People Matter to God - Provision

Pray

Introduction.

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked,

"Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up.

He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.

He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill.

He then asked, "Who still wants it?"

Still the hands were up in the air.

Well, he replied, "What if I do this?"

And he dropped it on the ground. And started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty.

"Now, who still wants it?"

Still the hands went into the air.

‘My friends,’ he said, ‘we have all learned a very valuable lesson.

No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it Because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20.’

The speaker then went on to tell people how amazing they are and so on. He was a motivational speaker, and that’s what they do.

But the speaker had a point - a point that makes much more sense when we look at our value to God.

Because that’s how God looks at us. We are valuable to God, no matter how messed up or trampled on or how dirty or struggling we are, we never lose our value to God if we are in Christ.

Because people matter to God.

Pause

And today we’re going to look at how people matter to God through the lens of God’s provision.

Paul started this series last week and it’s a great series of encouragement - what better encouragement than to know that people DO matter to God…that you and I matter to God?

And to see that tonight, we are going to go right back to the start…right back to Genesis, and chapter 1, where God creates everything.

And in the first 6 days he has created the land and sea, the sun mood and stars, the tress and birds and fish and all the animals.

And the last thing to create was man and woman…the pinnacle of creation.

Genesis 1:26–27 NIV

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.

God created us, man and woman, in HIS image. Nothing else was made in HIS image. Nothing else BORE HIS image. Nothing else resembled God...

But WE do.

God made man and woman higher than the animals and he gave man and woman a place.

He gave them Eden…a garden paradise.

And he gave them all the choice food they could eat. And he gave them peace, and power…power to rule over all creation WITH him.

And he gave them communion with him - the ability to walk and talk with God and commune with him in this paradise garden.

That’s how much man and woman matter to God.

Pause

And in this garden, God gave them a choice - you can learn to be wise through your communion with me, or you can take the short-cut to wisdom by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.

And as we know, man and woman made the wrong choice and chose to be wise without God…which brought sin into the world, and death and decay and broken relationships, like we mentioned last week.

But it also started the wheels in motion to bring the world BACK to this garden paradise that God initially intended.

Pause

As a result of man and woman’s sin, work was now not going to be easy. Before the fall, the ground produced its crop and vegetation easily, with minimal effort.

Now, the ground isn’t going to be so forthcoming…man and woman are going to have to WORK HARD to get their food. The ground is going to need to be worked and worked in order to provide for man and woman.

Genesis 3:17 NIV

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.

Pause

But people matter to God…so God gave them something else…he provided something to remind man and woman about where they came from and where they were going…something to remind them that there is more to life than work...

And so God gave them rest.

Genesis 2:1–3 NIV

1 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.

And later on in the story, man and woman are told to ALSO rest on the seventh day.

And the day was called the sabbath - modelled after the fact that God rested on the seventh day from his work…and man and woman were to rest on the sabbath day from their work.

And part of the reason for that is to remind man and woman that hard work is NOT what God had intended for man and woman.

And since man and woman have to work hard for their yield, God showed them, by giving them a day to rest, God showed them that their identity is not defined by their work…their identity is defined by their status before God.

In other words, if there was no day of rest, then man and woman would never realise that there was to come a time when the work will end. Man and woman would not realise that there is MORE to life than work. Man and woman wouldn’t have a taster of the rest that is to come.

Because that’s what the Sabbath does - it gives a taster of the rest that is to come.

Because there is REST to be found in God.

Adam and Eve were living in this rest. They were at peace in this rest. They were cultivating the land and producing crops and vegetation, easily, right in the middle of the rest…until the fall.

And so God gave man and woman a day where they are to stop working, and rest, and be reminded that work does not define them…their lives are NOT defined by their work…in fact, their lives are defined through their worship of God.

And the sabbath shows man and woman that true rest, real rest, lasting rest is available through God himself.

Because people matter to God.

Pause

And because people matter to God, he gave them promises. Promises to be their God, promises to bless and protect and guide if they keep the conditions of this promise, or covenant.

But man and woman were not great at keeping their side of the covenant.

And so God gave them something else…he gave them a human who would be able to keep their side of the covenant and therefore allow God to keep HIS side of the covenant and bless and protect and save and BE God to man and woman.

Because people matter to God.

And so God gave a human that was perfect. God gave his own Son, Jesus, who is an expression of what humans SHOULD be.

And Jesus was born as a human, even though he was also fully God. And Jesus lived as a human, and loved as a human and showed everyone around him what a human SHOULD look like, and how a human SHOULD act, and how a human SHOULD love.

