string(7) "m-66998" Burnt Hickory Baptist Church

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Jan 17, 2021

God: Giver Of Life

God: Giver Of Life

Passage: John 1:4-

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: God: Giver Of Life

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: image, church, children, baptist, creator, born, womb, sanctity of life, hickory, burnt, giver of life, bhbc, burnt hickory, god giver of life

God: Giver of Life | Matt Petty | Burnt Hickory As we celebrate the sanctity of life Sunday today, we look into scripture and see that God loves life. We see in John 1 and 14, Jesus is life, the author of life, and creator of life. In Genesis 2 we understand that we are His workmanship. And finally in Genesis 1, we see that we bear His image. As God holds all human life as His workmanship and as reflecting His image, it should be sacred to us. We also see in scripture that we are formed with this image from inside our mother's womb. The goal of exploring this in scripture is not to condemn anyone, but to show how we should reflect God's view of humanity, and learn that everyone is precious.

Well, good morning church, I know I get incredibly, incredibly more excited than you do about last week on ordaining deacons. As crazy as that sounds, but I'm just still excited just about how God has blessed this church and how last week 14 men were set apart to serve in that role, and how God has just been so faithful to us. I'm excited about just the ministries that have been happening. Some are incredibly behind the scenes that nobody even knows about. But just blessing people all over the place. I'm excited about the idea that we are reaching farther and farther into this community, we're meeting needs. And I'm just absolutely excited about the favor of God. Just the favor that I just sense that God has placed us in this moment for this time for this community just to stand in the gap and pray and be here for life. I'm just excited about the life in this church. Even in the midst of just some crazy times right now, some incredibly polarized moments that God shows up and shows out.  Well, speaking of life, today is the sanctity of human life day. To bring that into kind of current vernacular, you can say the value of human life day. And I just want to be really honest with you on the front end today and I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but the reality is, there's part of me that hates this Sunday. That hates it, that absolutely despises it. And here's what I mean, before you take me wrong. I hate that we even have to have this Sunday. I hate that there's a day every year that we have to carve out just to tell people that life is from God. I hate that we've kind of slipped into this moment, as a culture, as a church, as a people, that this day is even something that we have to be reminded of. I just hate it. But it's where we're at. But here's my prayer. I pray that there's a day that this day becomes obsolete. I pray that there's a day that our hearts change to a point that we see the Heavenly Father and the gift of life that he's given us and then we hold on to that. With everything that we have. Today, I want to invite Pastor Aaron up.  Pastor Aaron is our children's pastor here at this church if you haven't got to meet him, and I'm going to ask Aaron to do something incredibly significant today. I just want him as the representative of that Ministry of this church. I want him just to pray.  I want him to pray over this church, I want him to pray over hearts. I want him to pray over future conversations. And I want him to pray today that we can see what it is when it says that God loves life. Aaron, would you just do that today? Can we just stand just in honor of those who can't stand for themselves, and let's just lift them up before the King today?

Let's pray. Dear gracious and Heavenly Father, Lord, we want to start off this morning by acknowledging that you are God and God alone. Lord, that you are the Creator, the giver and the Sustainer of life. Lord, I publicly want to thank you for almost 30 years ago how all the way across the globe, a young lady was faced with the decision of whether she was going to choose life. And she made that courageous choice, that right choice, the only choice. I also thank you, Lord, that after that little girl was born, that she had the blessing to enter foster care in a culture where pretty much everyone was institutionalized in an orphanage. But she had the blessing of a family that loved and cared for her. And Lord, I thank you for my mom and dad who had the heart and the calling of adoption. And Lord, three months after that little girl was born, I had the pleasure of calling her my sister and she became a part of our family on Mother's Day. Lord, I thank you for this church which supports much of my story. Lord, we have an awesome foster care ministry Lord, we have families in our church right now that are ministering to foster care children in our community. Lord, I thank you for the ministry of adoption that you have given us. And Lord, I pray that we will not take that for granted because it is a true blessing. We have families in our church that are adopting or in the process Lord of adopting.  Lord, we also have those that are called to the adoption ministry in a different way, where they're providing financial resources that are available. Lord, finances should never keep a family from being able to love a child and I thank you for providing it that way. Lord, I thank you for a church that wants to reach around the globe to children, in Guatemala, and in Kenya, just as examples, this church is sponsoring children and making an eternal difference in their life. Lord, to whom much is given, much is required. Lord, I pray Lord here as we are sharing exciting opportunities to partner here locally, Lord, that we will just the Holy Spirit will move in a great way in this auditorium and that those families that are watching at home, Lord that they will have a burden, Lord we will sell out of diapers because we can't send enough to these pregnancy centers.  Lord, not only will it be an encouragement to those staff members, but to the women, because nothing is impossible for you. Lord, when in encouragement that you will take care of tangible needs, like diapers. Lord, I thank you so much for this church. I thank you that this church is a place where we celebrate Jesus's love, his hope, in a community and Lord where we understand that we are not to serve you out of legalism, or under the law, but through grace, and that Your blood Jesus shed blood on Calvary can cover any sin. We thank you for the transformation power of the gospel. And Lord, I thank you that you choose to restore us. Lord, I pray as we leave here, Lord, we will not just support life, we will not just embrace life, we will not just celebrate life, but Lord, we will be the champions for life. We proclaim this in Your son's precious and powerful name. Amen. Amen.

