Father, sometimes your word goes against the grain of what is said in our culture.
Sometimes, Father, you call us to be a peculiar people,
saying and believing things which don't fit in well with polite conversation.
And, Father, you know how timid we are.
You know how we turn away from this because we want to fit in.
And we ask, Father, that you would bring your word home to us in a very deep way.
And as your word is brought home deeply to us, may you grant us healing, may you restore us,
and may you help us to live in a way that blesses this city and brings you great glory.
And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
Today's reading, some of you might be wondering what's the fuss about Genesis 1, 26 to 31,
but today's reading directly touches on the issue of abortion,
doctor-assisted suicide or euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and the entire transgender movement.
In other words, nothing controversial in Canada whatsoever,
and nothing by which the Bible might disagree with what would be just taken as common sense knowledge
by basically every media outlet in the country,
at least official or the institutional media,
or in university campuses, or in the judiciary, or in the government.
Nothing controversial at all.
So let's get our Bibles out.
Let's look at it and see what it is that the Bible says,
and why is it that this is sort of, you know, from one point of view, dynamite in a good sense,
from another point of view, dynamite in a bad sense.
And we'll just have a look at it.
And as I said, yeah, there's Bibles there.
Feel free to grab one.
And we're going to begin by looking at Genesis 1, verses 24 to 25,
because it's all part of the sixth day of creation.
And so Genesis is the very, very first book.
In fact, it should probably be in most of your Bibles, the very first page in your Bible.
And we'll read these very simple but very profound verses.
And here's how it begins.
Verse 24.
And God said,
Now, just a, you know, a very, very simple thing here.
God gives a, it's going to be sort of relevant to what we're going to see about what happens when God speaks to human beings.
But God, basically, he makes all of the living, all the things that have breath that are on the land.
And it's really important to notice that the Bible doesn't use scientific language.
If a biologist was to try to use this division to classify, you know, bugs and other things, it's not helpful.
But one of the wisdom, one of the things which is so wise about this biblical account is it uses the language of perception.
And the language of perception is never out of date.
You know, if this was written by the way science would classify different animals in the 1500s, in the 1600s, they'd laugh.
And then they'd laugh at how we would do it in the 1600s, in the 1700s, and on and on and on.
And however scientists do it today, if Jesus tarries, in 100 years, the scientists in 100 years would laugh at the way it's done today.
They'd view it as primitive.
And it's really interesting about how the Bible is written.
It's written from the language of perception.
And that doesn't change.
You know, you've got animals you care for.
You have beasts that are out everywhere else.
You have things that crawl.
I mean, that's a pretty simple division.
And they're given the command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
But then, look at what happens in verse 26.
And it's a very, very simple two words.
Then God said.
Three words.
Then God said.
But it's very, very significant.
Because what happens is that, and we're going to see it later on in the text, about how on one hand, human beings are like an animal.
But on the other hand, there's something which is completely and utterly different about human beings.
And when in verse 26, when it says, then God said.
It's as if God's drawing a huge line between animals and human beings.
In fact, it's not just a line.
And it's definitely not a line in the sand.
A line in the sand.
Some people will refer to that.
But a line in the sand is just arbitrary.
God is describing a grand canyon chasm between the animals and human beings in a very significant way.
And this is really important because it's been lost in our culture.
There's been a thing in the press just recently about a woman on trial for giving water to pigs.
And that's not particularly significant.
But what's significant is what the newspaper coverage, the language was that to give water to pigs going to slaughter was the same as giving water to Jewish people going to be killed in the gas ovens under Nazism.
Now, just apart from the unbelievable insult to compare it from a Jewish perspective, an unclean animal to a Jewish person, which just shows that they don't know what they're talking about.
That's an idea which, I mean, most people would just sense that that's wrong, but not be able to articulate why it is that you can't make equate a pig and a human being as of the same value.
And the Bible teaches why that is a wrong idea.
There's this grand canyon-sized chasm with these three simple words, then God said.
So let's read it.
Verse 26.
Then God said, let us make man, and I'm going to continue with the singular here, the ESV.
It's very helpful.
I'll explain why in a moment.
It's actually a singular collective.
And in fact, actually, the word man here is actually Adam.
Because in the original language, Adam can either mean human beings, all human beings, or it can be a name of a person.
And to try to make it not overly confusing that uses the word man here rather than Adam, but in the original Hebrew, it's the same word.
But I'm going to stick with it.
