Connected, Week 1

Tim Rivers | April 16, 2023

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Transcription

What's up everybody? Come on. Make some noise. If you love Jesus. Well, well good to see you. Wasn't last week awesome? Yeah. Resurrection Weekend. It was just amazing, amazing, amazing. First of all, I want to welcome all of our guests. If you're a guest in the house, we want to say welcome to Embassy City Church. We are so delighted that you're here and we hope that you feel loved, that you feel seen, that you feel accepted, and most of all, that you feel the presence of the Lord because he's here.

Amen.

He's been here. And where the spirit of the Lord is there is depending on if your KJV or not, right? If your KJV is liberty, if you that ESV is freedom, they both mean the same thing. We're so delighted that you're here. If you're online, thank you so much for joining us online, our Vitamin E family. Can we give it up for all those that are watching online?

So last week was the big weekend, and I just want to take a moment to say thank you to everybody that made that weekend happen. Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning, two times out of the worship teams, the parking lot teams, the guest central, like everybody, kids, teams, come on. Can we make some crazy noise for all those that made it happen? My goodness. These weekends happen because of so many people that serve so faithfully and they're contributing their time, treasure, and talents. And I'm so thankful for all of you that serve so faithfully. And hey, if you're in this place and you feel prompted to serve, I would encourage you sign up. Here's why. Not only will we benefit, but you'll benefit. Yeah. And here's the thing. We want to see the gift that God's given you. Yeah. If God's gifted you to be like the most friendliest person in the world, we want to experience that. We want you to be involved in what God is doing here. So be sure to sign up. Okay. So today we're kicking off a new series. We're calling Connected, connected. And I'm really excited about this because it is our relationship series. Now, let me add some clarification, because normally when you say relationship series, people are like, I don't need no relationship advice. It's usually romantic. So on the one extreme, you have people that are single that are like, I don't need no man in my life. You,

I'm enjoying my singleness. Then on the other spectrum, you have those that have been married for 50 years. They're like, ain't nothing changed.

But I just want to clarify that when we talk about relationship, this whole series is going to be about us talking about relationships in every context, not just in a romantic context and in dating and in marriage, but also your relationship with God. Yeah, your relationship with friends. There are a lot of things that involve relationships, and so that's what we're going to talk about. So you don't want to miss any of the weekends. If you miss one, go back and watch it cause they're all going to tie in together. Amen. Amen. All right, get your bibles. Let's go to Genesis chapter two, the book of Genesis chapter two. How many people brought an actual paper Bible? Let me hear you.

Ooh,

Yeah. How about the electronic ones? That better be everybody. What about the screens? Scream for the screen. Y'all were a little more quiet. How many note takers have we got?

Woo.

Woo. Yeah, that's what I said. Hey, if you're not a note taker, let me encourage you to be one. And here's why. And this has been proven scientifically, but when you take notes, it does imprint information more deeply into your mind. But notes are great because you get to reflect on 'em throughout the week and see what the Lord spoke to you on the weekend. It's a good way to go. Oh, that's why you said that. God, that's why you had me write it down. Yeah. So be a note taker and I would encourage you especially to do so during the series and starting today because we're going to be in this word. Is that all right? All right. Genesis chapter two, verse number 15, and the Lord God 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. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him.

Notice he didn't say, I will make a helper for him.

Ooh,

About to get real today. Now, out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called every living creature that was its name, the man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said this, and last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Whoa. Man.

I had to do it because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Somebody say amen. Amen. It is very important that as we talk about relationships in from the biblical perspective, in a biblical context, that we go to the word of God because God defines relationships. In fact, that's the very first thing that he defined. And so we're going to go to the word of God to see what does God have to say about relationships? And the world has its own definition of what relationships should look like, and then God has his definition. And so we're going to do our due diligence and go to see what does God say about relationships.

And so the topic for today, the title for today is First things first, I'm the Real is Heaven. Father, we come to you today and we say, thank you, Lord, for giving us this opportunity to be in your presence. I pray that in the next few moments as we dig into your word, you give us ears to hear your hearts receive and a mind to understand. Do what only you can do. Move as only you can move. We give your name, the praise and the glory in Jesus' name. And everybody say amen. Amen. When we talk about relationships and connections, we have to understand that all of us feel the need to be connected to something or some. One. There is an innate desire within all of us to be in and communion, to be connected. In fact, you are born into this world literally connected by your umbilical court.

