The Circles: God's Design

God designed and created:? Universe Humans Marriage

God’s design for us:

1. God designed and created us for His glory Genesis 1:26 ?

What this means is that: ? We are the pinnacle of God’s creation

? We are unique in creation

? We have a high and holy purpose: to glorify God 1 Corinthians 10:31?

2. God designed us for purposeful living Genesis 1 & 2

Relationships Genesis 2:18

Marriage & Families Genesis 1:27-28

? Work Genesis 1:28-30

? Rest Genesis 2:2-3?

3. God designed us for relationship with Him.

A relationship with God--what does that mean?

Is it true for you?

Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 1:1

The next 3 weeks I want to talk to you about 3 spheres (draw; need tablet/marker) of reality that define our world, our community, our church, in fact, each one of us.? And the first sphere of reality I want us to examine is God’s Design (fill in circle; need 3 circles in the worship folder; two on top, one on bottom in the middle—; see me)

If you want to know what God’s design is, then you can go to the beginning of OUR reality, the origin of the universe; God’s act of creation. And that begins in Genesis 1 & 2.? When you study Genesis 1 & 2 you see that God designed and created: (build)? Universe (‘heaven and earth’; a merism)? Humans? Marriage

Let’s talk a moment about the universe. We could spend all day just talking about the expansiveness and beauty and glory of the universe. The Bible says that “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Psalm 19:1 And what a glorious God He is. Just look at a few images of what God created (3 awesome pics from Hubble) And as you know, the image of something never measures up the reality of something right? Astronomers guesstimate that there are 100 billion galaxies with an average of 100 billion stars per galaxy so that there are at least 100 billion trillion stars in the heavens. (brain explosion). And God designed the heavens and created the heavens just on power of His word. “Let there be Light. Let there be stars”? And Genesis 1 also says that God created our earth; beautifully designed so that the distance from the sun was just right and the tilt of the earth is just right and the speed of the rotation is just right and the makeup of water to solids is just right and the distance from our moon is just right. Scientists, in a recent article in Discover Magazine, estimate that for all these factors to be right, if there was no Designer, right? If this was pure chance, it would be 1 in 700 quintrillion, that’s 1 followed by 20 zeros. (see Case for Miracles)

And of course, God created and established marriage. Let me repeat this: marriage is not a human construct; something humans thought up. It was designed by God and so therefore He gets to define what it is. He said in Genesis 2:26 “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.” Jesus affirmed this arrangement of a man and a woman.” Jesus quoted this verse when asked about marriage. Paul quoted this verse when writing about marriage issues. That’s God’s design.? But what I really want to talk about this morning is God’s design for humanity;

God’s design for us:

1. God designed and created us for His glory

When you read the creation account in Genesis 1, you get the sense that God is an orchestra conductor and He is creating a symphony that starts with a bang and gets even more magnificent. (example?)? Let there be light! Really in the Hebrew, there is no “Let there be.” It’s just God saying Light! And there was light. Atmosphere! Land and Sea! Plants! Sun, moon, and stars! Sea creatures and land creatures and air creatures. And then a dramatic pause: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” Genesis 1:26 ? Imago dei. Latin for the image of God. What does it mean the image of God??It means simply that image of God: we are made to resemble God; even to represent God?That can’t mean that God is physical and He is just bigger and stronger and more handsome than us. The Bible insists that God is spirit; that He’s non-physical. ? Like God, and unlike the rest of creation, we have volition; i.e., we can make decisions; we have free choice. The rest of the animal kingdom is has instincts, but not volition.? Like God, we have a moral compass. His compass is always right or righteous we might say, but the rest of creation does not have that capacity.? Like God, we possess rationality and cognitive capacity. That just means that we can think rationally and think conceptually.? There are some other attributes we share only with God, but I want us to remember that