Made in His Image · Transcript

1. 0:00 Good morning, church.
2. 0:04 My name is Jonathan, and today I'm going to be reading the scripture today.
3. 0:08 I'm going to be reading from Genesis 1, 26 through 31, and also Genesis 2, verses 7, 5...
4. 0:15 18 and 25.
5. 0:17 So if you would please stand up for the reading of the word.
6. 0:22 Then God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
7. 0:37 So God created man in his own image.
8. 0:40 In the image of God he created him.
9. 0:43 Male and female he created them.
10. 0:45 And God blessed them.
11. 0:47 And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over everything, every living thing that moves on the earth.
12. 1:00 And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed and its fruit.
13. 1:09 You shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird
14. 1:15 And to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.
15. 1:24 And it was so.
16. 1:25 And God said everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
17. 1:30 And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
18. 1:35 Then the Lord God formed man of dust from ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
19. 1:43 And man became a living creature.
20. 1:45 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
21. 1:51 Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone.
22. 1:54 I will make him a helper fit for him.
23. 1:58 Now out of the ground, Lord God had formed every beast of the fields and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
24. 2:09 And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
25. 2:14 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the fields.
26. 2:19 But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
27. 2:23 So the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
28. 2:33 And the rib that the Lord had taken from the man he had made into a woman and brought her to the man.
29. 2:41 Then the man said...
30. 2:42 This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
31. 2:47 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
32. 2:51 Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
33. 2:59 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
34. 3:03 This is the word of the Lord.
35. 3:07 Thank you, Jonathan.
36. 3:10 Appreciate it.
37. 3:10 Let's hear it.
38. 3:10 That was a great reading today.
39. 3:13 Thank you.
40. 3:16 Well, it's so good to be with you all this morning.
41. 3:18 And I was recently traveling, as you know.
42. 3:22 I was coming back from deployment, and I opened up my bag.
43. 3:27 And I don't know if you've ever had this, but you open up your bag, and you look inside, and things are not as you pack them.
44. 3:35 Things look a little bit different.
45. 3:37 And you wonder, what in the world happened that
46. 3:39 In the midst of all that travel.
47. 3:41 Well, I remember opening my bag when I got back from deployment.
48. 3:46 And I was so excited because all my stuff made it home.
49. 3:49 And my bags made it home.
50. 3:50 But then I reached down and I pulled out this.
51. 3:56 And it wasn't always like this.
52. 3:59 This used to be, and maybe we'll have an image on the screen.
53. 4:02 This used to be something that I really treasured.
54. 4:05 It was a gift that was given to me from the head surgeon of
55. 4:09 of our special forces group.
56. 4:12 He is 70-some years old.
57. 4:14 He's served in the combat settings for over 20-some years, and he's a legacy.
58. 4:20 And he said to me just very kind things.
59. 4:23 James, I've seen a lot of chaplains come and go, but I just wanted to give you this because this is something that I hope just reflects our appreciation for what you've done here.
60. 4:32 I can't tell you how much that meant to me to hear from a man like that.
61. 4:36 Well, when I got home and I pulled it out of my bag, it
62. 4:39 definitely didn't look the way it once did at all it was in pieces and if you were opening my bag even if it wasn't your bag and you opened it you'd probably say to yourself like wow that that doesn't look right something looks terribly broken you probably wouldn't say well I guess that keepsake there is identifying as broken no you wouldn't say that all you'd be like that that is not the way it's supposed to be and and sometimes that's the way life is right
63. 5:09 There's like something about it that, I don't know, there's a struggle in the marriage.
64. 5:16 There's tension at work.
65. 5:19 There's a struggle even of how you identify or maybe your acceptance from others.
66. 5:26 You turn on the news and you see brokenness all around you.
67. 5:29 And you're thinking to yourself, man, something is just not right.
68. 5:34 Something's broken here.
69. 5:36 I'm not even sure what it's supposed to look like, but I can just look at that and tell that that's not the way it's supposed to be.
70. 5:43 And that's exactly the way we experience life as we know it, isn't it?
71. 5:48 We know in our hearts that there's a difference between right and wrong.
72. 5:54 And when we look out in the world, we see something and something inside of us says, that's not the way it's supposed to be.
73. 6:02 And maybe if we look in the mirror, we say, that's not the way I'm supposed to be
74. 6:07 Furthermore, you look at Scripture, and all of a sudden, as you open up these initial passages, in chapters 1 and 2, you're like, wow, everything's good.
75. 6:21 It's not broken.
76. 6:23 People are as they're supposed to be.
77. 6:25 The world is in harmony.
78. 6:27 There's peace.
79. 6:29 The ground is flourishing.
80. 6:31 Things are working.
81. 6:33 Things are being developed and built.
82. 6:35 There's not all this messiness.
83. 6:37 In these first two passages of scripture.
84. 6:41 But in chapter 3, things are about to change.
85. 6:45 But in the midst of this, we begin to see things as they're supposed to be.
86. 6:50 And hopefully one day will be.
87. 6:52 And here is the message of Genesis 1 and 2 for all of us.
88. 6:58 That God takes brokenness.
89. 7:02 And he doesn't just give us the ability to cope in the midst of brokenness...
90. 7:07 He will restore what once was.
91. 7:10 And our hope is not that we can fix everything or solve everything, but one day he will.