Your umbilical court connected you to the mother that supplied you with enough resources and sustenance for you to grow. And then when you are birthed, guess what? We cut your umbilical cord, but we don't cut the desire to be connected. And because we have this desire to be connected, we join specific clubs or we certain political parties, or we want to be part of groups that we feel like aligns with our worldview and by the name of Brene Brown, she defines connection as connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard or valued. And here's the crazy part. We live in a culture that is the most connected and yet disconnected society ever. We have been fooled into thinking that just because we're connected to somebody on social media that we know them.

Yeah, that's the word.

We can have thousands of friends on social media. We can have hundreds of followers. And because we see snippets of people's lives and we see highlight reels, we somehow think that we know this person. Our society right now is suffering from false connectionism. In fact, some research has been done and they've found that one in three people say that they feel lonely. And then we had the pandemic just a few years ago and it just exacerbated the problem of loneliness. And then we have this independence culture that we live in. I don't need nobody. I can do bad all by myself, girl boss. I don't need no man. I'm handling business. I buy my own Louis Vuitton hustle bros.

Hustle.

Hustle. Boy, I ain't got time for no relationship. I'm security bag right now. We have this culture of independence, I N D E P... Do you know what I mean? But these are the same people that have profiles on bumble match.com, eHarmony, plenty of fish hinge, and some of y'all swiping left and right, left and right.

The reality is that all of us want to be connected. All of us desire to be in relationship. And here's the fact, you are given that desire to be connected by God. Yeah. God's idea is for you to be connected. It was God's intended purpose that when you were born, you were born innately with a desire to be in connection and to be in relationship. And so in order for us to understand, and let's go to the word of God, let's go to Genesis chapter one, verse number 26 because it's important if we're going to understand the plan of God for relationships and connection. Let's go to the beginning when relationships were first mentioned, and it's mentioned in Genesis, which is called the Book of Beginnings, chapter one, verse number 26. Here it is, thank God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his image, in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Now, there are two words in this passage that I want to highlight real quick. The first is the word man. The word man here in this passage can be, is translated as the word mankind or the human race. Now, I want to address this because there is a philosophy. There's a train of thought that believes that only male, a man, a male species, is created in the image of God and that the woman is created in the image of man. That's not biblical. That's not because, let's look at the Bible. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. So from the jump, God says, I've created both male and female to reflect the image of myself. Women are not just to reflect the image of another man. That's not the plan of God. God created both men and women to reflect the image and glory of God in your own uniqueness.

Yes, that's the word.

Oh, be cooking in here today.

The second word that I want to highlight is the word image. This word image of God is the phrase Imago day, which means to be an image bearer or to be a representative. Now, understand this passage is telling us that when God got ready to make mankind, he made both male and female to reflect his image or to be image bearers. So that means that as a woman, you reflect the image of God, and as a man you reflect the image of God. God created two individuals uniquely distinct in sexuality, but he also created them uniquely

Equal.

This place ought to be exploding right now.

Your equalness, your power, your authority comes from the definition that God gives you. Yes. So we are created in the image and likeness of God. What does it mean to be an image bearer? It means to reflect the nature and the character of God. And here's the reason why God created both Adam and Eve, because God says, I want you to reflect who I am now, who is God. God in himself is relational. We have to go no further than to even look just at the nature and the characteristic of who God is. God is the godhead, is of Father, son, and Holy Spirit. Father, son and Holy Spirit are uniquely distinct and yet are imperfect communion and relationship and fellowship. And that that's what makes one God three and one God is in fellowship with himself.

Yeah, that's good.

But God didn't stop there. God also created the angels to be in relationship with the angels. Now, listen, you're God all by yourself. If God was an introvert who just wanted to hang out with himself, he would not have created people because some of us, if we had godlike power, we'd be getting rid of some people. You know what I'm

Saying?

But God loves to be in relationship. He is exemplifying connection within himself, but he also does it with the angels. So when he created Adam and Eve, he created them to be in relationship. So now let's look at this passage because Genesis chapter one gives us kind of a quick summary of what happened on the sixth day. And then Genesis chapter two begins to kind of unfold in story form exactly what happened. So let's go to Genesis chapter two, verse number 18. Here's what the Bible says. Then the Lord God said this is after he placed Adam, he created, Adam placed him in the garden. Then he said, the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Now, this is every introvert's like worst nightmare.