I know it's not proper English in Canada in 2017, but it's trying to capture a very powerful biblical idea.
Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
So that's a very short description of the nature of human beings.
It's going to be continued next week when we look at a certain part of Genesis 2.
And then it gives the vocation for human beings.
And let them, and this is very accurate, uses the singular man, but it's obvious that the word man is referring to all human beings.
That's why here it says, and let them, it's plural.
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.
Now what's going to happen in the rest of this, from verses 27 to 31, in a bit of a boring grammar geeky type of moment.
But we know who the, you know, we know who we are, the boring grammar geek types.
What Paul, what the writer is going to do now is he's going to loop back and unpack the nature of human beings and their vocation.
And verse 27 is going to clarify and expand upon what it means to be in the image of God.
And then 28 to 31 is going to clarify what it means to have dominion.
And in our cultural moment, all of the bombs and mind, all of the minds and bombs and the controversial bits are primarily in verse 27.
And I'm just going to read it and we're going to talk about the vocation of human beings.
That's 28 to 31 first, but then I'm going to loop back.
I'm not going to ignore the, you know, the controversial bit.
Okay?
So that's what we're going to do.
Let's just read verse 27 to 31 and I'll just comment on it and we'll sort of summarize what it means.
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 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.
So here's the thing which this text is, this thing about the vocation of human beings.
And if you could put up the first point.
The first point is this.
The cosmos was made for humanity and humanity was made for the cosmos.
This is a very, very, very, very, very, very important idea in the whole Bible.
And it's a very important idea in terms of what it means to be human.
And it's a very countercultural idea.
You know, in fact, in just about everything that is done here, I could do a sermon, a whole sermon on each of these different points.
I really could because there's an increasing move of thought within our culture that somehow or another human beings are the problem on the planet.
That we're the problem.
We're the virus.
We're the germ.
But the Bible says it's something completely and utterly different.
And it's to understand here.
So when the Bible is giving us our vocation, what is our vocation?
If you look down to verse 28 again, it's to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
That's the first thing.
What does it mean to have dominion?
Well, God made us to be here.
And the cosmos itself needs us.
Rather than us being the problem, per se, by our nature.
Okay, we're going to get into why it's a bit of a problem.
But by our nature, God made us for this planet and not just for the planet, for the cosmos.
And we are to fill it and to multiply.
As an aside, for those of us who are married, who can still have children,
and physically we can, this is a profound encouragement to see children as a blessing.
And to have children.
Like to not listen to our culture that says that children are just an adornment to our life,
something that we have if it's convenient and fits, and we should have very few.
This is an encouragement to view children and being able to have them as a great gift that we should rejoice in
and not turn away from.
So the first aspect of what it means to have dominion over the created order is that we are to be fruitful
and multiply and fill the earth.
And the second is subdue it and have dominion.
I know this is a very, very uncomfortable idea,
but it's this idea that God wants us to tame areas that are very, very wild.
Like if you were in Holland, it's a good thing that some land was reclaimed by putting dikes out into the ocean.
Like it's a good thing to take what would normally happen in a field and to turn it into a garden,
to subdue it and have dominion over it.
That when we're looking at a beautiful garden, if you go to PEI,
and one of the wonderful things about driving through PEI is just how well-ordered the land is,
how it seems as if most of it has been cultivated, and it looks so beautiful.
And that sense that it looks so beautiful is in a sense that the Genesis 1 here,
in a good sense, is being practiced.
And it's right for us to rejoice in it.
It's not right to say it's terrible,
because think of some of the animals that can no longer live there.
That's a wrong way of understanding it.
And then the third thing is to notice that God gives it.
So look at verse 28 again.
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.
I have given you.
Okay, God gives it.
This is really, really, really, really important.
If you could put up the next point.
Human, humanity was created to be God's stewards of the cosmos, of the planet,
not to be self-appointed dictators and tyrants.
Humanity, human beings were created to live in this home,
and the world needs us.
And we are to understand ourselves that the world,
the trees, who ultimately owns the trees,
not the state,
not the United Nations, but God.
Who owns the rivers?
Who owns the ocean?
Who owns the sky?
Ultimately, God.
And some of that is put under our care,
either individually because of private property,
or in some collective way through the state,
or some business or corporation.
But in every case, we're ultimately stewards,
because God gives it, but doesn't relinquish being God.
He doesn't stop being God when he gives it to us.
