This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to our study of the book of Genesis and daily drive time devotions. This
is day two, chapter two as we're going through a chapter a day this time instead
of our usual chapter a week to walk through the book of Genesis. Today in
Genesis one we looked at the truth of God in the beginning, God's word to start
the day, God's joy to end the day, God's steps in the process, and mankind at
the center that were made in his image.

There's a sixth thing that you and I need to understand about how God created
that helps us to come to grips with his purpose for our lives every day. And
it's in Genesis chapter two verses one to three, Genesis two, one to three says
thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the
seventh day God had finished the work that he'd been doing.

And so on the seventh day he rested from all his work and God blessed the
seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of
creating that he had done. The sixth thing to remember in creation that applies
to my life today is rest at the end. Why did God rest?

Have you ever asked yourself that? Surely it wasn't because he was tired, I mean
God's perfect, he is all powerful, he doesn't need to rest. So why did he rest?

Well there's three reasons, one because he was finished. The seventh day God had
finished the work that he was doing so he rested. God's work, Hebrews four three
says, was finished from the time that he made the world.

He finished what he was doing. This is extremely important, extremely important.
That says that this world, this universe is not some vast unfinished symphony.

The world and the universe are not works in progress getting like better and
better. The universe is a finished work of creation that has been marred by the
presence of sin and that's going to be restored by the glory of Jesus Christ.
That's a world view that when you get a hold of that world view it helps you to
see everything for what it really is.

Do you see the incredible difference that makes in the way that you and I think
about the world around us? Think of it as a house, a house with only a frame
completed or a Victorian mansion that's sitting right beside it that's been
neglected for years. The universe is not the house that only has the frame
completed and needs more work to be done on it by somebody who's willing to put
in the labor.

It's the Victorian mansion. The beauty is already there. It's just been
neglected.

It's been wasted. One needs finishing. The other needs to be restored.

This universe doesn't need to be finished. God already did that. We're the ones
who messed it up and through Jesus Christ he is willing to restore it first in
us and then in all the universe.

We need restoring. You want to experience God's purpose in your life. You don't
just try to do better.

You ask for God's restoring power. God rested because he was finished. God
rested also to give us an example to follow.

Over in Exodus 20, God commands us also to rest, work and get everything done
during six days each week. But on the seventh day, it's a day of rest to honor
the Lord your God. God rested to give us an example of rest.

The question is, do you rest? Do you rest one day a week? You were built to.

God made us that way. He made us to work six days and rest one day. If you don't
rest, just like an engine that's overstressed, built only to go at this certain
number of RPMs and you run it higher, it's going to break down.

If you don't rest, you'll break down physically or emotionally. You'll break
down. Now, how you rest, that's between you and God.

All kinds of people want to tell you how you have to rest. That's a favorite
hangout of legalists. But that you rest, God says, this is my command.

I've given you an example to follow. He also did this to fulfill his plan for
the ages. Hebrews 4, 9 to 11 says, "There remains then a Sabbath rest for the
people of God.

For anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did
from his. " This is talking about, instead of depending on myself for salvation,
my works, I rest from that. I depend on the work that Jesus Christ did for me.

God is showing us here the truth of salvation, even in the way that he created.
God rested from creation. Now, that doesn't mean he rested from holding the
creation together.

He is still holding it together, but he rested from this work of creation. Now,
in verses 4 to 9, we get more detail on the creation of man. God creates Adam
from dust and he's going to create Eve from Adam's rib and he breathes into both
of them the breath of life.

And then, beginning in verses 8 to 15, you and I see that God gives Adam three
very important things. First, he gives him a garden to live in. Verses 7 to 15,
"The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and a man became a living being.

Now, the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden, and there he put the
man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the
ground, trees that were pleased to the eye and good for food. In the middle of
the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

" And then down in verse 15, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. " Why did God give Adam a
garden? It was an opportunity to express his God-given personality.

The word Eden means delight in the Hebrew language. It was a place of delight.
It was a place where Adam could put his creative energies to work.

