Voddie Baucham - The Three Trees – Genesis 1_28 – 2_17

0:00Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words. When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated. For Lauren even, like your efforts are futile and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people, only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine. Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that. And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip. With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations because we find the right people for your roles fast, which is our absolute favorite F word. In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder get a quality candidate within the first day. Fantastic! So, whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent. Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free. Don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip. Finally, that zippercruder.com slash zip.

1:01Finding great candidates to hire can be like, well, trying to find a needle in a haystack. Sure, you can post your job to some job board, but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along, which is why you should try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip. Zippercruder doesn't depend on candidates finding you. It finds them for you. It's powerful technology identifies people with the right experience and actively invites them to apply to your job. You get qualified candidates fast. So, while other companies might deliver a lot of, hey, Zippercruder, find you what you're looking for. The needle in the haystack. See why four out of five employers who post a job on Zippercruder get a quality candidate within the first day. Zippercruder, the smartest way to hire. And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free. That's right. Free at zippercruder.com slash zip. That zippercruder.com slash zip zippercruder.com slash zip.

2:07Genesis 1, beginning of verse 28. Now, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, there's a beautiful relationship between the two chapters. And it can sometimes be confusing because in Genesis 1, we have this view of creation from 35,000 feet, right? It's the big picture of what God did in those six days of creation. And then in chapter 2, after man has already been created, male and female, we have a picture of God creating Adam in the garden from the dust and creating Eve from his side. So it's obvious that what has happened in chapter 2 is that we have backed up, slowed down, and honed in on what God is doing in the creation of man. But we also see more than that, which I'll show you. At the end of chapter 1, we have what's often referred to as the cultural mandate or the dominion mandate. And then there is a bridge paragraph, those first few verses

3:07of chapter 2. And after that, we have Adam in the garden actually carrying out the mandate that we saw at the end of chapter 1. And the juxtaposition of these things is very important if we are to understand what that mandate means and what it looks like. Because so many of us, you know, as Christians, we go, yes, the Lord told us to be fruitful and multiply and subdue and exercise dominion. And it's great. And how do you do that? Because, you know, the subdue and, you know, dominion, stuff. We don't know how to answer the question. Why do you do what you do? Why do you go to work every day? Well, you know, I go to work because, you know, I feed my family. Okay, great. Is that, is that all? Is that the only reason that you do it? Why do we build structures the way we build them? Why do we do anything the way that we do it? Those questions are answered foundationally

4:14right here in these two overlapping texts. So let's start chapter 1 beginning verse 28. And God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit. You show have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth. Everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food and it was so and God saw that everything that He had made and behold, it was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Now here's the bridge paragraph.

5:21Chapter 2 verse 1, thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them and on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens in the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. That was the transition paragraph. Now, verse 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 in the land and there was no man to work the ground and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils

6:22the breath of life and a man became a living creature and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the site that is good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Peshon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havela where there is gold and the gold of that land is good. Delium and Onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Kush and the name of the third river is the Tigris which flows around east of Assyria and the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord

7:26God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden 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. Now there is much here to address but let's take these in turn shall we? First the idea of the cultural mandate. The cultural mandate is to the Old Testament what the great commission is to the new. When we think about this mission that God has given us as his church we think about the great commission and the New Testament. Go ye therefore and make disciples of Pantataethnay every ethnic group every people group right that is our commission. Well the Old Testament version of this is found in this first paragraph that we looked at in Genesis chapter 1. Be fruitful,

8:31multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, exercise dominion over everything. Now in four morning the following zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words. When you are hiring we at zippercruder know you can feel frustrated for Lauren even like your efforts are futile and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine. Fortunately zippercruder figured out how to fix all that and right now you can try zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip with zippercruder you can forget your frustrations because we find the right people for your roles fast which is our absolute favorite f word. In fact four out of five employers who post on zippercruder get a quality candidate within the first day. Fantastic. So whether you need to hire four 40 or 400 people get ready to meet first rate talent. Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try zippercruder for free. Don't

