Genesis: Part 2

Genesis: Part 2

Genesis 1:26-28

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

So today we are going to talk about the theme or the idea of the imago Dei. Imago Dei means the image of God. And God created all of us in His image, so we all have the imago Dei. And also we're going to talk about how because we have this imago Dei, we are called to reflect God to the world. So we're going to read our passage together here. We're going to dive in. We're just going to be in Genesis 1 again, but we're just going to hit a couple of verses

If you would turn to Genesis 1, verse 26 to 28, we're just going to read that together. “Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God, He created the male and female. He created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. God made man and woman in His image and in His likeness.”

This use of both the word image and likeness is important because they're very similar meanings. And so when things are repeated in the Bible, when they're said in multiple times, it's a cue. It's a literary tool that the authors use to clue us in that this is important. And also it is true. It is very, very true. If it can be more true, this is when it is more true because it was repeated. It was said again, the image and likeness of God. It also indicates that of all the things that were created, man was the one thing that is made most like God. We are made in His image and likeness. We take after Him. It's interesting because everything we see in all creation before mankind was created with a command. God said, Let there be light. And there was light. He said, Let there be fish in the sea. And there was fish in the sea. Let there be moon and star. There were moon and star. It was a command. It was spoken and it was so. But one commentary said that the creation of humans or with the creation of humans, the word of command turned into a word of consultation. The Trinity, God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit consulted each other. They conferred on the making of man. See, man wasn't just one more thing that God made, but humanity was the pinnacle of creation. God had already made a really good world and now it was time to put man in it. So He wanted man and woman to be made in His likeness, in His image. So what does it mean to be made in the image of God? That sounds nice, but like, what does that actually mean? Well, the ancient readers and listeners would have understood this within their own context because they, there were so many gods, little g gods, that the surrounding countries followed and worshipped. And often there would be some sort of human representative of that god, often a king or some other ruler or authority figure. But they would be the representative of this little god. And so this wasn't unusual to have some sort of representative for Yahweh as well. It would be considered usual. But how can we be made in the image of something that has no physical body? Now, we know Jesus does have a physical body and that's not what we're talking about. He does have a physical body. But God, especially at the time of creation, did not have a physical body.

So how can we be made like Him? How can we be made in the image of something we can't even see? Well, I think there's three main ways that we can look at that we are made in His image. The first is in the ruling and reigning. We have given, as Pastor Andrei said last week about our purpose, we've been given a role and a responsibility. We are called to have dominion over the earth. Just like God is the king of the universe, He's given us a role to almost be like royalty, to rule and to reign and have dominion over the earth. We're also like God in reference to some human-like qualities. Things like moral awareness, rationality, spiritual capacity. Things that kind of separate us from the animals and trees. They can't rationalize. They don't have the spiritual awareness that humans do. So we're like God in that way. And thirdly, it's in our ability to have relationships with God and others. God is in relationship with Himself as the Trinity. And so He created us like Him in that to be in relationship with other people, to be in relationship with Him. He made us for community. He made us for relationship. And He gave us the capacity to do so when He made us in their image. Now, just to be clear, this is not this idea of being made in the image of God. This is not like we are little gods. We are not. We don't have like God did not just like put a little bit of God in all of us. We are not gods. We are made in His likeness.

So this passage here in Genesis and this understanding of imago Dei, the image of God, establishes two truths for us that we can see here in the passage and then also we can see repeated throughout scripture. The first one is that it establishes the status, value and dignity of human life. If we are made in the image of God and we are, then every human being has value. This naturally brings up some big issues. You know, things like sanctity of life, life at conception, things like the death penalty or medically assisted suicide. These really big, hot button issues that I'm sure many of you in here have personal experience with. But the reality is that we have to let the Word of God inform our stance on these issues because a lot of these issues aren't directly mentioned in the Bible. But our value is, our dignity is, as humans, we all have the imago Dei. And so the Bible and the biblical view of the dignity of human life must inform our beliefs, not the other way around. Each human, every person, no matter how small, no matter how sinful, no matter how wrong they are, they were made in the image of God. Beyond these supercharged topics, there's more of those everyday type of situations. When we have hate in our heart towards someone, Jesus said that that is if we are murdering them. Because they are an image bearer as well, even having hate towards them is not treating them like they have the imago Dei in them. When we choose to treat others with respect, despite disagreeing with each other, that is acknowledging the image of God in someone else. When we choose to forgive someone, even though that they have made, maybe they've hurt us terribly, but we choose forgiveness that is acknowledging the image of God in them. A little caveat for us, this does not mean that every person who has ever hurt you needs to be within your bubble. Not every person gets the same access to you. Boundaries are good. We are pro boundaries here. You can still acknowledge the imago Dei in someone else from a distance. It is your heart posture that we're talking about. You don't ever have to see that person to forgive them. You don't have to see that person to respect them. They don't have to have access to you for you to have to acknowledge the imago Dei. It's your own heart we're talking about here. It is your own heart. Amen.