92. 7:16 And in his word, he gives us a picture, a picture of what once was and what will be.
93. 7:24 And in the meantime, he gives us great dignity and value and purpose in each one of our lives to preserve things as, again, they once were and one day will be.
94. 7:34 Will you pray with me?
95. 7:36 Lord, thank you for the opportunity to dive into your word today.
96. 7:39 May we see things as they are.
97. 7:41 Will you give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to receive and respond to your word of truth.
98. 7:47 Thank you that you created everything very good.
99. 7:51 But to be honest, God, we look around and things are not very good around us and maybe even inside of us.
100. 7:59 And so we pray that through the power of your Holy Spirit, you would give us a new perspective
101. 8:05 That we can see things as they once were and will be.
102. 8:08 And you use us as you see fit to build your kingdom here on earth.
103. 8:13 I pray this in Jesus' name.
104. 8:14 Amen.
105. 8:16 Now, we're diving in with the first few passages of scripture.
106. 8:21 We last week looked at the created order and now we've come to the very pinnacle of creation which is man and woman.
107. 8:29 Made in the very image of God.
108. 8:31 So many things God creates and he
109. 8:34 breathes life into them, and they live, move, and have their being in him.
110. 8:39 But there's something special about mankind.
111. 8:43 You see, each animal and tree and everything, the breath of life, God breathed into it, and he took nothing and created something.
112. 8:53 And everything as we know it finds our life and our existence in him and his breath, raka, in the Hebrew.
113. 9:00 But mankind bears his very image
114. 9:03 As in, is very distinct from the rest of the created order.
115. 9:07 And that's what we see in verse 26 here.
116. 9:11 Then God said, let us.
117. 9:13 Now, wouldn't it be weird if I got up here and said, we're going to preach today.
118. 9:16 You'd be like, no, you're not a preacher, man.
119. 9:17 You're going to preach.
120. 9:18 We're going to listen.
121. 9:19 You'd be like, why is he talking about we, you know, in a plural sense?
122. 9:22 That'd be odd.
123. 9:23 And yet God, the first time we read about him in scripture, is saying, let us, Elohim, plural, masculine, in our image.
124. 9:33 Isn't that fascinating?
125. 9:35 Again, it's as though hints of the Trinity are being laid before us.
126. 9:39 Breadcrumbs are leading us, again, to the cross.
127. 9:43 Now, Moses would have no idea what he was writing in these first few words, but through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we would find their greater fulfillment.
128. 9:51 It'd be no different than David when he wrote in Psalm 23, prophetically, what Jesus would ultimately cry out from the cross.
129. 9:59 Or when Isaiah in Isaiah 53 wrote about the suffering servant and what he would endure at the cross hundreds of years before crucifixion was even invented.
130. 10:09 You see, through divine inspiration, the authors of Scripture are able to capture not only what is, but will be.
131. 10:17 And this is the God we serve.
132. 10:19 And in the first few pages of Scripture, we see him revealing himself in the plural sense.
133. 10:23 As though, again, he's hinting towards the Trinity.
134. 10:26 Now let us make man in our image.
135. 10:28 Now this is mankind.
136. 10:29 Both male and female bear the very image of God and therefore have incredible inherent dignity and value.
137. 10:36 Not because of what they do.
138. 10:37 They have done nothing yet.
139. 10:40 But they bear the very image of God.
140. 10:42 And I think this is the biggest challenge so many of us face is that we try and find our identity in what we do, what we have, or what other people think about us.
141. 10:49 But God says before you do any of that, I've set you apart.
142. 10:53 You are
143. 10:54 the pinnacle of all creation because you bear my image.
144. 10:57 And it's not just about what you do.
145. 11:00 Like a little baby that's breathing, our parent is so proud, not because that baby has done anything, but because it bears the very image through the DNA that it has.
146. 11:08 And in much the same way, we bear the very image of God.
147. 11:12 And he looks at us and he says, man, there you are.
148. 11:15 I've set you apart.
149. 11:16 I've called you for something special, both male and female.
150. 11:19 You bear my image and therefore you have inherent image
151. 11:23 Dignity, value, and purpose.
152. 11:27 And I know some of you right now, maybe you're struggling, certainly in our culture, that there's a huge struggle right now with transgender ideology and how one identifies.
153. 11:35 I just want you to say, I want you to understand, you bear the very image of God.
154. 11:40 And only a creator gets to say who you are or what you are.
155. 11:44 And we are not gods.
156. 11:46 We are made in the image of God.
157. 11:48 He is the creator.
158. 11:49 We are the creation.
159. 11:50 He gets to say who we are and what we are.
160. 11:53 And if we'll begin to look to him and trust him, we'll begin to understand things as they really are.
161. 11:59 And that will help us come to terms and to live at peace with God and ourselves in a way that we can't do if we look for our identity outside of him.
162. 12:11 Furthermore, if we look for our identity and what we have or possess, what happens when we lose that?
163. 12:16 If we look for our identity in what we achieve, what happens when we can no longer achieve?
164. 12:20 If we look for our identity in what other people think about us or what they say about us, then what happens when people say different things about you?
165. 12:27 You see, the answer is that our image means that our value is received.
166. 12:34 It's not achieved.
167. 12:36 And that, my friends, is liberating.
168. 12:39 It's like an athlete.
169. 12:40 If an athlete goes up, you know, I deal with these professional baseball players.