9:33forget that zippercruder.com slash zip finally that zippercruder.com slash zip access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees that I don't really need it. Infliction is killing me. Who cares big retailers and making record profits. That's why we support the Durban Marshall credit card bill. See things in credit unions help small businesses make pay roll. This bill would cut the vital resources they need while increasing megastore profits. They deserve it. Don't they? Tell Congress stop the Durban Marshall money grab for corporate megastores paid for by the electronic payments coalition. Access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees that I don't really need it. Infliction is killing me. But who cares big retailers and making record profits. That's why we support the Durban Marshall credit card bill. See things in credit unions help small businesses make pay roll. This bill would cut the vital resources they need while increasing megastore profits. They deserve it. Don't they? Tell Congress stop the Durban

10:37Marshall money grab for corporate megastores paid for by the electronic payments coalition. Fortunately there are many who believe that this mandate in the new testament has somehow supplanted. You served or replaced the mandate in the old testament. That now as Christians we are always and only about people hearing the gospel and coming to faith and we have nothing to do anymore with this cultural mandate. This is why we look sort of a skew at people who would say no we're not just establishing a Bible college. We're actually establishing a classical Christian liberal arts university because after all if the only thing that matters is people learning how to repent of their sin and come to faith in Christ why are we worried about these other things and quite frankly folks this is why as Christians we have given up this other ground.

11:37This is why as Christians we haven't been interested in the rest of the world. This is why as Christians we have so limited ourselves and so limited our focus and so limited our influence and the fruit that we have borne because we have forgotten about this other mandate that I'm going to argue has gone absolutely nowhere. It is still our mandate today. But how do we carry out this mandate? The connection of these three movements answers that question. First I want us to see work and why we work and again we can spend a month worth of Sundays just talking about work and how we do it and why we do it but we won't do that because we only have the time that we have remaining here but work why do we work and some of you may have caught it already in that transitional paragraph chapter 2 verse 1 that's the heavens on the earth we're

12:41finished and all the hosts of them and on the seventh day God finished his what what he finished his work on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his what work that he had done and in case you didn't get it the first two times so God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done creation now go down with me and look at chapter 2 and verse 15 the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it folks work is not a product of the fall work is a product of creation in fact creation is first a product of God's work and then our work

13:42is a product of God's creation God is now and in the business of the work of redemption and the work of recreation this is what Jesus says I must work the work of him who sent me while in his day for the night is coming when no man can work it is not work that is a product of the fall it is the arduous nature of our work that is a product of the product of the fall it is the difficulty and the opposition that we face in our work and quite frankly it's our attitude toward our work that's the product of the fall that is why today modern man's attitude is I want to work while I have to and then I want to not work anymore but in this unbiblical concept of retirement folks man was not made to retire we were made to work until we die amen somebody today not only do we want to retire but now we want early retirement huh that's the picture of success I retired early

14:51great book that addresses this about John Piper called don't waste your life and he opens it with the juxtaposition of you know the the the the lives of of two different people and one who you know they work and save up all this money and then they you know get the RV and go and drive and whatever and you know another who actually invests their life I'm not arguing that you need to do the same job for the rest of your life it is a beautiful thing if you can work and save and then after you've worked and saved you can leave that and go do something that you're passionate about perhaps even give your life to the Lord's work in the second half of your life amen so I'm not arguing against saving and preparing and moving on to something else what I'm arguing against is this idea that I'm going to work so that I will not have to work anymore especially this idea of early retirement what are you going to do you're in your forties you just stop being an idiot and now

15:53you're going to leave with all your knowledge that is absolutely ridiculous you just learn how to do something and you're quitting come on people that is not the picture that you get from the scriptures you get to the height of your powers and then lay it down absolutely not you get to the height of your powers and then you kick it into overdrive and then when your skills begin to wane you find somebody that you can teach your expertise to so that when you finally can't do it anymore you've replaced yourself and now you can go do something that doesn't require as much physical energy huh that's the picture we work not just to feed ourselves but we work because we're made in the image of God and God is the first worker we work because God created us to work here's a

16:58news flash we're going to work in the new heavens in the new earth huh by the way that's good news y'all because if we're honest especially men if we're honest most men don't want to go to heaven amen most men don't want to go to heaven now we'd rather go to heaven than go to hell but we don't want to go to heaven why because there's this picture that's been painted of laying on a cloud and playing a heart for all eternity there is nothing in the heart of a man that rejoices in that we lie we lie somebody stands up oh cannot wait to be in heaven cannot wait to be of the Lord but we will you know we'll be playing you know and men and men are going amen and on the inside not really that's not how we work created

