The Village Church
"Own The Vision: Beautiful People" - Genesis 1:26-31 - 2024/09/08 - 2024/09/08 - Audio
You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Good morning, everybody. Thank you for coming to worship with us today on this chilly morning. Welcome to the village church where it's our mission to know, enjoy and glorify Jesus. First time guest, thank you for being with us here today. Please scan the QR code on the front of your worship guide. That will take you to our link tree and you can fill out the guest information form and that allows us to connect with you. Our announcements this Sunday. The church office will be closed on September 2nd. During the worship service on Sunday, September, you know, I see it doesn't have a date here. So during a worship service on a Sunday coming up. Pastor Alex will begin a new sermon series. There will be a ministry moment today given by Kayla couch. Our church calendar year has started and there are many events. Sunday equipping classes for all ages begin September 8th. Please see the back of your worship guide for more information. There will be a worship team interest meeting on Sunday, September 8th. So that's today immediately following the church service. Our communion will now be held every fourth Sunday of the month followed by a potluck lunch except for the month of December. More information is on the back of your worship guide. TBC is beginning a new Bible study. It's village Bible studies. The schedule and more information is listed on the back of your worship guide and it's important that we become church family and not just church acquaintances. The women's ministry is currently forming life groups and that's going to help us create closer bonds, hold each other accountable and sharpen our spiritual lives. So please see Susan, Tish or Aliyah for more information on that and there's going to be a flock note email coming out this week for signups. At the village church we believe giving ties and offering is worship. You can give in three ways to support our vision online through our website, mailing a check to our address or using the offering box at the back of the sanctuary. Thank you. Good morning, TBC. Good morning, church family. How's everybody doing this morning? So at this time, let us prepare our hearts with silent preparation as we prepare our minds and our hearts to have an experience with the Holy Spirit this morning. Let's pray within ourselves as we continue to take our seats and just have an atmosphere and a mind for worship. You Heavenly Father, God, we thank you first and foremost for waking us up this morning, God, and bringing us here to your house to worship you, Father. To now as we take this time to have an experience with your Spirit, God, I pray that you be with those who are on their way. God, I pray that you be with those who don't have the pleasure, God, the chance to just worship you freely, God. We have this opportunity here, God, and we don't take it for granted. God, I pray that you be with those who are sick, who are alone, God, who might not be able to feel love by other people, God. I pray that you pour out your love, not just for your people, God, but for everybody. Because we are all your people, God, here to worship you, here to serve you, God, here to make disciples for your kingdom, God. So I thank you again for this opportunity, God. I thank you for this church family. And I pray that as we experience your Holy Spirit on this morning, God, the day that you have created, that we will rejoice, that we will be glad in it, Father, and that we will spread this love and spread your message, God, to all the world. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Let us all stand for our call to worship this morning, taken from Exodus 34, 6, 2, 7, A and 10. Our call to worship this morning, Exodus 37, 6, 2, 7, Exodus 34, 6, 2, 7, A and 10. I will read the leader portion and you guys will agree with me, the people portion, and God's words says the Lord passed before him, Moses, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands. And he said, "Behold, I am making a covenant before all your people, I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation, and all the people among whom you shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you." Amen. Praise be to God. So this morning our song of worship will be, "All the glory belongs to you." How many of us believe that all the glory belongs to God this morning? All the glory, all the honest, the simple song, it might be new, but it just says, "All the glory belongs to you, Jesus. You're our Yahweh, you're our King." How will it get to your name? Oh, we bless your name this morning, Jesus, 'cause you deserve all the glory, hallelujah. All the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. The simple song, Church, that's all this is, all the glory, all the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. Yeah, come on, sing it out, all the glory, all the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. All the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, all the glory. All the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. All the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. We bless your name this morning, Jesus, yeah, all the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. Oh, to lift your voice we say Hallelujah, say Hallelujah, say Hallelujah, say Hallelujah, say Hallelujah, we praise your name Jesus one more time, say Hallelujah. Hallelujah, say Hallelujah, say Hallelujah, say Hallelujah, say Hallelujah. Jesus, give the highest praise for God's name, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, we give you glory, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, it is the highest praise it is, the highest praise, Yahweh, Yahweh. Let's just keep singing our praise for God, say Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, it is the highest praise it is, the highest praise Yahweh, Yahweh. All the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. Just give them glory this morning, one more time church, oh, all the glory belongs to you, all the glory belongs to you, oh God. Give them praise this morning for Jesus, let's see this verse of glory, and all the honor, give them praise this morning. And we know that in this life there's nothing we can do, there's nothing we can think or imagine or just experience without God. The response