WEBVTT 00:00:01.680 --> 00:00:04.300 We've begun a new sermon series together called believe. 00:00:06.580 --> 00:00:13.840 We've looked at together at the early church, who had a belief that was so strong that for the first 300 years of Christianity to 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:18.960 follow after Jesus, it would have cost you or could have cost you your life. 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:20.840 What is it? 00:00:20.860 --> 00:00:27.880 The early church found that they believed so strongly that they were even willing to go to death, to take a stand for what they had trusted in. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:36.440 You know, in today's society, I get a little tired, especially in America, of people telling us what it is we need to believe to fit 00:00:36.440 --> 00:00:38.600 their ideology or religion. 00:00:39.700 --> 00:00:46.940 And we find throughout America, many people are burnt out on religion because it's man made ideas 00:00:46.940 --> 00:00:51.220 of worship that has chosen to, in their way, please God. 00:00:53.120 --> 00:00:54.360 We study the Bible together. 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:57.960 We discover that God isn't about religion. 00:00:59.700 --> 00:01:01.000 What God is about is relationship. 00:01:02.820 --> 00:01:10.340 And Jesus said, as clear to the woman by the well as it is to us today, that he who worships him must 00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:12.580 worship him in spirit and truth. 00:01:14.360 --> 00:01:17.460 We can never worship God for more than we understand him to be. 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:22.960 And so it's significant for us to discover truth together, something for our lives to rest solely upon. 00:01:23.320 --> 00:01:26.460 And let me just tell you this morning, it is all about him. 00:01:28.940 --> 00:01:35.100 See, here at our church, we don't encourage you to be about our religion or to be any particular way that we tell you to be. 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:40.620 What we ask you as a body of believers coming to Jesus is just look to him. 00:01:41.900 --> 00:01:47.080 If you've given God your life and you've surrendered to him, he'll direct you and where to go. 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:51.260 Life is all about a relationship with him. 00:01:51.300 --> 00:01:58.660 There is a belief that is solid for us to follow, and trusting in him to find out and see that he is faithful to us. 00:02:00.340 --> 00:02:02.970 We've looked at God exists in the beginning. 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:06.350 We've looked at his character and his attributes together. 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:13.740 But maybe as God has revealed himself generally in revelation through through creation, God has also come to reveal 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:17.300 himself more specifically to us in His Word. 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:20.480 God speaks. 00:02:20.980 --> 00:02:21.700 God has spoken. 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:25.400 Today, that's why we open up our Bible to learn about him. 00:02:26.700 --> 00:02:31.980 What was his true 1500 years ago when God directed the early prophets to write? 00:02:32.020 --> 00:02:35.320 His word is still true today because God's truth is timeless. 00:02:36.860 --> 00:02:43.440 This morning, as we also begin to look together, what we're going to investigate and see is that God is also imaged. 00:02:45.460 --> 00:02:47.760 God is imaged in us as human beings. 00:02:47.920 --> 00:02:50.020 And what exactly does that mean? 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:52.880 What is a human being? 00:02:54.420 --> 00:03:01.580 My favorite idea that always comes to mind when I think about what it means to be a human being comes from a question I would often hear of mothers 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:04.800 in inner city Baltimore trying to raise their young teenage sons. 00:03:05.720 --> 00:03:12.800 It's more an African-American type setting, but when you see these young kids playing in the, in the in the streets or in the playgrounds 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:17.210 and they do something wrong and mom steps in with that snap of the finger, oh, no you didn't. 00:03:18.720 --> 00:03:20.170 Who do you think you are? 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:21.460 Get in there. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.530 You think for a moment that kid, whenever he was involved in activity, probably thought he was amazing. 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:34.880 But all of a sudden, mom now in front of him asking that question, and he's now thinking, I don't know who in the world who did I think I was? 00:03:34.980 --> 00:03:37.200 You know, uh oh. 00:03:39.420 --> 00:03:40.590 Who are we as people? 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:49.480 When you look in the mirror, as age progresses and gravity wins, who 00:03:49.480 --> 00:03:49.880 are we? 00:03:51.480 --> 00:03:57.500 Have you done the pretend facelift before pushing back some of those wrinkles, remembering what that face looked like. 00:03:57.500 --> 00:04:00.130 So a few years ago, right? 00:04:01.040 --> 00:04:05.800 Maybe the front porch is getting a little bigger and the hair is starting to get a little bit grayer. 00:04:06.540 --> 00:04:10.890 Who are we at the birth of a young child? 00:04:12.200 --> 00:04:14.610 The laughter of a small kid. 00:04:16.100 --> 00:04:23.420 Who are we when we go through emotional experiences in this world, and we have deep longings within our soul that sometimes 00:04:23.420 --> 00:04:25.500 we can't find satisfaction for. 00:04:26.060 --> 00:04:26.480 Who are we? 00:04:28.320 --> 00:04:29.920 In history. 00:04:29.940 --> 00:04:35.740 In the past, if we had simply asked that question, even around the time of Jesus, people would have identified themselves through groups. 00:04:38.180 --> 00:04:39.100 I live in this country. 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:41.380 I'm a part of this family. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:47.180 I live in these relationships, this tribe, this ethnicity belongs to me. 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:52.800 Some cultures today even still define themselves through a family type setting. 00:04:54.140 --> 00:05:01.200 For instance, the country of Japan, when the tsunami hit and the nuclear reactors were destroyed, you saw many people on the news, 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:08.280 Japanese individuals who wanted to go into that nuclear plant and serve their country and even if need be, die for their country because they found their 00:05:08.280 --> 00:05:10.750 identity in who they were as a group collectively. 