Genesis 1:24-27 - ”A Value Statement” - Who Are We Series

the first scripture reading is from The

Book of Genesis 1: 24-

27 and God said let the Earth bring

forth living creatures according to

their kinds livestocks and creaturing

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

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 of the earth and over every creeping

thing that creeps on the earth so God

created a man in his own image and the

image of God he created him male and

female he created

them the

new the New Testament reading is from

Philippians 2:

5-1 have this mind among yourselves

which is yours in Christ Jesus who

though he was in the form of God did not

count equality with God a thing to be

grasped but emptied himself by taking

the form of a servant being born in the

likeness of men and being found in human

form he humbled himself by becoming

obedient to the point of death even

death on a

cross therefore God has highly exalted

him and bestowed

on him the name that above every name so

that at the name of Jesus every knee

should bow in heaven and on Earth and

under the Earth and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord to

glorify of the

father glory to the glory of God the

Father this is the word of the Lord

thanks be to

God all right well I'm going to say

something shock and it's most shocking

that people will be shocked that I say

it especially for a minister to say it

in front of a

church but guess what I'm Pro

lifee I know I know it's it's very

shocking and everyone else is leaving

the building but I want to warn you

before you go that it may not be what

I'm saying is what you think I'm

saying yes I know what it means in

cultural

Parliament but to say I'm Pro pro life

is actually in my opinion speaking

against the very culture we're living in

it has far more to do with the practice

of abortion frankly that practice and we

can get into that if you

want as a subcategory of a whole

philosophy a whole theology that

exists and I'm going to be say I'm

pro-life because guess what the God

we're learning about today is prif

he is for

life and that's what our section today

is I want to tell you guys this is an

incredible section when I learned what

the other Chan narratives said I went

wow this is a different God this is an

incredibly different God and we are

amazingly

blessed to be created by this

God now I want to talk to you guys about

what I mean this culture is in a culture

of death and I'll do that by quoting

this this just came out of the Los

Angeles Times section it says it's

almost shameful to want to have

children now this particular article

that comes out came out a few weeks ago

is basically saying that if you have

children you are going to destroy the

precious environment or climate or Earth

and you should be ashamed of it and and

it's a whole thing that's going on right

now that's going through this cultural

FIB Fabric and I see it and I seen it in

my own family where there's guilt to

live and to

exist because we really should want to

get be rid of Humanity on this

Earth because we are a parasite to the

beautiful

Earth well my

friends this this is why we need to have

the story of scriptures understood

properly because it tells us something

so incredibly different and we can then

have such a

witness to a world that's caught into

these lies every day let's

pray Heavenly Father we thank you for

your Living Word we pray that you will

come alive that you will breathe through

this and you will show us who you are

cuz we need to know you as you really

are so that we can bear your

image in jesus' name amen now before I

get into the actual text today I want to

remind you that this creation story is

being written in the time of creation

stories and they're not the stories that

we understand and in the creation

stories there is Gardens there's

serpents there's always things going on

and there's undoubted ly a component of

a ju position by the writers of this

Hebrew under this Hebrew God saying this

is what gods really like this is what

Creations really like Visa these other

creation stories now I want to remind

you this is not the how it happened I

can't express this enough the creation

narrative is not a how it's a

why it's a why and what is

important so this is not Evolution

versus science or evolu science versus

religion that's just not what it's

designed to

do it is designed to tell us why it came

to be and all of the creci narratives

were designed that way they were telling

people why and the other creation

narratives kind of I'll use a broad

stroke but basically Humanity was

created as

slaves okay and in these Gardens these

Gods had images of themselves and in

their stories Humanity was there to care

for it and they were given food kind of

as an aside thought but only because

they were there to provide for the

gods now there was always one always one

it seems or in many of them who would

through his genius sneak out and find a

way up to the gods and he would become

like the gods and he would become the

one human that made it and he would in

that guy's lineage whatever the story

say it was a Egyptian or Mesopotamian he

would become oh the ancestor of the king

so that's why the King was divine do you

see but for most human beings they were

there to tend to the gods they had a

contract with them we will take care of

your space we will provide you with the

food and stuff cuz their gods are hungry

right their gods are needy and as long

as we do that he will bless upon us the

blessings and that was the contract that

was their world Humanity was was created

as slaves in the garden to care for the

gods that's why creation's

here well now let's read

this and God said let the Earth bring

forth living creatures according to

their kinds livestocks and creepy things

and beasts of the Earth this has to do

with like the the kind that you can take

care of and the other ones that are just

kind of floating around and even the

carnivorous beasts according to their

kinds and if was

so and God made the beasts of the Earth

according to their kind and the

livestocks according to their kinds and

everything that creeps on the ground

according to its kind and God saw that

it was good it was ordered it was

