Made in God's Image (Genesis 1:24-2:3) [2026-3-15]

To the book of Genesis, Genesis one, verse 24 and and we'll be

in verse 24 to chapter 2, verse three.

Last week we just started a brand new series after finishing

the book of James. We just started Genesis last

week and we made it to verse 23. And this morning we're going to

pick right up in verse 24 all the way to chapter 2, verse 3.

So let's read the text, open us in a word of prayer, and then we

will jump into the sermon this morning.

Genesis 1, beginning in verse 24.

And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures

according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things

and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.

And it was so. And God made the beasts of the

earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to

their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according

to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness,

and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the

birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the

earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God.

He created him, male and female. He created them and God bless

them. And God said to them, Be

fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and

have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of

the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the

earth. And God said, Behold, I have

given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all

the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth,

and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that

creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I

have given every green plant for food.

And it was so. And God saw everything that He

had made, and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning the 6th day.

Chapter 2. Thus the heavens and the earth

were finished, and all the host of them, and on the 7th day God

finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the 7th

day from all his work that he had done.

So God blessed the 7th day and made it holy, because on it God

rested from all his work that He had done in creation.

Should pray with me Father, as we continue to work our way

through the creation story. I pray this morning that you

would give us insight into this topic of your image.

What does it mean to be made in your image and and what

implications does that have for us and how we live?

What does it mean that you made male and female and what

implications does that have for how we live?

What does it mean that you rested on the 7th day and what

implications does that have for how we live?

So Lord, as we answer, as we examine these questions and

attempt to answer them, Lord, would you please give us insight

into your word and help us to discern what creation is saying

about you? Lord, I pray this in Jesus name,

Amen. We have a lot to get to, so I'm

going to jump right in. I'm going to give you the

context if you weren't here. Last week we started a new

series on Genesis. We got through Genesis one, one

through 5, and lastly we talked about the first five days of

creation. Let me recount those to you

before we jump in. On day one, God made light and

he made day and night. On day 2, God separated the

waters below and the waters above.

God gave us oceans and an atmosphere.

On day three, God made separated the waters and the land, and he

made all the vegetation for the land.

On day four, God made the sun and the moon and the stars and

the sky. On day five, God made marine

life and all the birds of the sky.

And this morning we're going to get to the last two days of

creation, Day 6 and day 7. So let's start with the next

edition of the text. My goal in this is to exposit

the word and bring out its meaning, and then I'll give us

application after that. So let's start looking at verses

24 to 25. And God said, let the earth

bring forth living creatures according to their kinds,

livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth

according to their kinds. And it was so.

And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds,

and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that

creeps on the ground according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. So last week we saw that God has

made animals for the seas. God has made animals for the

skies, but now he wants animals on the land.

He says let the earth bring forth living creatures according

to their kinds. He starts with livestock.

The Hebrew word for livestock there is behema.

That's where we get the word behemoth.

It's often translated as cattle, but it's actually a pretty broad

term. It can refer to any 4 legged

animal. You also make creeping things,

our favorite reptiles, amphibians, and vertebrae's,

snails, snakes, lizards, turtles, caterpillars,

armadillos, and bugs as well. And then he made beast of the

earth. These are essentially wild

animals as opposed to livestock. These are wild animals, Cougars,

coyotes, lions, tigers, bears. And notice the narrator

emphasizes once again. He says it twice.

He says it with each each category.

God made beast according to their kind.

God made livestock according to their kind.

God made creeping things according to their kinds.

That's important. Why?

This invalidates scientists theory of common descent that we

all descend from one Organism. That's not how it worked.

God made everything according to its kind and for the 6th time

God saw that it was good. Let's look at verse 26.

A thank God said let us make man in our image after our likeness.

Now this verse raises all kinds of questions, all kinds of

questions. Let's try to break it down into

four parts. Part 1 Let us let's catch that

he said us. Now we all know from elementary

school we took we all took grammar and elementary school

that us is plural is not singular.

