The Story of Everything - Genesis 1-2

Ben Miller

God's Story, My Story • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Genesis 1:1–2:25

Creation

0 ratings

· 4 views

Big Idea: Your story begins with a good God who created the whole world by his word.

Notes

Transcript

Handout

Sermon Tone Analysis

Emotion

Language

Social

View more →

Genesis 1–2 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God 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 an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. 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 expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Today we are at the very BEGINNING of the Bible… the very BEGINNING of God’s big story… and when you are going to begin a story, it is best to have a plan, wouldn’t you agree?

But have you ever been around someone who rambles when they tell stories?

Like, when the story starts, it’s about this awesome restaurant that they went to...

But they get sidetracked by telling you what they ate...

Which gets sidetracked by telling you the spiciest thing they EVER ate...

Which gets sidetracked by telling you about the gatstro-intestinal problems in their family…

And by that point you are like… “Where is this story GOING and how did we get HERE!!!”

Good stories require a plan… especially when they are complex and satisfying… and even more-so if they are true stories.

If we are going to understand the point of the story, we need to understand the plan.

And today we are going to see that God’s story is an incredibly complex… incredibly satisfying… TRUE story that starts out with a very purposeful plan right from the opening words.

Think about a good novel or movie… or maybe more applicable for today… a true autobiography.

A good story will communicate WHY it’s important for you to be hearing the story.

And there may be some times throughout when we are like, “Wait, where is this story going again???”

But the plot will always make it’s way back to the plan set out in Genesis chapters 1-2...

That God would glorify himself in his creation as he relates to humanity.

That’s why it’s so important that we get this right here today...

Because in and 2, we get to see the beginning story of literally EVERYTHING. There is nothing in heaven or on earth (besides God himself) that doesn’t start right here.

That’s a pretty meaningful couple of chapters!

Today is the first Sunday in our series, “God’s story, My Story...”

Over the next 13 weeks we are working our way from Genesis to Revelation...

Through the high points of the story of the Bible...

And the goal is that you would be able to find your place in God’s unfolding story of salvation through Jesus Christ.

And I mean that in two ways…

First, I mean that literally: that you would literally be able to find your place when you are actually reading your Bible… that you would know how each part of the story of the Bible fits together to point you to Jesus...

But I also mean that experientially: that you would find your place in God’s story… that you would be able to answer the question, “How has God written YOU into HIS story.”

Our stories are part of a greater story of God that he tells us through his word that we call the Bible.

The story of the Bible was written over a two thousand year span of time… God used over 40 human authors… but really there is one Divine author behind it all...

The story of the Bible was written over a two thousand year span of time by over 40 authors...

It’s a story with ONE beautiful plan… full of suspense and drama and redemption...

And it starts like any good story… establishing the themes and purposes in the opening words.

And so as we launch into this series today, I want you to see that...

Big Idea: Your story begins with a good God who created everything by his word.

We are going to work our way through the first two chapters of the Bible today… and I want us to start by focusing in on the first ten words in the English translations… because without they are the most important words ever written:

Look at - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [or the Land]

Heres’ where we need to start today:

Your story begins with a good God. (1:1)

Explain: In the Beginning God.

In the Beginning God.

Not in the beginning man… Not in the beginning the environment… or mother nature… or primordial ooze...

Not in the beginning the environment...

In the beginning God.

The story is about God. HISTORY is about God!

It begins and ends with God.

He is the one who always was… the one who always will be.

And he is the God who created.

We are not the product of chance… we are not the result of basic chemical elements morphing into incredibly complex and intelligent creatures…

We are FAR too complex to have just happened… design demands a designer...

Like think about this: when a baby is at 5 months gestation in their mother’s womb, this phenomenon happens where over 1 million optic nerve endings in the brain connect with over 1 million optic nerve endings in the eyeball so that the baby can eventually see once their eyelids are developed… (Louie Giglio, Indescribable)

Think about wiring a house making 1 million wire connections in just the right way...

And this just “happens” inside the eyeball...

And you want to tell me that this just evolved to be that way???

Design screams designer.

And it absolutely requires faith to believe that God created… it’s essential to the Christian faith...

And you want to tell me that this just evolved to be that way???

But it also requires a ton of faith… I believe MORE faith... to believe that everything came from nothing on its own.

says, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (ESV)

[3] By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (ESV)

God spoke everything out of nothing.

