Thank you. Brother, happy Sunday. And again, which we so often take for granted, you and I get to hold a book on our devices or in our hands. and explore what the one true and only God desires us to know about him and about us and about nature to the point where as we can live real life of eternal value, us, here in Warrington, today. And you know how much it cost? To us, but to him? What a great price our Lord has laid down for us. I was talking to Doug Sachs this morning. We were talking about the notion that when we consider our study in Genesis in a few weeks, we'll enter chapter 3, which is the curse. But right, Doug, even in the curse, he softened the blow. He still provided for us. We men had to work harder, and women were in contest with us, but he still provides for us, doesn't he? So this morning, we're going to enter into and explore just the wonderful narrative in chapter 2. We're going to clear up some controversies, and we're going to learn more and more about our God and King. Let's pray, shall we? Wonderful and holy God, we praise you as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, our only hope and purpose. And we pray this morning that you would indwell our praise, like you promised, but that you would open our hearts and minds and stimulate our imaginations so that these truths, which you have written for us and protected over the ages, might be made full in us. That as we leave this building, we would be more like your son than we were last week, but not as like we will be next week. So to all things, Father, we offer you now, our bodies, our minds, and imaginations for instruction. Now remove me and any error here and glorify yourself in this place. For the sake of your son Jesus, in whose name we pray, sing together. Amen. Susan and I had the pleasure this week of hosting the local crew. It used to be Campus Crusade, but they're crew now. They have a ministry to international students for the local campus, and it's called Bridges. So I got to hear this week young men and women, these are mostly graduate students, giving their testimonies about how life is in Egypt or in India or in Africa. It's the same Jesus. It's just amazing. And they hold in their hands the same book or they turn on their devices the same book that we'll be studying today. And this should be a great comfort to us to know that our God and King is not sitting on his throne going, what am I going to do about that? There is no plan B with our God, is there? So if you wouldn't mind opening or turning onto Genesis chapter two, we're going to start in verse four. But before we begin, let me tell you that what we're about to read and study is considered by skeptics an alternative and competing creation story to Genesis chapter one. I want to sort that out with you today. And I'm going to propose to you that chapter two is a supplement and complementary to chapter one. That's why the sermon title this morning is More of the Very Good Stuff. It's the same creation story, but God in his gracious mercy is giving us more detail through that, and I'm gonna offer to you a fascinating view of whose perspective is given to us in chapter two. So just as a matter of quick review, do you remember a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away when I put a little ball up here on the pulpit, just a little play ball? And we were wondering, how did the little ball get there? Did it make itself? Has it always been there? Or did something or someone produce it? We started, that was our first foray into the Genesis idea. And we quickly came to the conclusion that it didn't make itself, because you cannot be and not be at the same time, right? If I'm not, I can't be. If I'm be, I didn't precede myself. So we decided quickly that the ball didn't make itself. representing the universe. And then we thought to ourselves, well, it's always been there, and yet we have compelling scientific evidence that the universe is expanding. So if we go back in time, the universe was getting smaller, so probably had a beginning, which means the universe hasn't always been here, right? Then we came to that notion of something or someone created the universe, the little ball. And we made the decision that some thing has no design, has no motivation, has no desire. We talked about the silly notion you see in a movie or hear on TV, the universe will get you for that. And we concluded that the universe doesn't care about you. The universe doesn't know your name, your address, or your area code, right? The universe has no personality. So when they say, oh, the universe, that's just a cheap cop-out, right? So we arrived at the idea that some One created everything. So we went from it always being here, to making itself, to something making it, to someone making it. And then we had to think, well, if the universe is, you know, time, space, matter, and energy, that box, the one who makes everything inside the box has to be what? Outside the box. So this one we're speaking to is timeless, spaceless, immaterial, powerful, intelligent, personal, and moral. And when you put those seven ideas together, who do you get? The king of the universe, right? So that's how we started that first idea into Genesis. And then we looked at the creation week. Remember that a couple months ago? We looked at the creation week. We studied each day, one through six, And we arrived at the marvelous impression that God has left us patterns. You know, just the subtle pattern of, and there was evening, and there was morning, the third day. Now we would say the sun set and the sun rose, which would be nighttime. And we notice that God was doing something when it wasn't night, as opposed to when it was