God says, let us, who is us? Who is us?

There are many theories, but I'll boil it down to two main

theories here. A, God could be speaking with

the royal we or the majestic we, right?

Kings talk like this, right? King says, shall we tax the

people, right? That's how kings talk.

They, they talk with a royal we. That could be what God's doing.

Or B. This could be the earliest

reference to what we know as the Trinity.

The New Testament affirms that Jesus was active in creation.

Colossians 116 For by him all things were created in heaven

and on earth. All things were created through

him and for him. So that us here could be

referring to the Trinity. That's what I tend to go with.

But you may decide to go with the royal we.

That's the first part. Second part, Let us make man.

Let us make man. That the Hebrew word for man is

a Dom. It's a generic Hebrew word for

mankind. Let's let us make mankind.

It's where Adam gets his name from.

Let's be very clear about this. God made man.

We did not evolve from an ape. God made us.

God made us #3 in our image. In our image, there's the plural

again, our image. I want you to notice that so

far, God has not made anything in his image neither the sun,

the moon, the stars, the trees, the plants, the fruit, the sea

animals, the birds, the land animals.

None of it is made in the image of God, except humans.

There's even a question of our angels made in the image of God.

That's very debatable. I don't know, maybe, maybe not.

I tend to lend not. But the only thing on this earth

that is made in the image of God is you and me, humans.

Now this raises an important question, doesn't it?

What does it mean that God made man in his image?

We all know that. We've all read that, we've all

heard that in the Bible, right? But have you ever stopped to

actually ask yourself, what does that mean?

What does it mean that we're made in God's image?

There are at least a dozen different theories out there.

Typically, when you think of something being made in your

image, it means it looks like the person, right?

Like if you see a statue, you can tell whose image it's made

in, right? This is George Washington, this

is Abraham Lincoln, this is Michael Jordan, right?

Like typically if you see a statue, you can see that statue

is made in this person's image. But God is a spirit, so how can

we be made in the image of God? We are we are flesh, so how how

can we be made as God? Many scholars suggest that we

reflect the image of God this way.

We reflect his image in our morality, our our sense of right

and wrong, and our ability to reason.

Our spirituality, our ability to relate to God, our aesthetic

sense, our judicial sense, all of these are qualities about

humans that reflect God. That's different than everything

else. I like what Martin Luther

writes. He writes this.

Therefore, when we speak about the image of God, we are

speaking about something unknown.

For not only have we ceased to experience it, but we

continually experienced the opposite.

My understanding is that the image of God was this, that Adam

had it in his nature to love God, to believe God, to know

God. That's a good summary by Luther,

that to bear the image of God means the ability to love God,

believe God, and know God. And then #4 he says let us make

them after our likeness. Now there is considerable debate

as to whether image and likeness have different meanings, right?

Are those different or are they the same?

And I read way too much on this. After reading it.

I personally don't think there is much difference in meaning

here. I think that they were are

referring to the same thing essentially, maybe with some

nuance differences and so forth. Let's look at 26B.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the

birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the

earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God declared that mankind would have dominion over all that He

has made this word dominion means rule, to rule over, to

dominate, to direct, to lead, to control, to subdue.

God gave us dominion over everything.

He gave us dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds

of the heavens, over the livestock, over all the earth,

over every creeping thing. Now, I always found that verse

kind of ironic and funny because I often feel like we don't have

dominion. Growing up in the South, I

didn't feel like I had dominion over the mosquitoes.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, I don't feel like I have dominion

over the crows who continually tear up my grass.

And when we had the food bank years ago, I did not feel like I

had dominion over the rats running around.

No matter how much I tried to beat them, they won.

But as my boy Moses likes to remind me that humans have

killed far more sharks than sharks have killed humans.

Fair. Look at verse 27.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God.

He created him, male and female. He created them.

