The Value of Life

So it was almost exactly a year ago today to the day, that a young man in Charleston, South Carolina walked into the Emanuel AME Church, sat through a Bible study, and then murdered nine people in the church, including the pastor. Why did he do that? Because they were of a different race, and apparently this young man had a worldview that said that people of a different race, that their lives weren't as valuable as his.

Just a few months after that, in December of 2015 in San Bernardino California, a husband and wife went into a Social Services Center where many of their co-workers were gathered for a party, and they murdered 14 of them, with 22 others of them injured. Why do they do that? Because they had a religious ideology in a world view that said apparently that the lives of those people weren't of much value as their own.

And then just a few weeks ago back in May, the only thing that you heard about in your news feed was a little boy who fell into an enclosure with a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. The zoo made a decision to kill the the animal so as to save the child. And the response was interesting. A memorial was set up for the animal, and death threats were made to the parents. Why? Because some people have a worldview that suggests that the life of that animal and the life of that child should be viewed exactly the same way.

And then, just one week ago today in Orlando, Florida, a man walked into a gay club and murdered 49 people, injuring many, many more. Why did he do that? Because apparently he had a worldview that suggested one of a couple of things, details are still coming out in relationship to this, but it could be that people who embraced a certain type of sexuality weren't worth living, or maybe it was dealing with the tension of sexuality, or maybe it had something to do with a religious ideology, at least in his perspective. But whatever it was, it was a worldview that didn't value their lives as much as other lives.

See, worldviews matter, ladies and gentlemen, that's why we're talking about them. Because a worldview has consequences. The way that we view the world, the way that we see reality, it has consequences. And they matter. Because worldviews dictate behavior and actions.

That's why when we think about this idea of worldview, I really like what Chuck Colson said, the late Chuck Colson said in his book How Now Shall We Live? He said this: The way we see the world can change the world... In every action we take, we're doing one of two things. We're either helping to create a hell on earth, or were helping to bring down a foretaste of heaven. We're either contributing to the broken condition of the world or participating with God in transforming the world to reflect his righteousness. We're either advancing the rule of Satan or establishing the reign of God. Our choices are shaped by what we believe is real and true, right and wrong, good and beautiful. Our choices are shaped by our worldview.

You see, worldviews matter incredibly. And in the scenarios that I just painted for you, that are real events that have occupied our news feeds for the last year, that are tragic and sad. They were motivated by worldviews that saw life in a certain way. Some that have value and some that are devalued, and that's the way that that was viewed. That's why I want us today to ask a question in terms of worldview about the value of life as we understand it when we put God at the center as has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ in the Scripture. I want us to ask that question, because worldviews matter deeply, and they affect action and they affect behavior.

And so I want you to turn with me, if you have a copy of the Bible or if you have a device on which your Bible is on to page one. I am here for you making it easy for you. No one should feel intimidated today, that they don't know their way around the Bible. Everyone can find page one. The reason I want to start us there is because that's where the revelation of our worldview begins when we begin to understand God and what he's done, and how the value of life is ascribed to human beings. Now, I will tell you that I'm not going to dumb down what I'm talking about today, but I certainly want to communicate in a way that's accessible to all of us. But I'm gonna ask you to stay with me, and to hang with me, because these are foundational things for having a worldview that is centered on God, because it helps us to understand the value of life.

So in Genesis chapter 1, I want us to look in verses 26 through 28. The Scripture says: 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." So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Now, it's not lost on me that the very opening page of Scripture, and mine actually goes from page one to page 2 in that same verse. So on the first two pages of Scripture, that we're reminded about the value of life that we can see. What I want us to do from this passage of Scripture is I want to pull out just two really apparent truths that are foundational for our understanding about the value of life. And I'm going to pull out two - there's probably more we could discuss ,but I want to pull out these two because they are really really kind of at the bedrock, and I don't want us to miss them. I'm going to spend a little more time on the second one than I do on the first one, but I want us to grab both of them when we talk about our world view as it relates to the value of life.