night. Do you get that in the Genesis account? He was doing lots of cool things, and then there was sunset and sunrise, but there was nothing going on. It's as if he set a pattern that maybe we should be sleeping at night. Right, there's another pattern, isn't it? We looked at the word yom, I don't speak Hebrew, I don't read Hebrew, I have to rely on other people's work, but we looked at the Hebrew word yom, which means day, and we saw that God put in front of that a number, one, two, three, four, five, six, then the word day, and just in case you missed it, he put after that, and the sun set, and the sun rose. A lot of people think that might mean ages, or lots and lots and lots of years, but if we just read it for what it says, and remember when Moses was editing this book, all the pagan cultures around him were talking about thousands and thousands of years, and there being no God to create everything. So today, At the end of chapter one, we're gonna go into chapter two. Oh no, Jimmy, you can't believe these Christians, this Judeo-Christian thing, because they don't even know how the world was created. When you look at chapter two, you see a competing creation narrative. They don't even know how things began, so just throw the book away. Let's just face the cold, hard truth that we're out here alone and that the universe is pitiless and we're just stuck here. And this proves it right here. Those Christians can't even get it together. This Judeo-Christian tradition isn't even rational. Really? Let's explore and let's see, shall we? So, if you have a worksheet with you today to take notes on, you'll notice that on the back of that worksheet, I've listed 11 sections that are in the 50 chapters of the Genesis account. Now, my Hebrew isn't very good. I think this word is pronounced tordeth, and it's a section, and it means a generation or an account. And what you and I see right here in chapter 2, verse 2, 3, and 4, it's as if God's given an account of how things were before human beings could observe things. And then he signed his name. This is the NIV I'm reading from. Listen to this. This is chapter 2, verse 4. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. It's as if in chapter one, God tells us what went on, and then he authenticates it with a signature. This is the account. So this is the end of the first toldeth, or section in the Genesis. There's 10 more to go. So we've entered a new section. And if you want a little clue as to who may be writing this, go to chapter five, verse one, because you'll see another authenticating signature. These are the generations or the narrative of, and the name on that told us is Adam. So what I'm proposing to you this morning, brothers and sisters, is you and I might be reading the oldest thoughts and processes in humankind. This section of the Genesis account may be Adam writing and speaking from his perspective on the brand new biosphere in his brand new body with his God and creator of whom he is now aware. Because not only was Adam made from the stuff of the earth, he was breathed into and made a living soul. There's something very special about what God is doing here. So let's begin in chapter 2, verse 4, beginning the second toledoth of the 11 in the Genesis account. Oh no, Jimmy, this can't be supplementary, because right off the bat, it says here, when the Lord God, now if you and I go back to the Hebrew, and again, I don't speak Hebrew or read it, but this is a different name for God than in chapter one. See, you guys can't, you can't get anything right. You got two different gods here. Or, is the different name that God takes to himself here telling us more about who he is? The name he uses in the first chapter suggests to us the one who is building and designing the universe. This name for God here in this very first verse of our study today suggests that God is relational and personal. So far from being two competing gods, we're seeing more about the same God. Remember, we saw that pattern in Genesis chapter 1. He was building and then filling. And in that filling, once there's a human being to relate with, we learn that he is a relational God. He's not just a builder, not just a designer, not just the architect of the universe. but he's one that is relational with us. So let's put to rest the idea that these are two different gods. These are two different names that the same God wants to give us to teach us more about himself. So as we see the Lord God perhaps authenticating himself in the first chapter by saying these are the generations of the creation of the heaven and the earth, we see now a new perspective in what we're gonna read here in chapter two. And as a quick overview, everything we read now from chapter 2 on out, we can hang under day 3, day 5, or day 6. Everything we're going to learn here in chapter 2 can be pushed back into 3, 5, or 6. Now Adam wasn't here for day 3, was he? Or day 5. But he was here for day 6. And if you read with that in your head and knowledge, you will see that the perspective that we get here in chapter 2 would be from a human being who wasn't there on day 3 but knew about it because someone told him. wasn't there for day five, but knew about it because someone told him, didn't know about day six a.m. because he wasn't here yet, but he'd been told about it, and then in the evening or the afternoon when he's created, the perspective changes. So very well, these could be the oldest thoughts and narrative in human history. So with that in mind, when we read things like, how about this? When the God made heaven and earth in the heavens and the shrubs of the field had not appeared, what day would that be? When was the continents rise up and the