Good morning everybody. Good morning. If you have a Bible, you'll want to turn to the probably to Genesis chapter 1 Genesis chapter 1 We're going to read from this and let me say while you're turning there that I love coming to churches when they have a mission emphasis weekend How about that? So thank you very much and We're going to read apart of the Bible that you may be surprised to find associated with your mission as a follower of Jesus But let's read it and see what God will teach us today. Genesis chapter 1 beginning in verse 26 Here now the word of God 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 Let's pray together Lord Jesus we have heard words that were spoken so long ago is unimaginable to us But we turn now to you Because we call no one our teacher but you We trust no one like we trust you we hope and no one like we hope and you we long to see no one like we long to see you And so we come now asking you to send Holy Spirit to us May Holy Spirit come and fill every heart in this room that our eyes may be open to see and our ears unstopped to hear and our heart softened Softened and humbled before you as we hear from you today and as you do that we will praise you we will give you the honor for it Amen I don't know if you noticed or not, but in the bulletin today There's a word that kept on appearing it appears right on the front page and expression God is building his kingdom and all day long in this worship service We've been talking about the kingdom. Have you noticed that now? I'm not around your church enough to know if you do that every Sunday. I wish you would Okay, but at least you're doing it today Building the kingdom kingdom kingdom kingdom and you'll hear that expression used a lot these days among Christians Among Christians who follow the Bible and who follow the Lord Jesus faithfully because that kingdom theme is our mission Building God's kingdom on earth is our mission It's what we're supposed to be all about as followers of Jesus But sometimes even though we've heard that term used and even though we've thought about it here and there It really doesn't have the central role That would make us understand Jesus when he said things like seek first the kingdom of God And it doesn't help us understand why Jesus would tell us to pray in the Lord's prayer May your kingdom come may your will be done. Where did all that come from? Where did all this Jesus emphasis on the kingdom come from it came from the chapter we just read Genesis chapter one When I think about this passage it reminds me of a summer when I was about nine ten years old My father who worked on the railroad was on strike and they knew it was gonna be a long strike So my parents had this great idea They decided they were going to add a room to our house during that summer and They had another great idea. I was going to have to help my dad do it and And so at ten years old I spent an entire summer from sunrise the sunset working with my father adding a room to our house And I remember my mother's so dramatic. It's just like post-traumatic stress I got on this thing where my mother would come out every morning as she was going to the work and she would say I don't care about anything except that it doesn't look like it was added to the house And so we'd worked very hard to make sure the floors were just right that the brickwork match that the windows are perfect Pitch of the roof all those kinds of things we worked every day trying to make this thing look like it didn't That it wasn't added to the house We'd want to show my mom everything we had done of course every night, but she would just say the same thing every time I don't care. I don't care. All I care is it doesn't look like it was added to the house Well, we worked very hard to make it look like it was a part of the original floor plan of the house But I can tell you this if you were to drive to Roanoke, Virginia today and see my parents house It would take you about three seconds before you would say that room was added to that house
Because unless you're a master architect a master builder if you add a room to a house it looks like it was added to the house Well, welcome to the way most of us think about and live for this thing we call the kingdom We know it's supposed to be something that's important to us, but most of us get around to it after we get all the other things in life straightened out You know things like a good job and education Getting married Making sure your kids can go to college Making sure your 401k is okay Once you get all those kinds of things set well then maybe I should think about this kingdom thing a little bit But what we're going to see this morning is is that building the kingdom of God on earth is Not an addition to your life. It is your life It is the original floor plan of what it means for someone to follow Jesus, but it's even more than that It's the original floor plan for what it means to be a human being and I think everybody in the room during this service qualifies there Human being now if we're going to figure out what the original plan was for you and me We need to go back to the original and that's what we find in Genesis chapter one So let's just take a look for a moment. We'll just see a couple of things here The first thing we want to see is this what did God call us? What did God call us as far as we know the first thing the very first thing God ever said about human beings Appears in chapter one verse 26 and God said let us make man in our image in our likeness
Now if you were to ask most followers of Jesus today Uh, I'm going to say human being and you tell me the first thing to pop into your mind the usual response would be something like human beings Centers If you don't know that people are sinners. Let me just tell you Everybody is All of us in here are sinners. You don't have to be an axe murderer to be a sinner All you got to be is just a little bit imperfect and I've been in this church this morning long enough to know That's true of everybody in here a little bit less than perfect. You're a sinner So it's true that we are sinners and we are in need of a savior to redeem us from that sin But the fact is is that Sometimes we don't catch the significance of what it means to be a sinner Because we forget something else that's true about us Is what God said here you are the image and the likeness of God That makes you a special creature on this planet every single one of you That makes your sins and your salvation very significant Without it No significance It might surprise you to know this