Yeah,

You got to write this down. It is not good for you to be alone. And here's the thing, if you attend Embassy City every week and you're an introvert, I'm sorry.

Because for about 60 seconds, every introvert goes into a state of paralysis and panic. And then all the extroverts are like, come here, girl. You need a hug. All the introverts are like, no, but God has designed us so that we do not live alone. So you have to ask this question, why was it not good for man to be alone? Because when you look at the creation order, the first five days always end every day ended with, and the evening and the morning was the first day and the evening and the morning was the second day. And then the phrase after that, it says, and God saw that it was good. So when God created the skies, he saw that it was good. When God created the birds of the air, he saw that it was good. When he divided the earth from the sky, he saw that it was good.

And when he got to the sixth day and he created when he got to man, he did not say that man was not good, but he looked at man in a state of isolation and said, that is not good. So why is it that God looks at man being alone and saying it's not good for man to be alone? It's because God's plan for mankind cannot be accomplished in isolation. Think about this. When God blessed Adam and Eve, his plan for Adam and Eve was to be fruitful, multiply rep, replace the earth, subdue it, and have dominion. It is impossible for mankind to be fruitful and multiplied unless they're in relationship with another human. Did you know this may come as a revelation? Did you know that men cannot have babies by themselves?

Tell them,

Did you know that women don't lay eggs that contain little humans in them by themselves? It takes the union, a male and female coming together to be fruitful and multiply. God designed from the very beginning that it requires connection and relationship to fulfill his purpose. This is not just isolated to romantic instances, but God has designed you that you cannot fully express the image of God and do the purpose of God in isolation. You have to be in relationship with other human beings. This is how God has designed it. Now, think about this. God is the one that created Adam alone. And God could have just been like, whoops. Who told God that this wasn't good? It wasn't angels. Nobody was looking at Adam in isolation and being like Gabe to Michael. Yo man, go tell God this ain't right, fam, they just watched Lucifer get kicked out of heaven. They weren't about to mess up anything.

Michael and Gabe was like, yo, it don't look right, but y'all know what happened to Lucifer. You know what I'm saying? We got a good gig, fam. He's down there, Roman Irv, we out here singing on harps. You know what I'm saying? This is great. They weren't about to mess that up. God himself looked down at his creation alone in isolation and said, that's not good, right? So when God looks at Adam and he says, that's not good. We would think that the next thing that God would do is just produce a help meet for him. But God doesn't do that. The scripture tells us that after God created Adam and noticed that Adam was in isolation, he didn't immediately create another human being to connect to Adam. God says, the first thing I need you to do, Adam, is I need you to establish a relationship with me. Because when you establish a relationship with me, I will give you the essential package that is necessary for you to develop healthy human relationships. And if we're not careful, we can have this desire to be in relationship and we'll to find our fulfillment in another person instead of going to God. Here we go. We got to go to what creation order looks like. Creation order looks like this. God says, first of all, before I bring Eve and Adam together, I need Eve to establish a relationship with me. Yeah.

Yep.

Now, I got to tell you a story about a guy I know who was dating a girl. And two things happened. Basically, he knew that he wasn't going to marry her. And two is he felt God call him into a season of singleness where he just devoted himself to God. But the way the breakup happened was less than ideal. So basically this guy felt the God to go preach. So he goes and start preaching, and in the same time he's doing this, he meets somebody long distance, and so they don't really see each other that much. They've been talking a little bit AOL ims, and somebody like, what is aol? Right? Right. So they're just talking. And so he's out here trying to do the will of God. So then he gets called out to go preach in the area that she lives in. And when he gets there, he quickly realizes like, yeah, this is not going to work. But he doesn't know how to just tell her, Hey, it's not going to work. So he waits until two weeks before Christmas, what? Two weeks before Christmas to he thinks to soften the blow. I'm going to get her a Christmas gift as well.

So he goes and buys a Christmas card and gets like a hundred dollars Visa gift card. They go out to eat, right? He's quiet the whole time. He's sweating bullets. His palms are sweaty, knees weak. Nah kidding.

