Yahweh, the Community Builder

The scripture reading comes from the book of Genesis, chapters 1 and 2. Please follow along your bulletin.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, Let there be light.

God said, There is a light and a light.

And there was light.

God saw the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day.

And the darkness He called night.

And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

And let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky.

And over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God created man in His own image.

In the image of God, He created him.

Male and female, He created them.

God said,

God blessed them.

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 every living thing that moves on the earth.

Then God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which is fruit yielding seed.

It shall be food for you.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that moves on the earth, which has life, I have given every green plant for food.

And it was so.

At ito nga ang nangyari.

Yes, this is such a chance.

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

At lubas siyang nasiyahan.

Do shunhao.

Then in chapter 2, we find this.

Then the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him.

Hindi mabuti ang mag-isa ang tao.

Bibigyan ko siya ng angkop na makakasama at makakatulong.

Na yun tukoy pat ho, fo'y yuwa it ha, chau yuk o puing ao pong jod ha.

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 he would call them.

And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

The man gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field.

Ngunit wala sa isa man sa mga ito, ang nababagay na makasama at makatulong niya.

But for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him.

And so the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept.

Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

Ang tajang na ito'i ginawa niyang isang babae, at dinala niya ito sa lalaki.

Yehudha wa wa shun, joo yung na yin shun sa soo chui de yito lalaki, zo sing yikyo yin,

ling ta do na yin kynci.

The man said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman.

Babae ang ito'i ta tawag sa kanya, sapagat sa lalaki shai kinuha.

Ngö yin, yuwa ta si chong namin shun sa chun lai de.

Because she was taken out of man.

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife.

And they shall become one flesh, eti.

Sila'y nagiging isa.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

This is God's word.

How you guys doing?

Oh man, you just heard the very first words spoken by God in history.

How you guys doing?

I understood the two dialects in the back, but I didn't understand the dialect in the front.

So if anybody could help me.

What country is that from?

Crikey.

Okay.

Yeah.

Hey, we are, if you're here for the first time, my name is Tobin Miller.

I'm a teaching pastor here, one of the pastors here.

And we are going to look at the book of Genesis for five weeks.

In your chair, you should have had the book of Genesis we printed out for you.

I love these things.

I carry mine around.

I like just something I can stick in my pocket.

And so the challenge is, is that you would read a chapter a day.

Okay.

So we're going to do it for five weeks.

We're not going to still cover all of it.

But that means by next Sunday, we come back together.

You should be at chapter what?

Seven, yeah, six, seven, eight.

And I was like, I think it's Jesus.

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Anyway, but we want to look at this because I think it's one of my favorite books.

And I know I say that about a lot of books.

Actually, it's a book that we think we'll probably cover after we finish Luke sometime next fall.

And we want to lay down some tracks, some foundations for everything that we've been talking about in the book of Luke.

I mean, Genesis is the book of beginnings.

There's a lot of beginning things here.

It talks about creation and fall and redemption and restoration and sin and grace and love and community and man and woman and identity and relationship and journey.

And we talk about journey a lot and the journey begins here for us.

And sometimes I think that we forget that.

We don't realize when we read the book of Genesis what we're reading and how important it is.

Because 400 years after being in slavery, so 3,400 years ago, Moses leads the people out of a land full of idols.

And he leads them to this promised land and he pens a text unlike any other text which is going to influence all of creation and all generations and all cultures forever.

And he begins with the words,

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Can you read that for me?

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

You know, I don't think that we realize what those words meant and what they mean.

Thomas Cahill, in his book, The Gift of the Jews, says that these words are the greatest gifts that the Jewish people have given to all cultures and societies in the world throughout history.

In fact, he says these words influenced mankind in a way that we will never fully comprehend or understand.

Because you see, at that point in time, there was no such thing as a personal God.

There was no such thing as a God who cared.

There was no such thing as a God who created.

There was no such thing as a God who wanted a relationship.

If you go back and you study all the myths of creation, all the creation myths,

they had certain things in common, but that was not one of them.

They all shared this idea that the universe was filled by many gods.

And these were little gods.

They were finite gods.

They were angry gods.

They were limited in power.

They were fallible.

They were naughty.

They did capricious things.

They were corrupt.

They were dependent upon man.

And so if you wanted to know God, like if you wanted to know Seamus, the son of the God,

you would go out and you would observe and look at the sun.

If you wanted to understand Dagon, the God of grain, you would get drunk.

