How God Prepares Us to Serve Him - Genesis 2:4-25
As we face a new year, with new challenges before us, there are some observations, three in particular that can be made about how God typically prepares those who trust in Him and seek to serve Him. These observations fit a biblical pattern that describe God’s dealings with the saints from Adam to Abraham to the Apostle Paul, and hosts of saints in between. We see this pattern even in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But, we certainly see it in God’s dealing with Adam before sin entered the human race.
The Bible chronicles what God began to do in the very beginning and how He ultimately achieves His purpose at the end of time for all eternity. In Genesis chapters one and two we find God creating a perfect world in which human beings unimpeded by and unblemished by sin begin serving God by cultivating, caring for and ruling over the earth. But in Genesis chapter three, sin has been introduced into the picture, and instead of serving God selflessly, human beings begin serving their own selfish self interests, disobey God and fall under the curse of a just and holy God. Then God, because He loves human kind, and is determined that His purpose to establish a perfect kingdom over which His Son will reign, implements a plan to redeem sinful man, and to redeem and reclaim all of creation for His kingdom and His glory. That plan requires the sending of His Son into the world, to take human flesh upon Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, to live a just and perfect life in this world, then to die on the cross a death for the sins of the world in place of sinful human beings, to be raised from the dead in victory, to ascend into heaven, and ultimately to return at the end of the age to rule and reign over a restored humanity and restored creation, that is to reign in glory forever over His kingdom.
It is important that we recognize that God’s objective to glorify His Son and to establish Christ’s kingdom is at core of everything He does, and it is at the core of whatever He is seeking to accomplish in our lives as well. We often come to God and pray, “Lord, what is your will for MY life?” instead of praying “Lord, what is YOUR will, and how can I join you in it?” I submit we would be a ton happier and more content in our walk with Christ if we made it our business to join Him in what He is doing than continually trying to force Him into joining us in what WE propose He should do be doing. He is after all the Head of the body, and not the tail.
So, we begin before sin entered history, and observe how God prepares Adam to serve Him, and I submit, how He prepares us as well. First, observe that God provides a place.
One: God Provides a Place to Serve. Genesis 2:4-8
Now, we’ll get to the why in just a little bit, but notice that God puts His servant Adam and subsequently his wife Eve in the place where He wants them! It is so easy to miss this because it seems incidental or obvious, but God arranges the places where He wants us to serve. For our first parents it was a garden. For Noah it was a boat and then the mountains of Ararat. For Jesus it was Bethlehem. For Abraham and Isaac it was Canaan. For four hundred years it was Egypt for the children of Israel. For three years it was simply being wherever Jesus went for the twelve disciples. For the Apostle Paul it was many months in the confines of a rented house in Rome under house arrest, and at the end of his ministry the Maritime Prison. For the aged Apostle John it was a Mediterranean “Alcatraz” Island called Patmos. I mention these places because they were not chosen by God’s servants, but by God Himself.
Christian, have you considered that unless God specifically tells you to go to another place, that the place where you are is the place He has provided for you to serve Him? He is the Lord of our comings and goings, and trusting and serving Him involves recognizing that we are precisely where He wants us to bear witness and bear fruit for His Glory. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes God tells us to “go” to other places, and we should obey Him. But unless He tells us to do that, we should simply thank Him for where He has placed us and to ask Him to help us make the most of the place He has provided for us.
My Master’s thesis project in seminary was an evaluation of evangelical churches in Long Island, New York, because I was determined to serve as a pastor there after graduation. That was my idea. Guess what? It never happened in spite of my greatest efforts to make it happen. God placed me in a rural town near Rochester, NY. I left that ministry after 5 ½ years because I aspired to go elsewhere for mixed reasons and ambitions. I was soon floundering out of God’s will. He meant for me to stay where He had placed me.
Lynn and I have learned that God wants us where we are, and when that changes, He’ll let us know! Our place is here in Ashley Falls and Canaan. It isn’t big. It’s very small, but it is the place God has provided for us. Have you given God thanks for placing you where you are? Ask Him to help you realize that the place you live is holy ground for you, for Christ is here because you are here, and it is His will to make His presence known to others here through you! That brings me to a second observation.
Two: God Provides a Project to Do. Genesis 2:15-17; 1:28
God not only provided our first parents with a place to serve Him, but He gave them a project to do, a task or mission to accomplish. And it may come as a surprise to some, but God has not rescinded or cancelled the creation mandate, it belongs to us as well. Stewardship of creation, bearing and raising children [a godly seed if you will] is very much part of God’s assignment for us.