is there's nothing without you, nothing without you Jesus, Hallelujah. We bless your name, Father, says this in Him, do I live, move and have my being? In Him, do I live, move and have my being? Jesus, 'cause I'm nothing without you, yes I'm nothing without you, oh I'm nothing without you. Yes I'm nothing without you, that's the whole song church repeat after me. In Him, do I live, move and have my being? In Him, that's the whole song church. Say in Him, do I live, move and have my being? Y'all don't sing it out, 'cause I'm nothing without you, yes I'm nothing without you, nothing without you. I'm nothing without you, say I'm nothing without you, yes I'm nothing without you, yes I'm nothing without you. Yes I'm nothing without you, this next word just says this, just go breathe through me, Jesus, and live in me. And that's the glory right in me, that's your prayer this morning just sing it out, say breathe through me, breathe through me, and live in me. And that's the glory right in me, who just now over time, help me say breathe through me. That's our prayer this morning, Jesus, so live in me, and that's the glory right in me. So what nothing say because I'm nothing without you Yes, I'm nothing without you. Oh, I'm nothing without you Yes, I'm nothing without you Yeah, I'm nothing I'm nothing Yes, I'm nothing without you. Oh, yes, I'm nothing without you Yes, I'm nothing without you Cause in him, do I live, move and have my be I was thinking I was saying, in him, do I live, move and have my be I was forced from this morning to say, I'm nothing without you Oh, I'm nothing without you Oh, I'm nothing without you I'm nothing without you We bless your name this morning, Father And we know because we're nothing without him Can we just give him our reckless love, this next song, this reckless love I think we just realize how much God loves us When we're down in our pain, when we're struggling, when we're stressed But He loves us all the time God loves you all no matter what it is, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done His reckless love is chasing after you Oh, we thank you, Jesus, for your love for us, hallelujah Before I spoke a word, you were singing over me You have been so, so good to me Before I took a breath, you breathed your life to me You have been so, so kind to me We just take it out, and all the other well-being ever And the reckless love of God, y'all know it Oh, it chases me down, bites the love out Please, deny, deny I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it Till you give yourself away Don't be overwhelming, never ending The reckless love of God, oh We'd bless your name this morning, Father, for your end is love It's on a different time, Church When I was your foe, still your love fought for me You've been so, so good to me Hallelujah, sing it out, Church When I found the word, you paid it all for me You've been so, so kind to me Don't be overwhelming, never ending The reckless love of God, oh It chases me down, bites the love out Please, deny, deny I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it Till you give yourself away Don't be overwhelming, never ending The reckless love of God That's not the praise of worship of the morning, oh You're at the stop, you're at the love It's the question that chases after you, Hallelujah There's no shadow, you won't light up Mountain, you won't climb up Coming down to me, Hallelujah There's no wall, you won't kick down Lie, you won't say it down Coming down to me There's no shadow, you won't light up Mountain, you won't climb up Coming down to me, like a Jesus There's no wall, you won't kick down Lie, you won't say it down Coming down to me There's no shadow, you won't light up Mountain, you won't climb up Coming down to me There's no wall, you won't kick down Lie, you won't say it down Coming down to me Or come to church There's no shadow, you won't light up Mountain, you won't climb up Coming down to me There's no wall, you won't kick down Lie, you won't say it down Coming down to me Or come to church There's no wall, you won't say it down Coming down to me Or come to church There's no wall, you won't take down Lie, you won't say it down Coming down to me Or come to church There's no wall, you won't kick down Lie, you won't say it down I couldn't earn it I don't deserve it 'Til you give yourself away Don't be overwhelmed Never any reckless love God, yeah We've blessed you name Jesus We give you all the glory Ohh I stood up for one more time There's no shadow church, sing it out Ohh There's no shadow, you won't light up Mountain, you won't climb up Coming down to me There's no wall, you won't kick down Lie, you won't say it down Coming down to me There's no shadow, you won't light up Down to you won't climb up Coming down to me Thank you Jesus There's no wall, you won't take down Lie, you won't say it down Coming down to me Or be overwhelmed Never any reckless love God, yeah We've blessed you name I couldn't earn it I don't deserve it 'Til you give yourself away Don't be overwhelmed Never any reckless love God I'm a little good to your name Jesus We praise you 'cause you're worthy And we give you all the glory You may be seated Good morning church Oh, y'all sounds so beautiful Love, you And everyone in here look beautiful Yes, this is a time when we take An opportunity to reflect To meditate Calm down everything you're thinking about Through the course of the week that's passed And what's coming up We're gonna open up with a prayer of praise And then we're going to the confession of faith Let us pray Lord, you are good And your mercy endures forever Lord, you are good And your mercy endures forever For throughout eternity Lord, we thankful today We thank you Lord God for our early morning's rising We thank you Lord that our temperature gauge Is in place Lord God, we're not feverish We in good health Lord, we thank you Lord God that you Set your word in our heart for us to believe For you say you shall be our God And we shall be your people And you'll put your word in our heart The question is what Pastor Alex always asked But do we truly believe it? So Lord, I thank you this morning The Lord that it's not up to us to believe in Lord You put it there All we got to do is just respond Lord, some of us coming here with heavy hearts Lord, with a lot of things on our mind But Lord, I pray that you will give him a rest this morning That you remove that issue out the way So we can