Called into Being

We are beginning a new sermon series this week entitled “Called.” We will be having the first book of the Bible, Genesis, help us to discover various ways that God has called each one of us into a journey with him.

Today we start at the beginning where we remember that it was God that called us into being. Our scripture comes from Genesis 1:26-2:4. The words will be on the screen.

26 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.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. 4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Please pray with me…

Created something out of nothing. An abyss becomes a planet. A planet becomes inhabited by vegetation and water. Eventually we have fish and other animals. For each of these creations God finished and he ended by saying that “it was good.”

It is after God creates man and woman and looks at all that he has done that he says “it is very good.” It is through his creation. It is through God bringing humanity into existence and made in his own image that allowed for all of creation to become not just “good” but “very good.”

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God called us into being not just as a part of the creation story but the part of the creation that scripture tells us was made in his image. We were called into being. We were created perfect in every way.

There were no weaknesses. We were given dominion over all the earth. We were called by God to name the plants and animals. We were allowed to live lives without a care in the world with one exception.

God wanted humanity to trust that he knew what was best for us. After all we were made by him, like him. He asked for one thing. That we be willing to trust him without gaining additional knowledge about what life would be like without him.

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We were given permission to do anything but eat from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” This makes sense since after all we know from the creation story that all was good in the eyes of God and in the eyes of humanity.

It is through the decision by Adam and Eve to break that agreement with God that tarnished that perfect image. It is not that it disappeared. God can still be recognized in us and through us. It is as if his image had become distorted. Humanity had made itself almost unrecognizable.

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Our Christian journey can often be lived out in a similar manner to the journey of Adam and Eve. We become a follower of Jesus. We live a life that could be considered good. We get complacent, and before we know it, we end up going down a path that leads us away from instead of towards God.

We often wonder how Adam and Eve could decide to do what they did. But if we would choose to look back at our own lives, we can often discover that we have made similar choices. We have also fallen into the trap offered to us by Satan.

We often blame Adam and Eve for this. Which is what humans do. In Genesis three God confronts Adam and Eve and neither take responsibility for their own actions. Adam blames Eve and Eve blames Satan.

Adam and Eve had God with them, but they still made a decision that went against the will of God. It is true that our decisions might not change the course of humanity, but when we walk away from God it does affect our relationship with God and can often affect our relationship with those around us.  

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Like Adam and Eve, we have God with us. We have God within us. We have the Holy Spirit attempting to stop us from deciding to go down the path of Adam and Eve. Those that have decided to become followers of Jesus have the Holy Spirit because of what God did for us. God created us and made us in his image. After sin entered into the world, a close relationship was no longer possible.

Originally our physical and spiritual beings were interlocked within each other. God walked with Adam and Eve. God conversed with Adam and Eve. This became impossible due to sin. That meant that God now had to again form us into beings that could be both intimately connected to God both physically and spiritually.

In order to do this, there had to be a sacrifice. A perfect sacrifice to allow for the sins of the people to be able to be removed. There was no one currently on the earth that could be that person.

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Our first reading reminds us that God loves humanity and wants to be able to interact with humanity in an intimate way. Therefore, Jesus came down from Heaven to live amongst humanity.

The term we use for this is incarnation. We were not given someone made in the image of God. For a short time, we had someone walking the earth who is God. God in human form. But Jesus didn’t only come down and die for us, he also lived amongst us.

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The Jewish people were expecting and waiting for a Savior. They were waiting for God to provide a soldier that would conquer their enemies and return them to being in charge of the land promised to Abraham.

They wanted to be prepared for the coming of this Messiah so they had taken the ten commandments given to them by God and developed other rules that would help them not break God’s rules.

Living in this way did not lead to love and community. It led to guilt and shame. This guilt and shame can be expressed both internally and externally. We can become our own worst enemy. We can end up deciding that we are scum and not good enough when we fail to meet God’s expectations.

We also may have those around us piling on and add to our guilt and shame by reminding us of our failures and shortcomings. This way of living creates a competition between the people as they attempt to be better than those around them.

