A Beautiful Design (Part 1) - In the Beginning

hi Matt Chandler here pastor of the village Church just want to thank you for streaming this sermon on your device I wanted to just before we get going here just lay before you a deep conviction we have that this video sermon that we've prayed really stirs up your affections for Jesus and shapes you and mold you into the image of the son would just be supplemental to your relationship with the Lord and in no way would replace the church you should be plugged into or the pastor that God has put over your life to Shepherd and care for your soul and so please enjoy the next hour or so of this message we have prayed that God would use it in a profound way in your life blessings be a man be tough be sweet no one likes us Marnie beings don't be such a handle it like a man you should go on a diet play the field be sexy but not too sexy show them who's boss you're a princess you make the money let him take care of you pick yourself up know your place keep your mouth shut the world tells us who we're supposed to be but it keeps changing its mind throughout time throughout cultures we can't decide what makes a man a man what makes a woman a woman the message the plan it keeps changing but what if there was something else what if there was something better something that existed since the beginning something untouched by time something true and perfect well how are you doing well okay I'm gonna make it really really easy genesis chapter 1 verse 1 so if you have your Bibles go ahead and grab them and in fact we will just pretty much stay in that sentence in our time together today I'll read some other things but we'll just kind of camp right there in that one sentence Genesis 1:1 we're beginning today our fall series it'll take us right up until Advent we've entitled that a beautiful design and what we're talking about this fall is really God's good graces in creating us both male and female and and how he's wired us and how we are to function according to how he designed us to work and so that that's where we're headed this fall you should have got a handout when you came in that'll show you everything from what the sermons are to even I think the texts are in there if you are if you're interested in knowing the future we've tried to provide it for you there in your handout so God um for whatever reason in his divine sovereignty has trusted me with three small souls 2 of those souls are female 2 little girls and one of those souls is male little boy and one of the things that we're doing in my house as I understand it from the Word of God as we are raising my son to be a man and we are raising our daughters to be women that's the end goal and so what I'm doing with my son is I'm oftentimes saying things like this this is what men do and I'll show him what men do this is what a man does and and then Lauren and I will learn will partner with me with my son yes is what men do that's what so we're trying to make him a man we don't want him to be a boy who can shave we feel like the world is already filled with those we don't want our son to become one so here's what a man is son here's how a man behaves here's how a man submits to Authority here's how a man sees so we're doing that and we're working hard at it and then we're trying to raise our daughters to become women and I don't and my wife and I we've had Lanka I don't want some bless your little heart daughter I don't want that I want them to be monsters and you know I'm saying like I want them to be intellectual beasts I want them to be brilliant and sharp and deep and I want them to be the type of iron for their husbands that will sharpen their husbands and make their husbands better men than they are before they met my daughters so I put praise praise God that he gave me the woman that he gave me because if she was not ferocious but I'd be half the man that I am but she's godly and ferocious and that has done she has done more to shape and mold and turn me into who is standing before you right now then than anyone else probably in my life so I want that for my daughters I'm asking God to to do that we're trying to raise them that way and and this is our hope to do this but when God gives you children there are things that haven't been on your radar for decades that all a sudden reappear and so after I grew I don't even know what age I was nursery rhymes kind of left and and then through junior high high school cause they don't show up outside of you know Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger kind of perversion of a nursery rhyme you're just not thinking when you have kids all the sudden nursery rhymes show back up and and and but you think differently now because you're older and this was one of my favorites what are little boys made of snips and snails and puppy-dog tails you know what a snip is a snip is like a small eel it's a leech what are little boys like leeches and slugs and puppy-dog tails that's what little boys are made out of little girls what are little girls made out of sugar and spice and everything nice now if you study this like you take this as literature and you study it here's what we know we don't know who wrote it here's where I'm putting all my money not a man I'm putting all my money on a man did not write this and whoever did wrote write this um probably just came out of a pretty devastating relationship all right this is this is when she wrote I'll do it when she wrote this things were not going well between her and her man what our boys made out of leeches and snails and what else would be awful Oh puppy dog tails but not me I'm sugar and spice and everything nice right now here's what's funny about this Nursery Rhyme this Nursery Rhyme is is trying to do some things that we still struggle with and that is correctly defined and and unpack what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman like is it is it binary biology is that all it means to be a man like if I if you