Raise your hand if you enjoying making things. Making a mess, doesn’t count!
Making food. Story of Forever Young.
Making things out of wood or metal.
Some enjoy making things out of paper, or out of cloth.
When was the last time you made something out of thin air?
Today’s word is found in:
Genesis 1:26-31 (Turn there if you will. We will get there in a couple of minutes)
Years ago, I had a conversation with a good friend, and it began with him saying “We were created to create”.
He brought up this passage in Genesis. We had a great discussion about our Creator.
I walked away with this:
Since we were created in His image, part of that image, is being a creator. However, we are not a creator of things from thin air!
We are creators of things created by the Creator.
In that respect, creating brings us joy.
Can you imagine the joy He received in creating us in His image?
Stand with me as we honor God while reading His word.
(Gen. 1:26–27). Unlike the angels and the animals, humans can have a very special relationship with God. He not only gave us personality—minds to think with, emotions to feel with, and wills for making decisions—but He also gave us an inner spiritual nature that enables us to know Him and worship Him.
Warren W. Wiersbe
A quick overview of Genesis and this passage:
First of 5 books written by Moses:
The word Genesis is the Hebrew transliteration of “in the beginning”.
Written to the people of Israel.
Written in the wilderness, during Israels wanderings, somewhere in the Sinai peninsula
Written around 1440 b.c.
Tells the creation story
The creation story is the 1st of 7 stories told in Genesis.
In that creation story, we are going to look at Day 6.
God "spoke" His creation into existence.
In the first chapter "then God said" 10 times and entire heaven and earths and all created things came into existence.
Although there are 5 reasoned scholarly views of this passage, 2 of which are ludicrous in my opinion, and only 1 of the remaining 3 makes the most sense.
That view is image or likeness in character. This is the perspective from today’s message.
Story of Shaye asking “why did God make us real”.
Should have been prepared, but was seriously caught off guard. This was a 4-5 year old y’all.
Answer: God made us real so we could worship and glorify Him.
Ok, sermon over. Go enjoy your day!
JK.
Over the last 3 weeks or so, we’ve not had a message involving Scriptural Gymnastics. So we are due!
For the most part, there is not a need to turn to each scripture, but I will ask you to find a few of these passages today.
Turn with me to:
Romans 8:29 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Today, I’d like us to consider what it means to be conformed to His image.
Obviously, after we accept salvation from our Lord and Savior, then the lifelong process of sanctification begins.
We are to strive daily, to be conformed to His image, His character.
This side of glory, we cannot be perfectly conformed to His image.
But in that striving to be conformed, we build His kingdom by showing others who He is.
The title of today’s message is: MY FATHER’S EYES
I want people to see My Fathers’s Eyes in how I speak, and how I treat others.
Call me selfish, but I want to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant”!
And that brings us to our first character trait:
To be a Servant. Jesus said in Matthew 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.””
Here are a few other character traits that reflect His image:
To love. Jesus said in John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
To forgive. Matthew 6:14–15 ““For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Be humble. Philippians 2:3 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”
Picking up our cross. Luke 9:23 “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
Taking up our crosses represents:
Suffering
Scorn
Persecution
and the fact that we must:
be dead to the world, and the world must be dead to us.
And we must count the cost that taking up our crosses will be.
Jesus teaches us in Luke 14:28–30 “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”
Once we count the cost, and take up our cross, at some point we become transformed in His image from glory to glory, from cross bearers to crown wearers.
Although this message is about character, I can’t help see how intricately we are stitched together by our creator.
Check this out:
If the molecules in a single human cell were stretched out, they would be 6 feet long. A single human cell!
Ephesians 2:10(NLT) For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
Here’s another character trait in His image:
Being a blessing. Genesis 1:28 “Then God blessed them...”
Church, here’s a challenge for you this week. Wake up each day determined to be a blessing to someone. It isn’t that hard to do!
It is natural for us to ask “after the fall, how can we possibly regain His image?”-Only Jesus
Closing:
All of creation is God’s expression of love.
Jesus expressed His love as His word became flesh.
The Holy expressed love by indwelling in us, to give us the same power that rose Jesus from the grave.
Ok church, here’s the second challenge for you. Homework, if you will:
Why didn’t God create Eve out of dust, as He did Adam?
I’d like us to finish out today, by examining a few more verses that help us focus on becoming more Christ-like.
1 Peter 2:21 “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:”
-Don’t be a Wish Bone and wish someone us should suffer, be an example and follow His steps.
1 John 2:6 “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”
-Don’t be a Jaw Bone All talk and no walk
Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”
---don’t be a Knuckle Bone—knocking everything people say
1 Peter 1:15 “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,”
---Church, I want to implore you to consider every word that leaves your mouth.
Pastor Robert Morris says “Some people think after they speak”
“Some people think while they speak”
and “Some people don’t think at all”.
Scripture tells us: Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
If our hearts are of full of anger, hate, jealousy and unforgiveness, that will spew out of our mouths.
If our hearts of are full of profanity, and impure hearts, our words will reflect that also.
Last week, we examined Psalm 51:10 where we see David pleading to God to “create” in him a clean heart.
If it is your desire to be more Christ-like, and your heart is unclean, plead to God to create in your a clean heart.
Ephesians 5:1–2 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
Listen to this picture of conforming to the image of Christ:
Ephesians 4:12–14 “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,”
Ephesians 4:15–16 “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
There are so many more, but I’d like us to unbox one final passage:
Ephesians 4:24 “and that you put on the new self, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
Let’s look at the Greek transliterations in the context they are used in this verse.
5 words:
new- timeless
self-countenance
created-formed in a spiritual sense
righteousness-where the heart is right with God
holiness-manifesting itself in the discharge of pious duties in religious and social life.
“and that you put on a timeless countenance, formed spiritually, where the heart is right with God, manifesting itself in the discharge of pious duties in religious and social life.” (repeat)
This is what we should strive to become as imitators of Christ.
Church, here’s the 3rd and final challenge for the day:
For the next 30 nights, before you lay down your heads, reflect on your day and ask “did I represent the fruit of the spirit today?”
Any of the nine?
Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
and in doing this, you will be:
The Back Bone of Christianity!