plants? That's day three, right? So sometime in the early portion of day three when there was no green life yet, Adam is probably filling us in on some details that the Lord had given to him. Why? Excuse me. Because We're going to learn that the earth was watered from below. Water is going to come in to be a very important factor here in a couple of chapters, isn't it? It's going to be a lot of water. Where'd all that water come from? Well, some of it probably came from subterranean sources. Would that be like the sources of the deep? So isn't it neat that God might be cluing us into what's gonna happen, because you know, God knows the flood's coming, even as he creates Adam. What a God we worship. So we're getting more detail here as we learn about how God was actually hydrating his creation, the biosphere. In verses 5 and 6 then we see that there's a summary here of the creation as God has created the biosphere as a platform upon which he will put human beings. This is a rational place for Adam to begin his account. Because until this point, he has not been privy to actually observing what God has been doing. But if God spoke to him, and in relationship with him, told him what he'd been doing, this is kind of what we'd expect in the narrative that Adam would create for us. And just for fun, if you go back to chapter one, you'll see again a neat pattern that God has provided for us. In chapter one, verse 26, we see God's plan for creation. In chapter 26b, we see the procreation. He says, you know, multiply and subdue. And then in verse 28, we see provision in verses 29 and 30. So God is very deliberate in the way he's putting his creation together. And Adam's account is also very orderly, because it seems that the king in the universe would be giving him this narrative. And of course, everything that God does is so well-ordered. So in verse seven, this may be actually the first aware phrase that a human being makes in verse seven. The Lord God turned the man or formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. Adam would know this if God told him this is how I made you. And Adam would be aware of his relationship with God, with the animals in creation right away. So what we've just read may very well be the oldest account in human history. In verse eight, now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east. That's kind of nebulous though, isn't it? It's just east. And then you see that we are going to see the first commute in history. God takes the man and puts him in this place called Eden. Now think about this for a moment. God goes to the trouble of creating the cosmos, our biosphere, which is very good, and then he creates a park or a garden. So he's been really specific here, isn't he? Not just a universe, not just a really cool planet, but a place just for human beings. Now what does this tell us about our God? Tells us we're really special in his plan, aren't we? Now, before we get to big head about this, let me offer up to you why I think God has such a special place for you and me in his creation. You and I are of two realms. We have an earth suit, okay, and it's made of stuff of this realm, the second realm, earth. But we have the breath of life, which makes us a living soul, which is of the first realm, right? C.S. Lewis said it, you don't have a soul, you are a soul. Who you really are is your soul. That soul begins at conception physically, but it goes on eternally. Now, I want to make a small differentiation here. It's kind of artificial, but when I use the word infinite, I'm going to talk about no beginning and no end. When I talk about the concept of eternal, I'm going to say that's a beginning and no end, just so we can differentiate a little bit here, because I think that's important. Because God is infinite. No beginning, no end. We are eternal, we have a beginning and no end. That means that someday we get earth suit version two, right? To encase our eternal souls. But it will be an earth suit version two for you and I as followers of Christ designed to absorb his benevolence for eternity. For those who have denied Jesus, who have blasphemed him, who have used his name as verbal vomit, who don't want to be around his people or sing these songs or be in his presence, he's provided a place for them. Because remember, if God were to snatch a person who had spent the entire life he'd given them, defaming him and belittling him and lying to themselves about him and lying to others about him, And he said, OK, Jimmy, I'm going to make you stay with me forever. That would be my hell, right? I don't want to be with you. I don't love you. I've either actively or apathetically denied you all the life you've given me. So God is not a monster. He's not going to make you stay and spend the rest of your eternity with him. That would be monstrous, don't you think? So he's provided a place and a body, Earth Suit Version 2, that would be designed to take his wrath forever. Isn't that just like the God we worship? And aren't we learning more about him now as we work our way through Chapter 2? So Adam has Earth Suit Version 1. He's in right relationship with his God and creator. He's in right relationship with the creation itself. How about that? We learn details like the earth is being watered from below. We see a hierarchy here. There's chlorophyllic or green life. There's plant life. If you eat an orange, you're not killing it. Okay? How do we know that? Because God gave the plant world to us for what? Food. So we're not killing a plant when we eat it, because it renews and rejuvenates, right? It's going to be sad. We're going to talk about blood later. But the second level of life is blood life, as in animal life. And