Sis Dorothy Sunday School 2/5/12
In the Garden of Eden, God’s will and deliberate purpose was to make man in His own image, a two-fold man. God also placed two trees in the garden that gave Adam and Eve a choice between good and evil.
The second Garden the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus gave up his own purpose and plan and became the perfect sacrifice for our sins. The angel came and strengthened Him and Jesus said, “Not my will but thine.”
God prepares all for heaven whom he prepared heaven for.
Finding God’s will in the gardens of God. The heart’s garden, “Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” Those issues that issue forth either bring life or death. The good ground brings froth fruit unto righteousness.
The heart garden is a place of communion and rest, “I will come in and sup with him and he with me.”
Man has a different kind of heart than all other creatures, a capacity for right thinking, right acting and a right life.
Because of the sacrifice of our Lord’s sacrifice
1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
We can have a new spirit within, a temper of mind agreeable to the new circumstances that God will bring us to. Sanctified, live by a new principal, walk a new path, and have a new end. We can have a garden full of growth and life.
We love to see a lively garden: spiritual, as we view each other, and natural. The spiritual garden is ruled by seasons and times just like the natural. We find God waiting to commune with us in the morning and the evening just as He did Adam and Eve.
Psa 65:8 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
Walk with God through the word; listen to the voice of His spirit. Wash your eyes with Peter in the gardens of the heart.
Son 4:16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.
There is nothing like the fragrance that comes from the spices in our natural garden. It is a sweet incense, our prayers are such to the nostrils of God. We can have a wonderful communion in our garden.
What produces good soil? We must have good soil; we must have good ground to bring forth for God. We want to find His will for our lives.
1. We must have light for our garden to grow. In creation the garden couldn’t grow until God created light and separated the light from the darkness
Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Delivered from the power of darkness
Joh 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
He is the light. Without Him our heart is still full of darkness.
2. Our heart garden can only produce in good ground. Man’s heart is like soil, capable of improvement.
Luk 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luk 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
Luk 8:16 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.
Luk 8:17 For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.
Luk 8:18 Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.
The seed is the Word of God.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Having heard, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. We don’t plant a seed and the next week bear fruit.
We must have patience. We need patience with ourselves and with others.
Keep the candle burning and give light. Light is so important. Take heed, don’t lose what you have.
Joh 12:35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
Joh 12:36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.
3. We must have light and our heart must produce good ground. We must lay a good foundation.
Luk 6:48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Isa 62:10 Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
In order to lay a good foundation there are two things that we must do: we must dig deep and we must gather out the stones. Have you ever tried to plant something when the ground was too hard and you just scratched the surface? You didn’t get much fruit did you.
You must gather out the stones. In my good garden ground, I often wonder, “Where did that rock come from?” The same is for our hearts. We must remove the stones that we discover.
Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
2Ti 2:21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.
Receive Him and purge yourself.
Psa 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Hide the seed in your heart so that it will produce.
Weeds grow in good soil. We need to realize that weeds can grow in our garden if we are not careful. They can really take over so we must be very careful. Sometimes I think, “Is that a weed or a good plant that is growing there?” We need the light; we need God’s help to keep our garden clean and pure for Him.
We must analyze the soil. We must have a balance. We are human, we must have a balance or our human takes us away. We cannot be too righteous. We must have the balance of “dust and deity.” “Don’t be fanatically religious and don’t be irreverently religious.” (Oswald Chambers)
Being with the saints will help us to not be out of balance. It is the same way working in the body: we help keep our pastor in balance and he keeps us in balance. It is a wonderful work that God has implemented.
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Change by adding or taking away, this is how we keep a balance.
2Pe 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We must walk in newness of life and if we are planted with Him we will.
2Pe 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
2Pe 1:6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
2Pe 1:7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jud 1:20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
This helps us keep a balance. Walk in newness of life, add, and build yourself up. In our gardens we must keep up with things. We must take care of it; we must work in our garden. We cannot go a single day without working. If you keep things up it is a lot easier to maintain then to catch up. You feel checked and you feel bad when you let things go. God will check us, he wants us balanced.
Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
The word of God is the seed. If that seed is there and remains we cannot sin. There is never a time when it is impossible for us to sin, but with the life of God in us we can live without sin.
Psa 74:16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
Psa 74:17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.
Psa 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Heb 6:7 For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Psa 104:19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
Psa 72:5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
Psa 72:6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
We must have the correct ratio to grow. We must have the light and sun. We must have the sun as a shield or shade. We must drink in the rain, the moon for seasons, the rain that comes down on the mown grass.
We must have the wind. When the trials come it makes us stronger and helps us grow. We must go through these things. There must be a correct ratio. Only sun, or only rain, or only wind will completely destroy. We must have it all.
8. We must have labor. WE must keep and dress the garden. Guard and preserve our garden.
Isa 26:1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Salvation is the best defense we can have.
1Pe 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
We are kept by the power of God. There is no way we can keep ourselves.
Psa 40:11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Preserve blameless: when we work at preserving something from the garden we know it is work. If a jar of preserves is opened and found to be spoiled, then we must throw it away. God has a wonderful process and there is no way that anything that He preserves can be spoiled. We must be preserved blameless so that there is no spoilage at all.
The only thing that preserves beans is pressure. We don’t like the pressure but it works to preserve us.
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Watch for the snares. The devil will come and bring things to our garden that are sometimes very deceitful.
We must watch.
2Co 2:10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
2Co 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Forgiveness is a beautiful flower that we can have in our garden. We are not ignorant of the devil’s devices.
If we ever do not forgive then we have been taken in a snare. If we don’t forgive then we will not be forgiven.