Here's the first thing that I want to pull out of this text and it's this: that all human beings are created by God. Every human being everywhere is created by God. I want you to listen again to verse number 27, and you'll see on your screens, here you'll see the highlighted portions. It says, So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. There's a reminder over and over in this passage that God Himself is the creator. Now, when we open the text of Scripture in Genesis chapter 1, you guys are familiar with how it begins right? The famous words in the beginning right? God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, and then God said let there be light, and there was light, and he separated the light from the darkness, and all of that, right? You know that passage. And I may not have got it all right, if you are following along by the way but it was close right? You understand that passage.

What we have revealed to us in Genesis chapter 1 and chapter two is a God who is the creator of everything. Now what's important about that is not necessarily what it's talking about in terms of the the time or the vehicles that God used in the process of creating. It's contrasting the fact that God is creator and not created things are creators. Here's why. Because what you have mentioned in chapter 1 and chapter two is kind of a shout out to all of the pagan deities that surround Israel. Because in all of these pagan nations, they are worshiping things like the Sun and the moon and the stars and the birds and the reptiles. And here in Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2, here's what the revelation of the one true God is. He's the creator of the Sun and the moon and the stars and the birds and the reptiles. So all of these are created things that these people are worshipping, and I tell you as the people of God, that this God is the one who has created everything. And in a sense what God has done in Genesis 1 and 2, as we get a sense for God creating for himself this cosmic temple in which his glory is going to dwell, and in which human beings are going to function.

But we're reminded of here is that God himself because he is the creator, that everything that is created, and remember that he said after creating humanity that before it everything was good and once human beings were created he called it very good. That every single thing that is created is created with an inherent sense of dignity and worth, most specifically is the special creation of humanity, made male and female that is created by God. And because humanity is created by God, it carries with it an inherent sense of dignity and value and worth. Every single human being is a God created being. This is important for us to understand.

In fact, when you begin to read the revelation of Scripture, throughout the Scripture, you see this idea of God's creation giving inherent value and worth and beauty. You see that coming to play in the Scripture itself. "Some of you may be familiar with the words of David in Psalm 139 when he says this beginning in verse 13. For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them."

Isn't that, just reading that is encouraging to me. That the God who has created us and values us, we can speak out to, because he knew us before we were even formed. This is the God who creates all things. And then, we sang about it just a moment ago in the last song that we sang. But we were really singing the words that people like Jeremiah and others actually proclaimed. this Jeremiah said in the very opening verses of of the book of Jeremiah, he says, God says to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart, and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Now obviously He is talking about Jeremiah's very specific role as a prophet to the nations, but the first portions of that verse are true for all of us, even if we're not appointed to be prophets to the nations. That before anything ever happened, God new us, before we were formed in the womb. Chose us and separated us. God did all of these things. Why? Because he himself is the creator, and since every human being is a God created being, every human being is ascribed value and dignity and worth, not based on themselves, but based on the one who made need them.

I don't have you ever read the book, you may not have because mostly there's not kids in here, but maybe if you have kids or grandkids, you may have read to them a book called You Are Special, by Max Lucado. Maybe you're familiar with it, maybe you're not. If you're not, here's the Reader's Digest version, it's beautiful. There was a group of people called the Wemmicks. They were  wooden people, right? The wooden people, the Wemmicks. Just like you had the Whos in Whoville, you've got the Wemmicks in Wemmicksville, alright?

So this wooden people called the Wemmicks are an interesting people, because what they do is they have kind of a culture among them where they carry around a box, and inside the box, they've got gray dots and gold stars. And for those among them, the wooden people among them, that are really well kept, they don't have any chips in there wood, the paint is is not chipped from whatever they've been painted with, they've got special talents and abilities, they get gold stars. And they get a gold star stuck to them. And so there's some Wemmicks walking around Wemmicksville that got gold stars all over em, right? On their head and on their shoulders, and everywhere, right? Because they're really special.