functional this was the way it should be

that's what that word

means now it could be that all of this

is happening so for

them but this is the next section that

should shock us because unlike it being

for them for this God or Gods listen to

what he

says and God said let us make man

Earthling in our image after our

likeness nowhere else is that only that

King that won the the battle to get up

top and his lineage bore the witness of

the god the likeness of the God

everything else were those Stone um

images that you would have in the

temples

here he has

everyone bearing this God's image this

is an incredibly High view of

humanity that all of humanity are to

Bear God's witness to have look come

after his likeness and then he goes on

and he not that this God's not hungry he

provided these things for them to enjoy

creation under

God let them have dominion this dominion

language is kingship language all of

humanity now has this

kingship so that's just one guy that

dominates everyone else who were slaves

Humanity now has dominion over the fish

of the Sea and the birds in the heavens

and the livestock and over all the fish

and over every creepy thing and creepy

thing doesn't mean like a bad thing like

it's like there's creepy people creeping

means on the ground that creeps the

earth I always thought that was funny

because my my son Owen said well I know

lots of people that creep the Earth and

I said no that's not what that

means but this is why he creates these

human beings is not so that they might

serve the gods but he makes this world

so that this world would be there for

them to functionally care

for now we got to be careful that the

word dominion people have used that to

totally destroy creation I'm telling you

that's not what that means and we'll get

into that as we go through the Book of

Genesis we're supposed to be in His

image in his likeness and he likes the

creation and why would we destroy

something that's made that he's liked if

we're supposed to Bear His Image you can

see where that's going but let us not

think like the pagans that we worship

this Earth or that we worship the gods

that need to eat off this Earth this

Earth was created an image bearing was

our statement of him now right now this

isn't prescriptive yet so I'm not going

to get into exactly what does image

bearing mean what is it like because we

haven't got there yet but we will I

actually don't think he puts in what

those things are yet because his main

point first is to give value do you see

there is a value to

humanity and the other ones have no

value it's a nothing for most people

then because they lived under stories

that they

were slaves

you can see why every society had a ton

of

slaves what you tell yourself about

where you're from is how you're going to

exist trust

me so he's created all these things and

he has had Humanity now bear His Image

they're now in this creation order and

it's not there to serve the God but

rather they're there to Bear His Image

they they have a job now to be like the

king the image Bearer on this Earth care

for it

but it's not their independent them

they're not an afterthought they're not

slaves and so God created human In His

Image in the image of God he created and

now we get into the genders male and

female he created

them I want to say something

CU I have heard far too long in my

education I've I've studied too much for

too long from people who say the Bible's

so anti-

women it just doesn't like them Paul

hated

women I'm going to tell you something

compare this creation story to the other

creation stories on the view of

women women and men are image bearers of

God and have the same value do you see

that interesting it's not till the

fall we say the division between men and

women but at this point the value

statement is men and women under God and

I want to tell you this is fundamentally

good

news and if you want to fight against

the hatred that's going on in this area

let's go back to the creation story

let's go back to the

value male and female he created

them so that's where I

stopped I wanted to stop there because I

want to there's so much more I want to

go on and the fun part about this is the

first time I've ever preached a creation

story and I'm just being blown away how

much understanding this creation story

correctly just opens up the gospels

opens up the texts when you truly

understand this and I want to answer a

question because somebody said well why

can't I just read it the way I've always

read it I don't know why emry do I need

to have three postgraduate degrees to

get this no of course you don't but

there's a reason we have teachers

and I was taught by people and I was at

one point sitting there thinking it was

six- day creation and everything

happened exactly like it

said that was

fine of course I didn't know how it

could work that way because at one

moment humanity is created after the

after the garden and then the garden's

there and then they need to create

Humanity for the garden and there's

lights but there's no sun and moon I had

all these

problems but I believed it God said it

that settles it because I had Christ I

had met him but but when I was taught

this just like you I had a cognitive

dissonance at first I went this can't be

how can they be right and I'm going to

go burn Regent because they did this to

me but when you understand it you begin

to understand what this the how in this

and the way it was read you start to

realize number one I don't have to

abandon science because this isn't

writing about

science and then you get to realize that

the power in this text the why is what

science could never answer and it's a

beautiful why and it makes so much darn

sense to the problems we're in

today you see the genius of these

ancient authors so I'm inviting you to

have patience I know this is new for

many of you but I'm telling you right

now by the end of the day it's going to

take us so much further and you're going

to have a better understanding of who

God is his real goodness and you're also

going to understand understand Jesus

even

more because ultimately my

friends this is about a good God this

story and I say that because none of the

other ones that I've read about were

good and this good God starts off by

