October 3, 2026, ”Dust and the Son of God” Pastor Ryan Matthews

Hello and welcome to the McDonald Road

7th Adventist Church. I'm so glad that

you have chosen to worship with us today

and I hope that the worship is

meaningful and brings you closer to

Jesus as you sing with us and study the

Bible with us. God bless each one of

you. So glad you're here. Happy Sabbath.

>> Good morning, church family.

>> Happy Sabbath.

>> It's such an amazing day to hear this.

This is my third time hearing this and

I'm still just taken back how awesome

the music sounds. Um,

I want to start my sermon out today by

letting you guys know one thing and

that's I'm tired.

See, I've had this text in front of me

for about 3 weeks now. And I want to be

honest about what those three weeks

actually have looked like for me.

These three weeks would be wrapped up

with Bible studies and vespers and staff

worships and chapels and last week would

have been senior survival.

I say that to say this to let you guys

know I wasn't sitting quietly somewhere

studying this scripture.

What I was doing was running and

everywhere I ran this scripture found

me.

It found me tired.

See, I'm reminded of when I was an

operations manager in my 30s. The the

first day that I was given the

opportunity to walk into my office, I

walked in and I saw this huge whiteboard

from floor to ceiling about 4 to 6 feet

wide. And I was told that everything I

needed to do would be written out on

that whiteboard.

So, I would write all the daily

activities, all of the assignments, all

the things that I needed to make sure

got done.

And then at the end of the day,

I would walk back into my office and I

would start marking off the things that

got done.

And I remember that I also had a step

stool sitting in the corner of my office

because there was so many things going

on that I couldn't reach it. So, I would

have to get that step stool out and

write above all the other things. So, as

I started to scratch those things off, I

remember having to write little notes

off to the side of all the things that

needed to be changed or updated. And at

the end of the day, sometimes I would

stay late and do that. Not the work, but

just update my board.

I would update it with all the dates

that would move, all the assignments

that would change, all the information

that needed to be given to me that may

not have even been given to me during

the day.

And then I'd go home.

And I want to be honest with you guys, I

don't have that physical board anymore,

but I do have a version of it and it

lives up here.

And nobody has to look at that but me.

So here's what being tired does to me. I

start putting things into a column. I

start putting things in this column, and

this column, what I could do and what I

couldn't do, and I would run the math,

and whichever column would come out

longer would be the one that I would

gauge my worth for that day.

And if I'm honest, I've never said that

out loud until today. And I'm not sure I

was even doing that until about last

week. And I would love to stand here and

tell you that that's a me problem. that

that's a pastor's problem, that that's

an occupational hazard. But

it isn't.

See, some of you would run this type of

math about a grade that you got last

week. Some of you would run that type of

math about a paycheck that you got. Some

of you would run that type of math about

an image of yourself.

Some of you would run that math about

your kid.

and you would keep wondering why it is

that they don't reach back out to you.

Some of you would have been good at

something for about 30 years and then

you can't do it anymore and nobody has

ever replaced what that thing was

telling you about yourself.

So I went back to the beginning which is

where we're starting this series anyway

right to Genesis.

And I didn't go back just for the

series. I went back to cuz I wanted to

know if it was always like this whether

we always ran the numbers on ourselves

or whether somebody's taught us to. So I

went back to Adam and I kept catching on

to this order. What God does first

before Adam's before Adam is even awake.

So let's go into Genesis 1. See Genesis

1 is the wide shot. There would be six

days. There would be light. There would

be sky. There would be water. There

would be land. There would be sun, moon,

fish, birds, animals. And then on the

sixth day down in verse 26,

you would see then God said, "Let us

make man in our image, according to our

likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of

the sea, over the birds of the air, over

the cattle, 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. So

that's the wide shot. And then if we go

down into chapter 2, it backs it up, but

it tells us about the same day, but it's

close and it's slower. So Genesis 2

Genesis 2:7

verse 7, you would see the Lord God

formed man of the dust of the ground,

breathed into his nostrils the breath of

life, and man became a living being.

