Well, turn with me now in your Bibles to Colossians chapter three. We're gonna read together Colossians chapter three, verses one through 17. And the Apostle Paul is addressing the church in Colossae and directing them in his now classic Pauline put off, put on, that as one who has an old self and a new self, we need to know who we are and what we are doing. The Apostle Paul roots the pivot from old to new in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So Colossians chapter three, verses one through 17. Hear now the word of the Lord. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming, and these you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love. which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen. If you haven't memorized this yet, please do. Put it on the list. Colossians 3, one through 17 is one of these gems, these nuggets that Paul has given us that we who are in Christ should know who we are and what we should be like. There is at war with us and among us an old self, an old self known by 12 things. Six of them are sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. The other six are anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, and lying to one another. In these things are summed up the old self, self-absorbed, self-conceited, selfish. but that's who's died. That self is dead, says Paul, crucified with Christ. We have been raised, raised from the dead with Christ. And so let us be a new self, a new creation in Christ Jesus. That new self is marked by a different set of characteristics. Compassionate hearts, kindness, meekness, humility. These things, patience, mark the new self. How do we feed this transition? How do we fuel the new self and put off the new self? We are handed three things in succession and parallel at the end of the passage. In putting on love, which binds everything together, there are three things of Christ. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. To put to death the old self and his sinful ways, the peace of Christ has to be our boss. The peace of Christ is in charge, ruling over our hearts. Likewise, the word of Christ is dwelling in us richly, that is abundantly. There's gotta be a lot of Jesus words inside. But then thirdly, doing everything in word and deed in the name of the Lord Jesus. That we live out in the name of Jesus as the apostles did in Acts. With this vision of a new humanity, a new self, a new person before us, let's go back and see the first person, the first humanity in Genesis chapter one. Our sermon this morning is from Genesis chapter one. And I'm gonna begin in verse one. Our sermon text this morning will come from verses 20 through 28, but I'll go ahead and read beginning in verse one so that we have the context for this morning. Genesis chapter one, beginning with verse one. Hear now the word of the Lord. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness, and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning the second day. God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth to rule over the day and over the night and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the fourth day. And God said, let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind and God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 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. Amen and amen. Well, if you memorized this one yet, This, too, is a gem. This, too, is a golden nugget, not from Paul, but from Moses. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Moses begins by introducing us to the fact that there are no gods before God. He was there in the beginning. Nothing was before him, and so it becomes a moral imperative for us as humans that we have nothing before him. For there was nothing before him. He is first. He acts. We react. We as humans struggle with this, that from our earliest days, we assume that we are the heroes of our own story. There is an article I was shown just this last week about a new syndrome that they've coined, that Americans today are struggling with this syndrome of hero syndrome, protagonist syndrome. We all have been raised to think that we are the main character in our own story. And then comes Genesis chapter one to say, uh-uh, you're the sidekick at best. Some of us are actually the antagonists in our own story. God is the hero, he is the actor, he is the author, he is the protagonist and God has come into the world and he acts and we react. We love because he first loved us. We need to embrace this vision of the world that as humans, God has designed the world for us to be in it, but he's designed us to be in it with him. This is our primary identity, those who live in the world with him. Let us embrace that sense of our own identity, of humans. You see, the text is flowing through this narrative in Genesis where Moses is going to establish a home for each of the creatures. In the first four days of creation, Moses is actually given all the structure, all the shape of the world. In day one, he said there was light and dark and he divided them. On day two, he said there were upper waters that would come down as rain and snow, and there are lower waters, which are seas and oceans and rivers. He divided them. He further divided the lower waters so that there would be dry land, and on that dry land would grow up vegetation. And then in that expanse, that negative space between the upper and lower waters, he implanted the sun, moon, and