The intricacies of the universe demand our faith in a creator.

And the Bible reveals that the Creator is GOOD.

He is HOLY. He is completely other than his creation because he is he only one who is not created.

And yet he is deeply interested in what he has made and reveals himself to his creatures.

YOUR STORY BEGINS with a GOOD GOD.

This sets up one of the most important and essential realities in all of the story: there is a massive distinction between the creation and the creator.

God is the God who created out of nothing… the theological term is ex nihilo.

In the beginning God. He existed when all the heavens and the earth did not.

Everything is nothing without him.

If you are here this morning and you don’t believe that God created, then I’d love to have a conversation with you later… but just humor me for a moment… consider what it would mean if that were true...

And if you do believe in God, think about what it means for him to be the Creator:

It means that he knows what is best for his creation because he designed it.

It means that he is personally invested in the outcome of his creation.

It means that he owns and has creator’s rights on everything that he created.

It means that he has incredible power that his creation does not...

And ultimately it means that he alone is to be worshiped!

says, “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” (, ESV)

If God is the creator… it means that he is OUR creator… and our stories begin and end with him.

Apply: Next week we will talk about the Fall of mankind into sin… but Bible tells us that the essence of sin is this: they worshiped the creation instead of the Creator.

Apply: The necessity of faith.

Sin doubts the creative and commanding word of God…

Sin questions questions the wisdom God.

Sin puts the creation… US… at the center of the story instead of GOd.

These opening words of God’s story must revolutionize the way we read the rest of the Bible and the way we view the story of our own lives...

Your story begins with a good God. Everything is nothing without God.

That means that when you are thinking about your origins and all the experiences of your past… it doesn’t start with the experiences themselves… but with a God who created you and the world in which you live…

It means when you are thinking about your environment… the fact that you live in this corner of the world… looking at the surroundings you look at every single day… it’s all about God.

It means that ultimately your story has, as it’s end goal, the glory of the God who created.

It means that God is deserving of every breath you breathe because he is the one who gave you breath.

Isn’t he good to us to give us life?

The creation shows us the goodness of God.

I want you to see this in chapter 1 itself - I’m going to read a longer portion of the chapter here than we normally do at once… so as you listen, I want you to pay attention to the poetry of it...

Pay attention to the words that are repeated...

And pay attention to when the repetition is interrupted...

Read 1:1-26

God said. God Said. God Said. And it was good… and it was good… and it was good.

God’s creation was good… the word means beneficial for flourishing.

And every part of his good creation was the direct result of his creative word.

Which brings us to the second part of our big idea today: Your story begins with a good God who created everything by his word.

God created everything by his word.

Everything. There is not one thing that we encounter on a daily basis that does not have it’s origin in the verses of . That’s mind boggling to me… that everything I see and experience comes right back here.

Now we are thinking of the Bible as a story… and in chapters 1-2 we get everything we need for a good story: the setting… the characters… the plot… and the drama.

So that’s how I want to consider chapters 1-2 for the rest of the sermon… we’ll start with:

1. The Setting - The heavens and the earth (1:1-26)

Explain: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

And really, this is incredible to me. It’s mentioned so quickly, but it’s so vast in nature...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

That pretty much covers it. In Jewish thought, the heavens are everything in the sky… above the earth… and then there is the earth and everything in it.

And as I read this, I don’t know what you picture, but I think of an artist whose voice is the paintbrush or the sculpting chisel...

And whatever he says appears and moves into its place...

I don’t know what you imagine, but I think of an artists moving pieces around like it’s nothing...

I think of an author painting a word picture in our minds… but instead of describing what is already visible to him so that the reader can see it, he is instead describing what is yet invisible so that it actually comes to be.

I think of a movie director with this artistic vision within himself calling for order and symmetry and beauty and putting the whole scene into its place…

God creates the environment in which everything will exist… and then he creates the things that inhabit that environment.

Light, darkness...

And we don’t have time today to get into all the details of creation, but I want you to see that the setting of our day to day lives all comes back to this one chapter.

Day one...

And then

Illustrate - Think about the setting of your life…

You wake up in the morning to bright light shining through a crack in your curtains… the light that God separated from darkness on day one....

You breathe in the fresh air of the atmosphere that God created on day 2...

You pour yourself a glass of water or drink a cup of coffee strained from the waters that God separated above and below on that same day…

You step out of your house and put your foot down on dry land that God separated from the seas on day three.