The narrator adds A poetic line here.

The first two lines form a chiasm.

Chiasm was like ABBA, the emphasis being on the image of

God. You see that there?

But I want to highlight this last line.

Male and female, He created them, not man and woman, male

and female, two different words. I want to point out four truths

from this statement really quickly.

Number one, God made gender. God made gender.

Now, unless there's anybody in the audience who's saying who's,

there is no distinction between gender.

I'm just going to use the word gender.

But the world wants to separate sex and gender.

I I think that's a, that's an illusion.

They're one and the same. God made gender.

This is not a social construct. This is designed by God.

God made this number two. God made 2 genders, 2 male,

female, not 3, not 4, not 34. Two #3 Gender is not assigned at

birth, it is created by God. And #4 both male and female

reflect the image of God. I've heard some crazy theories

out there. People say men reflect 50% of

the image of God and women reflect 50% of the image of God

and together they both know they both 100% reflect the image of

God. Male and female equally are made

in the image of God, no more, no less.

They both reflect the image of God.

Look at verse 28. God bless them and God said to

them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it

and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of

the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the

earth. This is the second time that we

see this word blessed here. Both times come right before the

same command. We saw it last week.

Be fruitful and multiply. Just as God commanded the birds

of the heavens and the creatures of the sea to be fruitful and

multiply, so God commands humans to be fruitful and multiply.

Again, I want you to see the connection.

The reason that we are able to be fruitful and multiply is

because God has blessed us. That is why procreation is not a

result of anatomy or biology or physics.

It is a result of God's blessing.

God has blessed us with the ability to do this.

Now one question that people will sometimes have with this

verse be fruitful, multiply is this does this mean we are

commanded to have children? And some of you women are like,

man, if that's true, I didn't get married.

I don't. No children for me.

Does this mean we are commanded to have children?

That question is beyond the scope of the sermon.

But for now, for now, I'll say this.

If you are married and if you are able to have children,

procreating is typically God's will for your life.

Procreation is typically God's will for your life.

You can see me at Starbucks later if you like.

For a longer explanation, look at verse 2931.

And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding

seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree was seed

in its fruit. You shall have them for food,

and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the

heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything

that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for

food. And it was so.

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was

very good. And there was evening, and there

was morning the 6th day. We learn here that part of God's

reason to make all of this vegetation is for food.

Every plant yielding seed and every tree with seed in its

fruit shall be for food. So God gives us blueberries and

raspberries and avocados, broccoli and green beans and

sweet potatoes and walnuts and almonds and pecans and chickpeas

and black beans and lentils. God made enough vegetation on

this earth that only will humans have plenty of food.

So will the animals. I want you to notice, no meat.

No meat. God originally made all humans

to be vegetarians and all animals to be herbivores.

If there was anything, if, if there was anything good that

came out of the curse, it was meat.

Now, at the end of all of this, God looked at his creation.

He looked at Jupiter and Mars. He looked at the trillions of

stars. He looked at Mount Everest and

the lizard, the Pacific Ocean and the Sahara Desert.

And not only was it good, he said, it was very good.

And that was the 6th and final day of creation.

Now we often talk about the seven days of creation, don't

we? So what did God do on day seven?

Look at chapter 2, verses 1 to 3.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host

of them, and on the 7th day God finished his work that he had

done. He rested on the 7th day from

all his work that he had done. God bless the 7th day and made

it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he

had done in creation. The heavens and the earth were

finished. Imagine how that must have felt.

I don't know if you have you ever worked on a project like

something you've been working on like for a long time and you

look at it and you when you're finished with your like God

finished this universe, Imagine how that must have felt.

God just made an entire universe and everything in it.

What is he going to do next? What do you do next after making

the universe? He rested on the 7th day from

all the work that he had done. The Hebrew word for arrested is

Shabbat. That's where we get the word

Sabbath from. It means to cease or to stop or

to come to an end. Now did did God rest because He

needed the rest? Was he worn out from creating?