Or that you would go out and look at a wheat field.

If you wanted to understand Yamin, the God of the sea, you would go to the sea and you would look at the shore

and you would look at the waves and from that you would try to extrapolate what God is like.

And people in that day, they lived in amazing amounts of fear.

I don't think you understand this.

I don't understand it because I look at it and I read it and I'm trying to understand what it goes,

what's happening there.

And I kind of transposed my day on this day.

But in those days, it was crazy.

The average person walked in fear.

They sacrificed things to all these gods.

Often they sacrificed their children to these gods.

They left things on idols and they did things and they hoped to be good enough

with the hope that they would influence the gods and find the gods' favor.

You know that some of them actually believed that the stars and the moon could control man's destiny.

And some of the people would actually shape and arrange their houses and their temples

in just such a way that the environment and nature would kind of come to a convergence

and there would be incredible peace and prosperity.

I know that's impossible to believe in today's day and age, right?

But in, I'm joking.

But in that day and age, that's what people believed.

Humans were looked at as scum.

Pawn scum.

We were only created because the gods had things they didn't want to do.

And so the things were so bad, the gods didn't want to do them,

they created man so that you and I would do that.

I mean, life was full of competition.

Life was rough.

Life was about dominance.

Life was brief.

Life was violent.

Life was about control.

There was no sense of meaning or purpose for a person's life 3,400 years ago

when they first heard these words.

Some people would say that's true of us today,

that we really haven't changed that much in 3,400 years.

But when Moses penned these words,

when he said,

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,

he did something revolutionary,

and he started something that changed everybody.

Do you understand that?

He goes on in the first three verses.

He says,

In the beginning,

and he gives this picture of God,

and he has this imagery of God creating,

and it's powerful.

It's kind of like this dance.

God's in this dance,

and it's poetry in Hebrew.

And when you read it in Hebrew,

you're like,

Wow, there is something amazing going on there.

In the beginning,

God created the heavens and earth.

You see God,

and the earth was formless and void.

It's almost like,

I asked Aldrin before,

Ornel,

if he could play the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky,

because it's kind of like that.

And when you read Hebrew,

it's meant to be like,

da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da,

boom, boom, boom.

And you're watching this fireworks display,

and you see day one,

boom, boom, boom.

And you're like,

Wow, I can't get any better than that.

And all of a sudden,

boom, boom, boom.

Day two,

you're like,

Oh my gosh.

And day three,

boom, boom, boom.

And you're kind of like sitting at the harbor,

and you're going,

Well, when's this thing going to end?

And if that's not the end,

then the next thing's going to have to be amazing,

because what I just saw was incredible.

And you see this story of God the Father creating.

You see this story of the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters,

and he's in the same imagery in Luke,

that he's this dove,

and he's doing his work.

And then you see this image of God speaking.

And he creates with his spoken word.

And we know that in the book of John,

it's in your bulletin for you,

it says,

In the beginning was the word,

and the word was with God,

and the word was God.

And the word became flesh,

and it dwelt among us.

And the word is who?

Oh, come on, guys.

There's only two answers in church, right?

God and Jesus, right?

The word was who?

The word was Jesus.

And so we see this story being played out,

and we see this fireworks display,

and in that day,

no one would have ever thought that.

Because when they thought of God,

they thought of me.

They didn't think of them or us.

And so it was always this individualistic person,

and the gods created because they had a need.

But what the Bible says,

from the very beginning of time,

God and three persons equal in everything.

God and three persons were together.

They were experiencing community,

love, relationship, fellowship.

It was a party,

and they needed nothing.

They needed nothing.

In fact, it says it was so out of control

and so fantastic,

that all of a sudden,

they looked at each other,

and they go,

wow, this is amazing.

Shouldn't we share this?

Shouldn't we allow other things

and other creatures to come a part of this?

Shouldn't we allow them to be a part of these things?

Shouldn't we allow them to come into our community

or our fellowship?

John 17, Jesus praised that, remember?

Jesus praised, and he says,

dear Father,

please allow them to come into the relationship

that you and I have,

because we want them to be a part of what's going on.

We want them to experience this love,

this care, this peace,

all of these things.

And so we have this story

of God creating and God creating.

He creates out of nothing.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

Good, good, good.

At the end of it,

he says, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good.

And what he's just saying

is that's a reflection of God.

It's a reflection of his character,

and the fireworks are going off,

and it gets better, and it gets better,

and it gets better.