have a penis and the primary hormone in your body is testosterone is that what makes you a man or is there a set of behaviors that makes you a man and is it just a vagina in the primary hormone of estrogen flowing through your body that makes you a woman or is there a set of behaviors that accompanies being a woman see these questions although for you might might be really simple to answer I'm telling you by and large in our culture in our day those questions are being answered differently than they ever have before in the history of mankind they're very difficult question to answer right now and and we're not answering them well let me prove my my point this is from a recent article in The New Yorker here's what it says the latest statistics give the overall impression that just like femininity masculinity is increasingly defined by both playing to and against type it's growing a really impressive beard and ordering a kale salad for lunch it's knowing Super Bowl trivia and being an emotionally supportive partner but if this makes it sound like men are joining women and having a less gender bound view of their sense of self it is not that simple according to the JWT research even though millennial men are more than older men okay with using concealer lotion and learning to poach eggs they also say that they're more frustrated with not knowing what it means to be a man Randy Thomas states we've lost our history of what it means to be a man and our history of what it means to be a woman Thomas has says says that activists have worked hard to obliterate that history because they feel that it is sexist so if a man does not know how to teach a little boy what it means to be a man there's a void and in that void it's no wonder that we're coming up with all kinds of ways to identify now what Thomas was addressing specifically there is the growing list of things in that check box of how you're able to define yourself for all of human history it has been male or female and now it is male female other /they and and it can either be and here's the newest one to show up on the list gender fluid now let's talk before we go any farther for many of us much of what we'll cover today will seem absurd but for others of us in the room this will hit on real struggle real-life circumstances and people that we love and so let's be really really careful as we move forward here to guard our Snickers and to guard our chuckles at things that we might feel are but are most definitely not for some in the room absurd at all and I will say this as we launch off into this series if the church must be anything she must be a safe place for the gender-confused and the sexually broken and if she is not safe for that then we do not believe our own message we are all broken all in need of salvation all in need of grace and to take a particular struggle and put it outside the bounds reveals that we don't quite understand what it is that we believe and then we will take other people's sins more serious than we will take our own it's wicked so although some of this might seem absurd to you I promise you it's not to everybody in the room so let's just guard it let me give you an example of this type of confusion gender confusion this gender fluidity when I turn in my notes I had a whole list of examples I mean literally seven or eight examples of this but then I um I listen to a certain podcast every day that's kind of cultural news and notes and and he rolled out one that happened this week and so I scrapped it and just put this one down Mount Holyoke College is a historic traditional all women's college in the Northeast it's a part of a series of schools called the Seven Sisters at one time the Ivy League schools were all-male institutions and so Mount Holyoke was one of seven colleges that was launched for women heavenly influenced by first and second wave feminism which had a ton of positives to them all right that that created a platform and which intellectually brilliant women had a place to learn and grow in their intellect and they rolled out this week earlier this week some new admission standards to show how progressive they are I'm just going to read to you from their document Mount Holyoke College welcomes applications for our undergraduate program from any qualified student who is female or identifies as female as a pioneer in higher education Mount Holyoke remains committed to its historic mission of providing access to excellence for academically talented women regardless of backgrounds the college values each student's development both academically and personally and recognizes that self-identity may change over time now that immediately that immediately creates some questions like what does that mean and so they they know this so they begin to list out what this means so again I'm just going to read to you their document the following academically qualified students can apply for admission consideration biologically born female identifies as a woman biologically born female identifies as a man biologically born female identify zazz others / they biologically born female does not identify as either a woman or a man biologically born male but identifies as a woman biologically born male but identifies as others / they if the other they / includes the female woman identity biologically born with both male and female anatomy but identifies as a woman so that's who can join Mount Holyoke now or try to go to school at Mount Holyoke now so since I run or help run an organization I'm under I understand what happens when you roll out policies and procedures policies and procedures are nice but they have to work right like when you apply them they have to work so there's two questions right of the gate like at this point who can't who can't become a student at Mount Holyoke well that's simple there's only one person that cannot biologically born as a male and identifies as a male that's the only person that cannot and then here's the the second