Keith Battle - Adam's Family - Part 1

This is «The Adams Family» series. If you have a Bible, electronically or manually, turn with me to Genesis chapter 2. Even if you don’t have the Bible, we have you covered; the verses will appear on the screen. If you are physically able, please stand with me to honor God’s word without harm to yourself as I read this passage I want to focus on today. I’m going to start reading at verse 7 and end at verse 18, then read verses 21 to 23. All right, beginning at verse 7, it says, «Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and made a man; he breathed air into the man’s nose to give him life, and the man became alive.» Verse 18: «Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to live alone; I will make a helper who is right for him.'» Verse 20: «So the Lord God caused the man to sleep, and while the man was sleeping, God took a rib from him.» I say this at every service; I have to say it to you all, too, so this is just a joke—just a joke. Look at someone next to you and say, «This is just a joke.» Don’t be calling the Shade Room and all that—just a joke. When I was in Bible College studying the Old Testament in a survey class, I had questions about the ethnicity of Adam; I just wanted to know where the Garden of Eden was. This professor said it had to be in the region of Africa. So then I said, «Well, then Adam had to be black!» One of my classmates, a cool guy named Shane, who was a white pastor and meant no harm by it, leaned over and whispered to me in class one day. He said, «You know, Keith, Adam couldn’t have been black; he could not have been black.» I said, «What do you mean?» He says, «You know God couldn’t have gotten a rib from a black man.» Anyway, back to verse 21: «So the Lord God caused the man to sleep; while the man was sleeping, God took a rib from him, then he closed up the place in his body.» Verse 22: «The Lord God used the man’s rib to make a woman, and he brought the woman to the man.» Verse 23: «Then the man said, 'This is finally someone who is right for me; she has bones taken from my bones, her body comes from my body. I will call her a woman because God used a man to make her.'» Before you are seated, I want you to put in the chat, and I want you to tell two people near you, «Tell them this: I was built for this! I’m built for this!» Yeah, I’m built for this! You may be seated. I’m built for this! I don’t know of many things in life that are more challenging than living without knowing why you’re here—purpose. What is my purpose? Why did God make me the way he made me? Why did he give me the abilities and talents he gave me? Why am I so quirky? Why did he make me with the flaws, strengths, passions, and interests that I have? Living life without knowing my purpose is hard to describe, especially when you’re around people who seem to have known since childhood what they were meant to do. You ever know someone like that? From the time they were kids, they knew what they were supposed to do, and you just wonder, «What about me?» So, you end up changing majors every semester; you can’t wait to get to the registrar’s office: «I’m not taking that anymore; I don’t even like that.» You’re going through this quest, trying jobs and careers, dabbling in network marketing, jumping from one field to another, having no idea whether you will enjoy it or even be successful at it. Does anyone understand what I’m talking about here? That is a struggle! And then, on top of that, you have to deal with the pressure from well-meaning but fear-driven parents when they say, «You need to get a good education so you can get a good job.» What they’re talking about is safety, not purpose. Am I at the right church today? They’d say a few decades ago, «Make sure you study computers; get into computers and get a degree.» Everyone was studying computer science, not even knowing what that meant! But they said, «Make sure you’re studying computers because they won’t have any jobs if you don’t know about computers.» So, when you don’t know what you’ve been built for, it messes with your self-image, self-worth, and self-value; it suppresses your confidence and makes you feel intimidated around people who seem clear about what they are supposed to be doing.