And it's interesting,

because when you study Hebrew,

there's no word in Hebrew for nature.

In biblical Hebrew,

there's no such thing as nature,

because they realize

that nothing happens naturally.

The only word that is there

in creation is creation,

because they realize

that everything that is,

everything that was,

has to be created,

it has to be sustained,

it has to be controlled,

it has to be held up

by God's love and his character.

And when the people heard this

at that time,

3,400 years ago,

it would have been amazing

when the psalmist wrote,

the heavens are declaring

the glory of the Lord.

When you go out tonight,

and if you're in a place

that you can see stars,

look up.

And that's what David wrote,

and he penned,

and he said,

all of creation reflects God's image.

And it's so amazing,

and it's so wonderful

that God wants to bring us in

to this relationship.

No other world religion,

no other world thought,

no one at that time

ever thought any of those things.

Man was just to be used.

Man was not to share

in what God was doing.

And then at the end

of the 18th, 12th children,

Moses, he basically says,

he wants to say,

okay, it's gonna get better,

it's gonna get better,

it's gonna get better,

and finally he says,

humans.

And it's like,

dun, dun, dun,

boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,

and you're like,

okay, it can't get any better than this.

God creates us.

Because he wants to be with us,

and he wants us to be with him

in a relationship

so that we can experience

everything that he's doing

and creating

and say, that is amazing.

I mean, you do that sometimes,

don't we?

You're watching a TV show,

and it's so incredible

or crazy,

you call up your best friend

and say, hey,

you gotta turn on TV,

you gotta watch this right now.

I mean, you go outside

and you see the stars in the sky,

and it's just,

wow, there's stars in Hong Kong.

I didn't know there were stars

in Hong Kong.

I didn't know that

until we moved over to the Poc Fulam,

and I see stars here,

and I hear birds here.

And the scripture says

that it's so incredible

that when we hear it,

we yell out,

God.

And we wanna call people up

and say, hey,

you need to come see this

because this is incredible.

And Moses,

in the last first two chapters,

the creation of man

is so amazing

that he talks about it

two times.

Chapter one and chapter two,

I have them both written

in your bulletin for you,

and we're gonna look at them,

and what I wanna share

really briefly,

because this is,

I'm just kinda skimming the top.

I'm hoping that you'll go back,

you'll read a chapter a day,

you'll think about

what does this mean,

what does this tell me about God.

For the next five weeks,

we're gonna keep hitting this

and hitting this

and talking about these themes

about relationships and God.

And what I see here,

very specifically,

is this,

that God creates you and I

out of dust.

Everything else in the passages,

day one, day two,

day three, day four,

he speaks and they pop up,

he speaks and they pop up,

he speaks and they pop up,

and in day six,

it says he goes over

and he picks up some Adam,

the most insignificant,

lowly, irreducible thing

in Hebrew,

and he starts to shape it,

and he blows his spirit into it,

and he brings out man.

And the fireworks blow off

and they go crazy,

and as people are reading this

and they're thinking of this,

they're saying,

that makes no sense to us

because we've never heard that before.

But now that we hear it

for the first time,

it makes all the sense.

And what I want us to think about

and read as we look in this passage,

the first section,

is what Moses is trying to tell us,

what we need to hear,

what we need to understand,

is that you and I

are made in God's image.

that every person here,

every person that ever was,

every person that walked

the face of the earth,

Moses is telling us

that we are made

in the image of God.

3,400 years ago

when the people heard this,

there was no way

they could comprehend that

because no one would have

ever said such a thing,

but the minute they heard that,

Moses went on and says,

because you're made in God's image,

that you are invested

with value,

dignity,

and worth.

Everyone,

look to your left.

Just humor me.

Look to your left.

Made in the image of God.

Look to your right.

Made in the image of God.

The boss

who you're going to walk

into his office on Monday

and you really,

really dislike him.

Come on!

Made in the image of God.

Your worst enemy.

Women,

your husband.

right beside you.

Men,

your wife

right beside you.

That weird,

obnoxious,

Texas neighbor

who lives next door

and he thinks America

is the only country

and he thinks American

is actually a real language.

the terrorist

who straps a bomb

on his back

and he walks in

to destroy

innocent life.

Made

in the image

of God.

When Moses said

those words,

no one

would have understood

those things.

The question is,

do you really

believe that?