question what what happens if you change your mind like what happened if you roll in identifying as a woman and your sophomore year you start seeing some things that you like can you then change your mind and and be a man and stay well they answer this question if a trans woman decides during her four years as a Mount Holyoke student to change her mind and chooses a male gender identity will she need to draw from the college what about a biologically female student who comes to identify themselves as a male while they're in school will they be removed no once students are admitted the college supports them regardless of their sex or gender identity which is consistent with our current practice now in in this tie and keep in mind this is one example of what I had when I began as dozens of examples of what how this is playing out all over the world and it's not just in colleges and universities it's playing out in high schools it's it's like in a lot of ways though the world's lost its mind around gender and identity now how are we then as Christians who believe the Word of God meant to approach this issue well I'll tell you and I'll tell you why I believe it we are to approach this issue and approach those who struggle in this issue with the type of grace latent compassion that God would have us engage over particularly for this reason it's funny that I'll do this by quoting a non-christian but dr. Paul McHugh let me give you his title because it's way too long for me to remember Paul McHugh is the University Distinguished Service professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University and his research shows the gender identity confusion is actually a psychiatric issue and isn't something that people should just be left to decide on their own here's what he says I'll just quote him I have witnessed a great deal of damage from sex reassignment surgery the children transformed from their male Constitution into female roles suffle suffered prolonged distress and misery as they sensed their natural attitudes now here's here's what he did what he did is Johns Hopkins kind of was the tip of the spear on sexual reassignment surgery so if you're like I'm a woman I was born in a man's body so for me to be satisfied in life I need a woman's body and and they did the surgery on you they would take a man and turn him into a woman or take a woman and turn him physically into a man he they started that in the 70s by the way and so what he did is he went back on all those who were reassigned he did a survey and he did he sat down and looked at it did it fulfill them did it satisfy did it fix what was broken and and what he found the results were devastating in fact he was quoted in USA Today just a couple of weeks ago and he got worked for what he said what he said is his what he what he found out was that almost all of the males who had had gender reassignment surgery now identified themselves as lesbians because they found women attractive and he said on top of this their research at Johns Hopkins which by the way no longer does these surgeries anymore their research had shown that 80% of children who struggle with gender identity confusion outgrow it and if parents in their overzealousness have reassignment surgery performed and by the way the youngest to date is a twelve-year-old in Germany then the prolonged distressed fear and anxiety they create is massively exponentially larger than what they were wrestling with as eight and nine year olds who are confused about their gender identity he goes on to say we have wasted scientific and technical resources and damaged our professional credibility by collaborating with madness rather than trying to study cure and ultimately prevent it now I'll tell you why I like his point I like his point because he's not an elder at a church not a deacon not a Christian and he's saying as button let's just say it if you've got eight words before your title you're smarter than most of the other people you know right I mean listen it's how I can't fit on a card like I don't know how he explains what he is but and I don't know what you know about Johns Hopkins but they're not in the habit of hiring morons all right they're not going where's the weakest psychiatric guy that we can find to lead our research and reassignment Department no he's brilliant and he's saying this is a psychiatric issue and I'll say it again if the church must be anything she must be a safe place for those who struggle for the down-and-out for the mentally broken for the mentally confused she must be a fortress of safety and grace for the weary struggler or we do not understand who Christ is now how do we enter this confusion and think clearly about it well that's why I wanted to look at Genesis 1:1 with you so we'll read this and then I want to start to unpack it Genesis 1:1 it's very like I said it's it's just a quick sentence in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth that's it that's all we'll read today let's pray no I'm gonna untie okay so let's go with just the first phrase in it in the beginning now I want to just stop there this is a difficult little thing here and I'll tell you why as you and and I we are finite beings which means we cannot think of anything outside the parameters of time we are driven by dictated by controlled by time what time are you getting up what time is church start what time are we meeting for lunch what time does it kick off today when are we going to dinner where are we going to meet at what time all right when were you born when did you graduate from high school what year did you graduate from college how old were you and you had kids how old are your children all of this is time in fact you'd be stressed to describe anything without using language that signifies ton this little phrase in the beginning means that there was something before there was time and I have not been able to in four months put together a sentence with English words that will connotates