No and by no means. The Lord does not get tired.

So why did He rest? I think He rested for the same

reason that He made night. God is teaching us to know our

limits. God is teaching us to know our

need. Forrest, the narrator, says that

God bless the 7th day and made it holy.

Now it's interesting. For the first time in history,

God makes something holy. This is the first thing that God

consecrates and makes holy. The 7th day is holy God.

God's rest on the 7th day will become the foundation for the

Sabbath for thousands of years to come.

And we'll stop there with exposition application.

I have 10 points. And yes, if you're visiting with

us, it is not an anomaly to have this many points of application.

I know it's common. Pastors have three points.

I've had as many as 1510 points of application #1 God made over

8 million different types of life.

To say something about himself, God made over 8 million

different types of life to say something about himself.

I was looking up on Gemini this week.

I've switched over to Gemini ChatGPT.

I've broken up with ChatGPT. It's giving me way too many

wrong answers. I've moved over to Gemini's.

We'll see if this relationship works out.

I was asking Gemini this week. How many different types of life

are there? 8 million.

Now that's not 8 million units of life, that's eight million

types of life types. Why did God make so many

different types of life? Surely it was to say something

about himself. Which raises the question, what

is it saying? What does life on earth say

about God? We have not found really any

life in the universe yet, and yet here on earth we have 8

million different types. What does this say about God?

I thought of four categories. I'll give them to you really

quickly. I thought of four categories of

how life points to God. A Our God is a God of order and

purpose. Our God is a God of order and

purpose. Just consider the food chain as

one example. One example, the food chain.

In the 1920s, wolves had been almost wiped out from

Yellowstone National Park. As a result of this, elk

multiplied rapidly in the park. Because there were so many elk,

they over grazed the trees and all the shrubs.

Now in the past 20 years, they reintroduced wolves into the

park and it kept the elk population in control.

As a result of the elk population being in control,

trees grew taller. As a result of trees growing

taller, Beavers were able to return, who then built dams,

which then increased ponds and wetlands.

The ponds and the wetlands supported otters and moose and

trout. The wolves also reduced coyotes

which allowed rabbits and rodents to return and all of

this, it's because of God's order and purpose.

Often we can look at the so-called wolves and our life

and think, I wish they were gone.

I wish they would be gone, but they serve a purpose in our life

because God made them for a purpose.

Our God is a God of order and purpose.

B. Our God is a creative God.

All one has to do is go out into nature and see how creative God

is, especially in a place like Washington.

Just go out into nature and you will be fascinated with how

creative our God is. I find it interesting that many

of the people in this world who find, especially in in Seattle,

many of the people who find religion boring, church boring,

God boring are some of the biggest nature loving people out

there. Isn't that interesting?

I always found that ironic because God is behind all that

creativity, all the things that you love about nature, God is

behind all of it. How can anybody be bored with

our God? See, our God is both strong and

tender. There's a feature in Scripture

called zoomorphism. Anthropomorphism is when we

ascribe human characteristics. God.

There's a feature called zoomorphism where we ascribe

animal characteristics to God. God is likened to an eagle, a

bear, a hen, a lion. Why?

Perhaps God gave us strong animals to say something about

his strength. And perhaps God gave us tender

animals to say something about his tender care.

And D, our God is a God of design.

God is the original architect. He's the original engineer.

Speaking of woodpeckers, God designed this bird with a built

in helmet. I mean, that's fascinating.

The birds got a built in helmet in its head.

Did you know that there is a desert beetle that has

hydrophilic bumps on its back that attract water out of the

air and it will beat up on its back and when it gets enough,

it'll then just slide down its back into its mouth and that's

how it lives in the desert. All of this means that God has

designed you and me too, exactly according to His good pleasure.