but in the days of the Bible back in the days of Moses and all those kinds of guys This was a common expression image of God likeness of the gods son of the gods in fact Let's go back to that day get in a time machine with me We'll go back there and just think about it for a minute the way that people in the ancient world thought about this You know back to the days of ziggarides back to the days of pyramids You know the days of charlotte and heston and you'll brenner those guys, okay? Pharaoh those people They did use the expression image of God likeness of gods son of the gods who all meant the same thing to them But they used it for one person and one person only in their societies The Egyptians the Babylonians did it the Assyrians did it even the Canaanites did it They talked about the image of God but that one person who had that title Was the key You'll brenner Pharaoh the emperor And it's not hard to understand why they called these people this select group of people images of God It was because just like today politicians in those days thought they were gods gift to humanity Have you ever noticed that about politicians? They think that somehow God has blessed us all by their presence among us and so in the ancient world Kings thought that it was their job their role To learn the will of what the gods wanted up there in heaven and then to make it happen on the earth That's why they were called images of God they represented the gods down here on earth They made sure that God's will was done on this earth as it is in heaven That should remind you of something that Jesus once said That's why they were called images of God and now you see how radical Moses was in his day
Because Moses doesn't say the king is the image of God What he said was we are all the image all the likeness of God Male and female he made them in this image that was unthinkable in Moses days that a woman would be the image and likeness of God But it's precisely what Moses is saying and can you imagine how hard that must have been For those Israelites receiving this book to believe I mean put yourself in their shoes They had been propagandized by the Egyptians for hundreds of years Into thinking that there was only one person who had that kind of significance One person who had that kind of importance to learn God's will and make it happen on the planet And here's Moses talking to these former slaves and he's telling them it's a lie It is an absolute lie All of you have the dignity and the value and the significance of the greatest king that has ever walked on this planet Because you've all been made to learn the will of God and to make it happen on the earth He must have been very hard for them to believe that And you can get a sense of that by the fact that it's hard for you to believe that Here we are in 21st century a egalitarian democratic America and we still have a hard time believing this That all people are the image and the likeness of God I'm going to say a political statement here about our president And there's not going to be a single person in here who will disagree with me you think I can do it
I'll give it a shot you ready for this The president of the United States is a very important man
We all know that's true and we know exactly what we mean We mean that if he decides we're going this way It's going to shape the whole course of human history in that direction if he decides we're going this way It's going to shape the whole course of human history in that direction. He is an important man But what about you? Do your choices matter? Do the decisions you make have an impact on the world? Most of us think no of course not. I'm not important. I'm not significant What I do with my time, what I do with my energy where I devote myself It's really not going to make that much difference anyway. So who cares
We've all heard the stories having we of the grandmother who did nothing in her life except raise her orphaned grandson to become a Christian And he really did nothing but become a shoe salesman except that one day he shared his faith with one of his customers And that customer did nothing that we can remember except go home one day and talk to his next door neighbor about Christ And he believed in Jesus and became Billy Graham Yeah Okay now out of that chain of events out of all those people in that lineup who was important
We don't want to say that only Billy Graham was important He was the one on television to be sure But he wasn't the only one important that grandmother's role was just as important as Billy Graham That shoe salesman it was just as significant as Billy Graham that next door neighbor was just As significant as Billy Graham and that is you and me
Is to find what God wants us to do How we are to learn his will and make it happen on this planet and the choices you make The decisions you make the way you spend your time and your energy has as much impact on the world as anyone can possibly imagine Because you are the image and the likeness of God
If you think your choices don't matter that your life is insignificant you are right where the evil one wants you to be Because if you believe that about yourself you know what you will do with your life you will waste it away Wasted away on more trinkets Wasted away on bigger televisions nicer cars bigger houses fancier vacations
But if you understand that what you do with your time what you do with your money what you do with your daily experiences at work in your neighborhood At the store Is the significance of what a king would do Now you know Who you are Can you imagine how your marriage would be different if the two of you treated each other as royalty
Can you imagine just imagine for a moment How your relationship with your teenage children would be different and teenagers how your relationship with your parents would be different if you treated each other like royalty This is what God who made you has said you are Learned the will of God in heaven and bring it to the earth
