Amen. Amen. Well, hey, welcome to venture Church man. I'm so glad that you're here, whatever campus or online wherever you are, man. So thankful that that we get to be here together.

We get to celebrate life change and all that God is doing so look do me a favor as we get ready to jump in. Go ahead. If you have a copy of the Bible grab it turn to Genesis chapter 2, if you use an app, it's fine. Go ahead and start looking up Genesis chapter 2. If you don't use either one of those things, that's okay.

No judgment, right. We'll have it on the screen for you. So you'll be okay. All right. So Genesis chapter 2, we're gonna we're gonna look at several different passages today.

We're gonna bounce around a little bit. So just heads up. Hang with me. I'll keep you up to speed I promise but we're gonna start we're gonna start in Genesis 2 and life within the Garden of Eden now, I spend a lot of time as a kid. I spend a lot of time in the garden.

So one of the things that my grandfather was just incredibly passionate and serious about was this Garden right every single year man, he would That too would cultivate just these beautiful vegetable gardens. He would he would make one at his house. He would make one an hour house, which meant that as a family we spent a lot of time in the garden with my grandfather, right? I mean all the good stuff right like corn and potatoes and okra and peas and squat like just all the good country stuff, you know, and so we we spend a lot of time there. We spent a lot of time in the garden.

It was kind of central to who we were it's kind of foundational to who we were as a family we spend a lot of time preparing the garden and we spend a lot of time preparing what was produced in the garden right and what I mean by that is As a family we've spent a lot of time not just picking what grew or what was produced in the garden, but we would clean it. We would prepare it we would put it away for the winter. Right? We put it away for the weeks the days the months that were coming all the good stuff. And listen.

I'm just full disclosure. I don't want to like romanticize this too much for you. Okay, because while it was very important to who we were as a family I hated it hated the time there despise. It was not fun for me. I was a kid.

Also, I was a punk kids all one and complained about anything that I had to do right calling me in the summer and I got to get up early to go walk up to the garden and pick a bushel of corn because the neighbor was coming by to get it like I didn't want to do that. I want to sleep in I wanted to watch prices, right? That's what I wanted to do in the summer, you know, and so I was not always happy about the garden. However, it was very important to us. It was very important to us as a family it was foundational to who we were in honestly man.

Looking back one of the things I know is that the garden taught me a lot of lessons. And there's a lot of things I learned because of that season because of that time one of the things I learned is that meant nothing good is produced or enjoyed without preparation, right? But anything good that's going to be produced in our life there needs to be a season or a time of preparation for that and I'll take that a step further when it comes to our faith. I'll tell you this. I think a lot of times we miss out on a lot that God is intending to produce in us that God has planting and cultivating and growing in us.

We miss out on a great deal of that because we're unwilling to go through a preparing season. In our microwave culture are one at fast right now kind of culture and Society. We don't want to go through the the difficult the hard The Waiting work to be prepared in this season for what God intends to grow in and out of us in the next season, right? And so because we Short change the preparation season because we don't do the difficult or the waiting work to be prepared. What ends up happening is we what we experience is more of a stunted product that didn't have time to grow the Deep Roots and the full life that was intended.

That's the message for another time. Let me come back to my illustration. One of the things one of the things my grandfather would always do to prepare the garden for the life that was going to be produced in it and the life that was going to be enjoyed because of it. Is he would set limits? He would every single year he would make sure that there was a fence around his garden and that fence set a limitation.

It said a line. It said what is produced and what grows here in this Garden cannot go beyond this line. Here's a marker. Here's a limitation. You can't go past that and for you and I we typically don't like these ideas.

Right? We don't like the ideas of limitations or lines, right? It feels like it boxes a scene. So why would you draw a line and say I can't grow past this that doesn't seem loving that doesn't seem caring but the reality is that fence and that limitation that line it also provided protection from the animals and those things that would threaten to come in to steal kill and destroy the life before it was fully grown and ready to be enjoyed right that limitation provided protection. And as a matter of fact, I think we can go so far as to say without the limitation there is no protection that we need the limitation in order to experience protection, right?

