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Well, good morning and welcome again. Excited you guys are here with us this morning. My name is Harley Rathel, and I am one of the pastors here at Point Community Church, and we really are glad that you're here with us this morning. Now, for those of you who haven't been around much or haven't been around much the last couple of weeks, just a couple of quick recaps for you. We are going through a series right now called What Do We Believe About? Kind of blank. You know, what's it what's the fill in the blank? And we've gone through three messages so far. The first was about the Bible. The question was, you know, what do we believe about the Bible? The Bible has, you know, a lot of things to say. How can we tell that it's true? How can we tell that it's accurate? How can we tell that it is God's word as we refer to it? And so if you have questions about that and that whole topic, I'd really encourage you to jump online and listen to that message about what do we believe about the Bible. The next week we followed it up by talking about what do we believe, which was last week, by the way. What do we believe about God? And specifically, you know, where does this thought come from that God is one person but there's three persons in one? That sounds kind of out there, this whole idea of there being a trinity. And so again, I'd encourage you if you've got questions about those things, to jump online, listen to that resource. And Nick and myself can obviously point you in the direction of a couple of good resources as well. So just encourage you that if you've got questions about these things, that's a good thing. It's good for us to think through and understand, hey, what do we believe? And I'm hoping that today will be helpful also because we're going to jump on and ask the question what do we believe about man? As a church, as Point Community Church or as Bible-believing Christians, what do we believe the Bible tells us, God tells us it means to be mankind or humanity? And there is a ton, a plethora of things that we could say about man. And so my hope today is we we'd say the most important things. We'd be succinct and to the point, but hopefully that it would be useful for you guys just in in it wouldn't be just this conversation that would fill your head with some more knowledge, but it really would help be applicable to your lives. So, I need help with this this morning, so I'm gonna pray again for us. And just ask God that he would give me clarity and give you guys clarity as we talk through this conversation. Is that okay? Alright, let's bow our heads and let's pray just one more time. Would you just ask God where you're sitting this morning that God would speak to you? God, I thank you that you've heard these prayers this morning, and I pray that you would answer them. That as people are standing and I'm sorry, sitting there this morning, that you would speak to them specifically, and just let them know that you are real, that you are God, and that you created us. God, as we go through this conversation, I pray that my heart and my mind would be clear, and the words that I say would be clear, and I pray that as as everybody's sitting here this morning that they would receive what is said, and that you would clearly convey the things to their hearts that you need to. Thank you. Amen. Beautiful and broken. Those are two words that sound like they go kind of in opposition to each other, right? Beautiful and broken, but those are the two words that when I think about humanity or mankind like I have been the last couple of weeks, getting ready for this. Those are the two words that come to mind. Beautiful and broken. Let me explain a little bit. I'm sure some of you have had the opportunity to be in the delivery room of a hospital before. I have had that privilege a couple of times. And being there and in that moment where a human life enters into the world, I think you get a good picture of beauty and brokenness. You know, this beautiful little life comes into the world, and in that moment, there is this amazing creation, this new life, this new gift that's given to us, but also with that beautiful little gift is just a bunch of mess. Giving birth is a messy process, right? Like, and so in this moment you have this picture of beauty and brokenness right in this first moment of life. Some of you like, that's disgusting. Uh okay, another example, another maybe a little bit disgusting example. I have uh twin one-year-old girls, okay? And a few months ago, uh they started being really interactive. Like, you know, you'd do something and they'd laugh and think it was funny. And I really enjoy that stage. Well, I could, at that stage, I remember very it was really interesting because I'd make them smile or laugh, and their little noses would wrinkle up, you know? It was the cutest thing, like very, very cute. But unbeknownst to me, they could be smiling at me like that and have an explosion out of their diaper, you know, coming up their back. And there's this beauty and this brokenness. And this just isn't in physical things, it goes on to more of tough issues, right? Like my three-year-old son. My three-year-old son, he's at this moment where he can come up to me and cuddle with me or give me a hug and say, I love you, daddy. And I mean, talk about melting your heart. That's pretty cool, right? I like that. But two minutes later, he can be stumping his foot and saying, No, there's beauty and brokenness in his humanity. And this continues on for those of you who are, I mean, I could give you illustration after illustration, but another maybe applicable one. For those of you who are married, you know that you can have a moment with your spouse where you just feel so close and connected with that person. They're your, you know, your soulmate, and