Made in God's Image / DR. A.R. Bernard

so I realized that the manual wasn't done wrote a book and really outlined a Christian ethic and Christianity has always lived from its inception in a tension between separation and assimilation asking the question how far do we associate with in the society before we compromise our Christian convictions how how much do we blend into society without losing our Christian identity if you ever read the book of first Corinthians and it talks about Paul addressing issues of meat offered to idols ever read that the problem was that Christianity had had exploded and people of wealth as well as individuals who were not so wealthy even poor were grabbing hold of the faith and those who were wealthy and within their own businesses and positions of power and influence within the Empire the Roman Empire were challenged because how do we now continue to function in the Empire knowing that we still we have to now live the Christian difference so most of the dining halls were located in the temples the greco-roman culture was a very religious culture and they had many temples to different gods so the dining halls were in located mostly in the temples so if a Christian business person had to have a business meeting to discuss some business like we do today we go to a restaurant and we do deals are we gonna golf course and do the deals but they had to now know is it okay for me as a Christian to go into this dining hall which is located in a temple that worships a God other than my Jesus and if I say no will it affect a business deal that could be very lucrative and and and advance my business and of course produce finances to support the kingdom of God and this is what they were challenged with and if I did go and sit in the temple in that dining hall all right chances are that the food that was being served was offered to idols so they were concern should they eat it can they eat it and the Apostle Paul person first established the fact that idols are nothing to us we know that they are of no value and really have no power because we know the power lies with the one true God so the Apostle Paul simply said to them if if you don't know that it is food offered to idle and you eat it there is no condemnation because it means nothing he said but if they tell you that it's food offered to idle then you have a responsibility not to eat it because now you are informed and this was a kind of thing that they had to deal with in the beginning of Christianity there was really no need for a social ethic there was no really it was really no need for an understanding of how to relate to culture how to relate to society because they expected Jesus to return quite immediately all right they did not expect life to go further as long as it has it's been 2,000 years so in their mind the only thing we need to know is how to get people saved how to get the Word of God out how to deal with the Christians bring them together worship those that's where their head was at but as time went on they realized no we're living in the real world we're living in the Empire we're living in a society with values that are incongruent with our values with traditions and religions that that we don't subscribe to so now we have to find out how should we now live out our Christianity in that world and it's interesting because these questions are seeing are the similar questions that are being asked today we ask the same questions in a world that's quickly changing in America is that was founded on Christian principles and Christian ideas is now changing and and and and we're under the threat of being a post Christian world how do we live out our faith our Christianity still have to do business go to school and interact at very very important so I want to leave my grandchildren something to hold on to their faith and still navigate successfully within life and culture culture is essentially from a sociological perspective the integrated system of beliefs traditions customs ideas values and technologies that constitute the life of people in simple form culture is man's idea of how society should be organized and what are the best ways to live in it and we disagree about how it should be organized we disagree about what the best ways are to live in it essentially we are can we talk ok good I was gonna talk anyway but it's just nice to get your your cooperation essentially we are religious beings because God has place in the human heart a desire for him the desire for God is stamped on every human heart Ecclesiastes 3:11 puts it so beautifully that he has planted eternity in the hearts of men amplified version 2015 expounds on that and says a divine sense of purpose an awareness of something greater than himself and how true that is the reason we have so many religions in this world is because of that desire for God and without a revelation of the one true God we will construct our own gods to satisfy that emptiness that need that desire or God so religion essentially is man's attempt to codify into ritual and practice that desire for God and the scripture tells us that from the Tower of Babel when God brought the confusion of tongues he allowed nations to go their own way and right after that incident in the Tower of Babel he calls Abraham and then through Abraham promises to establish his own nation that will have a set of values and a revelation of himself while the other nations would go their own way and develop socially politically religiously morally in every other way knowing and looking out into the future that one day he would bring a true revelation of himself in the person of Jesus Christ and the message of that true revelation would be taken out into all the world the gospel message will be preached and then he will bring history to a close I just gave you a panoramic view of the Bible but that's essentially how this is all playing out so a social ethic is critical because it teaches us how to relate to society and one of the first principles in that social ethic is one of the things that I want to share with you and even tackle today so I figured I'll start with Genesis I figured everybody's gotten that far in the Bible chapter 1 verse 26 it says and God said let us make man humanity humankind in our image in in our likeness it continues to say so God made man in His image and in his likeness male and female created he them so the image of God was very important with respect to our relationship with God because we had to be designed in such a way that we could have fellowship with God and that we had the capacity to carry out the mandate to be fruitful multiply have dominion on the earth so the question is what does the image of God mean how do we understand