For man of the dust of the ground

breathed into his nostrils the breath of

life and man became a living being. So

I'm going to pause right here because I

know most of us in this room could

probably recite Genesis 1 and probably

know most of us since we were four years

old. The felt boards, the songs, the

cutouts, all of those things. And I'm

pretty sure, like I just said, most of

you could recite it without even looking

in your Bible.

But I actually think that's the problem.

See, because we know this chapter so

well, we quit asking it anything.

We can defend it. We can tell you why we

believe it,

but I'm not sure we won't let it tell us

anything about us anymore.

So, I want to bring up a different

question for you guys this morning. Not

how long did it take. I believe we're

settled on that. The question I want to

ask you is what am I?

And I think verse 7 answers that. It

answers it in an order that I think most

of us may have completely backwards

because we've heard it so many times we

don't even see it anymore. See, in

Genesis 1, God speaks over and over. Let

there be light. Let the waters bring

forth. Let the earth bring forth. And he

says it and he stands up and it stands

up and the whole entire universe gets

built. He talks and it happens.

But when he gets to us, he kneels down.

See, and the word that I love in verse 7

is the word formed because it reminds me

of a potter. The hands are in the clay

and everything else got spoken into

existence from across the room. But we

we got made by hands.

And what did he pick up? He picked up

dirt.

So, and there's a little word play here

that we probably aren't picking up in

the English. It is the man is Adam and

Ground is Adom. And he named I'm sorry

he's named after the dirt that he came

out of.

And as I was thinking about this in

English today, we probably would have

just called him dusty.

So I want you to picture this. I want

you to picture the shape of a man laying

on the ground.

His hands are dirt. His face is dirt.

His chest is there, but it isn't moving.

See, there's nothing special about that.

And it may be something that you walked

up on just I'm sorry. You may have

walked up on something just like that as

you were uh kicking off the dirt off

your boots as you went in last night.

And it's quiet and there's nothing

that's happening at the moment. But what

do you notice about this shape?

See, it hasn't done anything. There is

never It's It's never worked. It's never

tended an animal. It's never tended a

garden. It's never obeyed a command.

It's never gotten anything right.

And it's never gotten anything wrong

either. See, there's no record. There's

nothing to grade. There's nothing to

evaluate. There's nothing.

And God gets down and he puts his face

to that dirt and he breathes into it.

See, the first thing that ever happened

to a human being wasn't a job. It wasn't

a test. It was God's own breath. and it

was close

and it was given as something that

contributed absolutely nothing to the

transaction. The author of Patriarchs

and Prophet even brings this up and she

says this, "Though formed from the dust,

Adam was the son of God."

See, she's quoting Luke right here. And

Luke runs the family line of Jesus

backwards all the way back.

And the last name that's on the list,

the son of Adam, the son of God,

son.

So before anybody said a word to him,

before he opened his eyes, there was

already there was already true about a

pile of dirt with breath in it was sung.

And here's the part that got me. Adam

didn't watch this happen. He wasn't

awake for it. He didn't help. He didn't

agree to it. He didn't earn a spot in

that line. He didn't apply. He woke up

already named

already named into a relationship. He

had nothing to start. So then down in

verse 15, God takes the man. He puts him

in the garden and t to tend and to keep

it. See, the work is second. The work is

always second,

which means we've got it backwards.

And I think we all know exactly how we

got it backwards. See, somewhere along

the way, most of us learned how to run

it the other direction.

Do the work, get the result, earn the

name.

And honestly, I don't believe anybody

sat you down and taught you that. You

just picked it up. Maybe you picked it

up in a classroom where your value came

back to you as a number on a page. Or

you picked it up as a job that told you

how good you were based off of what you

did last quarter.

Some of you probably picked it up at

home

where affection showed up right after

achievement

and it got real hard to tell which one

caused which.

And it works. See, that's the problem.

And it it works great

right up until you can't produce.

See, there's a group called Gallop has

been studying this for years trying to

figure out why American workers are so

worn out. And the thing that sits at the

top of their list isn't the hours.

It's being treated unfairly. Not knowing

where you stand, not knowing whether

what you did registered with anybody at

all.