they're given to us for companionship and wonder. Originally, right? They're part of his very good creation. And then finally, there's human life, which is the living soul. And again, you can see that we can stick all of these things in either in the day three, day five, or day six. Chapter two is, here's a big word for us, anthropomorphic centric. It is human centric. And it might be human centric because Adam is giving us this account. Well, as we work our way then down through the narrative, and we get down to like verses eight and nine, we see that not only does God create this park or this place called Eden, you'll notice how unembarrassed the narrative is. We know that Eden, this park, this garden, is east, right? It's as if, hey, you know, it's east, like we would have known, because if we'd have been there, It's east. How about the four rivers that Adam describes to us? They're not there anymore because the surface of the earth was ravaged and drastically changed by the global event called the flood. But then, everybody knew those four rivers. Everybody knew that the gold was good. Everybody knew about the resin there and the aroma that it made and how beautiful it was and how the onyx was just laying on the bank. Everybody knew. Adam was everybody. But you see, it's just everybody knew. And yet we take this now and go, well, that can't be true. Why not? There's no apology made. It's just as if God was describing on how to get down to the carousel, right? Well, you make a right-hand turn on Waterloo and you go about five blocks. Everybody knows. So just the kind of the unapologetic voice that this passage has for us suggests to us that, yeah, this is the way it really was. This is pre-flood geography. It's east. It's this beautiful park that God is gonna put the man in during the first commute. So, not only are we special because we are hybrids of two realms, the place that God wants to put us is really special. Beautiful universe, beautiful biosphere, and this park called evil. And what is it interesting about those two trees in the middle of the park? There were two trees, right? There was one tree that produced the fruit of life. And interestingly, if we run forward to the Revelation account when Jesus reveals himself to John, we see that in the New Jerusalem, the center boulevard of that beautiful city is framed by what? The tree of life. Woo-hoo. He's gonna put the tree of life back on our planet, on his planet. And we get to dwell with him and eat of its fruit. Oh, now what about that other tree? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Doesn't that suggest something to us about God's creation? He wasn't afraid of evil, was he? He wasn't trying to hide anything from us, was he? He said, hey, there's a tree right here with a fruit in it, and it's gonna be the knowledge of good and evil. Oh God, did you say the word evil? Yep, I sure did. Well, what am I supposed to do with that tree? Don't eat of its fruit. Because if you do, you will surely die. Now what do you think death meant to this brand new human being named Adam? He had no experience with that idea, did he? And yet could God have communicated to Adam some of what death meant? Maybe. We're gonna see in the next chapter how sad that fall is. But in the meantime, it's as if God is not shying away from evil. God is not trying to hide from Adam the horrible, bitter fruit that evil might offer. It's as if you and I can agree with the idea that evil's bad, isn't it? Evil's bad. Suffering is bad. It's part of the fall. But if God uses evil to his glory, that's good. Wait a minute, Jimmy, are you telling me that evil can be used for good? Let's think about it again, shall we? If God uses evil to glorify himself, that's good. And what is the height of God using evil to glorify himself? The cross. Whoa. Evil thought they had God in a corner. Everything that's wicked, everything that's destructive, everything that produces the bitter fruit of suffering. We got God now. God knows and he knew and he still does, doesn't he? So we can agree that evil is bad, but God using evil to glorify himself is good. And again, we see that, hey, this is the pre-flood geography. We've got these four beautiful rivers finding their headwaters in Eden and flowing away from Eden. And we see basically that God again is using these place names to authenticate that this really is geography. It really did happen. Now, on down in verses 15 and 17, we'll see that God puts man in the garden and he gives a man a job description, doesn't he? He says, I want you to care for it. You can eat of this fruit. You cannot eat of that fruit. So it seems that God is directly communicating to Adam his position, his purpose, and the provision in these verses, which is the same pattern we saw back in Genesis chapter one. He's still doing that, isn't he? I don't think there were HOV lanes during that first commute, but who knows? You see in 15b, Adam is given the job of taking care of this park or this beautiful place. Here's your first job description. Boy, how'd you like that on your resume, right? In verse 16, here's your first lunch break. You can eat. Here's what you can eat. And in verse 17, ah, the first food safety policy. Do not eat from this particular tree, right? What a God we worship. So these first verses in chapter two lead us to a principle that might be read that God provides mankind, that's you and me, with everything needed to live a fruitful and stimulating life. Because if he didn't, he wouldn't be God. Why would God want to deny his loved ones anything in his creation that would result in our deficiency, defect, or deprivation? He didn't design his plan for us that way, did he? Beautiful