WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 I invite you to take your Bible and go to the book of Genesis in chapter one. 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:04.480 You don't have to go very far. 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:06.879 And we'll spend most of our time there. 00:00:15.759 --> 00:00:21.519 We live in a world with questions of identity and purpose and meaning. 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:22.559 Who am I? 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:23.920 What is my identity? 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:26.640 Why am I here? 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:28.160 That's my purpose. 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:29.600 Where am I going? 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:32.240 Does my life have any significance or meaning? 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:35.759 These are questions that press on everybody. 00:00:36.479 --> 00:00:44.960 Regardless of how old you are, regardless of your background, regardless of your story, they surface in a thousand different ways. 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:51.119 Just think about someone who is a young professional, just finishing working. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:59.920 At the end of the day, she's in her car and wondering why her life still feels purposeless, even though she's done everything that's been expected of her. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:10.560 Or think about a high school student looking through social media and looking at all the different profiles of people and wondering, you know, what about my life? 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:12.000 What am I supposed to do with it? 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:13.599 What kind of significance do I have? 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:16.799 Or, like I was in the U.S. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:24.640 Air Force at the age of 20, lying on my bed in the barracks and looking up at the ceiling and saying, Is there more to life than this? 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:26.879 There's got to be a purpose here. 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:34.400 Or a widow who's sitting at a table alone and wondering if she matters anymore. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:37.040 Or a child. 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:43.359 And the simplest but even deepest question, why did God make me? 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:48.239 Those are questions, right, that all of us ask. 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:53.120 And they're not abstract questions, they're very, very personal and very deep questions. 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:56.560 The world around us has a lot of answers. 00:01:57.439 --> 00:02:02.959 They have loud answers, they say them confidently, as if they're speaking the truth. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:06.079 But when you think about them, they're really actually very thin. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:12.639 Secular humanism tells us we've evolved from animals and we have to invent our own meaning. 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:19.039 Individualism tells us to look within and define meaning according to our own interests. 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:25.759 Consumerism tells us that our worth is what we can produce or what we purchase. 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:34.719 Eastern spirituality tells us that we're really just a drop in an ocean of being, some ethereal being. 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:42.319 Postmodernism tells us our identity is fluid, it's constructed, and it's endlessly shifting. 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:49.439 And political ideologies will tell us that we're defined by our group, our class, or even our struggle. 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:55.360 Now, each of these frameworks tries to answer those deep questions we ask ourselves. 00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:05.520 And even if there was a kernel of truth in them, and there's not much truth to be found in any of those, actually, but even if there were, it would be incomplete. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:11.199 There's no one of them that can hold a soul and carry it. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:17.199 And it's into this confusion that the Bible speaks and speaks to us with breathtaking clarity. 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:24.159 And it doesn't answer us vague philosophical uh explanations or self-help slogans. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.319 It actually answers us with a truth. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:31.120 A truth that's found on the very first page of Scripture itself. 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:41.360 One that will ground our identity, one that will anchor us in dignity, and one that will guide us with purpose. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:51.840 It tells us that we were made by God, that we're known by God, and that God has an intended purpose and destiny for us. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:04:00.000 And so, because of that, we are creatures with dignity and purpose and destiny. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:05.439 Among all of God's creation, including the angelic realm, we are unique. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.719 For God made us according to his image. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:16.800 Men and women set apart with God's own person and with a design specially made for us. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:26.319 We're not accidents, we're not products of chance, we're creatures that God has made for a particular purpose that He spoke into our being. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:32.079 And so we're going to look at this more deeply over the next several weeks. 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:41.600 And I pray that this study does things for us and to us, that it'll reshape how we think about ourselves and reshape how we might think about other people. 