My grandfather would teal the ground and then he would run a plow through the gardens and that plow would create straight lines lines that that would set a limit as to what could grow and where it could grow. And again, we don't like straight lines right put a box around me tell me I got to operate within certain lines. I'm gonna color outside of those lines just to show you I can't or just to show you I'm not afraid to right. But those rows and those lines. While it's set a limit and it set a direction that determined what could grow and where it could grow it also provided the necessary space to experience the life that was produced.

Had the crops not grown in the Rose. Then what was produced on them? The life the good life that was produced there never could have been picked. It never could have been Harvest. It couldn't have been enjoyed outside of those lines.

Is Obama telling you all this? Not to give you any kind of agricultural lesson because I promise you man. I am not a gardener. I'm not a grower that Gene to not get past it down the bloodline to me right like plants die in the Warren household. We're not good with them.

I'm not good with them. So I I I'm not trying to give you an agricultural lesson. Here's what I want you to see though. Okay, we're gonna dig into Life In The Garden in Genesis chapter 2. And here's what I want you to see is that the same is true when it comes to the life that God has producing in and through us that limitations are necessary.

Here's the big idea for today. Healthy life profitable life good life healthy life cannot be sustained outside of limits. We need limitations and we need lines in order to sustain healthy and profitable life. Let me show them for my Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2 starting will start in verse 15 it says this.

Then the Lord God took the man he took out him and he put them in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it there was purpose for him for 16 and the Lord God commanded the man saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden. So there's plenty and there's there's pleasure and there's provision therefore surely eat of every tree of the garden verse 17, but 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. There's a limitation drone. There was a line drawn in the sand God took Adam into the Garden of Eden into paradise.

And he said look, I've got it all for you purpose pleasure provision. I'm gonna take care of you. I've got it all for you. But understand there's a line right there. Don't cross it.

I'm drawing a fence right here. I'm drawing a limitation right here and you cannot cross it because if you cross this line if you cross this limit, there's not more life for you. There's death. This is Mufasa. Right Mufasa on proud rock with Simba telling him look everything.

The light touches is yours. I've got it all for you. It's a perfect beautiful life, but you see that shadowy place don't go there. Because there's not life over there understand. I love this.

I understand like where this happens. Sin, and destruction, they don't enter the story until Genesis chapter 3 until the next chapter right A lot of times we talk about our limitations and we think about them as if they are a byproduct or consequence of our sin, right as if God is standing up on a throne somewhere saying look you bunch of dummies because you can't listen I'm gonna give you more rules to try to keep you in line, right like but that's not what's happening. In Paradise before sin ever entered the story In Paradise, there's a limitation. And there's a line drawn why because life is produced within limits. That's the story Genesis chapter 3 what happens?

Sin enters into the story, right? Sin enters in this into the story Satan Begins the whisper into the E into the ear of Eve and says, hey did God really tell you that you can't do something. That doesn't sound right? Doesn't sound fair. God says you can't really how dare he Says, yeah, we can eat of any of it God's given it all to us.

But that tree over there. No, we can't he drew a line. He drew a limit. He said we can't do that. And what did Satan say?

No, when you eat of that tree, you're not gonna die, but you will be like God, what was the difference between man? And God and that point limits you go back to Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 and it tells us how God created man. It said that God Out of the Dust out of the dirt of the earth. God formed man. He created you he created your image, you're likely to see forms you and into that limited into that finite into that created thing God breathed eternity right his breath Eternal breath unlimited breath field our lungs and it filled it with life.

And so what that means for you and for me man, we are created. We are made equally of the created substance of the finite of the Temple of the limited and we're created equally of the infinite of the Eternal of the unlimited of the breath of the presence of the image of God. And so what that means is that you and I mean, we carry forward incredible potential incredible Life Giving potential because we are image barrier bearers of God. But it also means that we carry forward that potential we carry forward the image of God in a finite in a limited creation. And that's the tension we exist in we exist in this tension of life.