Well,

I went off track, but he's like, how do I break this news? And so he goes to drop her off and he's sweating bullets trying to figure out how do I tell her that it's over? But instead, he hands her the Christmas card, she opens it and she's like, oh my goodness. And she's thanking him. And then he follows that by saying, Hey, I need to talk to you about something. To which she replies, are you breaking up with me? And he's like, well, it's not you, it's me.

So that's the end of the story. He walks into the door and he leaves and he's devastating. Cause he's like, I don't think I did that right? But here's crazy. So he breaks the wither on a Thursday, right? He's about to go home because no doors are opening. He's not preaching anything, even though that's what he feels called to do. When he takes that step of obedience of breaking off and concentrate on God on Friday, he gets a phone call from a pastor that says, Hey, can you preach for me on Sunday? He goes and preaches for the guy on Sunday. Then that guy says, Hey, can you come back the next week? Next thing you know, it opens up. The door is like crazy, and he walks into the new year and preaches over 270 times at 50 different churches in his season of singleness. And then the next year comes right after his year of commitment, and he meets a girl two days into the new year who he ends up marrying and having kids with, and they live happily ever after. That guy was me. Yay. Hey, I was young. Let me help with a young guy in here that's got to break it with somebody. Break it off, bro, and do it right.

I know I didn't do it right? Cause like 10 months later she said, Hey, are we going to, I said, oops, I guess I wasn't clear the first time. Now it's over. I'm just being vulnerable with y'all. I'm just sharing my heart. There's two lessons here. Number one, if you're going to break it off, just break it off. Number two is it is probably a better idea for you to establish a relationship with God. Amen. Before you enter into a relationship with another person. Look, God, I just made that story.

Preach.

The reality is, in that year that I devoted to God, I literally devoted to God. I didn't talk to no girls. I didn't get no emails. I didn't get no phone numbers. And let me tell you, when these pastors try to hook it up, man, I had 'em do the craziest things. I'm talking about, Hey, I need you to meet Sister so and so. Nah, I, I'm single for this year and I wasn't even looking. We'll talk about this in the next couple of weeks, but I wasn't even looking. But the two days until the new year, I meet Jenice and we end up getting married. And the reason why I tell you this is because for most of us, when we feel that need to be connected, we try to find that in somebody else. And God established from the very beginning that when you feel the need to be connected, I agree with you, it's not good for man to be alone, but the first relationship you need to have is with me,

Right? Amen.

And here's why that's important, because when you establish a relationship with God, God will give you the essentials package that help you develop good, healthy human relationships. So let's look at the word of God. I, I'm going to talk about this. I'm going to give you four things that God gave that gives to us when we establish a relationship with him, and I'm going to call these the relationship essentials. Number one is God gives you identity.

Now look at what God did with Adam. God said, I'm going to make Adam in my image and in my likeness. Now, I want you to pay attention to that. God did not look at Adam and say, Adam, I'm going to make you in the image of the cow. I'm going to make you in the image of the monkey. I'm going to make you in the image of something else. God says from the very good go, Adam, I need you to understand. You get your identity, you get your representation, you get your purpose, your calling. You get who you are from me. If we're not careful, if we don't get our identity from God, we will try to find our identity in somebody else. Yeah. And can I tell you this? If you don't find your identity in God, somebody else will give you an identity. The reason why God gave Adam his identity first before he met Eve is because God wanted him to be secure and who God's created him to be before he presents himself to somebody else. If you don't know who you are before you enter into a relationship, you will have a crisis of identity in the relationship. And this is not just true of romantic relationship is also true of every relationship. Have you ever seen these people

That haven't gotten their identity in God? So then guess what they do? They change their identity depending on who they're dating. Have y'all seen these people? One moment they're a rocker because boyfriend plays in a rock band. The next moment they're an intellect because they're dating a professor. The next moment they're super spiritual because they're dating a pastor and then they're wilding out because I, I'm dating a dj. If you don't find your identity in God

So good,

Your identity will constantly change. Depending on who you are with, you will be a chameleon turning whatever color depending on what environment you are in. So God says to Adam, before I put you in a human relationship, I need you to derive who you are from me. That's so good. This is why image of God means a mago day. It means to be an image bearer. Do you bear the image of God or do you bear the image of your spouse? I'm going to let that cook for a minute.