See, we're not mostly tired from work.

We're tired from working and wondering

why and wondering where it counted. See,

so the girl that's sitting there who has

been the smartest one that goes to a

class where nobody cares about how smart

she is and the floor comes out from

under her not because of a grade but

because the grade was holding up that

building. Or the man that has been

running things for 30 years

and he retires and 6 months later he's a

ghost of his own house.

He'll tell you he's bored but he's not.

Or maybe it's the mom who holds all

things together and she gets sick. She

gets sick for 3 weeks and she finds out

the only thing that she was actually

scared of was not being needed

or a pastor that looks at his calendar

does the math and comes up short.

So now I'll tell you what I have figured

out about my own board and and it's it's

that the there's only certain things

that go on it and the stuff that goes on

it are only things that I can cross off

because that's all I'll allow it to

hold. See, I've made changes over the

years. I've done I've I've moved things

around. I've learned how to tell people

no.

But here's what nobody told me. See, my

board never stopped. See, I fixed the

calendar, but the math kept running. And

it still tells me when I come up short.

And it does it even on the weeks that I

got it right.

And look, it's not that we're working

too hard, although some of us are, but

that's a completely different sermon.

It's what we're asking the work to do.

See, we're asking our output to tell us

who we are,

and it can't. See, because it was never

built for that. Output's got no memory.

It doesn't care what you did last month.

It's designed just to keep asking you

the same question every single morning.

But Genesis 2:7 walks right into the

Genesis 2:7

middle of that and says something

completely different about you.

And if you don't take anything else out

of this sermon today, please take this.

God spoke your worth over dust before

the dust had done anything.

And he's never gone back and he's he's

never gone back and changed that order.

And the order is formed,

breathed,

named,

then the work.

Formed, breathed, named, then the work.

Never the other way around. Not one time

in this book does it do that. And this

tells us something about God that I

think some of us may have it wrong. Some

of us may see him as an evaluator with

his arms folder, with a clip clipboard,

and he's checking off. He's trying to

make sure what it is that you're doing

with what he gave you. But the first

picture that the Bible gives us is of a

God and a person together. And the God

is on and God is on the ground on his

knees, face close enough to breathe.

See, that's the posture.

That's who he actually is. And he tells

us and it tells us something about us

that's honestly harder to take.

And that is we're dust.

And it's not an insult. It's a

description. And the Bible says it in

Psalms 103:14. It says, "He knows our

Psalms 103:14

frame. He remembers that we are dust."

He remembers that we are dust. See,

because we are finite. We run out of

time. We need sleep. We get tired in

several months.

We're not a machine that's broken.

We are a creature working exactly the

way that we were designed to work. And

the tire that we're carrying right now

is not evidence against us.

See, dust is only a terrifying thing to

be if nobody's named you.

But somebody has.

And if you want to know what that name

is worth, let's look at second Adam and

let's go into Luke chapter 3 here.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

Because the first thing in Luke 3, it

ends with the family line of Jesus. And

look, and Luke runs it backwards. We go

from Joseph back through David, back

through Abraham, back through Noah, all

the way to the end of verse 38.

And it says, "The son of Adam, the son

of God." See, this is the same phrase

that the author of Patriarchs and

Prophet was using, Adam, son of God.

And then if we go back to verse 22,

right before the genealogy starts, Jesus

comes up out of the Jordan and a voice

from heaven says,

"You are my beloved son.

In you I am well pleased."

So when does that get said? Well, it's

before the uh the ministry. It's before

the sermon. It's before one one healing.

It's before any blind man comes to see.

It's before any person is fed.

It's before a single thing any of us

would have known him for.

The father says, "I am already pleased."

And then if we look in chapter 4:3,

right after the genealogy, the devil

says this, "If you are the son of God,

command this stone to become bread."

And Luke puts these in an order on

purpose. The father names him. The

record says son of God, and then the

enemy shows up. And let's look where he

aims. It's not at the miracles. There

aren't any yet. He just goes after the

name, and he sticks it with a condition

in front of it. And that condition is if

if you are the son, prove it. Produce

something. Then we'll know what you are.