But limits I know that there is a fool abundant good life that God has created me for and I must be able to experience a good and fool and Abundant Life free of limits, right? That's what Satan began to whisper into the the ear of Eve There's no you'll be like God you will be unlimited. That was the sin and that was a Temptation that brought destruction was a desire to break barriers to live beyond limits to remove restrictions to be unlimited to be like God and I'll say this I think every sin. That has followed since that time has been a sin of living beyond our limits. Of trying to remove restrictions and break the barriers that God has designed for us to experience life within and so we experience this tension of life and limits John chapter 10 verse 10.

Jesus said I came I came so that you may have life. What abundantly Fool life full of purpose and pleasure and Provisions and we want that and We crave that and we desire that because it's a good thing. But Jesus also said there in John chapter 10 that that abundant and full life is found as we follow his voice the good Shepherd's voice and so there is a limit. To experiencing the life. That God has created us for And so the tension the tension that we exist within of life and limits it's not it's not attention of two opposing forces that are conflicting that are fighting that are pushing against one another but rather I think it's it's too truth that are dancing and Harmony together.

Listen, the the Abundant the fool the healthy the sustainable life that God created you that he sent his son to this earth to down across it that you can experience that life is found not fighting against the limits, but it's found living within them. That life requires limits Let me show you what this looks like in the New Testament Matthew chapter 26 Matthew chapter 26. We get a new picture of life within the garden this time. It's the Garden of Gethsemane. And so in the Old Testament in Genesis, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they tried to be like God but in the Garden of Gethsemane, we get a picture of Jesus, who is God God and flesh God the son and in Genesis in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve tried to step two heaven, but in Matthew in the Garden of Gethsemane, Heaven is stepping to Earth and again in the person of Jesus and here's what happens Matthew chapter 26 verse 36.

It says this then Jesus went with them. This is disciples. You just went with them to a place called Gethsemane. There was a garden there in that place and he said to his disciples sit here while I go over there and I pray and taking with him Peter and the two sons of zebity. That's James and John.

Taking with him Peter and James and John he began to be sorrowful and troubled. And then he said to them. My soul is very sorrowful even to death remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther he fell on his face and he prayed saying my father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless. Not as I will but as you will The scene has always been it's incredibly fascinating to me because we get a picture of Jesus unlike any other picture.

I think we get a picture of a Jesus who who in heartfelt Agony. It is wrestling with the the weight of the Cross when he prays if there's any way let this cup pass from me the cup he's talking about is the cross. It's the sacrifices that he's gonna take the weight and the punishment of our sins and he says God if there's any way let this past from me and what I find fascinating about that is that in this moment. Jesus is still very much God He is God the son and so he had every right and every Authority and every ability to say no. As he hung on the cross and the the soldiers mocked him and said if you're really the son of God come down off the cross he could have he could have in that moment called down the angels to take him from there.

He could have in the moment. He was Unlimited in that way and yet he chose. The limitation of death in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve tried to find Life by Breaking Free of the limits and instead brought death. But in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus chose death and was able to offer life you see it. You see what's happening there?

That in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus willingly embraced the limitation that Adam and Eve refused and because of that freedom in life is being offered to you. And so here's what I want to do with the few minutes a little bit time. We got left. I want to talk about some of the places that you and I that we experience limitations that we have been given the gift of limitations to experience and find abundant and full life. And so I want to talk about a few of these places.

But before I do, let me say this. When we talk about limitations, I want you to understand that limitations are meant to be a thing. We Embrace not endure. Here's the reason I make that distinction when we talk about enduring the thing we talk about we're typically talking about a negative. That I guess I'll take on if I have to right.

I don't want to go to practice but I'll endure the practice if that means I can play the game, right? But when we talk about embracing a thing, we understand that it's a positive that brings about something good. And so when we talk about these limitations that you and I that all of us have or have experienced in life, I want you to understand men that God's not calling you to a place of enduring them of understanding. Well, this is a negative. I guess I have to but understanding that no.

No, this is something to embrace. This is a good thing that God said within this limit. There's life in Abundant Life to be found. But it's not something we have to we have to fight against their passively make it through but no God said you can flourish in this place. So where do we find our limits?