He put him in the garden to work it, to take care of it. One of the ways that he
did that is God allowed the man to name all of the animals from within the
garden. That had to be a great moment.

I can't imagine any of us who wouldn't have loved to be there, not to give our
own ideas. I would have had a few of what to name this animal or that animal, at
least to be able to just watch the process. You can almost feel Adam getting
more and more tired in the way that he named animals.

At the very beginning, you've got aardvark and, oh, let's see, duck-billed
platypus. He's got these great names at the beginning. He's getting tired at the
end of the day, and he's going cat, dog, ant.

When you get tired, you're not quite as creative. There's something about this
naming of the animals that is an expression of the creative mind of Adam. God
gave him that opportunity.

He gave him a garden. He also gave him a second thing. He gave him a command.

In Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17, "And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are
free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die. '"
God gave not only this opportunity to express Adam's God-given personality, but
also his God-given morality. The pattern of God's commands is very clearly seen
here.

First God says, "Here's what you're free to do," and then he says, "Here's what
you must not do. " Now, if you have a heart to follow God, you're going to hear
what you're free to do, and you're going to live your life there. If you have a
heart to sin against God, you're going to hear the one thing you must not do,
and you're going to live your life there, missing all the things that you are
free to do.

Those who feel like God is somehow trying to squelch their life, keep their life
for being all that it's meant to be because he's given us commands of things not
to do, they're missing out. They're missing out on all of the things that God
has said, "You are free to do this. " We are free to do what we've been designed
to do.

The reason that God frees us to do these things is because he knows us, he's
made us. It's our design specifications, he says, "Here's what you do, because I
know how I made you. " Now, we're going to find out next time together,
tomorrow, that Adam and Eve failed this test.

Part of understanding who we are is understanding what happened with this
command and this tree, and we'll get to that tomorrow. God gave Adam a garden,
he expressed his God-given personality, a command, he expressed his God-given
morality, and he gave him Eve. He gave him an opportunity to express his
God-given sexuality.

In verses 18 to 25, the Lord God said, "It is not good for man to be alone. I
will make a helper suitable for him. " So the Lord God caused the man to fall
into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and
closed up the place with flesh.

And then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and
he brought her to the man. And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.

" For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his
wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and
they felt no shame. An opportunity to express his God-given sexuality, not just
sex, sexuality, the ability to relate to the opposite sex in a healthy and in a
wonderful way, not competition, but completion of one another.

Not I am better than you are, but I am different than you are. And because we're
different, we need each other. There are two words in this passage that have the
power to transform any marriage, the word "wonder" and the word "oneness,"
"wonder.

" This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Adam had this wonder, this
awe that woman had been brought to him, that there was someone like him and yet
so different from him. And instead of living in bitterness or in irritation at
the differences, when you and I can live in wonder.

Now wonder, I know, also leads to wondering sometimes. We wonder how we could be
so different and still live with each other. But when you let awe come in, that
God would do such a thing, it does some wonderful things for your relationships.

And also oneness. They became one. God has made you one.

That is what so many of you experience. That is what so many of you desire.
That's what some of you have lost or are losing.

Come to those words "wonder" and "oneness. " God says, "I've created you in my
image. " And this is a way that he expresses his image in us.

What is it about God's image, what he wants to do in your life that you need to
experience today? Let's take a minute to talk to Jesus about that. And maybe
today you just need to express your God-given personality by enjoying the person
God has made you to be, the things he's given you to do.

Instead of complaining, enjoying. Maybe you need to express your God-given
morality, seeing right from wrong, asking God for strength to resist temptation,
to say yes to him. Or maybe you need to express your God-given sexuality and
just say, "Jesus Christ, help me to rejoice in the differences rather than being
irritated by the differences.

Thank you for your wisdom. " Even though I sometimes question it, I never
question you. And so I pray that I could live in a place of wonder and oneness.

And I pray this, Jesus, in your name, amen. Tomorrow, as we look at Genesis 3,
everything changes for everyone.