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:51.279 That it'll bring assurance to us in the midst of this morass and confusion that's in our culture and maybe even rattling around in our own minds. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:05:00.399 That it'll bring stability to us when we're brought to places of insecurity by the assertions that we hear all the time. 00:05:01.279 --> 00:05:11.519 And I pray that it'll also bring hope to those who have been so pressed upon by these ideologies that they find themselves in despair. 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:19.920 It's going to trace a story from Genesis through Revelation. 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:23.439 We're going to see all of Scripture in these next several weeks. 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:28.720 We're going to see how God's intentionality for us gives meaning to our life. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:36.240 It provides and exposes the brokenness that we feel and reveals the beauty of God's redeeming work in Christ. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:38.160 It's going to go several different places. 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:41.120 So tonight we're going to begin at the foundation. 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:45.040 Created in God's image, his divine blueprint. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.040 And we're going to spend time in Genesis chapter 1. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:50.879 And there we're going to see God's intentional design for us. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:53.759 We're going to see God's exalted place of us. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:57.360 And we're going to see his calling over all of us. 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:06.720 And there's a refrain that we're going to use this evening that's the three points of the message, but it's also a refrain that I think can carry us through every single one of these. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:14.319 We are made by God, we are marked by God, and we are designed to manifest God's glory. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:19.519 We're made by God, marked by God, and designed to manifest God's glory. 00:06:20.240 --> 00:06:30.399 So let's open Genesis chapter 1 and begin a look at our first text and see this: that we are made by God, by his deliberation and by his design. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:39.040 If you take a look at verse 26, and just rest your eyes there on the very first phrase of that. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:44.800 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:54.800 Now, before we go any further into this text, lift your eyes just some verses ahead of that, where God is creating the other things. 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:57.920 And notice the shift of the language. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:06.160 Up to this point in time in Genesis chapter 1, God has spoken with a very steady pattern and rhythm. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:12.800 Let there be, let there be, let there be, and there was. 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:20.720 Creation is unfolded at his word, his majestic, ordered, effortless word. 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:24.399 And then we get to verse 26. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:26.800 Do you see the difference? 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:34.480 God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:39.600 This is not how God's spoken in all these other places. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:46.639 Every time he's made something, he's simply told it to be until he gets here. 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:50.639 This is not a language of accident. 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:53.759 It's a language of intention and divine deliberation. 00:07:54.720 --> 00:08:01.279 And it's crafted in such a way, obviously, there's no occurring to God's occurring. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:05.360 Like someone said, Did ever occur to you that nothing's ever occurred to God? 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:07.199 Right? 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:22.560 But here in this language, it is as if God pauses, as if God deliberates, as if he considers and consults, and then speaks. 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:32.399 This is to highlight, to slow us down, to break the pattern, to cause us to recognize something different is happening here. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:42.399 Humanity is not spoken into existence with the same formula as light, as land, or created creatures. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:44.399 We are different. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:49.440 Humanity is a result of God's divine counsel. 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:52.080 Father, Son, and Spirit. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:09:02.240 And here, Genesis is bringing us through these plural pronouns, let us are, to overhear the inner counsel of God, if you will. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:15.039 The Father who says, Let there be, the Spirit who hovers over the creation, the Son and John 1, who was made all things, and by him, and without him nothing was made that was made. 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:17.440 Father, Son, and Spirit. 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:22.799 Speaking here, in divine contrast to everything else that's been made. 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:26.320 What does this tell us? 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:30.960 Our making by God sets us apart. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:40.960 Naturalistic evolution will tell us that we're products of random forces, an accident of atoms and time. 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:52.639 But Genesis tells us, in just a short phrase, that God has deliberately made us with intention and purpose. 00:09:52.879 --> 00:09:54.080 We're not random at all. 00:09:55.360 --> 00:10:01.279 Secular humanism would tell us that we're simply rational animals that must invent our own meaning. 