You have been designed by God to his perfect pleasure #2 Even the

mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats, snakes, and spiders were good in

God's eyes. When we go back to Alabama,

we're going back in June. Every time we go back, I forget

how bad the mosquitoes are there.

They were just bugs in general. One of the things I love about,

I mean, I know we have some bugs here, but it's nothing like

Alabama. Like it's bad.

Sometimes you can look down at your leg and there will be a

dozen mosquitoes on one leg. And I think, you know, when I

look at them, I'm like, how is this good?

God? I remember when we used to have

the food bank. Some of you have been here for

like many years. You remember we used to have the

food bank. It attracted so many rats.

There were dozens of rats running around in our parking

lot. 1 time I walked out of that door and as soon as I opened

that door, there was a rat the size of a small cat that ran

right across my feet. And I was like, how is this

good? How many things in this life do

we see as a pest to be eradicated when God sees it as

an opportunity to be sanctified? Everything has a good purpose.

Just as mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats, snakes, spiders, they all

have a good purpose and the eyes of the of God, so does sickness

and suffering and trials and waiting and persecution and

loneliness and testing all have a good purpose in the eyes of

God. It all has a good purpose in the

eyes of God #3 Creation points to intelligent design, not

random chance. Creation points us to

intelligent design, not random chance.

I'm sure many of you have heard of an argument.

An argument for there being a God, and not just a God, but a

creator God called Pele's Watchmaker.

Sure, many of you, if you've taken philosophy before

apologetics or something, you probably have heard of this

argument. For here's what he writes.

Imagine walking across a heath and striking your foot against a

stone. If you were asked how the stone

came to be there, you might reasonably answer that it had

lain there forever. However, if you found a watch on

the ground, the same answer wouldn't suffice.

Upon inspecting the watch, you could observe several specific

characteristics. A You could observe its

complexity. It consists of many intricate

parts, gears, springs, glass. B.

You could observe its precision. These parts are framed and put

together for a specific purpose and see you can observe its

purpose. The parts move in a coordinated

way to produce a specific result.

Pele argue that the watch's conveyance of design is so

obvious that even if we had never seen a watch made or

didn't understand how it worked, we would still conclude that it

must have had a maker who comprehended its construction

and designed its use. He further argues that the human

eye alone, just the eye, is far more complex than a watch.

I had this thought just hiking a few years back.

I was hiking in the woods and you ever see a bridge that's

been made in a hiking trail? Like the it's got like the

planks are all the same length. It's got nails in it, It's got

hand rails, right? Does anybody like come upon that

and think, look, look at what nature has given us that that

metal would just fall right inside and the plank, Who who

thinks that? Do we not realize that somebody

built this bridge and yet atheist look around at this

world and say, look, look at what billions of years have

given us. Is that not ludicrous?

There is such design in this universe that there must be a

designer, an intelligent designer.

Now, I understand this, right? Some of you may be thinking that

doesn't prove the designer is the Christian God.

You're absolutely right, Allah could be the Christian designer.

I mean the the intelligent designer.

Pele's argument does not prove Christianity, but it does point

to us that there is a creator, there is somebody behind all of

this, and now the question is who is it?

Who is behind all of this #4 Humans have the unique privilege

of burying the image of God. Humans have the unique privilege

of burying the image of God. Neither the sun, the moon, the

stars, nor mountains or rivers or trees or land animals or

marine life, or the birds of heaven, none of it bear the

image of God. You see, we can look at Mount

Rainier. You ever on a sunny day here,

right? You're driving down I5 S.

You see, you know you come across and also there's not

Rainier and it's there. It is in all its glory and all

its majesty, and yet it does not come close to reflecting God the

way that you and I do. God made the world to display

his glory. God made humans to display his

image. Now, as I mentioned earlier,

this debatable as to exactly what that means his image and

his glory. Let's be clear.

It's available as what exactly this means, but I think it

includes everything from our morality.

