God my Creator
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Tonight we go back to the beginning… the VERY beginning of all things. The story of creation… is a story that we as believers certainly need to listen to. Why? Because if we do not listen and receive what the Word has to say about the beginning, then you might as well not listen to the rest of the story!
We know tonight that God created all that we have ever known. We know that… right?
He literally spoke the universe, heaven and earth, and all of life… into motion. Church, make no mistake about it… when God spoke… all of creation listened and obeyed.
He created the heavens and the earth. He created the sun, the moon, and stars. He created plants, animals, and people. You and I… we were created in His image and likeness. He lovingly designed us with a unique plan and a purpose for our lives.
God IS the ultimate creator. And we… humankind… we are His crowing creation.
What I just spoke is all true… but the problem is, our world is doing an effective job of denying that truth and filling hearts and minds with a narrative that is anything but truth.
We are taught in school what science has to say about our world… or at least the parts of science they want us to hear.
Science would tell us that we are the results of happenstantial events… that all that we have ever know is an accident.
Science would tell us that when all the right ingredients just happened to come together… they happened to find just the right mixture in order to create matter, to create elements and so forth. According to science, there is no purpose… there is no design or designer. There is just a looooooooong list of accidental events that have led up to our existence.
And yet… humans know otherwise. How can I make that declaration? Because we long for purpose. We long for meaning. We long for identity and calling.
“Why are we here?” Is perhaps the most asked question. People want to know that they are here to do more than to take up space on this pretty blue planet.
But it’s awfully hard to find that purpose… to find that meaning… to find that identity… when you are listening to the wrong voices.
Open your Bibles to Genesis 1:1 and look at what it says.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
What this one verse tells us is truly amazing. It tells us that the beginning includes:
The beginning of the universe.
The beginning of God’s self-revelation as Creator and, ultimately, Redeemer.
The beginning of your story and my story.
This one verse tells us how things started and who it was that placed all things into motion. GOD CREATED might just be two of some of the most important words in ALL of Scripture.
God does NOT create on accident. God is purposeful and meaningful.
God does NOT leave things to chance. Our God is a God of order and design.
God does NOT create for confusion. He gives identity and direction to all who would listen.
This evening, we are going to further look at what the Word has to say about how God created us and… we will take a moment to hear from God our creator through prayer and His Holy Spirit.
Maybe you’re struggling with purpose. Maybe you’re struggling with identity. Maybe you’re caught up in all of the noise and conversations of this world. And because of that… maybe you feel more lost than ever.
Hear me clearly tonight: God created you for His glory. God created you with amazing works in mind! We will unpack more of that in a moment, but first, we are going to watch this short video regarding the amazing truth that is God’s creative work.
PLAY VIDEO - Session 2 Video
There was something that the narrator said in the video that I want to repeat… regarding purpose. He said it was purpose may be the oldest of human questions… then he said, “We aren’t the first to feel it… to search for it. But the Bible won’t let us read beyond the first pages of Scripture without insisting that it is there.”
That statement right there… reveals the problem. God revealed in Scripture that which so many have been searching for. Yet so many have missed it. Why? There are two possible reasons:
One - They have yet to read those first few pages of Scripture. They have yet to see this truth revealed in God’s Word.
Two - They have chosen not to listen to what those first few pages have to say. They are choosing, instead, to listen to some other source hoping to find the answer they are looking for.
Here’s what we know.
God created us on purpose and for a purpose. Scripture makes this truth very clear.
There is no way, outside of God, to fully discover and know what your purpose is.
And that last line… is why I believe we are seeing so many issues today regarding purpose, identity, and calling. People ARE searching, that is an irrefutable fact. The problem is… many are listening to the WRONG voices.
So this evening, lets listen to what God has to say about how you are made and why you were made. Lets allow His Spirit to speak to us this evening as we either find or reaffirm our purpose that can only be found in Him.
How God Made Us
How God Made Us
There are two Genesis passages I want us to look at as we break this down this evening.
26 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.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 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.”
29 Then God said, “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. 30 And to 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 the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Hold your place there and go to Genesis 2:7-8
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
These passages give us amazing insight to how we were made.
The first thing we need to see is that we were made in the image of God.
At the pinnacle of His creative work, God created humans and we are the only part of creation that is declared to be made in HIS IMAGE. Added to that, the Word says He created humans as “male and female he created them.”
God created us and designed us to know and relate personally to Him. We were created with spiritual natures which permits us to reason, make choices, and to know and love God.
God also created us male and female. God gives us that part of our identity and it is reflective in both our inward makeup and outward design.
This is a major thing today - and I want to be careful and loving as I talk about this briefly. We are facing an identity crisis because our world has chosen to ignore the words in Scripture we just read. What we are seeing take place is depravity of the mind. BECAUSE our society has disconnected itself from God’s Word and truth, we don’t even know if we are boys and girls, men and women anymore.
As troublesome as the issue may be, I am more concerned with what is going on under the surface of it all. People don’t know who they are… they don’t know who God created them to be. And.. if they have chosen to reject God’s truth and way… that doesn’t change how it was that God created them.
Whether this is a result of not knowing or deliberate rejection… it all results in the same thing: LOST. SEARCHING. UNSETTLED. DESPERATE.
The ONLY WAY to see this reversed is to connect people with God’s love and truth.