00:05:12.820 --> 00:05:13.960 In America, we think a little differently. 00:05:15.580 --> 00:05:17.960 We see ourselves more as individuals. 00:05:19.900 --> 00:05:27.060 Some of us view ourselves apart from who God is and see life in light of everything, that we are separate 00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:28.400 from him. 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:37.540 Maybe that heightening of this teaching was received through the psychiatrist Abraham Maslow, who 00:05:37.540 --> 00:05:44.820 taught about the hierarchy of needs and the self-actualization of you and encouraged us to be the best we or us that we could be apart from 00:05:44.820 --> 00:05:45.520 anything else. 00:05:47.380 --> 00:05:51.720 From that we receive words like self esteem, self-love, self respect, self Self-Identity. 00:05:52.700 --> 00:05:54.600 Be the best that you can be. 00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:56.440 The power of positive thinking. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:05.300 The warning to us this morning is that when we omit God from the identity of who we are as people, we are robbed from the very joy in 00:06:05.300 --> 00:06:06.660 which God has created us. 00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:11.120 For without God, we typically fall under two categories. 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:14.540 As individuals, we either lead a life of pride or despair. 00:06:16.320 --> 00:06:23.440 We enter into a life of pride when we see ourselves apart from God, and we elevate ourselves beyond the ability that God should have 00:06:23.440 --> 00:06:24.680 in reigning and ruling over us. 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:26.650 And we think how great we are. 00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:30.160 But pride cometh before the fall. 00:06:31.820 --> 00:06:38.260 And when we see ourselves as God, clinging only to the needs that we have, when devastation enters into our lives, we are engaged in a place of despair. 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:42.120 What greater thing in us do we have to trust in? 00:06:42.860 --> 00:06:45.220 Because all we were trusting in was self. 00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:51.270 What does the Bible reveal about the origin of man. 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:55.220 If you brought your Bibles with you this morning, I would encourage you to turn to Genesis chapter one. 00:06:55.580 --> 00:06:59.440 And we're going to just simply spend a larger portion of just this small question this morning. 00:07:00.380 --> 00:07:01.480 What is the origin of man? 00:07:01.760 --> 00:07:03.440 What does the Bible reveal about the origin of man? 00:07:03.500 --> 00:07:09.240 This is going to work as a springboard for us to answer a few more questions about who we are as individuals. 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:19.580 Genesis chapter one and verse 26 is where we'll begin together, as God outlines for us the creation of who we are as human beings. 00:07:21.840 --> 00:07:28.920 Verse 26, he says, Then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:34.360 and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over everything that creeps on the earth. 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:41.620 Verse 26, what we discover is that we are created by God different than atheism. 00:07:41.620 --> 00:07:46.990 Atheism teaches that we invented God and that God is just simply a figment of our imagination. 00:07:47.580 --> 00:07:51.480 But in the Bible, very early on, it tells us that God created us as human beings. 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:57.340 And the second part of that verse revealed that we are to have dominion over the things in which God created on this earth. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:07:59.820 We exercise as human beings authority. 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:01.880 Verse 27. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:05.220 The Bible goes on and says, God created man in his own image. 00:08:05.220 --> 00:08:08.520 In the image of God, he created him, male and female. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:09.440 He created them. 00:08:11.080 --> 00:08:18.400 And creating both male and female together, God created us equal, different, but 00:08:18.400 --> 00:08:19.560 he created us equal. 00:08:20.740 --> 00:08:27.800 We can see in the beginning of these verses and through other scriptures, reference that God is not gender biased and God simply has no gender. 00:08:29.340 --> 00:08:32.440 If God had a gender, God would have both genders. 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:38.530 He created us in his image and formed us both male and female. 00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:41.380 Jesus later took on flesh. 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:43.980 It tells us in John one the word became flesh. 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:48.260 Never before had God come in flesh, but Jesus engendered himself. 00:08:49.480 --> 00:08:53.500 But when God made us, he made us men and women in his image. 00:08:54.940 --> 00:08:55.540 Verse 28. 00:08:55.540 --> 00:08:58.220 It goes further and says to us, God bless them. 00:08:58.760 --> 00:08:59.800 Let's stop right there. 00:09:00.900 --> 00:09:06.720 God blessed you in creating all of this earth in which we exist upon. 00:09:07.040 --> 00:09:10.420 He stops after creating us on the last day and he bless us. 00:09:12.920 --> 00:09:19.140 Meaning we're under his special protection, different and apart from all the rest of creation. 00:09:20.820 --> 00:09:21.280 Might, I suppose. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:25.720 And we'll begin to see the evidence of this as we interject into the rest of the verses which are ahead. 00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:31.900 But God created us and blessed us, because God's desire is to love us first. 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:39.580 John told us that God is love, not that God is loving, but that God is absolute love. 00:09:41.180 --> 00:09:47.690 In our own lives, we tend to love as people on a smaller scale, because our love tends to depend on how we feel. 00:09:49.160 --> 00:09:52.580 It shouldn't, but nevertheless it does. 00:09:53.240 --> 00:10:00.380 However, God is love, and what we discover in first Corinthians 13 is that love is about giving itself away, and God 00:10:00.380 --> 00:10:07.670 in his love created you and blessed you as the pinnacle point of his creation to manifest his love upon you. 00:10:08.280 --> 00:10:10.860 God blessed us in verse 28. 