170. 12:43 If he goes up and he's scared to death at the plate,
171. 12:45 that he's going to strike out or miss, then he's actually likely to strike out or miss because he's under so much pressure.
172. 12:52 But if he goes up to the plate because he spent hundreds and thousands of hours in the batting cage practicing over and over again, then he has this great sense of confidence.
173. 13:01 And the same is true in our understanding of our image.
174. 13:07 If we understand that we are already loved by God before we do anything, then we are set free to flourish.
175. 13:14 If not, we're going to take this creation and we're going to worship it rather than the creator because we're going to find our identity wrapped up in what we do here on earth.
176. 13:24 But God says, I have something so much more for you.
177. 13:27 You bear my very image.
178. 13:29 You've been set apart.
179. 13:30 And ultimately, you brought nothing in this world.
180. 13:32 You're not going to take anything out of this world.
181. 13:34 You're just a steward of what I've given you.
182. 13:37 But for you to steward things properly, you have to understand the image that you bear.
183. 13:42 Your mind.
184. 13:43 And I am yours.
185. 13:45 And I've called you and set you apart.
186. 13:47 And you're never going to find your identity in what you do, what you have, or what other people think about you.
187. 13:51 And you can't look just inside to figure out who you are.
188. 13:54 I'll tell you who you are.
189. 13:56 And then you'll be set free.
190. 13:58 And this is the beauty of what it means to be created in the image of God.
191. 14:03 It's liberating.
192. 14:05 But He doesn't just give us an image to bear.
193. 14:09 He gives us a work to do.
194. 14:12 And this is what it means to have
195. 14:14 dominion.
196. 14:15 Now you might say to yourself, oh man, dominion, that sounds like, you know, I'm the boss.
197. 14:19 I got to run around.
198. 14:20 I don't really want to be the boss, run around and put everything under my feet and rule and reign.
199. 14:25 Well, we're going to break this down.
200. 14:26 It looks a little bit different than that, but this passage here is basically like the Great Commission of the Old Testament.
201. 14:33 In the Great Commission in the New Testament, we have Jesus saying, go out to all the world and make disciples of all the nations.
202. 14:40 And here in the Old Testament, we have God calling his people to
203. 14:43 to take dominion over the earth, to reign and to rule.
204. 14:47 In other words, it's a concept of stewardship because, again, Adam as he was created in the garden, he had a work to do before the fall took place.
205. 14:55 In other words, work is not a bad thing.
206. 14:58 It might feel like a curse on Monday.
207. 15:00 You might have a bad boss.
208. 15:01 You might have a bad job.
209. 15:02 You might have a school or a project or a paper you don't want to do.
210. 15:06 But the reality is that work overall was a good thing.
211. 15:08 And guess what?
212. 15:09 In heaven one day, we're going to be working.
213. 15:12 That might sound crazy to you.
214. 15:13 A lot of men don't want to go to heaven because they think they're just going to be floating around ethereal in clouds.
215. 15:17 I got good news for you.
216. 15:18 There's going to be a new creation that's redeemed and restored.
217. 15:21 You're going to have a work to do.
218. 15:23 And if things go really well for us, we're not going to be wearing clothes.
219. 15:25 That'll be great, you know, and we'll all be free and liberated.
220. 15:28 The guys would love that.
221. 15:30 But there's a different concept of heaven than what we have so often.
222. 15:34 And that it's that God has a special work for us to do.
223. 15:38 And he gives dignity and purpose to our lives to do this work and to have dominion.
224. 15:45 Adam understood that it wasn't his garden.
225. 15:47 It was the Lord's garden.
226. 15:49 And that's so important.
227. 15:50 If we're going to rule and to reign and to create and cultivate, then we can't think like these, I call them these crazy environmentalist wackos, you know, or libtards that think, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say these things, but I'm just speaking to you from the heart here.
228. 16:02 I don't have any notes, so.
229. 16:04 That think the creation is more important than mankind.
230. 16:10 That there's somehow a distinction between nature and man.
231. 16:13 We are a part of the created order that God made.
232. 16:17 And man is called to create and cultivate.
233. 16:20 If we just leave this church to run itself, it is going to degenerate rapidly.
234. 16:25 It needs man to care for it and steward it.
235. 16:28 If we let that garden or you let the garden go out in your front yard...
236. 16:31 In a matter of weeks, it's got weeds and clutter.
237. 16:34 God called us to create and cultivate.
238. 16:36 Man is to be a blessing to the earth, not a curse.
239. 16:39 A blessing.
240. 16:41 And this is what God has called us to do, is to take steward and to take the resource of the earth and to use them to make things better for everyone.
241. 16:51 And this is what it means to have dominion.
242. 16:53 And there's a very intimate relationship between man and the ground.
243. 16:58 From dust you came, from dust you shall return, and
244. 17:00 By the sweat of your brow, you shall till amongst the thorns of the earth.
245. 17:04 More about that next week.
246. 17:05 And so work post-Genesis 3 is cursed and it's hard.
247. 17:11 But in Genesis chapter 2, it's good and beautiful.
248. 17:16 And so we have to understand that we live in a fallen world and we're working in the midst of thorns.
249. 17:22 But work in itself is not a bad thing.
250. 17:24 The thorns are, not the work.
251. 17:26 And
252. 17:27 For those of us that are pursuing early retirement so we can just collect seashells at the beach, that's a hollow dream.