Preach it Pastor Aaron Amen. Well listen, if you've got a copy of Scripture today, I want you to turn with me to John chapter 1.  John, the gospel of John chapter 1.  And what we're going to do today is, we're going to take an incredibly close look at the heart of God as it pertains to life, the heart of God as it pertains to life. And we're going to do this in reality, because as believers, one of our primary purposes on this planet is to live out the heart of God in our lives. And so, we can take what God loves and we can learn what God loves. And we can see what God values and we can begin to give Him glory by doing the same thing. And I want you just to see today as we take scripture, and as we dive into scripture, that there is an incredibly big thread of hope that runs all the way from Genesis all the way through the Old Testament, all the way through the New Testament into Revelation, and all the way into eternity, that just screams from the heartbeat of our Heavenly Father that God values life. And that He gives life and that He celebrates life. Specifically, I just want you to hear this, specifically human life. So today as I'm mentioning life, I just want you to think through all of the context of human life, human life. Now, it hit me as I was prepping this week, on this message that I fully realized that when we step into topics like today, when we step into the value of human life, the sanctity of human life, I realized today, and I just want you to hear this from my heart. I realized today that there are some, if not a good many people that are listening to this message that at some point in your life, you have had an abortion, that you've had an abortion, I just want to be honest with you, but I just want to be incredibly tender with you this morning that that that is part of your past. That's part of your testimony it's kind of what has happened in your life and from the beginning of today's message, I want you to hear a message today. And I want you to hear that the Heavenly Father loves you. And I want you to hear today that the Heavenly Father is full of grace and He is full of mercy and He is full of love and He knows the parts of our stories are grimy and parts of our stories are good. He knows that there is none of us in this building that have any right to cast any stones and He knows that we are all sinners in need of the grace of God, that we are all sinners in need of the mercy of God. So, listen to me, if that's you today, while we're walking through what we're going to look at, as part of today's message, I just want you to hear that there is no sin in my life, and there is no sin in your life that is greater than the blood of Jesus, and it covers you. And at any moment, those feelings start just birthing back inside of you that you are not worthy, that you're not good enough, you need to let the Heavenly Father wash over you because you are, and He loves you. And I just want you to remember that it is only Satan that wants to drag that back up. It is not from the Father, because you are loved, and you are cherished, and you are His.

Now let me ask you a question saying that is for all of us. When I say the phrase, the sanctity of human life, or the value of human life, what is it that comes to your mind? What is it that comes to your mind?  And I fully realized this about on Tuesday and talking with some people about this, that when I say the sanctity of human life, there's many different things that come to different people's minds. For some of us, or maybe for a lot of us, our mind automatically checks back to standing for those that have never been born, standing for those who are in the womb, that they can't stand for themselves. But I also know that when we say this value of human life or sanctity of human life, that there are some of us that our mind right now automatically goes to this idea of just the injustice that we're seeing across our planet or across our world. Or maybe for you, it's this idea of you're just watching the refugee crisis that's happening all across Europe and, even in some of South America and traveling around and you're seeing the refugee crisis, and it's a value of human life issue. For some of you, you're seeing maybe eldercare as a deal or the treatment of people as a deal. And here's the thing I want you to notice this morning. The value of human life or the sanctity of human life, quite possibly is the most contested and controversial topic that our country and our culture is dealing with right now. It really is. Because it really from a macro sense, from a large sense, it lumps in all of those causes together into one idea. And that idea is what is life, and who has given life, and what is life worth?  And all of these things work together.