Let it cook.

Whose image do you bear? Bear the image of your business partner. Yeah. Or do you bear the image of God in the partnership? God says, before you enter into a human relationship, I need you to get who you are from me. Here's why God didn't pattern Adam after another person. God's identity for Adam was original. When God identifies you, he identifies you as original. There is no one. You don't have the same fingerprint. You don't have the same retina, you don't have the same brain. Some of y'all were like, I know. That's right. You don't have the same voice. There are all types of just biologically unique patterns within you that aren't the same for anyone else because God gives you your identity. Here's the second thing that God gives you. God gives you boundaries.

Oh, y'all want word? Okay, I got you. Let's go to Genesis chapter two, verse number 16. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you shall 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. God provided Adam with boundaries before he met Eve. Why? Because if he didn't have boundaries before he met Eve, he wouldn't know where the line was. Too many people enter into relationships and their boundaries moved because they never established boundaries before they got into the relationship. Here's the thing, if you don't have boundaries before the relationship, you will violate every boundary. Can I get plain and simple? If you haven't determined that you're not going to do certain things in a relationship, if that person doesn't have the same boundaries, they will pull you to their side. So that's why we have people that say like, man, I never intended to have sex, and then they're having sex and they're left out in the cold because you didn't establish the boundary and walk into the relationship saying, Hey, listen, this is a forbidden fruit.

Let me ask you this question. What fruits will you not eat?

Talk about it.

We talk about fruits you will eat, but boundaries are things that you will not eat.

What make it fun.

God says to Adam, I need you to have boundaries before you meet Eve. Why? Because you can get so enamored by the relationship that you're going to have a moving line. And we know this is to be true because when God, here's what's interesting. After Adam and Eve, eight of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and God comes in the cool of day, God says, Adam, yo man, he doesn't call Eve. He says, Adam, what have you done? Why did God address Adam? Because God knew that Adam knew I gave you this boundary before Eve ever showed up.

Yeah,

I told you not to eat in the fruit before you were ever into another relationship. God has told you not to do certain things before you met that person. Yes. And we cry about all the things that we do after we met the person and God's like, sir, I told you not to before you because look, look, this is human nature, right? God says, Hey, what have you done? And Adam and instinctively goes, the woman you gave me and God's like, excuse me, I gave you the boundaries before you ever met the woman.

Well,

If you don't establish boundaries before you get into a relationship, you will have no boundaries. Your boundaries will be determined by the person that you are with. If you don't have boundaries of business before you enter into a business partnership, you're going to look up five years from now and wonder what happened. Yeah. Well, you never presented. There are some things that I'm not going to hear are some non-negotiables, and the moment that you cause me that you want me to eat from this fruit, this relationship is over, right? God, God loves boundaries. We know this. This is demonstrated in the 10 Commandments, right? When God goes to Israel, he goes, Hey, listen, I'm going to give you some precepts. I'm going to give you some commandments that I want you to adhere, and these are going to be the boundaries. These are going to be the establishments, the covenants that I'm making with you to be in a good relationship.

And if you look at the contents of the 10 Commandments, the first four commandments have to do with our relationship vertically with God. If you go read 'em, it has to do everything with, Hey, if I'm going to be your God, here are the four things that you need to make sure that you have boundaries around. The other six commandments have to do with our relationship horizontally with other people. So God, even in the 10 Commandments establishes the first relationship that you need to make sure that you shore up is the relationship that you have with me. And only when you got that right can you have relationship with other people, but the fact is you need boundaries that come from God.

Oh, yeah, I want some more word. I got you. Here's a third thing that God gives you. God gives you purpose. Let's go back to the word of God. Genesis chapter two, verse number 19. Now, out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast. Now. Now let me give you context. God just created Adam. He looks at Adam and verse number 18, 18 and says, it is not good for man to be alone immediately following that declaration. That is not good for a man to be alone. God then says, now, out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man, every living creature that was its name, and the man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast in the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. The first thing that God provides, Adam, when he recognizes that Adam is alone is that j o b. Yeah. God says, before you enter into a relationship with somebody else, I'm going to give you purpose. I'm going to give you something to do. There are too many people jobless trying to be in relationships

Literally and figuratively. You putting dinners on credit cards, oh, I just got too real. I'm sorry. Listen, if she ain't cool with eating McDonald's with you, come on.

