The LORD Had a Baby
Mother's Day • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsGod created us as expressions of his love to enjoy him and all of his creation.
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Remember to listen today so you can tell someone about the message this week.
It’s Mother’s Day today and Father’s Day is coming in June.
If you’ve been around a couple of years at FBC-G, you know I don’t do Mother’s Day and Father’s Day messages.
They scare me to death for a whole host of reasons.
To me, they are the third rail of sermons.
But this year - this year is different - we’re going to talk about mom’s and dad’s
I think you need some encouragement.
The first five books of the Bible - the Jewish Torah - the Pentateuch - were written by Moses and shared with the Hebrew children before they entered the promised land.
Moses laid out in detail the who’s and what’s of how life was created because the Hebrew children needed to know that they know that they know who created them and why they were created before they entered the promised land.
God knew that when they entered the promised land, they would battle for a while for sure, but they would live surrounded by nations with other gods, philosophies, lifestyles and beliefs and some of them would look pretty dog gone attractive.
He wanted them to know the truth.
If you don’t know the truth, it’s easy to believe a lie.
So God prepared them through Moses so they would know how to conquer and not fall.
The Lord is preparing us so we can conquer and not fall.
Take your Bibles and turn to Genesis 1:26-31, yes we’ll be showing the text on the screens but it helps me if I can see it in the book itself so I encourage you to do this.
Students, I didn’t grasp until Friday that this was Austin’s text for Wednesday evening.
While he and I track on this side by side, his application was designed for you guys.
I’ll bump up against his application, but our focus for this message is mom’s and dad’s.
I need you to pay attention because guess what, one day, God willing, you’ll be mom’s and dad’s and it will be sooner than you think.
Today we’re going to look at who created us, why we were created and what that means for us.
So, Who?
“Then God said, “Let us...”
These two words have brewed a storm of theological discussion ever since they’ve been written.
Us?
Who is us?
There are five or six well respected ideas, but only one that satisfies the question - the Us is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Father, Son and Spirit have this consultation among themselves to create a being - listen, I don’t want you to miss this - to create a being to bring into their circle of love.
This illustration is overly simplistic - some of you were born as a result of an ‘opps’ - doesn’t make you less valuable, sometimes surprise parties are best.
But some of you were born because your mom and dad had a conversation.
They wanted to create a baby to bring that baby into their circle of love.
Now try to follow me - they didn’t create the baby to love - a baby is not an object outside of the couple that you have two people both beaming their love at.
A baby is another person inside the sphere of mom and dad’s love that is created into that love to share that love and bring its own love to the equation.
Proverbs 8:31
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.
Jesus “delight[s] in the children of man - in your children.
“Let us make man...”
The creation is a deliberate, intimate, creative action different from anything else recorded so far about God.
This is a “oh yeah, I never noticed that,” moment.
How has God created everything up to this point?
“Let there be… and there was,” right?
He spoke them into existence.
He didn’t speak us into existence.
He deliberately, intimately and creatively formed the man and the woman.
He touched us as he created us.
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...”
Image and likeness are essentially synonymous - so what do they mean?
God uses a word in the next sentence, “And let them have dominion...”
Who in all of eternity has dominion?
God does - He is sovereign over all things - and He has created us to have some of what he has.
Revelation 5:9-10
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
They shall have dominion on the earth.
In the ancient world, a created image was believed to carry the essence of what it represented.
They made idols and they worshiped the idols.
They knew the idols weren’t the gods themselves, but they believed the idols carried the essence of the gods and - now listen - because they carried the essence of the god, the idol could do the work of the god.
What does God have?
Dominion - he reigns over all things.
What does God give us?
He gives us his image and what is the result?
We have dominion - we reign, we do the work of God.
But we are better than idols because we are children of God.
We aren’t here simply to have his essence, we are here to serve the earth in his place.
Listen, we are to act and be like him on this earth.
Stay with me, I don’t want you to miss this - to be like him and to act like him requires a few things.
First, we have to have a soul.
The soul is our understanding, our will and our active power.
We see it needs to be done, we decide we will do it and then we do it.
That’s a function of the soul.
Second, to reign - to have dominion we must have a place to reign.
God has dominion of all that is.
He has delegated the earth to us for us to have dominion.
Third, to reign like him, we have to have a knowledge of what is truth, we have to be right with God and we must be separate from evil.
We must know truth, be righteous and holy.
Adam and Eve had it but the fall messed that up.
But there are two bits of good news.
First, if you are a Christ follower, you can see a shadow of this in your life now - for now we see in a mirror dimly, right?
Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in us, we can know truth, we are right with God and we are working towards holiness - not exactly our strong spot but we catch glimpses of holiness.
But the second bit of good news is this, one day every Christ follower will see face to face.
What Adam and Eve had will be restored to us - we will be made new.
You see, we were created to rule and reign as God’s children on this earth.
Stick with our illustration of parents, what does the word say about us?
John 1:12-13
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Born because God chose to create us - he saw what he wanted to do, he made up his mind to do it and he did it.
“Let us make man...”
Genesis 1:27-28
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.”
God created a male and a female and he blessed them.
What was the blessing? “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth...”
God’s blessing was to have babies.
I know this is sensitive territory for some of you - hang with me - you need to hear this too.
We live in a time of great satanic deception - the white horse of deception is running rampant on the earth.
Satan’s deception is one word that is all the rage right now - equality.
A woman should be equal to a man - that’s why abortion is such a big deal with so many folks.
In the secular philosophy, in order for a woman to be equal to a man, she should be as free from pregnancy as a man is free from pregnancy.
But do you see the deception?
This is a denial of God’s design.
The secular world has - listen and tell me if I’m wrong - the secular world says the ultimate end of sexual expression isn't babies - it's pleasure.
And different men and different women experience that pleasure in a whole host of different ways and according to the secular world, that’s all good.
But what is God’s blessing?
He isn’t blessing sexual pleasure, he’s blessing the creation of other image bearers who can join in the fellowship of the Triune God.
The more kids, the merrier, God says.
Revelation 21:3
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
God wants a giant family.
And not to just prove he is powerful, but for us, him and us, to experience immeasurable, incomprehensible, inexhaustible joy.
This is why Mother’s Day and Father’s Day should be celebrated.
You have fulfilled your purpose.
If you aren’t married yet, get married one day - make babies - make lots of little image bearers - don’t stop at one - have a multitude of little image bearers that will one day live and reign and rejoice in the very presence of God with you.
Now in God’s creating a man and a woman, there are two more things we need to notice.
First, God offers no other avenue for sexual expression.
None.
The purpose of male/female intimacy is to have many children.
Within the confines of marriage, one man and one woman together for life, you are blessed by God to be fruitful and multiply.
Your creation of babies is an expression and an explanation of the very love God has for us.
Men and Women, God offers you no higher calling in life than this.
None.
No career, no cause you uphold will ever fulfill you like the fulfilling the design of God for your life.
No amount of money, no amount of fame will ever fill you up like the love you will experience when you live your life within God’s design.
So have babies.
Have lots of babies.
And if you can’t have babies, adopt a baby that needs a forever home.
I understand a number of our body have suffered the heartbreak of infertility.
I know you have wanted that fulfillment so badly - that’s God’s design calling out of you, yearning for fulfilment.
You want to bring a child into your love and because we live in a sinful world that has so many poisonous variables, you aren’t able.
But some of you have found you were called to fulfill God’s design another way - you adopted.
You took a child who needed a forever home and you gave that child a forever home.
And you drew that child into you and your spouse’s love.
And you raised them and educated them and taught them about Jesus and you watched them get married.
And God blessed you.
Remember though for some, there is a call to singleness.
God calls some people to be single - to remain celibate so they can be more focused on the calling God has given to them.
We are not to frown on folks that are single - we don’t need to ask them every time we see them, “When are you getting married?”
That don’t help and I’m sure it drives them crazy.
Plus, they are answering a huge call from God so bless them in their singleness.
So God offers no other avenue for sexual expression than a married man and married woman together for life.
And two, notice that God did not create races.
God created us male and female, in his image, so all “of the nations of men might know themselves to be of one blood, descendants from one common stock, and might thereby be induced to love one another.” Matthew Henry
I heard this somewhere the other day and I thought it was so cool - God created people of all colors for his pleasure.
Now think with me - rainbows.
A solid blue rainbow would be pretty.
A solid yellow rainbow would be dazzling.
A solid violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange or red rainbow would be cool.
But now, how many of us have pulled our cars off the road to take a picture of a particularly stunning rainbow bursting with every color of the visible spectrum.
I see posts on Facebook all of the time, don’t you, of beautiful rainbows that caused someone to be breathless.
And they always attribute it to the majesty and glory of the Lord.
Don’t I remember a picture our missions team posted of them prayer walking at one of our schools and a gigantic rainbow extended from one side of the school to the other side of the school, touching down on both sides and it was like a sign to them that God was hearing their prayers.