17:59made in the image of God it works and that's why we work we need to teach this to our children because our children don't understand the value of work one of the things we do at ACUs we have a student labor program so all of our students are part of the student labor program where they are actually learning how to work earning part of their school fees through working in the student labor program you were two years we've been at this and in both years you know you have a banquet at the end of the year and the students talk about how they've been impacted it was amazing to us how every student every student whatever else they mentioned they mentioned the student labor program I learned how to work I learned how to enjoy work I learned how to love work I learned how to take pride in my work how many of us have hired someone to do a job and then had to take a day off work because you have to supervise them to make sure that they don't cheat you by taking a shortcut

19:02every step of the way because we do not understand the value of work we do not understand the reason for work we do not understand the very perfect finding great candidates to hire can be like well trying to find a needle in a haystack sure you can post your job to some job board but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along which is why you should try zip recruiter for free at zippercrooter.com slash zip zippercrooter doesn't depend on candidates finding you it finds them for you it's powerful technology identifies people with the right experience and actively invites them to apply to your job you get qualified candidates fast so while other companies might deliver a lot of hey zippercrooter finds you what you're looking for the needle in the haystack see why four out of five employers who post a job on zippercrooter get a quality candidate within the first day zippercrooter the smartest way to hire and right now you can try zippercrooter

20:05for free that's right free at zippercrooter.com slash zip that zippercrooter.com slash zip zippercrooter.com slash zip warning the following zippercrooter radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with f words when you're hiring we at zippercrooter know you can feel frustrated for learn even like your efforts are futile and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine fortunately zippercrooter figured out how to fix all that and right now you can try zippercrooter for free at zippercrooter.com slash zip with zippercrooter you can forget your frustrations because we find the right people for your roles fast which is our absolute favorite f word in fact four out of five employers who post on zippercrooter get a quality candidate within the first day fantastic so whether you need to hire four 40 or 400 people get ready to meet first rate talent just go to zippercrooter.com slash zip to try zippercrooter

21:09for free don't forget that's zippercrooter.com slash zip finally that zippercrooter.com slash zip access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees that I don't really need it inflation is killing me but who cares big retailers and making record profits that's why we support the Durban Marshall credit card bill see thanks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll this bill would cut the vital resources they need while increasing Megastore profits they deserve it don't they tell congress stop the Durban Marshall money grab for corporate megastores paid for by the electronic payments coalition for which we work and that we work because we're made in the image of God who works in creation in redemption and in recreation God works so we work amen so we work well but how do we work

22:11and this is where the last movement comes in and again we're skipping over a lot of this but we have to in order to get all this together now move forward with me if you will we saw that God took the man and put him in the garden but look with me in verse no before we get there quote me to verse number five because I have to make a comment about this first when no bush of the field was yet in the land 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 and the mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground then the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature he I have to comment on this because we live in a world and we live in a

23:11time where the radical environmental movement the green wind nuts the tree huggers as we call them where I come from have created this false dichotomy and we speak about human beings as though there is nature and then there is humans and humans are an infringement upon nature nothing could be further from the truth we are a part of nature it is not nature or us we are a part of nature not only are we a part of nature we are the crowning glory of God's creation and all of nature was made for us do not fall for this young people I know you're hearing it everywhere you go do not fall for this nature belongs to us not the other way around this is why our stewardship of it is so important listen nature is more productive because of us not less what else

24:17contributes to nature like we do huh you let this let this plot just go and is it going to become more beautiful and more productive or less it's going to be less so don't don't buy this false dichotomy don't buy it we are the crowning glory listen we are part of nature why do you think that we can go and take plants and from them derive medications to treat us because we're made from the same stuff that's why that's why there's a symbiosis as scientists call it between us and the rest of nature why can we eat the plants because we're made of the same stuff why can we eat the animals because we're made of the same stuff therefore we can process it

25:20it's not nature versus us amen all right that was extra now let's get to this verse eight the Lord God planted a garden in Eden the east and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground the Lord God made the spring up every tree that is pleasant to the site good for food the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil these these three trees are essential these three categories of trees are essential because we know that we work and why we work we work because the God who works made us in his image amen we know where we work we work here in God's creation that he made for his glory right but how do we work and why do we work this is the question that we have to answer the how and the why and these three categories of trees answer this question now there's some there's some obvious