This idea, when we live with this biblical view that every human has dignity and value and status as a child of God, it changes, or it should, it changes how we interact with others. It changes how we treat other people. It changes how we see them. There are several scriptures we could point to with this, but we're going to go over a few here, kind of bullet point style. First one is Genesis 9, 6. Just a few chapters later here in Genesis, it literally says that humans are made in the image of God, and that life is sacred and has value because of that. Psalm 8, 5. It says that humanity is crowned with glory and honor. That royalty verbiage again. Crowned with glory and honor. Psalm 139, one of my favorites. Verse 13 through 16. For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Jumping down to 16. Since your eyes saw my unformed substance, in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. We're fearfully and wonderfully made, and we have value, and we are known by God before we were ever conceived. Before we were ever born, we had dignity because we had the imago Dei. Again, Jeremiah 1, 5, along the same lines, we are known and we are called and we are given a purpose before our conception. It says before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. I'm going to pause right here because I think that some of us have no problem seeing the imago Dei in other people. We have a problem seeing it in ourselves. I feel like there's some people in here that are struggling with that truth. That maybe you have no problem forgiving, you have no problem respecting other people because you know that they're God's children, you know they're made in the image of God, but you don't believe in it about yourself. You may believe God's good, but you don't believe He's good to you. He is. He knew you before you were conceived. He knew and loved you before the day that you were born. You have the image of God. You were made in His image and likeness. I love the story in Luke 1 of the newly pregnant Mary, pregnant with baby Jesus, goes and sees her cousin Elizabeth, who's pregnant with John the Baptist. And when Mary greets Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth's womb leaps. He was the one who, when he got older, was going to make a way for Jesus and point to Him. But he was doing his job in utero. He did it before he was even born. He acknowledged, "That is the Messiah. That is my Jesus." He had purpose, and he was set apart for that purpose even before the day he was born. Matthew 10, 29 through 31, "We are so valued by our Lord that He knows the number of hairs on our head." Nothing we do goes unnoticed by our Father. John 3, 16, "God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son." He wouldn't have sent His Son if we weren't worth saving. If we didn't have value, He wouldn't have sent Him to die a gruesome death on the cross in order to bring us back into a reconciled relationship with Him. In Ephesians 4, 24, "We are made new and fashioned after the likeness of God." We are made holy and righteous. So not only were we made in the image of God when we were created, when we were born, but we are also remade in His image when we chose to walk in His way, when we chose to make Him Lord. We were given His righteousness and holiness.

So it establishes the status, value, and dignity of human life. The second thing it does is it establishes the call to reflect God to the world. If we are made in His likeness, and we are, then we are also called as His followers to reflect that imago Dei to those we come in contact with. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, we'll have it up on the screen. It says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, you are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

We are His ambassadors. We represent Him to the world. We are the ones who've been entrusted to take the ministry and message of reconciliation, reconciliation, so that the other image bearers we encounter will know that Jesus wants a relationship with them, that Jesus wants to save and redeem and restore them. We get to be His ambassadors and reflect His image out to the world. In high school, multiple people, it was kind of a running joke between family and friends, but several people said, "It looks like Daniel Fishel who played Topanga on Boy Meets World." Anybody familiar with that? It was a big show when I was a kid. Love it. But people would joke. I even went to school with a girl who, I don't think she knew my real name. She would just call me Topanga when we passed in the hallways. It was just an ongoing joke. But while I could pass as looking like her, no one would think I spoke for her. No one would think I was her. No one would mistake me for Daniel Fishel or think that I represented her in some capacity. I resembled her, but I didn't represent her. But I also looked like my dad. And I was literally made in his image. I looked like him. And my dad is fairly well known in our community where our church was and even in our greater network of churches. Several people knew him. And as I got older and would encounter these people, apart from my dad, I felt this responsibility that, "Hey, they know my dad. I better be on my best behavior because they know I'm his kid. I represent him." I looked like my dad, and so therefore I represented him to the world. They knew I was connected to my father. They knew I represented him. And just like my dad, we represent God the Father to the world. We were made in his image, and so we must show the world who he is. The reality is that we are all, and I say we all as in all of humanity, are image bearers. But not every image bearer reflects the imago Dei. We reflect what we worship. We reflect what we value. We reflect what we love. There are going to be people who, although they're made in the image of God, they reflect the things of the world. They reflect what they value. They reflect what they think is important or what they are worshiping. But as followers of Jesus, we are called to reflect our father.