star. According to this Hebrew cosmology, God began by giving shape and structure to the world. He designed it like a master engineer so that it would look exactly how he wanted it. But what is more, all of these divisions come together into one cooperative adventure. These are all the things that are necessary for there to be life. Every last one of them. All those scientists who look into outer space and measure the distance between the planets have concluded that the margin of error on those distances is exceedingly small. And though God has divided light from dark, plants need both. And although God has divided water from dry land, plants need both. These structures over the four days must cooperate, sunlight, rain, and soil. They all have to come in measure or there is no life. God has balanced beautifully and finely the world so that life can thrive. And now in days five and six, Moses tells us what life God wanted here on this earth. Having given us all the structure and all the support systems for life, Moses now tells us about that life. He begins with birds and fish. He says that God looks upon the vast expanse of the seas. And he sees that ocean going deep, deep, deep. And he sees that ocean stretching out wide, wide, wide. And God says, let's fill it. Have you ever considered the extraordinarily unlikely event of catching a fish? Unfortunately, Tim's not here, but you know, the other fishermen, you know. If you think about how much space is in the ocean, The likelihood that any random human would go into that vast volume of water, stick in a net or a hook, and come up with a fish is pretty amazing. The only way it works is there's a lot of fish. God loves fish. He made a lot of them. And he filled the ocean with them. They're so full in the ocean, they come up the rivers. And they now live in lakes and ponds, too. These bodies of water that God looks upon and says, I love water. I love them because they're homes for fish, where they can live and prosper. And God even says to the fish, hey, make more fish. I want this water. full of fish. But it's not just water, it's also the sky. God looks out at that vast expanse of blue and he's like, I like this sky. These clouds, these winds, these jet streams. Let's have something that flies. In the Hebrew, Moses embeds this imagery into the Hebrew language. Moses says, let there be swimming things in the swimmy stuff. Let there be water creatures in the water. He looks at the sky and he says, let there be flying things for the fly space. Let there be birds that fill the air. God loves birds. and he fills the sky with birds. Now, what are we supposed to take away from this? I mean, this is really cool. I mean, I've crossed the threshold. I don't know how many of you, there's this joke that goes around. I don't know how many of you have crossed this threshold. There's a distinct moment in most men's life where you realize that sports are no longer part of your life, and so you resort to bird watching. Yes? I don't own the binoculars yet, but I hear that comes later. We love birds as humans. We love fish. We love that the world has them, and so does God. It's part of his design that birds belong in the air and fish belong in the sea, and we as humans have a responsibility. I'll get to that in a minute. where we make sure there are birds for the sky and there is sky for the birds. Where we as humans are responsible to make sure there are fish in the water and there's water for the fish. Because God loves it that way. He loves his world with that shape, that structure, that substance. Here is the living thing that he wants there. We need to honor that design, rejoice in that design, take care of that design. That's day five. He wants it full of these things. On day six, God turns his attention to the dry land. And he gives three animals to occupy the dry land, three kinds of animals. He says, let the earth bring forth Livestock, creeping things, and beasts. That first category, livestock, they're all going to be recognized by us as close to us, proximate to us. These are the domesticated animals, the sheep, the goats, the camels, the horses, the ones that live near humans and thrive on human interaction. Many of you would say dogs, cats, some of you would debate that. We also have creeping things. They're not close to humans, are they? Or at least you don't like being close to them, do you? Those are the insects, the spiders, the salamanders. They are the reptiles and the amphibians. They're not close to humans, they're close to the ground. They live among the rocks and the roots and crawl about on the earth. and are close to the surface of the earth. The third one is the beasts. These are the wild animals. They don't live close to humans either. They live far out in the mountains. They live far out in the prairies. They live far out in the forests. They're not part of the human circle. God plants them on the earth, and notice that parallel with plants. 