253. 17:36 God has something so much bigger and better for you.
254. 17:39 He wants to use you to impact eternity.
255. 17:41 You have a work to do, an image to bear, a world to cultivate and to steward and have dominion over.
256. 17:49 And part of what it means to bear the very image of God is that we are reigning and ruling, stewarding,
257. 17:56 and making things better than we found it, especially for the next generation.
258. 18:01 So it's so important that we understand we bear the very image of God, and as he is working, he has called us to work.
259. 18:09 Now, what happens next after verse 27, verses 28, we get to some fun little side notes here about veganism or vegetarianism, I don't know.
260. 18:22 Verse 29, behold, every plant I've given you,
261. 18:26 My vegan friends love this because they're like, see, we're not supposed to eat meat.
262. 18:29 And I'm like, well, read your Bible.
263. 18:30 In Genesis chapter 9, we clearly see that meat is on the menu after the flood.
264. 18:36 And we know that God loves us because of that too.
265. 18:38 Because anything wrapped in vegetables doesn't make it better, does it?
266. 18:41 But anything wrapped in bacon does.
267. 18:44 Think about that.
268. 18:46 Thank you, Audrey.
269. 18:47 Thank you.
270. 18:49 So we have a God who loves us because he lets us eat bacon, which is amazing.
271. 18:52 Now,
272. 18:54 We see that God is a good God because he sees us in the created order and he's taking care of our needs.
273. 19:00 Hey, here's what you're to eat.
274. 19:02 Here's what you're to do.
275. 19:03 Here's a purpose for your life.
276. 19:04 Here's how much I love you and my image that you bear.
277. 19:07 And so we see that in this created order, things are good and as they ought to be, perhaps different than the way we experience them today, but certainly what we should strive for and desire.
278. 19:17 And at the end of all that, in verse 31, look at these words.
279. 19:21 God looked at everything.
280. 19:22 And he said, very good.
281. 19:25 Very good.
282. 19:26 God looked at his created order and said, very, very good.
283. 19:30 Now, how many of you, if you turn out the news today, would say, very good?
284. 19:35 You know?
285. 19:36 Or if you've been aging for a while and you look in the mirror, would you say, boy, and I look very good.
286. 19:42 You know?
287. 19:43 There's obviously things that are broken and fallen and changing.
288. 19:46 And so the question is, well, how did this happen?
289. 19:49 Come back next week.
290. 19:50 Genesis 3 is on deck.
291. 19:52 But the point is that God created everything very good.
292. 19:55 And only as we see the world as it once was and as it once will be can we begin to make sense of the craziness that we experience every day in a world that is no longer very good.
293. 20:07 Begins chapter 2.
294. 20:09 The heavens and the earth are now being created yet again.
295. 20:12 And we see here not a separate creation account, but a focusing in on what happened during the very pinnacle of
296. 20:21 of creation.
297. 20:23 And we're beginning to see a story about Adam and Eve and how they were formed.
298. 20:27 But before we even begin that, we see in the text here, verses 1 and 3, this concept of rest.
299. 20:34 And we call that the Sabbath.
300. 20:37 Now, Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly.
301. 20:41 And so we don't do things to earn our way to God.
302. 20:43 The work was finished at the cross.
303. 20:46 But I believe He did set an example for us.
304. 20:49 And what we see embedded
305. 20:51 within the created order is not only a seven-day work week, but a day of rest.
306. 20:56 And here's why this is so important.
307. 20:58 By the time we get to Exodus, and we see in the Ten Commandments, embedded within that, on six days the Lord created, on the seventh day he rested, so you are to do all your work on the six days, on the seventh day you are to rest, it is a reminder to them that they have been liberated and set free.
308. 21:16 You see, they had just left Egyptian captivity.
309. 21:20 The Pharaoh didn't let them have any days off.
310. 21:22 They had to work, work, work.
311. 21:24 So they're reminded of the curse.
312. 21:26 They were reminded of the fall.
313. 21:28 And yet God is saying to them, don't forget.
314. 21:31 That's the way it might be now, but that is not the way I intended it.
315. 21:35 So I'm going to embed within the week a day for you to be reminded that ultimately I am God, you're not.
316. 21:42 Ultimately it's I'm the one who's going to provide not just what you can do, but what I can do through you.
317. 21:47 And you've got to think, Israel is surrounded.
318. 21:50 by nations that had an extra day every week.
319. 21:53 Imagine that.
320. 21:55 Andrew, you're in med school.
321. 21:55 Imagine somebody having eight extra hours, you know, to study during a work day than you for a test.
322. 22:00 Tom, imagine during tax season, somebody having, you know, an extra day to fill out all those tax forms.
323. 22:05 You'd be like, man, that's a competitive advantage.
324. 22:07 You know, whatever it may be, Israel really, it would seem like, was set back by this whole thing because they wouldn't, but here's what happened.
325. 22:16 When they honored the Sabbath,
326. 22:18 And they worked really hard, did the best they could, stewarding every opportunity that God had given.
327. 22:23 But then stepped back and rested.
328. 22:26 Well, what happened?
329. 22:27 They flourished.
330. 22:28 They absolutely flourished.
331. 22:30 Compared to all the other nations around them, we see Israel just rising up economically, militarily, even socially.