We are called to show the world who Yahweh is. Some scriptures that we can point to throughout the Bible. First in Leviticus 19:2. We are called to be holy as God is holy. So as we grow in our relationship with him, as we grow in our holiness, we reflect that holiness to the world. God is holy, and so therefore we must be holy so we can show that holiness to the world. Micah 6:8. We're called to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. Those things are nice, but it's also because it's who God is. God is just. God is merciful. God is worthy of our humility towards him, so we reflect those things because we reflect the character of God. Matthew 5. Jesus talks about how believers are the light of the world. We reflect God's light to the world so that we can light up the darkness. There's a lot of darkness in our world. There's a lot of darkness in our own spheres of influence. But we are called to be the light and to reflect his light to others. Colossians 3:9. We are a royal priesthood. Again, more of that royalty language. We act as priests to one another. Pastor Andre talked about this several weeks ago now, but this idea that we have this role of priest where we represent God to others and people to God. We reflect who God is to those around us, and we represent people to God through prayer and intercession. We are a royal priesthood. John 13. It talks about how we are commanded to love others just as Christ loved us, so we reflect his love. It says we will be known by our love. They will know that we are a follower of Jesus by the way that we love because if we're doing it right, if we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, we're reflecting the love of God. Not in our own strength or lack thereof, but we're reflecting the love of God. And the reality is that the best way that we can reflect God is to be made more like Jesus. Colossians 1:15 says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation." Jesus literally put on flesh so he could model what it was to literally reflect God to the world. He was the firstborn of all creation to do this. He was the image to show us how we can reflect God to others. And 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "We are being transformed into the image of Christ."

Every day we are being made more and more into the image of Christ so that we are giving a much clearer reflection to the world. When you get out of the shower and the mirror is all foggy, it's not a very clear reflection, right? If our actions and our behavior and our lives are not looking like Jesus, it's going to send the world a really blurry picture. So the more we are transformed, the more our minds are renewed, we are going to send the world a much clearer picture of who God is. So today I want us to understand the importance of living intentionally as image bearers, not only of acknowledging the image that we are made in, but also that in others. And then reflecting God's character to the world, His justice, His love, His mercy, His holiness. Reflecting that to the world.

So I have a few questions for us. First one, how can you better acknowledge the imago Dei in other people? What are some things that you can do that would help you be better at this? Maybe it's just praying for your own heart, praying that God would give you self-control, patience, respect for other people. But what does that look like for you? How can you better acknowledge the imago Dei in other people? Number two, in what ways can you intentionally reflect the image of God in you to the world? What do you need to do to be a better reflection of who He is? Or what do you need to allow Him to do in your own life to be a better reflection? And kind of tacking onto that, what areas in your life need to be transformed to make you more into the image of Christ? We all have something. We are all on this journey to be sanctified, to be made holy, to be made more and more like Jesus. I don't know what it is for you. Maybe it's a sin issue. Maybe it's needing healing from some past hurts or wounds. Maybe it's just surrendering to God, things that you keep trying to hang onto. But what areas in your life need to be transformed to make you more into His image?