But Jesus doesn't perform. He won't take

that test because he's already got that

name. And he will not accept it on

anybody else's terms other than the

fathers.

That word didn't go away.

In chapter 23, a few years later,

there's a man on a cross and the people

standing underneath him say the same

thing three different times. The ruler

says it first. He says, "Let him save

himself if he is Christ." And then the

soldiers say, "If you are the king of

the Jews, save yourself."

And then there's a man dying next to

him. He says, "If you are Christ, save

yourself and us."

See, this is the same word from the

wilderness to Calvary. if never once

changed its argument. If prove it, come

down off there and then we'll know what

you are. But he doesn't come down.

And then Luke tells us one last thing

that he did. And this is in Luke 23:46.

Luke 23:46

And when Jesus had cried out with a loud

voice, he said, "Father,

into your hands I commit my spirit."

Having said this, he breathed his last

into your hands. So, think about the

garden for a second. See, there was a

chest on the ground and it wasn't

moving. And God got down and breathed

into it and started it. And here at the

end, there is a chest on the cross still

breathing. And he's in the hands that

made us. And he breathes out

and it stops.

And then he takes him down. And then he

puts him in the ground and it's the same

ground that Adam was scooped out of. And

then they roll a stone

over him and it's quiet and nothing is

happening. And then God got down in the

dirt again and what he picked up this

time came out alive. If you are worth

anything, prove it. And I challenge you

to let it talk because it's arguing with

a name that has already been given.

So when God looks at you at this

morning, dust and all, tired and all,

behind and all, he's not reading a

resume. He's not looking at somebody. He

is He's not looking at somebody his son

went into the dirt to get.

See, the name held for Adam before he

did anything.

And it held for Jesus when he wouldn't

come down off that cross to prove it.

And it's holding for you right now on

Sabbath

when he walked in here running the math

and he came up short.

So, here's what I I'm challenging you

guys to do this week. And it's not just

one more thing on your list.

It's the opposite.

See, cuz you already know this about

somebody. You already know what they

are. And you've probably never said it

out loud because we hand out affirmation

like a reward

after. Good job, proud of you, well

done. All of it comes after.

So before next Sabbath, let's do what we

saw in verse 7. Let's pick one person.

Go to them before they've done anything

for you. Nothing to celebrate, no good

report, nothing to be proud of yet, and

tell them what they are. Not what they

did, but what they are.

Maybe it's your kid on an ordinary

Tuesday when nothing has happened. Maybe

it's your husband or your wife that you

talk to before they have fixed anything

or cleaned anything. Maybe it's a

student or maybe it's somebody that you

work with who's been running the same

math that you've been running.

Say their name

and tell them the thing that's true

about them whether they produced it or

not. And I promise you it may be

awkward, but I would like for you to do

it anyway.

Because here's what I want you to

actually notice is when you say it out

loud to them, you're going to hear it.

And see, that's usually how this works.

We start believing something about grace

about 4 seconds after we say it to

somebody else. So, one person before

they earn it before next Sabbath. And if

you do, I'd love to hear that story.

And church, I'm still tired.

This sermon didn't fix my calendar. See,

the next three weeks are still going to

be the next three weeks, and the columns

are still going to be longer than the

other one. And and I'm but but the thing

is I'm not doing the math anymore

because the math was answering questions

that had already gotten settled

face down in the dirt before the first

human being ever took a breath,

formed, breathed, named,

then the word.

So whatever you walked in here carrying

this morning, whatever number it is that

you came up with, he knew exactly what

you were made of

and he got down in it anyway and he

called you his. I'm going to ask our

worship team to come up.

Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank

you so much for today. Thank you that

it's Sabbath, Lord, and thank you for

reminding us of where our worth comes.

If we're given the opportunity, Lord, to

tell somebody where their worth comes,

that we speak with a level of boldness

and graciousness that glorifies you. In

your name we pray. Amen.

Thanks so much for joining us here at

the McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church

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bless each one of you and thanks again

for joining us here at the McDonald Road

7th Adventist Church.