they're you just feel close to them in that moment. And a couple of little things can get triggered, and just a few minutes later, there's World War III in your relationship, right? There's beauty and brokenness all throughout humanity. Those are just a few examples. So, as we tackle this big subject of humanity, what it means to be man, I got came to the conclusion that it may be best for us to answer three basic questions this morning. And so I want to lay those out for you and then work through them with you together, okay? So the first question is this that I'd like for us to at least attempt to answer today. What do we, as in Bible-believing Christians, believe about men or humanity, mankind, whatever word you want to put there? What do we believe about men? Second question, how is the world's view of man different from our view? How is it opposed to what we believe as Christians, what the Bible tells us? And then the third question is, how does what we believe practically apply to our everyday lives? Because again, I don't want this just to be a message where we come together and we talk about the Bible and we talk about some theories about what it means to be human, and then you leave. My hope is that what we talk would apply to your everyday lives. And so without further ado, I'd like for us to jump into this first question. What do we believe about men? As I was asking this question, I went to a great source of information. I went to the internet. It's a good place, right? Has lots of amazing information out there. So I went to the internet and I actually went to our church's website and I clicked through and said to the section of our beliefs. What do we believe? And I scrolled down to what we believe about humanity, and I cut and pasted into my notes, and I actually cut and pasted into your notes also. So you're first fill in the blank this morning as as follows. We believe, Point Community Church believes, that every person has inherent worth and value because they're created in the image of God. We're going to talk about that. And yet every person is a sinner by nature and by choice, and unable to justify themselves before God based on their own deeds. This is what we believe. We can go home now. No, I'm just kidding. So, this is what we believe. So, if I was to look at this statement, I think you could take a knife and basically cut it right down the middle. There's two parts to what we believe. I don't know if you see this already, but there's this belief that we're created in the image of God. That's the beauty piece, right? But the other part to what we believe is that sin has entered into the world and that we all struggle with that. We're sinners by nature and by choice. And we can't fix ourselves. That's the brokenness. So, as you can see already, there's this idea of beauty and brokenness in what we believe. We're created in the image of God, but we all struggle with sin. Well, we talk about the sin thing quite a lot here at church. That just generally typically comes up as we're talking about the gospel. But this idea of being created in the image of God, that isn't talked about as much. And so I want for us to start there this morning and ask the question where do we even get this idea that we're created in the image of God? Because that's kind of an interesting concept. The image of God. Where do we get that idea? Well, the answer is actually we get it from the very first page of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1. And so I'm going to ask you to grab a Bible if you don't have one and open to Genesis chapter 1 with me this morning. There are some Bibles in front of you in some of those seats if you don't have one, or you can use your phone app. But I'd really encourage you to write, read along with me this morning. So Genesis chapter 1 is where we're going to get started. And I'm going to give you a little background as you're finding it. So God's creating. He's working through his creation. He's worked one days one, two, three, four, five. And through there, he's been creating like everything from the planet, waters, earth, land, stars, planets, moons, stars, all that, I've already said stars. All that stuff. He's working on creation. And then he creates like animals and birds and fish and all that stuff. Plants. And he comes to the sixth day, and it's like all of his work is working towards this pinnacle, to this amazing moment, the last big hurrah in his creation. And that's why we jump into the story. We're going to start in verse 26, like I said. And I want you to hear what it says. Then God said, Let us make men in our image. Now I'm just going to pause there for a second. Again, this is God, one person, but three persons in one. Okay, that again was the talk from last week. I know that sounds a little confusing, but this is a scripture that backs up the thought that God is three persons in one. Okay? So, reading on. Verse 27. So God created man in his own image. He created man in the image of God. He created the male and female. I don't know if you got this, but it says this higher whole idea of God being create we being created in God's image four times in just a couple of verses. It's an important concept. When something is repeated in Scripture, it's an important concept for us to know and to understand. And it's on the very first page of what's written in the Bible. So I would say, I would propose to you that this idea that we're created in the image of God is a very important concept for us to know and to understand. And one of the reasons that it's so important for us to understand is because it distinguishes us from the rest of creation. And that's our next fill in the blank, actually. It distinguishes us from the rest of creation. Now, one of the things that I just wanted to mention here before we talked about this whole distinguishing