Debates on social media won’t fix it. Harsh words and memes won’t fix it. Protests and politics won’t change it. Instead, we need to start listening again in regards to how God made us in the beginning!
Secondly, God brings humankind to life in a unique way.
Chapter 2 of Genesis gives us some more detailed info regarding how Adam came to life.
Adam came to life how? When God breathed the breath of life into him (Genesis 2:7). This is extremely significant.
Adam is portrayed here as distinct from the rest of the animal world. He not only bears the image of God but he was also brought to life by the breath of God.
It is also important to note the responsibility that is given to humankind. Moral accountability is established in the form of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” God said to stay away from that tree. Adam now has the responsibility and moral duty to obey the given word of God.
Our sense of morality is not an accidental thing. It is something given to us by God. Morality is not something that can be legislated or even created by man… it is a way that can only be experienced in God.
Our problem today is we are trying to be a “moral” nation without the influence of God in the land anymore. George Washington recognized that the two pillars that held the USA up were religion and morality. He also realized that one cannot stand without the other.
Morality gets its meaning from God
God cannot be served in a land that is immoral.
The moment our culture began to walk away from the Lord was the moment our morality began to crumble and… the rest is history. God can fix it… but the fix we need can only come through repentance and revival.
Next, look at how Eve was created.
Eve was created from a rib that had been taken from the man’s side. She is created to be a suitable help for Adam. She was created to complete the picture.
Eve was created from Adam’s side… to be at his side. She was not created inferior to man but in equality to man.
The Hebrew word, ezer, is used in Genesis 2:18; 20 describing Eve as being Adam’s HELP. This is the same term that is used elsewhere in the Bible to describe God as our help - Psalm 33:20
20 We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
Adam’s aloneness was overcome through the companionship and marriage unity he found in Eve. They were the first couple of the world and God’s invention of marriage is first seen between them. Jesus and Paul both refer back to Genesis as the basis for human marriage.
The Hebrew concept of “one flesh” means inseparable, closely held union of a man and a woman at every level of human intimacy.
NO OTHER PART OF THIS UNIVERSE WAS CREATED IN THIS WAY.
Humans were NOT created as blank slates whose gender, identity, and purpose would be assigned to them at later stages in life, God created us IN HIS IMAGE, MALE AND FEMALE, with purpose, distinctions, and purposeful design!
Again, our culture challenges this truth… because they have separated themselves from the truth. You are not an accident. As it says in Psalms 139:13-14
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
Secondly, I want to talk about WHY we were made.
Why We Were Made
Why We Were Made
We’re going to move to a passage in the New Testament on this one… it’s a passage we looked at briefly this morning and I want to unpack it a bit more tonight.
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
This is an amazing passage that speaks of both what was and what is. And I love how God inspired Paul to start this off.
One -We are GOD’S handiwork. Again, we were made in His image by God Himself.
Isaiah 64:8 says it this way
8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
God shapes us and molds us… He made us and formed us. When you look in the mirror… you are looking at someone God created and put together.
Two - we were created IN Christ Jesus.
This is true both in Genesis AND in the New Testament.
In Genesis - Jesus was a part of the creative act. John 1:1-5 reads
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Word - IS JESUS. he was there when the earth was formed.
Secondly, it is through Jesus that we are born again.
Not only was Jesus there when all things were made, He is also the way of our new life that comes through His redeeming blood.
It is by grace we are saved and set free from sin. Jesus was a part of the creative act AND He was the key to God’s redemptive plan.
Third, we were created in Jesus to do good works - works God had in mind BEFORE we were ever made!
In other words… God has a plan for you. God has a purpose for you. That purpose is found in the new life we find in Jesus Christ. that plan comes alive when we make the choice to say NO to all sin and the world and yes to what Jesus has in store for us!
Here’s the deal: Our purpose and sense of meaning gets lost in sin. It gets lost in our rebellion and rejection of God.
God created us not for sin, but for His glory. And the moment sin entered this world by mankind’s choice, we began to lose sight of who God created us to be and why God created us in the first place. This is evident in what I believe is the most tragic verse in all the Bible. It gives details of what happened after Adam and Eve sinned against God.
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Before sin existed, Adam and Eve had a beautiful fellowship with God. They enjoyed His presence. After sin entered the world, they felt shame. And… instead of running to God, they ran and hid from him.
And… I believe that is still happening today. People are running and hiding from God. People are overwhelmed with shame, guilt, and sin, and in their separation, they have forgotten that they are created in the image of God.
Closing
Closing
And similar to what took place in the Garden, God is calling out to sinners through the gift of His Son, Jesus.
God did not leave Adam and Eve in their shame… He instead provided for them a covering - he did for them what they were unable to do for themselves.
And today, God offers all sinners a similar covering - an atonement - our sins are washed away through the blood of His Son, Jesus.
Through Christ, our purpose, our identity, our reason for being is COMPLETELY restored and made new. We are no longer lost, but are found.
So this evening, I want us to consider that point right there: if you find yourself searching, looking, feeling lost or lacking in purpose and meaning, then maybe its time to answer God’s call to you. Jesus wants to restore you tonight.
We are going to open these altars for anyone who is needing God’s help with who they are. We are going to seek Him and ask for His guidance and direction.
He made you. He loves you. And He has great things in store for you.
God is calling out to you right now… will you come out of hiding and come back to His presence?