Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pause

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?