This type of pressure. This way of living can lead us to ask ourselves if following God is worth it. “I don’t seem to be able to do what God wants me to do. Maybe I should just give up and live my life the way that I want to live instead of trying to please God.”

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Jesus took under his guidance a group of disciples or students for him to teach the way that God wanted humanity to live. He wanted God’s chosen people to first off understand that it was impossible for them not to break these laws. It was impossible for them not to sin.

They were trying to accomplish an impossible task. They would never be pleased with themselves because they would believe that they would never be pleasing to God. God desired a different calling for them.

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A calling that first would have them turn over their lives to God and ask for him to forgive them of their sins. In some ways they were doing this through their burnt offerings and through the offering offered by the chief priest on behalf of the people on the Day of Atonement

But this way was going to be different. Those that wanted to be followers of God through Jesus would need to rely not on their own selfish attempts at being good enough but would need to rely on the grace given to them by God.

Back to our first reading we are told “We are saved by grace through faith.” We have been set free from the power of sin. We have been given the chance to live our lives focused on connecting personally with God and those that are walking the earth with us.

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The decision to rely on grace instead of following the law does not mean we should be living our lives as we desire. We should be willing to do the best we can at doing what God desires for us to do.

It is the “why” that matters. Are we trying to appease God through your actions like the religious leaders were trying to lead the people to do before Jesus or do we choose to do so because of our love for Gpd and our realization that he first loved us.

We can never measure up to God’s standards, but we can still attempt to be who God desires for us to be. It is through the decision to rely on grace and to be willing to love God and our neighbor that the distortion begins to be removed. We are once again able to reflect what God desires from us: Love, worship, and service.

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God is attempting to help us live out our lives, our calling, each and every day. Shortly after the creation story we have what is called within Christianity, the fall. I mentioned it earlier, Adam and Eve choosing to eat from the one tree they were told to leave alone.

We have shortly after they have done this these words

“The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

This should inform us that God walked with Adam and Eve. God interacted with them in a way which showed them he wanted to be with them. He wanted to hear about their day. He cared about them.

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God desires to walk with us today and because of what Jesus did we are able to be as close to God as Adam and Eve. Those that are followers of Jesus have God within us as the Holy Spirit. We get to decide how close, how connected, we want to be.

We can belike Adam and Eve and attempt to hide from God instead of interacting with God. God wants to lead you into a greater understanding of what it means to live your life as an image of God. We have Jesus as our example on how this can be done.

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We attempt to do this when we are willing to become formed by God each and every day. Jesus was transfigured during his time on earth. This was him going from his human form to his heavenly form.

We become transformed. We become changed from a person that walked without God leading us and guiding us to a being that is now filled with the Holy Spirit. A being that should desire to please God, to walk with God, to become closer to God each and every day.

Our God loves us so much that he does not want us to stay as we are. He wants us to become a better reflection of him. He wants us to become holier and therefore more like him each and every day.

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We are able to do this when we journey with him. When we decide we are going to take the time to get to know him better every day. We speak often of how we do this, but I also don’t think that it can be said enough.

We need to decide to spend time with God. We do this through examining his word and through communication with him. We are able to best get to know God when we are learning about him. It is through regularly reading scripture or reading, listening, or watching a devotional; Attending worship.

These are all ways that we can connect to God and give him the time to lead us into a deeper understanding of what he desires from us. Of how he wishes for us to live. We had God on earth; Jesus is the example for us to follow. We best follow his example when we spend time reading the word of God.

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We also journey with God when we are willing to communicate with him. It is through taking the time to speak and listen to God that we can learn what he desires from us and the ways that he wants us to serve him.

This also can look different for each person. You need to discover the best way for you to communicate with God. Like I say before we pray during our service, prayer is us asking while we are also listening to what God may be saying to us.

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We have a God that called us into being. A God that wanted to have part of his creation made in his image. He desired to love, and he showed his love to us and desires for us to share his love with those around us.

The challenge is this. Find ways to connect with God. Find ways to allow for God to speak into your heart. God created you in his image. He wantsto speak to you as his child, a beloved child of God.

Let us pray…