Make and Multiply: Part 1

God's original design for humanity includes a call to multiply in every sphere of life - family, work, church, and personal growth. This purpose stems from being created in God's image, which gives all humans inherent dignity and worth. To fulfill this multiplication calling, we need to recover God's purpose, reproduce His multiplication power through relationships, His blessing, and health. Rather than embracing our culture's self-serving mentality, Pastor Matt Shackelford shows us how to identify areas where God wants us to multiply what He's entrusted to us. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

On today's episode of Moment of Truth, Pastor Matt challenges the cultural death focus gripping modern society, evidenced by declining birth rates globally and an anti-growth mentality even within churches. Instead, he is reclaiming God's foundational command. Multiplication is a core purpose of creation for everyone. In this sermon series on Genesis, Be Fruitful and Multiply explores what it means to be made in the image of God, how to exercise dominion in our work and relationships, and how to steward what God has given us.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

Genesis chapter one, but let's let's take our Bibles, let's open to Genesis chapter one. As you're turning there, I want to highlight something that I think is is happening in our culture. I would argue that our culture today is trending on this trajectory of a death focus, a darkness focus, a depression focus. Now let me give you some some evidence of that, and I think that you'll agree whenever you hear these things. Maybe you've heard recently about the population collapse that's happening in East Asia, uh, the population collapse that's happening with China and and even Japan, that that because of their limitations on how many children you can have, now there's not enough kids, there's not enough babies to replace the previous generation, and it's really hurting their economy, it's hurting all spheres of their life. It's an amazing thing. Uh we're not just seeing it in Asia, we're not just seeing it uh in the East, we're actually seeing it in many other places in Italy. In fact, if you search for YouTube right now, there's all these YouTube videos on Italian uh towns that will actually pay you to come and move into their town. Who wants a vacation to Italy? Yeah, yeah, you can have a nice long vacation, part of it paid. What's the reason for this? Some of these cities, some of these towns have realized we don't have kids. We have so neglected this call to multiply that we don't have any more kids. And so there's all these towns, and you can search YouTube for all these videos about these towns that will actually pay you to move there and populate the towns that are empty, the buildings that are empty. Be sure and read the fine print. Another illustration, I heard this just this past week. That did you know that Japan now sells more adult diapers than baby diapers? It's a true statistic. Uh, it's not just true for other countries in the East. I think there's other areas, even as we look closer to home, in the United States of America, U.S. fertility rates are down, way down. In fact, this is a global trend, and people have all kinds of um all kinds of reasons for this. Maybe some of the doctors can give us uh in between service, can give me some answers, but we can put our tinfoil hat on and we can understand, okay, what is it? Why are fertility rates crashing worldwide? And and someone's gonna come up to me after this service and say, Pastor, it's the plastics. It's plastics in your food, or it's red dye. And I'm gonna say, maybe, I don't know. I'm not a doctor. I don't know uh those things, but maybe so. There's all kinds of maybe reasons of why it is. I don't know. I do not know. But I think part of it is this. I think that our society, our world as a whole has neglected the calling of God, the drive of God towards this one word. Multiply. I think our world's lost the value in that in that word. I see it everywhere. In fact, there's an advent in our time, I'd never heard of this word until this past year, the word dink. Dual income, no kids. And there's this self-serve mentality of the next generation, and it's being influenced at all levels, from society to government, the the death cult influence of you don't have to grow, focus on yourself. In fact, we'll we'll set up a mobile abortion center at our political rally. It is this anti-life equation that is that is systemic to the entire world. In fact, there are points at which even the larger families are now being made fun of, which is crazy. Because the Bible says that children are a blessing from the Lord, an inheritance from the Lord. I see this mentality infecting churches, this mind virus, if you will, that churches that care about growth, that churches that care about increasing, they're somehow weird or strange. I know a pastor who told his people, he said, I don't care if we ever grow. He's a pastor in Texas. He said, I don't care if we ever grow as a church. And um, by the way, he ended up getting fired not long ago. But his church certainly did not grow, and he wasn't focused on that. And I look at that and I say, I think all those things together, whether it's the