Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Does this bother you?

Kit Kat

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Off center

It bothers us because its not the way it should be.

God makes everyone and thing with a purpose and when we do not function the way he’s designed us to, it doesn't just bother him but it is sin.

Because we are actually saying

Need:

The world is confusing - academic language that is meaningless because in todays society we cannot have definitive definitions for any term, everything is fluid

College:

“experiment w/ queer theory in the bedroom”

“Children are monsters”

“Men are inherently oppressive towards women and must take intentional steps to fight against the patriarchal system at hand”

I know if you are like me in high school, when my beliefs came up, people quickly asked me if gay people or trans people go to heaven.

The contemporary church is confusing

Popular Instagram pastors say things like this in regards to social issues such as transgenderism and same sex relationships:

“I am just going to preach what I feel is right”

“I refuse to go to a church where my friends who are gay are excluded from communion or a marriage covenant”

“I think the church needs to be a public and vocal and unwavering about its support for queer and trans people, labeling our experiences as holy, proclaiming us beloved children of God”

So we need clarity as the “church” in America is divided and confused and vague on this topic.

Gods way brings peace

Some struggle with homosexuality and need to ask for help

Some struggle with the way God has made them and need counsel

Many are not just judgemental but unloving towards the person who is sexually immoral or who is trying to be a different gender than what God made them

But some of you think this isn’t my struggle - but you still argue against womens role in the family or in the church

Some guys may say men are to be leaders but yet they won’t step up and lead

Prop: Embrace God’s design for you.

Thesis: In order to embrace God’s design for your life you must...

#1 Embrace Your Role as an Image Bearer

Gen 1:26-28 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Explain: To be made in God’s image is the most fundamental element of your design.

Both men and women are equally made in the image of God.

Before we are male and female we are in the image and likeness of God.

Being an “image bearer” is a much wider theological conversation than we have time for tonight but it refers to;

morality - sense of right and wrong, justice and injustice.

No other creatures on Earth obviously have set up a legal system like humans have

rationality - the ability to reason to use logic to come to conclusions.

Monkeys don’t pass math classes.

spirituality - the ability to connect with or relate to God

But at the core of being an image bearer of God is exactly that.

An image is a representation of something but not the actual thing.

A picture on instagram of someone is meant to display something about that person.

You know athletes posting workout pics to DISPLAY their strength.

Probably what the original readers of Genesis would have thought of when they read the word “image” is a statue and that still does the same thing as the IG pic but you put statues in prominent places because you want people to notice it, look at it and think about that person and something about that person.

But God has made 7 billion living & moving statues around the world to display who he is and what he is like.

But 2 chapter later in Genesis we read about the fall of mankind.

The reason why everyone is born a sinner.

John Piper Illus:

I was created like a mirror.

And a mirror that was supposed to be 45 degrees with the clear reflective side pointing upward so that as God shone on it at the 45 degree angle, it would bounce off, and it would make a 90 degree turn and be reflected out into the world.

And at the fall, Satan persuaded me that my image is more beautiful than God’s image, and so I flip the mirror over.

Now the black back side is toward God.

It doesn’t reflect anything.

Instead, the mirror casts a shadow in the shape of itself on the ground, and I fell in love with the shadow.

That is what happened.

And we have been loving ourselves ever since.

We are primarily made to reflect & display God.

Believer and non believer alike do that to some extent inherently because we have qualities of God that no other creature has that I mentioned before BUT believers should display God uniquely because at salvation the mirror gets turned back around, we see the glory of God again and we live in a way that intentionally brings attention to God.

Application:

How would you say you are doing at that?

Does your life (Dress, Talk, Work, EVERYTHING) primarily promote God or yourself?

Do you agree with and live according to his design?

Do you view and treat others as people made to represent God?

#2 Embrace Your Role as a Man

Explain: At the basis of true manhood is a responsibility to Lead, provide for and protect Women in an appropriate manner.

Substantiate: Gen 3:8-9 “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?””

Men were designed to be the leader of the family in the form of a husband and father.

Although none of you are that right now, you can desire that and prepare for that.

The best way I can describe this is by relating it to 1 Tim 3:2 “An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,”

“Husband of one wife = one woman man” you can be a one woman man before marriage by staying faithful to your future wife by being pure now.

You can begin to fulfill your role as a man and hopefully future husband by being able and prepared and desirous to lead, provide and protect.

You shouldn’t think about DATING a girl if you are not qualified in those areas and girls you should honestly ask yourself why you're attracted to a guy who isn’t mature in those areas.

The world IS IN A DROUGHT OF GODLY YOUNG MEN.

Where are the Daniels and Timothys of this generation.

A lot of you like the idea of being seen as mature but won’t actually take steps to get there.

Many want to be called leaders but don’t act like one.

Don’t tell me you want to be a leader if you cannot even lead yourself - if you still have no real discipline in the word, no real action against lust, no work ethic, you are disobedient to your parents, you procrastinate, play video games more than real work - you’re not a leader you're a sluggard.

you're not a man you're a boy.

When will you grow up?

We need young men who make a difference for Christ.

Embrace Gods design for you young men

Go get callouses

Get a job

Ask your parents for some responsibility

Serve in the church

Be faithful

Kill sin

#3 Embrace Your Role as a Woman

Girls do not forget what the Lord said when he created eve

2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper [a]suitable for him.”

God created Adam first and then Eve later.

Both equal but the womans role was to be a support to her husband.

Yet the world gets this wrong they think this means women are subordinate or less

And so the wave of feminism wants to flip the script and change the roles.

Feminism says the patriarchy is evil.