Have you considered that God always assigns His people a task if they are in His will. He does not ask us what we want to do, though often He creates in us a desire which corresponds to the tasks He calls us to. Paul says, “It is God who is at work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure [Phil. 2:13].” But God is the one who determines the assignments. For Noah and his family, it was building a boat and caring for a huge load of livestock. You will note that Noah did not come up with that idea! God is the one who gave Joseph the task of governing Egypt and saving the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph didn’t volunteer for that job. God was the one who gave Moses the task of leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and bringing them into the promised land. He did not most emphatically want the job when God assigned it to him in the 80th year of his life. And again, God was the one who chose evangelizing the gentile nations for the Apostle Paul. But the point I’m making is a simple one. God provides His servants with a task, a project.
God who has chosen for you a place, also has a task for you to fulfill, but it is ours not to hunt around for what WE think He might like us to do, or to try to find a task for others to do. It is ours simply to enter into the work He has already revealed we are to do, and to join Him in whatever work He is already doing around us.
Sharing Christ with others, being a witness to those with whom we live and work is obviously part of that task. Engaging in ministry with those far and near and near and far is part of that as well. But, God often shows us something He is doing around us and invites us to join Him in it, and we discover that God’s power is in it as well. Celebrate Recovery has discovered legs in this church, because God is working in the recovery community around us. It has become His task for a growing number of our people. Outreach ministries to Haiti and Mexico has become something bigger than sending teams because God is at work in it. Somehow it has impacted our witness and influence in the local community around us, because God is already at work in the hearts of people close by, hearts which have been strangely softened toward those in need, and they are somehow drawn to us because of that. We only get frustrated when we try to think up tasks that we might like God or others to do. God is in charge, and He knows what we need to be doing. We simply need to join Him in it.
It is tempting to mistake a need for a call. There are many needs and more than we can possibly address. Our duty is to respond to those needs and tasks where God is already at work around us. It is not complicated. Join God in what He is doing and we discover that the results are far beyond what we would ever ask or think. What is God saying to you? He provides the place of service, and the project He has for us to do. Lastly, …
Three: God Provides a Partner to Help. Genesis 2:18-22 NIV
God not only provided His servant Adam with a place and a task, but a partner to help him. In fact, God said it was not good for him to be without a partner! A strong negative in the Hebrew language is used to make that point. Now, we miss the point if we conclude that this passage means everyone should be married. Obviously that was true for Adam, but what it does mean for us, is that in God’s economy, every servant of God needs others to fulfill his or her mission in this world.
Would the ministry of Jesus have been successful had He not had the twelve, and more especially Peter, James and John to help Him? Think about it! Would Paul have been able to serve God without a Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Titus or more especially, Luke the physician? Why did Jesus send the seventy-two disciples out two by two [Luke 10]?
Frankly, I know of no one who has ever accomplished the will of God or served Him well without the help of a partner. But, notice that for Adam, God not only provided the partner, but brought that partner to him! When God calls us to a place and a task, God brings a partner along to help us.
Shortly after losing Eileen, my late wife to the bidding of heaven, I submitted my resume to Bill Allen of Bridge Associates. One of those resumes was sent to Grace Bible Church, now Greenwoods Community Church. A few months later, I received a phone call from John Campbell, who represented the pulpit committee. That was in July of 1997. I had not yet met Lynn. In fact, I wasn’t looking for a wife to be perfectly frank! And, though we had dated a couple of times, before I came to candidate, I had not proposed marriage to Lynn. But, Lynn knew that God had called her to be my wife and to help me in ministry. The circumstances of our meeting in the fall of 1998 were miraculous to say the least. Soon it became apparent that God had brought her to me! I didn’t have to look for her. And, she was not just looking for “a husband.” God had spoken to her. God knew I needed a partner in ministry here. I would probably have chosen wrong left to myself or not chosen at all and stayed single. God knew better.
Celebrate Recovery began as God brought leaders to us, leaders we did not look for, but God brought them to us and to each other: Dave, Joe, John, Melodie, Bill and others. In the case of Joe it happened the first Sunday of our Life’s Healing Choices campaign. In the case of Melodie it was the first night we officially began Celebrate Recovery. And what an adventure it has been. But God is the one who provides the partners to help us in serving Him.
If we invest ourselves in something we think needs doing and we’re by ourselves, maybe there is reason to question whether God is behind it. Ordinarily it seems He is faithful to provide a helper when He is in a task.
I must close, but I want to share an observation from our last Elders Meeting. We were talking about finding some outreach like AngelFood Ministries, which came to an end last fall. From the very start, it was an exciting endeavor for which we never lacked help. At one point we had over 30 volunteers. It was almost effortless. God was in it! There was for us a combination of the right place, the right project, and a flood of partners to help. God provided all these things. I must say our mission outreaches to Haiti and Mexico, and Celebrate Recovery have somehow been marked by the same pattern of God’s provision. I believe God has more for us, but if we as pastor and elders try to tell God what we think He should be doing, and come up with some project on our own for our church people to do, we’re doomed to failure. But if we ask God to show us what He’s doing around us, believing we are in the place He has for us, I believe He’ll reveal the next project and provide eager partners to help us accomplish the work God has for us. Are you listening?