universe, beautiful biosphere, beautiful park, just for us, right? So this week, as you and I leave this place, how fruitful and stimulating is your lifestyle? What does the Lord your God want you to change in the way you live to honor him this week, which will make your life more stimulating, more beautiful, and more fulfilled? Oh, you guys, you know, that's not true. You're being denied the pleasures. When you deny yourself in keeping yourself to God's behavior pattern for your social nature, you're just being deprived. God's just doing that to punish you. He just wants you to suffer. Every single one of his laws and boundaries is for our good, right? And we see that again in chapter two. Beautiful universe, beautiful planet, beautiful place. Because we worship the beautiful God, who sees us as beautiful. And all of that beauty, then, we'll see, sadly, in chapter three, that our foremom and foredad decide that they have a better idea. Now, in the second division, as we work our way through chapter two, You and I see that God determines that it's not good for men to be alone, and he creates the woman. We are actually now going to come across the first not good. Remember, everything up to now has been good, good, good, good, good, good, very good. Ooh, now we have a not good. And men, aren't you glad that God knew that us being alone was not good? And why did God know that? Because from the very get-go, God had designed, in his mind and imagination, that you and I, as male and female, would be a more full reflection of God back into his creation. Maleness wasn't enough. Trivia question. What is the apex of creation? As Pat points to Joyce, the woman. The woman is the climax of creation. Think about that for a moment. That's why the first poem in human history is a love poem to a woman. Whoa, man, right? So God is going to get across to Adam the idea that it's not good for him to be alone. And God's very clever. He's very creative. So he has the first parade. He's designed the first parade. He sets Adam in a place where Adam can see life, animal life, pass before him. Now, skeptics will say, there's no way that Adam could have named 1.12 million species in an afternoon. That's just dumb. Well, that would be dumb. But Adam doesn't have to name every single species, does he? He could simply see something go by and go, hmm, bovine, okay? And all the different species of bovine, you're into bovine. Oh, canine, right? The genus, you don't have to come down to the families or to the species. How about this one? Feline, hmm. Right? So and how long would it have taken then Adam to stand before God's creation and taxonomically organize The genus says they come by, and that's possible. And if the animals are being brought to Adam, just like God brought the animals to Noah for salvation, right? He has that power, but what's he trying to do? This parade is not just for Adam to exercise authority over God's creation. Even in the ancient world, if you named someone, that was power over them, right, influence. But something else is going on here, because what's Adam noticing as the animals pass before him? and they're passing in pairs. I don't have a pair. There's me and you, God, that's good. You know, where's my pair? So God is getting across to Adam the idea that God says, my reflection into my creation is gonna be male. And in that union, what a beautiful team you can be, right? My lovely and vivacious wife, Susie, who is in Florida right now with her mom, who is still alive. God down there, she's still alive. But if you want something well-researched, if you want your checkbook balanced to the penny, Susan's your woman. She's slow. She's deliberate. She's thorough. But if you need a tactical decision made on the fly, I'm your guy. But don't come to me and ask me to balance that checkbook, right? And don't ask Susan to make a tactical decision. That's not her forte. But when you put us together, we can really do some good stuff. The problem with me, my friends, is that I have always viewed different as superior or inferior as opposed to different. I too often fall into the trap that Susan is wired differently than me, therefore she is higher or lower than me. When God made woman, where did the DNA material from Adam come from? His head? That she would be below him? Or his foot? Where did that DNA come from? Yeah, matter of fact, according to my research of the week, that Hebrew word for rib can mean side. There's something very intimate and special about being side by side in God's creation, to reflect himself back into his creation. So here's the first parade. Adam gets across very, very quickly that this omni-caring, omni-relational parent, this God that he's worshiped, has a simple plan for him, which is to unite him with his own kind. To place him in an environment with no deficiencies and with no defects. Now, could this be the first surgery? God does put the man to sleep, so he anesthetizes him and takes DNA material from his side and produces woman. Now, isn't that just like God? It's stuff, right? It's stuff. It's stuff from Adam's side, but what does God do with stuff? He makes something that's a lot more than stuff, doesn't he? Look what he did with the stuff of creation in chapter one, verse one. There was this primordial, elemental presence, and then God, what he's created, he builds something and designs something and brings something out of it that is beautiful and special, just like he did woman. It's just stuff, but what did he do with it? He creates the pinnacle of everything, which is the woman. And then he brings her into Adam's presence, the first dating system. So we got the first commute. We got the first meal break. We got