Imagination not Required

In 1971 John Lennon released his greatest hit single Imagine.  The song proposes a world free of religion, nationalism and materialism would usher in a secular Utopia.   A world free of greed and hunger in which the brotherhood of man would all share.  People loved the song.  However, we really don’t need to imagine such a world as it has already been tried.  God gave us such a world in the beginning.  It is described in the Biblical book of Genesis. 
 
Chapters 3-6 of Genesis give us an overview of what it was like back then.  Adam and Eve lived in a world that actually fits what Lennon described.  They lived in a perfect environment of plenty.  They could do almost anything they wished as there was only one restriction, one rule they needed to obey.  They were to never eat the fruit of a single particular tree.  Understand, they had free access to everything and anything else on this planet.  Wrap your Imagination around that!  And even after they blew it and ate the fruit, we could count the restrictions placed on them by God with the fingers of one hand.  They lived truly free.
 
There was only one belief system.  It only governed their enter actions with the creator, so religions weren’t a problem.  No national boundaries to restrict their movement or to compete against.  The world was still a wonder land of plenty that fit Lennon’s imagined Utopia.  So how did that work out?  See Genesis 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
 
You see the real source of our trouble is not the environment it is found within us.  We are driven by self-interest.  We want what we want and only two things restrain us from complete loss of control.  One of them is the very things Lennon wanted to wish away.  The other is the Creator. 
 
History shows that God has intervened in the affairs of mankind from time to time.  The Genesis flood being the first time.   He has also provided redemption and restoration to us as individuals.  The gift of everlasting life purchased by Jesus Christ which is available to every human being opens the way to a future in Heaven.  A true Utopia that will be free of the self-interest that corrupts everything we touch today. 

​John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 5:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
 
Jesus Christ is the giver of everlasting life and will give it to everyone who believes Him.  As He said in John 5:24 this everlasting life is given when a person first believes.  They immediately pass from death into life.  When their physical body dies, they will live on in a new one.  And with the new life God offers a renewed mindset through the study of His revealed truth.  John 8:31-32 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  
 
That is what we are pursuing at Trego Community Church.  The knowledge of God’s truth that frees us to face a promising future in God’s eternal Kingdom.