Now what I want to do this morning, and because of how important this topic is, I want to search scriptures as believers, as followers of Jesus, and I want us to have a crystal-clear knowledge of how God views life. Therefore, when it comes to abortion, when it comes to human rights, when it comes to injustice, when it comes to all of this, our minds can be reshaped into a mind that primarily honors God, and lives what God wants us to live. Now I want us to see this completely. Here's the public kind of message I need you to hear. I want us to see this as believers in Jesus. I don't care if you're an independent or a Republican or a Democrat, or what you call yourself. Now, that's not primarily how we're seeing a message. We're seeing this through the lens of Jesus followers.  If we can see through the lens of Jesus followers, we'll see that our role is to be informed on the heart of God and realize that God's story is better than ours, that God's answers are better than ours and where God wants us to live is incredibly, incredibly providing a freedom. So, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna give you three reasons this morning why God values life.  Why God values lives so much. And I believe, if we can grab hold of these three things, number one, it can be free and number two, it can give us an incredible defense that is educated and not just those fundamentalist grunts when people ask us the hard questions, and it can set us on a path to give life to other people.

So here we go. Number one, why does God love life? God loves life, because God is life, all right? And the author and creator of life.  Now that's a complex sentence. I learned that this week because of sixth grade English, right?  God is life and He's the author and creator of life.  Now, this first section is huge because it lays the foundation and there's a lot here. So, starting in John chapter 1, I just want you to really see what it is that God is saying specifically what John is saying, for you ADD people hold on, this is going to be a little bit deep get an accountability partner around you, you might need them in just a minute, John chapter 1.  John chapter 1, John is speaking about Jesus. He's telling us about Jesus. He's introducing us to Jesus and His gospel.  John chapter 1:4 it says this, "In Him was life," In Him was life who's the Him, it's Jesus, "In Him was life and that life was the light of all mankind." So, John is talking about Jesus.  Just a couple of sentences earlier, John has just called Jesus God, he's just equated them together. There's Jesus, the God of the universe, they're all three separate, they're all three, one, not the day for that. But he's just called Jesus God. And to fully understand what he's saying, here we see this, and he says, In In him was life.

So, in other words, in Jesus was life.  Now to fully understand this, we have to go back, and we have to really realize what it is that john was saying, well, john was writing in Greek right here. He's writing in Greek; this was from a long time ago and sometimes we have to go back to the original language. Remember, in Spanish class? Remember your first like week of Spanish? When you took it, it was so frustrating? Remember, you look at something on the on the wall and they go, what is this and you go, well, that's a yellow bus, and then senorita, whatever her name was, would like, slap you and go, no, no, that is a bus; yellow. Um, you remember how sometimes it just didn't make sense to you why the word order was different, even though it was the same words.  Do you remember that?  It's the same in Latin and in some other languages that are out there? Well, that's the same thing for Greek. Why? I don't know. It's just how it is. So, I want you to see this. When we read in verse 4, that it says in him was life. If we look at the word order of the original language, it reads, it would be really choppy in English, so they swapped it for us, it would read this, In Him, life was. 

Now, in order to see what John is really saying here, we have to look at this deeply. Because there is a difference, when we read it to go, Oh, in Him was life. What does that mean? He's living, that's great. Jesus was living we know Jesus was living. But there's a whole lot more to see when you see in him, life was.  Now was, you might want to circle it, or write it off to the side in your Bible, because the word was is incredibly important here to understand what John is saying.  What John is saying is, in this word was, is this word imay, in Greek. What it literally means, what was means, is that in Jesus was the existence of life from the beginning, and he is the perfect representation of what life can be. You see, the difference, right? In him was life means ah the dudes living. But in Him life was means that when we see Jesus, we not only see Him as a guy who walked on this earth that was alive, but we see Him as a being that from the beginning of time was alive will exist into the eternal life. He's not only the object and picture of life, but He's the giver of life, He's the author of life, He's the promoter of life, and He's the only one that has the right to determine life. That's what this means. In Jesus life was.  In other words, all life exists around Jesus. This is why John 14:6. This is why when Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life." What did He say?  "The life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."  What does He mean there? He's saying this word, I am is the same as was, I'll leave that up to your English teacher. It's past and present. It works. He's saying this. He says, I'm the only person that gives life. I'm the only person that can give life. I'm the only person that can offer life. I'm the only person that should ever have life in His hands because you can't do it. You ever wonder what Jesus was saying? When he says that In him was life? He's just meaning I'm the perfect eternal representative of life, of life.