And then for others who can't seem to do anything right, like the main character Punchinello. His name's Punchinello, right? Like Punchinello he can't do anything right, and every time he turns around, every time he does something he's getting a gray dot. So Punchinello is actually covered in gray dots. Now there are some people walking around Wemmicksville that have a bunch of stars, some that have just a few stars, some that have a few dots, and some like Punchinello who has more dots than anyone. In fact, Punchinello won the village award for the most gray dots. Not an award you want to win. And every time he would find himself trying to do something, he looked funny, he did stuff funny, he was clumsy, he never could do anything right. He just couldn't see himself as special.

Until one day, he met Lucia. And he was doing something and actually fell down and did something stupid, and he's looking and there's Lucia, and he looks up at her. He starts to have a conversation with her, and here's what Punchinello notices. Lucia does not have any gray dots on her at all. And you know what else he notices? Lucia does not have any gold stars on her at all. He says, wait a minute. I can never do anything right. I'm covered in gray dots. But you don't have any gray dots on you. And you you don't have any gold stars on you. How come nothing sticks to you? And she said, Oh you'll have to go ask Eli.

Now Eli was the wood worker who lived on the top of the hill. And Eli was the one who made all of the Wemmicks. And so finally, Punchinello got up the guts to go see Eli. And when he came in to see Eli, here's what Eli kept saying to him. Man, I love you. You're special because I made you. And he kept saying to him, But look at all the dots. I mean, I don't do anything right. And he said, I love you. You're special because I made you. Just like I made all the rest of them. He said, well here's what I want you to do. Every day I want to just come see me. And I'm going to tell you that I love you, and that you're special because I made you.

Sure enough, over the course of time, what happened to Punchinello is that the gray dots that were on him started falling off. And when people would try to give him something, it wouldn't stick. Why? Because he knew Eli, and he knew Eli made them all. And he was loved and he was special because Eli made him. And nothing would stick to him anymore. That's pretty good children's story. It's even better adult story. That's why I told it to you. You see, everyone that lives is created by God. And God is the one who determines value and dignity and worth.

So the first thing that is foundational for us is that all human beings are created in the image of God, or are created by God. Here's the second thing, I just gave it away. All human beings are the image of God. Obviously we picked this up from our text in verses 26 and 27. I want you to see the highlighted portions there. It says, 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. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.

You seem over and over in this passage of Scripture, it's reminding us not only that human beings are created by God, but it's also reminding us that human beings are the image of God. Now I need to pause here for just a second, because the concept of the image of God is probably biting off a little bit more than we have time for in this particular context. It is an enormous conceptual idea to think about the image of God. But what I want to do for us at least for a few moments. I'm gonna ask you to stay with me here all right?

What I want to do for us and for just this few moments is to kind of break this idea of the image of God down into two words that you might be able to get your head around. In two concepts that you can get your head around. Not because I'm going to dumb down the idea, I'm not. But because I want it to be accessible to us.

Because oftentimes when we talk about people being created in the image of God, we don't actually know what we're saying. We don't know what we're saying when we say that. Have you ever done that? Have you had conversations with people and you say stuff but you don't know what you're saying when you say it? Am I the only one that's ever done that? All right. I just making sure. So you know you sometimes you even use a word in a sentence, and it sounds fantastic, and then when your child says, well I don't know what that word means, and you just go we'll just go look it up. And then they look it up and tell you the definition, yeah that's it, that's it, that's what it was when I was going to tell you, but I wanted you to learn it, because you needed to learn it right. So sometimes we don't know what we're saying when we say image of God.

So there's really two words that I want you to remember about the idea of the image of God and it's these two words: it's relationship and representation. Okay? Relationship and representation.

Let me talk about the first one for just a minute, the idea of relationship. You see, when we talk about the idea of the image of God, what we're talking about is that human beings are created in such a way that human beings have the capacity to know and relate to God different than everything else in all of creation. Okay? Different than everything else in all of creation, in every other created thing, human beings have a capacity to relate to and know God. This is a part of what it means to be created in the image of God. And see, with that we could start to unpack kind of what that means. It means rationale, it means freedom, it means volition, it means morality. It's all of those things, and probably others besides. It is all of those things contained in the idea that human beings have a capacity for relationship with God that no other created thing has. That's part of what it means to be made in the image of God.