00:10:10.900 --> 00:10:18.000 It continues forward and said, And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:19.800 every living thing that moves on the earth. 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:27.440 God's desire wasn't just to create you and love you, but he wanted you to experience him through this world as you play out your life. 00:10:28.280 --> 00:10:30.340 He says, be fruitful and multiply. 00:10:31.260 --> 00:10:34.020 Well, we discover in this passage is that God created us for relationships. 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:38.760 Be fruitful in this world and multiply and subdue this earth. 00:10:38.780 --> 00:10:43.640 Create a family and go out into this world and produce a healthy life with your family. 00:10:45.380 --> 00:10:47.340 God created us in this way. 00:10:47.420 --> 00:10:54.800 And for this reason he says, as we read on all the way down into verse 31, And 00:10:54.900 --> 00:10:57.580 God saw that all that he had made, and behold, it was very good. 00:10:58.660 --> 00:11:02.560 As we just examined in Genesis chapter one, it gives us the six days of creation. 00:11:02.800 --> 00:11:09.980 It's as if the Bible is doing a panoramic view of everything that took place in the early part of history, and when it comes to your creation, it's 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:13.500 God in this moment stops and he says, everything to this point was good. 00:11:13.520 --> 00:11:14.480 Everything went well. 00:11:14.880 --> 00:11:19.400 But when it gets to your creation, God says, and now it's very good. 00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:27.880 As you read on in further passages of Scripture in chapter two, after God does this panoramic view of all of his creation, he gets to chapter two, and it's 00:11:27.880 --> 00:11:32.220 as if he begins to hone on us as in who we are as people. 00:11:33.740 --> 00:11:40.740 He says in verse seven, then the Lord God formed man of dust from the 00:11:40.740 --> 00:11:46.380 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:55.640 You notice when God created his design in this world and this universe and everything that exists, it tells us that God spoke and it came to be. 00:11:55.800 --> 00:11:57.320 God spoke and it existed. 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:04.680 But when it comes to us as people, God pauses here in this moment and it says he takes the time to form us. 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:13.320 It gives the Hebrew expression as if a potter is coming before his clay to create within us the express image of our identity as human beings. 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:17.710 God was intricately involved in your creation. 00:12:18.260 --> 00:12:25.260 The pausing here and the creation rather than God just simply speaking, but forming to you, is to suggest to us as people that there is something special 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:27.660 taking place with the creation of you as a human being. 00:12:29.660 --> 00:12:36.910 It tells us in the second part of this verse that God breathed into you His Spirit, different than any other creation. 00:12:37.300 --> 00:12:39.780 You now possess the Spirit of God, different than any other being. 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:42.010 You can now connect to God in a spiritual way. 00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:42.980 Excuse me? 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:47.580 To worship him says in verse 15. 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:51.750 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden, to cultivate it and to keep it. 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:55.960 Believe it or not, before sin entered the world there was work. 00:12:57.460 --> 00:12:59.400 God desires for us to work. 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:02.530 In heaven there will be responsibilities. 00:13:03.680 --> 00:13:06.740 But don't worry, it won't carry the pain and the suffering that work has today. 00:13:08.220 --> 00:13:12.960 Part of the curse came along with it when God cursed the man and said, by the sweat of your brow you will labor. 00:13:14.460 --> 00:13:15.320 God created us. 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.600 It tells us in Ephesians chapter two and verse ten for good works. 00:13:19.180 --> 00:13:22.800 God designed you to reflect Him in His image and things that you do. 00:13:23.700 --> 00:13:30.800 In verse 16 it says to us, the Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree 00:13:30.800 --> 00:13:33.060 of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. 00:13:33.180 --> 00:13:36.740 For in that day that you eat from it, you will surely die. 00:13:38.340 --> 00:13:43.560 The Lord God commanded us as people, this suggests to us that we have morals. 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:49.680 In the beginning, from the time in which God created us, we have the ability to choose from right and wrong. 00:13:49.720 --> 00:13:53.600 And God says to Adam, if you eat of this fruit, you will surely die. 00:13:55.260 --> 00:13:58.600 As we read later on in Scripture the death, we're going to study the judgment of God next week. 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:01.130 It's going to be a real positive sermon. 00:14:03.260 --> 00:14:10.720 But as we look at the promise in which God gave to Adam and Eve, what we find later on in Scripture is that man, at the point that they ate the fruit, died spiritually, 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:18.080 and eventually would die physically, all because of the disobedience to the moral commandment which God has given us. 00:14:19.760 --> 00:14:21.260 Verse 18 God goes further. 00:14:21.260 --> 00:14:26.260 Let me click ahead and it says, then the Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone. 00:14:26.260 --> 00:14:28.760 I will make him a helper suitable for him. 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:33.010 So far within creation, what we have is God above. 00:14:33.180 --> 00:14:36.760 For man to look to creation below him for man to govern over. 00:14:36.780 --> 00:14:37.900 But he has no one beside him. 00:14:39.700 --> 00:14:42.960 God in creating us as beings that replicate or resemble him. 00:14:43.260 --> 00:14:47.920 We ourselves desire to love, to give ourselves away. 00:14:48.400 --> 00:14:56.640 It tells us within this desire that we have for community and relationship, God took it to the furthest extent by giving to us a helpmate, a 00:14:56.640 --> 00:14:59.110 wife, or to the woman a husband. 00:15:01.920 --> 00:15:04.250 Tells us in this verse that he would make a helper suitable. 00:15:05.540 --> 00:15:08.010 Adam would receive a helper suitable for him. 00:15:09.700 --> 00:15:10.500 A helper is a good term. 00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:14.880 Many times people look on this as a downplaying of women. 