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:08.879 But the book of Genesis tells us that God implanted meaning into us before we were even made. 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:16.799 Individualism tells us to look within and define ourselves by our feelings. 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:24.720 But here, Genesis tells us that we are defined by God's intentions, not our own. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:36.639 Eastern spirituality says we're a drop in an ocean of being, but God says that He's made us personally crafting us with care and with purpose. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:42.799 Postmodernism tells us our identity is fluid, constructed, and endlessly shifting. 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:50.639 But the book of Genesis tells us with these words that we were designed with unchanging purpose in God. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:55.840 Political ideologies tell us we're defined by a group or class or struggle. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:10:59.759 And Genesis tells us we're defined by God's creative word. 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:10.480 In a world of these competing narratives, this verse is a thunderclap of truth against all those errors. 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:19.039 It declares that we are not self-constructed, we are not societally constructed, and we are not politically constructed beings. 00:11:19.360 --> 00:11:20.960 We're God-shaped people. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.960 Now take a look at verse 27 as we dig a little deeper into this. 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:30.720 So God created man in his own image. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:32.879 He created him in the image of God. 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:35.039 He created them male and female. 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:44.960 God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:51.759 They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:00.480 In two verses, four different expressions of us being made in God's likeness and image. 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:01.919 What is that? 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:04.080 Does God have a stutter? 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:08.159 Is he simply tripping over the same words that he has to say? 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:09.120 No. 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:15.600 This is a Hebrew mechanism in order to bring emphasis to us. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:24.720 You'll see this in the book of Isaiah, where in Isaiah 40, where it breaks into a new theme: comfort, comfort my people. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:31.279 There's that double expression to show how deeply God wants his people to be comforted. 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:38.720 There is that statement in Isaiah 6: holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:45.039 And here we have a four-peat, not a three-peat, but a four-peat. 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:55.039 This is unique in all other places of Scripture for it to be repeated four times like this. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:00.879 It's not a grammatical accident, it's a theological revelation. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:16.320 God wants us to capture that we are a unity and a plurality, a commonality of people, a single human family made up of different people, male and female. 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:22.559 There's this idea of a corporate reality and yet also our individual lives. 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:25.679 There's a lot to say about that. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:37.039 And on February 22nd, when Micah opens up this passage of scripture and others to talk about being created male and female, we'll be able to unpack some more of that. 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:42.639 But for this moment, we want to see this that we are not merely isolated individuals. 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:59.440 And we're not simply a member of a particular group as opposed to other groups, but we're part of a whole humanity that God has designed, intended, and dignified by being made according to his image. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:02.159 So listen to these words. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:20.639 Before you were ever made, before you ever made a choice, before you either succeeded or failed in any of your days or any of your pursuits, God has already spoken his dignity over you. 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:29.759 There's passages of scriptures that talk about God's design before the ages, before the world was even created. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:32.240 Jeremiah was called in Jeremiah 1:5. 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:34.879 Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:01.840 It's like an architect. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:05.360 I'm not an architect, but I used to love watching the Brady bunch. 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:07.519 And Mr. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:12.639 Brady was an architect, and he used to sit there in his architectural drawings in his den, right? 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:13.600 You remember seeing that? 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:18.399 And he'd sit there and look at all the designs that he had laid out there. 00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:30.000 God has got a design and purpose and intent that reaches way before there was ever any matter brought into existence. 00:15:30.639 --> 00:15:40.240 We're made by God, made by divine deliberation, made by divine intention, and made in relational love. 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:42.960 A part we'll look at later. 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:52.240 So if you've ever thought yourself insignificant, overlooked, or purposeless, hear this. 00:15:53.519 --> 00:15:56.960 Let us make mankind. 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:01.360 Let's move on to the second point. 