So what kind of activities what kind of job does an image of God have in this world? I don't know about you, but I've had a job once that the title sounded really good But the job itself is horrible When I was 17 I had been teaching music in a local studio guitar and in local studio for a number of years and I needed a summer job A full-time job so I could save money for college and so I asked the owner I said can I have a full-time job? He said sure sure you can do that. We like you. And it's a great Well, what will it be and he's thought for a moment? He said well, let's call you the assistant to the owner. Oh, right Assistant to the owner at 17 I knew what that meant that meant when he left the office. I got the boss people around I didn't quite work out that way What I discovered after a few days was Being the assistant to the owner meant that I had to do everything nobody else wanted to do So when the windows needed cleaning rich will do that when the bathrooms needed cleaning rich will do that When we need a grand piano delivered up flights of stairs by one person rich will do that Have you ever seen that Laura on a hardy clip where the pianos going down the stairs and falling apart Google it. You'll find it. I've done that I dropped a grand piano and it went right on down it was breaking up all it was horrific Don't worry. They sold it for you about a week later because they elmer glued it all back together Check out your pianos carefully when you buy them from a studio. Okay
All right great job title, but what about the job? What about the responsibilities the opportunities that the image of God has well We find us spelled out for us in verse 28 And God blessed them you see is a good thing here good thing coming A really good thing coming and God blessed them and God said to them Be fruitful and multiply Fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over every living thing that moves on the ground Now if you've been around Christianity much Then you have probably heard those words before But let's be truthful about it for just a moment and admit to ourselves how little these words mean to us
I mean when was the last time you were at a party and you met somebody you didn't know and of course You know it was going to get around to eventually they say well, what do you do when was the last time you were standing They're shaking their hand and you look them in the eye and you say well I'm fruitful and multiply how's that going for you Have you ever done that your whole life? What do you do? Well, I I have dominion over the earth the whole thing I feel the earth I should do it no no no no no no
I would be willing to bet that no one has ever not don't care how long you've been a believer Has ever said that at a party even a Christian party because people would say this is a coup That's for sure and they go off to somebody else. That's the end of the conversation
So for all the significance that these words have for us on a day-to-day basis I may as well have said this to you in Russian or in Japanese Mongolian Because they go in one ear and out the other And then we wonder to ourselves why we're confused about what we're doing in this world I mean think about it for a moment how often especially younger people and then older people I'm in the second category how often we look at our lives to say well what am I supposed to do with this This thing called being a human being We're confused We don't have answers We wander and bounce from one thing to another Because we ignore What the god of heaven and earth who made us first Said we are to do we know he said it But it means practically nothing to us
So don't be surprised if you've been doing that That you made me just a little bit confused About what life is about So let's look at it for just a moment What did god want his image his royal image that's you what does he want his royal images to do But there are five things we don't have time for that. So let's just group them into two first thing is this god said Adam and Eve He said I want there to be more of you I want there to be a lot more of you In fact, I want you to fill up the entire earth with you And then god said Here's what I want you to do I want you to make it the kind of place I want it to be
To subdue it To have dominion over it make it the way I want it to be You see in the beginning there was a very special place on the earth. It was called the garden of Eden And it was a place where god would actually appear in his visible glory with Adam and with Eve And around that was a land of Eden which was a nice place to be but it wasn't as special as that lovely wonderful royal garden But outside of that there was a lot of work to be done A lot of irrigation to be done a lot of planting A lot of things to be developed out there in the world even before sin came into the world and god said to the human race I want there to be more of you and I want you to get out there and take the whole world I want you to turn the entire world into my garden because when you read the scriptures you discover That the goal of all of history is this That the earth will become so wondrous that the earth will be so beautiful That the earth will be so holy and so perfect That it will be right for the god of heaven and earth to fill it with his visible glory the whole thing Like he once filled that garden so that god's glory will shine throughout the sky from one end of the earth to the other That's the goal the way the New Testament puts it is That at the name of Jesus every knee will bow whether in heaven above on the earth or beneath the earth That's the goal that's the dream that's the vision that was set forth before Adam and Eve at the very beginning That the whole world will become the kingdom of god and nothing less than that is worthy of our king Jesus And nothing less than that vision is worthy of you the image and the likeness of god
Isn't that just wondrous Now at the beginning This would have been a relatively easy thing for Adam and Eve to do they would have had babies who would do the image of god Thing and they'd have more babies who do the image of god thing geometric regression and all that sort of thing They fill the earth turn the world into the kind of place god wants to be glory of god game over
But something happened didn't Starts with an ass It ends with an end I'm right in the middle of it Yeah, sin came into the world Send did not start your mission as a Christian Send complicated your mission as a Christian But send did not start it So now yes, we continue to have babies I'm so glad to see babies in this building. I don't know what to do way to go who uh Okay, but do you know that one of the reasons Christianity is declining in numbers in this world in certain parts of this world anyway Is because Christians just don't have babies anymore