Now look, I know this is deep, I get it. But when somebody walks up to you and ask this question, the first day of psychology class, the first day philosophy and says, define life? What is the meaning of life? You can answer with one word, Jesus. And it's not just a Sunday school answer, right?  You either answer Jesus or Moses, and He got most of them. Right, right? What is life? You can literally answer, imay, Jesus is life, why? He's the author perfector, the giver, the keeper, and the promoter of life.  Of life.  Now, what is the implication of this on today's message? The implication of this is if He is the beginning of life, and He's the end of life, it really means here's the principle, any life that comes after God is a result of God. It's a result of God. Now, let that settle into your soul just for a minute. That means everybody who has ever been created is only a result of God. That's the principle here. Any life that has come after God is a result of God. It's created by Him. And let me bring it out of the land of reason. All right?  Let me bring it back down a little bit. Let me bring it back down just real practical. Genesis chapter 2:7, because this can change things for how we see life, Genesis 2:7.  Let's see how God created life, and how life is only the result of God. Genesis 2:7 it says this, "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Now, the Bible tells us here that when God created us, He formed us. We're gonna see that in just a minute. And what did He do? It's almost like the Bible is describing a heavenly God is bending over us after we're formed and we're lifeless, He made us from the dust and what did He do?  It's almost like He's saying that He cupped His hands around our mouth, CPR style and He breathed His breath into us. This is incredible. If you think about it.  This is telling me and it's telling you that the first breath that was ever breathed on this planet, the first human being that ever breathed the breath of life actually started by the very breath of God, the very Breath of the Heavenly Father and listen, He is never stopped. He's never stopped doing it. And it's telling us look at it, it just tells us in the Scripture, keep going. It says this, it says, "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."  It's so simple. It doesn't take a PhD, it doesn't take a mass spectrometer to figure this thing out or billions of years. 

We have God Almighty, who is life, the author of life, giving life to the creation, He just formed out of the dust that He just made. What does this mean for you and for me?  This means that you're not an accident that God created you. This separates us from everything else on this planet, that He breathed His life into you. This also means that any child from conception to elderly is under the watch care of the breath of life, Jesus, Jesus.  Why does God love Life?  He loves it because He is life. He's the author of life. He's the giver of life.

But number two, let's get even more practical. He loves life because number two we are as human beings, the workmanship of God. We're the workmanship of God. If it's not good enough to see God as the giver of life, let's get even better and go, Hey, we are His workmanship. There's something that just jumped out in Scripture this week that I haven't really thought about in a long time and if we can get this it just kind of clarifies what life is in a way better way. And we see it in Genesis chapter 2:7 again.  We can see how much value God places on human life. I want you to notice how God created man in verse 7.  How did He actually do it? Check it out. It says this, "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust." He formed a man from the dust. Now here's a Bible question for you. All right, don't answer it out loud. Don't spoil it. Up until this point, all Genesis chapter 1, the first 6 verses of Genesis chapter 2. How did God create? How did he create? What did he do? One, two, three, He spoke it.  He spoke it.  I know, this so good. He spoke it into existence. You don't believe me?  Read it for yourself. He spoke it into existence, right? Genesis chapter 1:3, "And God said, let there be light."  Verse 9, And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear."  Verse 11, "Let the land produce."  Verse 16, "And God said, let there be stars in the sky."  Verse 20, "And God said, let there be animals and let there be winged animals and land animals and sea animals."  The process was, God's process of creation was what? God spoke, things existed. That was the process.

We read it right here.  Now in chapter 2:7 changes the process, why?   He changes it to make us.  What does it say He did? The process changes. What does it say? God formed a man. He formed a man, and this is amazing because this word formed is literally the words of a potter sitting down at the potter's wheel, taking a lump of clay that has already been created and making that clay into a prized possession. That's what He's literally saying right here. And when this hit me this week, I know some of you guys need to hear this because of where you are in life right now that every single human being that has ever been on this planet is a handmade portion of God's creation.  It is handmade. Here's the principle.  When God formed you, He formed you differently than any other part of creation, differently. He formed you different and here's what I mean by that. I was trying to come up with an illustration, so this is just not so academic today. I came up with this this week, all right?