something existing before there was time without using words that kind of take time I was like there's this space before before and and and yet what we see here is there was something before sorry I can't do any better than that there was time and in fact um Ecclesiastes would tell us this is how much time drives us if you don't know your Bible maybe you like the rock band The Byrds but here's what it says in Cleese yesyes three starting in verse 1 for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven a time to be born and a time to die a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted a time to kill and a time to heal a time to break down and a time to build up a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing a time to seek and a time to lose time to keep and a time to cast away a time to tear down and atte our time to tear and a time to sew a time to keep silence and a time to speak a time to love and a time to hate a time for war and a time for peace to everything turn turn turn right there's a time for everything even the question how are you will be answered with time signatures I mean you know right now I'm uh I'm alright you know good I mean it's a good season we're dictated by it driven by it and yet this text says there was something before it and then the next part starts to unpack it anymore in the beginning what God in the beginning God so now we have an eternal creator outside of time and so now we know what that something was before in the beginning and it was God and so God according to the Bible is the only one or only thing the only object which has no beginning because God alone has no beginning therefore everything that exists is grounded in God's finds its origin in God it's being in God it's reality it's found in God he and he alone has no beginning that has no end and then from there we see what this God did in the beginning God created this God is the primary for in everything that exists and what you began seeing here is as God being the primary mover the ultimate creator you get a sense of the immensity of his wealth and so let me show you what I mean by that know what's in my hand nothing perfect great so it's not a trick question sound like no ha ha like a pot of flowers all's I know there's nothing in my hand I don't know magic right so nothing now if I could take this that's in my hand right now and make anything I wanted out of this and as much of anything that I wanted out of this how unbelievably wealthy would I be let me answer that for you wealthy all right because if I can take nothing and make whatever I want out of nothing and make as much as I want out of nothing that I'd have everything everything materially that I could want and and so what we see is that in the beginning God created he created everything that is out of nothing that's how immensely wealthy God is in fact it goes on to not even just celebrate really the wealth of God but it goes on from there in in the beginning God created the heavens now we're looking at his power the expanse of the universe and and so when God creates the heavens when we look at the idea of heavens plural and in the Bible we're looking at the expanse of the universe from men who don't understand the expanse of the universe who are writing the very words of God who does understand the expanse of the universe you track him with what we just did they're like let me give you examples in Psalm 147 verse 4 he says this he determines the number of the stars and he gives to all of them their names now when when David filled with the Holy Spirit is is penning this he is completely unaware of what you and I are aware of he knows nothing of the Hubble telescope he knows nothing of the expanse of the universe he he has no idea of other solar systems or anything like that he just says you're naming all these stars and the way we're trying to name all those stars right now I don't know how well we're doing I mean even the Hubble telescope is stuck on this one little area of space and and one of my favorites Jobe 2614 behold these are but the outskirts of his ways other other translations of this as these these stars the heavens are but the fringes of his garment again it's talking about the the power of God that he created the expanse of the universe and he did it out of nothing so out of nothing the expanse of the universe was born so in the beginning God created the heavens and he created the earth now the earth is a funny one and if you know anything about astrology you might think that what I'm about to say is hopelessly ignorant and arrogant but I'll gladly just step into that space and let you define me that way in the middle of the vastness of the universe God also creates in one of the smaller solar systems this tiny little ball this tiny little rock on which the greatest drama ever to be known in the universe would be played out with the crown jewel of his created order being placed on it man and woman made in His image to rule and reign on this earth that's next week fifty minutes of that next week but but he places us there on this in this small solar system on this insignificant planet I mean if we're honest earth isn't even all that impressive for our own solar system much less our galaxy which is just a smaller galaxy in the expanse of the universe and so maybe you're going how arrogant is it in the expanse of the universe to say that what's going on on this little rock is the point well I will say this about the Word of God that throughout the Scriptures God delights in the small the fragile and the weak and in the expanse of the universe it doesn't get much smaller much more fragile and much weaker than what you see on the planet Earth we just need a few degrees to change here there and our planet no longer exists and now what you have here it and what you have here as a personal creative force personal creative God that creates all things it creates space it creates time he creates mass you have the philosophers