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:04.559 Not only are we made by God, but we're marked by God. 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:10.000 Again, look at that passage, 26 and 27. 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:14.480 Make man in our image, according to our likeness. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:18.480 So God created man in his own image and created him in the image of God. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:21.519 He created them male and female. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:24.879 As I said, this is Hebraic intensification. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:31.039 This is a poetic expression meant to plant within us just how important this is. 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:36.080 If we're to know anything about ourselves, we should know this. 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:39.200 We're made by God and we're marked by God. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:50.720 Now, the text doesn't say that we are the image of God in the sense that we are a perfect reflection of Him, but we're made according to the image of God. 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:59.679 And that distinction matters because we'll in a few weeks be talking about Christ, the true image of God. 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:04.880 And we'll understand that we were made according to Christ, who is already that image. 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:06.799 He is the express image of this person. 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:12.720 And so here we're designed not only with dignity, but also designed with destiny. 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:21.599 That we were destined to be brought into the very image of Christ Himself, who is the image of God. 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:31.759 And even Adam and Eve, when they were created, before they even fell, still needed something more than what they were at that first creation. 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:42.079 The scriptures tell us in 1 Corinthians 15 that we'll be bearing the image of the heavenly, in which death will never ever grip us again. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:54.400 So there's something about being in Christ and according to his image that's greater than even the possible sin and death of Adam himself. 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:06.319 There's a divine intention, a God-given identity, according to a blueprint of Christ Himself. 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:24.319 Now, a lot of us have been taught that the image of God is to be understood and related to terms of abilities that we might have, whether it's our rationality or our creativity or our moral awareness or our capacities to relate to one another. 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:31.279 Certainly all those things are grand and glorious things, and don't want to look at any of those in a narrowed way. 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:37.119 But they show the fingerprints of God on us, but they aren't the image themselves. 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:40.559 They are expressions of a person who is made in the image of God. 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:42.720 Just think about it for a second. 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:53.759 If image was reason, then what would happen to those who have their cognitive abilities diminished by sickness or accident? 00:18:56.480 --> 00:19:02.000 If image was creativity, what about those who are more creative than those who are not? 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:04.720 What if image was moral awareness? 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:07.759 Then what does sin do to that image? 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:16.960 If image was relational capacity, then what happens when we face a trauma or we're left in places of loneliness? 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:22.079 Does that diminish our likeness and our mark of God on us? 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:24.000 No, it doesn't. 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:33.680 Scripture tells us in Genesis 9 and verse 6, after the fall, after the flood, humanity is still in the image of God. 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:44.799 And the basis for our protection of human life is given in Genesis 9, 6, where it says, Whoever sheds human blood by humans, his blood will be shed. 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:50.000 For God made humans in his image. 00:19:51.039 --> 00:20:14.559 Even after the flood, which is well after the fall, an expression about those who are in a place of vulnerability and weakness, who are possibly empowered and even killed by someone else, God says you should not do that, because that person who was murdered was made in God's image. 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:17.680 Or James chapter 3 and verse 9. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:23.200 It tells us this that cursing another person is wrong. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:24.480 Why? 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:34.799 Not because their qualifications didn't meet up, not because they had some sort of value to them that we thought was important. 00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:42.079 It says we shouldn't curse another person because that person is made in God's image. 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:49.599 So image is not something we achieve, it's something that God declares. 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:57.599 And like I said, he declares us as people with a corporate and yet also an individual identity. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:02.079 So we can't think of ourselves simply as an isolated individual. 00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:11.519 And we certainly can't think of ourselves as a member of a particular group, as though our identity was marked by that and that alone. 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:20.880 We're part of a whole humanity that God Himself has designed and dignified and claims. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:25.279 And like I said, not only do we have dignity, but we have destiny. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:31.039 We're designed to be made in the image of Christ Himself. 00:21:31.279 --> 00:21:35.440 Think about these passages of where our glorification intends to bring us. 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:40.319 Romans 8.29, for those he foreknew, he also predestined to be what? 00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:43.119 Conformed to the image of his son. 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:46.640 2 Corinthians 3 18. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:52.400 We all are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:55.599 Colossians 3 10. 00:21:56.079 --> 00:21:59.839 You're being renewed in knowledge according to the image of God. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:00.960 Your creator. 00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:05.920 There's a destiny that God has designed for us. 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:11.839 A destiny we find can only be found in fulfillment through Jesus Christ. 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:17.039 This image is a blueprint to what God has intended for us. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:22.799 So what does this dignity and destiny of our marked by God mean for us? 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:24.319 What are the implications of it? 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:47.279 It tells us that our worth is not based upon our ability, it's not based on our productivity, it's not based on our intelligence, it's not based on our success, it's not based on our age, it's not based on our health, it's not based on our social standing, it's not based on our group identity, and it's definitely not based on our self-expression. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:57.839 We are marked by God, because He created us by design with dignity and a destiny in mind. 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:02.799 This is why every life matters. 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:07.200 This is why every person deserves honor. 00:23:08.480 --> 00:23:16.240 This is why every act of injustice is an assault upon God's intentions for how we should live. 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:31.039 And this is why every person that we meet carries a weight of glory that they may not recognize or even welcome, but that they possess simply by being created by God. 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:39.759 Francis Schaefer was known for his deeply embodied reverence for the image of God in every person he encountered. 00:23:41.359 --> 00:24:06.799 Students and visitors to Le Brie would recall that every time he would meet someone, especially someone he sensed who had been either wounded or overlooked or was spiritually adrift, that he would make some sort of physical gesture toward them, an expression of deference and respect, as an intentional act of honoring the image of God in that person. 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:13.759 And he did so with particular purpose toward those who might have never felt that that was them. 00:24:15.519 --> 00:24:20.720 It wasn't a formal ritual, but it was characteristic of his posture toward all people. 00:24:21.839 --> 00:24:28.960 He believed every person, regardless of belief or background, carried the dignity that demands recognition. 00:24:29.519 --> 00:24:30.559 And so he did. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:45.200 And this is where the familiar categories that many of us have grown up with that I even thought of, structural and functional as they are, as expressions of the image of God, really don't measure up. 00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:50.079 Our ability to think or create or love or discern or relate. 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:51.359 They're all good. 00:24:51.519 --> 00:25:00.559 And we'll see in a moment how they can be used as image bearers, but how they can't be used as definitions of image itself. 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:05.599 They're expressions of what it means to be created in God's image. 00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:16.960 And they call us to be stewards of this creation, to cultivate creativity and culture, and to exercise dominion in a way that's responsible. 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:19.680 But those things aren't the image themselves. 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:22.880 So hear this clearly. 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:36.640 Now, let's look at the last point. 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:44.160 We've looked at being made by God and marked by God, but let's look at the last point about manifesting his glory. 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:48.720 Take a look again at Genesis 1 and verse 26. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.559 And God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. 00:25:54.799 --> 00:26:04.400 They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:07.839 You see, there's a purpose statement there, isn't there? 00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:16.000 And again in verse 28, God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. 00:26:16.240 --> 00:26:22.160 Rule the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and every creature that crawls on the earth. 00:26:24.480 --> 00:26:33.359 So God who deliberated is the God who created, is the God who blessed, is now the God who commissions. 00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:39.599 We're not only created with dignity, but we're also created with responsibility. 00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:51.680 And here is where the functional dimension of image, those things that people define as image, our calling, our stewardship, our dominion come into view. 00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:57.839 They're not the image themselves, but they are the mission of those who are the image bearers. 00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:01.519 We're sent into this world to do something. 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:04.000 And what is that that we are to do? 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:10.319 We are to take the image of God that we have and bring it into this world. 