As you walk to your car, you pass trees and plants and maybe even bite into an apple that God created on day three…

As you drive, you put on your sunglasses to shield your eyes from the Sun that God charged to govern the daytime… later that night you will see the moon and the stars… the nearest star being over 2 quadrillion miles away… on day four...

You drive across creeks swarming with fish that are so insignificant that you don’t think about them… and go about your day not even hearing the birds that are singing that God created on day 5...

You go about your day with the birds singing that God created on day 5...

You pass squirrels and dogs and cows and horses pulling Amish buggies… and you talk to people who God made in his image all on day 6.

Apply: Understand setting of the story of your life begins with a God who created ALL of it.

The Characters - (in addition to God)… Mankind in God’s image.

What is man that you are mindful of him?

The EARTH… the LAND… is the place that God established to dwell with his people.

Remember… what we are studying right now is part of a greater book called Genesis which is part of the first five books of the Bible that we call the Pentateuch...

And the Pentateuch was written by Moses right before God’s people ISRAEL entered the Promised Land.... (we’ll talk about that in a couple weeks)… but that’s the time-frame when this is being written…

It was written originally so that Israel could understand who God is and how they came to be his people...

And ultimately so they could know that the Promised Land they were about to enter BELONGED to God… it was the place where he would be their God and they would be his people.

As he creates the land… he creates it as the setting for his unfolding story

And is setting that up… that God could give them their small little part of the land where their nation was located because HE

There is actually evidence that Moses, the human author of the first five books of the BIble… wrote in such a way so that we would relate it to the tabernacle when he describes it in Exodus.

The creation is the setting for where God wants to dwell with his people.

And that is the SAME purpose of the world around you.

That it would be the place where you meet with God as YOUR God and you live out your life as his child through faith in him.

And we can go about our days completely oblivious to that fact… mindlessly consuming the creation without any thought of why it exists…

OR we can choose to enjoy the Creator as we enjoy his creation.

We can allow everything that we see to remind us that there is a creator… and our stories begin and end with him.

Remember… one of our goals in this series is that we would have a biblical worldview...

That we would see the world around us through GOD’S eyes… and that starts by recognizing that he created the heavens and the earth.

Our response to the Creation… to the setting of our life… should be the same as David in :

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (, ESV)

I had this experience this morning when I came into the church… there were probably more stars visible today than I’ve personally ever seen in my life… and it was a time of drawing my heart to God!

You have this vast expanse… and yet… we see that mankind was at the pinnacle of Creation...

We see this as the account of day 6… look at verse 26 [Read ]

Here we see the main characters of the story:

2. The Characters - God and Mankind (in God’s image)

Explain: Again… it starts with God…

Notice the differences right out of the gate in verse 26 - “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image”… not the impersonal, “Let there BE… or “Let the waters swarm”… or “let the earth...”

Not… “Let us make man according to its kind...”

No… this is personal… Let US make man in OUR image… according to OUR likeness..

So mankind reflects God in some way.

It’s interesting… he says US… like if you were talking to yourself, you wouldn’t say “US”…

(unless you were Gollam from LOTR.)

And this could mean one of two things:

First, it could be a reference to the Trinity… one God in three persons…

And we do see, from other parts of scripture, that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all active in Creation...

So it could be a reference to the Trinity...

Or it could be what is called the “Plural of Majesty.”

This is when God demonstrates how big he is… how majestic he is… by using a plural pronoun to refer to himself as ONE God.

That is most likely how the Israelites understood this verse…

I would suggest… this verse is not a good PROOF verse for the Trinity, there are far better ones.

So we have God… and then we have mankind created in God’s image.

And he creates them as two distinct genders: male and female.

He creates their bodies (as we will see in chapter 2) in distinct, complimentary ways… and he creates them for complimentary purposes...

And here’s the beauty: BOTH are created FULLY in the image of God.

The fact that you were born a biological male or a biological female is part of what it means for you to express the image of God as he created you.

And I love what Sarah Cope said to a skeptical friend when she was discussing this fact one time… “God doesn’t make mistakes.”

That’s why it is so important that we do not lose sight of GOD’S definition of those things when the culture wants to redefine them...

And even if your own emotions and understanding is feeling confusion about them.

God created male and female in his own image and he does not make mistakes.