the fertility rates or whether it's the the drive to service and and serve yourself over providing for another, because I I look at children, children give so much meaning to life. And I just look at that mentality and I say, wow, there's there's a lot missing in our world. And I think that we we've got to recapture that that value that God gives us at all levels to multiply. And I think God is calling you to multiply in your family, in your job, in your church. And so with that thought and with that need, I want to start a new series for the next 12 weeks, a false series on the topic of multiplication. I want to call it be fruitful and multiply. And I want this to just be systemic for all of us. I want to help you recapture the calling that God has placed on your life, in every sphere of your life, to multiply that which has been entrusted to you. In fact, this new series, I love the verse in Matthew, Matthew 11, verse 12, it says that the kingdom, since the days of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. I love this verse because it uses the word violence in a positive way, as if those who are part of the kingdom, they're sort of aggressive. They're sort of thinking about how to take more ground, how to grow, how to advance. And this is seen as a positive thing. God is calling those in the kingdom to take ground for the kingdom. And so I really hope this affects you. God is calling us to recover this make and multiply desire. And that's what my sermon is entitled today. Over the next 12 weeks, this is growing season. I'm praying God uses this in your life. For some of you, God's going to grow you in spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines. Maybe it's reading your Bible. Maybe you can't remember the last time you sat down and you had this routine moment where you grew in God's word, just you, a steaming cup of coffee, and your Bible. Maybe you can't remember that. I'm praying God grows you spiritually. Maybe for others of you, it's not spiritual disciplines. You got that locked down. You're really advancing and taking ground in that. Some of you, maybe it's personal. We're gonna see stories about Adam and Eve. Maybe this is the calling to aggressively pursue marriage. And uh I just want to encourage you. The series is only 12 weeks long, but a lot can happen in 12 weeks. Somebody say, Amen. After three months together with Ashley dating, I knew she was the one, and it was very soon after that I was proposing to her, and then three months after that, we were married. Twenty years later, it has worked out well. And uh this is the call to be married, to be fruitful, to multiply. Maybe for some of you, God's calling you to have another child. And I'm watching around the room, who's looking at each other right now? Uh there was someone who actually knew I was preaching this, and they said, When you say that, I want you to stare directly at my wife. I don't see them right now. Maybe they'll be in the next service. But uh, I thought that was great. And um, maybe God, or watch this, maybe God's calling you to adopt. To adopt. We have an adoption fund now. Like I've been praying for this since I got here. That we would have families who are praying about doing what the early church was doing and adopting at the least of our culture. Those who have been left aside. Man, we need to do that. We'd love to talk to you about that if you that's your desire, if the Lord leads you in that. Maybe it's your career. Maybe you're stuck in a dead-end job. Maybe, maybe you're not advancing, and and and you need to advance in that area, and you need mentorship, you need training, whatever it is. Maybe it's a career, maybe it's your health, maybe it's any of those things. God, in every aspect of your life, you can't multiply unless you're healthy. You can't multiply unless every aspect of your life has health. So today we're going to see that in Genesis 1. Let's stand together in honor of God's word. Genesis 1 26. It says this. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. 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 every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food, and every beast of the earth, and every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life. I have given every green plant for food, and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Now, as we turn to this passage, before you sit down, what I want to say to you is that multiplication is not a preference. It's not this casual preference. Some people are multipliers, some aren't. No, no, no. We need to recapture that this is a creation purpose. God has created you to multiply. And today what I want to do is I want to give you four tools, four things that would help you multiply in whatever realm we just covered. Whether it's your personal life, your relational life, uh, whether it's your spiritual life, your work, your family, whatever it is, I want to help you take ground and multiply with these four points. And let's just walk through them. We want to talk about your purpose. I want to pull the veil back and show you what you were created for. Second, I want to show you your superpower. God has given you power, tools to use, tools to utilize that would help you multiply. Third, I want to look at practices. I want to look at, there's some strong words we just saw in this passage to have dominion, to subdue. Those words don't mean what you think they mean. We're going to try and understand what these actions and these practices look like in your life. And then lastly, I want to look at multiplication privileges. You have been entrusted with blessing, blessing upon blessing. And all of life is about salvation and stewardship. And I want to look at how we steward all the privileges that God has given to us. This is God's word. This is where we're going today. And so may God help us as a church. May God help your families. May God help you individually to multiply for his glory. Be seated.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