focus on the true God The one and only true God Which is Jesus Christ Lord, I pray God you'll circumcise anything That's not like you this morning Whatever is weighing us down, whatever burden we have Lord God, that you remove it Lord, did you give us a We do our minds Lord God, did you give us a good Healthy spirit right now Lord, I thank you Lord God for The food on the table The lights The hot showers The simple things Lord, that you always provide us For that we're privileged to have We thank you Lord God for Jesus For without Him Lord, we have no hope We thank you Lord God for the resurrection We thank you Lord for the grace When we don't deserve it We thank you Lord God, you see past our faults And see our need for more of you Thank you Lord God for you dying For us Lord, but teaching us how to die To ourself and our own flesh the desires So Lord, I thank you Lord God That you reign supreme That there's nothing above you Lord God Thank you so much for every soul that's in this room Thank you Lord, they have our opportunity to heal your gospel today And if someone doesn't know you Lord, they can come to you In a saving knowledge of you They don't have to be turnily separated That you can be known There is truth And we can pursue it this morning Thank you Lord God For Lord God just our children The way you provide for them How you protected them There was a shooting in Georgia But Lord, our kids are safe And I pray for those who are going through hardship through that process Lord, I pray that you will reach the individual who did this senseless act And that they will come to know you And the part of that saying They can have hope Lord God Thank you Lord God that you That you are a forgiver of sin The sins that we committed Lord, I'm afraid that you forgive us And with thank the Lord, you see the word saying we confess our sins That you are faithful and just to forgive us What a blessing that we have in Jesus Christ And that great atonement that covered all our sins Past, present and the future So that for that we say thank you Lord Lord, we thank you Lord God For the deacons and elders and the leaders of this church We pray Lord you continue to give us wisdom as you always have And blessing us Lord God We pray for our finances that you continue to cross overflow Thank you for the blessing that you Lord God And providing in that area of our church Lord Thank you Lord God for our leaders and ministry Lord God And a ministry of music Thank you Lord God that we know that we are not Without you but Lord we know we can do all things through you Thank you Lord God that you do real words that you do Not some things but all things will Thank you Lord God for this day Thank you for the Son Lord God Thank you for the winner that's coming in This hot heat is going away for a minute Thank you for that Lord I thank you for this time Thank you for this time in prayer In Jesus name we do pray Amen Amen Now we get to focus on more of our sin that God can forgive us for In our confession of faith And I will read How did God create mankind? After God had made all the other creatures He created mankind, male and female He formed the body of the man of the dust Of the ground and of the woman of the rib of the man He endowed them with living, reasoning And in mortal souls And He made them in His own image In knowledge, righteousness and in holiness Having the law God ridden in their hearts And the power to fulfill it With the million over the creatures Yet subject to fall Let us take time just to reflect Wow Amen Now we will have a song of reflection This song just says Jesus At the center of it all And we just read it in His word He made man, He made all the creatures He formed the body of the man of the dust of the ground And we find this theme not only consistent creation We find it in our everyday lives No matter what it is He's at the center of it all Let's give them praise this one Jesus had the center of it all Jesus had the center of it all From beginning to the end It will always be It's always been you Jesus Jesus Jesus had the center of my life Jesus had the center of my life From beginning to the end It will always be It's always been you Jesus Jesus Nothing else matters Nothing in this world will do Praise your name, Jesus Jesus lost the order of the center Everything we've all surrounded you Jesus lost you Jesus speaks the center of your church Jesus gave the center of this church Hallelujah And every knee will bow And every tongue shall confess you Jesus, we'll just sing it out And Jesus, nothing else matters Nothing in this world will do Oh, we praise your name, Father Praise your name, Father, our lives Hallelujah Jesus, you're the center Everything we've all surrounded you Jesus did nothing else matters Nothing in this world will do Oh, we praise your name, Father Jesus, you're the center Everything we've all surrounded you Jesus, you're the center of my heart From my heart to the heaven Jesus, be the center All about you Yes, it's all about you From my heart to the heaven Jesus, be the center All about you Yes, it's all about you From my heart to the heaven Jesus, be the center All about you Yes, it's all about For my church From my heart to the heaven Jesus, be the center All about you Yes, it's all about you Jesus, be the center of it all Hallelujah to Jesus Jesus, be the center of it all From beginning to the end It will always be It's always been you Jesus We'll just take that out one more time Jesus, nothing else matters Hallelujah, nothing in this world We'll do nothing compares to you, Father Jesus, you're the center Everything revolves around you Jesus, you're nothing else church It's nothing else matters Nothing in this world We'll do Hallelujah Oh, oh, oh Jesus, you're the center Hallelujah Everything we've all surrounded Jesus, you, Jesus We'll take that second verse one more time And Jesus, be the center of your church Be the center in this place, Jesus Make it personal Jesus, be the center of this church Hallelujah And every need and every need will bow And every tongue shall confess you Jesus Jesus Hallelujah You bless your name, Father Good morning church Man, it's good to be back here I haven't been here in a few weeks And haven't seen all your beautiful faces So it's really good to see you guys again Especially the Anderson's in the back They just came back from Florida And it's like, man, they went and they had three kids They come back, they got