Do you believe

that the person

to your left,

to your right,

your boss,

your spouse,

do you really believe

that they're made

in the image of God?

Do you really believe

they have value

and dignity

and worth?

The beggar

that we're going

to bump in today

as we walk out of here

and he smells

and he stinks

and he hasn't taken

a bath in a long time,

do we really believe

that he's made

in the image of God?

That God's watermark

is on him?

God's fingerprint

is on him?

Do we really,

really believe that?

When the people

heard this passage,

they would have understood

that no matter

how bad

I've blown it,

no matter how many

mistakes I've made,

no matter how many

times I've failed God,

no matter how many

times I've walked away,

God is still pursuing me

because I am

made

in the image

of God.

what would it be like

if we were a church

and people could walk

in here,

no matter where

they're from,

no matter what

background,

no matter how they

smelled,

no matter how they

looked,

no matter how bad

they've blown it

and they were loved,

they were accepted,

they were cared for,

what would that look

like?

I think that's the

church God wants us

to be.

But we'll never be

that until we

understand made

in the image

of God.

The passage goes on

and Moses says,

he says basically

that we are made

in the image,

he says we are

mirrors,

that we are mirrors

that are caused

to reflect God.

Mirrors are independent,

they don't produce

their own light,

they don't find out

their own power,

only thing a mirror

does is it reflects

something.

And that idea of image

means that we are

this mirror and that

we are made to reflect

and to take in God's

glory,

God's passion,

and that we derive

all of our significance

from God.

That's what the people

of 3,400 years

would have understood,

they would understand

that their purpose,

they are only complete

as they face God

as a mirror

and they reflect

God's image

and his power

and his glory

to all of creation.

But the passage

says that something

happened,

the mirrors got broken

and we lose

our relationship

with God,

we lose our orientation

with God

and still we're empty

because we can't

fill it up

and so what we do

is we take our mirror

around and we find

something that we

want to reflect.

We find something

that looks good,

we find something

that brings us hope,

we find something

that brings meaning

to our life.

We all do that,

don't we?

We find something

that we want

to be about

and be like

and so we orient

our mirrors,

our lives,

we go into

a relationship

with our work,

with our family,

with our friends,

with our education,

with our relationships,

sometimes with our children,

we all orient

our mirrors

towards something

and Moses says

in Genesis 1,

2,

and 3

that we are meant

to orient

towards God.

In fact,

he says that's

why we're made

and if you're

orienting towards

anything else,

if you're reflecting

your university,

your job,

your relationships,

if you're reflecting

any of those things

in the mirror

of your life,

in your relationships,

Moses says you're

incomplete,

you're not who

you're made to be,

you will never

function the way

you're supposed to be,

you will always

feel lonely,

you'll always feel

depressed,

you'll always feel

empty,

you'll always feel

hollow because you

and I were made

for one purpose

and that's to have

a relationship

with God

and we're made

in such a way

that we reflect

his image.

So the question

is this,

what are you

reflecting today?

What is it

that you're

orienting your life

towards?

What is it

you're trying

to find meaning

for,

purpose for,

significance for,

what is it

in your life

that you're

turning towards,

what is it

that you're

trying to say

this is who I am,

this is what I

want to be,

this is what I

want people to

see me as,

this is what I

want to reflect,

what is that

thing?

Maybe you

don't know.

And if you're

like me,

you have to have

people around you

all the time

and you ask

them questions

like what do

you think I

reflect today?

What's the

most important

thing in my

life?

What am I

talking about

all the time?

What gives

me value?

What makes

me excited?

What makes

me say,

wow,

this is amazing,

I need to

do this.

What is it?

What is it?

What is it?

And Moses

says in Genesis

that if it's

anything else

but God,

then we're not

acting the way

we're supposed

to be,

that you and I

can only find

meaning and

purpose and

significance in

our relationship

with God.

And anything

else,

anything other

things that we

do,

we're living

counter to the

design that

we're made

by God.

and we'll

always feel

empty and

we'll always

feel hard,

we'll always

feel disappointed.

You and I

were made to

reflect God.

So we're made

in his image.

We have value

and worth and

dignity,

we're made in

his image,

we're made to

reflect him to

everything around

us and the

minute we don't

do that,

the scripture

says the minute

we don't do

that,

we bring death.

And I know

that's a hard

word and a

hard idea but

anytime we don't

reflect the way

we're meant to

be,

we're bringing

death to

ourself and

we're bringing

death to the

people around

us.