What are some of the places and this isn't an exhaustive list, but this is a place to get started with and maybe the spirit can begin to speak into your situation and your certain in your circumstance. One of the places one of the places we experience limitations in life is through our struggles, right and understand what I say our struggles. I don't necessarily mean like the things we're not good at as in learned skills, right? Like if you are a kid and you cannot dribble a basketball. Well, you can learn to dribble a basketball and you might can be able to go on to play professional basketball.

Right like that's still a possibility for you. If you're an adult and you stand five three and you cannot dribble a basketball. Well, you're probably limited there. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're probably not going to go on to be a professional basketball and that's okay.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the skills. We can learn I'm talking about the weight that we oftentimes carry. Let me give you an example. If alcoholism runs in your family Or if you have an addictive personality, or if you look at your life and you realize that alcohol is a place you go in order to disconnect from reality.

Then you probably need to draw some limitations there. You need to build some fences around the bar around the club around some friendships and some relationships because what's on the other side of that limitation for you is not life. It is not more Abundant Life is death. If you struggle with with pornography if you struggle with lust then you need to limit the amount of time that you spend alone or that you spend with a device because what's on the other side of that limit for you is not Abundant Life. Is death You need some limitations.

I cross this quote. I think I read it somewhere that said limitations are not a sign of our sin. They're a sign of our Humanity. The fact that look we're limited beings. We are flawed right?

We are finite. Give another example one of the things I try to do and I'm not great at this. I'm really not but I'm trying to get better. One of the things I try to do is if I'm home with my wife. Always try to make sure that I don't keep my phone in my pocket, right I try to keep my phone faced up somewhere where there's a corner that we typically charge things.

I try to keep it there on a on a nightstand something like that face up in my wife. My wife knows the Pasco to my phone. She always has she always will one not because of my sin. But because of my Humanity and that we are fighting a real battle a real war with a real enemy that seeks to kill still and destroy a liar who deceives and distorts and twists. And so if they're ever comes a point in my life and our marriage where I become secretive about who's messaging me, or who's calling me.

I want my wife to know and to be able to call me out on that. That's a limitation that provides and it protects life. Because my wife would take my life, right like there's a there's a provision there. It's a good thing. I'll give you another one.

We we are living we find some limitations and what we call our spiritual gifts right First Corinthians chapter 12, the Apostle Paul talks a lot about the church like a body like a physical body and just like your physical body has different parts. It has different members that do different things has different functions you and I as children of God as followers of God, we have the spirit of God within us and because the spirit and the presence of God is within us he gives us he empowers us with certain spiritual gifts. And again, I'm not talking about abilities. I'm talking about gifts. And so for example, you might have been given through the spirit and the power of God the gift of the leadership or the gift of teaching maybe you've been given the gift of encouragement or Hospitality.

These are gifts that the spirit has given you in order to serve the the broader function of the body right to bless the body as a whole. But to acknowledge and to understand that God has gifted you in a certain way is to also acknowledge and understand that he hasn't given you the other gifts. So for example, maybe God has given you the gift of hospitality. And then you love the spirit just brings about joy in you to invite people over to your home and welcome people in and cook a meal for them man. That is just a rejuvenating thing you love it, but he hasn't given you the gift of teaching.

Well, that's okay, right there's a limit and there's a line drawn there not to say what you can or cannot do but rather to say what you can do best. If I wanted to I could walk across the stage on my hands. I look like a fool. I probably hurt myself, right, but I could do it to some degree. But my body is gonna function a whole lot better if I let my feet do the walking and I let my hands do the grabbing, right?

We're Limited in that way not in a negative. But again in a way to say hey, this is what you can do. This is what I'm gifting you to do best and to find joy and fulfillment in it. Let me give you another one. What we find some limitations in our season of life.

It's just a reality, right? There's some things you cannot afford to do at 20 years old that you can't afford to do it 40 years old. She's the reality of the season of life you're in. There are some things physically you can do at 18 that you cannot do at 50, right? They're just some limitations.

