Presented by Shannon Keys

This is a teaching message about what God’s original plan was for his creation. He made us to be gardeners in Eden. We were to care for the Earth, have dominion over it, and cultivate it. He also made us to live in divine love with God and others.

Humans were bringing Heaven to Earth in Eden, and that remains our task as partners with Christ. What was in the Garden will be again when Christ returns.

John 15:1 NIV

1 … my Father is the gardener.

Genesis 2:15 NIV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 

Image bearers have green thumbs

We were created to care for and tend to our relationship with God, others, and creation. Which of these areas need some tending to? What are some practical ways you can cultivate your relationship with God, others, and creation?

Presented by Chrystal Zidon

Psalm 139:23-24 TLB

An interview with Pastor Robert Guiller about sabbatical.

1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  

God tells us to abstain from sexual immorality, but what is it that we should be doing? Well, Paul describes a life of love in 1st Corinthians 13, and that is maturity. Maturity is being kind and not demanding your own way. It always protects and does not dishonor others.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8 NIV

1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God…

1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV

13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Maturity is letting God define Love.

Presented by Graham Kelly

1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  

So often we can find our identity in roles such as our occupation or our family role. But also, people’s identity can become very linked to their sexuality, whether this be sexual orientation or relationship status.

That’s why this message will remind us that our identities are found not in who we love, but rather who loves us.

Genesis 1:26-28 (ESV)

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Romans 8:14-17 NLT

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Maturity is finding your identity in who loves you, not in who you love.

1 Corinthians 13:11 NIV

11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

According to Ephesians (see supplemental verse) one of the responsibilities pastors and communicators have is to help grow us up to be “mature in the Lord.” That’s what this series and this sermon are all about. According to Matthew (see supplemental) we’re all guilty of “adultery” and have some maturing to do. Contrary to popular belief, our bodies are not our own. God bought them and knows the best way for us to steward them. Sex and our bodies are sacred temples.

​​1 Corinthians 6:16-20 NIV

16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Ephesians 4:11-13 NLT

11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Matthew 5:27-28 NIV

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

You’ll never regret choosing sexual maturity.

Presented by Chrystal Zidon