And that means that we are to understand ourselves as God's stewards.
But what has happened is, we're going to look at this,
and it's really not going to be until two weeks from now,
when we look at Genesis 3,
where we talk about the tragedy that has befallen the human race
by human beings rebelling against God,
so that now the image of God,
our nature is bent, and it's marred,
and our rule, and our place in the planet,
it's now, we're too prone to become dictators.
We're too prone to become tyrants.
We're too prone to say,
it's my bleepity bleep piece of property,
and if I want to bleepity bleep,
put chemicals on it, or do this to it,
it's my bleepity bleep business.
And that's the language of a despot, of a tyrant.
It's of a dictator, self-appointed,
a refusal to acknowledge that ultimately,
the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
That the heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firm proclaims his handiwork,
and we as human beings are his stewards to sing his praises
and to care for things in a way so that the entire planet flourishes
to the glory of God and to the good of people,
because we are God's stewards.
We are God's stewards.
Now, the naughty or the awkward bit.
Let me just share with you something.
I'm, you know, I think some of you have heard me share before
that I'm not very naturally religious.
Left to my own devices, I think if I hadn't become a Christian,
I like watching football.
I like watching sports.
You know, I like exercising.
I like reading books.
I like doing what I like to do.
And probably most of the time,
it wouldn't involve anything religious or spiritual.
I'm just confessing to you.
And, you know, there's been many, many times in my Christian life
that, you know, I want to go along with something in the culture.
I have this idea, and I go reading the Bible,
hoping that the Bible is going to validate what I believe
or what I want or what I think is wise.
And I've had many experiences throughout my Christian life
as I come to the Bible and to my horror and my shock.
I can remember different times where I've gotten red in the face
and a bit sweaty under the armpits
because it's dawned on me that what the Bible says
goes against what I want
and what I believe and what I think is wise.
I've had that experience many times.
So I can sympathize with those who are present
who've helped facilitate an abortion
or helped who are same-sex attracted
and are living it out or want to live it out
or those who are very, very uncomfortable
in their biological sex
and hope that when they go to the Bible,
because they still have a desire to know God and to love God,
and when they go to the Bible to their horror,
what they desire is not what they find.
And that's what we're going to find here
for all of those different classes of what I've just described.
And so this isn't a political rally.
This isn't an us versus them.
Every single person here in this room,
whether it's being same-sex attracted
or being uncomfortable with your gender and your biology,
or whether it's abortion,
not a single person in this room
has not been touched by it either directly
or with loved ones or co-workers or neighbors.
And so this is God's word to us.
It's not a political rally,
and it's not a time to make jokes.
It's not necessarily a time to have long faces.
It isn't.
Because ultimately, in every case
where I've come to the Bible
and it's gone against what I've wanted,
over time I've come to believe
that the Bible, in fact,
has only good news and is wise.
So it's just really,
look at verse 26 and 27.
Notice at the beginning of 26,
then God said,
let us make man in our image,
after our likeness.
And in the original language,
image and likeness,
there's no words in between them.
It's just image and likeness.
And it's basically just,
it's reinforcing the same idea
with slightly different words.
It's not two technically different words,
image and likeness,
not like some theologies.
And the big idea is this image.
And then jump down to verse 27,
and this is the dynamite.
And it's interesting.
It's a short little poem,
three lines of poetry.
And on one hand,
it's the simplest thing in the world
to understand.
On the other hand,
it is something that
if we were to meditate upon it,
if artists and poets and philosophers
and musicians and composers,
they could spend the rest of their life
meditating upon the world,
that these three simple lines open up to us
to explore it.
So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
Say it again.
So God created man in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
To memorize this verse
would be very helpful.
So here's the,
and you'll notice at 26,
it says,
made in our image.
And then just a few verses later,
a few lines later,
it says image twice.
So in three times,
in a very short span,
this idea of human beings
being made in God's images
is spoken,
spoken,
spoken.
It's very,
very important.
And here I just want to try
to unpack a little bit.
If you could put up the first point,
the next point,
only,
and I put it in bracket,
in quote marks,
just to try to help bring it out.
Only man is created by God
in his own image.
That's what the text is saying.
Only man,
and here it's referring to the human race,
it's using one singular word
to emphasize,
it's a very,
very important here.
That's why I didn't use the word humanity,
and I understand why
English translations
who are helping us
just read the text for ourselves
will put in the word humanity.
But humanity is sort of too diverse,
you know?