Genesis: Part 1

Genesis: Part 1

Genesis 1:1–2:3

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Very excited to be here with you. As Pastor Lauren was saying, Pastor Chris, lead pastor, and Lauren and myself, we're very excited about the upcoming fall and what's in store here at the church, and particularly about Sundays and what we're going to be covering in our series. And so this new series, it's a part of Scripture that really excites me. I love being able to talk about this and it piques my interest in understanding God's Word. And so I just want to give a little background as to what this series is about, if that sounds good with you guys. This series stemmed from a desire for all of us to be able to approach Scripture the way that it intended to be approached. And what do I mean by that? Well, we have to recognize that the Bible was written to a specific audience at a specific time within a specific culture. As well versed in the Bible as some of us may be, it always requires a little bit of work and effort to approach and understand the text in the way that it was meant to be read. If we don't do that work, we run the danger of misinterpreting Scripture, misapplying Scripture to our lives, and building an understanding of God and what He does that doesn't align with who He truly is or what He actually does do. And so while we believe here at Spring Valley Church that God's Word is for all people for all time, that does not mean that we shouldn't do the work to understand its meaning and its original context. And so we want to take some time through our series to sharpen our Bible comprehension skills, to give us tools in how to approach the Holy Scriptures, and to teach us how to read Scripture that requires our engagement. I think sometimes there is a place where we just read and we just let the Word wash over us, but the way that the Bible was written was meant for us to be engaged with it, to wrestle with it, to ponder it, to think about it, to think more deeply. And so we want to make sure that we're doing that to the best of our ability.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been reading your Bible and you came across a passage and you're like, "That sounds really familiar. That sounds like another passage that I've read at some point." And maybe you are thinking like, "Wow, this verbiage or this situation, this is very familiar to something else in the Bible." Maybe something like, "Hey, when I read that Jesus spent three days in the grave, that reminds me of that Jonah story where he spent three days in the belly of the whale, and they both live." And maybe sometimes we're just like, "What a coincidence. That's pretty crazy. Two people spending three days near death or in death." And some of us may be like, "That's got to be something." And then you think, "But I don't know what it is. I don't know why it's something." But that seems too much of a coincidence to be coincidence. And I want to encourage the detective within all of us to say yes. It's probably not coincidence. There's probably some kind of meaning there, something for us as readers to pick up on. The Bible was written by some brilliant scholars and authors, absolutely brilliant, with the help of the Spirit. And there is so much intentionality and purpose and layers that build upon themselves as you read the Bible. And so when you read what's on the surface at some point in Scripture, if you were to be able to look into and kind of un-surface that, look deeper down, you'd see the richness and all the layers that it references from before. We want to encourage this, teach this, develop this skill and tool within all of us by walking together through Scripture and showing some of what this looks like. And we thought there's no better place to start than in Genesis, where so many of these patterns and repeating motifs and themes begin. Bible Project, who we reference often as a great source, maybe you guys have watched their YouTube videos, they say this. It says, "The literary design gives us a clue as to how to understand the message of the book as a whole, as well as how the entire story of the Bible comes together." So we're saying, right, what's here in Genesis at the beginning gives us a clue as to how to read the whole book and also how the whole entire Scripture, all the Bible, comes together. So our goal is to identify these literary designs, these repeating patterns, motifs and themes that happen over and over again in order to see how they reveal God's character and how God interacts with His creation and His people.

Each week we're going to look at a different passage in Genesis and see the origin of those biblical themes and motifs and then point to where else in Scripture they reoccur. And we're just going to, that sounds like a lot on a Sunday, we're just going to reference. We're going to say, here's the theme, here's where it starts, and we'll just say, in Exodus, in Judges, and you see it in Psalms. And we're just going to give you an idea of how often it happens and just really help you discover and want to read the Bible in a way that is engaging and be like, oh, this is good, I want to remember this, I want to remember what I read so that as I read the rest of Scripture I can kind of build up this memory of how God is working and what He does. Sometimes these patterns are as specific as reoccurring words or a series of words. Like maybe you've read in the Bible when God's favor is upon someone. And that's a reoccurring theme that God's favor is upon multiple people in the Bible. Noah, Abraham, and Genesis, and Samuel, and David, and we know that, oh, that means that that person is holy, set apart for God's purpose. If the Bible's mentioning it, it's important, and so we want to pay attention to that. And already we don't have to know the story of that whole person, but as soon as it says that person had God's favor, or that person was a righteous person, we just know, okay, we're in for a good story. This person is God's person in this time. Maybe it's like a situation, like I said before, about three days. This phrase of, or the situation of being three days in a near death is a reoccurring thing. So it first happens with Joseph in Genesis where his brothers cast him into a pit for to die. And then we come across to Jonah who's in the belly of the whale, or Daniel who's in the pit, or Lazarus, or Jesus. And so these reoccurring things of someone being left for dead in a situation where death should have had them, but then they live, and for God's reason, and for God's purpose. And so sometimes we can, you might be able to read like, oh, this person just got left for dead. Is God about to do something? Because I know that he's done it before. And we want to be able to read the Bible in this way that we're engaging with Scripture, we're tracking what God is doing in multiple people through his story.