00:15:14.880 --> 00:15:21.720 But let me just tell you, helper is a good term, ladies, because it implies that your spouse needs help, right? 00:15:22.020 --> 00:15:29.320 We don't have to go far into the day to discover that five minutes watching my child on our own and it's a miracle we survived, 00:15:29.640 --> 00:15:31.600 right? 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:34.780 He makes a helper suitable for him, inferring that we need help. 00:15:36.080 --> 00:15:40.860 It also is interesting to see within scripture that God refers to himself in our lives as our helper. 00:15:42.380 --> 00:15:45.990 The Holy Spirit is referenced in Scripture as our helper. 00:15:47.460 --> 00:15:54.750 It's often said, I think even in that the famous was the movie Jerry Maguire, where he gives the famous line to Renee Zellweger, 00:15:55.760 --> 00:15:57.340 you complete me. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:15:58.980 Right. 00:15:59.340 --> 00:16:00.960 God made man and woman equal. 00:16:02.100 --> 00:16:02.900 But he made us different. 00:16:04.380 --> 00:16:10.860 And to the point within the marriage relationship that we find that as we are designed, we complement one another in our abilities. 00:16:12.580 --> 00:16:14.480 This doesn't mean everyone has to be married. 00:16:14.540 --> 00:16:20.940 In fact, Paul encouraged it in certain points of Scripture that if it were possible to be single, he encouraged those who had the gift to be single. 00:16:22.160 --> 00:16:25.160 This week, one of the tragedies for me took place. 00:16:25.560 --> 00:16:28.920 I was watching the news and across the very bottom on a Christian network. 00:16:29.040 --> 00:16:32.280 It said John Stott had passed away at 90 years old in England. 00:16:33.280 --> 00:16:38.360 John Stott was an amazing man for his entire life who lived as a single individual. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:45.270 He wrote the book Basic Christianity, which is one of the one of the premier books, I think, in Christianity today. 00:16:47.420 --> 00:16:52.020 But nonetheless, God created a helpmate for those who desire to be married. 00:16:53.500 --> 00:17:00.680 In verse 19, it goes on and says, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what 00:17:00.680 --> 00:17:01.400 he would call them. 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:04.480 And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. 00:17:05.819 --> 00:17:09.500 Adam, again, is exercising authority over the creation that God has placed him over. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:16.119 That's resembled in the fact that Adam gets to name every animal in the world, even like complicated names, I guess. 00:17:16.380 --> 00:17:21.530 Adam came up with Duckbilled platypus, I'm not sure, but he exercised that authority. 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:23.480 It goes on in verse 20. 00:17:23.540 --> 00:17:26.800 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to all the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field. 00:17:26.800 --> 00:17:30.220 But for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. 00:17:30.580 --> 00:17:33.060 I'm glad he did not find a helper within those animals. 00:17:34.540 --> 00:17:40.810 It says in verse 21, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. 00:17:42.060 --> 00:17:46.470 Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 00:17:47.860 --> 00:17:50.480 God now begins to design the woman. 00:17:51.840 --> 00:17:54.980 I like the fact that God took the rib from Adam's side to create woman. 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:03.570 It says to us that again, that she is equal because she's created from the very same substance that the man was formed from. 00:18:04.520 --> 00:18:11.520 I like that God in these passages said, that woman came from his side, suggesting to us that the woman isn't in front 00:18:11.520 --> 00:18:12.090 of man. 00:18:12.120 --> 00:18:14.640 Like feminism teaches, the woman isn't behind. 00:18:14.740 --> 00:18:19.320 Man like chauvinism teaches, but the woman resides next to man as an equal. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:24.940 As you ever wonder why at night, sometimes with your spouse you just maybe want to cuddle with them? 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:27.930 She just came right there, man. 00:18:30.750 --> 00:18:35.680 Just put her arm around you and say, welcome home, right? 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:37.540 Woman is taken from the rib. 00:18:38.520 --> 00:18:39.640 I like what it says in verse 22. 00:18:39.640 --> 00:18:45.660 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib, which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. 00:18:46.620 --> 00:18:47.320 This is a big day. 00:18:48.780 --> 00:18:50.220 First impressions mean everything. 00:18:51.360 --> 00:18:55.460 And in the same way that God operated in the life of Adam and Eve, he still operates today. 00:18:56.760 --> 00:19:03.960 For you who desire to be married one day, if you're still single, begin as verse 22 says, to pray 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:07.060 for that helpmate that God has for you. 00:19:07.860 --> 00:19:09.860 And when God brings her to you. 00:19:11.180 --> 00:19:15.720 Thank God for the lady or the husband that's in your life. 00:19:17.680 --> 00:19:21.140 Verse 23, it goes further than the man said, let me just stop there. 00:19:21.540 --> 00:19:27.000 These are the first recorded words that man that we have, that man said in all of the Bible. 00:19:28.360 --> 00:19:32.020 And the cool thing about it, and you guys have heard me do this before, but it's a song. 00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:37.890 And I've looked over this verse over and over, and I'm trying to figure out what Adam was doing when he sang this song. 00:19:38.620 --> 00:19:41.720 This, by far, was the best song to ever be sung. 00:19:41.860 --> 00:19:42.740 I mean, this is like crushes. 00:19:43.340 --> 00:19:46.100 Anything Justin Bieber's done because you think about this. 00:19:46.100 --> 00:19:48.520 Everyone in the world attended this concert. 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:50.100 That's how great it was. 00:19:53.360 --> 00:19:54.610 I see it as a rap song. 00:19:55.280 --> 00:20:00.120 You can see it, however, but I think I think it goes bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:01.950 She shall be called woman because she comes from the man. 00:20:02.080 --> 00:20:02.180 Right. 00:20:03.240 --> 00:20:04.020 I just like that. 00:20:04.020 --> 00:20:06.820 Yeah, but he sings to her. 00:20:06.820 --> 00:20:11.220 And guys, the important part is when you see your wife and she's just looking so beautiful every day. 00:20:11.300 --> 00:20:13.200 She never has a dull moment in her life, right? 