ULTIMATELY, our gender is part of how we bear the image of God in our lives.

And there may be confusion or dysphoria… there may be brokenness or sinfulness in the way those things are expressed...

But ultimately, God has a plan for man and woman both distinctly created in his image.

So then what does it mean for man and woman to be created in God’s image?

I’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean: it doesn’t mean we are little gods.

It doesn’t mean that we are divine in our being… that we all just need to tap into the divine aura inside of us…

No, it means we are a reflection… like a mirror is to the real thing.

We display the beauty of the glory of God in who he created us to be.

And there’s a lot of explanations about what the image of God DOES mean, but it probably means a broad variety of things… because God is complex…

and we should expect the idea of bearing his image to have complex, far-reaching implications...

But I do want to look at 6 ways we bear the image of God:

First, God has a mind with the capacity for wisdom and choice.

First, we are created with physical capacity.

Now God is Spirit… the Bible is clear about that… but it is also clear that he operates in a physical world...

He CREATED a physical world… he CREATED time and space and matter...

And we operate within that time and space ad matter.

We already talked about how that impacts human sexuality… but also any physical body issue…

Your physical personhood is part of you being created in the image of God.

It’s not something to be worshiped and obsessed over in itself… how you look or don’t look… your sexuality…

It’s mean to be used to glorify God.

The Apostle Paul said, “Glorify God in your bodies.”

Offer your BODY as a living sacrifice.

The image of God includes our physical capacity.

Second, we are created with a relational capacity.

God is one God in three persons. He did not need mankind to express perfect fellowship and love. He could do that within himself… that’s AWESOME.

And so he created man in his image to be relational.

Jesus prayed that his church may be ONE as he and the Father are one.

He made the man and the woman in the garden to become ONE flesh.

Third, we are created with moral capacity.

We have some sense of right and wrong (which was definitely upended by the Fall… but it is still there even in unbelievers).

And it comes from the perfect character of God himself.

Fourth, we have intellectual capacity.

We can think… we can reason… we can choose.

We can weigh out two options using some sense of wisdom.

That is the image of our creator.

Fifth we have emotional capacity.

God feels. And so do we.

Every emotion that you can feel can be traced to a righteous expression in God himself.

God is not some stoic God that hates emotions. He’s the one who created them in his image.

Sixth, we are created with ruling capacity.

The next verses talk about God setting man in dominion of all things.

We can put things in order. We can create things that are beautiful. We can help others flourish.

And that’s the image of God.

HE is the King, but WE are his representative rulers on the earth.

Ultimately, everything about who we are that is not sin is a reflection of our creator.

You’ve heard of a “communicable disease...”

Communicable means that it is able to be transferred from one person to another...

Which MEANS that we find our purpose and our calling by getting to know HIM.

And while we can’t be everywhere like God and know everything and we aren’t perfect in wisdom like he is…

He created us with some attributes that we reflect him in...

And that’s key to understanding who we are.

We are who we are because God is who he is.

Apply: In our day, everyone is trying to “find themselves.”

Illustrate: Think about what defines you… job? Other role? Looks? Financial situation?

All we want and all we need is found in you...

Kids leave high school and take a gap year to “find themselves.”

Apply: Define yourself by the way you reflect the image of God through Jesus Christ.

People search for meaning and identity in their job or in their family or relationships.

Let your first priority and definition

The mid-life crisis brings a new search to find yourself when the old thing you relied on proved insufficient.

Apply: And the Bible says… if you want to “find yourself,” don’t look at yourself… look at God.

See who he is… seek to reflect him… seek to live for his glory… and you will discover who he created you to be.

Your story begins with finding your identity in God who became flesh… we know him as Jesus Christ.

Your story begins by seeing that you were created in the image of God...

And your sin marred that image beyond recognition… it extends to every part of who you are...

But God sent his son… the Bible calls him the image of the invisible God… the exact representation of his nature… we know him as Jesus Christ...

God sent him that everyone who puts their faith in his saving work can be restored back into the image of their creator.

This Summer our women talked a lot about the image of God, and they used this definition: “to be created in the image is God is to become increasingly Christ-like in the power of the Spirit.”

says that when we put our faith in Jesus Christ for salvation… we die with him… and we are raised with him… and therefore we...

…[you] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” ( ESV)

[10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (ESV)

The thing that Jesus Christ wants to do in your life is to move you back to that state that Adam and Eve were in before the fall.

