I. Why is home so significant?

Point One: Marvel at God’s gracious provision (Genesis 2:8-9).

-Place – The garden is home and it is purposed by God, not an accident. Vs 2:8 -Work – Adam is given meaningful work.
-Significant relationships – no helper found suitable for Adam so God created Eve perfectly -Communion with God – They walked with God in the cool of the day!

II. Why did it go bad?

Point Two: Mourn our homelessness (Genesis 3:24).

Our sin makes use homeless and alienated from this deep sense of home in the four areas mentioned above.

Point Three: Know when a direction is more than a direction (Genesis 3:24; Genesis 4:16; Genesis 12:1-9). Adam and Eve go out east of Edem, further and further away from their home. This is also symbolic of their sin. Then God says to Abtaham for him to leave his HOME to a place or a home that God will show him – see Gen 12. He is to leave Haran and head WEST. It is symbolic that God in his mercy is calling us west to our real home. All the families of the earth will be blessed BECAUSE and THROUGH the fact that God is calling Abraham home. Finally when Abraham gets there, there is someone already living there. Abraham lives in a tent then all his days because here on earth he is waiting for Gods final home of the restored heaven and earth through the Seed, Jesus.

III. How do we get a new home?

Point Four: Live as people who have a place (John 14:1-3). Jesus says, “in my fathers house / home are many mansions.” The reason Jesus tells them not to fear is that they have a true room in the father’s true home. You have a place you belong, a place where you are known, a place you are loved, a place that you have meaningful work, and most of all a place to commune intimately with your heavenly father. How did we get into our family? We were born into it. This is how we got into Gods family – we were born again into it.

The home that we now have is not a place but it is a Person!

Steven Curtis chapman song: ‘we are not home yet’. We forget that. We forget that we have a place and a home!

Jesus said he will never leave us as orphans nor forsake us. We have a permanent, indelible home. Christ is Home.

The Texts:

Genesis 2:8-9 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

IX. The Sermon: Homeless: Genesis 2:8-9; Genesis 3:24
– Reverend Kyle McClellan, Pastor, Grace Church