So that's what we're going to be doing today and for the next couple weeks. Anyone here, this is going to be a movie reference, National Treasure? Anyone love? I see some nodding of heads. Yes, it is a favorite. We all like a bit of adventure. If you have not watched National Treasure, it's about a guy who, unlike anyone else in the world apparently, can recognize secret patterns on like maps and stuff like that and put it all together and he finds hidden treasures around the world, mostly for the USA because it's on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Just kind of gave the movie away, so if you want to go watch it, he finds treasure. But it kind of reminds me of that a bit where we're looking at things and there's some deeper meaning. Now, I don't want to go to the, we want to be careful. We don't want to connect things that aren't there. We're not looking for the Bible for secret meanings that no one else knows. That's not what I'm talking about. We just want to be able to connect the right dots together in putting a picture together. And this is where commentaries can be helpful because scholars have been studying this for thousands of years. Pastors can be helpful, but this is a helpful skill set to just question is, here's what's on the surface. Is there anything underneath that helps me understand better what this story is about? We don't want to obsess over the wrong thing, be missing the point of Scripture. We just want to refine our minds to focus the lens of how we see Scripture and to encourage being intentional with reading the Bible, to engage with the Word of God the way that was meant to be engaged with. So we don't want to be trying to create, I guess I want to leave this, this is a huge warning because I think we can go down a dangerous road of reading the Bible but missing the relationship with Jesus. We're reading this to better understand God for our relationship with Him. We're not trying to become, see like amazing scholars that know all the right things but have zero relationship with God. It's not what this is about. So I just want to give that warning before this whole series. But I do want to encourage us, don't just, when we read, don't just, it's not a checklist of I read my Bible and I'm good. Engage with it. God wants you to sit there and this is how we get to know Him is by mulling it over and meditating on His Word. All right, with all that as our background for our series, are we ready to start our first passage? Yes? Sweet.

Let me pray really quick. God, thank you again for our time together. Thank you for what you've put on our hearts and this desire to know you. Thank you for your Word that we, one of the best ways, the best way to get to know who you are and what you do. So I pray that through your Spirit you would open up our minds to the truth that you have in your Word and that you would instill in us in our hearts a desire to read the Bible often and in a way that it was meant to be read. And so we give this time to you, God. Guide us this morning. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right.

So in the Bible, you're opening, if you have your Bible, God's story, our story, all begins with God taking disorder and darkness and creating out of it order and beauty and goodness. God creates a world where life can flourish as well as creatures who inhabit that world. And within that, He creates humanity to partner with Him. He creates order to the universe, He breathes life in, and He gives purpose. And at the beginning, the authors help us believers by beginning some themes that will help us see God more clearly and understand who He is and what He does. So if you're not there yet, we're going to be in Genesis 1. I'm going to read for us through all of chapter 1 and the first couple of verses of chapter 2. And as I read this, I want you, you have some work to do right now. Do your best to imagine yourself as an early Hebrew and whether you're reading or listening, thousands of years ago, not knowing any of your elementary science that you have learned and grow up knowing now, but just you have some questions. Who are you? Where are you? Why are you here? And how did everything come to be? So as you just kind of go back to the rudimentary questions that we have, let's listen as I read this aloud.

It says, Genesis 1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Now that's kind of Genesis 1's title right there. So we're just, that's a summary of what's about to happen. Verse 2, "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." There's a lot happening right there. Come back to that. "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning the first day. And God said, 'Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.' So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it, and it was so. God called the vault sky, and there was evening, and there was morning the second day. And God said, 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.' And it was so. God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters he called seas, and God saw that it was good. Then God said, 'Let the land produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.' And it was so. The land produced vegetation, plants bearing seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning the third day. And God said, 'Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate from the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times and days and years.'" I love that intentionality already, to mark sacred times. "And let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on earth.' And it was so. God made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.

And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning the fourth day. And God said, 'Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.' So God created the great creatures of the sea, and every living thing with which the water teems, and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the waters and the seas, let the birds increase on earth.' And there was evening, and there was morning the fifth day. And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, the wild animals, each according to its kind.' And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then, God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, over the livestock, and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, and over every living creature that moves on the ground.' And then God says something amazing, he says, 'I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.' And so all the beasts of the earth, and all the birds in the sky, and all the creatures that move along the ground, everything that has breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food, and it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating all that he had done." Woo, amen?