00:20:13.540 --> 00:20:15.100 Every day she's just drop dead gorgeous. 00:20:15.220 --> 00:20:18.060 You just sing to her and sing to her. 00:20:18.280 --> 00:20:18.720 Everywhere. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:19.940 I do it to Stacy in the house all the time. 00:20:21.120 --> 00:20:23.100 I Will Be Your Hero is like our theme song. 00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:27.860 I am Enrique Iglesias. 00:20:30.810 --> 00:20:33.140 All right, I gotta I gotta cut that out. 00:20:33.140 --> 00:20:33.740 And here's what takes place. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:37.800 Verse 24 for this reason. 00:20:38.940 --> 00:20:39.770 Did that embarrass you, sweetheart? 00:20:40.120 --> 00:20:41.120 I'm sorry. 00:20:41.580 --> 00:20:48.100 For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:51.240 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 00:20:54.120 --> 00:20:57.820 The Bible tells us in this passage that there's a process to that relationship. 00:20:58.900 --> 00:21:05.940 Specifically, a husband and wife leave their parents, a husband and wife are married, and then their desire is 00:21:05.940 --> 00:21:06.910 to become one flesh. 00:21:08.060 --> 00:21:11.200 In verse 25, it really points the significance of this. 00:21:11.320 --> 00:21:12.760 Think about this for just a moment. 00:21:13.260 --> 00:21:15.860 This is before sin entered the Garden of Eden. 00:21:16.680 --> 00:21:21.860 Think about the relational unity that existed between God and man and God. 00:21:21.860 --> 00:21:29.800 Or excuse me, in man and wife there is no division because there is no sin there, living 00:21:29.800 --> 00:21:34.480 in perfect relational harmony with one another. 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:42.040 Whenever we have difficulties within our relationship, the reason any difficulty, any tension, any whatsoever lack 00:21:42.040 --> 00:21:45.620 of unity is built within our relationship is because of sin. 00:21:47.660 --> 00:21:49.240 It should be an indicator for us as people. 00:21:49.460 --> 00:21:55.260 As we reflect on this in our relationships, we think to ourselves, this isn't how it's supposed to be. 00:21:56.100 --> 00:21:59.740 What God created us for as people is as he loved us. 00:21:59.740 --> 00:22:06.800 He desires for us to love in return and to experience the relational unity not just in marriage, but really in all of our relationships. 00:22:09.320 --> 00:22:13.450 Ultimately, marriage goes to the furthest depth that a relationship can. 00:22:14.800 --> 00:22:17.400 But God desires relational unity with one another. 00:22:17.400 --> 00:22:20.810 God desires relational unity with him. 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:26.850 So the question is, how did God create us to relate to our world as His people. 00:22:28.580 --> 00:22:31.960 The first simple answer to that is God created us to relate to him. 00:22:33.760 --> 00:22:37.180 God breathed into us His spirit. 00:22:38.080 --> 00:22:40.540 God's spirit resides within us as people. 00:22:40.660 --> 00:22:47.880 That we as people, may connect back to him and experience the very purpose for which he created us, to worship and enjoy 00:22:47.880 --> 00:22:49.810 him for all eternity. 00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:54.000 Second, God created us to relate to one another. 00:22:55.060 --> 00:22:57.320 The Bible says it's not good for you to be alone. 00:22:59.240 --> 00:23:02.700 You think about the importance of just that phrase, not in marriage, but in just the church. 00:23:03.500 --> 00:23:05.390 I've heard some people say, I don't want to go to church. 00:23:05.500 --> 00:23:09.670 I've pretty much learned the whole Bible, if that is your thinking, that is not what church is about. 00:23:10.940 --> 00:23:14.300 Yes, you come to church to learn about God's Word. 00:23:15.400 --> 00:23:22.520 But the important part about the church is that it's all about relationships, your relationship to God and how that relationship plays 00:23:22.520 --> 00:23:23.820 into the life of other people. 00:23:23.820 --> 00:23:27.260 If it's just about knowledge, then God wouldn't have any need to create a church. 00:23:27.340 --> 00:23:28.960 We could just sit at home and read our Bible. 00:23:30.820 --> 00:23:36.640 But we understand as people, God created us with a desire to connect to one another and love each other and to live in unity. 00:23:36.660 --> 00:23:42.440 If everything is without sin and worship and truth. 00:23:43.820 --> 00:23:47.750 Second reason why God created us as people is God created us to relate to creation. 00:23:49.180 --> 00:23:54.720 God called us to subdue it and to govern, and to rule over it, and to be fruitful and to multiply upon this earth. 00:23:55.860 --> 00:23:58.730 After God created man, he put him in the garden and told him when he's in the garden. 00:23:58.800 --> 00:24:01.380 Okay, now take care of the Garden of Eden. 00:24:02.900 --> 00:24:04.400 And then he created woman within the garden. 00:24:05.260 --> 00:24:08.100 Take care of the Garden of Eden. 00:24:09.340 --> 00:24:12.710 Us as people, we have the opportunity to take care of the world in which God created. 00:24:12.860 --> 00:24:19.990 And as we are caring for the needs of this world to its finest, finest detail, to its greatest feat and Bay watch Whale Wars to its greatest feat. 00:24:21.760 --> 00:24:23.180 God has called us to care for it. 00:24:23.260 --> 00:24:28.450 And as we care for its need, we can just stand in all the glorious things in which God has made. 00:24:30.600 --> 00:24:37.940 Maybe fourth, we could say that God created us to relate to ourselves, to understand the importance 00:24:38.040 --> 00:24:41.240 of who we are as human beings. 00:24:43.400 --> 00:24:47.600 God created us to display to us his glory through his love. 00:24:49.540 --> 00:24:52.400 As we think about creation, let's be more specific and say to us, okay. 00:24:52.740 --> 00:24:55.320 God created all of this, and God exists in this world. 00:24:55.400 --> 00:24:59.000 What is our place as human beings in relation to God and all of this creation? 00:25:00.700 --> 00:25:03.040 Psalm eight answers that beautifully for us as people. 00:25:03.040 --> 00:25:03.460 It says you. 00:25:04.140 --> 00:25:06.260 Yet you have made him a little lower than God. 00:25:06.840 --> 00:25:07.630 Talking about us. 00:25:07.860 --> 00:25:09.530 And you crowned him with glory and majesty. 00:25:09.860 --> 00:25:10.400 Wonderful. 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:14.540 Because God has made us in his image, you make him to rule over the works of your hands. 00:25:14.600 --> 00:25:21.780 You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes 00:25:21.780 --> 00:25:23.440 through the paths of the sea. 00:25:23.460 --> 00:25:27.220 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. 