332. 22:38 Because when they were honoring God, they were doing what they were called to do, which was be a light to all the world and the salt of the earth.
333. 22:46 And in Psalm 96, verse 1 and 2, I believe it says, May the Lord bless us and keep us.
334. 22:51 May his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known in all the earth, and your saving power amongst all the nations.
335. 22:58 So we must never separate God's blessing from his purposes.
336. 23:02 God blessed this nation not because they were more special than anyone else, but because he wanted to shine brightly through them to a world so that they would know who the one true God is.
337. 23:11 And this is why the Queen of Sheba and others came to see for themselves what God was doing in the midst of this nation that was taking one day a week and worshiping the Lord and resting instead of endless work and slavery.
338. 23:26 You see how that liberates us in so many ways?
339. 23:29 Now the New Testament is fascinating.
340. 23:30 I don't have time to go there much today.
341. 23:32 But in Hebrews chapter 4, it talks about Jesus as the very fulfillment of the Sabbath.
342. 23:38 And in him, he is the true Sabbath that we find our eternal rest through and in.
343. 23:46 And so Jesus is the fulfillment of the law in every way.
344. 23:49 He is the fulfillment of the Sabbath.
345. 23:50 And the very one who was challenged at the Sabbath breaker was actually not only the fulfillment of the Sabbath, but using the Sabbath for what it was for.
346. 24:01 And that was to serve God and to worship him.
347. 24:05 And to care for his creation by trusting the Lord.
348. 24:08 Now practically, here's what it looks like.
349. 24:10 In my life, I really struggle with the Sabbath because I don't like to just sit around and rest and chill.
350. 24:13 Some people, that's your thing.
351. 24:15 Good for you.
352. 24:15 I envy you.
353. 24:16 I like to get up and go and do stuff.
354. 24:18 And so sitting around, I'm just like, man, I feel like I'm wasting time here, God.
355. 24:21 And I really had a struggle with what the Sabbath practically should look like in my life.
356. 24:25 But I look back and I see it's a gift.
357. 24:28 It's a gift from God.
358. 24:29 And so God, help me to understand this is a gift.
359. 24:31 And one of the things that's helped me is one day a week,
360. 24:35 Like, especially on Sundays, the Lord days, it's been set apart.
361. 24:38 It's the first day of the week, and we want to give God our first and our best.
362. 24:41 You're here.
363. 24:42 That's incredible.
364. 24:44 You're turning your heart, your affections, your attention towards the Lord.
365. 24:46 You want to begin to see things through a biblical worldview so you can understand things as they are and live in a manner that's worthy of His name.
366. 24:54 You are in the right place to honor the Lord's day.
367. 24:57 Now, what do you do after this?
368. 25:00 Hopefully you go home.
369. 25:01 Maybe you go out to lunch with some friends from church today.
370. 25:04 Uh,
371. 25:04 Maybe you go home and you spend time with family.
372. 25:07 But my encouragement to you would be to set this day apart as a day of rest, of enjoying the goodness of God and his creation.
373. 25:15 Not as a day to catch up on your chores or whatever else it may be, but just to enjoy God's presence.
374. 25:20 And so what I've been trying to do is, it really comes from the heart because if you look at me, you'd be like, well, it looks like you're working over there because you're doing this and doing that.
375. 25:27 I don't do anything I don't want to do on the Sabbath.
376. 25:31 I say, God, I'm yours and you're mine forever.
377. 25:33 Help me to enjoy your goodness and your grace.
378. 25:35 And so for me, I love tinkering around the yard.
379. 25:39 So I'll go and get in the yard.
380. 25:41 And I'll move some plants around.
381. 25:42 Or I'll try and build something or fix something.
382. 25:44 And I'll listen to sermons while I do it.
383. 25:46 And I just love it.
384. 25:47 It's therapy for me.
385. 25:48 And then when my son gets home, like this past week, he got home.
386. 25:51 And I made a rule that I'm not going to finish the job and get it done.
387. 25:56 I'm just going to enjoy goodness.
388. 25:58 And my son got home early.
389. 25:58 I said, you want to go through the football?
390. 25:59 And he said, yes.
391. 26:01 So we went out.
392. 26:02 And, well, he threw the football, and I just ran like a golden retriever to catch it.
393. 26:05 But anyways, I was worn out for the rest of the week.
394. 26:07 But we just played football out at UM for two hours on the field.
395. 26:10 And it was awesome.
396. 26:11 Then I came home and had dinner with my family.
397. 26:12 And just, you know, it was a wonderful day.
398. 26:15 And so even now I'm beginning to learn how to really apply the Sabbath to my life so that it is a gift and a blessing as God intended it.
399. 26:22 And by the way, fun fact for you, those who just legalistically follow the Sabbath, they actually, we'll call them Sabbatarians.
400. 26:30 They actually live longer, which is so interesting.
401. 26:33 You can look at Seventh-day Adventists in California compared to the surrounding population.
402. 26:37 I think men live on average like seven years longer and women four years longer.
403. 26:42 You can look at real strict Sabbath-keeping Jews from Israel.
404. 26:45 They actually live longer than their counterparts in the Middle East.
405. 26:48 So there's something to be said just pragmatically, theologically, about this gift of rest that God gives us, that we are not slaves anymore.
406. 26:57 ...to what we do, what we have, or what other people think about us.