that as it relates to God to ourselves and to each other and it's a very very important question when God formed man from the dust of the earth he then breathed into man the breath of life and the breath was essentially the kuna communicable attributes of God those attributes that God wanted to share with his image humanity we would not be all-knowing as God is all-knowing but we would have the capacity to reason to think to process information to have a viewpoint of perspective to reach judgments to have understanding to come to conclusions so that begins a list of certain attributes that we carry as human beings reflecting the image of God the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 1 verse 20 that the invisible things of creation actually teach us declare that there is a God even his nature his invisible attributes are declared so creation bears witness to a create or the Apostle Paul continues to say that therefore humanity is without excuse because creation testifies be a witness to a god to the existence of God and the fact that he created all of this so the only way that man not no that is to willfully suppress that knowledge and reject it and Paul said that's exactly what humans did they willfully rejected suppress the truth the knowledge of God exchange the truth for a lie and did not want to retain the knowledge of God amongst them so we have society the way it is so as we look at creation the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God the firmament shows his handiwork gay on today utter speech night shows knowledge so all of creation is continually speaking to humanity about God the fact that his creator and his nature the Apostle Paul in making that statement inspires us to look at creation in terms of its order and created beings one of the five philosophical reasons for God and let me say to you that faith and reason are not opposed to each other because faith is a reasonable trust it is a reasoned trust that's why we have scripture and promises the promises give us a reason to trust God we don't trust God blindly we trust God for a reason amen I say that because society tries to bifurcate it make this separation between our faith and the secular world but how can you separate God from his creation he created all of this all things come from God and flow back to God so when we look at creation we see something called gradation levels of life and attributes that are common to each level of life there is plant life and the plant life have and share certain attributes that are among plants then there's animal life a step above we know that there's a higher key that gets higher in knowledge intelligence and understanding and function and attributes so amongst animals they share a certain set of attributes even though animals differ right they still share a certain set of attributes then above animal is human life and humans as we humans we share a certain set of attributes and then above according to biblical revelation above anima a human is age angelic life the spirit realm and they share a set of attributes and above all ultimately there is God Yahweh Jehovah who has also a certain set of attributes and those attributes shared within the community of the Trinity so there are levels and even though some levels may share certain attributes all right with another level like they discovered now that animals can actually reason they can actually engage in cognitive thought at one time they said no animals can only associate things but animals are lot smarter than we think just like children are a lot smarter than we think amen to that all right but just because an animal may be able to engage in cognitive behavior and reasoning doesn't mean that it's human there's still a boundary of separation between each level this strictly there is still a distinction between each level amen so when God created human beings he gave them certain attributes to be shared amongst human beings and the tendency is as we think about the image of God we think primarily of those attributes let's talk about those attributes a little bit the first one I gave you already is the power of reason we have the power to reason so by nature we are religious beings right we have a desire for God we also have a moral awareness we are aware that there's good and evil right and wrong moral and immoral the Apostle Paul put it this way in Romans chapter 2 verse 15 even when the Gentiles who don't have the law do the things written in the law they show that there is a universal law written on their hearts so universally all human beings have the sense of right and wrong now that is facilitated through our conscience our conscience judges our thoughts our actions our attitudes right our words our motives but that conscience needs to be informed by a moral standard so the more inform that conscience is by a moral standard the better equipped that conscience is to make the right judgments if you have an uninformed conscience then you can actually make wrong judgments think that evil is good and good is evil especially if you're being told these things it can throw you off amen that's why the church is so important to society because the church brings a moral standard we are salt got it we are salt and light and salt was never used to convert the meat but to preserve the integrity of the meat so as salt in society we're not going to convert all of humanity but we are here also to maintain the moral integrity of society so the church removed creates a problem because then there's no moral standard amen very very important folks so we have this immoral rareness so we're religious by nature we are also political by nature yeah we're political by nature why I'm glad you asked because you have an opinion and the moment you have an opinion it's politics think about it we have an opinion about everything the Bible says not only do we have an opinion but we believe our opinion is right that's even more politics the Bible says that every man seems wise in his own eyes amen so not only do we have an opinion we have we believe that our opinion is the right opinion so we argue or we then gather other people who agree with our opinion and we form a political party come on what a Republicans Democrats independents left right center they are people with opinions that's what it is and we are in conflict because we have differences of opinion and that's why we have to work through those differences and form a plate and find a place of compromise not only do we have political opinions that gather us we have what are called special interest groups and special interest groups are a gathering of opinions about their special interests and society continues in that way so we argue