26:26answers and and we'll get to those and flesh them out you know for example you know it wouldn't take Adam long to figure out you know there there are things here that give me food okay I'm here to work the garden and take care of it I have to take care of these things that give me food so that they can continue to give me food right excellent all right great that's why that's there this tree of life tree of the knowledge of good and evil that's there God's going to explain that to him all that but but here's the thing and this is the moment for me that's the aha moment and this is what separates cultures by the way that tree over there I don't see any fruit on that tree well Adam that's because I didn't make that tree finding great candidates to hire can be like well trying to find a needle in a haystack sure you can post your job to some job board but then all you can do is hope the right person comes

27:26along which is why you should try zippercrooter for free at zippercrooter.com slash zipp zippercrooter doesn't depend on candidates finding you it finds them for you it's powerful technology identifies people with the right experience and actively invites them to apply to your job you get qualified candidates fast so while other companies might deliver a lot of hey zippercrooter finds you what you're looking for the needle in the haystack see why four out of five employers who post a job on zippercrooter get a quality candidate within the first day zippercrooter the smartest way to hire and right now you can try zippercrooter for free that's right free at zippercrooter.com slash zip that zippercrooter.com slash zip zippercrooter.com slash zip access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees but I don't really need it. inflation is killing me but who cares big retailers and making record profits that's why we

28:27support the Durban Marshall credit card bill see things in credit unions help small businesses make payroll this bill would cut the vital resources they need while increasing megastore profits they deserve it don't they tell congress stop the Durban Marshall money grab for corporate megastores paid for by the electronic payments coalition warning the following zippercrooter radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with f words when you're hiring we at zippercrooter know you can feel frustrated for learn even like your efforts are futile and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine fortunately zippercrooter figured out how to fix all that and right now you can try zippercrooter for free at zippercrooter.com with zippercrooter you can forget your frustrations because we find the right people for your roles fast which is our absolute favorite f word in fact four out of five employers who post on zippercrooter get a quality candidate within the first day fantastic so whether you need to hire four

29:32forty or four hundred people get ready to meet first rate talent just go to zippercrooter.com slash zip to try zippercrooter for free don't forget that zippercrooter.com slash zip finally that zippercrooter.com slash zip for free huh then what good is it it's beautiful the first category of tree teaches us that we work at least in part to reproduce and enhance the beauty that God has put in creation there are some things that God made just because they're beautiful this separates cultures people there there are many cultures in the world

30:36that don't do things because of aesthetics they don't do things because of beauty but we're made in the image of God and this is the difference that you will use this illustration of the bridge right I have to get from this side of the river to the other side of the river and in many cultures it's just okay fine we have to get from here to there what do we have we get some rope we got some vine just take that across to grab that crawler a fine we got to the other side and then there are cultures that build bridges that are so beautiful that you'll go a hundred kilometers out of your way just to drive across it huh what is that difference and here's the amazing thing that just my eyes were open to even before we came to live here I just I couldn't I couldn't wrap my head around it that there is among black Africans throughout this continent and absolute unwavering belief in

31:41the superiority of white people it may not be stated but it's believed and so you come into a building like this and you go ah white people you see something that works ah white people that is not the answer when you see things that reflect the beauty of creation what you are seeing is not the superiority of an ethnic group but what you are seeing is the result of the deep impact of the gospel and the biblical worldview where we understand that there are some things that God created just because they're beautiful and we go out of our way in order to reflect that beauty and express that beauty not just in what we put on ourselves most cultures will do that right

32:45things that will put up things on ourselves that are colorful or whatever that but even in the homes that we live in and the churches that we build what does that look like let me give an example if you have ever been in nature and if you've ever been if you were writing for example down the Amazon River one of the things that you would see that God does in nature is that when there are trees on two sides of something eventually those trees grow and they're designed to sort of reach toward each other and as you ride through there'll be a natural canopy where the branches of the tree will reach toward the branches on the other side and it will automatically cause you to look up in awe that's not there because it's what white people do that's not there because it's what Westerners do