four Don't go to Florida Alright, I'll be doing the prayer supplication And supplication means to ask God for help And I know, like, when I'm at work and people offer me help And through my pride and my arrogance I turn them down thinking, okay, I can do it all myself And then I end up at the end Scrambling to get things done Because I didn't accept the help that they offered And I'm too pride, pro and too arrogant To go back and say, could you please help me? And that's like our Heavenly Father does He's offering to actually give us help And through some times of our pride and our arrogance We just turn them down When He should be the first one we should be looking towards So we're just going to take a little time And I just want you to think about some of the things That you probably personally need help in And just take this time and ask God for help while I pray Dear Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you for, first of all, always just being the force You have shown that how much you love us by sending your son So that he can take care of all our sins And so that he can bring us into right relationship with you And then he sends his Holy Spirit To actually help us and guide us through all the things that we need So Lord, just help us to put our pride and our arrogance And other things aside so that we may actually come to you first for assistance Not just try to think that we can actually do it all our own But we can actually come to you and ask you to be The help for us, the guidance for us And to be there when we need you, which you always are So we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name, amen. Alright, would you guys please stand for the reading of the Scriptures? We'll be reading Genesis 1-26-31 And it starts and I'll be reading from the ESV Then God see it, let us make man in our own image After our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 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 And the image God created him, male and female he created them And God blessed them and God said to them Be fruitful and multiply and feel 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, the whole 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 every bird of the heaven And everything that creeps on the earth Everything that has breath of life I have given you every green plant for food And it was so, and God saw that everything that he made And behold, it was very good And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day This is the word of God You may be seated Good morning church My name is Pastor Alex If you are a guest today, thank you so much for being with us And also on your worship guide, there is a QR code that I would love for you to scan There is a guest form that I would love for you to fill out And that's one of the ways in which we can follow up with our guests And also if you have questions about the church Or want to get calls with Pastor Alex and ask me questions about the church I would love to do that So if you have your Bible, please open it to Genesis chapter 1 Or if you are in your Bible, Genesis chapter 1 As Luke said, the sermon text today is 26-31 What is that time of the year again? Our mission and vision cup needs to be refilled And in light of the assessment, the cup might need to be refilled more often Because 85% of you don't even know the vision of the church Can't recite it from memory Maybe the vision is too complex, maybe it's not even necessary anymore Maybe the vision that we have, maybe it leaves something out Maybe it just doesn't motivate us like it should or like it used to Maybe the vision truly hasn't really penetrated our minds and our hearts And maybe we just don't have any emotional connection to the words that stated each Sunday during the announcements Broken people coming together to embrace and extend Christ's love Broken people coming together to embrace and extend Christ's love There was a meme that I saw a few weeks ago on my IG account And it says this, reset, refocus, readjust, restart As many times as you need to, just never give up These words were applied to our vision statement And over the past few weeks and after the assessment We have readjusted the vision statement We have reworked the vision statement And so the new vision that we have for our church is beautiful and broken people Connected in Jesus, extending His love I'll be unpacking our refined vision over the next four weeks, phrase by phrase And hopefully, by God's grace, we will end up owning the vision Being able to recite the vision for memory and also have a connection to it That vision where it's not just words on our website or words in our worship God But it's actually something that we really believe in our hearts So the sermon text, Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 to 31 And the sermon title is beautiful people Beautiful people, please pray with Him for me Holy Spirit, as I often pray each week, I pray again today that you will move That you will give us understanding of the preach word That you will minister to our minds, our emotions And also, our ability to apply to the church To our minds, our emotions, and also our ability to apply the word Our ability to live out the word, we also need your help in that Because we can't do it without you We need your help So will you please give us your help In Christ and my praying, amen One of my favorite theologians, the late Henry Nowan, said Long before we talk about original sin or original rejection We should speak of God's original love Long before we talk about original sin or original rejection We should speak of God's original love In another late theologian, Ian Pitt's Watson wrote Sometimes we're in such a hurry to get to Genesis 3 That we forget that Adam's story begins not in shame But in glory But in glory Our refined vision statement takes into account Nowan's words and Watson's words because the story of humanity begins in beauty, not brokenness Our story begins in awesomeness, not awesomeness Paradise, not misery Has to any theology Has to take into account Genesis 1 and 2 before it gets to Genesis 3 Or it's incomplete It's not complete In the beginning, our Trinitarian God creates a good, beautiful, awesome, glorious universe out of nothing for his own glory So do we believe that? Or do we believe it was some big bang It just came out of nothing Or was there actually a creator Who made all this in