You need to rethink this thing.

Come on, Tim, right? Yeah. Can I tell you that when Janice and I started off, we were looking at the dollar menu? Yeah, we were

Two items. The peace cup of water, please. Soda was a luxury. You know what I'm saying? What you talking about? Soda was a luxury, and even if we got a soda, we splitting it. One Sprite, two straws please.

One straw not

For real. You need to find your purpose in God first. If you don't find your purpose in God, somebody's going to hand you a purpose, and there are too many people in relationships looking for person in the other, looking for purpose in the other person. Hey, can you tell me what I'm good at? Hey, can you tell me what kind of job you think I should do? Hey, can you tell me what am I like? What do you think my calling is? And we enter into relationships and put all this pressure on somebody else to define our purpose. When God says, if you would just come to me, I'll give you a job.

God looks at Adam and says, Adam, before I let you meet Eve, I'm going to give you purpose. I'm going to give you something to do. I'm going to engage your intellect. I'm going to engage what your capabilities are. It is important to find your purpose in God. Yes, because if you don't find your purpose in God, you will struggle with your purpose in terms of the other person. Here's why it's important to find your purpose before you find your person. If you don't find your purpose, before you find the person, you will put pressure on the person and the person will put pressure on you to define your purpose. A lot of marriages and relationships are strained because either one of the people don't know what their purpose are and they're frustrated at the other person for not defining it for them. In my year of singleness, I knew exactly what God was calling me to do. God made it plain and simple. You are called to be in ministry. So when Janis and I met, I already knew what God's called me to do, and I was able to tell her I'm called to be a preacher. Well, I told her a nonprofit first, but

Don't hate on my game at work, but Janice knew upfront, this is what God's called me to do. What has God called you to do? Right. Oh Lord. That's a message right there, isn't it? Because purpose isn't transferrable. This is my purpose. I just need to see if you can fit into my plan.

Yeah, that's good. That's good.

God called Adam and Eve, he gave both of them purpose. He didn't give Adam purpose and say, Hey, Eve so good. Help him out. Yes, God said, I want them to be fruitful, multiply, replenish to earth and subdue it. God gives you purpose as an individual, and when you can find your purpose as an individual, you come into a relationship complete and that person comes into the relationship complete and it defines where you're heading. Yeah.

Yes.

We in the crock pot today,

Seek the crock pot.

Here's the thing. Here's what the scripture says. Seek you first. The kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Too often people will seek first a relationship and then want all these things to be added to them, and God's up there like you going to ask me my opinion? Are you going to find your purpose in me? Because God gives you perfect purpose. Your purpose gets convoluted when you add the opinions of men to it,

So it's important that you get it from God because God's will for your life is perfect. Notice this. God brought the animals to Adam to name, so God gives him a directive. I want you to name the animals. What should I name them? This is where I allow you to engage your intellect. I'm going to give you the tools. I'm going to give you the gifting. I'm going to give you all the things necessary to accomplish the purpose, and then I'm going to put you into an environment where you get to utilize your gifts and your talents to accomplish the purpose that I've presented to you. Somebody needs to go back and listen to that whole thing. This is how you find your purpose. God doesn't always go bam. Exactly, exactly, exactly what you think, bro, I give you all the talents and the purpose, and now I've given you the golden seat to sit in and bam, that's what you're going to do for the rest of your life. No, God presents you with opportunities

That’s good for you to utilize your gifts and talents, and in doing so, that's how you discover your purpose. That’s good.

I would imagine that there are some things that, like some animals that Adam looked at and been like, I don't know, giraffe. Nah, that don't sound right, renos. You know what I'm saying? I'm sure there was engagement in him naming the animals. You don't have to automatically right off the bat know exactly what you're doing. There is it's okay to have trial and error.

Amen.

It's okay to try something like that, ain't it? I am. I changed my major in college like five times y'all till I knew, hey, it was time to graduate, but I knew I wasn't called to be. No it man. Like that just wasn't my personality. Here's the fourth thing that God gives you. God gives you rest.