back and forth until we can compromise and find common ground or political by nature we also have the power of Reason which leads to those opinions those perspectives those viewpoints those ideas those points of view right we also have moral reasoning which is a conscience as to tell us what we believe or think or feel is what is right and what is wrong in it interesting that we are wired to talk about religion and politics and those are the two things we say don't talk about because when you do it gets heated because people have a different idea but we've been designed by God in that way politics is power who has it how'd they get it how they're using it should they keep it and we go through it back and forth we have a power of reason so in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18 what does God say to his people who are wandering off from him he says come let us reason together when you're Christian Romans 12:2 is activated it says you'll be transformed by the renewing of your mind look folks when you come to church you don't check your brain at the door you come in here and you think and you learn how to think as a Christian because the quality of your thinking determines the quality of your life if you have poor thinking you will have a poor life come on then the true yeah so you come in to develop the way you think you want a reason spiritually and think within the context of Scripture and better yourself in your ability to reason second thing attribute that we have is creativity creativity you know we are most creative we are most like God when we are creative you have creative ability in your words your thoughts your talents your skills your your abilities all of those things you have creativity the power to create with your words and your actions the ability to imagine new things the ability to take all things and renew it make it no that's why I laugh at Millennials when you know they'll put on clothes and they'll they'll think they're clear cool and it's noon they'll call it tie-dye hey let me tell you where it came from my generation that's right we would do a Thai dog you come out with platform shoes you think you got something no we have platform shoes all the new stuff that you think is new you stole it from us plain and simple the Bible says there's nothing new Under the Sun right everything recycles and fashion you got to be careful with because fashion is simply the shifting mood of society and the moon is always shifting we have the attribute of speech the ability to not only think and reason have a perspective but to communicate those opinions those ideas those feelings those emotions we can communicate them to the ability to express our thoughts and our perceptions we have something called self-awareness we are aware that we are a unique person different from everyone else we have an individual identity and personality self-awareness and that's why it's important that we resolve that identity crisis all right because the world suffers from identity dysphoria the world suffers from the identity crisis that is common to every human being so we're busy trying to be something other than discovering who we really are and I will tell you you will not resolve your identity crisis until you resolve it in relationship to God through Christ in the image of God and we're going to understand why that foundation is so important people are trying to find themselves and you have all of these images being thrown at you right thrown at you and telling you you should be like this you should wear that you should do this you should talk like this and it goes on and on and on that's why our young people are in a world that's information rich and wisdom poor and wisdom comes from God if you ever read the book come on where does wisdom come from it comes from God absolutely so we have all this information and still lack wisdom and wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge and understanding skillfully so that you can have a fruitful productive and abundant life I think that's the name of the church isn't it we also have self-determination and self-determination simply means the gift of free will we have the power to choose our destiny Deuteronomy 30:19 God says I call heaven and earth to record this day that I lay before you blessing and cursing life and death and he says choose life that you and your seed might live see choices have generational consequence that's why your choices are so important but you have the power to choose too often we blame God for things that we chose I think I would say that one more time too often we blame God for the things that we chose turn your neighbor say he's talking to you it's all over your face we have something called true self transcendence self transcendence in other words just like God transcends time and space we too with our minds can transcend time and space we can with our mind revisit the future I'm sorry revisit the past we can get to the future yet we with our minds can revisit the past right and I'll tell you who's really best at revisiting the past women [Laughter] God designed you in a way that I'm amazed at because you can go back into the past as though it was yesterday and recall details that we men don't have the advantage or orientation to recall we can capture the headlines but you capture the whole article I learned that from my wife it's amazing at all and how women connect with the past all they have to do is remember how they felt when it happened and then all the information comes but that's another Sunday we'll talk about what that means but with our minds we can revisit the past and with our minds we can imagine the future we can travel into the future amen you are sitting in what was the future 30 years ago when Pastor John and Lisa started imagining what could be all right you are now sitting in it but it began in another time and space in their minds and then it came to fruition over time and diligence and commitment and hard work and faith and trust in God amen so you can imagine your future what it could be like you can leave here and now and with your mind travel so we have travel self-transcendence we also have the power the attribute of self reflection we can reflect on our words our thoughts our motives and I'll tell you this is a spiritual discipline that you should put in place you should reflect at the end of the day so that you can adjust what needs to be is just so tomorrow can be a better day amen self reflection is facilitated by conscious we don't have the time to dig into each one of these but we can unpack each one of these let me move forward you also have morality as I said earlier a an awareness of right and wrong ethical behavior moral