In fact, you start to see the separation between human beings and the animal kingdom, you see that very clearly when you're reading in the book of Genesis because human beings are created in the image of God. Which means they have capacity for relationship, which is why Adam when he had all of the animals around him, and was naming them, the Scripture says but there was not found for him a suitable companion among them. So what had to happen? The creation of another person complimentary to him who was also made in the image of God. The capacity for relationship and knowledge of God that the rest of creation does not have. Did you follow that? You can actually also see it in the fact that in our verses where we talked about human beings were created in the image of God, God says I'm going to give to them what? Dominion. Rulership over, what? Everything else. Over the land and the sea, over the animal kingdom, all of that. So human beings have a special capacity for knowledge and ability to relate to God that the rest of creation does not have. That's a part of what the image of God is talking about, relationship.

But here's the other part: representation. You see, sometimes when we think of the idea of the image of God, what we think about is this: we look like God. Right? People, when they think of the image of something think about you must look like him. This must be what God looks like. I'm hopeful that God doesn't look like this, all right? I've got hopes and dreams of a renewed, you know, body at the resurrection, and it's all going to get going to be uphill from here. Which is good. This is not what the image of God is actually talking about. It's not talking about necessarily physical exactness. That would be kind of weird, because how can I be that and you be that at the same time when we look so different? This is actually talking about the idea of representation.

You see, in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, what you have is you have the story of the functional creation of the world, and how human beings function within the functional ordered creation of the world. And in fact, when you read God saying let us make mankind or humankind in our image, many Hebrew scholars would tell you that that can just as easily be translated instead of in our image,
"as our image". Now it doesn't change the function of what's being said there. Because the idea behind this is actually representation. You see, human beings being created in the image of God means that not only do we have a special capacity to relate to God, but we also have a job to do because we are representatives of God on earth. This is a part of what it means to be made in the image of God.

And by the way, the people that would have been reading Genesis chapter 1 in the ancient world would have understood this completely well. Because in all of those places, even the surrounding countries that were around Israel at the time, there would be images set up to represent gods. You remember the god, the pagan god Baal or Bay-all, right? Baal would be represented in places by a bull, not because Baal looked like a bull. It wasn't a physical likeness. Tt was about the character and essence of the deity that was being represented. Or in these pagan cultures, kings that would rule the pagan civilization would be called images of the pagan gods that they represented. Not because they were a physical likeness, but because they represented what they believe the character to be.

So that's what this is talking about when we're understanding the ideas of the image of God in humanity, that this is about being the representative of God. This is why when God formed the people Israel after they came out of Egypt, in the bondage of Egypt, and they were making their way to the promised land and Moses went up on a mountain and he got some stone tablets right? And on those stone tablets were what? The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue. The second of those commandments says, you will not make any images. Why would God say, you will not make any images? Here's why. Because we're already here. We've been created in the image of God. There is no more need for other images, so to speak, because there are already people with the capacity to know and relate to God and people who are designed to be representatives of God on earth. So nothing else should interfere with that.

Now, in relationship to these ideas, relationship and representation, God takes this idea of the image of God very seriously. This is not something to be trifled with. When God talks about people being created in the image of God, this is not something God skips over very loosely or very lightly. You see, even though the image of God in humanity is a corrupted image, it's marred, right? Sin has entered in, and it's kind of messed things up, so that our relationship with God is fractured, and as a result of that, we're not very good representatives of God on earth. That even though that's happened, the image of God still remains in people. Even though it's marred, even though it's messed up, the image of God still remains in people.

It's kind of like a wrecked car. My family, my mom and dad, have been in town. They're still in town. They were here in the last worship gathering. We did a little tour downtown in Buffalo, and kind of looked at Silo City, and some of the places there, and heard some history there. But one of the places we were going by there is actually a junkyard down near Silo City, down you know Canalside. And I was looking over that junkyard. And here's the thing. I can actually make out that in the junkyard were a bunch of cars. They were you know compressed and wrecked and a mess, but they were cars. But they couldn't function. I could identify them as cars, but they couldn't function. That's where we are in terms of the image of God in our lives. We are like wrecked humanity. We can be recognized as human beings, created by God who have the image of God, but in our broken state, we can't function in that capacity very well at all.