So, this, I stole this from Melissa last night. It was on a shelf in our thing. Sorry, babe. I took this from Melissa, I don't even know what this is. I don't know what it does. The lid is still taped on which is really cool. I don't know why that is. But here's the thing. This is Hearth in Hand. I don't know what that is, but I'm sure you do. This is on point, right?  Isn't that what I'm supposed to say it's trendy. You put it up beside something on your shelf, and it looks pretty in some pictures. I don't know. I don't know what this is for, but it's decorative. I mean, it's cool. It's nice. I like it. I mean, it's a fabulous little piece of fabulous little piece of something. All right, it is I like it. But this, it really doesn't mean anything to me at all. Zero. I don't care if I were just to toss it. I don't care if I were to drop it. I don't care what happens. There's only one person on this planet that cares about this and that's my little bride. That's it. That's all.  I don't know how much it costs, probably don't want to know how much it costs. But it was made in China. That's all I can see right here. That's all I can say on that one. But this is different. This guy right here, sits in my office.  It might not be your style, might not be on point for current trend. I don't know. You can't buy this. You know why you can't buy this?

Because in 1959, a man by the name of Alan Martin on 7/24, a man by the name of Alan Martin, my grandfather, Pastor for 60 plus years, sat down at a potter's wheel somewhere in Georgia and he made this, he made this. And so here's the deal. You can do whatever you want to with that little piece of trash right there. I don't care what you do with that. But this guy right here, it was made by somebody I love. It was made by somebody that loves me. And this guy, if I were to drop this, I can't replace this. You're seeing the difference, right? You're seeing the difference of God speaking something on the assembly line, right, and being produced versus a handmade piece of God's story. Listen to me, this is what the Bible saying. This is what the Bible says, You and I, and every single human being on this planet that has ever lived that has ever been conceived, we are handmade by God.  We're His and this is so much more because he didn't do this for anything else in creation. He didn't breathe life into any other part of creation, except for human beings. This is why Ephesians 2:10 Paul says this, "For we are God's workmanship." We are His workmanship.  That word workmanship is from the Greek word poiema, which we get our English word poem and it literally means that we are the handmade image and crafting of God. 

Now look if we can grasp that, this whole idea of the value of life, it changes doesn't it? It changes that we're just a pile of flesh. That now we are the Lord's. We're the Lord's and I hear a lot of people go well Matt, I kind of get that God values life as a whole but you don't even understand what I've done. You don't understand. who I am? How could God love me? Well, I'm glad you asked that because I want you to see how David describes the same thing in Psalm 139. Psalm 139:13 this is David speaking to God, it's kind of a familiar verse, look at what it says.  God, put that on the front because He wants you to hear Him speaking to you, "For you created my inmost being you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  I just want you to see what He says. And what did David say? God, you formed my parts.  Now at a glance that looks like the same word that is used in Genesis 2:7, where it says that He formed man, but it's not.  This is an even better word, this word, yeah it means that God put his hands around us and he formed us. But it also means that God owns us. It's the word kana in Hebrew. It's the word that literally means that God not only formed us, but when he did form us, He made us into something He is going to acquire and not set on a shelf and leave somewhere. You see in the difference, right?

So, he formed us but then also it says that he did what you knitted me together.  You knitted me.  This word knitted has a double meaning. The first one is that, yes, God, you stitched every bit of me together, you formed all the pieces of my DNA and my sequencing and my flesh tones in my skin, and all of the things that are part of my brain. You did all that, Lord. Yes, you did. But the second meaning is this, but not only did you do that, but you cloaked me, it literally, ah this is so good, you cloaked me with your protection. It's the same word that God uses in Genesis 33, when Moses says, Hey, show me your glory. But God says, Hey, I'll show you my glory, but I'm gonna have to put you in a place of protection, to be able to just see part of me, it's this idea. And I want you to read this through this lens, you formed my inward part God, what does that mean? You possess me, you hold me, you acquire me, you knitted me together, that means you covered me, and you protect me and watch what happens. Where did this take place in my mother's womb, in my mother's womb.  Now, here's the principle that ties it all together. Here's what makes abortion such a hideous sin. Check it out. Here's the principle. God shaped, acquired, possess, claimed and covered me with His hands when I was in my mother's womb. I don't know if you've ever read the Scripture in that depth before. But this is what it means. From the moment you were created from your conception, God was already forming you, covering you, protecting you and claiming you as His.  As His and this is beautiful. It's almost as if God put his hands around you listen to this and said, this one belongs to me.