Our morality is is, you know, like animals don't have a sense

of morality. The lion doesn't like feel

guilty for killing the zebra. Our reason, our spirituality,

our relational nature, our aesthetic sense, our sense of

beauty, our judicial sense, all of it is what it means to be

made an image of God. These are not byproducts of

civilization. The world will say, well, these

are just byproducts of of thousands of years civilization.

No, they're not byproducts of the Enlightenment or the

Renaissance or the printing press or the scientific

revolution or modern psychology. These are byproducts of being

made in the image of God. That's how we got here.

Were made in the image of God 5 The image of God should impact

how we interact, treat, and speak with the lost world.

The image of God should impact how we interact, treat and speak

with the lost world we are currently.

The Renton small group is currently reading a book in our

small group called The Gospel Comes with a House Key,

practicing radically ordinary hospitality and a post Christian

world. Now, while there are many parts

of the book I don't like, and I would not recommend the book to

anybody, sorry if you like it. One of my biggest takeaways from

the book is how much she emphasizes that lost people are

made in the image of God. She emphasizes this point

wanting us to see that all lost people are made of them is God.

Now, we all know that to be theologically true.

Like, yeah, yeah, I know that Matt, we all know that to be

theologically true. But isn't it very easily to

practical to practically forget this truth when we come across

certain lost people who rub us the wrong way?

It could be the thief, could be the drug addict, could be the

homosexual, could be the reckless driver, or the

Democrat, or the Republican, or the sex offender.

We never want to excuse anyone's sin, especially egregious sin,

but we must remember that all lost people, all people bear the

image of God, and this should impact how we interact, treat

and speak with the lost world number six.

The reason animal attacks don't happen more often is because God

gave us dominion over the earth. The reason animal attacks don't

happen more often is because God gave us dominion over the earth.

And Exodus 8 to 10, Egypt was plagued with frogs, gnats,

flies, and locusts. You imagine if that was a

regular occurrence. You imagine if like once a year

we were plagued with gnats or flies or frogs or locusts.

We just dealt with it in numbers 21.

Six serpents came out and bit people, and many died.

Imagine we live in a world where, you know, it's like

snakes on a plane, snakes in a church, right?

We just got bit by snakes all the time.

Second Kings 224, two sea bears came out of the woods and mauled

42 boys. And second King 1725, lions came

and killed some of the relocated Assyrian people.

And in Jonah 117, a great fish swallowed a profit.

Why don't these types of things happen more often?

Because God gave us dominion over this world.

God gave us dominion of. Now I know very well that shark

attack still happen, right? That's why you won't find me in

the ocean ever. Mountain Lion attack still

happen and snakes still bite people.

But imagine if God didn't give us dominion over this creative

world. Imagine if he didn't give us

this. Every time I see how many crows

we haven't seen, ever knows how many crows we have in Seattle,

we've got an exorbitant amount of crows in the city.

Every time I see how many we have, I think about that Alfred

Hitchcock movie The Birds, where the birds just, like, start

attacking people. And I'm like, what if that was

our life? It is a good thing that God has

given us dominion over this world, something we should be

thankful for. Seven Gender is not assigned or

constructed, it is created. Gender is not assigned or

constructed. It is created when I sign up for

my health insurance every year on Washington Health Plan

Finder. It asked me my name, my date of

birth, and then it asked me for sex assigned at birth.

I always find that hilarious. So I'm like, assigned by who?

The doctors society? I mean, if it's assigned by the

doctors, what are the doctors like?

Like had told me when I was born, you're a female assigned

by doctors society, my parents who who, who is it assigned by?

Assigned means that there's an assignor who assigned this.

Now, of course I put mail there. I put mail.

But as much as I think that question is crazy, the next

question is this. Are you pregnant?

I already clicked that I am male and then it says are you

pregnant? I I've wanted to click yes many

times. I just want to see what it says.

I want to see what it does. We are living in very confused

times, aren't we? Not confusing.

Let's be clear on this. Not confusing.

