GENESIS 1:26-27
“God’s Special Conference”
By: Rev. Kenneth Emerson Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
Sitting in her car--on a dark road just outside of town a young high school girl looks at her life.
This is what she sees:
“I am overweight.”
“I have no friends.”
“My future holds no promise.”
She thinks: “It’s no use-there is no hope.”
A middle aged executive sits alone in a motel room--a day of meetings just completed.
“The kids are all gone.”
“My wife doesn’t seem to care for me or love me anymore.”
“My job is a dead-end.”
A housewife sits at home, alone. As she sits there, she looks at her life:
“My husband has his job.”
“The kids are all in school.”
“I am so alone.”
Then she pours herself another drink.
...And so it goes.
Everyday, we hear about it--people are checking out on life.
Children are running away from home.
Someone is comitting suicide.
There is alcholism, drug addiction, and depression.
And while all this is going on, we need to ask ourselves; Why?
Why are people checking out on life?
The answer to that question is as varied as the people themselves....
However, if we were to analyze the answers, there would be one thing that all these people would have in
common.
Most of these people have found that their lives, or at least an important aspect of their lives is
meaningless-- it is empty-- it is unfulfilling.
It’s as if there is a dark hole that they are living in, and they can’t get out.
And this is a feeling that many of us can relate to.
In fact, there may be somebody here this morning who feels this way.
They understand the idea of emptiness, meaninglessness, and being unfulfilled.
Now, it may not be your entire life, it could just be a very important area of your life.
Well, let me tell you something this morning....no don’t let me tell you....let the Word of God tell you
that there is hope.
Your life does have meaning.
Your life can be fulfilling....
Because you were created in the image of God!!!
In just a few weeks Walter, Jeanne and myself will be attending the Virginia Annual Conference of The
United Methodist Church in Roanoke.
Lots of decisions concerning the future of God’s Church will be prayerfully considered...
Lots of decisions that concern you and me.
And we find in our Old Testament Lesson that long, long ago God Himself held a very special conference,
a divine counsel which majorly concerns you and me.
Notice in verse 26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness....”
This is plural. He doesn’t say: “Let me create man in my image.”
He says, “Our image.”
And why is this?
To show the great dignity and honor that we all possess.
We have been given the great privilege of being created by the full Godhead.
Our creation was so special--we are the very crown and glory of creation--that God called a very special
conference to discuss the matter, a divine counsel that involved...
God the Father.
God the Son.
And God the Holy Spirit.
All three Persons of the Trinity consulted and became personally involved in our creation.
And if we meditate on this glorious truth, our hearts should throb with excitement!
But do they?
Human life is so very precious, and yet when we turn on the news or open the newspaper...
it becomes immediately apparent that many of us do not understand this or believe this.
In verse 27 we read: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and
female he created them.”
So what does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God?
And how does this relate to our value as persons?
There are painful realities in this world...
In this Fallen world that are aimed at crushing the ultimate truth about our unique value.
After suffering rejection from her peers at school and from her parents at home a young girl once wrote:
“This experience of rejection made me think that there was no God, because in moments of rejection I feel I am no
good. And if I am no good, how can there be any God?
Am I not made in the image and likeness of God?”
Thankfully, our value and dignity as human beings is not based on our actions or by the judgements others
make about us.
Our value or dignity is solely based on God’s love for us!
And that love is great....
That love is beyond measure!!!
As a matter of fact, that love is so great that even after the Fall of humankind---God--- completely out of
His love for us-- decided to re-create us!
God the Father sent forth his Son and His Spirit to recreate us through the new birth!
If only we will accept and believe.
Not only were all three Persons of the Trinity actively involved in our creation....
All three Persons of the Trinity are actively involved in our redemption!
The incalculable worth of human life has nothing to do with our gender, our race, our intellegence, the
color of our eyes, the beauty of our bodies, the hair on our heads, or the way we wear our clothes....
Our worth is based on the fact that we are created and redeemed by God.
God creates us in love, calls us in love, and redeems us in love...
and it’s this love that that creates the image of God in us and gives us our worth.
And to be created in God’s image is to be in relationship with God.
We are to be in relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
I’m a Pastor, a husband, and a father....but I am just one person named Ken.
And God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but He is still just one God....the Great “I AM.”
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness
was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
These are tough words--
words of chaos and hopelessness.
But, maybe that’s the point.
All of us, at some time or another have found something about our lives that can be described with words
of emptiness and darkness.
If this happens to be true in your life---their is good news!
Because it is exactly at this point that God often begins to work.
“The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
What an amazing gift!
In our time of darkness--when we need God the most--God is right there....
waiting for us to turn to Him, waiting to create life in an otherwise empty world.
And sometimes we can find God in the most simple and unpredictable of places.
One night I was feeling kind of down, and was having a hard time getting to sleep.
So I got out of bed in order to get a drink of water.
Right beside our sink is a beautiful--very alive--green plant.
I looked at that plant....it was probably the first time I had ever even noticed it....
....and within the lush green leaves....I saw the love of God.....the beauty of the Creator....and I knew that
He was very, very near.
God has taken the beautiful work of creation and given it life.
And when God works in our hearts--He wants to do the same thing.
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.”
He didn’t say: “I have come that they may have things, and have them more abundantly.”
He didn’t say: “I have come that they may have years, and have them more abundantly.”
He said He would give us life--Abundant life!
You see, life is not measured by the accumulation of things.
It is not measured in days or years.
It is measured by our relationship with God.
When God created us, He created us to have fellowship with Him....
And although our love failed...God’s love remained steadfast.
When God gives us New Life--it is again so that we can have that intimate fellowship with Him.
If we want to know real love, real joy, and real peace--it can only be found in Jesus Christ---Who was
sent by the Father--and gives us spiritual birth through the Holy Spirit.
Only the God Who created the world can “create in us a new heart.”
But God goes even farther than this....
God also gives us a purpose.
One of the most discouraging and depressing things in the whole world is a life without purpose.
Adam and Eve were created with purpose.
First of all, they were to fellowship with God.
Secondly, they were to be fruitful and multiply.
And finally, Adam and Eve were to be the original caretakers of God’s creation.
And you know what?
God has the same purpose for us!
God wants us to have an intimate relationship with Him.
That is the principle reason that Christ died on the cross.
God also wants us to be fruitful.
This is done through evangelism--telling others what God has done for us.....and inviting them to join us
at church.
This is done through acts of mercy-- visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, helping the poor--loving all
people for the simple fact that they too have been created in the image of God--and God loves them!
Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit,
apart from me you can do nothing.”
Much of what is wrong with the world today stems from the fact that many lives are empty....
Nothingness abounds.
But in God--we have purpose--we have meaning.
Is there any aspect of your life that seems meaningless....
that feels empty--void--and full of darkness?
You may be sitting here this morning, listening to this message....
and to the outside world your life might be looking pretty good.
But, inside, you know you are putting on a show.
You may appear to everyone around you to be “happy and content”, but inside you know you are lost and
troubled.
Maybe you feel a little like the three persons I mentioned when we began.
You know what?
They are all doing much better today--because they turned their lives over to God.
God loves all of us no matter how desparate we become.
He wants to take away our darkness and fill it with light.
He wants to take away our emptiness and fill it with life.
He wants to take away the void and fill it with purpose.
He will do it, if we allow Him.
That is God’s desire for everyone of us!
The first chapter of Genesis ends like this: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good......”
Whenever God creates--that is the final conclusion.....
It is very good.