design of this He does it by the word of his power says the word And so God is, he's like a creative And if you know, if you have friends who are creative, you know, they are highly skilled You know, creators are designers, they're artists, they're storytellers, they can be painters And that's what God is, he's a creative And creation is God's art museum And we're part of that museum And in six days, he feels his museum with goodness In six days, he does that Goodness, goodness, goodness, goodness On day one, he creates light And on day two, he creates the water and the sky are created On day three, God creates the land and visitation On day four, he creates the lights and the heavens And on day five, the fish and the birds are created And on day six, the land animals are created And all of that is him feeling his museum with goodness You know how it is when you're working on a project And then you step back halfway to review it You're like, you're just examining it You're looking at what you painted, you're looking at what you built You're examining it, you're seeing what tweets may need to be made And you step back because you are admiring your work See, each day of creation accumulates in God's stepping back Like this, to review and to examine and to admire his work And what conclusion does the God draw when he steps back and examine his creation? What word does he use after each day when he steps back? What does he say? It's good, it's good, it's good In the coming to America scene, it'll be that boy good He's good, he's good And so, up to this point, God commands things into existence By the word of his power And there's a phrase that's repeated, it says let there be And it was, let there be light, and it was Let there be land and vegetation, and it was And all that is good, and it kind of feels a little impersonal But that's going to change, because on the sixth day of creation A significant shift becomes apparent halfway through the day There's a shift in the mood, the language, and even the pronouns that are used From impersonal to personal You see, halfway through the sixth day God steps back again to examine and to admire his work And this time, he speaks to himself There's a conversation within the Godhead, within the Trinity And it's like there's an executive divine consultation And this time, God says let's us Instead of let there be Let us Look at verses 26a and verse 27, it says Let us make man in our image After our likeness So God created man in his own image In the image of God he created him, male and female He created them He made us, He created us Look at all this, that word is used several times he's made, he created, he created, he created So we can get it, God did this Humanity is the crown of God's creation Do you believe that? The most excellent of all his creative works As humanity, that's us The terms, image and likeness pretty much have the same meaning And one scholar says, likeness specifies what kind of image it is It is a likeness of image, not simply an image Representational, not simply representative Human beings are the representational image of God on earth We are not the inanimate objects, not plants Not our animals, though I know you love your animals Not fish, not the trees, not the birds, not the land animals Humanity alone is the Amago Dam We are Every human being is created as a representational image of God Not just human beings in America All human beings Not just human beings who are high up on the social status ladder All human beings, regardless of the economic level Regardless of their income or the educational level All of us are the Amago Dam And this is true from the womb to the tomb For the womb to the tomb is true It's a fact of life for the Christian and the non-Christian Even the atheist is created in the image of God Even the people you don't like Is created in the image of God Even the people who do shameful, heinous things in our world Are created in the image of God It's a reality for the people that we label Who are the people that you label, good and bad? Who are the people you label as conservative or progressive? Who are those people? Those people, all those adjectives and labels you put in front of a person That very person is still created in the image of God Just like you Just like you Now what aspects of ourselves are considered to be the Amago Dam? What aspects of humanity? Is it just our intellect? Is it our emotions? Is it just us who we are spiritually? What aspects of humanity is the Amago Dam? It's the whole person The whole person is the image of God Not bits and pieces of a person The whole person is created in the image of God Another theologian says One does well to separate as little as possible The bodily and the spiritual The whole man is created in the image of God Another theologian says This image extends to the whole person While all creatures display traces of God Only human beings is the image of God And such totally in soul and body And all its faculties and powers And all conditions and relations All of who we are Is the Amago Dam Now what does this mean For the whole person to be the representational image of God? If the whole person represents God If the whole person is the image of God Then what does that mean in reality? It means our personhood Is in the image of God It means our gender is in the image of God It means our ethnicity is in the image of God That's why we can't say we don't see color Because you deny what God created good So me acknowledging the color Is saying God made you beautiful Amago Dam The whole person It includes our emotions It includes our will It includes our cognitive life So all these things that makes those human beings You think it's just there by accident It's there because of who God is And how he made us Now we're getting to what went wrong But we got to first start about what went well Pastor Sean Lucas is a pastor in Memphis, Tennessee He says, "Adam and Eve, as the fountain head of humanity Represents all races in themselves While they are not identifiable about race or ethnicity They contain all races and ethnicities All those races and ethnicities That spring from our first parents Bear God's image All of them All of them The Amago Dam Connects humanity Across the world It connects us That's what we have in common The every human being On the face of the earth Those in the womb and those out of the womb Are the image of God It's what we