.  He came upon some men along a trail and told them where he was trying to go.  The men replied matter of factly, “Sir, you can’t get there from here.  You have to start on the other side of the mountain.”  This is true also for our happiness and fulfillment.  We have to start on the “right side of the mountain.”  The right side of the mountain means we “start with God.”  We are designed to give delight TO  Him.

2.  We are also, Designed us to experience delight FROM Him.

One of the great mysteries man has attempted to unlock, for well over 2600 years now, is “Why is there something rather than nothing?”  If there ever were a time there was nothing, there could never be something, for something never comes from nothing.  Even the laws of science establish this, “matter cannot be created nor destroyed, This Law of the Conservation of Matter was discovered in 1785 by Antoine Lavoisier.  The Law of the Conservation of Energy came along in 1842 (Julius Mayer).  Einstein combined these two laws into the Law of the Conservation of Mass-Energy with his famous equation, E=mc².  This great discovery has led to many other great discoveries, but it has never unlocked the mystery:  “why is there something rather than nothing.”  That logically demands that one believe in the existence of God—however one wants to define that concept.  The concept can be discussed and debated, but the existence of God cannot be denied—at least not scientifically or logically

But, that leads to an even deeper mystery for Christians.  “Why” did God create anything—or anybody?  God designed us, not only that we would bring delight TO Him, but that we would receive delight FROM Him.  The Bible teaches that God created us to love us as His children.  Today’s English Version (Good News Bible), makes God’s purpose for creating us very clear (Eph. 1:5):

Because of his love ⁵God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his sons and daughters—this was his pleasure and purpose.

God designed us to give Him “praise and glory,” but beyond that, he designed the entire creation in such a way to give us infinite reasons and motivations to give Him praise.  He designed all of creation to so we would receive delight FROM Him.  The Psalmist declares that God delights in giving us delight (Ps. 37:4). 

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires

God loves to love us!  God IS love! (1Jn. 4:8).  Everything that exists—the entire universe—was designed by God to bring His children delight! 

God never intended Fred to be eaten by four mongooses.  In fact, God never intended that anything would die for any reason, ever!  Death is a consequence of sin, not God’s design.  God wants you to be holy—worshipfully devoted to Him—and as a result of being “holy” God has designed that we be happy.

God designed every aspect of our lives to maximize our capacity for enjoying Him and His creation.  God fine-tuned us, in the same way that He “fine-tuned” the universe for us.  God fine-tuned the Earth to support man’s life and prosperity, and then God fine-tuned man to enjoy the earth and all that was in it.  God made a perfect Paradise, on a perfect planet in a perfect universe and designed us to enjoy it perfectly!

A.  The Fine-tuning of the universe

According to the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in England:  In terms of the number of solar systems present in the universe, there are something like 300 billion stars in the Milky Way, so if 10 per cent of them have planets there are around 30 billion planets in our galaxy alone, and there are over 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe for a total of something in the order of 10^{^21} (that's 1 then 21 zeros) planets in the observable Universe. 

For centuries man has searched for another planet that would support life like this Blue Dot we call Earth.  So far, nada!  With 30 billiong planets in our galaxy and another 100 billion galaxies, only Earth is perfectly suited to support life.  One scientist said it this way, The more they study earth and our solar system, the more they realize that earth is uniquely suited for life. We don’t live on a random chunk of rock—we live on a privileged planet with just the right characteristics for life to survive and thrive.  God “fine-tuned our universe, and especially our planet, to give us life—to bring us delight.  But then God did something else marvelous.  That is

B.  The Fine-Tuning of Man

Man is perfectly designed to experience delightful bliss from God.  Every aspect of our individual and collective identities as God’s creations, was designed to maximize our potential to experience delight from God.

1.  Our gender identity (Genesis 1:27 - created us male and female)

2.  Our family life (Gen. 1:28 - be fruitful and multiply)

3.  Our work life (Gen. 1:28-30; 2:15-17 - work the garden)

4.  Our recreational life (Gen. 2:1-3 - He rested on the seventh day)

5.  Our marriages (Gen. 2:24 - leave and cleave) 

Absolutely every aspect of our lives from where we are born to who we marry, to the very day that we will die is part of God’s design.  Psalm 139:16 says,

Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Why is it that all the talk of “multiple genders, gender dysphoria, transsexualism, and same-sex marriage is so wrong-headed and so destructive to personal happiness and cultural harmony?  It is because, we were not designed to have multiple genders or same-sex partners.  Our sin and rebellion distorts the Imagao Dei, Image of God, in us and destroys our ability to have peace and prosperity.  The Bible preaches against sin because sin works against our blessing.

