Demonstration of Appreciation

Demonstration of Appreciation

Genesis chapter 2, if you will. And once we're there, if you'll look with me in verse number 15. Genesis chapter 2 and verse number 15. And it says, And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all the cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found and help meet for him.

And the Lord God calls Adam. Or calls a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto himself. And they shall be one flesh, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. We'll conclude the reading there in chapter 2, verse number 25 this morning.

I was thinking this week about hindsight. Haven't we heard that? Hindsight is 20-20, right? What does that mean? Maybe the kids don't know what that means. Hindsight is 20-20. You can see, oftentimes we say it in relation to bad decisions we've made in the past. I can see a whole lot more clearly now what I should have done in that situation. Now that I'm past it, I'm more mature. I've been through some different experiences in life, and I realize that was probably not a good idea. That's usually what we mean when we say hindsight is 20-20. Or maybe if I had known or I had information about this, I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have chosen that path or chosen that thing. As human beings, we have the tendency not to fully, and this is another thought that I want to bring in this morning, we have a tendency not to fully appreciate things that we've been given or people in our lives until we don't have them anymore. We tend to not, this is just a general rule, it tends, it's not always the case, but it tends to be the case. Sometimes I think, I look at my life and think, how many things have I taken for granted? Or people that I've taken for granted that, you know, it's just, that's just the way it is, or that's the way I'm always going to have this person. And then God may take that person or that thing from your life. And looking back on it, you might say, I wish that I had had a greater, greater appreciation for this, that, or that person.

My dad, being an electrician, I picked up some things, HVAC, electrical stuff, growing up. But it wasn't until I got married and started meeting to do this for my own home that I said, wow, I want to learn everything there is to know about, about wiring up this addition for my house, because now it really means I can appreciate the value of that knowledge. That's just a personal example. You can probably think of hundreds of examples in your own lives of people or things that you might appreciate more now than you did perhaps at the time.

And the word, even the word appreciate, to appreciate, it means to recognize the quality, significance, or magnitude, that is of someone or something in your life. To recognize the quality, significance, or magnitude of something. So if we appreciate someone, even in that word appreciate, there's the idea of price there, right? The value of something. The value of something. We are recognizing, when we appreciate something, we are recognizing and acknowledging, the inherent value or worth of that thing. And when we recognize the value or worth of something, it's not just about, oh, I get a warm feeling about this. We may get a warm feeling because of our relationship with someone, but it's just simply that there is worth in this thing, this knowledge or this relationship that I have.

And it's not just because of what I get out of, I appreciate, maybe that's a, we think of that maybe as a weak word, but I do appreciate my wife. Not just because of what she does and how she makes me feel, but just, I appreciate her for who she is. That God has given her to me. And we ought to appreciate one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We ought to love one another. And we ought to love one another. And how do we, how do we show that we appreciate? Well, there's gotta be something more than the Bible says, not to only love in word, but in deed, right? If we appreciate, there's gonna be some kind of a demonstration of my appreciation. There's gonna be a demonstration that, and how I demonstrate my appreciation, everybody will demonstrate that in a different way to some degree. That's what makes us unique as individuals, right?

But, I think about what the Lord has done for me in saving me from sin. Well, he's called me to preach his word. He's not called everybody to do that in a sense, but, you know, David has the gift of music. Sister Pede has the gift of musical ability. And, yes, you could just do it in a technical sense, but even when we preach, when we play instruments, when we sing with our voices, isn't that a demonstration? It should be a demonstration to God of how much I appreciate him. How I am as a husband to my wife is actually, if I look at the scriptures, that is a demonstration, Lord, thank you for giving her to me. And now, I want to be, I want to follow your instructions to be the husband that I should be to my wife, the father to my children. God gave Adam some very specific things to do when he put him in the garden. He says, well, it's really simple. You know, we have to keep the instructions simple because there, if we have too many vast rules and regulations for our children, I think, you know, we tell them all the potential things that they shouldn't be doing, this is going to complicate things.