And that happens increasingly in this life and finds its fulfillment in eternity.

God created everything by his word… he created the setting (the heavens and the earth)… he created the characters (God and mankind in God’s image…)

Third, God created...

3. The Plot - Purposeful Work and Rest that Spreads God’s Glory

Explain: Every story has to have a plot, doesn’t it?

It would be really boring if God created all this stuff… and then we all just sat there looking at each other like, “What do you want to do?” … “I dunno… what do you wanna do?”...

God gave mankind responsibility in cultivating his creation…

Look at verse 27 [Read 1:27-2:1]

Notice… God created patterns of work and rest that spread his glory… he gave humanity responsibility… and he called that responsibility BLESSING.

Responsibility is not a result of the Fall… it is the intent of God’s good design.

Responsibility is a blessing. - Kids… remember that when your parents tell you to unload the dishwasher this afternoon. Responsibility is a blessing.

God’s blessing includes the responsibility to be fruitful and multiply...

They are to take the image of God that is hardwired into their DNA and they are to spread it all over the face of the earth.

And as they fill the earth, they are to subdue it...

They are to cultivate it and make it work for them.

I think of this every time I go to Longwood gardens and compare it to my back yard.

My backyard is what it looks like to NOT subdue the earth...

Longwood Gardens is what it looks like TO subdue the earth.

We are called to bring beauty out of the earth around us in a way that reflects our creator...

We are called to steward the earth that he has given us.

And listen… I realize those terms have been hijacked for political parties on the left and right… but I’m not thinking in political terms here… I’m thinking in terms of God’s kingdom responsibility that he’s given us.

We are to steward the physical earth in which he has placed us.

And as we do that work, we are to follow him in rest.

Rest here is not like, “WHEW… I’m TIRED… I need a NAP!!!”

No, rest is the completion… the ceasing of all his work.

I had an Old Testament professor who defined rest as the enjoyment of God’s blessing.

And we learn throughout the story that this creation account of work for 6 days and rest on the seventh is meant as a pattern...

That God’s people would set apart one day of the week as holy unto the Lord… that they would focus their attention on him… and remember that they are not superior to the Creator who rested...

But instead they are cared for by a creator who says, “Rest in me.”

Illustrate: Think about the responsibilities in your life… think about all 5 spheres that we talk about sometimes at Oak Hill…

That you are an individual created in God’s image...

That you are a family member...

If you are a follower of Jesus, you have responsibility as a member of his body, the Church...

You have responsibility to your neighbors and those you serve through your work...

You have responsibilities as a citizen in the Kingdoms of earth AND in the Kingdom of heaven…

And that may seem overwhelming… but think about your God who is never overwhelmed...

Who spoke and created you and created the world around you...

And who says, “Trust me. Trust the saving work of my Son to make you righteous before me. Find your REST in him. And then simply walk in the good works that I lay before you.

The patterns of work and rest that God has placed in your life is the plot of the story by which he makes you more like Jesus.

It’s the action in which you relate to him and become more like him and express his image.

He is a working and resting God.

He created you to work hard… and to rest well.

And in the midst of that responsibility, he gave you human relationships that provide rich depth in our lives.

Which leads us to this last foundational element of the story:

4. The Drama - Human relationships

Now when I say drama, I don’t mean it in a bad sense like, “Ugh… I’m just tired of all this drama...” (though in a fallen world that will totally happen)...

But I’m talking about the interplay between humans that makes this life rich and beautiful and interesting.

Even the most intorverted among us would go crazy if we had to spend the rest of our lives alone...

Just watch the movie Castaway if you want to see what that looks like (that movie is the only movie that can make you fall in love with and cry over a volleyball… WILSON!!!)

Look at chapter 2 verse 4 and notice the difference in perspective as I read. [Read 2:4-30]

Explain:

So we have this totally different perspective in chapter 2 that is very personal and intimate… whereas chapter 1 was very cosmic and big… Chapter 1 is like the overview… and chapter 2 focuses the story of how God is creating a personal covenant relationship with himself…

That relationship will be fulfilled in Adam.... in Noah… in Abraham… in the people of Israel… and ultimately in Jesus.

So chapter 2 is helping us look at this personal relationship between God and man… and also the relationship between man and woman...

And not just husband and wife… but these are the foundations of human relationships in every sphere.