have in common We're all image bears When you look at the people you see every day Throughout the week Do you see image bears? How do you see them? How are you going to see the people in November Who vote differently than you? How are you going to relate to them? How are you going to relate to the people that have differences than you? How do you see them? How do you see people from other nations or other countries? Do you see image bears? How do you see them? Every human being has an innate worth, value and dignity That and that comes from the Amago Dam It has nothing to do with your performance and your productivity And your success and your achievements Everybody, every human being on the face of the earth Because the Amago Day has value, self-worth and dignity All of us And that's the reason why we're beautiful Because we created in his image And I'm not talking about a worldly or a fleshly beauty That you can with filters on IG or TikTok Or make up a surgery I'm talking about a beauty that goes much deeper It's an innate beauty that comes from the Amago Dam We are beautiful because we are the representational image of God on earth When God created us When He gave Adam and Eve what we call the creation mandate To exercise the dominion over the lesser creatures of humanity Of the creation We were not created to exercise dominion over each other That comes from Genesis 3 So whenever you see all these things that are happening With killings and shootings and murder All of those things are Jesus 3 All of those things are an exercise of dominion over another image baron Destroying what God created good All that stuff is with up to the following I know I'm getting ahead of myself But when you see people And here's the thing, beloved You can't hold a pagan country like America To this standing if we don't hold ourselves to it We sometimes want our country to own, to have our values This is not a Christian nation There are no such things as Christian nations We the church, we don't live this And yet we get married when the pagan world doesn't Come on, make it make sense We have to believe this We have to treat people differently We're not doing it But yet we want the government to do it We want people who don't honor Christ to do it And sometimes they even probably do it better than we do Which is shame on us We are the representation image of God on earth And as Christians the image of God on earth is being restored And it's being healed so that when we go out We go out with power, we go out with hope We go into the broken places We go into the places that are broken And we give hope Not judgment The world's already judged The fall happened As instruments of God's grace We're here to say there is resurrection coming There is redemption There is hope In the midst of the chaos And the beauty that we have That innate beauty That humanity has We have to also realize That we're going to reflect The image of God differently There is no such thing As uniformity, okay? There's diversity within God's creation Think about the days of creation There's diversity there when you read Those six days of creation There's diversity of animals Even the fruit trees They eat a tree Bad fruit of its kind You know, meaning the apple tree Is not going to bear oranges Okay, so if there's diversity In the lesser forms of creation How about the crown of creation? Would that not also be An innate diversity among us? It is We let The world hijack things That actually come from God Diversity is not a political term It's from creation Just as one and two That's where it comes from It's right there in descriptions It's right there within the Godhead That us Father, Son, Holy Spirit Make mankind In our image Diversity Male and female Diversity Within creation Before the fall So that means As image bears In different languages In all those different languages Imago Dam Personalities Nationalities Ethnicities Physical characteristics We all don't have the same skin color The hair color, shapes of our eyes Nose in the head They're all different But they're all beautiful Because their reflection Are the Imago Dam These emotions Of the Imago Dam Right here in Jesus 1 & 2 I didn't even sit you off to study anthropology It's right here in the Bible It's right here Mankind Was created Not in shame but in glory But do we believe that And As the quote said We're so in a hurry To get to what's wrong We don't ever have set set in The fact That when God's intent for this world Was something much different Than what it is now Sometimes it's got to go Set in Scripture Set in it I mean meditate on it And remember It was good And then it was very good Like let's set in that Set in it Let us make man in our image In our likeness So God created man in his own image In the image of God He created him He created them For his own glory In his own good And they're good To exercise dominion Over creation And to exercise dominion That is to care for creation What did God do when he created Adam It says what? He took the man, put him in the garden To do it To work To work Sorry Work is not a consequence of the following It's in Genesis 1 and 2 He took care of the creation He took care of the creation No one should want to take care of the creation more than Christians Because it's our God, it belongs to our God All this is right there Relationships, marriage All these things We see in the first two chapters Of Genesis All before Our first parents fell into sin And all of it is good Family is good Marriage is good Relationships are good Good things When was the last time we reflected On those good things That the relationship you have The relationship you have in your life They may be hard, but they are a blessing from God Now again, we're getting to what goes wrong But on right now focusing on The intent Of creation Was to be beautiful paradise And now we live east of that I came across a Wonderful story And one of my devotional books And I want you to listen to these words A story is told of a king Who went to his garden one morning Only to find Everything weathered And dying He asked the oak tree That stood near the gate What the trouble was The oak tree said It was tired of life And determined to die Because it was not tall And beautiful Like the pine tree The pine tree was trolled Because it could not bear grapes Like the grape tree The grape tree was determined To throw its life away Because it couldn't stand tall And