the theologians and the scientist dream you have the biggest questions of origin of purpose and of design can now be studied and understood so math science they all work now because this Creator God spoke into being time and mass and designs without those three things all right then you have no ability to do that and so what I want to do in the last part of my message with you is I just kind of want to run through those three things our origins what are we want to talk about that just for a second things would be quick talk about our purpose why are we here and then want to talk about design and and good design so let's just start with this origin what what are we what are we so as quick as I can do it I'll just do it like this we are created all right you you and I are created by a creator we didn't used to be something else and now we're this we were created by a creator which means this is going to sting a little bit we are not the measure of anything maybe this one maybe that's language it's not as helpful as this just to be more direct and straight with you since we have this strong relationship you're not the point I'm not the point we are not the point in the expanse of the universe even though we have a special place in the creative order again that's next week you and I as created be are not the point the creators the point I'll tell you why this rubs us the wrong way we want to be the point I want to be the point I guess got back 12 days from all straight 11 days for all sir I'm coming home I want to be the point man I've been gone this whole time I'm jet-lagged preached like 170 times or something like that I forgot act out once buddy know what I said I just want to come on be the point I want for Lauren I want to be the point for the kids I want to be the points wanna be the point but I'm not the point and so knowing that I'm not the point makes everything work because knowing I'm not the point help me understand that my wife spend with three children by herself for the last 11 days and that'll make people lose their mind and and while I've been gone having a bunch of grown up conversations Laurens been coloring pictures and talking and baby voices so I got to get her out of there is jet-lagged I was jet-lagged as I am this will just all take a nap baby spend time with grown-ups all right and so in in the middle you're not the point we are created and because we are created we are not the measure of it all and then we get into our purpose why are we here so I'm gonna answer this in greater detail in the weeks to come so let me just quickly do this under purpose you and I are not floating aimlessly through a cosmos with no plan or purpose because we have a creator that creator has created us with a purpose in mind and so if you feel kind of lost in it all just know that this sentence and by the way this sentence has been called I was called by Francis Schaeffer the most pregnant sentence ever written that in the beginning God creating the heavens and the earth means that you were created with a purpose now here's what we can also we can extract from this text we can take out our magic marker we can mark off things that we know can't be true all right so let me go through just a couple of those let me show you what we can rule out because we believe that in the beginning God created the heavens near the first thing that we can rule out is dualism dualism cannot be true because we see that God created all things and had and has no equal so let me explain dualism in a way that everyone will be able to understand if you've ever watched those movies about demon-possessed people where where they call in the priests every time the priest comes in don't you know something Bad's about to happen like that dudes going to get jacked up bring in the priests and you're like oh if you don't know it's gonna be pea soup or the turgor turns into a spider and jumps on rips out his jugular you just know that guy screwed right and and so that's dualism the idea that there are these two competing forces against one another and who knows who's going to win well based on the first sentence of the Bible that simply cannot be true there isn't a force that can compete with God on this stage it simply can't be true materialism or the idea not capitalistic materialism we'll get to that one though material is the idea that that all that exists is the material that we see is impossible because God is before and above it polytheism is ruled out because there are no other gods present hedonism and capitalistic materialism are invalid as pleasure must now be evaluated against the person of God to judge its validity pleasure and wealth may not be seen as good and right if they are selfish indulgent or displeasing to the God that created the pleasure and the gains to begin with existentialism the idea that man wills and determines his own reality is ruled out and that the truth is found in the unchanging nature of a creator and not the opinion of the created and wrote here for he who has a beginning and is not from himself cannot rule by his Dominion or govern according to his pleasure what he has not created and then pantheism is ruled out because we see that God isn't everything and everything isn't God if you don't understand pantheism think avatar remember when they took their ponytail and like connected to grass into trees and and they felt they were one with so God is everything and everything is God we know that simply can't be true because God is the creator of everything he is not everything he simply told everything to be now men historically have been drawn to pantheism because there's something in the design of creation even as it isn't broken because of sin that makes us believe that there's something behind it all and so let me give you a couple of maybe better-known pantheist that and i don't know that you know they're pantheist but they're more better they're well known in regards to who they are Mikhail Gorbachev now