So God forms this man out of the dust of the earth… that’s to remind us that we are nothing special except that God made us in his image. We are not God… we are but dust.

And God plants this beautiful garden for Adam… and Adam starts to fulfill his representative authority on the earth… he’s given the responsibility of naming the creatures...

And we see that this is because there’s this great search going on for a helper suitable for Adam.

God has declared his whole creation as VERY good at the end of chapter 1… but now we run into something NOT good… it is NOT good fro man to be alone.

And as every creature is brought before Adam, none are found to be this helper suitable...

Illustrate:

Why? The conclusion from logic is that it is because none of the other creatures bear the image of God like Adam does.

And so God puts Adam to sleep… and God fashions woman out of Adam’s rib...

It’s very intimate… very personal...

And Adam wakes up and is like, “WO-MAN!!! THIS IS THE HELPER SUITABLE. THIS IS THE ONE WHO BEARS THE IMAGE OF GOD LIKE I DO!!!”

And there is this perfect intimacy between them… so much that they could be called ONE flesh. And they were naked and unashamed.

Husbands… wives.. don’t we long for that???

Don’t we sometimes feel the gap in that in our relationships???

Singles… don’t you still crave relationship where you are fully known AND fully loved…

And we see that God is the one who created relationship.

God did not create us to be alone. But he also created the type of relationships that we have.

He created the man and woman as distinct.

The woman is created in the image of God, but she is called the “helpmate.”

That’s not a lesser job… it just defines her role.

And we begin to see that God has a good design for relationships.

And relationships WORK when we seek his design.

Relationships WORK when we relate to others in the way God intended.

And throughout the rest of the story, we are going to see the drama of relationships unfold.

We are going to see the good, the bad and the ugly.

We are going to get a ton more details on God’s perspective for human relationships.

But for now, we can see that God created them. He has a design for them. Which means...

We must seek his design for sexuality.

We must seek his design for spiritual intimacy.

We must seek his design for unity.

We must seek his design for love.

You are going to encounter a ton of relationships this week… a TON of people created in the image of God.

Will you seek God’s design for how he wants you to relate to them?

Now you may be wondering, “If God created all this good stuff, why is it NOT going so good today?

Illustrate:

Why is the setting of the earth falling apart with hurricane after hurricane and floods and earthquakes and fires???

Why are humans so divided over their concept of God if those are the two main characters?

Why is work frustrating and why does rest feel like a pipe-dream if that is the main plot of our lives?

Why are relationships so hard and full of tension?

Well, that’s what we are going to talk about next week.

Because next week we will meet one more very important character… the villain...

And we will be introduced to the central conflict in the story… which is man’s rebellion against God… their desire to be like him and to be at the center of the story...

It ruined everything.

But I want you to know that the only way back to Eden… the only way back to the beauty of God’s original design… is through faith in his son Jesus Christ.

- [15] He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. [19] For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, [20] and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (ESV)

[15] He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. [19] For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, [20] and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (ESV)

· Is there a command to obey?

The Preeminence of Christ

· Is there a heart attitude or desire to put off?

· Is there a heart attitude or desire to put on?

All of creation… everything… is about Jesus...

And he took on our flesh. He stepped down into our dusty existence… the creator became the creation.

All things were created through him and for him… including you.

And he is working to reconcile ALL things to himself… to bring things back to the way they were at the beginning… one day all will be right because he will fully usher in his kingdom...

And this week… this part of your story… is just the beginning of that later part of the story…

This life is just the foretaste of the redemption that is to come

Your story this week is about Jesus.

Everything you encounter is about Jesus.

Every person you talk is created in God’s image, but needs the redemption of Jesus.

The work you perform and the ways you rest are for the glory of Jesus.

And so by faith today, I pray that you would see that your story begins with a good God who created everything by his word.

And he succeeded everywhere that Adam failed… and everywhere that we fail every day...

And he took his perfect life and he died on a cross to pay for our sin...

And he rose again from the grave so that by faith in him we could have NEW LIFE that is being restored to reflect God again.

So that the image of God could be restored in us.

And he is returning for us to take us to a heavenly home where we will once again eat from the tree of life and where we will once again enjoy perfect intimacy with God and others.

The story ends where it begins.

And so by faith today, I pray that you would see that your story begins with a good God who created everything by his word.

Related Media

Related Sermons