produce fruit as large as Teaches And the geranium Was fled Fretching because it was not tall And fragrant like the lilac tree And so it went on Throughout the garden Disappointment as the king Talked to one plant and one tree Within his garden And then the king Came to a little violet The king found its face Bright and happy As ever And said well violet I'm glad to find one brave With a flower in the midst of All this discouragement You don't seem to be the least Dishearted And violet responds No I'm not I know I'm small Yet I thought If you wanted an oak or a pine Or a peach tree or all I lack You would have planted one To be the best violet I can be Like this king Who planted the violet God created you Because he wanted you Not what you do Not what you produce He wants you And because He wants To know you That's why he created you That's why you're here If you didn't want to know you This is what You wouldn't be here So he created you So that he can be in a relationship With you And I'm gonna flesh that out more And so You are beautiful And fiftrally And wantedly made In the image Of God Don't let social media Lie to you Those are filters They're not real Don't let it lie to you Don't let the world lie to you What is beautiful and what is not beautiful I'm telling you you're beautiful Because of who created you Because of who created you The emago dam Makes every person in this room Beautiful Fiftrally And wonderfully If you are a violet Be a violet If you are a pine tree Be the best pine tree you can be Comparison is the thief for joy It's the thief for your happiness Because please know Facebook life Social media life Ain't real life That stuff is alive Learn to enjoy How God has made you And how He's forming you To be the person He wants you to be For His glory But for your good Let us pray Father God The cost of What you did A whole long time ago Back in Genesis 1 and 2 Humanity Regardless of our gender race Nationality Regardless of those themes We are your image On Earth And I pray for us As a church that as we deal with One another as we deal with The people in our life This upcoming week on our jobs Or our school and our sports teams We retreat them with the value And self-worth and dignity That they deserve Because they are our image matters And so Help us to be able to do that To the people that we really don't jail with The people we really don't get along with So I'm not, I'm a realist There are just some people we just don't like And we could care less If we don't see them So even for those people Help us to have a certain respect Towards them Because that person Is created in your image And you call us to love The people that you have created So watch over us in Godless this week And I pray for all of this in Christ's wonderful name Amen Will you please stand thanks Our song or hymn Will be holy, holy, holy Holy, holy, holy Lord God, almighty Early in the morning Our song shall rise To thee Holy, holy, holy First people And mighty Holy, holy Holy, holy Lord, almighty Let's sing that one more time Holy, holy Holy, holy Lord God Lord, almighty Early in the morning Our song shall rise To thee Holy, holy Holy, holy Lord, almighty Lord, almighty Lord, almighty Lord, almighty Let's sing Let's sing Amen Oh, beloved, we're going to have A ministry moment from one of our mission partners I would like to invite Kayla up. She's going to share with us The time that she spent with Emma's Bears in Japan this summer So welcome Kayla I feel really short behind here, so I'm going to be over here My name is Kayla Couch and I work with the Japanese community Here in Huntsville. I thought it was just Man, perfect timing today because I was just thinking about I grew up not really understanding some parts of the unique way That I was created as an Asian American And so I remember coming home from school one day, I think maybe in the first grade And I was like, "Mom, the kids are calling me the Chinese girl But I'm not Chinese, I'm American." And she was like, "Okay, we need to talk about ethnicity" So I'm Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese In my ethnicity And when I was in middle school, I saw my dad practicing Japanese characters and I was interested in that, so I started to learn About the Japanese culture and language And as I learned the Japanese culture and language, I started to understand More things about the way that God had created me And in college, I started to really wonder, "Lord, how are you going to use that?" Is it worth spending all this time learning about The language? If I'm not sure how I'm going to use it Actually, Kyoko Sierz is here this morning, which is awesome But just the right time the Lord introduced me to Kyoko Sierz Who's been faithfully laboring in the Japanese community And Huntsville for, I think, over 20 years And I met her, I got to hear her testimony Her story of coming to faith And she invited me to the women's seeker bible study that she leads And I went and I heard the gospel in Japanese for the first time And I thought, "Wow, this is why I've been learning Japanese I mean, one just so that I could hear the gospel in Japanese in this moment And be so moved at how there's unique ways that that hits me When it's in Japanese, a little bit different than in English And so that's part, you know, that's why I'm in Japanese ministry today Is I thought, "Lord, you prepared me to be part of this" And celebrating and understanding the unique ways you've made the Japanese culture And wanting that to be brought to redemption, restoration, you know, to the Lord's design And I began to learn over time That Japan is actually one of the largest unreached people groups in the world There's an estimated 0.6% evangelical Christian So less than 1% Christians and negative annual growth And so there's one church for every 16,000 people in Japan That's one missionary for every 64,000 people And I think maybe one potential reason that Christianity is struggling in Japan Is that we just had a guest speaker come yesterday or this past weekend And one of the things she said is that Japanese people often make decisions Not based on what they desire or what they find good But out of fear of not belonging So this can be cultural and familial pressure To conform to a certain set of expectations And becoming a Christian is not part of those expectations But God is at work and we got to see that in Tokyo Which I shared about a few weeks ago