MASTERPIECE

annual meeting

birthday

Good Friday

easter

We

Key scripture

“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.” And God said, “Behold, 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 to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Genesis 1:26-31 ESV

Prayer

Creation Story

God creates everything with the words that he speaks

he takes things that are chaoctic

In this part of the Bible God is depicted as a King who speaks and things happen

After he has created everything He creates man

And man is his favorite

He makes man in his very own likeness

He creates man not to be a by stander , but to particpate in the human project,

Which is the same thing he’s been doing in creation, taking things that have no form and giving them form.

he tells them to go and subdue the land and take things that lack form and bring order.

Example: Cooking have you ever made a dish, and say its the best, finger licking good

One of the issues that we face is im not sure if we understand what it means to be made in the image of GOD

We live in a world that is constantly trying to define who we are. Give us purpose and our identity

But the reality is, they werent the ones that put their fingerprints on us, they werent the ones that created us

The only way you will find out your purpose and your identity is by going back to the source of the person who created you.

Me

Kids showing you their masterpiece

And they believe its the best thing they ever created

The same way they feel about those drawings, is the same way God feels about you.

Other people may look at you as flawed, you may look at yourself as flawed, but you are God’s greatest masterpiece.

Mankind is the best thing God ever created.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Ephesians 2:10 NLT

God

Story of the Israelites

God delivers his people out of Israel

God takes them to Mount Sinai and gives them the 10 commandments

The 2nd commandment that God gives them is:

Exodus 20:4-6 New Living Translation (NLT)

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.

God Tells Israel Don’t make any Gods

The same word in Hebrew thats used to describe Idol is the same word that is used to describe the image of God.

The ancient people of those days would have been very familiar with the term image of God

In that time Kings represented the image of GODS

Kings were basically representation of the God of whoever they served

Example: Babylon, Egypt...

In the Bible God is still depicted as a King, So what made the Jewish faith so different, is that this King is now saying that God is not represented by 1 individual but ALL OF MANKIND represents him

He tells the people of Israel not to make other images of God because he’s already made an image of himself and that was MANKIND.

You

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

We Are Created With A Purpose/Identity: We were designed to do something here on Earth, we are not here by mistake. Its the Subdue and multiply

We are created for Partnership: God doesnt just want us to be bystanders, he actually invites us into his plan. Could he do it by himself, YES, but he chooses to invite us to partner with him.

Authority: Example of Boy working in Fathers restaurant

Perceive: When you recognize that we are made in the image of God, it changes how you perceive people, how you handle folks, how you deal with the individuals that get on your nerves, youre alot less likley to curse someone out when you perceive them as an image of God. They have more value now.

We

Jesus is the perfect image of God: What made him perfect is that he came and lived a life that was blameless. He was able to do what Mankind orginally could not do. This is why, we can now be back in a right relationship with GOD.

Jesus is the perfect image of God: What made him perfect is that he came and lived a life that was blameless. He was able to do what Mankind orginally could not do. This is why, we can now be back in a right relationship with GOD.