00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:29.160 A normal response. 00:25:29.420 --> 00:25:33.480 A common response when we see the glory for which God has created in this world. 00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:39.320 But we recognize in this passage of Scripture that God has created us, and he has placed us under his authority. 00:25:39.860 --> 00:25:45.040 And while we reside under his authority, God has put us over his creation to care for its needs. 00:25:46.260 --> 00:25:48.020 We bear his image in that way. 00:25:49.600 --> 00:25:56.420 Maybe we could ask more specifically, what does it mean for us as human beings to bear the image and likeness of God? 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:00.740 What does it mean that we are in God's image and likeness? 00:26:02.380 --> 00:26:09.760 I would propose this that when God said he would create us in his image and likeness, it didn't mean that God would create us in his image and likeness in every 00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:10.120 way. 00:26:11.660 --> 00:26:14.500 We have ways in which we can never relate to who God is. 00:26:15.640 --> 00:26:18.140 Bible tells us in Isaiah 43 and verse ten. 00:26:18.180 --> 00:26:20.440 Isaiah 44 and verse six and eight. 00:26:20.460 --> 00:26:21.680 There is only one God. 00:26:21.700 --> 00:26:22.800 Before him there was no God formed. 00:26:22.800 --> 00:26:23.920 Neither will there be after him. 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:26.100 There is only one God. 00:26:27.620 --> 00:26:32.340 This passage isn't suggestion that we are exactly like God. 00:26:32.540 --> 00:26:39.540 After declaring there is only one God, Isaiah said in chapter 48, he says, for my own sake, for my own sake I will act, for how can 00:26:39.540 --> 00:26:41.950 my name be profaned in my glory? 00:26:42.220 --> 00:26:43.720 I will give to no other. 00:26:44.420 --> 00:26:48.900 Referring to God image doesn't mean exact image. 00:26:51.100 --> 00:26:58.140 If we were to go to Washington DC and I were to take you before the Lincoln Monument today, we would look at the Lincoln Monument and 00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:03.580 we would say, this Lincoln monument was made in the image of Lincoln, but it's not Lincoln. 00:27:05.600 --> 00:27:09.210 The same thing with your pennies that we tend to throw away sometimes. 00:27:10.280 --> 00:27:10.740 Pull that out. 00:27:12.040 --> 00:27:13.020 Look at the image on the front. 00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:14.680 That is the image of Lincoln. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:16.700 But it's not Lincoln. 00:27:17.700 --> 00:27:22.640 In the same way we as people have been created in the image of God, but we are not exactly like God. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:30.420 I mean, we can relate to God through our communicable attributes, which we talked about last week, ways in which we as people reflect him. 00:27:31.620 --> 00:27:32.280 God is spirit. 00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:33.160 We have a spirit. 00:27:33.280 --> 00:27:33.910 God is holy. 00:27:34.100 --> 00:27:35.460 At times we can live holy. 00:27:36.060 --> 00:27:36.830 God is love. 00:27:37.040 --> 00:27:40.680 We can love when we feel like it sometimes, right? 00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:41.810 Though it should be all the time. 00:27:41.820 --> 00:27:43.240 God is joyful in our lives. 00:27:43.360 --> 00:27:43.940 We experience joy. 00:27:44.700 --> 00:27:46.060 God is truth for the most part. 00:27:46.060 --> 00:27:48.480 We like to think as people we can follow and obey truth. 00:27:49.240 --> 00:27:50.420 God is just we. 00:27:50.660 --> 00:27:52.760 We hope as people we can reflect in justice. 00:27:53.060 --> 00:27:53.580 God is merciful. 00:27:54.380 --> 00:27:54.760 God is beautiful. 00:27:55.780 --> 00:27:56.180 God is patient. 00:27:57.240 --> 00:27:57.970 God is kind. 00:27:59.020 --> 00:28:01.040 In those ways, we relate to God. 00:28:01.040 --> 00:28:03.820 In those ways we reflect his image. 00:28:05.160 --> 00:28:10.020 God gave us the ability to make moral decisions when he told Adam and Eve, listen, don't eat of the fruit. 00:28:11.120 --> 00:28:13.860 God gave us the ability to govern and rule much like him. 00:28:13.880 --> 00:28:19.080 Though God is ultimately sovereign over all things, we have the ability to govern and rule in small things. 00:28:20.620 --> 00:28:21.320 We have intellect. 00:28:21.620 --> 00:28:23.860 We can think we have an immortal spirit. 00:28:24.480 --> 00:28:30.280 Though it had a beginning, you have creative ability as we see God in His creation. 00:28:31.800 --> 00:28:37.160 You appreciate beauty as God appreciates the beauty of the things that he has made. 00:28:38.320 --> 00:28:42.280 In that way, we reflect the character of God. 00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:43.660 But we are unlike God. 00:28:45.320 --> 00:28:46.600 See, God is omnipresent. 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.100 He's everywhere at the same time. 00:28:50.200 --> 00:28:53.020 God is omniscient, meaning he knows all things. 00:28:53.140 --> 00:28:54.800 God is all powerful. 00:28:55.260 --> 00:29:00.500 You being a creator and being yourself requires you to come into existence by a being greater than you. 00:29:00.500 --> 00:29:02.510 By very definition of the word, all powerful. 00:29:02.520 --> 00:29:08.180 It's impossible to be because something bigger than you has designed you, and so in every way you are not like God. 00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:10.860 God is eternal. 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:12.630 He has no beginning. 00:29:12.860 --> 00:29:13.720 You have a beginning. 00:29:14.360 --> 00:29:15.130 God is immutable. 00:29:15.380 --> 00:29:18.240 He doesn't change and we change with every breeze that comes by. 00:29:20.500 --> 00:29:27.720 But we diminish the glory of God being created in the image of God when we devalue our humanity that was made in 00:29:27.780 --> 00:29:28.140 his image. 00:29:30.020 --> 00:29:31.550 God gave us a mind to think. 00:29:31.580 --> 00:29:33.490 God gave us a heart to experience. 00:29:33.740 --> 00:29:35.500 God gave us a soul to connect. 00:29:35.580 --> 00:29:39.560 God gave us strength to rule and to reign over the areas of responsibility. 00:29:42.540 --> 00:29:49.720 Modern counseling and psychology that exist today within America has the tendency to take away aspects of man and just develop 00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:51.360 one area rather than all areas. 00:29:52.840 --> 00:29:56.440 Evolutionists believe in a body but don't see the need for a spirit. 