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[0:00] This is a sermon from King's Church West Lothian.! Just to think in your mind a little bit about.

[0:32] We have a picture of what the perfect world looks like. But what, I want to ask you, does the perfect life look like? If somebody says, what does perfect life look like for you?

[0:46] So I just want to take a second just to think about that. What would the perfect life look like? I wonder.

[0:56] I wonder if I could look inside your minds right now. What that perfect life might look like. I wonder. For some people, most of us I suspect. It would involve loss of money.

[1:09] Naturally, if we wanted to live the perfect life. We'd obviously want to be rich, wouldn't we? Maybe you've got some sort of career in mind. Maybe something that would be really, really cool to do.

[1:22] I think it probably involves you being maybe a little bit famous. A little bit well known. I wonder if that's the case. Now, really, when we're talking about being rich and being famous, what we're really talking about there is putting ourselves above other people.

[1:42] To be rich is to have more money than other people. To be famous is to be more well known and to be more positively looked upon than other people, isn't it?

[1:54] I wonder if anybody, when they thought about the perfect life, thought about this. I wonder if any of them thought about wandering around naked in a garden. Anybody think that?

[2:04] No? As we saw in this opening, this little video here, there was a moment, there was a moment where we are given a picture of what the perfect life looked like.

[2:20] And it involved exactly that. Let me read. We heard lots from there. We need to stop, okay? We heard a little bit.

[2:30] I'm just going to read a few words from Genesis chapter 2. So here we go. So it says in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, The Lord formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

[2:45] It says the Lord God took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it, and to take care of it. It says the Lord God had formed out the ground all the wild animals, all the birds in the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would name them.

[3:01] And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals.

[3:13] So we're seeing here just a little picture of what the perfect life looked like. So the perfect life, the first life that was given to the man Adam, was this. It said that he was creative.

[3:26] He was given a creative job to do. What was the creative job that he was given? There was two actually. What was the creative job that he was given? Any hands up just from what we can remember there? He was given two jobs.

[3:39] His first job was to work the garden, wasn't it? That's creative. Any gardeners here? That's a creative thing to do. What was the other creative thing he was asked to do? This one would have been a really fun one.

[3:51] Go on, Josh. What was it? Choose all the animals' names. Choose the animals' names. That must have been a fun job. Have you ever wondered why animals are called... Why is an elephant called an elephant?

[4:02] I've got no idea. Why is a giraffe called a giraffe? The one that really confused me... Actually, Callum mentioned it earlier. Why is a cheater called a cheater? I mean, the cheater always wins anyway.

[4:13] Why does he need a cheat? I've no idea. Good dad joke there. Now, what's the... Now, being creative isn't necessarily about being really good at drawing a picture or being able to write poems or something like that.

[4:30] It might just be... It's about making your mark on the world. It might be putting numbers into a spreadsheet. It might be helping out a neighbour to move some stuff around in their garden.

[4:42] It could be loads of sort of things. But it's about you making a difference in the world in which you live. Whatever that might mean. Okay? That's what being creative really is about.

[4:53] But the second thing was this. They were naked together. Now, folks, I'm not going to ask anybody to follow their example. But what does it mean to be...

[5:04] What did it really mean to be naked? It meant that they were vulnerable together. It meant that they were so close that they weren't ashamed to show each other everything about themselves.

[5:17] Now, for us, what that means is having... It might mean a husband or a wife. But it might just mean really good friends around you. That you can be totally open with.

[5:27] That you can have a really, really close friendship. And show not just your good side, but also some of the bad things about you. And help you to become a better person. So that's what the perfect life looks like.

[5:38] It's being creative. And it's being really open with another person. Now, I think, and I hope, that probably most of us have that, to some degree.

[5:50] I think most of us, we make a positive impact on the world we live. I hope that you've got friends or family around you that you can be really open with. So, but I don't think anybody here, if they were being really honest, would say, I live the perfect life.

[6:08] I don't think anybody would say that. I'm pretty sure. So, so what went wrong? What happened? What happened between these guys, who did leave the perfect life, to us?

[6:19] And although we might need a good life, I don't think anybody would say we live a perfect life. Well, there's one thing that I missed off. And that's that these two, they lived a life that was in perfect friendship with God.

[6:34] And what happened? Well, you probably know the story. They were told by God not to eat a certain fruit in the garden, but they did it anyway. And so they were banished from the garden. They were cut off from being friends with God.

[6:50] And death came and work, instead of being a joy, became hard. They needed to wear clothes because they were no longer willing to be completely at one with each other.

[7:06] Now, I've got some bad news and I've got some good news. The bad news is this. You will never experience perfect life in this life.

[7:22] It won't happen. You will, no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you push or plan or try to make things as good as they possibly can be, things will always just not be quite right.

[7:35] I promise you, no matter how much you try, it will always be like that. But I've also got some good news. We are given an invitation that we can experience perfect life, not in this life here and now, but in the life to come.

[7:52] And not just for a few years while we're here on the earth, but forever and ever and ever. I'm going to, we started off right at the start of the Bible. I'm just going to finish off right at the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation.

[8:07] I'm just going to read you a few words of the world that is promised to us if we live faithfully. Here's what it says. It says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

[8:23] It says, and I heard a loud voice saying, look, God's dwelling place is now with the people and I will live with them.

[8:35] They will be his people and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more sadness, no more crying or pain for the old order of things is passing away.

[8:52] It's ceasing to be. Behold, he says, I am making all things new. So what's changed?

[9:05] Why now can we not lead the perfect life but in the future we are promised a perfect world and a perfect life to live in? Well, I said at the start that we are given one picture of the perfect life.

[9:17] That's not quite true. There was another perfect life that was to come a little bit later on. Jesus, the perfect man, came into this very imperfect world and he lived the perfect life.

[9:34] He made the biggest difference that could possibly be made with his words and with his actions. He met with people where they were at and he made a bond with them that was unlike anything they'd ever seen before.

[9:50] And more than that, he made a way back to God so that the likes of you and me who are far from him could come once again into a perfect friendship with God and live forever.

[10:02] Because Jesus died and he rose again. He came through death so that the likes of you and me who will die, we can follow him through death into eternal life, into the perfect world which he has prepared and promised for all who love him and all who follow him.

[10:25] So what is the perfect life? Well, the closest to it that we will get in this life is to give everything that we have to follow him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength.

[10:44] I would encourage you whoever you are, whether you've lived this life for many years, whether you're young and are just considering and just thinking what could it mean to follow Jesus? I want to encourage you today to take a step of faith and to start a walk and a friendship with Jesus that will continue into eternal life.

[11:04] Why don't we pray? I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you've given us the promise of a new perfect world which we can live in forever if we will follow you.

[11:20] Lord, give us the faith and the strength and the hope to do that today. We love you, Lord. We thank you for this amazing promise and we ask for their power to walk in you from here on in.

[11:36]  Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.