Because what

we're saying is

this is of more

value than the

God that I'm

reflecting.

And the people

listen to you

and they follow

you.

You're not

bringing life,

you're not

bringing purpose,

you're bringing

death to your

children, to your

spouses, to your

family, to people

in your office.

The passage goes

on in the second

part and I'm going

to run through

this because I

want us to

think about

this.

But what he

says is not

only are we

made in the

image of God

but you and

I were made

for a relationship,

we're made to be

a part of a

community, we

need each other

and again 3,400

years ago no

one ever would

have thought this

or heard this.

Go back and

read the passage

tonight.

Think about it,

Adam without

sin, he's

perfect, he's

very intelligent,

he has all the

wealth in the

world, he has

no competition,

he talks to

God face to

face, he walks

with God in the

garden, his

quiet times must

be amazing,

right?

Okay God, I'm

going to start

praying, you can

end because you

like that part

when you say in

my name, okay you

can do that but

he's right beside

God and he's

praying with God

and his

relationship with

God must have

been out of

control.

He was the

perfect man, he's

the person that

we, you and

I try to

become but the

passage says that

he was lonely, he

needed something, he

needed something that

God couldn't give

him.

All the time I see

people walking

around and they

say well all I

need is God, me

and God that's all

I need?

That's what the

people thought 3,400

years ago but Moses

says no, you don't,

you need God in a

deep relationship with

God but you need a

deep, deep, deep

relationship with

people around you and

if you don't have

that, if you don't

understand it, if you

live your life and

you just think I'm a

me, I'm a me, I'm a

me but God says no, we

are an us, we're an

us, we're an us and

if you live your life

trying to be a me

instead of being an

us, you're never

going to be made what

you're supposed to be

made, you're never

going to function the

way you're supposed to

function, you're never

going to be used the

way God wants you to

use, you're never

going to grow the way

God wants you to

grow and

be like him. You're never going to know

Jesus. You're never going to walk deeply

with him if you're only just a

me.

Because from the very beginning, God

creates and he creates us in

us.

And there's a deep, deep,

deep need for community.

There's a deep need for people to reflect

back to us how we're really acting and what we're doing

in our lives.

It says that it was not good for man to be

alone and so he makes a helper for him.

And we could talk about this forever.

And I really want to come back to this issue

but the idea is this, that the man

was in perfect relationship with God

but he needed something else he was lacking.

And so the Hebrew is easier.

It means a person who

has what he does not have.

I know that there's a lot of terminology going

on and people, women get angry

when they're called helpers. But you know in the

Bible it says there's only four people who are called

helpers. It's called God our helper,

Jesus our helper, the Holy Spirit our helper,

and woman our helper.

And there was something

about man that woman needed to come in

and fix. Actually in the Hebrew the word

actually means, you're going to laugh, I use it

sometimes in weddings and the guys go,

but the word means rescuer.

That the woman

is the rescuer of the man.

That the woman has to be there to make

the man complete. And let's just face it guys,

women are so much better than us.

Aren't they?

Come on.

I know I'm going to get in trouble

on guys, but I'd rather get in trouble with the guys

than with the girls, right?

But it's true, women

are, because when he says

this is bone to my bone, flesh to my flesh,

she completes me,

she's everything that I'm not.

I'm not doing Jerry Maguire here, but she's everything

that I'm not.

What Jesus is saying, what God is saying, what the Trinity

is saying is that you have needs

and you're lacking and I'm going to make you

something that can fix you.

And he doesn't clone him

and he doesn't make him another man,

but he makes him a woman.

Totally different.

The Hebrew word actually means like but opposite

because he needs that to come into that life

and he needs that woman to come in there

and to fix him and to rescue him

and to change him

and to create a community.

So now they're a community

and they're reflecting the image of God in community.

They're us and us, man and woman.

It's interesting when you do mathematics

in God's world, it's always one plus one

plus one plus one equals one.

The Trinity, one plus one plus one equals one.

Marriage, one plus one equals one.

The 12 tribes, one plus one plus one equals one,

the people of God.

The church, 350 equals one.

And what God says is that you and I

were meant to be in together with relationships

and we need to be so close.

We need to be so together

that we've fused in community.

And he's not just talking about sexually.

It's so much deeper than sexually.

The passage isn't just talking about physical intimacy,

but it's talking about knowing people well

and allowing them into your life.

And let's face it, people in Hong Kong hate that.

Don't they?

