Father, we praise you. I just thank you for adopting each of us into your family as your children as your kids. We just thank you so much for that. Holy Spirit, thank you for being our teacher. Please teach us for the next little while that you would even translate what I say, that you would speak into each of our hearts, that we can each leave this morning, knowing that we heard something for us from you. And Jesus, we thank you for being our Savior and for being our friend, for showing us what God the Father is really like and uh for giving us a way to reconnect with Him. And so we thank you and we trust you, and it's in your name that we pray. Amen. Well, I really like the New Year. You know, it just it to me it feels like a fresh start. And uh there's all kinds of different things. I know some of us are into New Year's resolutions, some of us uh aren't. And uh I've got kind of a typical list, I've got some important things I want to do, I've got the uh some of the same things, you know, like getting in shape. And um I'll say women, I know that that some of you struggle with that and and it's it's a difficult thing, you know, where it's a constant type thing, but you do not know the kind of pressure men are under right now. Because this whole shirt tail hanging out thing is uh is not gonna last forever. I probably uh I probably rode that train about a year too long, you know, and uh so I think this is this is the uh the year to I actually I tried to tuck in this morning, but it just wasn't gonna it wasn't gonna happen. But you know, as the calendar flips uh flips over, it's easier, you know. It's uh um it's a fresh start. And uh 2010 was a difficult year for I think for a lot of us. And so it's kind of nice just to get that behind us and uh move on with uh with the whole new year. And I do I do believe that 2011 is gonna be a great year. And that is, of course, assuming that any of us live through the snow apocalypse that is uh heading our way. And uh I think there's a chance we can make it. I'd say as a uh as a public service announcement that the key is that if you have at least three weeks' supply of milk, you'll be able to survive anything. And um and I think that we will. And so what we're gonna look at this morning is is uh fresh starts, and we're gonna look for the next few weeks at some fresh starts, and they all uh involve Jesus. You know, uh one is kind of his uh coming out party that was really, you know, it was a party. Another is is how he started uh a friendship and then had a fresh start within that uh friendship. We're gonna see some things I think that we never saw before in these stories, and we're gonna see some things about Jesus himself that I think are gonna be great. But if we're gonna start to talk about starts, you know, I think the best place to start is the start, how God originally intended everything, how he originally created everything. And uh we see that in the Garden of Eden. Now, if you've been in part of his hands for a while, you've heard me talk about the tree of life and the significance of the of those events in the Garden of Eden. It's been a couple of years since we have on a Sunday really talked about it. I mean, when we were talking about marriage last year, uh we mentioned it in that context, but as far as really looking how God created things, how God intended things, how his design for for each of us and uh our relationship, you know, it's just important that we uh we understand that, remind ourselves of that. So even if this is just a reminder, I think it's gonna be time well spent. I know for me this week, kind of refocusing on that and thinking about that has been great. Um great for me. And so we'll start at the very start, Genesis chapter 1. In Genesis 1, 27, it said, So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. Now you may not like how you look or the gifts God gave you or he didn't give you, but I know this one thing for sure: that you are created in the image of God. In his image, you are created. God put part of himself, part of himself. He stamped it on your heart, on your soul, on your mind, on your spirit. And we think about all the different things that might reflect God. You know, we think about nature and those types of things, but nothing reflects God more than you. You were created in the image of God. You know, and the same was true for Adam and Eve. They were created in the image of God. And God put them in the garden of Eden, which had to be an amazing place. In Genesis chapter 2, you read about that, it says, Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground, trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed through the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. It's where Adam and Eve lived, this garden of Eden. And they really weren't that much different than us. They had some responsibility with animals, and we'll see in a second that they uh took care of the garden. You know, many of us have animals that we're responsible for. You know, Susan and I have a whole herd of dogs. Um really qualify as a pack, it's actually just two bijons, but um but we did name them and we do uh do take care of them. We got a small lawn, but but we take care of it, you know. We have um responsibilities and we have cares, and we all obviously have uh have uh greater responsibilities and cares, but so did they, you know, and they had a relationship with God. He would come down in the evening and he would walk and he would talk with Adam and Eve. It says in verse 15, the Lord God placed the man in the garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you're sure to die. So it's this beautiful place with all kinds of trees, all kinds of delicious fruit, but there's two prominent trees in the middle. One is the tree of life. The other tree, you know, the forbidden fruit. And we don't think about this tree that much, and we know it was a bad choice and it was a bad outcome and all of that, but it's important, it's critically important that we remember what this tree was, what the forbidden fruit was. It wasn't the tree of greed, it wasn't the tree of sexual perversion, it wasn't the tree of drunkenness, even though none of those things give us life. It was specifically the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was the forbidden fruit, the knowledge of good and evil. It's kind of weird, isn't it? I mean, of all things, why that? Why the knowledge of good and evil? Well, Satan was going to come along soon, and he was gonna deceive them. You know, one day he he asked the woman, this is Genesis chapter 3, did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any tree in the garden? Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, the woman replied, It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, You must not eat it or even touch it. If you do, you will die. You won't die, the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. See, that was the big lie. In some ways, that is the big lie. That you will be like God. See, we would say, we don't say like God, we say godly. It's the same thing. That we'll be godly by knowing what is good and what is evil. If we can just learn what God wants us to do, and determine to do that, we'll become more and more godly, more and more like God. It makes perfect sense. I mean, God is good. So we learn what is good. You know, he's not evil. We learn what is evil, we decide to do more good, we decide to do less evil, we become more like God. We end up godly. It is the big lie. It's the big lie that is the basis for most religion and is at the heart of some Christianity. We can become godly by learning all about what is good and what is evil. And so we go to church, we memorize what is good and what is evil. And we become the morality police. And we go tell the world what movies they shouldn't watch and what books they shouldn't read and what they shouldn't drink or even buy on Sunday. And we wonder why we feel dead inside. It's because we're at the wrong tree. We are living at the wrong tree. There is no life at that tree. In fact, God said, if you eat at that tree, you will die. But that is the tree that Adam and Eve chose, and everything went downhill for them. You know, God still didn't abandon them. He made clothes for them, he took care of them, he watched over them. But it was never the same. It was never the same living at that tree. And so for 4,000 years, people were stuck at that tree. We look at the Old Testament, and it seems like a total disconnect. I mean, God seems mean at times, and and uh, you know, it's just hard to get our minds around. Well, we don't see how often God is accommodating people. He doesn't, you know, it's it's the it's like the old law. The old law doesn't really reflect the heart of God. Some of it. It's it's it's accommodating people. You know, for instance, you know, when we're talking about giving, when we talk about giving, I don't use the word tithe. Now it's okay to use it, and a lot of people do. The reason I don't is because tithing is part of the old law. Now, it's not really God's heart to demand 10% from us. Okay, it's God's heart that we would trust him with at least that or more, and that he can be generous with us, and that he would trust us, and we would have that kind of relationship. See, that's it's hit God's heart. You know, and it's the same with different parts of the law. There's one time Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, and the Pharisees say, Yeah, what about this law? And Jesus says, You know, that law is only there because you have hard hearts. It wasn't a reflection of God's heart, it's a reflection of their hearts. The overall purpose of the law was not to teach us how to be like God. It was not to teach us how to be godly, it was to teach us that we can never be godly, trying to learn the rules and determining to keep them. The purpose of the old law was to prove to mankind that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a dead end straight. Romans 3 and verse 20 says, For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Colossians 2 and 20 says, so why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as don't handle, don't taste, don't touch? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. Now, these rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, severe bodily discipline, but they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. You know, if we can get a hold of this, I mean it really can change our lives. We just celebrated Christmas. What Jesus did when he came to earth is in essence, he put us each into the Garden of Eden. Where we're now not stuck with Adam's choice. We get to choose. We get to choose. What tree is it gonna be? Is it gonna be the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Traditions, rules, regulations, or is it gonna be life? Real life. Live forever in freedom kind of life, connected with God in a real relationship. You know, it doesn't mean that there's not choices we're gonna have to make and ways God wants us to live, but there's a big difference in saying, okay, I gotta do this. I know this is what God wants. So I'm gonna do it this time. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna just determine, I'm gonna do it, and then God will be happy with me. You know, when we come to the tree of life, when we connect with God, when we experience his love and his life and his spirit, and he starts changing from the inside out. Pretty soon we're like, you know, I want to make a good decision here. I'm not sure what to do. You know, I think I'll look in God's word. You know, I'll see there. I think I'll pray, I'll ask him. You know, and we see what to do. We're like, man, I don't know if I can do that. God help me. Give me the strength, give me the power, help me to change. And he does. It's his life pouring through us. It's real life, real peace, real joy. Romans 5. Here it is in a nutshell. Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, talking about Adam, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life. One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong. One man said yes to God and put many in the right. Well we can see at the very start, at the beginning of Genesis, is we don't become godly by memorizing a bunch of rules and doing our best to follow them. We dive into a relationship with Jesus, who loves us and changes us. See, Jesus is our choice. Jesus is the tree of life. John 10, 10 says, I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. John 11, 25 says, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. John 6, Jesus replied, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 5, you search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the scriptures point to me. John 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the tree of life, and we get to choose for ourselves. Is it religion? Is it rules? Or is it relationship with the living God? You know, the somewhat uh surprising thing is that when we choose a relationship with our