maybe if you're under 20 no 30 - maybe you don't know who that is for those of you are 40 and older that was our Putin all right and so Gorbachev said this I believe in the cosmos all of us are linked to the cosmos so nature is my god to me nature is sacred trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals being one with nature who knew Gorbachev was such a poet like he writing for a Hallmark right the trees are my god the babbling River Brook right so here's here's some intellectual dishonesty when it comes to most pantheist explanation of worshipping creation it always sounds like a Hallmark card it never sounds like a lion devouring a baby antelope it all has to do with the beauty of nature and rarely will address how horrific aliy violent nature is in nature the old and the young die always the weak are the first to go and but you can say our boy here is just the trees are my tempo well what about the fire ants and the tree Mikael are going to eat your eyeballs out bro you you like that so that's that's ridiculous I apologize and and then here's another one this is Carl Sagan and saying as a brilliant astrophysicist and studied the universe and really I mean he's brilliant here's one of his quotes a religion old or new that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and all hardly tapped by the conventional faiths and sooner or later such a religion will emerge now Sangin he has either purposely suppressed what is true about Christianity or he was ignorant of it and and so here's where I'll agree with my board Carl here right here here I'll agree with him 1 the universe is magnificent like huh you are I'll click on that link in a second of some pops almost 30 images from the Hubble telescope ok Clank I'm on I love that stuff like that the the grandeur of the universe is unbelievable and so I agree with Carl that it should produce in us a type of reverence and all but here's where I think he misses the point what Sagan fails to realize is that reverence and all are exponentially magnified if there is a creator behind and i'll quote 'm the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science what Sagan either purposefully suppressed or refused to admit is that as magnificent as the universe is it is exponentially more magnificent that there's something behind it that told it to be and so I I love the ocean like the real ocean and and I wish we all lived closer to one right and and I mean like a real and like not the goal I'm not saying let's move to Galveston that's not what I said but if we could be by a real ocean and hear its roars and being impressed impressed by its waters and feel the fear that this thing could sweep me out and be done with me without breaking a sweat that magnificence that all that we would feel that would just be surface level elementary reverence but the fact that someone told that to be that's exponential reverence the vastness of the universe the sheer size of it that if you'll give your mind over to meditate upon it will create a little fear in you as will feel smaller than we like to feel that's magnificent but if there's something behind that magnificence that told that magnificence to be simply because he was able to tell it to be that's a reverence and all that goes well beyond what Carl was talking about I actually when I read that I felt sorry for him like he wanted so badly for there to be something that created reverence and awe in him it wasn't religion and he missed out as he looked at the Stars the one who was behind the Stars it's sad really it's sad and then again pantheism tends to be where we go or everything's a god let's just so the wind through the leaves and that rustle and I just want to be on a hammock with God and that like that kind of hallmark religion the reason we're drawn to it is because we can see good design we can see that there's a synergy to the universe that things are working together and so that brings us to design now that we know ok our origin we have a creator our purpose since we have a creator he has a purpose for us here the things that we can rule out because we know we have a creator and now let's talk about design quickly CS Lewis and mere christianity talked about the machine or how things work and what he was talking about is morality but i think you can apply it to really all of life let me just quote him here there is a story about a schoolboy who has asked what he thought god was like he replied that as far as he could make out god was the sort of person who was always snooping around to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying to stop it and I am afraid that is the sort of idea that the word morality raises in a good many people's minds something that interferes something that stops you from having a good time in reality though moral rules are directions for running the human machine every moral rule is there to prevent a breakdown or a strain or a friction in the running of that machine that is why these rules at first seem to be constantly interfering with our natural inclinations when you're being taught how to use any machine the instructor keeps on saying no don't do it like that because of course there are all sorts of things that look alright and seem to you the natural way of treating the machine but do not really work so what Louis is applying to morality I'll apply to the universe there is a way that we have been designed to work there is a good right beautiful designed implemented by the creator of all things and when we use that machinery wrong bad things happen all right and here's how the Bible would say what Louis just said there's a way that seems right to man and in the end it leads to death that's a terrifying verse there's a way that seems right to us like as I look at this situation this seems right and the Bible saying no no I'm right your way leads to death and then in the same way a life lived within the design flourishes Psalm 16:11 you make known to me the path of