But the Lord told Adam you to dress, the word there is to tend, a gardener tends his garden, he cultivates the garden, right? And he is to keep, to keep a watch out and guard this garden. You're to dress it, to tend it, and to keep it, watch over it, right? And guard it. That was the instructions that God gave to Adam. Within that responsibility, he was even naming animals, wasn't he? He was naming the animals that God had brought to him. God formed Adam out of the, out of the dust of the ground, and, you know, frankly, he's our common ancestor. All of us are here today because of Adam. There was, I mean, there was a first human being, and we know his name, his name was Adam. And now we are descended from him, and then Eve. And through Adam and Eve, God brought into this world many, many, many billions of sons and daughters. And, I think about Adam. Adam demonstrated, demonstrated that, by dressing and keeping the garden, that he appreciated what God had given him.

And yet, we notice if you look in verse 15, or verse 16 of Genesis 2 here, he commanded, God commanded him, saying, of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. All of these trees, but, there's one of the knowledge, the tree, that was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it. Why? Did God make a poisonous tree? No. Is it gonna, is it, is there, is there some kind of poison in the fruit if you eat of that tree, then you're gonna, gonna die? No. Adam did not die physically, immediately, but he would die physically, ultimately, because, what happens? He did, as we know if we have children, and we see with our children, the tendency is, I saw an experiment one time, where they put this child, set him in a room, I think it was, maybe kind of cruel in a way, but they set him, but it was demonstrating a point.

Sitting the child in this room, and there was a train, running on the track behind him, and the, and the child is sitting there in the chair, with the train running behind him, and, and the lady says, all right, don't, they were doing an experiment about lying, and, so, she says, I'm gonna, oh, I gotta go out the room, and go get something real quick, I'll be right back, don't look at the train, until I come back. He said, and she said, do you agree to do that? He said, okay, I will not look at the train. And so she leaves the room, comes back, and of course, they have cameras set up, and the child, is fighting it, he's fighting the, resisting the temptation to look, and then he, he looks at the train real quick, and she comes back, and says, did you peek? I didn't. And, and of course, she just kind of laughs, and, because they knew, that the child looked, right? You know, it's kind of like the child coming to you, with the powdered, sugar from the doughnut on his mouth, and saying, oh, I didn't, I didn't eat anything, what are you talking about? You got the evidence on your mouth, you know, around your face, on your face. Well, Adam and Eve, they failed the test, right? They failed the test. They looked at the train.

Uh, the serpent, in the garden, that one of God's creatures, here, that comes to Eve, and, obviously, we see that the fallen angel, Lucifer, is working through this serpent, here. He, uh, presents, this idea, to Eve. You know, if God, why would God have made a tree, that you can't have? You know, human nature says, if there's a prohibition, let's make some moonshine stills. You know, we're gonna, we're, that's just, that's just the tendency of man. Like, I, I, I have a curiosity. If I am forbidden from doing something, then I want to experiment with that. And, this is, this curiosity, got the best of Eve, here, and this desire, well, it looks good. The fruit, is, it looks good. Uh, and, and what is it that, uh, the serpent said? When the woman saw, in verse six, that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took, the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Well, their eyes, both of them were opened, and they knew that they were, naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves, aprons. For the first time, they experienced something called, shame. Shame. There was a, they were, their eyes were open, but it wasn't in the same way, that they were envisioning, their eyes were going to be open.

They thought, well, this is going to be liberating, and then we'll, we'll have a, a special knowledge of something. No, this is a knowledge, that God wanted to, keep you from. He didn't want you to experience this. But, they did. But, they did. But, they did. But, they did. But, they did. We noticed that, Eve, lost, her appreciation, for what God, God gave Adam, and through Adam, he also gave Eve, the instructions, you know, like we just read. There's one tree, you're not going to, you're not, don't touch that tree, don't, or don't eat of that tree, right? Why? Because I'm testing you. I'm testing you to see, if you will obey, and, and Paul will tell us later on, it's through one man's, disobedience, sin entered into the world. Sin entered into the world. We might say, well, it was just one, one thing. It's a principle. It's a principle, that they did not, they chose, over what God, the God who created them, and gave them everything, and put them in this garden, and he was testing their hearts, and they, and they said, well, it can't be that bad, you know, we're just, I mean, just if we eat a, a fruit, I'm going to eat a fruit. If you're going to be a fruit, then you have to keep that in mind. And we have to keep that in mind. We have to keep that in mind. Isn't that how we reason?