So I asked some questions, maybe as you were hearing that or reading it, you kind of got some answers. Who are we? Where are we? What did we hear? How did everything come to be? And again, as a Hebrew listener, reader, I think it's pretty clear that God is at the center of all those things. God is the source of life. One of the big themes in our series, repeating patterns and themes, motifs in the Bible, something that starts right here at the very beginning, that repeats all throughout Scripture, is that God's words have power. If you're taking notes, that's like, you could take that note and be done. God's word has power. Might be obvious to some of us, well yeah, God's words have power, but again, when we read our Bible and we're engaging with the Scripture, we can know every time God speaks, it's powerful. Something big is happening. There's power in his words. People listen. The world listens. Everyone listens. I think we've all been in situations where our voice has had some power. Maybe as parents, you're speaking to your children and your voice carries authority and power. Maybe at work, you're in a position where you say something and maybe there's some people that work for you that have to listen and obey your instruction. If you've ever coached a team, your words to your players, they carry weight, they carry authority. If you're a leader of a band, maybe you give the instruction, you give the one, two, three, or the five, six, seven, eight, whichever one. That's dance. That's dance. Okay. One, two, three. Maybe all of us were using Alexa and Siri, and so more than ever before, our voices carry power. We can just say something to them and lights turn on or something's ordered on Amazon for you. In whatever situation you're thinking of, the power that you have had, the most power, if you think of like the most powerful situation you've ever been in and the most authority you carried, it pales in comparison to the power of God's words and the power that his words have. When God speaks, planet and stars arrive. Oceans and mountains are made. Plants and animals and all their ecosystems and habitats appear. When God speaks, all of creation is under its authority and listens. God's word has power. That's not the only theme or pattern that begins here. When God speaks, it evokes certain things. And so I have three things, three other patterns that we'll see throughout Scripture.

The first one is this, when God speaks, his words bring order out of chaos. This one is probably one of my favorites. I love this theme in the Bible, and I think it's one of the more recognizable patterns that we see throughout Scripture. Where there's... Oh, I'm about to sneeze. God bring order out of this chaos. Where there is chaos, God can bring order. So where do we see this in our passage? If we go to verse 2, it says, "The earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." We see that the earth was chaotic, formless, and darkness. It's an interesting image that I don't know if we can really imagine, but the Hebrew words here are "tohu va'vohu." If you want to learn some Hebrew today, this is probably one of the easiest Hebrew things you can learn. Tohu va'vohu. And if you say that, you can just be like, "It's chaotic. This is a chaotic situation." Well, this is... I'm in an absolute tohu va'vohu situation with my kids right now. It describes a chaotic wilderness environment. The same phrase is found in Jeremiah 4, describing a non-functional and barren land. And so it's formless and void, and the seas... All of this language to the Hebrew listener thousands of years ago meant chaos. It's not an okay place to be. It does not sustain life. It is chaotic. And this is a story about how God brings order and beauty out of chaos. God created order and beauty in a garden out of a land that was chaotic and uninhabitable. God is bringing order out of the chaos. So we see it in our passage here. Well, where do we see it? Throughout the Bible. Where does this repeat? Taking that scenario, not necessarily the Hebrew words of tohu va'vohu, but the scenario of chaos and God bringing order out of that chaos.

We can go to Genesis 3, just a couple chapters later, when sin enters the world and the chaos that that brings for humanity. And God brings about an orderly situation that doesn't yet see fruition until Jesus, but He brings order to that situation. We can go to Genesis 6, 6 through 8, in the flood and the chaos waters that take over the earth again and having the recreation starting over, a new form of order. We can go to Genesis 11 in a tower of Babel and how everyone was speaking different languages and the Bible describes it as a very chaotic scene. And then God gives order to that situation. We can go to Genesis 41 in the chaos of Pharaoh's dream in Egypt at that time and the land being in famine. And God uses Joseph to bring order for the present situation and for the future of God's people. You can go to Exodus and this theme is all throughout Exodus. Chaotic situations, you can think of Israel and the chaos waters going through the Red Sea and out of that God makes them into a nation. Brings order by giving them the commandments, He brings a culture to them. He brings order. Isaiah, many of the prophets speak to what is a chaotic time in Israel's history and the hope that God will bring out of that chaos. We can go all the way to the New Testament in Mark 4 and the chaos waters of the sea threatening the lives of the disciples on the boat. And Jesus brings order. He speaks to creationing. And again, for them, with this understanding of the Hebrew Bible, hearkening back to the only other person who ever spoke over creation and creation listened to God. For them, that would have been a connecting point, like the only other person we've seen do that was God and Jesus just did that. And Jesus, I'm sure hoping like, are you making the connection here, the authority and power that I have, as you've seen, when God speaks, there is power. And when there is chaos, and when God speaks, order comes out of it. God's words have power and the power to bring order out of chaos.