There's a reality of the season of life. There are different opportunities afforded to you when you are single then when you are newly married then when you have one kid or two kids If you have three or more kids you don't have any time at all. So I really don't matter. You're all limited, right? Their limitations in our season of life because because every season brings about unique time challenges and time opportunities time is our clearest and most obvious limitation Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says that for everything under the heaven but everything under the sun there is a time and there is a season what the writer does not say is that there is time for everything, you know, say that no, he says everything has its time. So, let me let me let me try to free you from a little bit of weight right here. Okay, and I genuinely I genuinely hope you hear this as a blessing spoken over your life. You can't do it all. You just can't.

God has limited you in that way and that is a good thing and if you keep trying to live beyond your limits, you're not going to find more life. You're gonna find death. Embrace the limitations that God is giving you to find fool and Abundant Life in. I was kind of sharing just some of these ideas and thoughts as God's been kind of working in my heart and mind of sharing some of these ideas with a couple of friends and one of my friends Chad. He said that limits and limitations limitations are not only limiting but they reveal opportunities.

That limitations don't only give you a limit. That give you opportunities. And so let me invite you to do this just for a moment. Okay? Just where you are.

Close your eyes. For just a minute. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Try to kind of remove any distractions mentally you might have.

Don't want you to think about a limit that God is giving you to embrace. Maybe it's with the season of Life. Maybe it's with the struggle. Think about a limit that you have if you're doing great with it. Maybe you're fighting it hard.

And as you think about that limit I want you to think about these opportunities that God has given you in that place. Because every limit reveals an opportunity to experience God's goodness. I think about God's goodness that you find within that limitation. Jesus said in Matthew that my yoke is easy and my burden is light. How much do we long and We crave a light life Jesus as I offer it to you have it for you, but it comes as your yoked with me.

We are paired with Jesus. So there's a limitation there. And what we do and what we don't do. But in that we experience the light life. So you think about that limitation I want you to think about the opportunity is God begins to reveal.

Where you can best so and what you can best grow in the season. You can choose to look at the rows and you can choose to look at the fences. As what you can't do. And you can be burdened and you can be mad about this. Or you can choose to look at those limitations as God's clear guidelines of where you can grow best in the season.

What opportunities to see afforded you? What is he giving you in this season to sow into and to grow out of? Here's the last one. You think about that limitation? To think about the barriers that only God can break.

Moses in the Old Testament Moses was limited in a speech. He didn't talk good. And when Moses tried to lead outside of his limitation, he was frustrated. He was angry he was isolated. He was rejected.

But when Moses allowed God to lead him inside the limitations. He led an entire nation to Freedom. It's a barrier that only God can break. Is a quote this is where I want to end. And pray for you, but there's a quote Peter scazzaro said that that limits are places where we encounter God in ways that would otherwise be impossible.

Limits are places we encounter God in ways that would otherwise be impossible. And so here's my question for you. Where is God inviting you to encounter him? What limitations is he calling you to embrace to take hold of? See it as a season of growth and opportunity and abundant and full life.

Where is he inviting you to encounter him? Maybe maybe for you. The limitation for you to embrace is simply that you can't do life on your own. You've tried it. You've tried to find fulfillment in every way you can and every step is just outside of your grasp and the limit that you need to take.

Hold of is he's saying hey come. Come on and take on my yoke follow in my way. There's freedom and life found in his way. Maybe it's just to acknowledge in a season that you're in that your time is different. Your opportunities are different.

What are those limits and what are those places God is in calling you to God is calling you to encounter him. Hey, let me pray for us Church. Lord we give you all that we can In This Moment. We are finite we are limited and we acknowledge that. We can't do it all.

No matter how hard we try no matter how much we good our teeth no matter how strong our back is. We can't do it all. So God, we want to acknowledge our limitations that you have given us the gift that you've given us in order to find abundant in full life. And I pray that you will help us see you within the fences within the rows. The life that you've provided the opportunity that you've provided for us to experience.

Well, we love you. We give you all the praise and all the glory. Amen