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SPEAKER_05 13:10

Let's start with that first word, the word purpose. We need to recover God's multiplication purpose. And I want you to understand this that really what we're talking about as far as purpose, it's a Latin word straight out of the text, but it's called the Imago Day. You might even write that out, the Imago Day. What it means is the image of God. Really, our purpose comes from our created image. In verse 26, notice, notice the intertrinitarian conversation. Let us make man. And this shows the pre-existence of the Godhead, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, God the Father, having a conversation, entering into the creation of man. And notice the emphasis in verse 26 and verse 27, the repetition. Anytime in Hebrew that you see repetition, it's very important. In God's image, in our image is what it says, in his own image, in the image of God, verse 27. And then back in verse 26, we get some clarification after our likeness. My supposition is that these verses provide for us a definition and a limitation for what it means to be an image-bearer of God. It means that we're like him, but we're not him. You're not a little God. And I want you to understand that. You're like God, you're created in his image. But this explains everything. Like you've got to get this at the very beginning of this study. This explains why we value some things. This explains why we re-evaluate and place our own value on things. Let's just answer some questions. Watch this. Why is it that the people that we elect to public office, that go, the senators, the House of Representatives, why is it that we can't just pass a law that outlaws pornography? Wouldn't that be great? I mean, just just just just let's get rid of the blight on society. Let's outlaw this thing that abuses people. This thing that that idolizes people. Let's outlaw this sin. Wouldn't that be great if that could happen? Why is it that we can't do that? When I lived in California, I would drive through Riverside, California, right off the 91 Highway, I would look to my right, and there would be a strip club. And I remember like praying as I passed that place. Lord, let the ground open up and swallow that place. And I remember just thinking, like, why is it we can't outlaw those places? Why is it that there's such confusion on topics like abortion? Why is it that there's such confusion even in our time on topics like euthanasia? This is the key verse. It's that people miss the image-bearing of God, that along with the image of God comes inherent dignity, human worth, human value, human dignity. It all comes from the image of God. It's the idea that when God made man, on the sixth day, mankind is the crown jewel of God's creation. And that's why the entire Godhead gets in on this conversation. It's like the last present that's given at Christmas time. How many of you remember that movie, A Christmas Story? He wants what? A red rider BB gun. And what's the thing that's said to him throughout the movie? You'll shoot your eye out, kid. Well, at Christmas time, all the gifts are given out. And remember the last one that's given? The very last one is what? The thing he wanted most, the thing that had the most value, the red rider BB gun. Right? Man's the last of God's creation. Man is the pinnacle of God's creation. He's assigned worth, dignity, value. And without seeing man as the pinnacle, what happens is there's confusion. What happens is there's redefinition. The same person may not even understand why there's this flip-flop in their life of redefining things. At one point in their life, maybe they would celebrate an abortion. And at another point in their life, they would mourn a miscarriage. Why? Some people will march for creation. Whales, trees, deforestation, pollution. But they won't march for life. Without understanding the Imago Day, there is creation confusion. In 1906, there was a man named Otto Binga. He was a 22-year-old African pygmy. He was brought, this is a true story. He was brought to the zoo in New York City, and he was put into a display cage next to other animals. That's a true story. This is 1906. Rightly so, the religious community went crazy. They went nuts. There was an outcry, and it was the New York Times who's always on the right side of things. Amen. That was a joke, by the way. I just didn't feel enough laughter on that one. And so I just want to make that clear, all right? It was the New York Times who said, well, on the human scale, we know that pygmies are lower on the human scale. Without a