I mean, people wanna sit in the back

and they just wanna run out.

People don't want to go to things.

They don't wanna sign up for things.

They just say, hey, I don't wanna join things.

I'm too busy.

Just give me a book.

Give me a brief synopsis and I'll do that.

Tell me what I need to sign.

Maybe I'll send my helper to go do that.

But I don't need to go do that.

Let me just stay hidden.

Let me stay unknown.

Let me stay in the back.

And the passage says that you'll never grow.

You'll never meet God.

You'll never come to Christ.

You'll never be the person that God meant you to be

unless you have people who are different

and they're around you.

Never.

You need people.

You need community.

You need people to reflect around you.

You need people to come alongside you.

You need people to speak truth to you.

You need people to say, no, you're being an idiot.

When was the last time you had somebody in your life

look at you and say, you're being an idiot?

If it's been a long, long time,

then you're not experiencing the biblical community

that God meant for you to have.

Because you need people who can care about you.

You need people who can come alongside of you.

You need people who are committed to your welfare

and they want you to grow.

I'm going to say something.

I'm going to get in trouble, I know.

My wife will talk to me later.

But the passage says,

you need people that you can get naked with.

I mean, that's what it says.

He's not talking about just sex.

He's saying, you need people that you can allow to know you.

You need people that can be transparent.

He says at the end,

the man and the wife were both naked

and they were not ashamed.

He's not just talking about physically,

but he's talking about in so many other levels,

spiritually, culturally, their heart, their mind.

He says, you need somebody that you can allow into your life

and that they can show you what's going on there.

And most of us don't like that.

Most of us don't want that.

Most of us have this deep fear inside of ourselves

that if I really let somebody in,

if I really let somebody see me naked,

well, I won't say naked.

If I really let somebody see me,

because then they probably would run away.

But if I really let somebody see who I really am,

they would run away.

And maybe some of you in here have had that happen to you.

I have.

Okay, I really like this person.

I'm just going to open it up.

I'm going to share my deepest, darkest struggles.

And they're like, whoa!

Yeah, pastors not think about those things

or have sinned or pastors are supposed to be perfect.

At least I want my pastor to be perfect.

And they run away.

And in the passage,

he says that you and I have a choice every day.

Are we going to come into church?

Are we going to come into communities and wear a mask

and allow people to love us for what we're really not like?

So most of us have people loving us for an image

of what we want to be like,

but we're not really that thing.

Does that make sense?

Most of us have people love us for things

that we're not really like.

We're just an image of something we're projecting.

But we're really not that thing.

And the passage here says,

unless you have people in your life

who can come alongside of you

and they can hear you

and they can be in communion with you,

unless you have that happen,

then you're never going to be who Jesus wants you to be.

You're never going to be what God meant for you to be.

You're never going to reach your full potential.

You're never going to be known.

So the question is,

do you have somebody in your life like that?

Not just your spouse,

but a group of people.

Do you have a group of people who really know you?

They know you naked.

They know your worst things

and they love you

and they're committed to you

and they care for you.

Genesis says that when God created the woman

in that relationship,

that was the type of relationship it was.

But the problem is that what I see

in most of my marriage counseling today

is husbands and wives don't even know each other

because they're so afraid of showing each other

what's really going on in their heart.

Singles really don't know each other.

They hang out,

they clump out in community groups,

they do things together.

But when there's a struggle,

when there's a doubt,

when there's a fear,

when they're facing cancer,

when something's going on in their life,

when something deep down inside,

there's this aching knowledge.

And I know it because I was single for 35 years.

There's this aching knowledge

that if I really let them know,

if I really share this,

they're not going to accept me.

And I might act weird

every time I walk around them.

In the past, he says,

what would it be like if we were a church

that when people came in,

they were cared for

and they were loved

and they didn't have to put on a mask

and they didn't have to wear something

and they didn't have to act a certain way.

What would it look like

if we could be a church

that could heal people of that

and change people like that?

What would it be like

if we were not a church that was just a me,

but we were a church that was a us

and in this us,

we reflected God's relationship

and his community

and people who came in

and saw the love,

the acceptance,

the care that we had for each other.

Would that be an attractive church?

Would that be something

that you would invite your friends to?

I mean, I think that's some of the reasons

some of us come here.

Because it's amazing to me

what I hear going on in community groups,

but I think it's just not enough

to have it in one community group.

We need to be doing that as a church together.

Father,

we were made for community.