factor is that God didn't need to create us. He wasn't lacking anything or needing anything. He wasn't lonely, and he didn't create us because he needed us to give him glory. We talked about who God was and how he was perfect without us last week, okay? But he chose to create us and he chose to create us for his glory. There's a bunch of verses that talk about that. One of the scriptures that says that Isaiah 43, verse 7 says, Everyone called by my name is created for my glory. I have formed him, indeed I have made him. So, like I was saying earlier, being image bearer of God, being an image bearer of God distinguishes us from the rest of creation. Well, you say, how do you know that, Harley? Well, there's three reasons that I would say that this morning, propose that to you. The first is that we, as God's creation, man, were given direction and instruction by God. There was an intimacy in our relationship with God. Let me read for you verse 28 of Genesis chapter 1. It goes on to say, God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth. God didn't get together with any of the other animals, any of the rest of creation, and say, Hey, here's your instructions. This is what I want you to do. No, God had a special relationship with man. If we were to read on to Genesis chapter 2, we'd hear the story of exactly how God formed man. He formed him out of the dust and then breathed life into his nostrils. That's a pretty intimate creative process. All the other stuff he just spoke into being. And so I believe that we're distinguished because we have this special relationship with God where he interacts with us and gives us instruction. God went on to say to man in Genesis chapter 2, hey, I'm putting this tree in the middle of the garden, and it's the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And I don't want you to eat from it. I'm going to ask you to choose not to eat from it. He didn't say that to any of the rest of the creation. We're unique and distinguished in that way. The second way that we're distinguished amongst creation is that we are relational. Like God is relational, we are very relational more than any of the rest of creation. There's four ways that we relate. We relate to God. We have this theological relationship, okay? That's the first way that we're relational. We just talked about that, how God had instructions for man. There was interaction between God and man, unlike the rest of creation. The second way we're relational is that we're relational to one another, some of us more than others, but we are social beings. We like having interaction, we like people, we have emotions, we have feelings, and we interact on a social level. We're relational in that way. The third way that we relate is we relate to the creation or the environment around us. God said, hey, look after the earth, care for it, subdue it. We haven't done a great job of that, but it was one of the instructions that he gave us. And then finally, the other way that we relate that I really think is unique amongst humans is that we relate to ourselves. We're psychological in our relationship. We think questions. When you get quiet sometimes, you think questions like, why am I here? What is my purpose? Why do I exist? What makes me me? We ask questions like that. And I believe questions like that are helpful, but they also prove that we're distinguished amongst God's creation. The third reason that I say that we're distinguished amongst God's creation is because as God was going through, if we were to read Genesis 1, you would see that every day God created and he said it was good. He made his creation and he said it was good. And then in verse 31, he creates, after he's created man, he looks at his creation and he says, It was very good. And I think that's important for us to see. God is pleased with having created man in this moment. He sees it and he says that it's very good. And that's why we're distinguished amongst the rest of creation. We're image bearers and that distinguishes us. You're like, okay, Harley, you've said this image bearers thing about 50 times already. What does that actually mean? What does it mean that we bear the image of God? Well, it means that we share some of the attributes, not all of the attributes, but some of the attributes of God. Let me explain. I am an image bearer of Colin David Rethel. That's my father. I bear his image. I'm his son, and so I bear some of his attributes, and then some of his attributes I don't. I am not my dad, but I share some of his attributes. For example, some people would say that I look a little bit like my dad. Some people would say I look a lot like my dad, which is a bit scary. The other thing is that when I was living at home, when I'd answer the phone sometimes, actually, a lot of the times, if I didn't say my name, people would just jump into the conversation like they were talking to my dad. Hey, Colin, you know, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, it's Harley. And they're like, oh, you sound just like him. That's because I share an attribute with him. And so being image bearers means that we share some attributes, but not all attributes. We're not that person, but we share some of their attributes. Which I think in turn raises the question: what attributes of God do we share? What attributes of God do we not share? I'm gonna warn you, this link list is pretty lengthy, but stick with me through it. I think it's really helpful. Here are some of the unshared attributes that we have we don't share with God. God is everywhere at all times. Last time I checked, I wasn't able to do that. God has all-encompassing and perfect knowledge. Last time I checked, none of us could do that. Uh God is all powerful and able to do anything He wills. Yep, we don't have that. God does not change. Unfortunately, yeah, I'm not that way