Man really brings home to us
this commonness
that human beings share.
It's in fact
a profoundly important text.
This text,
only man,
is created by God
in his own image,
means that all slavery is wrong.
It means that all oppression
and persecution is wrong.
It means that all racism is wrong.
It means all attempts
to view castes in society
is wrong.
All attempts by elites
to think that they are better than others
is wrong.
All focus on social class
as indicating that some people
are better than others
is wrong.
It is,
governments can give rights
and courts can give rights
and they can take them away.
And it's not entirely clear
if we have just evolved
randomly
why it is exactly
that all human beings
have a value
and a dignity
and worth.
But the Bible
says that,
what does it say?
It says,
so God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
And he does not say
that black people
bear it more than white people
or that Asians
bear it more than people
who are,
you know,
First Nations in Canada.
It does not have
any categories like that.
And it uses the singular word
to emphasize it.
It is a powerful,
precious word
and it is dynamite
to our courts
and our country.
So God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
Next point, please.
Here's also,
so we all like it,
it's against racism.
Look at that,
that singular word.
It's so good.
Oh, dang!
For many of us.
Because it does not say,
and so human beings,
when they are smart,
or human beings,
when they are powerful,
or human beings,
when they are young,
bear God's image.
No!
How do human beings come about?
We begin as a fertilized cell
in our mother's womb.
Some of us don't live very long.
Some of us don't survive the womb.
Some of us don't survive
the first year.
Some of us live to be,
who's that guy
who just died in Milton, Ontario,
86 or 84?
And just last year,
he set the age record
in the marathon.
Some of us live long lives
of being very handicapped.
But what is this text telling us?
From our beginning
as a fertilized cell
and to our death,
we bear God's image.
Down syndrome,
Einstein,
Usain Bolt,
equally bear God's image.
which is why it is
that the Bible
is so consistent
to say that it is wrong
to take innocent human life.
It means it is wrong
to kill a gay person
because he's gay.
It's wrong to kill
a transgender person
because they are transgender.
It is wrong to kill
a fetus in a womb
because it's a fetus,
because that's a human being.
And it's wrong to kill
an old person
because they're old.
And it's wrong
to kill a sick person
because they're sick.
I don't know
if any of you
have had a chance
to go to church on Wednesday,
but one of the really
great things
that Daniel has brought about
in church on Wednesday
is that after the sermon
has been preached,
there's a bit of a gap sometimes,
but then people can text
in their questions.
And you have to sort of
think on your feet.
And one of the things,
I've done this a couple of times,
I did it on Ash Wednesday,
and every time
that I've done it,
there's always been
at least one fairly wordy,
direct question.
And I'm 99% sure
as I'm listening to the question
that the person is hoping
who asks the question
that when I hear the question,
it's going to sort of
knock me back a little bit
and make me want to say,
well, you know,
maybe this, maybe that,
maybe this, maybe that.
And every time that it's come,
I've taken a bit
of a perverse delight.
And after the question's read,
I either say yes or no.
And then I'll say next question.
And I'm going to do that
a little bit right now.
George, are you saying
that the Bible is heterosexist?
Are you saying, George,
in this day and age,
don't you know
what they teach in university?
Are you actually claiming
that the Bible naively teaches
binary understanding of reality
in terms of human life?
Like, is the Bible
so completely and utterly foolish
to teach a binary understanding?
A heterosexist understanding?
That there's only two sexes
and a gender that goes with each sex?
Is that what you're saying, George?
Yes.
So God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
And then I guess I'd say,
well, I want to take away
the accusation stuff.
But yes,
if you could put up
the next point, please.
Just to make sure we understand
this very simple thing.
So God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
If you've memorized that
by the end of the service,
I've done a great good for you.
What does this say?
God created only
two biological sexes,
each having its own gender.
Notice how it creates man,
biological,
male and female,
gender.
Notice that again.
Man and him,
referring to the biological reality,
male and female,
gender.
See, if it had just said,
so God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
And then it went on.
We could wonder whether,
in fact,
there can be many genders
to go along
with the two biological sexes.
But this tightly worded poem,
this dynamite,
in a few words,
says that God created
only two biological sexes,
each having its own gender.
If you could put up
the next point,
here's it to say,
again,
the same thing,
the same way.
And by the way,
if you're interested
in writing these points down,
they'll be on the webpage.
And if you use your version,
it's part of the notes.
God did not only create
man and woman.