giving human Humanity value He blesses

the fish of the sea he's going to bless

Humanity with procreation he's going to

bless bless bless this is a good god eat

of all all the trees except for one he's

good what does a s serpent say I don't

you're not supposed to do with any of

these trees that's the lie he's a good

God who put things together and he made

it functional and he called it good and

this is good and this is why he's the

moral God right from the beginning he

sets Creation in a certain way so that

there are right ways to be and

throughout all scripture from the

creation Story on you can't help but see

the same

God pointing towards from this creation

story right through the fiber right to

the end of

Revelation that there's a way to be

human there's a value there's a purpose

in it I'm going to uh quote one of my

old profs here the order of this

creation will unguard God's later

Revelations regards humanties regarding

Humanity's social order his law the

teachings of scripture is in harmony

with with the created order thus to

flout his revealed Moral Moral order is

to contradict creation his created

reality what I'm telling you right now

is he's laying the foundation of the

good and he's going to continue to push

that good through Torah through the new

t on The Sermon on the Mount right

through Revelation you're going to see

this continuation of the good it's told

in different cultures and different

genres in different ways but this God is

laying down the good right here of who

we're meant to be

and we should be listening close to

it

h because right now we don't have a

bunch of

uh a bunch of pagans that are sitting

there making deals with their gods but

we have paganism oh we

do you know I'm going to tell you a

story it's it's called it's about a

death

cult in the ancient world they used to

have these agreements that if you

provide the god with enough meat cheese

or whatever else they want and they're

happy the gods I'm talking the pagan

gods then they would provide protection

they would make sure that there was

fertility so you could have children or

what have you and of course they would

keep the storms

away now what

happened well sometimes really bad

things started to happen and so you

sacrificed more and more and more so

that your life could be better or good

right

and what finally happened and Israel

Falls to this finally they take the Most

Blessed thing

children and they sacrifice them to get

this

deal that's the reason this is a uh this

isn't a picture because we didn't have

cameras come on a little L and I'm

trying to have a little levity here but

this is

Israel an image of Israel taking their

babies to the god of mik most people

think that was just Bal and we think how

could they have done it because they

were sacrificing for their own good they

were

sacrificing and embracing deaths for

their own prosperity and long-term

good right that's called a death

cult and God and Yahweh obviously

condemned it to no

end good thing we don't have anything

like that today e

oh boy we're going to get uncomfortable

now see we have a God that doesn't exist

they tell us they tell us that they

figured out the how so there couldn't be

no

why and once you do that and there's no

how there's no why

well then who's

important the

self and what happens we see people

starting to worship the Earth again the

goodness of the earth and have no

children but there's also other people

who are also making deals with their no

God by destroying children so that they

can personally

Prosper Am I

Wrong o it's quiet in

here I know I'm not supposed to say this

but guess what what you tell people

about Who and the why the why we are

affects how they treat each

other I grew up in the world where I was

told that we are cosmic dust that by

chance came together and that means

nothing now most people hadn't read nii

but nii predicted exactly what was going

to happen the self was going to worship

above each the self was all that

mattered there is no

truth and what happens when you say that

I am a cosmic chance and you're a cosmic

chance while how am I going to treat

you especially if you stop me from

getting what I

want do you see why the world might be a

little messed up right

now do you see why in the last 25 to 30

years things like maid has got to the

point where there's a story now that a

young lady went in because she had a

certain chronic ailment that she want to

treated and she was offered maid

I got the facts here I got the

receipts the military guy who comes in a

couple years ago he has

PTSD

right well why don't we give you

maid you see because they don't see

these people as made in God's image they

don't it's a pain it's a drag on our

system and they're saying well you can't

really prosper and have a better life so

why don't you just

disappear it's

shameful you guys can't move

that it's

shameful

shameful I'm going back here

okay it's shameful you guys to have

children under this because why would

you because we don't deserve to live

because we're not made in God's image

and we're just dragging on society

we are now like the slaves that are

tending this rotten garden and getting

nothing out of

it that's why Jesus Christ is so

important now I'm getting a little more

comfortable in I'm in the New Testament

which was my

area but I want you to understand that

this story is exactly why Jesus

came he came because we were made in His

image and he came because that had

value because he wanted us to be truly

human

again

undoubtedly we had failed as followers

of God up to Jesus

Christ but he knew one thing Jesus

Christ that God made us and it was good

that he made us and we had

value as Ian says humanity is not a

cosmic afterthought designed to meet the

needs of a deity including God Kings

human beings are fundamentally the very

images of God all of them rulers and

priests plac in a cosmos fundamentally

created for them and for the other

creatures that they are to look

after that's the truth of this story and

that is so different from the death Cult

of our age people

matter they matter

everyone

matters I saw I'm going to tell the

story an and I were uh we had Haley and

an was a bit older I don't want you use

age but she was a bit older so was I and