Secondly, God's words have power to bring life. Where do we see this in our passage? Well, all over in verse 11, he brings vegetation. In verse 20, the birds and sea creatures. In verse 22, we get the mandate to make more life. And then in 24, we get the land animals. And then famously in verse 26, he makes humans, makes people. So our passage is full of God's word bringing life. Where do we see this repeated throughout Scripture? Well, God does not create again, like he does in Genesis. This is the one creation he does. He does bring life into certain situations. In Genesis 15, God's covenant with Abraham. He promises Abraham and Sarai, or Abram and Sarai at the time, "I will give you life. I will give you a son." Later that would be Isaac. In the prophets Ezekiel 37, there's a vision that Ezekiel has. And God says to him, "Speak," these words, "over the valley of dry bones." And those bones become an army. It's a very interesting vision that Ezekiel has. And the Bible literally says, as he speaks, the bones kind of join together and sinews and tissues come back over those bones and they become alive again. And it's a vision of what God is going to do for Israel. How Israel is dead now, or in chaotic terms, or in...they're not what they're supposed to be, but God will bring life to them. And we can read that. It's a vision also for what God does in us, making us new. As we are dead in our sins, He makes, He brings life to us again. We go to the New Testament in Mark 5, verse 41. Jesus raises Jairus' daughter by telling her with His words, "Little girl, I say to you, get up." And that girl is raised from the dead, brings life back to her. In John 11, 43, you guys know the raising of Lazarus. When Jesus speaks and His words, the power and authority of God, Lazarus come out. Lazarus is raised from the dead. Those verses in the New Testament have weight and significance and show that Jesus is God when He speaks and brings life, again, because it's harkening back to what God did in the Old Testament. The only other person whose words had the power to bring life were God's. So when Jesus does it in the New Testament, we're automatically connected to say, "Is this person God? He's doing the same things that God did." Again, intentional and purposeful, these patterns that we're supposed to be developing to recognize, "Oh, this is a God thing. This is God who's doing this.”

The third thing, God's words have power, and they have power to bring a purpose. We mention this often in our preaching. It's because it's a pattern that started here in the garden. It's brought up over and over again. And so when we preach on Sundays from different passages, we've referenced this verse before, and it's that we are created and made for a unique purpose, set apart from the rest of creation to co-rule and co-reign with God. Our role intended by God from this passage was to rule over His creation. And not in the domineering way that takes advantage and is selfish and all about ambition and selfish gain. That's not until sin enters the picture later that that kind of ruling starts happening. But to bring life and order and flourishing, our priestly duty is to fill the earth, to bring life, and to rule over it, to bring order. Where do we see this in our passage? Well, verse 26 says, "Then God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image and in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'" And then in verse 28 says, "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over every living creature that moves on the ground.'" We had a purpose. God created humanity with a purpose. God's words instill purpose in those who He speaks to. Well, where do we see this repeated throughout Scripture? Well, this specifically, this idea of God's purpose for humanity is repeated many times. Exodus 19, verses 5 through 6, this is God telling Moses up on the mountain, this is what you're going to say to the people, "If you obey, you shall be My kingdom of priests and a holy nation." That kingdom of priests and the holy nation, that's ruling language. It's the same language that we're seeing here in Genesis. You're going to do, you're going to be set apart for what I had intended you to do. Psalm 8, verses 4 through 8, the psalmist is saying that God made humanity rulers over the works of His hands. Even the psalmist recognized, God, you had humanity as a special part of your creation, that they would have similar authority that you have, not the same, but a God-given authority to rule over creation. And then in the New Testament, 2 Timothy 2, verses 12, Paul is writing to the early church and saying, "If we endure, we will also reign with Him." So now the focus goes to the future in heaven and the reigning that God always intended us to have on earth and in the future. Paul is saying that our purpose is not just now, but forever. And then Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 5, "You also, like living stones, are being built up to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God and through Jesus Christ." And then in verse 9, he continues, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." God's words, which are all powerful, give purpose to humanity.