He also created the man
to be male
and the woman to be female.
God did not only create
man and woman.
He also created the man
to be male
and the woman to be female.
What's the text say again?
So God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
Now,
just as a bit of an aside,
I watched a really interesting
documentary on Netflix
a week or two ago
on Anthony Robbins,
the self-help guy.
And,
you know,
it's interesting.
The Bible here
leaves so much unsaid.
It gives us
a basic direction
to think,
but doesn't fill it in.
Obviously,
the Bible's going to go on
and say a few more things
if you read it
from cover to cover
about being male and female.
But it's amazing
what it doesn't say.
You know,
one of the things,
if you watch this documentary
of Anthony Robbins,
it's a fascinating thing.
You know,
people pay $5,000
to spend six days with him.
Five grand U.S.
before taxes.
And,
you know,
one of the things he does,
it's not like he just says,
oh yeah,
you're great,
you're great.
I mean,
he tells people off.
People will spend $5,000 U.S.
for six days
to be told off in public.
It's really,
it's a fascinating documentary
to watch.
And there's one time in it
where he goes after a guy
for being a feminine man.
I'm not making this up.
And,
you know,
the interesting thing in here
is the Bible doesn't say,
okay,
now we know all about men.
Men are good with tools.
You know,
men,
you know,
men like to hunt.
You know,
women like to cook.
It doesn't do this,
does it?
Like,
it makes it clear
that these realities exist.
And if you read all of the Bible,
you'll start to get
some other senses
about what's in there.
But it leaves a wide range
of freedom and variability.
But in it all,
it makes it clear
that
in the language today,
Jeremiah and Anna
had a baby this week.
and it's a baby girl.
And she wasn't assigned
being a girl.
It wasn't as if
the baby came out of the womb
and Jeremiah and Anna said,
well,
I don't know,
should it be a boy or a girl?
They said,
it's a girl.
And that's what the Bible teaches.
Here's another thing,
if you could put it up.
Man and woman
are equally created
in God's image.
And our complementarity
is also in God's image.
Man and woman
are equally created
in God's image.
And our complementarity
is also in God's image.
Listen to the Bible.
So God created man
in his own image.
In the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
Men and women
have their own integrity.
Any culture
that treats women
like chattel,
like slaves,
is condemned
by this biblical text.
Any family
or relationship
where the man
abuses the woman
is condemned
in this text.
Any culture
that says
that women
only have value
if they can produce
children
is condemned
in this text.
this text.
This text
is both
a profound comfort
for those of us
who will find ourselves
being single
our whole lives.
It doesn't say
that you only have value
if you're attached
to a man
or to a woman.
You only have value
if you can have
sexual knowing.
You can only have value
if you can produce.
It denies all of this.
It's a profoundly
important and freeing text
on the dignity
of every human being,
every man and woman,
regardless as to whether
or not they are married,
regardless as to their
ability to produce.
That there's an inherent
worth
and value
and dignity
as a bearer
of God's image.
And at the same time,
while on one hand
you can say
that every man and woman
bears God's image,
at the same time,
God chose to have
men and women,
male and female,
that somehow
the complementarity
that goes with the equality
somehow even more
shows who God is
and what He's like.
Now,
some people have
a great deal of trouble
with the body
that they have.
And there are many people
in our culture
who are biologically male
or biologically female
and that's a very,
very, very complicated
thing for them
and causes them pain.
Just as there are
many people
in our culture
who find themselves
in a male body
but desire to sexually
know people
with the same body
as themselves.
And one thing
which is very important
for us to understand
is that we should
never, ever, ever
say yuck to this.
And we should never
believe that that's
something which has
merely been chosen.
Sometimes
for people
who labor
and suffer under that
it's something
that goes back
as early
as they have memories.
And this call
to view people
with their dignity
and worth
is very important.
But this text here
is not saying
that even if we
are born
in such a way
that from our
earliest memories
we have these desires.
It's not saying
that that
is how we are
made in God's image.
Could you just reverse,
could you put,
I think,
that's two points
from now up right now
rather than the one
I was going to,
I think I gave you?
We still bear
the image of God
but it is bent
and marred.
We're going to look
at that in Genesis 3
in a couple of weeks.
But it's just
really important
for us to understand
that everything,
it's not just
if you're very
uncomfortable,
you're biologically male
but you don't identify
with being a male
at all
or you're biologically female
and you just don't identify.
it's not as if
just people like this
are broken.