they kept saying to us well you should

abort this

baby you should abort the baby because

it could have this it could have that it

could have this it could have that and

an and I kept saying no

we're not going to B what if it has Down

syndrome well I've met Down syndrome

that would be the funnest house

ever like you guys got to know Down

syndrome kids you can always tell

someone who's never been around Down

syndrome kids cuz they're like and I

have and I love

them but the point being is the value

was in death because it might affect

Anne's life you see that they told us

more than once didn't they and we kept

saying no nope nope well thank goodness

because sitting with her headphones

behind

her that blessing of a child came to

be because we believed when we got that

child there that that was an image bear

and that was a very different story than

they were telling

themselves Alice Alexander aliser bag

says there is no one who is

insignificant in the purpose purp of God

that's what this is telling

us

amen I know we're Presbyterians but we

got to come out

sometimes and this is why Christ came he

knew this and he loved us and this Jesus

Christ the Creator God was not going to

give up on us even though we had blown

it so that's why the way the truth and

the life

came this Humanity was good and was

created to be good and it failed

miserably by worshiping itself but he

didn't give

up he never gave up and how does he

overcome it the only way he could by

becoming human and bearing God's

image you see that by becoming the one

that is really who this was meant to be

so that we might become like him

Paul described it this way who though he

Jesus was in the form don't says take

out the of God the form God he did not

count equality with God as a thing to be

grasped how unusual how unlike Adam

right but emptied himself by taking the

form of a servant being born in the what

likeness of men we were meant to be born

in the likeness of God he now came to

say save us by letting himself being

born in the likeness of

men and being found in human form

because that was always God's job always

his goal to save

Humanity he humbled himself by becoming

obedient to the point of death even

death on the cross he did what Adam

failed to do he didn't come so he could

take us off when we all die and float

into heaven he came to redeem Humanity

by becoming truly Human by becoming the

Adam that was true or the second Adam he

came to redeem this

world and he's the one way then for us

to know the father cuz every other way

goes to idolatry and the old Adam that's

why he can say I am the way the truth

and the life no one comes to the father

except through me this is not an

arrogant declaration against other

religions this is a truth claimed by the

one who came to bear Humanity's image so

that we could be set right with

God and when he did that how much more

value can you have as a people then the

God who made you became one of

you that's the ultimate

value statement you'll ever get he

claimed We Were Made In His Image we

failed

and he came and became one of us so he

could save us human beings have value my

friends I don't care if they got down

syndrome or if they have a certain race

or

Creed maybe that's why Jesus looked at

his enemies and we have so much trouble

is he looked and he saw that image of

God

there even though it was warped

we have a whole world telling us that

humanity is Cosmic dust kill it is it

stopping you from getting ahead kill it

be shameful for having

this but we got this other God that says

that's a

lie I made you in my

image and I didn't give up and I came in

your

image this is the good news you guys

this is the

gospel and the amazing thing

is this God who came in our image did

something

incredible he died for us so that he

could bring new

creation and he invites us to be in

there and I'll tell you what whatever it

means to be a new creation we will not

be less than

human we will be truly

human and I don't know what that's going

to look like but it's it's going to be

Eternal and it's going to be wonderful

because he's always had value for

Humanity CS Lewis says we may ignore but

we can nowhere evade the presence of God

the world is crowded with him he walks

everywhere Incognito because he is our

creator and he walks amongst us and now

we get to listen and look for him

because in Jesus Christ he's

alive he's dealt with this whole thing

and you know what he's doing with you

right now he's trying to make you truly

human image bearer of him and that's

what the spirit's all

about yes that means we can't do

everything we want we can't worship

ourselves and kill things that stop us

from getting our pleasure or our purpose

it does mean

that but it also means that

this God is going to do good for us now

and to Eternity

Bon Hofer God does not give us

everything he we want but he does

fulfill his promises leading us along

the best and straightest path to

himself and that path is to The God Who

became human so that we can be redeemed

and bear God's image

again this God is good

eh and you're valuable

too so anyone here who's feeling less

than or shameful because they live in a

world that tells them to I invite you to

say no and to read this text and remind

yourself who you were created to

be and then let us as a church begin to

act like that so that others who can

come in can see and

also experience this

God who gave us so

much and Promises us

eternity let's

pray heavenly

father I thank you for your

gift your gift that you made Humanity in

your image that you gave us to Dominion

that creation was here to be stewarded

for sure but to be used for

Humanity so ultimately we might have

relationship with you in

it

Lord I Thank you that you didn't give up

with

us you didn't give up on Israel you

didn't give up on any of

us but did the incredible and showed our

value by becoming human

so that we might be

saved we thank you for the

cross taking the curse upon

yourself we thank you for your

resurrection and your promise that

you're setting things to

right I ask you to send us out of this

place in awe of who you are with a clean

sense of what our value

is and an ability to Bear Witness to a

world of

death with the truth of life that comes

through your

son in Jesus name amen