24, God says, let the earth bring forth living animals. Notice that it's animals who come from the earth. He says, let the earth bring forth. By the way, the Hebrew verb for give birth is bring forth. There's something to this mother earth thing. This earth births the living animals. It's parallel to verse 11, when God said, let the earth sprout vegetation. There is an intimacy between the animals and the vegetables and the minerals. They all work together and cooperate together. There's a totality to this earth, this intimacy, that if there's going to be a vast multiplication of fish, we're gonna need a home. we're gonna need water. Likewise, if there's gonna be a vast multiplication of birds, they're gonna need a home. There's gonna need to be air and space up there in the heavens. And if there's gonna be a vast multiplication of those animals, those domestic animals, those creeping animals, those wild animals, they're gonna need a home. They're going to need dry land that is full and fruitful with vegetation. And so again, we as humans have to embrace this vision of the earth. Throughout the 19th century, Americans grossly misunderstood this principle. And we have severely damaged our North American continent. We went west of the Mississippi and we planted corn. And we are drinking dry the Midwest. That vast prairie may soon be desert if we as humans don't think about it strategically. God is to be honored in his creation that we need soil and rain and sunshine for vegetation. We need vegetation and water and animals to work together. God has made this world good and beautiful, and all these kinds are to live together. We need space for the wild animals. There was this phrase that has been used. Ken Burns put it together into a documentary. National parks are America's best idea. Now, There may be some other contenders, you know, constitutional republic, democracy, things like that. But national parks are certainly a great idea. A space for wild animals to be beautiful and wild. God has made this world and it is good to follow his design. But then Moses gives us something rather unexpected on the sixth day. In verse 26, God says, let us make man. We've reached the human. We've reached us. Finally, it's our time in the story. Let us make man. And what we would expect is man's home. Fish belong in the sea. Birds belong in the air. These three kinds, the domestic, the creeping, and the wild animals, belong on the dry land and among the vegetation. Where does the human belong? Let us make man in our image and after our likeness. We belong with God. This is why we feel homeless at home. This is why we don't feel at home in the air. We're constantly checking our instruments and we're hoping the pilot is constantly checking his instruments. We don't feel at home in the sea. We long for shore. We worry about waves and sinking. We don't even feel at home in the vegetation of the earth. If there's too much of it, we feel crowded. We worry about poison ivy, at least I do. We worry about ticks and other creeping and crawling things coming and biting us. We don't feel at home in this world. For we were made in the beginning to be with God. Moses here doesn't mention the dust we're made from. That will come later. He doesn't mention our intimate connection with the creation. He mentions our intimate connection with God. We are made in His image and after His likeness. God is our identity. We are connected to Him. We are responsive to Him. He begins, we follow. We are after Him, trailing behind Him. We are in Him. In Him we live and move and have our beings, says the Apostle Paul. How then does God shape and divide our existence, adding to us life and life abundantly? That if we are to have creatures on this earth who multiply and fill the earth so that this world is beautiful and teeming with life, we have to protect and preserve and cherish their homes, sea, sky and land. But what is more, if we're gonna have lots of humans, and this world is going to fill with humans, we have to protect humanity's home. You know, God, the knowledge of God, the love of God, intimacy with God, worship of God. God gives us the ways to do it. He says in verse 27 first, God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him male and female, he created them. By this verse, Moses disposes the ancient and pernicious lie that one human is ever more treasured or valuable than another. It doesn't matter if you're male or female, you both alike are in the image of God. It doesn't matter the hair color, eye color, or skin color. It doesn't matter the accent or the language or the ethnicity or the nationality. It doesn't matter how small or how helpless. It doesn't matter if it's on the inside or on the outside. These people, Each individual is made in the image of God. Every single human, the ones that are perfect and the ones that are flawed, they are human, all of them. Gloriously, beautifully human. And God loves humans. He loves fish, he fills an ocean with it. He loves the sky, he fills birds with it. He loves the lands and the animals. But he also loves people. He loves those made in his image and in his likeness to dwell with him on the earth. And each and every one of you was made by him. Do you know how many years of genetics have come together to make you? You go back, there's two. You go back, there's four. You go back, there's eight. I'm not great at math, so I'm not gonna embarrass myself by continuing. But it's really quick before your connection to so-and-so 100 years ago is pretty tenuous, because that guy's just one of 100 people who all came together in you. Each human, each individual human, we live in a hyper-individualized age. And so we need to be careful with this. But in throwing out the hyper-individuality, we need to not lose how special it is to be a person and to cherish each human, whatever the weakness of the disability, whatever the ethnicity or nationality or language, whatever the gender, male or female. Let