But see, God takes this very seriously that even though we are broken, the image of God still remains. Because when he talked about this in Genesis 1 and 2 that human beings are created in the image of God, we see in chapter 3 that human beings fell into sin. And then we start to see the outworking of that sin right? Cain and Abel, in the time of Noah, and all the stuff that happened along those lines right? But then when you get to chapter 9, you better understand that even though the image of God has been marred in human beings, God still takes it very seriously. Because when he creates human beings in His image, it's nothing to be joked over.

Listen to what he says in chapter 9. God says, and for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting for every animal, and from each human being too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. Whoever sheds human blood, by human shell their blood be shed, for in the image of God as God made mankind. This is how seriously God was taking this. He was saying, if you're an animal and you take the life of a human, I'm gonna hold that animal accountable, because these are people created in my image. And if a human being takes the life of another human being, it will be required of their life, because you don't kill people made in the image of God. This is how seriously he takes it, even though that image is marred and stained and a mess and wrecked, he says you still don't do that. God's very serious about this idea.

In fact, when you push it forward into the New Testament, you find this out. That not only is God serious about the life of people, but he's even serious about what we say about people, because they've been created in the image of God. Listen to what the book of James says. With the tongue, we praise our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse human beings, who have been made in God's image or likeness. Apply that to your social media platform. This is how serious God is about the image of God in the lives of people.

I mean, Jesus' teaching right? If I were to ask you like, what's the biggest thing that Jesus taught? Here's what you'd remember. Most people anywhere would remember this: maybe love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Do you know where that teaching comes from? A foundational belief that human beings have been created by God and are made in the image of God. That's where that comes from. That's the practical outworking of that foundation that says, this is then what you do because of this.

And do you know God was so serious about this idea of life, that he was he was so serious about people who are living and he was serious about it with people who were preborn. Do you know in the book of Exodus, listen to this in the book of Exodus. It says this: if people are fighting, and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there's no serious injury the offender must be fine whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury you are to take life for life, and then He goes on, eye for eye tooth for tooth. Do you know what this means? God is saying that the child in the womb is life. That's what He said, the child in the womb is life. And if that life is taken, life is required. That's how serious. Why? Because they are created by God, and created in the image of God, and God takes it extraordinarily seriously.

You know, also even in the early church, like if you like history, which I like a little bit of it. Give away my nerd roots here for a minute. If you read some church history, there's a compilation of what they considered to be some of the Apostles' teaching, that's not in the canon of Scripture, nor is it supposed to be. But it's called the Didache. And it's a great historical piece for students of the Word to be able to look back on and see some of the consistency of in the late first century to be able to go, okay this is kind of a compilation of some of the Apostles teaching at a high level, like some of the things that they said. Do you know what? This is, and what I'm talking about the same century, the same time frame when the Scripture was being written, this was just the understanding of people during that time. And you know what it says in the Didache in 2:2? Listen to what it says, you shall not murder a child, whether it be born or unborn. Do you know why they would write something like that? Because it was understood in that culture from a biblical framework that God was serious about life, in that he created it and that every life was the image of God. That's how serious it was.

Now, our worldview teaches us that human beings are created by God and with the image of God, but that sin has messed it all up. That's what our worldview teaches, right? That now our relationship is compromised, that we cannot have relationship with God, because we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And there is none righteous, no not one. So we're all in a big big mess. And as a result of that inhibited relationship, how in the world in our brokenness are we ever going to represent God as we're supposed to represent God? We are in a huge mess. So what do we do? That's the beauty of the gospel. That's where we just, go man when we understand the gospel, we understand how all of this comes together. Because it is in Jesus, God sending His own Son, putting on flesh, that in Jesus, death and resurrection on our behalf, we can now be through Jesus the perfect image of God. We can now be reconciled to the Father, and know him intimately like like no one else in creation, and can represent him well on the earth, because now the image of God is being renewed in us. What was wrecked is being renewed and reformed and made new.