life in your presence there's fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore yes please so there's a difference between existing and living you know that right so you can be breathing air and simply existing and what the Bible saying here is that God this creator in the beginning God created this God makes known to us the path of life you want to know what man who it is here's the path of life you want to know what woman it is here's the past of life you want to know about money here's the path of life sex here's the path of life children here's the path of life oh and by the way while we're walking down this path I've got a pleasures forevermore in my right hand in case you get hungry need something snack all and while we walk down the path of life yeah yes please and then even at the coming of Christ you see the same type of imagery and language rolled out by Jesus in John 10:10 the thief comes only to kill steal and to destroy but I have come you might have life and have it most abundantly yeah there is a personal infant infinite eternal just loving holy God who designed this universe and everything in it to reflect his glory his greatness and beauty his power wisdom justice and mercy he has no beginning he is absolute reality he depends on nothing and he and he alone can rightly and justly say this is what little boys are made out of and this is what little girls are made out of and he has every right to do that as the Creator and because James 1:7 reminds us that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow do to change God doesn't change he's the creator and the designer and there is no shadow of turning in thee so why is that good news for you and for me specifically on the topic of manhood and womanhood if you want to get in a fight with me here's a sure way to do it as you're giving me directions to a place say something like when you stop at the light head east I'll say do I look like Davy Crockett am i wearing a raccoon hat no I'm I'm not so do I take a left or do I take a right right I'm not what am I looking for constellations just which way do I turn now before we had our phones or our in - computers or the maps that we would unfold and then by the grace of God maybe get back to its original folding for we just threw it in the backseat all right men and women navigated by finding fixed points and deciding directions based off of fixed points and so namely that was polar ice or the North Star it appeared to them to not move and so since they could spot it in the same spot they were able then to determine direction based on a fixed point if there's not a fixed point there's no way to know where you're actually going where when it comes to what we're talking about this fall or really at any point where culture and the Bible collide our postures were keeping our eyes on the North Star he doesn't change there's no variation in him and progress is a strange word to use for what we see unpacking in our world today seems as violent as ever to me seems as broken as ever for me got frickin old time diseases just starting to wrap it to the world all over again progress what a joke no one keep my eyes on the North Star there's no variation in him and so when it comes to again you guys have got to figure this out clappers like two of your life but it's like who was that or you can tell we're a primarily Anglo Southern maps are like what no he's talking we're trying to hear right anyway anyway so now it's too late now don't it's too late second time the service so that's where we're fixing our eyes that's where our hope is and I think you'll find as we walk through this series I think there'll be times where the Word of God is going to grade on us a little bit God's going to call men to be more than they want to be he's gonna call women into some things that they aren't going to like this is what we're both going to find we will both need to lean heavily into the grace of God because we will find that by the Holy Spirit of God God is calling us into spaces that feel awkward and uncomfortable and spaces that we would rather than and yet it's exactly in those spaces that our confidence in God should soar for what kind of God would he be if he only said things to you that you liked and agreed with he'd be no God at all you would be your God in the same way that no loving parent always just says yes to whatever their children wants you create sociopathic little monsters if you do that and so let the Lord lean on you and let's marvel the rest of the fall at the beautiful design of God let's pray father thank you for these men and women I thank you that we can just sit under a sentence and let it inform and shape us allow it to grow our confidence in you and so I thank you that before anything was you were and that you spoke into being all that is and I do pray that we wouldn't fall prey to what Carl Sagan fell prey to we would fall prey to what Gorbachev fell prey to father we would marvel at you that's behind it all father that we would see and understand that you and how you've revealed yourself to us in your word would be our North Star and that we would navigate based on it and we would trust that you're leading us home over mountains and through valleys leaving this home we love you pray for those who struggle with some of the things we've talked about today maybe even in this room or in one of our other rooms where there is some gender identity confusion parents who maybe have children who are walking through this father I pray that the word this morning would instill in them hope may you continue to make this church a safe place for the confused the broken the longing and the hopeful and it's for your beautiful name I pray amen

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 76,340

Rating: 4.871707 out of 5

Keywords: Matt Chandler, The Village Church, A Beautiful Design, Creation

Id: z179Ml3tPZs

Length: 49min 32sec (2972 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 09 2014