Keith Battle - I Got You Forever

Genesis chapter 2, if you have a Bible. Last month, I visited a couple of places, giving talks about this chapter in the book of the Bible. I shared things I hadn’t communicated with you all, and let me say, it seemed to be helpful to others. So, I feel like this is an excellent time to share with you all. Genesis chapter 2, let me begin reading, starting in verse 7. Let’s pray:

Father, please speak to us during this time. Make preaching easy and life-giving. I pray that you would empower me to speak to your people, to those who are here and those who are listening. Give us what we need in this service. Enlighten us, inform us, correct us, inspire us, encourage us, and help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Genesis 2:7 in the New Living Translation states, «Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.» Then verse 8 says, «The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.» God placed him after he formed him; he placed him in this garden. In verse 15, the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. Verse 18 states, «Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.'» In verse 21, it says, «So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening.» Then verse 22 states, «The Lord God made a woman from the rib and brought her to the man.» Verse 25 says, «Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.»

Back to verse 8: «The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east.» Verse 15: «The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.» I want to use as a subject today, «Musings from Eden.» These are just some thoughts that come to me as they relate to this place called Eden and what was going on relationally there, and what we can learn and apply to our lives from this historical context.

First of all, it says in verse 7 that Adam was formed from the ground. When it says «formed,» it literally means that God took dirt and made Adam. He made Adam out of dirt. I’m trying to look around, as I don’t want to offend anybody, but if he made Adam out of dirt, I’ve never seen dirt that wasn’t brown. We can get to that later. He formed him from the dust of the ground, and then the Bible says He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and this man Adam became a living person. He formed him, then He filled him. His form—his anatomical structure, his physical appearance—was made from the ground, but what He put in him empowered him to live.

It wouldn’t matter if he had a form without something in him to move him. The form is important, but what He filled him with is more important. I say this to every single woman here because some of you spend too much time looking at how a man is formed instead of figuring out what he’s full of. Look at the man around you, whether you know him or not, and ask, «What’s in you?» Look at someone and say, «What’s in you?» You need to find out what’s in a person—find out what’s in you. Tell them, «Keep talking so I can see what’s in you.»

You missed that! «Keep talking so I can see what’s in you,» because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. If you keep talking, your mouth will reveal your true self. I need to see who you are. Adam is formed from dirt but filled with the divine, and I think what people are filled with is essential. This man, now formed and filled, receives his assignment—that’s the right order. He’s placed into a place called the Garden of Eden, east of the garden.

The Bible says God planted a garden for him, then placed him there. Verse 8 says He plants the garden and then places Adam there. He’s planted in a fruitful, growing nursery, but God, deliver me from anything that isn’t growing.