407. 26:59 And it all stems out of that understanding of whose image we bear... ...the role that He's called us, the work that He's called us to do... ...but ultimately be reminded that it's Him who's at work in and through us.
408. 27:11 And that is what the Sabbath is all about.
409. 27:14 So then, after God is resting, what happens?
410. 27:16 We see this zooming in to the created order yet again.
411. 27:20 And there's this focus now on Adam and Eve who bear the very image of God...
412. 27:25 and he's breathing life into them, and he's giving them parameters for how to live.
413. 27:32 And he's saying to them, in the garden, you can enjoy just about anything, but here is something that's out of balance.
414. 27:39 And he talks about the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
415. 27:42 And I don't have time to get into a lot of depth there, but we see these trees coming up throughout Scripture.
416. 27:47 We'll see it next week in Genesis chapter 3.
417. 27:49 We see it
418. 27:50 In the book of Revelation, we see it.
419. 27:52 In the book of Malachi, chapter 2.
420. 27:54 So throughout Scripture, we see these trees being referred back to in a literal sense.
421. 27:59 But basically, I think the principle that we can really take away from today is that even in flourishing, even in a good world, before the fall has happened, there are boundaries to what we ought to do.
422. 28:14 It's kind of like my children.
423. 28:15 If I tell them, hey, you are free to go out there and play and have a great time this afternoon.
424. 28:20 But make sure you stay in our yard.
425. 28:22 Now, they are free as long as they're within the confines of our property.
426. 28:28 Because what happens once they step outside of that yard?
427. 28:30 Well, now they're in the road.
428. 28:32 And I live off a busy road.
429. 28:34 And they are in grave danger.
430. 28:36 And so our Heavenly Father creates these boundaries for us to flourish in.
431. 28:39 And here's the irony of it all.
432. 28:41 True freedom always has boundaries.
433. 28:45 Fun fact, our founding fathers, when they were writing the Declaration of Independence,
434. 28:48 They actually chose the word liberty instead of freedom because they wanted to really grasp that concept that freedom is not just anarchy to do whatever you want, whenever you want.
435. 28:58 It's actually restrained freedom within the boundaries in which God has placed man to live.
436. 29:04 And so they choose the term liberty.
437. 29:06 And so throughout the created order and throughout mankind's histories, we wrestle with these truths.
438. 29:11 We find that they still have incredible practical application for us today, and they lead to human flourishing.
439. 29:18 Now, in the creation or the cultural mandate, Adam and Eve, they've been created to bear the very image of God.
440. 29:24 They've been put within some boundaries of what to do and not do.
441. 29:27 And now as God is sending them out with this work to do, they're stewarding the garden.
442. 29:32 But they're also called to be fruitful and multiply.
443. 29:36 And what we see in the created order here is that children are a good thing, a wonderful thing, a fruit of a marriage.
444. 29:44 And they should be seen as such.
445. 29:47 In our society, though, it seems like sometimes children can feel like they're an inconvenience or they're expensive or they're just too much trouble.
446. 29:56 And so we're seeing birth rates continue to go down and down and down and down.
447. 30:01 But that's not what the Bible says.
448. 30:03 The Bible says that children are a blessing from the Lord.
449. 30:06 They're a reward from Him, an inheritance.
450. 30:09 Jesus said, let the little children come to me.
451. 30:12 And so we're not, there's some people in here that would love to have children and can't.
452. 30:18 This is not a verse that condemns you.
453. 30:21 Some people have made choices in their past about children that they wish they could go back and do again.
454. 30:26 What this is, is a reminder that the gospel is for all of us.
455. 30:31 And God's going to give us the strength to move forward, the strength to trust and obey, the strength to understand that children and His original design are a good thing and a gift from God.
456. 30:44 Now,
457. 30:46 What happens is creation goes on, and we see this at created account, verse 11 here.
458. 30:51 It says, then God said, this is a stark contrast, it's not good.
459. 30:57 Up to this point, children are good, work's good, the garden is a paradise, it's good.
460. 31:01 Adam and Eve are good.
461. 31:02 All the created order is good.
462. 31:04 And then all of a sudden, in verse 11, or excuse me, verse 17, 18 here, it is not good, not good that man should be alone.
463. 31:14 My wife likes to say it like this.
464. 31:16 Basically, God looked at the created order, he looked at man, and he's like, I can do better, so he made woman.
465. 31:21 That's according to my wife.
466. 31:23 Now, Eve comes along, and she is just absolutely stunning and spectacular.
467. 31:31 And the term here is helper.
468. 31:37 Now, husbands, do not ever introduce your wife as your helper, okay?
469. 31:42 Say, no man ever that lived.
470. 31:44 That is not the way...
471. 31:45 To introduce your wife.
472. 31:47 And we've got to give a little context to this, kind of like we did with the word dominion.
473. 31:51 Because dominion, you think, like rule and reign.
474. 31:53 Only in the context of stewardship do we properly understand dominion.
475. 31:56 In the same way, helper, this is a beautiful term.
476. 32:00 It's actually used throughout the scriptures.
477. 32:02 In Psalm, I believe, 3320, it says, God is our helper.
478. 32:07 Same word.
479. 32:08 In the New Testament, now in Greek, but same principle, Jesus says the Holy Spirit is your helper.
480. 32:14 And so we find in the context of Scripture a very different understanding of helper.
481. 32:20 It is not a belittling title by any means.