us love humans. This is how we exhibit his image. We love our fellow humans because God loves humans. But secondly, God then says, give them dominion over the creation. We exhibit our likeness to God and our resemblance to him in this kind of supremacy to creation. This supremacy, this dominion, this rule that humans are entrusted with is kind of counterintuitive. How many of you think you can out-wrestle a grizzly? How many of you think you can out-swim a blue marlin? How many of you think you can out-soar a vulture or an eagle? I mean, when it comes to this like competing with creation thing, we're not really good at it, are we? I mean, we're not particularly fast or particularly strong. We don't have any special gifts like swimming or flying. No, the dominion rests in this similarity to God, this likeness to God. That God would have us in the world with him. in having a moral nature like His, that we should think thoughts as He thinks thoughts, that we should have godly and holy feelings as He has feelings, that we should speak words one to another as He speaks to us, that we should care for the creation as He does. that having a moral nature and being like God, we love as God loves. We care as God cares. We cooperate with him in the world in caring for this, his creation. The third one that he speaks to us and says in verse 28, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Humans are with God. in rejoicing in the humanity that we are, in loving our fellow humans. Humans are with God in being over the creation, in caring for it, rejoicing in it. Some of you little guys have to grow up and be farmers, okay? Some of you have to grow up and love animals and take care of them. Some of you have to grow up and be gardeners and farmers and take care of plants and love green things and things that grow. Because if none of you are farmers, we don't eat. We gotta love the creation. Some of you have to grow up and become National Park Rangers and research wild animals and understand how they're acting in the world and what they're doing. Some of you have to grow up and take care of humans. and tend to one another and love one another. And beloved, some of you have to grow up and become fathers and mothers so that there is a fruitfulness and a multiplication, that God has embedded in humanity this vision that we should be with him in caring for the creation. that we should be with Him in caring for humans, that we should be with Him in making more humans and filling the world with humans. This is how God's designed the world. But let's not lose sight of that one other calling that is woven beneath all this. Some of you have to grow up and remind humans that this is God's world, and that you are here to be with Him. Some of you have to grow up and become pastors and preachers. And tell the farmers, and tell the fathers and the mothers, and tell those who are caring for humanity and caring for creation, don't forget, day to day, in all the work of the world that you are engaged in, This is your Father's world. He has designed it, and He has designed it for you to be with Him in it. There is one last expression of all this that is sweet and beautiful. Do you remember that Jesus, in the last days of being on the earth, turned to that new humanity, that new Adam, those disciples which he had forged as a new creation in his death and in his resurrection. And he said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Now it sounded a little different, because he said, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and over in Acts 1, and you will be my witnesses. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. God has not only set everything I've laid down, this theology of creation, as the foundation stone of how we take care of animals and the world around us, how we do science and how we do math. My son was teasing me about the math titles here. Division, multiplication, next week addition and subtraction. There's something to that actually. My friends, we live in a world where God intends for life to thrive, for life to be abundant. Jesus came into the world and said, I have come to give you life, abundant life. And when Jesus recreated the world, and when Jesus is here among us recreating us as a new creation, It's not a small life. It's not an insignificant life. It's a thriving, teeming, fruitful, abounding life. A life that fills the new heavens and the new earth in Christ. You see, God designed this world for you to be with him. And God sent his son into this world so that you could be with him. Let's embrace that vision of humanity. Let's understand that that's who we are in Christ. Let's live like that. Let's find our place. Let's fill it. God designed this world that you would live in it with him. Find your place and fill it. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this beautiful world that you have made. We thank you for this beautiful word that you have given us. We thank you for your spirit who speaks to us the truths by which we understand who you are and what you have done. We thank you that these things which we have heard are yea and amen. confirmed in Christ that you have designed the world like this, that there would be fruitfulness and much multiplication. Oh God, bless us as a congregation, that we who are made in your image and in Christ are being remade in your image might bear abundant fruit to the praise of your name. We ask this blessing in Jesus' name, amen.