00:29:57.420 --> 00:30:00.760 We have a mind, and so they would say that makes us what a human being is. 00:30:02.440 --> 00:30:08.900 We take away from human beings when we only address the emotional needs that we have, but we do nothing to work on our spirit or our soul. 00:30:10.840 --> 00:30:16.320 Sometimes we look at individuals who have had a horrible life and then produce a horrible life. 00:30:16.340 --> 00:30:17.040 And we say, you know what? 00:30:17.460 --> 00:30:21.970 If we had just changed their environment and let them speak out of their emotions, they would have been different people. 00:30:22.420 --> 00:30:23.640 It's their environment's fault. 00:30:23.640 --> 00:30:26.980 But we never stop to ask the question, well, who in the world created the environment? 00:30:28.420 --> 00:30:28.680 Us. 00:30:30.420 --> 00:30:34.860 It's important not just to understand our emotional need, but we need a spiritual need as well. 00:30:35.300 --> 00:30:39.180 The reason we as people act sinfully is because our soul needs redemption. 00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:41.640 We are sinners at heart. 00:30:43.700 --> 00:30:44.520 It's all our faults. 00:30:46.120 --> 00:30:48.320 We all stray from God. 00:30:48.500 --> 00:30:51.700 We all bear and hold responsibility before him. 00:30:51.980 --> 00:30:59.160 We take away from us as beings when we only address our spirit, and we see no need for the physical and emotional excuse me, the emotional part of us as human 00:30:59.160 --> 00:30:59.300 beings. 00:31:00.920 --> 00:31:07.980 But Jesus, when he came into this world, Jesus the great healer, when he talked about how we are to love as people, he said, love the 00:31:07.980 --> 00:31:13.500 Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, everything that you are. 00:31:13.500 --> 00:31:15.680 Jesus can heal and everything that you are. 00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:21.720 God desires to address you totally as a 100% human being, made in the image of God. 00:31:23.880 --> 00:31:27.280 What does it mean that we are made in his image? 00:31:28.560 --> 00:31:32.680 If you were to look later on in passages of Scripture, we are like God, but not in every way. 00:31:33.860 --> 00:31:40.860 It says in Genesis chapter five and verse one, the second half of verse one says, in the day that God created man in the likeness of God 00:31:40.860 --> 00:31:41.860 made he him. 00:31:42.540 --> 00:31:45.580 Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam. 00:31:46.660 --> 00:31:46.980 Interesting. 00:31:46.980 --> 00:31:50.580 The name Adam derives from the word to produce or from the soil. 00:31:52.560 --> 00:31:56.260 We're like God and reflecting him, but we're unlike God because we're still made from dirt. 00:31:56.460 --> 00:31:59.000 We are creatures in that day. 00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:00.820 It says we were created in Genesis two seven. 00:32:00.820 --> 00:32:04.700 It says, then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground. 00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:08.320 We reflect his image in this world. 00:32:08.320 --> 00:32:11.800 God created you with His Spirit to reflect the goodness of God. 00:32:12.120 --> 00:32:12.640 In this world. 00:32:12.820 --> 00:32:15.900 We are like God in that way, but we are not like God in every way. 00:32:18.160 --> 00:32:22.100 Question we ask them. 00:32:22.100 --> 00:32:26.580 Who best images God? 00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:27.580 Who best images? 00:32:27.580 --> 00:32:27.680 God? 00:32:29.300 --> 00:32:34.750 You know, we have the tendency as human beings to compare ourselves to others, to test ourselves, to see how good we're doing. 00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:37.100 They did that. 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:38.120 I only did this. 00:32:38.380 --> 00:32:40.780 I'm a little bit better, so bump me up on the God scale. 00:32:42.660 --> 00:32:48.460 But the question we really need to ask ourselves, if we're going to compare ourselves to something who best resembles God. 00:32:49.380 --> 00:32:50.270 I hope you see where this is going. 00:32:52.460 --> 00:32:59.620 It tells us in Corinthians four six For God who said, let light shine out of darkness is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of 00:32:59.620 --> 00:33:00.180 God. 00:33:00.280 --> 00:33:07.480 Look at this in the face of Christ we talk about the image of God, 00:33:07.580 --> 00:33:10.300 and we talk about the example that we are to lead as human beings. 00:33:11.100 --> 00:33:12.880 It is one that reflects Jesus. 00:33:15.580 --> 00:33:17.380 Colossians chapter two and verse 15. 00:33:17.380 --> 00:33:22.000 It says he, referring to Jesus, is the image of the invisible God. 00:33:22.220 --> 00:33:23.300 And we can say, wait a minute, wait a minute. 00:33:23.800 --> 00:33:25.440 Okay, we're the image and Jesus is the image. 00:33:25.460 --> 00:33:26.950 Does that make us the same? 00:33:28.100 --> 00:33:29.720 Are we just on the same playing field as Jesus? 00:33:29.780 --> 00:33:33.480 And if you read on throughout the chapter, it begins to describe Jesus as well. 00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:34.020 Beyond us. 00:33:34.060 --> 00:33:42.000 Jesus is God, and in verse chapter two and verse nine, it says, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:43.010 in bodily form. 00:33:44.780 --> 00:33:49.860 So you are not like God, but Jesus is God. 00:33:50.400 --> 00:33:57.530 Jesus became flesh and he dwelt in this world to be a living example to us as to how we should live as people. 00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:01.260 God is our example. 00:34:02.280 --> 00:34:09.440 Jesus came not only just to be an example for us, but to also die for us, to redeem us of our present 00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:10.530 need and sin. 00:34:11.820 --> 00:34:18.420 We look to Jesus to see how we radiate the glory of God, and in so doing, we respond. 00:34:18.980 --> 00:34:21.620 I like what Jesus did with his disciples in the Gospels. 00:34:22.040 --> 00:34:27.820 He looks at them and says, pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers. 00:34:28.600 --> 00:34:29.719 Want people to go out there and work? 00:34:30.400 --> 00:34:33.360 And then the next verse he says, okay, now go. 00:34:35.719 --> 00:34:37.639 These guys that thought, okay, yeah, Jesus, that sounds good. 00:34:37.860 --> 00:34:41.120 We'll pray that God will send people to do these spiritual things that you need done. 00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:42.280 Sounds great man. 00:34:43.100 --> 00:34:46.620 And then the next verse, Jesus looks at him and says, okay, now that you prayed for it, the answer is you. 00:34:46.639 --> 00:34:47.139 Now go. 00:34:49.980 --> 00:34:55.820 You know, God is a miraculous God, but God is a very simple God for us. 00:34:56.020 --> 00:35:00.810 I think in many ways he blows our minds, but he makes things simple for us. 00:35:01.380 --> 00:35:08.960 God created you in his image to reflect you into this world as his image bearer, to display to people what Jesus is like when 00:35:08.960 --> 00:35:12.640 he told his disciples to pray to meet the needs of the world. 