To me, now, what that means is profound. What that means is that when something belongs to God, we don't have a right to that thing anymore. We don't have a right to determine the destiny of that anymore. It is God's it belongs to Him. It is His workmanship. He is the author and creator and the giver of life. But it also means catch this. That means you're not an accident. No matter what your family told you. You are not an accident. Hallelujah. I don't care if your siblings are 17 years older than you, you are not an accident. You're not a mistake. You're not an afterthought. You're not flawed. You're not a fluke of evolutionary process that one day just popped up some arms and it was like hello human life.  You're none of that no matter what your biology says. God breathed His life into you, and you became a living being in the womb of your mother. You did. 

Why does God value human life? Hope you're seeing the argument is building here. Why? Because he is life the author and creator of life number one, number two, because we are His workmanship, the pieces of pottery that His hands are around, even with protection, but number three, it's my favorite one. Number three is He loves human life because we bear His image. We bear the image of God now that's a really churchy word. That's a really churchy saying you might have even prayed that in a prayer before. What does that even mean? I just wanted to sound churchy for a minute. Here's what it means. This is incredible. Genesis chapter 1:25, this is the last one. It says this, God's creating the animals and it says, "God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds and all creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds, and God said it was all good."  Now, pause there because this is what He did.  He made the birds like the birds, he made the livestock like the livestock, the fish, like the fish, he grouped them all accordingly. He created them after their kind. In other words, if you notice in history, as well as all the animals, the earth, they all kind of follow in these categories. Yes, they do. We all know that from reading Genesis, but then the Holy Spirit, Jesus, God, they all got together, and they said, but wait a minute, wait, let's create something else.

Check this out, verse 26. "Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness."  I'll skip down to verse 27. "So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God, He created them; male and female He created them."  So scripture, that one's gonna get me. So, scripture, look at what it says right here. Scripture just tells us what distinguishes us from every single thing on the planet. It's not even that with Jesus was life and He's the giver of life. Yeah, but that does. It's not even just that we were His, that we're His handmade work. But number three, we're seeing the distinguishing mark of every human being on this planet is that we were created in God's image. You know what that means?  The cows weren't created in His image, the horses weren't created in His image, your hamster is not created in His image, not even your dog is not created in God's image. And we all know that there's never been a cat created in God's image. But the Bible says we are.

So now I just lost the cat lovers. We are, we're the image of God. This is such an old word, this word image, but it's so misunderstood.  Do you know what it really just means?  It means that we are the representation, check this out, of the love of the rule, and of the reign of Jesus. That's what it means. When we look at God, when we hear from God that we are created in His image, do you know that it literally just means that we are little bitty statues that are on this earth that are made to represent, to become the image little pictures of who God is.  Think like Caesar, putting his image on a coin, putting his image on a statue. Why?  So that anytime somebody walked by one of those things, anytime somebody took out a coin, anytime somebody saw that they would automatically think of their sovereign, right? They're sovereign. That's what we are. That's the responsibility given to us. That's who God has stamped us as.  Let me bring this to us. God said, Hey, the animals are good. The sea creatures, they're fabulous. The birds they are all right. Trinity said let's make something different. Let's make something that represents who we are. Why?  So that every single other person on this planet can realize who God is. That's what it says.  Let that sink in just for a minute. You and I, we are created in the image of God and He did not put that honor on anything else on this earth. Nothing. It's not on a billboard. It's not on an institution. It's not on one person. It's on humanity, human beings. This is what we're created to do. And a little side note here back in the day, if you desecrated one of the images of God, it was as if you were desecrating the King. 

Let that sink in just for a minute. Can I just tell you why God hates murder? God hates murder so much, because every single murder that is on this planet, every single abortion on this planet, is taking out an image bearer of the King. It's taking out a workmanship of the King. Every time you speak, ill will, let me step on it a little bit against another human being on this planet, you're speaking against an image bearer of the King.  Well, Matt, they're not a believer, never said they were. But they're a human being, as made by God. Do you remember what the primary role of Satan is? Remember what Jesus said that Satan is?   He's a thief, right? That Satan is a roaring lion, looking for what to devour. Remember, when Jesus said that the primary role of Satan and John 10:10 was that the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy but tie the backside onto this message right here, but I have come that they may have life. It's makes so much sense. It makes so much sense.  Why does Satan love to kill? Why does he love murder? Why does he love the races going at each other? Why does he love mass shootings and rape and torture and human trafficking? Why? Why the same love abortion so much? Think about it, because he's taken out, he's wounding the image bearers of King Jesus. That's why He loves it. That's why He loves us fighting each other so much. That's why He loves it so much.  Look, I don't know, I don't care what culture says, I don't care what CNN or news, whatever the new one that's out, or Fox or any of that I don't care what any of that says. 