In fact, when you read the book of Colossians, you start to get a sense for that of the beauty of the gospel of what God has done for those of us who have a shattered image of God. Listen to Colossians, chapter one. You may just run over this, but think about it in our context. The Son is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation. For in him, Jesus, all things were created. Do you see both creation and image right there in the first few words? Things in heaven, on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him, and he is before all things. And in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church, he's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

This is the beauty of the gospel, that we can be reconciled to the Father and now the image of God in us that gives us the capacity for true relationship with God can be restored because of the one who is the express image of God, Jesus. And through faith in Him this can be renewed in us.

And in fact, that renewal has ethical consequences. Because we are a people being renewed in the character and likeness of God. That's why in Colossians chapter 3, the argument toward the renewal of our morality is based around the image of God. Listen to what it says in Colossians 3: Do not lie to each other, since you've taken off your old self, with its practices and have put on the new self... Here it is, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there's no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

You see, this is where we begin to understand the renewal that happens in terms of relationship with God. That that can only be found in Christ. And so, why do you think we are constantly pointing people to Jesus? Here's why. Because when we point people to Jesus they now have the opportunity to become what they've always been designed to be. Created in the image of God. Related to God and knowing him intimately and representing him on the earth in his stead.

That's why when Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, he says these words that help us to sum this up. He says, therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! And all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he is committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, representatives as though God we're making his appeal through us. And what is that appeal? We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. Why? So that you can become what you were always meant to be, and that is reconciled to the God who made you and who named you and who loves you and who calls you worthy and dignified and valuable and special, and you can represent me in the world that we live in, in ways that show my character to the world. Are you catching all of this? This is fundamental and foundational for us.

You see, this is why worldviews matter. If you need to write it down in one sentence so you're putting all of this together at the same time, write it down this way. I've given it to you this way. We defend the value and dignity of every life because every human being was created by God and bears the image of God. All right? There's one way to say it. We defend the value and dignity of every life because every human being was created by God and bears the image of God.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, that's why for those of us that have a worldview that is centered on God as he has revealed himself in Jesus through the Scripture, we grieve with those who lost family members in Charleston, South Carolina. Because not only did they lose family members, but so did we these were fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus. And we grieve with them. Because that worldview was a broken one that based people's lives value on their race. You see, in Christ we've been made new. There's no longer Jew or Gentile, or black or white, or any of these things. We were made new. We're being renewed in the image of our Creator.

That's why we grieve with the people who were gunned down in San Bernardino, California, because of a religious ideology that said, because you're not this way, we're going to kill you. Maybe as representatives of whatever we think in terms of our ideology, and as a result your lives are not as valuable. But we have a renewed way of looking at that because we have a God centered view.

It's why we can look and see what happened when a young boy fell into an enclosure with an animal, and the animal who is a dangerous and powerful could very well have killed the boy and you don't take chances with that. And the zoo made a choice if it was between the animal and the boy the animal had to be put down. As sad as that is. The animal was just being the animal. No fault of the animals. I understand all of that, but there is no choice between an animal and one who is created in the image of God who bears a special capacity to relate to God, and who is designed by God to be a representative in the world. Now here's the thing. Those of us created in the image of God should be the best caretakers of animals, should be the best caretakers of land, because we've been entrusted with Dominion as people who represent the character and nature of God. But we do not put those lives on the same plain, because that is not how the Scripture reveals that to us.

And then we we grieve with all of those families who lost loved ones in Orlando. When that happens, it's not a time to get on a political soapbox to talk about people's sexual identities that you don't agree with and all of those kinds of things. Do you know what it's time to do? As people, listen, who defend the value and the worth and the dignity of every human life. That's why the church stands up and says they should not have to die for this. That's what we should say. Because this is the world view that we embrace, one that is centered on God, through Jesus, revealed to us in the Scripture.

Do you know what.. do you know what I also think we should do? We should grieve over every preborn child that's murdered out of convenience. We should grieve for every elderly person that is set aside as if they don't have value or matter, because every human being, every human being was created by God and bears the image of God. And God takes that very seriously.

