Created Not Creator

Entangled / Genesis 1

Our Search for Meaning comes from the reality that We are Created in the Image of God.

if we are going to talk about human sexuality then we need to talk about the created order

because where we believe we come from matters how we view one another

if we believe we are created then it sets up a whole under of the value and dignity of humanity and the created order

But what happens when we forget that?

• The Christian is called to have long term memory regarding where we have come from and where we are going.

• I’m going to ask us to begin somewhere else, and through that, be able to tell a more compelling story about human flourishing.

• People want to be seen, they need to be seen. People want purpose.

• And we will go to great lengths to get it.

When we forget, things can get difficult.

– We were created to find the entirety of our lives and meaning in God.

– That’s why Christ came. So that what we lost, we could find in Him again.

– Nothing fills our days more than a pursuit for identity.

– And we will keep going until we find something worthwhile.

› – Because we build lives off fragments not the whole

› We have given sex and sexuality the highest place of human meaning in our culture. That there is nothing greater than achieving sexual fulfillment or ordering your life based on your sexuality.

The issue is not sex. it’s that we have made far too much out of sex.

They are part of who you are but not the whole of who you are.

There is a reason sexuality is the highest ordering of human flourishing

Because outside of Christ it is the most powerful driver of human identity.

We have looked to sexuality to complete us. We do it in the world and we do it in the church. We think that identifying by our sexuality will complete us or that speaking against another’s identity will complete us.

• What can we do about it?

Genesis 1:26–28 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The God who created the whole of all things is Himself completely whole. He is the actual, the unmoved mover.

He creates humanity within the whole created order. That creation is called good. In creating humanity? Very good.

Jesus coming on our behalf is the restoration of that entire picture.

• Because, when it comes down to it, we are all sexually broken. And we equally need the redemption of Christ applied to our lives.

• We don’t get a pass because we are in church or because you have perfect attendance.

• We need to be reminded that we need the same redemption that everyone needs. The difference between us and anyone else is simply that we have agreed with Christ that He is the One do to it.

• So the idea in this series is not to point fingers at those who are sexually different.

• It is to realize just how much we need the fullness of Jesus in our lives to redeem that which is broken.

• We can Trust the created order. The way that God has created us, and that God Himself has created us. He has given us meaning because we are created in His image.