Sermon Central
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Created For Community Series
Contributed by Russ Barksdale on Nov 13, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Fundamentals of community are: God exists in community, humans were created to exist in community, human choices have broken community with God, and God has acted to restore broken relationships.
September 10
Created for Community
God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness
The fundamentals of community:
1. God exists in community
The triune God exists in community
We are created in God’s image and God exists in community
2. Humans were uniquely created to exist in community with God
3. Human choices have broken the community with God
4. God has acted to restore the broken relationship.
Grace: unmerited favor
God required that animals continue to be slain as an offering to remind them that sin kills and the covering costs.
Community is God’s desire for you…community with Him!
Of all the questions people ask me to answer for them, the easiest, and the most important one is this one: Why am I here?” What is my purpose? What is the purpose of my life? Turn with me to Genesis 1. I tell my DBU students all the time: every major life question is answered in the 1st 3 chapters of the Bible. So-- What are the 1st 4 words of the Bible? In the beginning, God.
In the beginning, God. That pretty much sums up every aspect of existence. Before anything, anything existed, God did. Before the galaxies and stars and planets, God was. Before the mountains and oceans and rivers existed, God was. Before prehistoric animals roamed the earth, God was. Before human beings lived and procreated, God was.
It goes without saying that the nature and essence of God is beyond our complete understanding. He is transcendent. But the Bible does give us insight to some of the nature and essence of God. We see in Genesis 1 that He is eternal: In the beginning, God. Whenever the beginning was, He was. We also see in Genesis 1 that He is incredibly creative. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We also see that God is infinitely powerful, right? He created the heavens and the earth; that’s a merism. A merism is a figure of speech that expresses totality: I searched high and low for my flip flops; I looked far and wide for a Groupon to Taylor Swifts new concert. When the Bible says God created the heavens and the earth, it is declaring unequivocally that God created EVERYTHING!
As you read Genesis 1, you can see that it’s building up to a crescendo: Let there be light! The Hebrew just says “Light!” So God says, “Light!” and there was light. God says “Sky!”, and there was sky. Light! Sky! Oceans! Land! Vegetation! Sun! Moon! Sea Creatures! Earth Creatures!
All of this was a set up for His most important—AND His most revealing creation. This next creation was going to be different than any of His other creations. It would be made with something totally unique; something infused into it that revealed the very essence of what He was like.
On the last day of creation, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. (Build) Leave that up there. What do you notice? The personal pronouns. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
Created in His image and His likeness. How so? How do we bear the image and likeness of the eternal God? Well 1st of all, we’re not eternal. Each of us had a beginning. Now once created, we will exist for eternity. Every human being will exist for eternity in the presence of God, or eternity without God; one existence is heavenly, the other is hellish.
Each of the attributes of God is in each of us, though in Adam and Eve, they were limited; and since the Fall in Genesis 3, these attributes have been warped and disfigured, right? His perfect and infinite attributes of love, justice, wisdom, truth, and even holiness are finitely resident in every human being; every human being bearing the fingerprints of God; even if that image has been marred by sin.
But there is one seminal attribute that makes us MOST like God: and that is community. Community is a broad term. Your neighborhood is a community. Arlington is a community. There are various communities from the scientific community to the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ community. The root word for community is common: so community: a reality caused by common values, activities, location, interests, goals, or other attributes
But this morning, I want us to look at the basic fundamentals of community:
1. God exists in community
Notice again in Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.”
These personal pronouns are unavoidable. Let US create humans in Our image and in Our likeness. Conclusion: The triune God exists in community. Don’t miss that: The triune God exists in community Father, Son, Holy Spirit exist in perfect community. The godhead would not be complete if all 3 did not exist simultaneously, infinitely, and perfectly in community.