I want to close with some questions for us this week. I want to be thinking about the following. In regards to chaos, think about whatever in your life, if you're going through a chaotic situation, how you might need to bring order to that situation. I can tell you many chaotic situations in my life right now, one of them being our daughter's toy area, very chaotic, and I feel called every night to bring order to that situation, lest my feet suffer from stepping on all those toys. Sometimes I get in the mood, these are very practical, to like clean a closet or a cabinet. I just see chaos. Maybe you guys can relate. You see chaos and you're like, "I can't stand it anymore. I got to bring order to this whatever it is." Or maybe you're a gardener and you see your garden, you're like, "I let it be overgrown and it's chaotic and I got to start trimming the bushes and mowing the lawn and pruning." Maybe some of you, maybe this will hit home, dishwasher. Maybe your spouse or partner loads it in a certain way and you're like, "That is absolute chaos. Who puts the plates over there and the bowls over there?" Let me bring some order at the end of the night before I turn this dishwasher on. Whatever situation, however lighthearted it may be, or physical, relational, emotional, there's chaos, you're sensing chaos in your life. How can God's words from Scripture through the prompting of His Spirit bring order to that chaos? How can God's words in this book bring order to the chaos in your life, can help you bring order? I want you to think this week about how God's words bring life. Is there a part of you that needs the breath of life from God to breathe into your soul? Is there a part of you that's feeling dead or withering and there's no life in you when it comes to certain parts of your life? Maybe it's all of you right now, you're just feeling like there's nothing there. Maybe it's with parenting, maybe it's with relationships, maybe it's a relationship with God, maybe it's with a passion or a hobby that you used to have and it used to, like, when you participated in that and engaged with it, breathe life into your soul. Maybe it's at work and you're just feeling like work is just draining, there's no life there at work. Where in your situation do you need the words of God to breathe life into that situation, to help you? Do what you were meant to do, be who you were meant to be. So ask yourself this week, how can God's words bring life to that which is dead within me? And then thirdly, talking about, I want you to think this week about God's power and his words bringing purpose to your life. Do you need to be reminded of the purpose you were created for, to co-reign with Christ? Are you living life with that purpose? Are God's words constantly at the forefront of our minds helping us live missionally in whatever we're doing at work, around other parents, with our kids, even by ourselves? Do we have it on the forefront of our mind that we live for Christ? That our purpose, our existence was made by God with a purpose to partner with him in what he is doing here on earth? And instead of having to try to create that purpose ourselves or just willing things to be better by our own strength, where can we search God's words and find the power where the Spirit moves to find that purpose? Instead of feeling lost or wandering around in life, where can scripture help us be more intentional and live with that purpose? How can God's words bring purpose into your life? So I hope this was helpful.

Again, the hope of our series and each week is to build within us the tools to better read and understand scripture, to recognize certain themes and motifs that the author has intentionally included to help us readers and followers of Jesus better understand God's message, who he is and what he does. As you read your Bible this week, look for any parts where there is chaos and see if God brings order at some point. Look for moments where God brings life and look for moments where he speaks and it brings purpose to that passage. And as you do, trust that God's creative power to bring purpose to the chaos in your life is alive and he wants that for you. We can read this and think, great, this is going to happen elsewhere in the text, but we can also think this is going to happen for me. What happens here, what I read about is the same God that I worship today. So what he did then, he can do now. I also want to open up from this Sunday for all the other Sundays, understanding that we're asking you to engage with scripture, maybe in the way that you already are or maybe in a new way. And that can be difficult or challenging. You may have questions. We would love to walk alongside you as you read your scriptures, as you read the Bible.

So if you ever have any questions, please text Pastor Chris, myself, you can text the church number, Pastor Lauren, email us, however you want to get ahold of us. Don't let those questions go by the wayside. Offer them up and say, hey, I'm thinking this, I'm seeing this, is that true? Because again, we don't want to be connecting dots that aren't there and all of a sudden we have this misunderstanding. But as you engage with scripture and as God is revealing things to you, share those things. It's so good. It's so encouraging to hear what God is doing in your lives through the reading of his word. All right, you guys pray with me? God, thank you again for your word. Thank you so much for a text that is alive and living and is powerful. God to see and read what you have done in the past and what you continue to do. Just give such encouragement, such joy and is so reassuring for our faith. And so I pray that as we read this morning, as we read in our day to day lives, this point forward, God, that you would speak through your scripture. You would speak to our hearts, that you know exactly where we're at in life and what we need. And so if it's order, God, if we're in chaotic situations, God, I pray that you would use scripture to see how we might make steps to bring order to that. If we are feeling dead or withering and our souls are just not thriving, God, I pray that your word would speak life into us. And God, if we're wandering and feeling lost, God, I pray that your word would speak purpose and give us steps to take. God, that we would cling to you in these times and that we would cling to your word as our guide. We ask that you would speak to us this week, God. We love you and we give all that we have to you. In your name we pray. Amen.