And this Jesus bore the sin of man and woman in order to repair the gulf that existed between them and God due to sin.

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And it is THROUGH Jesus Christ, that man and woman can rest from their work of trying to keep their side of the covenant and receive blessing and protection and guidance and salvation.

God gave the sabbath day to allow man and woman to realise that their work wasn’t getting them very far. And that was a taster of the rest to be found in Jesus.

Because God gave Jesus to allow man and woman to realise that their work in trying to keep God’s commandments wasn’t getting them very far either.

And so once again, man and woman can find rest in Jesus. Rest from their toil, rest from their work at trying to be righteous.

And it is our faith in Jesus that guarantees us a place in a NEW Eden. In a NEW paradise garden...

Because God is going to renew Eden, and we will live as humans SHOULD live and act as humans SHOULD act, because Jesus makes us whole…

...and our faith in Jesus makes us into a new creation, a perfect human, who is looking forward for the day when Eden is restored and we will all live in paradise again, with perfect relationships with one another and a perfect relationship with God himself.

Why?

Because people matter to God.

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We have a dog called Rosie.

And Kate loves Rosie. At times I wonder if she loves Rosie better than she loves me.

She buys Rosie the best bed, and puts pillows in her bed. Rosie eats the best food and has the best life a dog could want.

Why?

Because Rosie matters to Kate.

And because Rosie matters to Kate, Kate gives her all the best stuff that she could possibly need.

But we also have 2 daughters. And Kate loves them too (so do I, of course).

And Kate would do anything for those two girls. She is going to give up her job for them very shortly. She gave up doing day shift for Naomi.

Kate would give them the best stuff that she could possibly give…the best school possible, the best education possible, the best food possible.

But what Bethany and Naomi think is good for them is not what is REALLY good for them.

They want to eat junk and NOT eat vegetables - well Bethany does anyway. But Kate gives Bethany vegetables and practically forces her to eat them because Kate knows what is good for her.

So what THEY think is good for them is not what Kate KNOWS is good for them.

And Kate wants the BEST for them…because Naomi and Bethany matter to Kate. She wants them to be strong and healthy.

Kate doesn’t do the same for Rosie, because while Rosie matters to Kate, Bethany and Naomi matter to Kate in a much different way. The girls matter to Kate on a much deeper level.

Pause

It’s like that with God.

Animals matter to God, and we need to make sure we don’t abuse animals…but people matter to God in a much deeper way than animals do…because we’re made in his image.

BUT, what WE think is best for US, is not always what God KNOWS is best for us.

Because we often think like the rest of the world - that this word is all there is…and our focus is on this life.

But God’s focus is on the life to come. God is shaping us and moulding us for the NEW humanity, when we live in that new garden city with him.

And so what happens to us in this life is shaping us for the future.

Romans 8:28 NIV

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

So often we won’t realise or SEE the good that is for us…and I don’t think that we often WILL see it or realise it. Sometimes we do, but I think that this good that Paul talks about is not just in this life, but in the new humanity - in that garden city, that paradise rest that we are going BACK to.

Which means that some of the things that happen in our lives, happen to prepare us for our future. But it might not be what we THINK is good for us.

But God knows what’s BEST for us, because people matter to God.

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Jesus said in ...

Matthew 7:11 NIV

11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

See, we don’t know what is good for us…but God does. And we have very selfish motives.

We’re still battling with our sinful nature in this life and yet we can still know what to give our children that is good for them and we still know that feeding them sweets and biscuits will be bad for them.

And if we can do that when we’re not perfect, imagine how much better God will be able to provide for us, because he IS perfect and he knows EXACTLY what we need - exactly what is good for us, exactly what will make us into that better man or woman.

Why?

Because people matter to God.

Man and woman matter to God.

You and me matter to God.

Pause

If we go back to the story at the start, where the well-known speaker crumpled and stood on the $20 bill and yet the value of that bill did not decrease, even though it was dirty and crumpled and trampled on...

As children of God, as citizens of heaven, as brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have value - and that value does NOT diminish no matter what happens in our lives.

We are loved by the awesome love of God himself. We are cared for by the awesome care of God himself.

And God has given EVERYTHING for our benefit and for our salvation. He gave us paradise, he gave us rest, he gave us redemption, and he gave us his one and only son.

THAT’S how valuable we are.

And when we get tramped on and our lives crumble around us and we feel worthless, look up and see Jesus on the cross, giving his life for you.

Because in Jesus you are the most valuable thing to God.

Why?

Because you matter to God.

Let’s pray.