There's nothing confusing here. Confused.

The world is confused. We see in verse 27 that God made

them. Male and female gender is not

assigned. It's not constructed by society.

It is created by God. That's what the Bible teaches. 8

Singleness is a blessing. Marriage is a blessing.

Children are a blessing. Some people think of singleness

as a curse, right? It's a curse to be single.

But both Jesus and Paul tell us that it was a blessing.

They actually say it's a gift that not everybody can receive.

You are blessed if you can receive it.

Some people think that marriage is slavery.

Why? Why would I willingly choose to

enslave myself to this person? The Bible tells us that marriage

is a blessing. He who finds a wife finds a good

thing. A prudent wife is from the Lord.

And some people think that children are a burden.

Do you know what it costs to raise a child in this world?

Do you know what it costs to raise two children or 4?

But children are not a burden, they are a blessing.

Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.

When God made male and female, he blessed them.

And right after he blessed them, what did he tell them to do?

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

The ability to be fruitful, the ability to multiply is a

blessing from God. We currently have 6 examples of

this blessing in our church. 6 So let me say to you all very

clearly, whether you are single, whether you are married, or

whether you have children, they are all a blessing in their own

respective all of them. 9 There are few things that remind us of

the goodness of God, like food. There are few things that remind

us of the goodness of God, like food.

We now see that part of the reason that God made all of this

vegetation was for food, both for animals and for humans.

Consider how the food reminds us of the goodness of God.

Growing up, I had never really tried Indian food.

And when we moved here, we went to this place, we got a gift

card, this place called Naan and Curry.

Man I thought I was in heaven. If you haven't tried I don't

even know if it exists anymore but non and Curry it is good.

I had never really tried good coffee.

I always had like gas station coffee Folgers we moved here.

I have tried coffee man that reminded me of the goodness of

God. Same is true of apple cider.

This in in the winter time you get some apple cider doughnuts

as an apple cider and good. I had never tried Brussels

sprouts or green beans like I had here.

All of it showed me the goodness of God.

When the Bible says taste and see that the Lord is good,

that's true both spiritually and literally.

And #10 last point, the Sabbath as a law, as a law is no longer

binding for Christians. The Sabbath as an example to

follow should be strongly considered.

Let me say that again. The Sabbath as a law is no

longer binding for Christians. The Sabbath as an example to

follow should be strongly considered.

A full doctrine of the Sabbath is beyond the scope of the

sermon. I can preach the whole sermon on

that. This and the reason it would

take that while is because this is a highly debatable topic.

Scholars debate over this as to whether we are legally were

lawfully bound to observe the Sabbath or not.

As I have researched this topic over the past 20 years, I have

come to this conclusion and it's OK.

This is it's OK if you have a different perspective.

This is not a point to divide over the Sabbath as a law is no

longer binding for Christians. I believe this is made clear in

Colossians 216 to 17 and Romans 14, five to 9.

I believe that point is made clear in those two passages.

But the Sabbath as an example to follow should be strongly

considered and the example is set by the Lord.

I think the most common reason that people give for not taking

a Sabbath, not not resting one day a week, but the most common

reasons are I don't need the rest.

You know, I mean, I, I, I, I feel fine.

I work some days a week and I feel good.

I don't, I don't, I don't need the rest.

Or I could be more productive, right?

Think about it. I mean, that's one seventh more

productive. It's a lot or take an entire day

off. It seems like a waste, right?

I mean, when I'm not working, if I'm not doing something, I'm

just sitting around just like twin my thumbs and I'm like, no,

I'm just wasting time. And I would just remind us all,

God didn't need the rest. The argument is I don't need the

rest. God didn't need the rest.

God did not feel the need to be more productive, and God didn't

think it was a waste to create in six days and rest on one.

He didn't find that to be a waste, and neither should we.

Brothers and sisters, the Lord's Day is still holy unto the Lord.

We should treat it as such. Let's pray.