Praise The God Of Our Creation!

Praise the God of Our Creation!

Genesis 1:26-2:24

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - May 16, 2010

*In 2005, Newsweek and Beliefnet asked Americans this question: “Do you believe that God created the universe?” -- Eighty percent of those responding said the universe was created by God. That’s good news! And it’s pretty amazing that after all of the money and effort spent on teaching evolution, 80% of people still believe that God created the world. (1)

*Carlson and Decker summed up the false teachings of evolution this way: “In kindergarten we are taught that a frog turning into a prince is a fairy tale. When we get to college, we’re taught that a frog turning into a prince is science.” (2)

*The God who created the whole universe is worthy of our praise! The God who created us is worthy of our praise. In Psalm 139:14, King David said this to the Lord: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.”

*Just like David, we should praise the Lord, and the creation story shows us why.

1. First: Praise God for making us a wonder.

*Every single one of us is a wonder of God’s creation. King David said, “I am wonderfully made.” And so are you! We are all one-of-a-kind treasures created by God. And there are two unique things about the creation of mankind.

[1] First there was a special connection with God. We can see this back in Genesis 1:26&27, where God said:

26. “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, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

*No other living thing was ever created in the image of God.

-When it came to man’s creation, there was a special connection.

[2] And there was special care. That’s in Genesis 2:7, where: “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

*The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground. We are formed clay. The word picture in the original language is a potter at his wheel forming a vessel.

*This was a close, personal touch, and I never paid attention to that until Roger Lee brought it to my attention a couple of years ago. We were walking across the parking lot, and out of the blue Roger said, “I’ve been thinking about something, and you know what? Man is the only part of God’s creation that He touched to create.”

*Everything else came into being only through the spoken word of God, but God came close in a special way to create mankind. God got His Hands dirty, so to speak. But that’s not all. Genesis 2:7 tells us that God got close enough to breathe “into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

*God turned that mud-man into a living soul made in the image of God! This means that you are a wonder, created in the image of God. Your life is worth more that all the riches of the world. Your soul is worth more than every dime, every diamond and every drop of oil. Your soul is priceless.

*Think of the incredible value God has put on your life. Nobody in their right mind would trade a finger for a thousand dollars. Would you trade your arm for $100,000? Would you trade your tongue for a million? -- Of course not.

*But the real you who lives inside your body is worth infinitely more! You are priceless, because you are God’s creation. Zig Ziglar put it in perspective when he talked about the priceless masterpieces painted by DaVinci or Michelangelo.

*Zig said, “I am roughly familiar with the price of the canvass and the paints. In and of themselves, they are not worth much at all. No, -- the value of the painting comes from the touch of the Master’s Hand.” (3)

*And you are priceless, because you were created by the greatest Master of all!

-Praise God for making us a wonder.

2. And praise Him for putting us in His amazing world.

*Genesis 2:8&9 remind us that God has allowed us to live in a wonderful place:

8. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

9. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.