If you look in a mirror
and you look around
every single person
in the room
is made in God's image
and every one of us
are bent
or marred
in different ways.
So you can't just go
purely from current
human experience
to extrapolate
and we're going to talk
about that
a little bit more.
But this is all
very, very, very good news.
I mean,
not only is it good news
because it's the basis
of human rights
but it's the good news
because it begins
to help us
to understand
who God is
and here's how
it's good news.
You know,
I like movies
and I probably
don't like,
I mean,
believe it or not,
I actually sometimes
watch more thoughtful movies.
I just don't watch junk.
But, you know,
if you imagine a movie
about an alien coming,
let's say all of a sudden
an alien
ship crashed
right beside
one of our hospitals
and they all go,
the doctors and the nurses,
they go running in.
I mean,
it wouldn't happen nowadays
because they'd want to get,
you know,
all the masks on
so they don't get diseases
but just imagine
they go running in
or however they go in
and they're not clear
when they look at the alien
and let's say the alien
can't communicate with them
and we're not clear
as human beings
is the alien sick
and need help
or is the alien healthy
and we don't know.
Why don't we know?
Here's the thing.
I sit on the toilet
and something comes out of me
that's brown.
That's good.
You know,
in another context,
something comes out of me
yellowish.
That's good.
If all of a sudden
I started to have red blood
coming out of my eyes
or my ears
or my mouth,
we'd all know
that's bad.
Why?
Because we know
what health looks like.
If we go to a human,
I mean,
if we go to an alien
and red stuff
is coming out of its mouth,
we have no idea
whether that's a bad sign
or a good sign.
Maybe
what we call
brown stuff
coming out of one end
is red for the alien
and comes out
of a different part
of its body.
And I'm not just saying
that to be silly.
We really wouldn't know.
And, you know,
the other day
I'm having some problems
with my steering
in my car
and I just assumed
that I had a leak
in my power steering
and I went
to look.
I was going to go
to Canadian Tire
and get it topped up
so I can get it fixed
on Monday or Tuesday
and I go
and I look
at my power steering level
and it's not low.
And so I stick something in
and the color comes out
and I go to the owner's manual
and the owner's manual
written by the designer
tells me basically
that if the steering fluid
is brown
that's not good.
It should be pink.
At least pinkish
but best of all, pink.
So here's what's so good news
about this
is that the Bible here
is letting us know
what health looks like.
And it knows
it's telling us
the direction
that we can go
towards health.
So God created man
in his own image
and the image of God
he created him.
Male and female
he created them.
If you could put up
the point, Andrew,
which I guess
we sort of jumped over,
human beings
are not Lego.
Did you get a picture
of that by the way?
There you go.
In case you don't
have grandchildren
or you're too old
to have played with Lego
when you were a kid.
There's all sorts of movies
about Lego people.
And the fact of the matter is
is that in much of our culture
the way we understand
being human now
aided by medical technology
that can do all sorts
of unbelievable things.
It can pump us
full of hormones.
It can do plastic surgery.
It can do all...
Medicine can do
all sorts of things.
And if we come up
in a culture
whereby increasingly
we just see ourselves
as accidents,
as just stuff,
and that...
Well, it's increasingly
we understand ourselves
as Lego creatures.
Well, you can just
snap that head off,
put a different head on.
You can snap that torso off.
You can put on
a different torso.
You can design the Lego
in such a way
that things pop out
in different spots.
And the hands
or the legs
are all longer.
And it's a very, very...
You know, we don't
consciously think like this
but increasingly
in our culture
we understand ourselves
with the analogy
of being Lego.
And so when we want
to fix ourselves
we go by our feelings
and the best thoughts
that we have
and we just figure
we'll do Lego processes
to fit with what we feel
because that's how
we understand
what health is.
But the Bible here
is telling us
that God created man
in his own image
and the image of God
he created him.
Male and female
he created them.
And the Bible
will also reveal
that we're broken.
And that's why
if you could put up
the next point
we are to understand
that Jesus is
like an art restorer.
A masterpiece restorer.
He is not like
a Lego builder.
And we his disciples
have to learn
to follow him.
See, this is
the wonderful thing
to know that
I am made
in God's image.
And there are
different ways
that I am made
in God's image
that I am bent
and I am broken.
And maybe it is
that I have
a huge desire
for pornography.
Maybe it is
that I have
this uncontrollable
desire to flirt
or possess
as many women
as I have
as I can.