These are relationship essentials. Let's go to the word God. Genesis chapter two, verse number 21. So this is after God has given Adam identity, he's given him boundaries. He's given him purpose. Then verse number 21, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and say this phrase with me while he slept. Somebody say again. While he slept. While he slept again, while he slept again, while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, this atlass bone of my bones and fleshing my flesh, she shall be called Whoa. Man. I'll have to do it every time because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold faster, his wife, that they shall become one flesh, and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Isn't it interesting that after God looked at Adam in his isolation, said, it's not good for man to be alone, but then he gave him something to do, and while Adam was doing the will of God, God says, now is the time that I'm going to provide him

A partner, but God did not ask Adam his opinion. God didn't give Adam options. God wasn't like, Hey, Adam, pick one. God said, I'm going to provide you the perfect partner and both of you are going to accomplish my will and my purpose, but I need you to shut y'all eyes and shut your mouth. God did not want Adam involved in the creation of his perfect partner. Too many of us are wide awake trying to dictate to God what we think is the right fit, and the reason is you got too much time on your hands. Go to sleep.

That's good for real,

You too anxious. Go to sleep

For real,

Because when you're anxious and you're sleep deprived, yeah,

Talk

About it. You make mistakes.

Yes. Come on,

You'll start picking partners based on looks, you start picking partners based on what you think they can add to what you got going on. God says, no, I'm going to provide you with the right one, but I need you to get out of the way. Go to sleep, rest. How do you know that you are in the perfect will of God? Here it is. Somebody needs to write this down. You can sleep and let him work. Here is the measurement of whether or not you're in the will of God. You can sleep and let him

Work,

And when you wake up, Adam was like, this ain't no monkey. I was looking at the gorillas and I'm like, that ain't it. This makes sense. How do I know this? Because the Bible says that when Adam was naming the animals, there was no one fit to be his partner, so Adam was looking, I don't think that's going to work. I'm not even attracted to you, Ren, you a crush me elephant like this. You cute and all, but when God creates the perfect partnership for you, you just know,

Yeah,

This is it. Yeah. At last bone, on my bone fleshing my flesh. Yes

Sir. Yes sir.

Whoa, man. Let's become one. Immediately the passage literally says, and the man and his wife were both naked and we're not ashamed.

Woo. Yes.

I thought it was dreaming. It ain't a dream. It is real. This is what happens. This is what relationships are supposed to look like. Yeah. Relationships with other people is supposed to look like you can be vulnerable, you can be naked, you can be exposed, and you can be glad about it. Amen. If you establish the relationship with God first, you get the essentials package for how every other relationship in your life looks.

That's good.

That's the will of God. Yeah. That is the plan. How do I know it's the planet of God? We just went through the Bible. Yeah. This is the order that God set up, so you may be in this place and you're like, Hey, I hear you, but I've been married to Earl for 35 years. We done been to every marriage conference, and I'm telling you that man is not changing, and Earl's like, well, Ethel, you ain't changed either. If your name is Earl or Ethel, I apologize. Well, it ain't working. It's okay because the word of God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What if you're in this place and you're like, you know what? My marriage actually fell apart and it was unexpected, or I'm seeing somebody else walk through this right now and how I can't go back and take 20 years back off my life like this, and I'm in conversations with people all the time. They've been married for a while, and then they have an identity crisis and they're like, I feel like I wasted 20 years. It's never too late to go back to the creation order. It's never too late to go back to the creation order, so if you're married, this is what I would tell you.

Go home today, even in the car and say, be, let's make sure God's first. Let's make sure we derive our identity from God, that we derive our boundaries from God, that we derive our purpose from God, that we can rest in God. If you're dating right now, go back to the word God, realign yourself. If you're single right now, that's the best time to establish this. Yes. You may be called to singleness forever. Paul talks about this, right, is that some people have been given the gift of celibacy. Yes. Great. This is your pattern for your life.

Yeah.

Well, I've been through a divorce. You get to start over. The word of God doesn't change. Put God first and everything else will work out. Right. Amen. In your human relationships. Amen. Amen. Help me, father, we just thank you right now, God, for allowing us to be in your house. Holy Spirit, thank you for speaking to us. I pray, Lord God, that we would meditate on your word, a word, and that we allow your word to capture our hearts and change us from within. I pray for every individual that hears this word that you would speak to them specifically about what you want them to know and do. We give you name all the praise in glory, honor in Jesus name, and somebody say Amen. God bless.