the first food policy safety idea. And now we have the first dating system. Wouldn't that be cool if God brought you and your husband? Wait a minute. He's still doing that, isn't he? If we are prayerfully looking to our children that they would be bound to someone in our clan which is another believer, is he not still doing that? Is he still not bringing us into one another's life to the glory of his own presence? What's changed? So here's woman, and if you look in your Bible right now, if you go to chapter two, and just kind of sit back for a second, do you see an offset? in the way your Bible is written? Do you see an offset? It's like a little space in there. What is that? It's the first poem, isn't it? It's Adam saying, this is the NIV, this is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. He was so impressed with God's work for him that it went poetic. And men, are we still doing that today? I mean, really? Your woman, the woman that God has given you, should take your breath away and put you in a poetic mode. Now, I want to tell all you singles, divorced or widowed people, widowers, that does not diminish you in God's family, in God's plan, does it? If you're single, that is okay. If you're a widow or a widower, that is okay. God is providing for you. He loves you and has a plan for you. What a God we worship. So as we work our way down through the creation of woman, we see in verse 23 and 25 this wonderful poetic waxing that he goes through. And then the last verse, can you believe the last verse of this beautiful narrative? The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. Now why did they feel no shame? Because there was no shame. You know, one of the commentaries I read this week was, the man and the woman in their glorified state, in right relationship with God, with themselves and with nature, glowed with the glory of God. There was an aura about them. And in that glory, God was reflecting himself into his creation. And even though they were naked, they weren't ashamed, because you really couldn't see through the glory of God's presence. Well, maybe, maybe not. But one way or another, there was no shame. And that's why we wear clothes today, isn't it? To remind us that we have broken that relationship with one another, with nature, and with God. So that little phrase right there should be further evidence to us that God really has a plan for us. That we can be intimate, in a sense, naked in his presence. And an intimacy that goes beyond our imagination, that would make our jaw drop and our breath, because that's how close God wants to be with us. As close as you have been or were with a spouse, God wants to be more intimate with you. Ooh, that should give you the shivers. This is the God that we worship. So as we work our way now to the bottom of chapter two, we understand again that there are two pre-fall institutions still with us today. And for 55 bonus points, do you know what they are? Family and work. They're still here, aren't they? Now our enemy has tried to ruin them, corrupt them, and spoil them. As a matter of fact, if you've heard this bumper sticker before, our God's image in his creation and on us has been defaced but not erased. You just can't get rid of his pattern because of his power. So this one true God that we worship as king has built a beautiful universe, a beautiful biosphere, and a park for us to dwell with him. And in that sense, he has demonstrated his love for us, as he provides for us. But in future, brothers and sisters, he is going to do something that will really take your breath away. He's gonna demonstrate his love, not just in maleness or femaleness, not just in the beauty and the intimacy and the intricacy of his creation, but in sacrifice. When he finally uses evil to his total glory, which we've determined is good. So as we sit here at the bottom of chapter two, there are two things I'd like us to remember. This is not a competing creation narrative. It's supplementary. It adds to our knowledge of what God has done. It may very well be the perspective of Adam, the first man. And secondly, the same God that put Adam and Eve in this beautiful place is the God we worship today, given the promise that you and I will be in a beautiful place. We go from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Gethsemane. And it's in that garden where Jesus himself takes upon himself the weight of all of our crimes against him. And then didn't he say to us, I'm gonna go away, I'm gonna make a place for you. And in that house there will be many, many rooms or spaces or mansions. And then when we read the revelation, what does John see and come from down from the heavens? This beautiful, glowing, sparkling city called the New Jerusalem. What a wedding gift to his bride Jesus is making for us right now. Right now. And at just the right moment, he will bring to us and to our reality and to this place, his glory reflected through man and woman, family and work, back to the rejuvenation of all that he desires for us. Let's pray, shall we? Father, you are so generous. You are so good. You are so kind and so gentle and yet, Mighty One, you are so, so serious about that which would injure your creation. Thank you for being our guardian and our savior, our hero, our provider and our protector. Thank you for these words. Seal them in our hearts and minds. Take that which is true and real. Drive it deeply into our souls. that we might live and think in a way that honors and pleases you and keeps you first. For all these things, mighty one, we seek your face in favor. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, and together say praying, amen. Happy Sunday and a blessed week to all of us.