But it's not just having a baby anymore right because of sin We have to raise our children up in the ways of Christ so that they may be redeemed from their sins Yes, mothers. That's why you spend every day of your life doing what you're doing for your children So that they can become holy and redeemed images of god who will fulfill the will of god in heaven on this earth It's also why we adopt children And it is also why we reach out to the lost so that we may multiply More and more believers in this world by evangelizing them by bringing them the good news of Jesus by bringing them into the kingdom of god Because the mission is not for there to be a few of us The mission is for the world to be filled with gods redeemed people from one end to the other
This is why when you go to the store And you deal with the cash the cash year That your relationship with that cash year ought to be different from the way that other people deal In fact that cash year ought to go wow what was that after they finished talking with you Because you are the kind one You are the merciful one you're the attentive one you're the one that cares about the cash year in the store That is why when you walk down the aisles of that store and you see someone coming toward you That looks different from you and talks different and who is not the kind of person you would naturally gravitate toward That rather than turning your head and starting to count the varieties of cornflakes that are on the shelf You actually turn to that person and show kindness and mercy and tenderness to that person who is not like you Because you are one who is committed to filling the entire earth with redeemed images of god What more could you possibly want than that? This is not a sideline It is why you breathe but more than this Connected to that partner with it in tandem with it is the call for us to subdue the earth and to have dominion over it That means making the world the kind of place god wants it to be a place of goodness a place of mercy A place where we Do not ignore the poor A place where we stand up for those who have no way of standing up for themselves
A people who are devoted to transforming the earth in all of its ways into the kingdom of god That is our mission that is our dream that is our goal in Jesus I know I'm weird. I know I am people tell me that all the time my wife about every other day tells me that
But when I get up in the morning I often sit on the edge of my bed and I think to myself just honestly and frankly Is it worth it? Is it worth breathing again? I know most people Most people keep breathing in the morning because they're afraid of the alternative I'm not afraid of the alternative I've been close to it a number of times it doesn't death does not scare me one little bit But I can tell you something because I'm not scared of death. I actually have to ask myself the question is it worth it
Friends it is worth it Because you are the image and likeness of god and you have been placed on this earth to turn the earth into the kingdom of god You and I are a people who have been called to a mission that is absolutely astonishing And yet we're very tempted to reduce it down to something a little more manageable, aren't we? So let me ask you this question is the centerpiece of your Christian life To make sure that you are saved and that one day you will make it into eternal life I hope you are I hope you have come to Jesus in simple childlike faith and trusted him It's the only way is the only way But I also hope that you have a much bigger vision of what your life is about It is not for you. It is not even for your nuclear family is for something much larger than that It is for the entire world So how are you doing with this for Adam and Eve didn't go so well did it Even when Israel inherited this calling as they did to lead the human race in this multiplying and having dominion for gods kingdom over the entire world It went okay. They did some good things David Solomon, you know, you know their names. They did some good things, but even they failed miserably And for this reason for thousands and thousands of years The faithful people of God cried out and prayed earnestly for someone to come who would get it right For some human being to do it right To fill the world with redeemed images of God and to change the world into the kingdom of God They yearned for this man. They longed for this man for thousands of years and you and I know his name His name is Jesus This is why we cling to him This is why we put all of our faith into him This is why we trust into him as our savior and as our lord of all of our lives It's because he is the one who will fulfill this mission even when we struggle even when we fail Now when Jesus left this planet He reminded his disciples of this mission He looked at them and he said this just before he went up to heaven. He said this to them He said all authority and heaven and earth has been given to me Now you know what that means basically it means guys. I'm all that I was that good. I was so good so right to so perfect That the father blessed me with kingship over the entire creation. That's how good he was Now if you and I had been Jesus you know what we would have said next We looked at the disciples say I'm all that you're nothing So you just sit back and watch the show because I'm going to turn this world into God's kingdom But it's not what Jesus said is it What Jesus said on that day is all authority and heaven and earth has been given to me you can count on this one This is a sure bet. I'm going to turn the world into the kingdom of God But then he looked at his disciples and said this Go there for and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you He said you're participating with me in this until I return You are a part of this until I return The whole world for Jesus the whole world for the father. He knew it would not be easy He knew it would be hard So he looked at his disciples and he also said this Don't worry. I will be with you right up to the end Our king Jesus is not failing He cannot fail He will succeed and all who put their faith in him They will be victorious as well
I learned when I was 10 years old the difference between the original floor plan of the house and an additional room Don't let the kingdom of God be like and it add on to your life The kingdom of God is your life. It's the original plan for what it means to follow Jesus It's the original plan for what it means to be human Give yourself to that and you will not be disappointed Amen Let's pray together Our Lord Jesus we bless you and we honor you That you came to this planet as one of us and that you have Are and will fulfill all That the father commanded from his image We bless you For the opportunity to trust you and to serve you with the confidence That God's kingdom will come to this earth as it isn't heaven Amen