Until we're involved in each other's lives

and talking truth to each other,

we'll never be the people

God meant for us to be.

I'm going to end here.

If you're sitting there like me,

when I wrote this,

and for many, many years,

I realized this just sounds too good.

The Christians say that,

but they're really just hypocrites.

They say these things,

they want to get known,

but once they share these things,

it's impossible,

it's unrealistic,

it's not possible,

it will never happen.

And the passage says,

you're right.

On our own,

it is impossible.

The only way that's going to happen

is if Jesus shows up.

The only way it's going to happen

is we start to look at Christ,

the only perfect image of God.

He was the only man

who was the perfect image of God.

He came to earth

as a perfect image of God.

He left the perfect community.

And our Bible tells us

that he was scorned,

he was rejected,

just like many of us feel like

in relationships.

He was cast aside.

He was crucified.

It's very interesting in Colossians,

it says,

for the joy set before him,

Christ endured the cross.

It's the same words in Genesis.

The Father and Son are creating,

the Holy Spirit are creating,

and there's a sense of overwhelming joy

and care and love

and they want to share it with everybody

and so they create

so that people can see it,

they can reflect it,

they can experience it

and the relationship is broken

and it says,

Jesus comes down

and he's the perfect man,

he leads all these things

and it says,

in the same way that he had joy

in creating us

in the very beginning,

he has joy

in dying for us

so that we might come back

to the Father.

And until we understand that,

until Jesus shows up in your life

and you realize everything

that he's done,

you're never going to be the person

God meant for you to be.

You never will.

Your mirror will be focusing

on HSBC or Jaguar

or whatever it is in your life

that brings meaning and purpose.

But the passage here

is that God created us

with a very special purpose

and we as God's people

need to understand that

if we're going to walk

and be the people

that he wants us to be.

Does that make sense?

I've been struggling

with that for 40 years.

I think I'll continue

struggling with it all my life.

The amazing thing about that

is as I do,

God is faithful.

His grace is amazing.

He continually meets me

wherever I'm at.

Helps me point my mirror

back to Christ.

Become more and more

like the person

he meant for us to be.

Father, we thank you

for this day.

We thank you for your goodness

in our life.

I pray now

as I know

that there are people here

who, man,

their mirror is focused

on anything but God.

Some of them know that

and they think

that those things

will bring them happiness

and meaning

and significance

and some of them

have no idea

and what I pray for those

my brothers and sisters

in here right now

that you would show them

in some way this week

that the only thing

that's going to bring them meaning

the only thing

that's going to bring them purpose

the only thing

that's going to make them

be what you created them

to be

is a relationship with you

and you're ready for that.

You're pursuing them.

If they're here right now

it's very clear

your word says

that you're pursuing them

and the question is

do they accept that pursuit

or do they hide

and reorient their mirror

and I pray that they would

fall in love with you.

For those of us

who are your children

and we're struggling

in this way

as we walk with you

and we make mistakes

and our mirror is broken

and we're trying

to capture something

that brings meaning

and purpose

and happiness

and sometimes

we capture things

and they bring happiness

but they only bring it

for a little while

and then we're empty again

and yet you're continually there

you're continually drawing us

back to you

you're continually

loving us

and showing us your son

you're continually showing

the us

in the Trinity

as opposed to me

as Tobin

and Lord

I pray for us

that we would

be people

who would just come

before you right now

and we would just confess

we would just repent

of our selfishness

and our blindness

and as your word says

that many of us in here

we're blind to our blindness

we're blind to how blind we are

and the only way

we can see you

is for you to open our eyes

so Lord

we're so thankful

that we're made in your image

and that the price tag

on every one of us in here

and every person

that I name

the price tag

is priceless

because we're priceless

to you

you continue to pursue us

and love us

and Lord

I pray for us

as a church

that we would be

all those things

that we talked about

that we would be loving

and caring

that we would treat people

with value and dignity

as we go out today

and we would treat people

with value and dignity

as they come to church

and that we would show them

what true community is

and we would show them

they don't have to be false

or to wear a mask

but that we

we accept

and we love

and we care

not because we can do it

because we can't

but we do all these things

because you've done it

and as we orient our mirrors

towards you

you change us

and you give us the power

to be your people

and for that

we

we worship you

and we're

forever

we will never

yeah

amazing grace

so Lord

we come before you

and we love you

and we thank you

and we pray these things

in your son Jesus name

Amen