either. We have a beginning and an end. Actually, the next one, unshared attribute, is this God is eternal. God has no beginning and no end. We all have birthdays. And typically we die at a certain age. God is sovereign, which means he is supreme in his rule and authority. We are not sovereign. Those are unshared attributes. Those are things that God possesses entirely, but we don't have any of. But there are things that he does possess that we do have some of. And so I'm gonna jump through this list of shared attributes with you this morning. Things that God possesses and that we possess as image bearers. Now, I just have to point out to you guys here, because of sin being a part of our lives, it means that we don't possess these things as fully as we should. The first one that I'm gonna tell to you this morning is holiness. We are not holy people, but we're instructed to be holy. We have a capacity to be holy. And we believe that when things are all made right, when sin is done away with, we will be holy. That's one of the shared attributes that we will have with God. So let me go through this list. Just know that we have a capacity to share these attributes, but we don't possess them fully. Does that make sense? Okay, so here's the list. Holy. God is holy, he's absolutely separate from any evil, and we are instructed to be holy as God is holy. First Peter 1 talks about that in verse 15 and 16. God is love. That's one of the shared attributes. God is love and has created us with a capacity to love. 1 John 4 says, God is love. And then on in verse 19, it says that we love because he first loved us. We are give we are able to have that attribute that God has. Truth. God is the source of all truth, and we are called to live and to speak truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's John 14, verse 6. Righteousness, right and wrong, flow from God's character, and in the same sense as we have a sense of justice stamped on us, of right and wrong. This one's actually really interesting to me because I know there's some people out there that would say that there isn't a God, I'm not created by God, and actually God doesn't exist. But they have this sense of justice in them. They're all about a cause. They have this cause that they fight for. And some of those causes are actually good things that they're fighting for. They don't realize that when they're portraying this need for justice, when they're searching for justice, that they're waving a little flag saying, I'm an image bearer of God. This is an attribute that I share with the God that I deny even exists. Does that make sense? It's a really, really interesting thing. As image bearers of God, we have this sense of justice. That's not something that we evolved to have. That's something that God stamped into our lives. That's imprinted into our lives as image bearers. Next one, mercy. God does not always give people what they deserve because he is loving and gracious. And we also have a cap capacity, sorry, to be merciful. Actually, Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, he says, Be merciful as your Father in heaven is also merciful. It's one of the instructions that we're given. The last one that we're going to go through today is just talking about beauty. God is beautiful, and his creation is beautiful. We contain his beauty and we create contain his creativity. I don't know about you guys, but this actually one excites me too because when I think about it, there's some secular artists out there that when they're doing their art, for example, some musicians, when they're doing their thing, that some of them would say, Hey, I don't believe in God, I don't believe God really exists, and yet their creativity, the beauty of what they create, points to the fact that there is a God. Again, it waves this flag saying, Hey, I bear. The image of God because I'm creative. Make sense? So it's really interesting this morning thinking about being image bearers of God, how that distinguishes that, us, but also what attributes that kind of imprint onto us. And we could talk for a long time this morning about being image bearers of God and what that means, but I want for us to get to some of this other content that we discussed earlier, because we talked about how being an image bearer really is only half of what we believe. We believe that we're image bearers of God, but we also believe that we struggle with sin. And so I want to touch on that for a moment. I want to talk about how this brokenness affects us. If we were to read on to Genesis chapter 3 this morning, you'd read the story of how sin was introduced into the world. It's kind of sad, but we only get two chapters into the Bible, and then sin enters the scene. And the rest of the Bible is essentially talking about the fallout of that problem. Sin enters the world and we struggle with it for the rest of the Bible. That's what it talks about. And so the next fill in the blank for you this morning is simply this sin distorts the image of God in us. If you were to look back up in your page of notes there to what we believe as a church, you would see that we are sinners by nature and by choice. That's a great way of articulating how we struggle with sin. We have this sin nature, but we also choose to be sinful. It's just part of who we are. Now, some of you are asking, okay, if we bear the image of God, or at least we bore the image of God before sin entered the world, when sin entered the world, did we lose this ability to bear God's image? No, it got distorted, but we still bear the image of God. There's verses, uh, there's parts of the Bible, Genesis chapter 5, Genesis chapter 9, and James 3, that all talk about how we still possess the likeness and the image of God. And so sin really has had an effect on us. And in a couple of weeks, we're going to talk about salvation. So I don't want to jump too much down this, that message. I want to talk about man today, but it's important when we're talking about man to talk about sin and how that affects us. And there's a scripture that I want to point us towards in Ephesians chapter 2 this morning. Because this scripture does a great job of articulating what it means that we struggle with sin, what that looks like for us. So I'm just going to flick there this morning. It's actually going to be up on the screen for you as well. But Genesis chapter 2, verse 1 through 3 says this. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you previously walked, according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly, or you could change that to say sinful desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath, as the others were also. It's basically saying we all struggle with sin. I don't know about you guys, but as I read that passage, it's kind of depressing, right? It paints an accurate picture of what sin has done to humanity. We're all children of wrath, separated from God. God created us to bear his image, but this sin issue has really driven a gap between us. And that's where we get this beauty and this brokenness that we've talked about. And that's what we essentially believe as a church that man is beautiful and broken. So if we look today to what the world believes and ask this question of, okay, this is what we believe as a church. What is the world around us? What does the culture believe? And how is that different? Let's look at that for a few minutes here and just ask that question and see what we come up with. Typically, as you listen to people, or you just listen to popular thought and the culture around you, you'll hear thoughts about humanity that are either too high or they're too low. Let me explain. The people around us will typically say things about humanity that paint us as being too high or too low. So, for example, you may hear somebody on television or radio or even a conversation or read a book that talks about how there's good in humanity and how, like, that if you look deep enough, you'll find the God basically the goodness within you. That we are like, this whole concept is that we are like God. We are God's in creation. And that's a thought that is too high. God is God, we're not God, we sit under Him. But there's also this prevalent thought right now, especially with the belief that we evolved into existence, that is too low. It talks about humanity and how we're created as just another species. We just evolved into being, and so we can dismiss any behavior, any sin, as just being an animal instinct or an animal problem. If you listen to talk radio, you may hear somebody calling in and saying, Hey, I'm, you know, uh my wife and I are having trouble. She doesn't understand my needs. I had an affair, and she's angry about it and upset about it. And the host would say, Hey, well, that's just your animal instincts. You're just living out, you're taking care of yourself. That's okay. That's a view that's too low. That paints man as being too low. And so that our right position, the truth that we put in your notes there this morning for you to fill in the blanks, is our position is under God and above the rest of the creation. Why would I say this? Psalms chapter 8 says it very clearly. David's writing had a great view on this. He said, When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, he's talking to God. What is man that you remember him? The Son of Man that you look after him. You made him a little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him Lord over the works of your hands. You put everything under his feet. This is where we get this idea that we're under God, but we're above the rest of creation. We sit in this tension in between those two things. And so as you hear, listen this week, as you're out and about to people's views about humanity, you'll typically hear that they're too high or too low. We need to find that tension and be in that middle spot. The other thought that's out in our that's flying against what the Bible teaches about man is that our worth and our value comes from external things. I could give you a long list of things today, but just let me give you a couple here this morning of things that we look to to find our worth and our value. We look to fame, popularity, success, education, possessions, position, being moral or having good behavior. These are just a few things that we look to to define ourselves as humans and to give ourselves worth or meaning or value. But the Bible clearly says that nobody is righteous, not even one person is righteous. We all struggle with sin. And so the truth here that I want you guys to hear is found in Matthew, sorry, not Matthew, Psalms chapter 16, verse 2. Again, David's speaking, and this is actually one of my favorite Psalms, but verse 2 he says this, Yahweh, I said to Yahweh, that's God, you are my Lord. I have nothing good besides you. Let me give you a little backstory on David. David is the king of Israel at a time that Israel is one of the most powerful nations in the world. He has everything he wants. He has palaces, he has wives, he has power, he has money, he has all these things, and yet he writes, You are my Lord, I have nothing good besides you. He got this concept. He understood that his worth and his value were not defined by external things, but was actually defined by God. There's a beautiful hymn that talks about this. It says, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Beautiful hymn. It talks about this idea that our worth, our value, our hope is found in Christ. It's found in God, not in anything else this morning, right? And so my challenge for myself, my challenge for you guys this morning is we start, we're going to switch the conversation to talking about practical