I want to see what Jesus says. And God loves life.  He values life, from the breath being breathed, from the last breath, leaving. We serve a God who loves the life. So what do we do with this today?  I know it's a little heavy, alright?  I get it. What do we do with it? Let me give you two things and then a bonus one. Number one. This is what I want you to do, I just want you to be encouraged. I just want some of you to be encouraged today.  I want you to be encouraged in the fact that you were the handmade work of God. Some of you need to hear that today. Because you're in a rough spot. And your week it was horrible. It just was.  You’re the handmade work. He formed you. He acquired you. He covered you. He's giving you life. Some of you, you need to come to that realization so that you can meet Jesus, so that you can surrender your life to Him. Because look, this is not just ethereal talk today. This is real. This is not just educational.

This is to point us to the life of Jesus, so that you can give your life to Jesus today. So, you can invite Him into your life. Look, I don't know where you're at in your walk with the Lord today. But I would invite you today if you need to submit your life to Jesus, I would just say that today is the day.  Let Him give you, a new life. Let Him replace the heart of stone with a heart flesh and give you His spirit. Listen, you can text us on our next step app, we'll pop that up on the screen. Somebody will follow up with you this week to tell you what that even looks like, of how you can do that today. How you can give your life to Jesus. It's simple, in words, but it's tough. Realizing that Christ has covered your sins.

It's just a matter of you saying Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. But I need you to forgive me and I need you to come into my life. And if that's your heart today. And if you will pray that to Jesus today, guess what?  He'll walk into your life at this very moment. But just let us know. Number two, you might want to come alongside of a church that this is our heartbeat. We're not here to be harsh. We're here to say man God is life and we want to celebrate that life.

Today, be encouraged that He is yours. But number two, I want you to be ready. I want you to walk out of here ready today.  Listen, gone are the days of fundamentalist uneducated Christians. Listen, we can't grunt our way through tough conversations anymore. We need to be educated. We need to be educated on why it is that we believe what we believe. We can't just go well that's what God says give me more because I guarantee you your neighbor doesn't care about that statement. Next time you're over for coffee with somebody and they go “why is it that you just don't like abortion? Why is it that you're fighting for the rights of other people?”

Let me tell you why. Well, because God is life. He's the giver and author of life because I am His handmade piece of work that He shaped and acquired and gave me life and protected me and I am an image bearer of the King. You say that to somebody, they don't back off. They just go Oh, you know what you're talking about? That's different, right? That's differences.  Divorce is wrong. Don't give me that. Give me why. 

Here's the third, be encouraged. Be ready. Pray. Be praying. It's not in your notes, I know type A people it's not there. be praying, pray for this country. Pray for so many people making difficult decisions that are walking into our pregnancy service clinics all over this county and in Paulding and all over this world. Pray for the wounded hearts of the million plus mothers that gave up their babies last year. And pray that the giver of life would restore life to them and point them in another direction.

Lord Jesus today, as we worship just for a moment today, and we take a moment to hear Your voice. God, I just pray that you would take this moment. And that Lord, you would show us that we are yours. Thank you, Lord Jesus. It's in your holy, holy name we pray. Amen

Let's stand and sing together.

Follow Along with the Message

God: The Giver of Life


God Loves Life! Because:

1. God is Life and the Author and  of Life.
John 1:4, John 14:6

Principle: Any life that has come after God, is a  of God.
Gen. 2:7

2. We as Humans are the  of God.
Gen. 2:7

PRINCIPLE: God formed  differently than any other part of creation.
Eph. 2:10, Ps. 139:13-14

PRINCIPLE: GOD: Shaped, Acquired, Possessed, Claimed & Covered ME with His hands when I was in
my  .

3. We Bear His  .
Gen. 1:25, Gen. 1:26-27, John 10:10

 

Walk away challenge:

1. Be  .
2. Be  .

John 1:4
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Gen. 2:7
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Eph. 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ps. 139:13-14
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Gen. 1:25
God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Gen. 1:26-27
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.