or a few months ago And he's also at work here in Huntsville He's bringing people here where they have a vastly greater chance of getting to Build a relationship with a Christian and to hear the gospel I teach at an ESL class here in town And the majority of our students here are Japanese So we have a lot of people coming here And they already know, okay, I'm going to need to learn things about a culture that's different for me And so they're more open to talking about things that are maybe not within the set of expectations in Japan But also maybe people can struggle with belonging when they're in a different way When they're, you know, they're adjusting to a new culture So I work for a crew city And I work with the Huntsville Japanese ministry here in town And we have a goal of creating a community of belonging As people adjust to a new culture, new language, new way of living while they're here in the United States And one of the major tools that we use is called finding home again And it's designed to help families process this kind of transition Because wives may be, you know, processing their transition differently from their husbands And the parents may be processing that differently from their kids who are in school And so helping families to understand each other And to know that they're not alone And as we build trust within the community by helping meet needs for connection and community And cultural understanding We're also able to engage with the spiritually curious And many people are curious, maybe they're used to religion being tied to asking People asking them for money Or people asking them for something And so they're maybe some suspicion And when they see, oh, Christians volunteer, they're time to help for free I get to learn English for free, or this artist is going to come teach us how to make beautiful art for free And that is because of God's love That makes people really curious So we get to have a lot of beautiful conversations because of that And so I meet one-on-one with those who are spiritually curious And then also we get to invite them into things like the Bible study that is going on And then the Lord, oh, yes, he's at work in people's hearts I've been so moved to see that just in this past year that I've been doing this more full-time As part of my ministry focus Our friend Yuna, I'm going to call her Yuna, has been in the US for a few years And others have been pouring into her life since before I met her But when I met her, I could quickly tell, oh, she's spiritually curious And we had a lot of conversations about Jesus as well, she brought me her questions And, yeah, I was so honored to just help be one of the people who watered the seeds that had been planted in her life And she became a good friend, and her family became a good friend with our family And she has been a person of peace in the community So when we started our finding home again group She and her husband sat down with me And they were eager to help me process, okay, what cultural insights do I need to know as I start this group? What are potential barriers to people coming that we can address? What are the best times and locations for families? And what are the ways they might be hesitant that we can make sure to let people know? It's okay to come And then they even said, you know, we're going to spread the word to all our friends And that is so significant, I think, because I don't know, there's pressure to stand out Not to stand out, but they were willing to stand out for us And not even being Christian yet And so yesterday we hosted a special event of that very same discussion group Again in the fellowship hall because we had a guest speaker and uni pray to receive Christ into her life [applause] Yes, praise the word with me We had just been praying the night before We were a little sad because we have this wonderful women in ministry Driving from Atlanta to come visit us and to give a special message And we had invited many people And, you know, it was maybe one of the only people who was going to come who was not a believer And so we were praying like, you know, what are maybe things we need to Are there more barriers for people coming than we need to consider? But it was, you know, it was the Lord's plan that there was a smaller group Because we got to have just an intimate time together with her And a rejoice with her in her new life Yes, so please be in prayer for Una She and her family are moving back to Japan actually in less than a month And so there's a lot of transitioning happening, all at once for her And, you know, it can be difficult to transition by itself But then spiritually, as she is a new Christian and a building Christian community there And her husband is not a believer yet, yeah, please pray for her And, you know, I'd love for you to pray also just for the ministry here Pray for those of us who are laboring among the Japanese community That we would work from a place of rest From a place of peace that we would have guidance for vision for some new steps As we were praying on Friday, we felt, yeah, I think it's time to clarify our vision It's also just really funny timing the sermon today But yeah, pray for guidance for, yeah, for us as we clarify that vision together And we're actually starting a group to pray together monthly in person for Japan And for Japanese ministry here, so if you're interested in that I'm going to be out in the lobby with some materials and some pictures And yeah, feel free to talk to me if you're interested in hearing more Or you're interested in praying with us for us Thank you [applause] Alright, there. Thank you so much. The angels in heaven are rejoicing right now So please, I encourage you to talk with Kayla out in the foyer Learn more about her ministry here in TJ And like I said, they are mission partners with us and I would love to see how we as a body And be more connected with her and what the Lord is doing in our ministry So will you please stand for the benediction? Also, after the benediction, if you are interested in the music ministry, all would be up here And so please come up front right after the benediction And the adult SEC would be in the war room today because of the music ministry meeting Alright, now here's God's benediction Let me see if I can find it. There we go Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way The Lord be with you all and all God's people said Amen [BLANK_AUDIO]