482. 32:23 You see, when God created Eve, he could have pulled the hair out of his head and made her.
483. 32:29 But he didn't.
484. 32:30 That might be considered feminism because woman would be therefore the head of man.
485. 32:35 It certainly isn't that Eve was made from his foot.
486. 32:38 Because that could be considered chauvinism, where man is somehow over woman.
487. 32:42 No, that's not what happened at all.
488. 32:43 Where did God take Eve out of according to our text today?
489. 32:47 But the rib, his side, because they were to be companions.
490. 32:51 This term helper means that she complements his weakness.
491. 32:56 She is strength where he is not.
492. 32:59 And she was taken from his side because both male and female were created in the image of God.
493. 33:05 But they have very different roles to play in the created order.
494. 33:09 You see, actually this is a fun story.
495. 33:11 Coach Mike told me this week here that they were teaching some of the stuff about Genesis to some of our KCS kids.
496. 33:18 And one of the boys really took it to heart.
497. 33:20 And he was out playing soccer during recess.
498. 33:22 And he's kind of bending over, breathing hard.
499. 33:24 And Coach Mike walked up and said, are you okay?
500. 33:26 What's wrong?
501. 33:26 He said, I think I'm having a woman.
502. 33:29 I was like, you've got to be kidding me.
503. 33:31 Story slightly embellished for today's point.
504. 33:33 But anyway.
505. 33:34 All that to be said is there's beauty in that it was truly Adam's companion taken from his side.
506. 33:40 But just because their value is the same and they both bear the image of God, it doesn't mean that their roles aren't distinctly different.
507. 33:49 And this is why men should never try to breastfeed.
508. 33:51 God has created both men and women to complement each other, not replace each other.
509. 33:58 And together they better reflect the very image of God.
510. 34:01 You can think about it like this.
511. 34:03 Sometimes God is described as strong and mighty and able.
512. 34:07 These might be considered masculine attributes.
513. 34:09 There's other times God is described as compassionate and gracious.
514. 34:14 These might be considered feminine attributes.
515. 34:17 So when man and woman come together, they better reflect the attributes of God.
516. 34:22 Eve compliments Adam in so many ways, and hopefully Adam is there to compliment Eve as well.
517. 34:29 And this is what God is striving for for us in our relationships.
518. 34:33 And when Adam sees Eve, I mean, it's amazing.
519. 34:36 Imagine, he's naming all these animals.
520. 34:39 Hippopotamus, elephant, platypus, Tyrannosaurus rex.
521. 34:44 By the end of the day, he's getting down to, like, dog, cat.
522. 34:48 You know, he's getting tired.
523. 34:49 Well, actually, cats came after the fall.
524. 34:50 But besides that, he's wearing out.
525. 34:54 And he takes a nap that night.
526. 34:55 And then all of a sudden, he wakes up after a deep sleep.
527. 34:58 And he sees this woman.
528. 35:01 And all day long, he's been seeing male elephant, female elephant, male donkey, female donkey, male squirrel, female squirrel, whatever.
529. 35:10 And he's like, something ain't right.
530. 35:12 Anyways, I don't know what it is.
531. 35:13 So he falls asleep, and then he wakes up.
532. 35:16 And all of a sudden, there is a naked woman standing in front of him.
533. 35:20 And this is the first time we see poetry in Scripture.
534. 35:24 And Adam literally says, at last!
535. 35:27 Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
536. 35:30 And she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
537. 35:34 This is truly Adam in awe of God's created order.
538. 35:39 And he's finally found a companion, someone to do life with.
539. 35:43 And this is what the scripture talks about as it gets into this whole concept of oneness and marriage.
540. 35:48 Look at this.
541. 35:49 And therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.
542. 35:54 The words are hold fast.
543. 35:55 It's like a covenant language.
544. 35:56 hold fast to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
545. 36:00 And the man and his wife were both naked and unashamed.
546. 36:03 So we know for a fact that Adam was not in his 40s or 50s or 60s, because things change.
547. 36:08 They were standing there, unashamed, perfectly created, and didn't evolve from some sort of lower life form.
548. 36:16 They were created just like that, out of nothing, as they were, and everything is good.
549. 36:22 Now, this whole concept of marriage...
550. 36:27 is one of God's greatest gift to mankind.
551. 36:31 And people say today, well, where did marriage come from?
552. 36:33 Before the fall, Genesis chapter 2 is where marriage comes from.
553. 36:37 God created marriage.
554. 36:38 We talked about we can't look inside to figure out who we are and find our identity from the Creator.
555. 36:43 It comes from our Creator.
556. 36:45 In much the same way as He created male and female, those are the only two options that God created, He created marriage.
557. 36:51 Now, He didn't create multiple eves, and He didn't create multiple atoms.
558. 36:55 He created one man
559. 36:57 and one woman, and the intention was for them to come together for a lifelong faithful union.
560. 37:03 And from that union, that they would have children, which God looks favorably upon and says, as many kids as you possibly can.
561. 37:10 It doesn't really say that, but the implication is that children are a blessing.
562. 37:14 And whatever that looks like in your life, embrace it for what it is, and make decisions out of faith and not fear around that.
563. 37:19 But children are a blessing, and they're a fruit, a reward of marriage.
564. 37:22 And so in this context, you're just like, wow, God, this is
565. 37:25 This is crazy.