That's why I'm grateful to be in a church that values life from the womb to the tomb, and demonstrates it in the things that we do. That might be partnerships like our church has both in money and in volunteers at local area crisis pregnancy centers, because we believe in the value of life and helping people, both the living and the ones who are preborn, but are still lives, in trying to help them all. Show them the love of Christ. Help them in the midst of their turmoil. It may be it may be fostering or adopting a child through our every child ministry, because these are kids that are without moms, most of which are without dads. And it's an opportunity to say their lives, they matter, and will care for them and will love them. And we've got so many families in our congregation who are fostering children and adopting kids. It may mean sponsoring children in Sierra Leone, like we heard about today where we can help these young people, many of which are girls, who literally their lives as you heard on that story that their dad is basically said, you're not any we're not of worth to me because your daughter you can't do anything for our family and all she can do is sell yourself to try and make a living. But we can help educate, them nourish them and teach them the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that sets every person, male and female free. Or maybe it's like many of us, hundreds of us in fact have sponsored children in our partnership in Haiti in there orphanage there. Or maybe it's our work with special needs kids and families through this ministry, because we value every life. Or maybe it's the volunteers in our church who are specially trained to go and minister to the senior adults who are homebound and can't get out, or their infirmed, or they're sick. And they go by two hospitals to nursing homes two houses to minister to them and to love them. Why? Because every life matters. Or our Potter's Hands folks, who provide material needs and share the gospel with families that are in need. Why? Cause everybody matters. From the womb to the tomb.

You see, what we have to do is we have to act in love as the people of God. We are a renewed people. The image of God is being renewed in us, fully when Christ comes. But being renewed in us now, we are being remade in the image of the Son of God, the one who gives us opportunity for relationship with the Father, and the one who allows us then to look more and more like him, so that we represent God in the world. This is the privilege that we have. But our worldview has consequences. It has action associated with it. It causes behavior. So what's going to be ours? What are we going to do? Because what we're made for is we were made for God, and for the world that we live in. And we have a worldview that centered on God, we will defend the value and the dignity of every single life, because those lives were created by God and they are made in the image God.

Let's bow our heads together. We're going to be dismissed in just a moment. Before you leave, I'd just asked if you'd listen for just a second. If you're here, and you've never entered into a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. Man, God loves you so much that he came and gave his life for you to take your sin upon himself, that God will judge your sin on the sinless one, Jesus, so that through his resurrection and his sacrifice, you then could relate to God and be reconciled to God. This is the glorious news of the gospel. That you and I were helpless, and that God has come to our rescue. And that can only happen through Jesus. And if you've never before turned from your sin, and put your faith and trust in Jesus, then I pray that you do that today. And maybe when were dismissed in just a moment, if you'd come by the Fireside Room. It's right out in the atrium, clearly marked. Speak to one of our pastors, one of our prayer partners. We'd love to talk to you about what it means to begin that relationship with God.

And for others of us in this place, maybe God is having to reset our paradigm a little bit. Maybe God's helping us to see maybe through the framework, through the lens of the Scripture to the nature of who God is. And maybe we have some choices to make about what we're going to do. Maybe that's you know, you as a couple have been praying about maybe fostering or adopting a child. Or maybe connecting and volunteering and partnering with one of the crisis pregnancy centers that we're involved with. Or maybe it's supporting a child, where you can go right out in the atrium, and you can sign up to support a child in Sierra Leone, Africa. So they can hear the gospel, know life, be fed, be educated. It could be any number of things. But our worldviews have consequences. They have actions. And our actions should be motivated out of love.

So Father, I pray by the power of your own spirit that you would speak to each of our hearts, and help to show us how we are to live in concert with how you've designed us. Because when we are found in Jesus, we are becoming what we were always meant to be: people in relationship with you, God, and people who represent you on the earth. Your character, your nature. Father help us to be that kind of people. We pray in Jesus name, amen.

As we are dismissed, all dads out there, Happy Father's Day. God bless you. Have a great weekend.