33:53that's there because architectural design at is highest is reflecting the glory and grandeur of what God does in nature that's why even the juxtaposition of stones that look like their natural form that you find have their own beauty you look at a mountain the mountain will crush you and kill you and yet we stand and stare in awe of just the natural beauty of stones stuck on top of one another but then there is a completely different kind of beauty when man exercising dominion subdues those stones and makes them smooth like down there the natural beauty of South African rosewood and you cut a rosewood tree down and you sand it and plain it and polish it

34:59and you organize it in such a way that you now create a useful piece of furniture that is not just functional but it also screams of the beauty that God has put in creation this this right here is a picture of what it means to take dominion it's a picture of what it means to subdue the picture of what it means to reflect the beauty that God has put in creation and the first set of trees teach us that you know what I can really go for right now literally anything that comes in a McDonald's carton wrapper or bag or a McDonald's cup yes any of those items you do it we've got your cravings covered now stop in for the flaky filet of fish the crispy snack wrap or a large fries for just $2.99 limited time only price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any

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37:03just say that they were edible they put pretty food it's good for food that there's there's two kinds of goodness here when it comes to food one is the goodness of the food that nourishes us so food has a nutritional value that's the goodness of food amen it's fuel for us I mean that's that's how we survive you got to have it in order to survive you can't go very long without it right so it's good for food but the goodness of food is not just in its nutritional value God has put thousands of taste buds in your mouth and there is also the goodness of food because it brings pleasure when you eat it right and when you have these contrasting flavors that come to get the sweet and the sour and the hot and the salty and the yeah it's just good and it's amazing how there's certain things that sort of occur together in

38:08nature and when you cook these things together in the right way they just explode with flavor because goodness is not just in the nutritional value but folks you know you eat with your eyes first and then you eat with your nose and with your hands and with your ears how can you just hear a wonderful piece of steak sizzling on the fire what time we eat oh see this this is also goodness so when we talk about goodness we're talking about things that are good for us and things are the good to us things that are pleasurable and we do things for that pleasure as well and this is another thing that we sort of lose when you you know that cultural mandate yeah that was for them but you know we have the great commission one of the things that you notice about

39:12people who think like this is that they also think like this if it's pleasurable we probably shouldn't be doing it you can't say amen y'all to be out y'all to say out right some of you grew up in that environment right some of you grew up in that environment where it's like oh man if it's too if you like it yeah that's probably because see godliness is about for going pleasure says who says who my savior made the best wine last hello goodness goodness which is why again there's the one culture that you know hey we got to get from here to the other side of the bridge let's just throw a rope over there or let's just do whatever

40:12there's no there's no sense of of the goodness of that by the way here's what goodness also does for us because it's good for us and good to us we cultivate it in such a way that we can continue to enjoy it that's the difference between a culture that cultivates plants and cultivates animals for long-term enjoyment and those who think nothing of it that'll hunt something into extinction or eat all of it and then starve the next year these are biblical concepts let's make a bridge fine let's make the bridge let's just functional get across there terrible materials it's not beautiful and we're probably going to have to replace it in a few months or at most a few years because we did not pay attention to goodness this this is not white this is not western this is not cultural this is biblical

41:18amen there's another set of trees tree the knowledge of good and evil the tree of life what are these tree stages these tree stages truth truth beauty goodness this is where ethics come from there are things that are right and there are things that are wrong and there is a God who determines what things are right and what things are wrong so now let's go back to our bridge and we're going to apply truth beauty and goodness there's something on the other side that we need to get to fine let's build a bridge excellent let's do that let's use good sturdy material that's going to last let's do it in such a way that it will be aesthetically pleasing beautiful to the eye and let's do it in such a way that it will be safe

42:22for people to cross because people are made in the image of God and life needs to be protected that's why we need universities that don't just teach pastors but also teach architects engineers lawyers doctors because no matter what you do truth beauty and goodness must guide all your work I don't care what that work is it has to be rooted and grounded in truth beauty and goodness it has to be it must be one of the things we've been talking about is part of our student labor program is outreach right and so doing works in the neighborhood and some things like this and you know one of the things that we're talking about is doing sidewalk where we are like fixing up the street and doing a sidewalk where we are and doing a

43:24little pamphlet about sidewalks because it amazed I mean it's just amazing to me you know coming coming from the United States it's amazing living in Lusaka where the overwhelming majority of people walk everywhere they go and nobody builds sidewalks whereas in the United States they're overwhelming majority of people drive and everybody builds sidewalks but why do people build sidewalks because of the value and dignity of human life a culture that doesn't build sidewalks is a culture that is not expressing the value and dignity of every human life and the responsibility that we have to protect it and so you know a bit of a whole flyer why is it why why is it you putting it a sidewalk here's why because here's what sidewalks say