Maybe my bentness
is that I have
absolutely no interest
in any of those
types of things.
Maybe my bentness
or my brokenness
is uncomfortable
with the biology.
And there are
so many different ways
and all of us
are bent or broken
in some particular way.
And the thing
that we can take
is that not only
is the Bible
communicating to us
what health is like,
it means that
when Jesus comes
into our life,
he sees that image,
the masterpiece,
in all of its uniqueness.
And just as
if somebody was
to give a Van Gogh
or a Picasso
that had been found
in an attic
and was very damaged
and gave it
to the National Gallery,
they would hire
the best art restorer
they could at all afford
to restore
the beauty
of the masterpiece.
And that's how
Jesus deals with us.
He is a masterpiece
restorer,
not a Lego builder.
One final thing
just in closing.
If you could put it up,
here's one of the problems
that we all have.
Because we are so
infected with our culture,
with a notion
that somehow or another
human beings are like plastic,
that in some ways
we're like Lego people,
we can't understand,
like in a Lego world,
how could one Lego creature,
how could their life
matter to everybody's
other than the fact
that we might be
interested in it?
And many of us wonder,
because we come
from this Lego perspective,
how is it
that Jesus' death
upon the cross,
that that could somehow
stand for me or you
here in Ottawa,
and it could also stand
for somebody in Korea,
and somebody in China,
and somebody in Singapore,
and somebody in Kenya,
and somebody above
the Arctic Circle.
And from a Lego perspective,
that doesn't make any sense.
But if,
so God created man
in his own image,
in the image of God,
he created him.
Male and female,
he created them.
If in fact,
human beings are one humanity,
bearing the image of God,
then only the image itself
can stand for all
who are made in God's image.
so Jesus' life and death
can stand for me,
and you,
and every person
who receives him by faith
as Savior and Lord.
You see,
if Genesis 1 is true,
the image itself
can stand
both his perfect righteousness
and his bearing
the consequence
of our sin
and our bentness
and brokenness.
The image itself
can stand
for every person
made in the image of God.
The cross
makes sense.
And Jesus died
not to erase
or destroy the image,
but as
a masterpiece
restorer
to begin
to restore us
to the image,
the masterpiece
that God
desires us to be.
Could you please stand?
Just a moment
of,
a bit of a pause.
If you're here today
and
for the first time
the gospel
begins to make sense
to you
and you feel a pressure
to come to Jesus,
let me just tell you,
it doesn't matter
what your issue is.
Jesus just desires
to come into your life
and to be like
that masterpiece
restorer.
That's what he'll do
when he is your Savior
and he is your Lord.
That's what he will do.
And his death
upon the cross
and his resurrection
can stand for you,
can be for you
if you receive it
by faith.
And there's no time
better than right now
to just call out
to him in your own words
that he will be
your Savior
and your Lord
and he will not
turn you away.
And for the rest of us
we all know
the different ways
that we need
Jesus to work
in our lives
to bring restoration
to us.
To have a sense
of restoring
our sense of dignity
and worth
that is given to us
by God himself.
This text tells us
of how unbelievably
precious we are
to God.
So precious
that not only
did he create us
but that God,
the Son of God
would die upon
the cross for us.
And at the same time
it starts to point
towards Genesis 3
and our great need
for God,
for only God
to come and work
in our lives.
Father,
if there are any here
who today have
crossed that divide
and asked Jesus
to be their Savior
and their Lord,
Father,
pour out your Holy Spirit
upon them
and draw them
ever closer to yourself.
Father,
for those who are still
trying to think things through,
pour out your Holy Spirit
upon them
and draw them
to yourself.
Father,
for those of us
who have maybe
right from our family
of origin
or maybe sometime
in our past
we've given our lives
more consciously
to Jesus
but we know
he's our Savior
and our Lord.
Father,
you know the issues
in our life
that are bent
and are marred
and we give you
permission,
Father.
You are wise.
You are the masterpiece
restorer.
You know how to restore us
and we give you
permission to move
with your Holy Spirit
and bring your word
to bear to us
at our point
of deepest need
to work a work
of restoration
within us.
Father,
pour out your Holy Spirit
upon us.
Make us disciples
of Jesus
gripped by the gospel
learning to be restored
by you
and be an agent
of restoration
in others
so that we
and all your children
will live for your glory
and this we ask
in Jesus' name.
Amen.