00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:19.839 He's inviting us to reflect his character in every place that we engage in this world. 00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:36.720 Whether we're dealing with the earth or with plants or with animals or with each other, in every place, God is to be on display because we are the ones in this world who bear that image. 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:44.079 This is what it means to manifest his glory, to put his character on display. 00:27:45.359 --> 00:28:05.599 So when we think about God, who's wise and just and generous and life-giving, so too we, as image-bearers, are to take our oversight of all the creation that he's made and do so in a way that's wise and just and generous and life-giving. 00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:08.559 We're to mirror him. 00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:13.599 Psalm 8, verses 4 to 6. 00:28:15.039 --> 00:28:17.759 What is man, human being, that you remember him? 00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:20.319 A son of man that you look after him. 00:28:20.799 --> 00:28:24.799 You made him a little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:29.279 You made him ruler over the works of your hands. 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:36.160 We were made by God and marked by God to manifest God's glory. 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:46.799 And so, in our rule, in our relationships, in our reason, and in our responsibilities, we reflect Him. 00:28:47.920 --> 00:29:04.000 We work with integrity, we create with beauty, we lead with humility, we serve with compassion, we speak with truth, we love with fidelity, and we treat one another with dignity. 00:29:05.119 --> 00:29:12.079 Every sphere of life is a stage upon which we let the character of God shine. 00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:20.400 The language here in Genesis 1 tells us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 00:29:21.519 --> 00:29:24.319 And it's not merely about population growth. 00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:28.160 There's a lot to say about that, but I've been talking about missions a lot. 00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:33.039 But it's about extending God's person into every corner of creation. 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:38.400 Yes, by procreation, but also by everything else that we do. 00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:50.559 To fill the earth with Him, to fill the earth with His justice, with His mercy, with His beauty, with His creativity, with His order, with His life-giving flourishing. 00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:59.759 And this is why culture matters and work matters and relationships matter, justice matters, and compassion matters. 00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:04.319 I sat with an old retired pastor some years ago. 00:30:05.359 --> 00:30:07.039 And he brought me into his library. 00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:09.039 Well, his house was his library. 00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:15.119 And he had a number of books pulled out away from the other books because he wanted to take me on a journey. 00:30:15.519 --> 00:30:28.160 And he took me to this one very thick book and he pulled it off the shelf and he said, This is the first English printing of Calvin's Institutes. 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:36.480 And he said, In this one, election is not ever mentioned. 00:30:37.759 --> 00:30:39.119 That was a surprise to me. 00:30:40.319 --> 00:30:41.920 Might be a surprise to you, too. 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:49.519 And then he grabbed some other books and he said, This is the first English translation of Calvin's fifth edition. 00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:55.680 And then he took it and he went about two-thirds of the way into it and plopped it open. 00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:02.880 And he said, This is actually the first place where election's mentioned in Calvin's institutes. 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:14.640 He said, a lot of young theologians would like to think that Calvinism is about God's sovereignty and salvation. 00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:16.559 And it is. 00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:19.279 But it's so much more than that. 00:31:19.440 --> 00:31:25.839 Calvin believed that God's sovereignty was seen in all spheres of life. 00:31:26.799 --> 00:31:29.599 This was only just one expression of it. 00:31:29.839 --> 00:31:38.000 And that's why election didn't show up in his first edition, and didn't show up until two-thirds of the way through of his fifth edition. 00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:39.680 Why? 00:31:40.640 --> 00:31:51.359 Because we are to reflect God's justice and mercy and beauty and creativity and order and flourishing in everything we do. 00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:53.359 Everything we do. 00:31:55.039 --> 00:32:08.240 Every act of goodness, every work of creativity, every moment of faithfulness as a person who is in the image of God is something that manifests Him in this world. 00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:13.440 Now, of course, Genesis chapter 1 is not the end of the story. 00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:15.440 It's simply the beginning. 00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:18.640 Genesis 3 is a reality. 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:36.799 And we live in a world where sin distorts and fractures and corrupts, where our stewardship becomes selfishness, and our creativity becomes idolatry, and our dominion becomes domination, and our relationships become battlegrounds. 00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:41.759 But even in a broken world, that calling remains. 00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:54.160 After the fall, after the flood, we hear the words of Genesis 1, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:56.480 It still stands. 00:32:57.680 --> 00:33:03.839 You are responsible to bring God's character wherever you go. 00:33:36.559 --> 00:33:37.839 We'll get to that lesson. 00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:39.359 That lesson's coming. 