God, with our Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, we become more godly. Which is to say, more loving, more giving, more caring, less selfish. In 2 Peter 1, by his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him. The one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. But the best plan that we can have is to live 2011 at the tree of life. It starts with a life-given relationship with Jesus. It's what he wants. It's one of the main reasons that he came. We're just ourselves. We just speak to him. I want to follow you. Change me to be like you. I need you. Our spirit comes alive. It connects with his spirit. And he does the changing, he does the heavy lifting. And he gives us everything we need. He shows us, he helps us. You know, it's not only in our relationship with God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit. Living at the tree of life can flow into every part of our everyday, day-to-day lives. And we don't want to live at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We can live at the tree of life. You know, we can live at the tree of life with our children. You know, I used to have a list of what a good dad did and didn't do. It was like a checklist. And in some ways, it was basically the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know, so I wasn't going to be harsh and I wasn't going to be angry and I was going to help coach the teams and I was going to go to every game, and I was going to say prayers before bed. But then about two-thirds of the way through my kids' childhood, I moved to the other tree. The tree of life, where I just love them. I want to talk to them. I want to know what they're thinking. I see how they're created in the image of God. I want to know what their dreams are. I want to know what their fears are. Just hang out with them. And all the other stuff, games, prayers, all that stuff just comes naturally. You know, it just flows out of that. But it's a completely different relationship. Full of life. You know, it's true with our spouses. You know, it's so easy to live with our spouses at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know, they do good at this, they're bad at this. You know, and it's a constant, ongoing list that we keep in our heads, you know, because we're always trying to determine did we luck out or strike out? You know, what's how's this thing gonna work out? You know? Home on time, good. Forgot to take out the trash, evil. Cheerful today, good. Grumpy today, evil. And we live our whole lives, you know, evaluating our spouse, good or evil, good or evil, good or evil. In other words, living at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What if we moved our marriage to the tree of life? Where we're thankful for having a lifelong friend, and where we see God's image imprinted on each other. We help each other in areas we need help. We just embrace this adventure together, this life. We let Jesus fill us up with his life, with his love, and then we pour that out into our spouse. Living life together. You know, it's true work. Had a good friend, and he asked me to pray with him about his job. He really wanted a new job. And there were some things that he liked about his. Job. He got a couple promotions. It was a stable job, but there's other things he didn't like about his job. He didn't like to commute. It was too long. His job was too stressful. And so we prayed. Then a few months later, I uh I saw him and for some reason I thought to ask him about how his job was. And he says, Man, it's great. Like, really? What happened? Nothing. I'm just thankful to have a job. See, I don't know if you see the difference there, but it's living at a whole different tree. You know, and we can be the ones at work. We can be the ones that are seeing the best in people, that are encouraging our boss, encouraging each other. You know, whatever our occupation is, man, it's an opportunity to give life. You know, we let Jesus fill us up with his life and with his love. And then we go to work and we pour it out into each other, our coworkers, our customers, our friends. In Philippians 4, it says this summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious, the best, not the worst, the beautiful, not the ugly. Things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God who makes everything work together will work you into his most excellent harmonies. You know, religion and rules and strong self-discipline, boring traditions, none of that is going to make us like God created us to be. That only comes from living at the tree of life. Embracing Jesus, embracing a relationship with him, letting his life pour through us. It's been God's plan since the very beginning. I mean, since the very start. That has been God's plan. That's been his intention for you. It's been his intention for me. For us to live with him at the tree of life. It's God's plan now. For us. You know, if the worship team wants to come up, we're going to finish here in a minute. Um actually, pretty quickly. Sometimes they come up here and sit for 10 minutes. But uh if you want to stand, we'll get ready and we're gonna sing one last song together. Thank God for being such a great God. How good is he to not demand a list of rules and regulations and harsh things that we've got to follow, but instead to just create us for good, to have a relationship with us, to create us in his very image. I know that uh for some of us, those are some probably some new new thoughts. You know, for uh others, it's a reminder. It's a good place for us to start this year. You know, it's how God started the universe. It's always been his plan for us. Not rules, not tradition, but life. You know, like Jesus said in John 10, 10, for each of us, he came so we could have more and better life than we could ever imagine. So let's pray. Father, we just praise you. I thank you for being such a great God, for adopting us as your children, for loving us. I just ask you now to give us life, just to pour your life, to pour your love, to stir up our hearts, and so we're not so self-reliant. But we embrace a relationship with you, we seek you, a friendship with you, we just relax and live life with you. We ask you to do that in us, to change us from the inside out. If we could become more like you, that's what we want. But would you do that? Would you pour through us? Would you change us? We trust you, we thank you, we love you. Jesus, thank you so much for making this all possible. It's in your name we pray. Amen.