566. 37:26 This is amazing.
567. 37:27 Jesus actually refers back to this passage in Matthew chapter 19.
568. 37:35 And listen to these words because I want you to understand how important Genesis is for all the created order and how much more life makes sense when we see things as they once were and will become.
569. 37:47 Matthew chapter 19, verse 4.
570. 37:50 And he answered, this is Jesus.
571. 37:53 Have you not read that he created them from the beginning and made them male and female?
572. 37:57 He said, therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, for they are no longer two but one flesh.
573. 38:05 Therefore, God has joined together.
574. 38:07 Let no man separate.
575. 38:10 And then in Ephesians chapter 6, tell me if these words sound familiar to you, or chapter 5, verse 31.
576. 38:16 Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
577. 38:22 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and his church.
578. 38:27 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
579. 38:35 Love and respect.
580. 38:38 This is the beauty of the created order as it was intended to be, where God creates man in his image, and he gives him a work to do.
581. 38:50 and parameters and a paradise in which to do it.
582. 38:54 He gives man and woman to each other to compliment and to reflect His glory.
583. 38:59 In the midst of all of this, they experience oneness.
584. 39:03 Oneness with their Heavenly Father.
585. 39:04 They walk with Him in the coolness of day.
586. 39:07 One with each other.
587. 39:09 Physically, spiritually, emotionally.
588. 39:13 There's true peace and shalom on the earth.
589. 39:16 Peace, wholeness, and prosperity in every way.
590. 39:19 It was very good.
591. 39:21 But then something goes terribly wrong.
592. 39:23 You'll find out more about that next week.
593. 39:26 So where do we go from here?
594. 39:28 Well, we go where Scripture just took us, to the cross.
595. 39:32 Because although Adam eventually blames his wife for the fall that's to come, Jesus doesn't blame but rescues his bride, the church.
596. 39:48 And although Adam stood by passively
597. 39:51 while Eve was being tempted, Jesus steps in and protects his bride.
598. 39:58 And just as Adam was called to create and cultivate but failed, so Jesus has come to build his eternal kingdom and sit on his eternal throne and make all things right and undo what was once done by the first Adam because he is the now second Adam.
599. 40:18 What's interesting in this is also that
600. 40:21 I told you men and women have different roles.
601. 40:24 And in the context of what we see here in Scripture, is that although men and women both bear the image of God, men in particular were held accountable because of their role.
602. 40:35 They were called to lead and protect their families.
603. 40:38 And Adam didn't do that.
604. 40:40 And as a result, all hell broke loose.
605. 40:43 And so men, one of the challenges I have for you is that you'll trust God.
606. 40:49 That you understand that you are more than your work, more than your bank account, more than your titles.
607. 40:54 God has a work for you to do, but you must first rest in him and find your identity in him.
608. 41:01 And only then will he begin to work in and through you and do more than you could ever ask for or imagine.
609. 41:07 And for the women in the room, I want you to know that he made you beautiful.
610. 41:11 You're the pinnacle of the creation.
611. 41:12 There is no victor's secret.
612. 41:14 There is Victoria's secret.
613. 41:16 You are beautiful in every way.
614. 41:20 All of us are going to age, and we are going to one day look like raisins.
615. 41:25 The point there is that beauty is so much more than just skin deep.
616. 41:30 There's an inner beauty.
617. 41:31 Proverbs 31, 25 says she clothes herself with strength and dignity.
618. 41:37 And Paul says in the New Testament that beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
619. 41:44 So look to your Heavenly Father who created you, whose image you bear.
620. 41:50 And know that your truest beauty will shine bright as his light shines through you.
621. 41:56 And together, as husbands and wives, we can better reflect God's glory and serve him as one.
622. 42:06 Let's pray.
623. 42:08 Lord, thank you so much for your word today.
624. 42:12 Thank you that it reminds us how things once were and will become.
625. 42:17 And in the midst of all the brokenness we see, not only in us, but around us, we know, Lord, that you didn't just call us to cope with the brokenness in the world.
626. 42:27 But one day you're going to make things right.
627. 42:30 And in the meantime, God, I pray that you would use us as you see fit, as your people, as your church, to redeem and to restore, not in our strength, but in yours.
628. 42:40 And that all begins by the work that you do in and through us.
629. 42:43 So God, may we look to you to understand who we truly are by understanding whose we truly are.
630. 42:50 Help us to receive our identity, not try to achieve it.
631. 42:54 And the work that you've given us to do, God, is a good and beautiful and glorious thing.
632. 42:59 But in the fallen world, sometimes it just feels like a curse and it's hard.
633. 43:04 So help us to keep pressing on and finding purpose and meaning and value in the work that you have called us to do.
634. 43:10 And may we do it all of our days today.
635. 43:12 Not for our glory, but for yours.
636. 43:15 And God, help us to understand the boundaries in which you've created life to be lived, that we may be set free and flourish in them.
637. 43:24 And for the man and the woman that are here today, they know what they strive for and what they want is oneness, God.
638. 43:33 But the years have gone by and the drift has become real.
639. 43:38 Would you help them turn back to you and each other?
640. 43:41 Would you restore what once was and bring what only you can, forgiveness, healing, and hope?
641. 43:50 And we pray all these things in Jesus' name.
642. 43:53 Amen.
643. 43:54 Amen.
644. 43:54 Thank you.

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