Image Bearers A Life for God A Love for God Why in the World Are You? Genesis 1:26-28

Image Bearers

A Life for God

A Love for God

Why in the World Are You?Genesis 1:26-28

Application 1 – Image BearersWhat are you doing as an image bearer to reveal the character and nature of the God whom you serve?

Are you loving and serving others in a way that would portray the nature and character of God?


Application 2 – A Life for God

The question we must always ask, no matter what the situation, is:

How is this going to glorify God?


A Love for God You are made to love God and other

people, not yourself! The cross is God demonstrating the kind of

God that He is – the God who saves! God’s grace has opened our hearts to truly

say, “Let God do what God will” – Rom. 9:1-3


Romans 9:1-3 (NASB)1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not

lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,

2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.

3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

A Love for God You are made to love God and other

people, not yourself! The cross is God demonstrating the kind of

God that He is – the God who saves! God’s grace has opened our hearts to truly

say, “Let God do what God will” – Rom. 9:1-3 Our love is the consequence of God’s

sovereign activity. Example: Adam and Eve – Mark 12:28-31


Mark 12:28-31 (NASB)28 One of the scribes came and heard them

arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”

29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD;

30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’

31 The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

A Love for God Genesis 3 tells us we are lovers of

ourselves Our hearts are bent toward self-love We do not need to learn to love ourselves; it

comes quite naturally! If we love God and truly desire to glorify

Him, we will be consumed with loving others! – 1 Corinthians 10:31-33


1 Corinthians 10:31-33 (NASB)31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or

whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

32 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God;

33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.


ourselves Our hearts are bent toward self-love We do not need to learn to love ourselves; it

comes quite naturally! If we love God and truly desire to glorify

Him, we will be consumed with loving others! – 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

Bottom line is, who or what is my life about?



ourselves Loving God and loving others sets us free to live

the life for which we were created. If I truly love others, then my sense of

fulfillment and comfort is not relevant. I will not be enslaved to others’ opinions, ideas,

or philosophies. I will be free to love others in a way that best

points them to God.


A Love for God “If I love myself, then my relationship with

other people will be all about how I can get them to love me more” – which is not Biblical thinking.


Application 3

How is your love?

Are you so passionate in your love for God that it produces love for others that points them back to God?

That is love that glorifies God and is “Why in the World Are You!”


How in the World Are You? Part 1Genesis 3:1-18

The Author of Relationships

Violated Relationships and Pride

The Author of Relationships The foundation of all relationships – trust;

Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8:4-6


Psalm 8:4-6 (NASB)4 What is man that You take

thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?

5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty!

6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,

The Author of Relationships The foundation of all relationships – trust;

Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8:4-6 The very first command – Genesis 2:16-17

God entrusts man with the stewardship of creation

God frees man to eat of any tree allowing us to enjoy what He entrusted to us

Trust is also the reason for the second part of the command – “must not eat”


The Author of Relationships The very first command – Genesis 2:16-17

Lasting freedom can only be had and maintained through trust

For trust to be real it has to be tested!


The Author of Relationships Where are you? – But why?

Not concerned with Adam’s physical location but the location of his heart

The real questions were: • Where are you in our relationship?• Where is your heart?• Where is the trust that I had given to you?

Gen. 3:10 gives us three results of breaking trust:1. Fear – “I was afraid”2. Insecurity – “because I was naked”3. Cover-up – “so I hid”


The Author of Relationships Our broken relationship with God will result in

our tiring daily management of our fears, insecurities, guilt, and lies of cover-up!

Two more questions from God:1. “Who told you that you were naked?”

Which is really, “Who are you listening to?”2. “Have you eaten from the tree that I have

commanded you not to eat from?” This was a question about a willingness to tell the truth.


The Author of Relationships Results of a broken (trust) relationship

Adam falls for the delusion that God does not have his best interests in mind and that God is holding back something from Adam.

Therefore, Adam shifts the blame! Eve will not face the truth of her own evil

desires and passions that trusted the words of someone other than God.

Eve hid behind the lie rather than face the truth – James 1:13-14.


James 1:13-14 (NASB)13 Let no one say when he is

tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

The Author of Relationships God’s remedy for the broken relationship

God delays judgment and gives pain Pain was God’s way of pointing to the future! Pain is often God’s signal we are off course! Pain can be emotional or physical Pain promotes protection, learning, and

understanding God used pain to point to the promise!


The Author of Relationships

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” C. S. Lewis The Problem of Pain, p. 91


To be completed next weekSunday, September 28, 2014


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Image Bearers A Life for God A Love for God Why in the World Are You? Genesis 1:26-28