44:27truth beauty goodness but there is a connection between these two between our great commission and this cultural mandate and it's connected by three trees the trees of the garden we've seen but then there is the tree of the cross because right after the tree of the garden there's a fall and our federal head Adam who represented all of us fell and became an enemy of God and put himself and all of his posterity under the wrath of God because of his sin and from then on there is this promise of a redeemer who will come and what will this redeemer do this redeemer will wrap himself in flesh live a perfect life in order to gain righteousness for those who are under his federal headship and then die a sinner's death that he does not owe in order to pay the penalty that Adam and all of his posterity owe so

45:32Christ becomes our new federal head because of another tree but it doesn't end there because the Bible moves forward and it ends with another scene go with me to the end of the Bible and look at Revelation chapter 22 last chapter of the last book and the Bible and we'll find something amazing there Revelation chapter 22 then the angel showed me the river of the water of life bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and the land through the middle of the street of the city also on either side of the river the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations by the way what happens when you put a huge tree on either

46:41side of a river and give it time to grow they will reach out for each other and we end where we begin trees which teach us truth beauty and goodness and almost immediately there is a fall because of a misuse of a tree and then there is a promise which invents you in the god man dying on another tree and then there is the completion of not only our redemption but the redemption of creation and the final tree you see the gospel is not just about us escaping the penalty of our sin it is about us being made new from the inside out because the fall didn't just alienate

47:45Adam from God if you read the curse in chapter 3 now all of a sudden the ground is cursed there's thorns and there's thistles and there is the sweat of his brow the fall also alienated man from creation so now creation according to Romans chapter 8 is even groaning for its redemption so now the god man Christ our new federal head comes and he dies on a tree and we come to repentance and faith in him and not only does he renew our relationship with God but he also renews and restores our relationship with creation itself so that Christians now are not only changed inwardly but were changed outwardly and our very environment begins to reflect the newness of the man within beyond that the bible says that God is also about the business of creating through the souls of

48:45men a dwelling place for God so this building motif is carried throughout and till we get to the new Jerusalem which is another building that is yet to come so as we build things like this we are also expressing outwardly an inward yearning that God has put into us for the building that is yet to come that we will inhabit and be a part of do you see do you see how all of this is connected you see why you can't separate the saving of your soul from the way that your saved soul interacts not only with God but with your fellow man and with everything else around you do you see why we can't just take a job and go to work just to get a paycheck do you see that

49:46do you see why we ought to have purpose every morning when we wake up why we ought to be grateful for strength in our limbs why we ought to be grateful for the opportunity to work why we ought to be grateful for the opportunity to express truth beauty and goodness everywhere we go oh dear Christian the next time somebody you know any next time somebody says to you oh your building is beautiful here's what I want to say I'm just saying it is it is it's beautiful because you know there's God who created the world and we work because he works and when we work we pursue truth beauty and goodness and as fallen men we wouldn't really get that not to its fullest

50:46but because of Christ who redeemed us we're not only safe to have a right relationship with God but we express that relationship with God through our continued pursuit of truth beauty and goodness to the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I don't know about you that's a lot better than yeah thank you it is nice again this is not east versus west this is not black versus white you look at the world today and you look at the places where truth beauty and goodness thrive you look at where humanity thrives and what you will find is places where the gospel has had free broad deep and lasting influence

51:55and impact and where people have thought deeply about issues like this and actually apply it to the way that they did everything truth beauty goodness let's pray God we thank you for everything that you have done in creation and redemption and everything that you are doing in recreation we thank you for the trees of the garden that teaches truth beauty and goodness we thank you for the tree of the cross that redeems us from the fall and we thank you for the tree that is yet to come

53:01that we will enjoy for all eternity grant by your grace that we might embrace these truths and be embraced by them grant that all of our lives would be defined by this pursuit of truth beauty and goodness and grant Father that as a result of it people will see your church and recognize not only our inward spiritual change but this outward manifestation of it that says we're different and we pray that you would grant this not for our glory but for your own

54:06and we pray this in Christ's name