implications of what we believe. Maybe the first thing that we need to practically apply this morning is this thought that our worth and our value comes from God, not from external things. Because I think as Christians living in the Western world here in here in America, we're bombarded with thoughts like this all the time. And it's hard for us to not look for our worth and our meaning, our significance in external things. And so my first challenge to you, my first challenge to me, is we would look to God for our value, our worth, and our meaning this morning. Okay? So let's jump into that conversation. What are the practical implications of what we believe? Remember, we believe that we bear the image of God and that sin has distorted that image in us as humans, that we struggle with sin. So what are the practical implications of that teaching that we've talked through this morning? Well, the first thing is this. I believe that as we practically look at this, we can see the value in having a relationship with God. Now, there's several reasons that there's a value in having a relationship with God, but the first one is he's God. I mean, the fact is, this guy, this being that we believe in, created the heavens and the earth. He's outside of time, and yet the Bible teaches us that he's close enough that he wants to have a relationship with you, with each one of you, with me. That's amazing in and of itself. But it's also amazing because when I think about it, if I bear the image of God, the more that I get to know God, the more I understand God, the more I understand myself. I read this quote this week, and it really was helped my thinking on this. It said this, because we bear God's image, the more we understand him, the more we understand ourselves. It's just like me wanting to have a relationship with my dad. I want to have a relationship with my dad because the more I feel like I know him and understand him, I feel like I understand myself a little bit better. And it's much the same way as our relationship with God. There's a value to having a relationship with God. And I just want to stop and say here this morning, for those of you who wouldn't call yourself a Christian yet, myself and some of the other pastors, elders will be up the front during our worship time here in a bit. We'd love to talk to you about what that means to be a follower of Christ. What it means to have a relationship with God. That's the first practical implication. The second one is this is that we see the value in the people around us. As I understand that I'm created in the image of God, that means that every single person around me is created in the image of life. That means every life from conception through death has value because we all bear the image of God. That means that person that frustrates the heck out of you has value. I need to hear that this morning. You need to hear that this morning. Everybody has value. Actually, one of the challenges I have for you there in your listening guide, if you were to flip it over this morning, there's a section in the bottom that just says moving forward, what's the next step for you? And my challenge for you in that moving forward is to pick somebody, help God, pray with God and say, hey, who do I really struggle to see the image of God in? And then pray this week for that person and say, hey, God, would you help me to see that person through your eyes? Help me to see the value and the worth in that person. That's my second practical implication. Third one is that we would see our high calling to reflect God. If we are image bearers, it leads to the question of how are we doing with that? Are you a good image bearer? Are you a bad image bearer of God? Are you struggling or are you doing an awesome job? I would venture, I guess, that we all struggle, right? We all struggle to bear God's image. And some of us struggle to know, okay, what does that even look like? We look at the person or the Christian next to us and say, is that what it looks like to bear God's image? We compare ourselves, we play this comparison game that's really quite silly because that person next to you is just as distorted by sin as you are. If you want to look know what it looks like to truly be human, look at Jesus. Jesus was man without sin. That's what it truly looks like to be human. And so if you want to compare yourself with somebody, compare yourself with Jesus. Ask the question and say, How am I doing? How am I living? Am I bearing an image that reflects God? And my challenge for you, my challenge for me is that we would more and more so look like Jesus. The scriptures teach us, and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this this morning, but the scriptures teach us that as we're called to mirror God, that we are formed more and more into his likeness day by day. And so my prayer for myself, my prayer for you, is that in if I was to not see you for another year, or if I was not to see you for the next five years or ten years, in that time that transpires between now and then, that you would be more and more Christ-like in every way, and that if I was to meet up with you again, that you I as I would see you, I would see more of Jesus in you as I meet up with you. That's what we're called to. That's a pretty high calling, but that's what we're called to is to bear his image more and more as Christians. That's our calling, as we're called to live like Christ. The fourth and final practical implication that I want to just pass on to you this morning, and I'm sure there's more things that we could practically apply, but this is the fourth one that I wanted to challenge you with this morning is that we would see the value, that we would be reminded again of the value of salvation, of what we have in Jesus. Because here's the deal if we're created in God's image and we all struggle with sin, if we've got those those two things kind of opposed against each other, beauty and brokenness, and the answer to that problem, that that dichotomy, is Jesus. When I look at that, I'm like, how amazing is what Jesus has done for me. My heart is full and reminded of the goodness of God. I'm reminded of the goodness of his salvation. Do you guys remember that scripture we read in Ephesians 2 that talked about our sin problem, how it was kind of depressing? I want to read it again, but we're actually going to read it with verse 4 this time, because verse 4 is awesome. And five, actually. So let's read it again. We too all previously lived among them with our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh or sin and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath, as the others were also. But God, those two words are awesome. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with the Messiah, even though we were dead in our trespasses. You are saved by grace. Cool, right? I don't know about you, but as I read this scripture this morning, that scripture went from being kind of depressing, those first few verses, to being awesome. And I'm reminded again of the value of the salvation that I have in Jesus. There was another guy that's much like us, David, that we read some some quotes from him earlier who wrote a lot of the books of Psalms. And he was struggling at one point in his life with some sin, and he was struggling to see the value of his salvation. He actually was struggling to the point that he got a married woman pregnant and killed her husband. I mean, really struggling with some stuff. And he has this prayer, he has this confession time with God, and during that, in Psalms 51, he says, Would you, God, restore to me the joy of my salvation? And my prayer for you, my prayer for me this morning is that as we look at this humanity question today, and we see that we're created in the image of God, we all struggle with sin, and we look at what Jesus has done for us to save us from our sin, that we would have this joy of salvation restored to us this morning that would overflow in our lives, it would overflow in our week. That that would be a practical implication for us this morning. And so that's my fourth and final challenge for you guys this morning. I just hope that this hasn't been a time where we're just putting some knowledge in our head about what it means to be in the image of God. Although it's good for us to study that and to think about that. But my hope is that these practical implications would be real in your lives today, and that God would be working in your life this week, showing you, reminding you of the value of a relationship with Him, the value of having a right view of the people around you, how they have worth, how they have value. That you would be reminded that you're called to bear his image well, and that there's huge value in the salvation that we have in Jesus. Let me pray for us this morning. God, thank you that you are here, that you're with us, that you're working in and through your word, that your Holy Spirit's working. And God, we just ask this morning that you would be glorified in our time here as we have some time to kind of process the things that we've heard, the things that you've been saying to us this morning. God, I pray that we wouldn't just come here this morning and have some information downloaded to us, but that it would be real and it would really transform our lives and our hearts today. God, I just pray that you would remind us of the huge value it is to have a relationship with you because we bear your image. I pray that you would remind us to find our value and our worth in you, not in the things, not in external things. That you would remind us of the value of the lives of the people around us because they bear your image. God, that you would show us how to bear your image more and more each day, to look more and more like Jesus each day. And God, we pray that you would really help us to see the value of the salvation that you've given us. God, you would you restore the joy of our salvation today? God, for those of you, those of us this morning in this room that don't know you, God, I pray that they would come to know you. That they would see they're created in your image, that that would make sense and that we'd see their need for a relationship with you. Thank you that you're here. We just pray that you would continue to work in our hearts and our lives in this time. Thank you. Amen. Let me give you guys a couple of quick instructions. We're gonna stand here in a moment and we're gonna spend some time doing a couple of things. We're gonna you can just stand and reflect, you can sing, but also we're gonna have these tables that are around the room. We've got six tables around the room that are open for you to take communion if you'd like. And communion is significant because it reminds us of salvation, like we were just talking about. It reminds us of what Jesus did for us. The the juice is to remind us of Jesus' blood that he shed for us. The cracker is to represent his body that was broken for us, to fix us from our sin problem, so we could bear God's image more rightly. And so I just encourage you, if you'd like, find somebody or go by yourself and get communion in this time. Also, we're gonna have our pastors and elders up the front here. And if you'd like to come forward and just talk with them or to pray with them, we're gonna be open to that up the front here. So I'd encourage you. Um, we all struggle with stuff, we're humans, okay? Like we just talked about. And so there's no shame in coming forward and and talking with one of us. We'd love to have that privilege this morning. So I just ask you to just respond in whatever way you need to. I'm just gonna ask you to stand in this time as we start to sing.