Isn't that how we reason, when we say we want to do whatever we want to do and forget, as human beings, forget what God says, I'm going to do what feels good to me, what looks good to me. John says, all that's in the world, is the lust of the eye. I see it, I want it, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. I've got it. Look what I have. Look what I have. You can't have it. I've got it. That's what's, what controls the thinking of man, doesn't it? I say, man, it controls all of us naturally, right? And so we see that Eve, Adam, and Eve in their own way didn't trust God, but they followed their own heart, right? The God who had made them. They wouldn't have even been there had it not been for God putting them in that garden. Now, one of the saddest things we read is that here, God is going to have to put them out of this privilege that they have. He doesn't forget about them and say, well, there's no more hope for you. You messed up, but they lost privileges, right? And the privilege they had was access to the tree of life. They had access to the, what are the privileges they had? We see a number of things that they had here. They had, an innocence and a married bliss. They didn't even, they weren't even conscious of the fact that they were naked. There was no concept of even shame in their minds.

There was no concept of strife, division. We're going to see now their son, Cain, is going to kill the other son, Abel. There's going to be murder that's going to come in. We see that they enjoyed fellowship, walking with, with God in the garden. We see that they enjoyed the animals. There weren't predators. We see that they enjoyed the abundance of food that grew with ease. But now we read that Adam is going to have to sweat. There's going to be thorns. The ground is going to be cursed. I know it is a battle. It is a battle growing. It is a huge learning curve. Growing things and not having it all eaten up and taken over your garden, taken over by crabgrass and thorns and all these kinds of things. I mean, that's just a, you know, and yet maybe, maybe we appreciate it more because there is effort that goes into it. Adam, Adam didn't even know what hard work was. He didn't even know what sweat was. It was just, I enjoy gardening, but there's some parts of it I don't enjoy, right? There's some parts that aren't enjoyable, but I appreciate the fruit that comes from that labor, from that work. But Adam was just, he had it made. He had it made, so to speak, in, in the shade, as we say sometimes. God, God had told him, Adam, it's like we, like we say, you know, you can have dessert, children, but you can't have it before you eat your supper.

That's basically what the world was saying to him. You can have, but it's not that the tree or not that the dessert is bad or evil, but it's, it's not for you right now. I'm testing you. And so what we see is that he failed the test. And so, and the reason, and we got to get to the heart of it. The core of it is that he did not appreciate, he did not value God's word, but thank God he is the God of salvation. Second and third and fourth and fifth chances that God doesn't just, well, if he, if he wrote mankind off when he failed, then we wouldn't be here today. We wouldn't be here, but God is a God of mercy. God is a God of love and grace. And we see that, uh, that he gave him and Adam and Eve yet, uh, grace in the midst of their, of their, of their failure. Um, notice Esau, think about Esau with me. He sold his birthright, didn't he? Uh, Jacob and Esau, we know the story there and Esau sold his birthright. You know, the first born had a special privileges that the rest of the children didn't get, you know, being the first born, they had special privileges, but having that birthright, he was very hungry one day. And, and, and Jacob took advantage of a, you know, a, a, a vulnerable situation. He said, well, I'll give you a bowl of pottage if you'll sell me your birthright, if you'll give me your birthright.

Well, ultimately Esau got upset about that, mad with his brother and wanted to kill him, right? He wanted to kill his brother because of what he had done to him. But Esau was to be blamed for having sold and not valued that, that birthright that was given to him. Look with me in Matthew 16. I want to give you another example. Of this here in Matthew chapter 16 and verse number 24, Matthew 16, verse 24. What does it say there? Jesus said to his disciples, he said, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. What does that mean? In other words, to deny yourself means I don't, it's not my way. That's the right way. I'm going to follow you because you have the right way. If I'm, if I am in a strange place and somebody says, I can tell you how to get there. And you say, no, I'm just going to go my way. But men get accused of this, right? Well, I don't have the instructions, but I'll figure it out, right? I'll figure it out. No, Jesus says, you got to deny yourself. Follow me. If you're going to follow somebody, you can't lead, right? You got to follow them. The sheep can't say, Hey, shepherd, it's been nice knowing you. We'll just do our own thing now. No, you follow the shepherd, right?