00:35:12.640 --> 00:35:13.870 And then he said, go into this world. 00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:15.340 They were the answer to prayer. 00:35:17.320 --> 00:35:19.120 And that's the way that God works in all of our lives. 00:35:21.260 --> 00:35:25.160 God desires for us to represent him to this world, to bear that image, to be him. 00:35:25.160 --> 00:35:27.660 And we ask ourselves then who best reflects that image? 00:35:27.660 --> 00:35:29.440 And the answer to us is Jesus. 00:35:29.640 --> 00:35:35.430 And so the question, the last question we want to ask this morning is how do we really begin to bear that image? 00:35:37.040 --> 00:35:39.140 The Bible gives all sorts of references for that. 00:35:40.500 --> 00:35:47.670 Second Corinthians 318 it says, but we all with unveiled face leading up to this, Jesus or Paul had been saying to the believers, 00:35:47.780 --> 00:35:52.830 listen, you thought maybe you knew what truth was, but there was a veil over your face when you were reading the Bible. 00:35:52.840 --> 00:35:58.810 It wasn't making sense to you because you didn't know Jesus as your Savior, and it was like you were being blocked from understanding what was going on. 00:35:59.480 --> 00:36:06.480 But when you came to trust in Jesus, we all who trust in him with an unveiled face for the first time, looking to the Bible as God has 00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:13.430 described it to us, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the spirit. 00:36:13.700 --> 00:36:18.290 The answer to being the image of God, to bearing the image of God, is to reflect upon the face of Jesus. 00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:21.020 God gave you his word. 00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:25.530 We said that when God created, he spoke and things came into being. 00:36:26.400 --> 00:36:28.980 The Bible tells us in Timothy that God breathed his word. 00:36:29.060 --> 00:36:30.280 He spoke it into being. 00:36:31.300 --> 00:36:34.580 This is literally God's breath breathing upon us. 00:36:34.580 --> 00:36:41.500 And as we gaze upon the face of Jesus throughout this Bible, we are transformed from glory to glory for the sake of Christ. 00:36:41.500 --> 00:36:48.000 Romans 829 says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that we would be the firstborn among many brothers. 00:36:49.080 --> 00:36:52.640 God is conforming us to the image of His son, to those who trusted in Jesus. 00:36:52.700 --> 00:36:54.320 That is God's goal for your life. 00:36:54.320 --> 00:36:57.880 And it tells you in Colossians 319, do not lie to one another. 00:36:57.940 --> 00:37:02.670 If we want to bear the image of God, it's important that we speak truth and we speak it in love for each other. 00:37:03.200 --> 00:37:10.280 Since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of 00:37:10.280 --> 00:37:11.400 the one who created him. 00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:13.300 Listen, God created you to reflect him. 00:37:14.120 --> 00:37:18.000 We have characteristics that resemble God love, patience, kindness, gentleness. 00:37:18.140 --> 00:37:19.320 But we as people were sinful. 00:37:20.260 --> 00:37:23.020 Rather than make life about others and God, we tend to make it about ourselves. 00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:25.820 And when we're offended, we react in a negative way. 00:37:26.860 --> 00:37:32.220 And what Paul is saying in this passage of Scripture is that, listen, the old self was everything that you were apart from Jesus. 00:37:32.420 --> 00:37:39.520 And listen as people, you've got these habits ingrained into your life to live a life contrary to Jesus, to live a life opposed to 00:37:39.520 --> 00:37:41.960 him, to think about you instead of why you were designed. 00:37:43.700 --> 00:37:46.190 Let me tell you, if you're doing that, you're being robbed of joy. 00:37:47.720 --> 00:37:49.620 But Paul says this get into this habit. 00:37:50.460 --> 00:37:51.530 Take start pulling. 00:37:51.640 --> 00:37:59.300 Root up that old self and let's start putting back onto it the new self of everything that you are in Jesus, in truth, understanding 00:37:59.300 --> 00:38:00.420 for who he is. 00:38:00.420 --> 00:38:07.520 And it says in first Corinthians 1549, just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of 00:38:07.520 --> 00:38:07.760 the heavenly. 00:38:09.660 --> 00:38:12.120 He's referring to Adam in this passage, if you were to see it. 00:38:12.500 --> 00:38:15.640 And Jesus, listen, you were created in God's image. 00:38:15.640 --> 00:38:18.520 And yes, we became sinful and yes, we have fallen away from God. 00:38:18.600 --> 00:38:24.990 But if we've accepted Jesus as our Savior, not only are we bearing the earth anymore, but we begin to bear the image of Christ. 00:38:27.900 --> 00:38:28.970 Who are we as people? 00:38:30.720 --> 00:38:34.120 God created you and said it is very good. 00:38:35.840 --> 00:38:42.560 God took the time as he spoke everything else into existence, to pause when he comes to you and just form you. 00:38:44.220 --> 00:38:50.730 God created you to bear his image, to have the characteristics of His Spirit, to connect back to him. 00:38:51.600 --> 00:38:53.580 God created you because he loves you. 00:38:54.760 --> 00:38:58.580 God is love and the very nature of love, its desire is to give itself away. 00:39:00.460 --> 00:39:07.280 And God loves you because his desire is that you, as people created in his image, would love and reflect him and return in this earth. 00:39:07.400 --> 00:39:11.120 And the question you ask this morning is what kind of image are you bearing? 00:39:13.220 --> 00:39:17.320 I love the famous slogan, I'm not always in favor with cheesy Christianity. 00:39:17.420 --> 00:39:24.460 Things that we can buy for ten bucks at the Christian bookstore, but the phrase WWJD is just to me just puts a nail 00:39:24.460 --> 00:39:25.900 on the head, man. 00:39:26.870 --> 00:39:27.580 That's what it's all about. 00:39:29.140 --> 00:39:35.790 Pausing in every moment of every day, with every challenge we face and just saying, what would Jesus do? 00:39:36.800 --> 00:39:43.680 Regardless of anything that you're going through in this world, whether it's young or old, rich, poor, happy, sad doesn't matter. 00:39:43.680 --> 00:39:49.680 In all of those things, you can continue to reflect the image of God because Jesus can be reflected in any moment of any day. 00:39:50.960 --> 00:39:58.020 God created you to know him, to enjoy him, and to live for him both now and 00:39:58.020 --> 00:39:58.680 for all eternity. 00:40:00.040 --> 00:40:01.240 Let's close in a word of prayer.