What if - and I expect he does - when God sees people of every hue from Scandinavian white to Nigerian black and every hue in between worshiping together, enjoying the world together, reigning and ruling like Jesus - don’t you think he leans back with a smile and says, “Well now look at that.”
Why do I bring this up?
Because the secular world is working with all of the satanic power at its disposal to divide us by race.
Do not be deceived - Genesis 1:27-28
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.”
One last point - To make sure we can fulfil our purpose, the Lord has provided everything we need.
Genesis 1:29-30
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.
This is not God’s statement on veganism or vegetarianism.
This is giver of all good gifts saying to his people, I have given you everything to you to fulfill your purpose.
Now that I have given it to you, take what I have given, and take care of it.
What we didn’t read this morning was this: Genesis 2:1-3
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
God rested.
Father, Son and Spirit - sat on the front porch drinking a glass of sweet tea.
Waiting for the churn to finish the fresh strawberry ice cream.
Watching the children of every tribe and language and people and nation playing ball on the front lawn.
Hearing them laugh.
Watching them swing and run and sweat.
Watching the big kids helping the little kids.
Feeling real good, feeling very good about what He has done.
Mamas and daddies, you’ve done a good thing.
I want us to do something right now that’s a little unusual for us but it will be ok.
I want you ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes and really do, ok - nobody side peeking.
The worship team will come up quietly and will begin to play but I want to ask you a few things.
I know it’s mother’s day and I know that’s a very hard day for some of you.
Maybe this is your first year without mother here or maybe your wife passed this year and it was you and her that fulfilled God’s purpose and you made babies together.
And this is a hard for you - I commend you for coming today - I am glad you came to this place today - we know its hard and you know its harder than we can know.
If this is you, would you raise your hand - don’t be shy about it - raise your hand so I can see it - I want to pray for you and with you in just a moment.
Thank you - you can let them down now.
Maybe you are a wife or maybe even a husband who has wanted a baby and couldn’t have one or maybe you’ve had a miscarriage or maybe even an abortion - and your heart aches with an ache that only someone who has walked your path can understand, will you lift your hand - don’t be shy - raise your hand so I can see it - I want to pray for you and with you in just a moment.
Just one more - so bear with me - no side peeking - heads bowed, eyes closed - if you have never trusted Christ to save you - maybe you’ve put it off all of your life or maybe you are one of those who walked the aisle, said a prayer, got baptized but you know in your heart you made no commitment to Jesus, you know that you need Jesus to save you.
The nagging you feel inside is the Holy Spirit calling you, telling you Jesus wants to save you and make you new and laugh and enjoy you forever and that other voice telling you to wait another day is your flesh inspired by the devil.
It’s a battle - I’m asking you to overcome today - if you want to follow Jesus and you want Him to save you, would you lift your hand - don’t be shy - raise your hand so I can see it - I want pray for you and with you right now.
Father,
You know our hearts.
Because you created us, you know our pain.
You know the pain so many people here and watching by live stream feel today.
It’s a horrible day when you bury a father or mother - even if they were the worst parent in the world - that day of saying goodbye on this earth is so - final it feels like.
Your word says, “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle...”
You know our hurt, and since Jesus wept when he saw his friends grief, we know that you weep for us now.
Please comfort us in our grief and Lord, if you will be so merciful, give us a glimpse of our loved one in glory and remind us that the day is coming soon that you will make all things - us included - new.
Father, you created us to make babies and you know the women here that for them, today isn’t a joyous day.
They yearned for a child, did everything they could to have a child, yet no child came.
Or Father, they felt the life in their womb and then it was gone - their grief and pain is beyond our comprehension.
But you tell us, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
Abba, take your daughter into your arms and draw her close.
Seal your love for her with a kiss on her forehead.
Assure her of your love and that one day she will revel in an eternity of love beyond her comprehension and her pain will be gone.
And Lord, here and now, give her sisters who can hold her up, brothers who are compassionate and tender, give her someone to help bear her burden.
Finally Father, there are those here who know they need a Savior.
You know who they are because the Holy Spirit is calling to them, whispering words of love and forgiveness and hope into their hearts right this minute.
Father, I pray they will stand up with courage and boldly proclaim that they want to follow Jesus.
Overwhelm their flesh, cast the demons away and cause them to proudly proclaim Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father as another of his creation is reborn.
Father we love you and we want so much to love you more.
In Jesus name, Amen.
We’re going to sing.
If you are hurting and need prayer, come.
If you have prayed or want to pray to follow Jesus, come.
The door is open - come while you can.