And so he says, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited? This is what, okay, here's the, here's the core of it. Is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Well, what do people try to do? Get rich, beautiful, strong, famous, you know, that that's, that's the natural tendency. Look at me, look at all I have achieved and who I am. That's the natural thing. I want to save my life. I'm going to, I'm going to be the center of attention. I'm going to be the overachiever. No, the Lord says here, he says, what is a man profited? If it's, if it's your goal in life to gain everything you can gain, to gain all the riches, to get everything, what do you have to show for that at the end of your life and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Do you appreciate the value of your soul? Your soul is eternal. It's not temporary. This body's temporary, but you're not temporary. You're not temporary. You're not temporary. You're not temporary. You'll live on. I live on forever. We'll live on forever. Look in Luke, Luke 16 in verse 19, Luke 16, verse 19 says in verse number 19, there was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple verse number 19.

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fair sumptuously every day. He had it made. Again, in the shade, right? He had, he had everything that this life could offer. He had no worries, no financial worries. He did. He could just add all the subscriptions he wanted and he wasn't going to run out. His bank account wasn't going to run dry. Well, this man is doing very well. And then there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of swords. You know, rich people have gates, right? They have, you know, it's a restricted access. Well, he laid outside the gate full of swords. Lazarus, this beggar and desiring to be fed with the crumbs, which fell from the rich man's table. Lazarus. Oh, just, I would, I, I'd love to just have some of the crumbs from this rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs, dogs came and licked his swords and it came to pass that the beggar died. Lazarus died and was carried away. Buried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. So everybody dies, right? At some point, Lazarus dies, rich man dies. And in hell, he lift up his eyes being in torments and see if Abraham before off and Lazarus in his bosom. Why is he in hell? Because he had money? No, that's not why. That's not why.

And he cried, said, and said, father, Abraham, father, father, father, father, father, father, father, father, father, father, father, father, father, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, send Lazarus, send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, son, remember that thou in my lifetime receivest thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted and thou art tormented. And beside all this between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed so that they would not, which would not, would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou would send him to my father's house. For I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they would also, also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them. Hear them. And he said, nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. So what do we have here? We have a rich man. He lived for himself. He didn't care about, he didn't care about the poor man at his gate.

He didn't care what pain this man was going through. He didn't care what pain this man was going through. Or hunger. He just cared about himself. The problem wasn't the riches. The problem was the self-worship, the self-adoration, the self-centered, sinful life, not, not caring about God or others that he lived, right? He did not appreciate what he had truly and the opportunity that he had. And then we got Lazarus. We've got Lazarus, here at the gate. And yet when they die, Lazarus, who obviously trusted in God and though he didn't have anything, he didn't have anything of this world's goods was comforted and, and the rich man was, was tormented. Paul tells us in first Timothy six 17 to not trust in uncertain riches. Don't put your trust in the riches of the world. Don't put your trust in the riches of the world. Don't put your trust in uncertain riches. Why? It says, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Notice this. What we do is we, we, man's tendency is to exalt the gifts over the giver, right? To exalt and say, I will worship. I will live for, I will, I will give my life for the things, but not acknowledge the source of the things, right? If we acknowledge, if we acknowledge the source of the things and we appreciate the fact that he has given us everything that we have, then what is that going to lead us to?

It's going to lead us to say, you know what? My life is not mine. God gave it to me. And therefore, what do you want me to do with my life? He says, follow me, follow me, lose your life and follow me. He sent his son Lazarus or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, or, the rich man said, I'll do with my life just as I please. I will gain the whole world. I don't care about Lazarus over here. I'll do what I want to do. And yet, and yet he had an abrupt and a rude awakening when he died. Well, this rich man and Lazarus, this shows us that there is good news. There was good news, even for his relatives. He was concerned now about his relatives. He was concerned about his relatives. He was concerned about his relatives. He was concerned about his relatives. He was concerned about his relatives. He was concerned about his relatives, right? I'm concerned for my relatives that they don't come to, they don't, they don't live the life I live and come to this place. I want them to appreciate the opportunity, the opportunity they have. Can we have someone raised from the dead and go and speak to them? No, they need to listen to what you rejected, what you did not listen to. They need to hear the open invitation.

