The Story Begins: Created in God's Image

The Story Begins: Created in God’s Image        

Genesis 1:26-2:25  

Anthony Hoekema - “The most distinctive feature of the biblical understanding of man is the teaching that man has been created in the image of God.”

Isaiah 65:18-19 - “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness. I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people…”

Revelation 19:7 - “Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.”

1. We reflect God in how we rule wisely over the world.  (Gen. 1:26-31)

Tim Keller - Nature is…not ‘bad’ and needs to be beaten down, but it is undifferentiated, undeveloped, uncultivated. When we take a piece of land and garden/farm it… or preserve it so it can produce its peculiar life-splendors, when we take fabric and make a piece of clothing, when we push a broom to clean up a place, when we use technology to harness the forces of electricity, when we take an unformed…mind and teach it a subject, when we take unprocessed material and turn it into a work of art…when we take tones and pitches (noises) and… and arrange them to create music, (even when we pass a comb through our hair)—whenever we bring order out of chaos… whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and ‘unfold’ creation further than where it was when we found it - we are continuing God’s work of creative, cultural development. Just as he ‘subdued’ the earth in his work of creation, so He calls us now to labor as His representatives in a continuation and extension of that work.”       

Live as a steward

Do daily tasks well  

Govern your calendar

Train and oversee your animals

Work and minister unto the Lord

2. We reflect God in how we relate to Him and others.  (Gen. 2:4-9,16-25)

Live in worship in spite of…

Learn to cultivate relationships

•  We reflect God in our rhythm of work and rest.   (Gen. 2:1-3,15)

 Learn to disconnect

 Be all there

Mark 6:31 - Jesus said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)

Hebrews 4:9-10 - “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.”      

 Faith Sheet

Series Memory Verse - Genesis 1:26-27   Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.      

Reviewing This Past Sunday

The Story Begins: Created in God’s Image        

Genesis 1:26-2:25  

1. Read Genesis 1:1-26-2:25. What stands out to you as you read about our beginning?

2. What comes to mind when you think of humanity being made “in the image of God”?

3. How does being made in His image impact your daily life?

4, What are some areas of authority you have been given?

5. When was the last time you thought of the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and even the worms that crawl on the land as living creatures that God has entrusted to your care?

6. Consider a sphere of influence in which you have authority. Do you struggle more with abusing authority or with abandoning authority? Why?

7. Do you think it is possible to be in a right relationship with God if you are not pursuing a right relationship with others? Why or why not?

8. In what ways does our culture demean and diminish the value of work? In what ways does it over value work?

9. What makes rest difficult for you? How do you look to the Lord to get rest in order to keep ministering to others?

Skye Jethani - “What brings a person value, significance, and hope is not what he does, but with whom he does it. The call to live in continual communion with God means that every person’s life, no matter how mundane, is elevated to sacred heights.” 

Ben Witherington III - “Work, whether it involves plumbing a sink or plumbing the depths of the cosmos, in the hands of a Christian is ministry.”

Preparing for Next Sunday

The Story Begins: Human Rebellion

Genesis 3:1-24

1. Read the passage and ask the Lord to reveal Himself & His truth to you. (Genesis 3:1-24)

2. HIGHLIGHT a verse or truth that stands out to you and write it out.

3. EXPLAIN the text in your own words to make sure you see the big picture of God’s Story.  (Who wrote it & why was it written? To whom it was written? What is the context? How does the text point to the Father, Son or Spirit? What is the text telling us about our new identity as believers in Christ or what we are to be doing?”)

4. APPLY a truth from the text to your own life.  (Focus on what God is saying to You and what is Your act of obedience, confession, praise, going forward, giving thanks, etc.)

5. RESPOND in prayer and go apply what God reveals to You from the Scriptures.