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:47.039 About how we can be actually as we were meant to be and live out our responsibility as we would. 00:33:48.400 --> 00:33:49.279 So here we are. 00:33:50.400 --> 00:33:55.839 Told that we were made by God, marked by God to manifest God's glory. 00:33:56.640 --> 00:33:59.279 That we are to live a life of purpose. 00:33:59.839 --> 00:34:04.720 Not just when we gather for praise, but in daily obedience. 00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:11.440 Not only in spoken testimony within a church service, but in bodied faithfulness in everything that we do. 00:34:12.239 --> 00:34:21.920 To live a life that says in every sphere, in every season, in every relationship, and God is good, God is gracious, God is glorious. 00:34:23.599 --> 00:34:25.199 That's the divine blueprint. 00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:32.159 You're made by God, the result of divine deliberation, crafted by Father, Son, and Spirit. 00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:37.039 You're marked by God, creating, created with dignity and a destiny. 00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:47.280 And you were called to manifest his glory with a responsibility to bear his image, his character, his goodness, and his purposes in this world. 00:34:48.639 --> 00:34:50.000 Well, this is just the beginning. 00:34:51.119 --> 00:34:56.239 We've started in Genesis, but I said this story is going to stretch us all the way through the end of the book of Revelation. 00:34:57.039 --> 00:34:59.920 It's a story that's going to explain the world we're in right now. 00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:06.320 It's a story that reveals this God who made us and Christ who restores us and the Spirit who renews us. 00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:10.639 And so, for just a moment, I want to give you just a glimpse of what's ahead of us. 00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:16.400 We've seen the divine blueprint tonight in two weeks, on February 22nd. 00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:28.800 Micah will take us into male and female, God's intentional design for genders and relationships, the beauty of being male and female, the purpose of being in a complementary relationship. 00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:41.679 And then we'll look at cultivating the garden, the stewardship of creation, where our work and our culture and our creativity are responsibilities that we have as God's representatives to display his character. 00:35:42.800 --> 00:35:50.239 We'll look at the fracturing of God's designs, distorted by the tragedy of sin. 00:35:51.119 --> 00:35:57.760 Not completely lost, but will help us to understand why this world feels broken, why we feel broken. 00:35:59.119 --> 00:36:16.400 And then we'll look at Echoes of Eden, this deep human longing and ache for meaning, for belonging, for restoration, one in which every philosophy and every ideology and every religion is reaching to try to attain. 00:36:17.039 --> 00:36:23.039 It helps to explain why we still feel like there's always something more to be had. 00:36:24.719 --> 00:36:26.000 Echoes of Eden. 00:36:27.440 --> 00:36:31.840 And then we'll see Christ as the perfect image, the true image. 00:36:32.400 --> 00:36:44.159 And then we'll see ourselves restored in Christ Himself, the renewal that comes from Him, in which Corinthians says in 2 Corinthians 3.18, we're transformed into the same image from glory to glory. 00:36:45.440 --> 00:36:48.480 Then we'll see our responsibilities as God's people. 00:36:48.880 --> 00:37:00.400 The church, exploring what it means to be a community that's shaped by Christ's likeness, a people of unity, a people of love, a people of mission, and a people of witness. 00:37:01.519 --> 00:37:07.280 We'll see how our responsibilities work themselves out in this fallen world. 00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:22.079 We'll see how they work in areas of dignity of every life, how our work matters and can be an avenue of worship, where our ethnicity and the beauty of God's image can be seen in the diversity of how we're made. 00:37:22.960 --> 00:37:26.559 We can see how we can understand the dignity of the human body. 00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:31.519 And God has made us a body, and He's given that a purpose. 00:37:32.239 --> 00:37:38.079 And we're going to bear the image of Christ who is the resurrected one who has a resurrected body. 00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:40.079 We'll see the dignity of that. 00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:53.440 We'll understand the hope of a restored image as we long for that life through suffering, as we seek future glory, and we'll see the promise of full restoration. 00:37:53.920 --> 00:38:05.840 And then we'll close off finally, somewhere in the middle of July, God willing, where the Bible ends with worship and understand how we can live our days. 00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:09.039 So let me just offer this final word. 00:38:09.280 --> 00:38:10.719 You're not an accident. 00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:13.920 You're not undefined. 00:38:14.159 --> 00:38:15.840 You're not without purpose. 00:38:16.079 --> 00:38:18.000 You're not without dignity. 00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:20.559 God has made you. 00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:22.719 God has marked you. 00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:26.320 And God wants to manifest his character through you. 00:38:26.559 --> 00:38:28.159 Those are beautiful things. 00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:29.119 Let's pray. 00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:36.480 Father, we're humbled by this. 00:38:38.480 --> 00:38:44.719 The reality of it is not a truth that soaks deeply enough into any of us. 00:38:45.360 --> 00:38:48.079 And so I, Father, I pray for us as a people. 00:38:49.280 --> 00:39:11.119 As we go through this and see how it unpacks throughout all of your revealed word, I pray that it would truly bring us to a place of solid comfort and confidence with intent and purpose to show forth you as we should. 00:39:12.079 --> 00:39:20.639 As we walk through this together in the weeks ahead, we pray, Father, that you would receive all the praise because this is your intent. 00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:22.800 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:23.760 Amen.