right understanding of the Imago Day, what happens is we redefine human worth and value. We create a sliding scale. By the way, this is why we value every age and stage here at Central Church. Whether it's children's ministry, the widow's ministry. There is a value for all ages, all stages, all ethnicities. And without the Imago Day, what happens is we experience injustice, we experience abuse, we experience a loss of dignity. You start saying things like, Well, it's just a clump of cells, that's just kids' ministry, that's just old widows' ministry, and you look at it and you say it's not as valuable as the other. No, friends. We can't go there. The Imago Day says that you matter to God because you are an image bearer. You matter to God. And if you're a Christian, you especially matter in a familial sense. Not just a dignity, but also, but also that hesed, that that loyal love. God calls us the apple of his eye. You know what the apple of someone's eye is? It's that raised round spot right in the center. And God's saying, if you you're the apple of my eye, and if someone messes with you, if someone devalues you, it's like they're poking me in my eye, and I don't like being poked in the eye. Don't mess with the apple of God's eye. What this is saying is that you have inherent worth and value and dignity. We have to let that affect us. To those looking at pornography, you have to stop saying no big deal. You have to feel the indignity. You have to feel the redefinition that's happening in your life. You have to acknowledge that you wouldn't want your wife, your daughter, your family doing that. We have to let this affect us. Now, if you struggle in those things, if you are convicted this morning, I just want to say this. One of the worst things that you can do is go to a place in your conviction that doesn't have the grace of God along with conviction. If you're convicted, praise God. That's God's work. But I also want to offer you the grace of God. I mean, God has you here today, and He's offering you a chance to realign your mind with Scripture. And you need to feel God's grace today. You need to feel that God has a future, and you need to feel that if you've done some of these things, if you have redefined the image of God in things like abortion, or you've or you've done things uh that have done an injustice to the Imago Day with pornography, here's what I would say to you: that Jesus Christ is bigger than all of your sin. And you can bring it all to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ can wash away every sin. The worst about you can be erased in Jesus Christ. That's why he died. And and I that's my joy to tell you that. My joy is to tell you that Jesus gives people a fresh start. Jesus gives people a new start, a new life. Jesus can make a whole new you, but he wants to redefine the way that you define humanity. He wants to change the way you think. You need to recover that image, you need to feel God's grace in this place pushing you. To recover purpose. And now let's look at verse 28. Now that we've got the Imago Day under wraps, now that we got that dealt with, let's understand what this command, this purpose means. The very first command in scripture is the word multiply. Once you have a right understanding of who you are, you'll know what to do. Once you understand the dignity and the honor with which you were created, now you'll know what to do. Now you'll know what your purpose is. Multiply. That's what it says. Be fruitful and multiply. Now, some of you might contend with me, well, Pastor Matt, come on. That was written to Adam and Eve. We gotta fill the earth. We gotta raise up some offspring here. And let's be honest, central church doesn't have a problem having lots and lots of babies. Amen. Especially our staff. God bless you, our staff. Actually, it's a biblical theme. We see this command throughout scripture, the whole Bible. In Genesis 5, verses 1 to 3, I want you to notice that what happens is the image of God, the likeness of God is reiterated. He made him in the image of God. And then we're going to go into the generations of Adam. We're going to talk about how they were faithful to that. Over in Genesis chapter 9, Noah, and Noah's given the same command: be fruitful and multiply. The command is never rescinded. It's always to be a part of our life, taking ground for the kingdom of God. Psalm chapter 1, what does a healthy tree do that's planted by water? It bears fruit. That's spiritually, that's physically. Exodus 1, Israel shows this. The people were fruitful, they increased greatly, they multiplied. Over in Matthew 3, verse 8, the parable that Jesus gives, he talks about the increase that his kingdom is supposed to see. A hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold, but increased. Then we see the New Testament, we see when Acts 2, 40, 3,000 are added to the church. Then we see in Acts 6, 7, the number of disciples multiplied. Then we see in Acts 6.47, they're added day by day, those who are being saved. And then in Revelation, it ends with what? A multiple, a great multitude. So in Genesis, be fruitful and multiply. In Revelation, we end with a multitude that comes from multiplication.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

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