I think about the prodigal in Luke 15, and we will conclude in a moment, but in Luke 15, verse 18, it says there in Luke 15, 18, remember he had been given his inheritance early, right? The prodigal son had been given his inheritance early, ahead of time. Maybe somebody here today says, I wish I could have my inheritance early, right? I'd like to have it now because there's some things I would like to buy with that. Well, he received it early, but what did he do? He wasted it. He wasted the inheritance. He wasted the inheritance. He wasted the inheritance. He wasted the inheritance. He spent it on wild living and just blew through it, right? No self-control, no thought about the future, just, I'm just enjoying my life, living up, parting it up now. And then when he went through all the money, what did he say? Luke 15, verse 18, I will arise and go to my house. my father and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. You know, he was out there shoveling pig slop into the troughs for the pigs. And he says, what a miserable life. So I didn't even know what I had in my father's home. And I've come out here and I realized this is, this is pathetic excuse for an enjoyable life and a meaningful life.

I would be better off if I went back to my father's home as a servant in his house, not even as a son, just, do you have a role for me to fill as a servant in your home? And, I'm sure we know the story. He arose, he came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatty calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. They began to be merry. I said at the outset, our tendency is, our sinful tendency is to not appreciate what we have, right? You know, I want more. I want more. I want more. I don't have enough. I'm jealous of this. I'm envious of that. I want, I want, I want, no. Everything we have, everything we have is a gift from God. Everything that we enjoy, everything Adam and Eve enjoyed, everything Esau had and enjoyed, everything the prodigal son had, he just didn't appreciate it. He didn't appreciate what he had been given. And as a result of that, he says, and each one of these said, I'm going to do what I want to do.

But look at this picture here. God is right there. He's right there waiting. He's not, he doesn't say jump through this hoop and that hoop and the other hoop. He says, you've come home, son. You realize that there is no greater life to be found than at home with me, at home with me. Mankind has turned his back on God and thinks that he can improve on God's design, right? I'm going to do it the way I want to do it. And then God says, you can come back to me and I've made a provision. I've made a way for you to be in fellowship. It's through Jesus Christ. You can be adopted back into the, into the family, even though we know what we know that all of sin, but you can, you can be made whole. You can be brought into fellowship. You, you don't have to remain out there and do your own thing. Well, like the prodigal said, I will arise and go to my father. In Adam, we might say that humanity became the prodigal, but in Christ, we don't, we no longer have to be orphans. We no longer have to be apart from God. God has made a way. It's through his great love in Jesus Christ that we may appreciate, that we may find all that, that we have, that he has offered to us. Um, as, as a Christian, just because I'm a child of God doesn't mean I appreciate everything as I should appreciate it.

Um, I find myself taking things for granted, you know, my health. I, sometimes, you know, the Lord may take things away from us. I think about this pastor, Ryan Marlow, and just like that, your life can be turned upside down. And he contracted that listeria. And he's just been through surgery and surgery and surgery after surgery, you know, and, and the, the temptation might be, why did you, why are you allowing this to happen to me? Well, we don't deserve anything, but God has given us life. He's given us, he's given us eternal life. And you know what? I see a peace and a joy in his family. Even, you know, Lord, if you take my life away, this is not all there is. There's, there's that eternal life. That they have looking forward to being with the Lord forever. And so may we, may we not underestimate and undervalue what God has done for us. And that he's given second, third, and fourth chances. The only, the only sin that will ultimately separate us from God is a rejection of his son, Jesus Christ. That's the only thing. It's not about jumping through a hoop. It's about saying, thank you, Lord. You provided a way. I just came back. Like the prodigal says, I came back hoping to be a servant and I'm your son. And you've made, and you've accepted me as your son.

What a blessing that he, that our father always has open arms for when we come back and we appreciate, Lord, thank you for what you've done for us. Let's pray. Heavenly father, thank you for these moments we've had together today. We thank you for those who have gathered. We pray, Lord, that you would just help us all. To understand and appreciate all that you've given us, Lord. And that we would not, we would not think that our way is the best way. We, we know that we're here by design on purpose. We know that you've created us for a purpose, Lord. And we pray that, that our lives more and more would be evidence, would demonstrate our appreciation for your design and for your purpose. And that we would even as we saw with Adam and Eve, even though they sinned and fell short of your, your purpose for them, that you restored them and they found, uh, restored, even though they lost privileges, Lord, in the garden of Eden, uh, they didn't lose that. Ultimately that fellowship they have with you. And we just thank you for the fact that you are the God of the God of restoration. You're the God of, uh, second chances. Lord, we pray these things and we ask that you'd bless us as we close this service and just help us to help us to be grateful today for all that you have done for us. And we ask in Jesus name. Amen.