15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 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.” Genesis 2: 15-17 NKJV

God put Adam in the Garden of Eden and told him to “tend and keep it.” Every situation we face is our personal Garden of Eden, and God places us in those circumstances; He is clear about what He wants us to do. He wants us to manage, take control of, and never succumb to it.

God is clear about tending and keeping the Garden. When the crafty serpent shows up, Adam and Eve have one job: to evict the intruder and preserve the Garden. They don’t do this. Instead, they succumb to the devil, and when God comes looking for them, they hide from God.

For many Christians, the devil has become a symbolic creature. They believe Satan is not a living being but a symbol of evil, a fictitious character created to teach about sin. But the devil is real, and like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, he creeps into our lives all the time, looking to make us turn from God. He is the same liar who seduced Eve, and we must have our guards up and be ready to fight against this evil foe. Without acknowledging the devil’s existence, we can never “tend” our situations in life.

God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God puts us in all kinds of circumstances. He puts us in the lion’s den, the Red Sea, a furnace of fire, in prison like Joseph… whatever circumstances you find yourself in, good or bad, remember God places you in those exact coordinates, and it is your own Garden of Eden! Have you hit the jackpot? Are you sick? Are you having trouble at work or home? Are you as happy as can be? The first thing to remember is God places you in your present circumstances.

Now, once we realize we’re living in our Garden of Eden, what do we do? We do the same thing God asked Adam to do. Tend and keep the Garden! What does this mean? Tending to our circumstances means listening to God and submitting to God. We live according to Truth, the Holy Spirit, and His Blood. In simple terms, we do as God commands at every turn based on what we know from the Bible and the Holy Spirit living inside us.

What happens if the devil tries to creep in when we’re tending our Garden? We evict him by our submitting ourselves to God. Like Eve, we don’t submit ourselves to Satan. What are the things in your lives seducing you away from God? Is it a person? A job? A desire? An ambition? Whatever it is, if you submit to these things, they have become your idols. You’ve lost control of your Garden of Eden. To what do you submit? At the very end, who is your master? Who dictates and guides your life? God says for us to tend to our circumstances through submission to God, but we often submit to other things and let the devil run rampant in our lives.

Remember, our current situation is our Garden of Eden. God places us in our circumstances with the command to tend and keep. Are you doing this? Are you in control of your current situation? Are you living according to Truth and the Holy Inspiration? Or have you submitted to the devil in thoughts and actions? The only way out of a chaotic situation is to recognize God has placed you in that Garden and to tend to it at all costs. Don’t lose control! Don’t let the devil run rampant! Tend and keep your Garden of Eden by submitting yourself wholly to God.

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1984-3-16-full