Why is it that all the talk of “multiple genders, gender dysphoria, transsexualism, and same-sex marriage, abortion, and a dozen other socially sanctioned immoral behaviors is so wrong-headed?   Why is such immorality so destructive to personal happiness and cultural harmony.  He knows what works best for us, because He created us and designed us for maximum potential.  We were not designed for such immoral behavior.  God did not design us to have multiple genders or same-sex partners.  It goes against God’s “fine-tuning” of our lives to maximize our potential for health and happiness.  Such behavior turns the bliss of Eden into the curse of Sodom.  Nobody knows better than God what gender you should be or what partner in life you should have, or what vocation you should choose.  He knows what works best for us, because He created us and designed us for maximum potential.  Who knows better how to maximize the performance of a machine, for instance, than the person that engineered it?

Every aspect of creation, and every aspect of man’s design was crafted by God for maximum delight.  God’s rules are not to restrict us, but to protect us.  God’s rules are not to limit our bliss but maximize it.  God designed us to Delight IN His Creation.

3.  God designed us to share Heaven’s delight WITH others.

An interesting part of the creation story for me is in Gen. 2:15 when God gave Adam a job:  The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

Adam’s job was to “care for what God had created.”  That job has not changed since it was first assigned to Adam.  It is still the assigned vocation of God’s children to care for creation—but with a very significant change.

Adam’s assignment covered the “physical” creation.  In the New Testament, we are introduced to a “New Adam” with a “New Assignment” (Rom. 5:18-19):

So then, as through one trespass [Old Adam] there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act [New Adam] there is life-giving justification  ^x for everyone. ¹⁹ For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,  so also through the one man’s obedience  the many will be made righteous.

The first Adam had the assignment of caring for the physical world.  Those who are disciples of Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, have an expanded assignment to care for the spiritual world:

Go, therefore, and make disciples  of  all nations,  baptizing  them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember,  I am with you always,  to the end of the age.”

In another passage Jesus summed up our new job assignment more directly.  As followers of the Lord we must, “seek and save that which is lost”  (Lk. 19:10).

God designed us to share Heaven’s delight WITH others.  We bring delight TO God most significantly, and we experience delight FROM God most fully, when we share the delight of God’s salvation WITH others passionately and continuously.  That is our “job.”  That is our “assignment.”  That is our purpose.

A young salesman returned to the job after visiting a new client to try to win a rather large account.  The young salesman’s face indicated that he had not been successful.  Sadly he said to his mentor, an older salesman, “I guess it just goes to prove that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”  Not allowing the young salesman to hide behind a cliché, the older man said, “Son, it is not your job to make the horse drink, it is your job to make him thirsty!”

God has given us a job, a holy, eternal assignment, “Make people thirsty for the grand delight of God’s saving grace!

Next week, Lord willing, we will study the second circle of the Three Circles of Life, which is called, “Brokenness.”  We live in a very broken world.  We will have more to say about this “Brokenness” next week, but for now, I’d ask you to simply acknowledge that we do, indeed live in a broken world.  Adam was given the assignment to care for a “perfect physical world.”  As followers of the Second Adam we are called to care for a world that is not only broken physically and emotionally, but is broken spiritually. Rom. 8:22 says:

²² For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains  until now

It is not enough to care for the “environment.”  Christ followers must care for souls that are destined for “eternal” damnation because they have abandoned God’s Design for His creation.

We are learning the “3 Circles of Evangelism”:  God’s Design, Brokenness, and the Gospel.  What is the ultimate objective of the 3 Circles?  As we learn from our diagram, the Gospel—the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—allows us to “recover God’s Design and Pursue His purposes.”  The objective of the Gospel is not merely to get us “saved and secure a place in heaven.”  Ultimately, the Gospel allows us to pursue God’s purpose.  God’s purpose is to “reengage with God’s creation by sharing the Good News (Gospel) with others so they, too can recover and likewise pursue God’s design.”

God’s work in our lives is not finished when we are “saved,” but it started.  Eph. 2:10 reminds us:  For we are His creation, created  in Christ Jesus for good works.

Heaven is too grand a blessing to keep to ourselves.  God’s design includes that each of His “saved ones” would engage with broken people in the world and share the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God gave Adam a “job” in the garden—Adam had a purpose.  The “New Adam,” Jesus Christ, gives His “saved ones” and even grander purpose—to tend to the broken, weed-infested souls of the world.  Ironically, Jesus did not die to get us into heaven as much as he died so we could carry on His mission and get others into heaven.  Heaven is a by-product of salvation, not the end-all.  If the only purpose of the gospel was to get people into heaven—God would snatch us up the moment we were saved.  He doesn’t do that, because, like Adam, we have a job to do.  Our job is to share Heaven’s Delight with others.

The Garden of Eden was (is) God’s Design for humanity.  The “Tent Cities” of Skid Row is the result of man rebelling against that Design—a rebellion we call, sin.  Sin took a Blissful Garden and Turned it into a Broken World.  God never intended for mongooses to eat Fred.  God put man in a beautiful, perfect garden.  That is God’s Design.  Man longs to get back to that Idyllic Garden.  Mission specialist refer to this as “eternity in the heart.”  Unless a person has become so reprobate that his conscience has been completely seared, all men and women long for the beauty, harmony, peace, and prosperity of God’s Design.