excellence you also have as you as human beings in the image of God affections that's right desires feelings emotions consciousness of those emotions and passions and desires we are also I'll give you just one more we are also gregarious we are social beings how many know that God is social father son Holy Spirit that's a community that's exactly right see that's what's so special about Christianity and and and the whole idea of the Trinity is what enables us to believe in a God of love because love is not actuated without an object of affection so the Father loves the Son and the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit and the son love the father and each other and within that community this perfect love so when you have religions that have one God but don't have that Godhead in tri-unity how can that one God know and understand this thing called mouth okay something Christianity is so tight I'm telling you it is brilliant there is no other religion that can match our belief system you better believe that folks amen that's why I'm a Christian thank so these are attributes that we share but there's a bigger question each of these attributes are developed over time so essentially they are capacities they are potentials that exists in us as human beings but quite often for various reasons these potentials these capacities are not actualized they're not experienced that's an important idea that they're not actualized in fact let me go back a little bit and say that these things develop over time so if this list which is partial represents the image of God and these things develop over time the question is at what stage in their development do we become the image of God is the image of God something we become over time as these things develop or is the image of God something else it's important hey because the baby in the womb has the capacity for these things but it's not developed is that baby in the womb therefore potentially famous of God or is that baby the image of God you see the answer to this question is critical because it determines how we treat life it determines what we consider to be life who we consider to be life who is worth dignity and value as life very important we have a radio program that comes on WABC radio on Sunday mornings from 8:00 to 9:00 it's called the Rev and the rabbi I'm the Rev and a dear friend of mine for 30 years rabbi Josefa tastic he is the rabbi and we talk about social political issues but through the lens of our faith and when our dear governor decided to push some laws on abortion we got into the conversation and sometimes we disagree and we enjoy disagreeing with each other and then go out to dinner isn't it important in our society that we can do that unfortunately we take sides and say it is nothing wrong to have a difference of opinion but it should not divide us as human beings so we talked about this and what I discovered in Jewish culture and Jewish belief system the child in the womb is a and this is what they call it a potential life so if it's a potential life do we treat it with the same Worth and dignity as a life so when that child is born then it becomes considered in Jewish culture a life but you see God told Jeremiah before I formed you in your mother's womb I knew you not only did I know you not only did you have identity Jeremiah you had purpose I not only knew you but I called you the image of God is secondarily attributes but it's primarily first and foremost a status conferred on every human being by God from the moment of conception to the moment of death I would try that one more time the image of God does contain these attributes which are wonderful hallelujah but that's not what gives us God's image God's image is a status a rank in the hierarchy of creation David put it this way for you have made us our little lower than the Angels so our status and rank is a little lower than angels and we share the same attributes as all human beings which means that the image of God does not begin when these things develop our society chooses to recognize the image of God begins from the moment of conception God confers status on that come on God confirmed status on that foetus that it has the image of God stamped on it if these things are never given the time to develop that child still bears the image of God therefore the child is worthy of dignity value respect and honor because of the image of God some you understand what I'm talking about you see in human society we judge human Worth by how much money you have how educated you are the color of your skin your ethnicity what neighborhood you come from what family name you have we have all of these arbitrary measures to determine a person's value and God says no before you even have a chance to accumulate wealth to go to Harvard oh come on are you with me before you have a chance to develop your creativity and your reasoning he has conferred upon you a status that no one can take away from you and you carry that status from the moment of conception to the day you become old and I and all in between you are worthy of honor and respect you have value because you carry the image of God hallelujah [Applause] it transcends color of your skin it transcends culture it transcends ethnicity it transcends money and power and status and position in humanity Oh God says this life is sacred because it bears my image that if we would embrace that as a society that it would impact our laws our policies our governmental structure the systems in our society Oh hallelujah it would impact all of this and we would not see the disparities that we see in our society and our society would not be as deeply divided as it is because we're measuring each other's value based upon our ideology and our politics and on our money and our power and our position when God says no every human being is worth respect and honor and dignity because every human being bears my image hallelujah see this is a Christian social ethic we believe now think about this if every human being has that image and we believe that they do right and deserve that respect the life and dignity of the human person lies in the image of God then that means that every human person because of that image also deserves a quality of life that is consistent with that dignity that purpose that value that worth that comes to them is conferred upon them by the image of God we should not be poor we should not be destitute how many I said what I'm talking about we should not have the disparities of poverty and and all the challenges that we have if we understood that not only do we carry that image but our quality of life should reflect that image God created Adam and Eve in His image and then he put them in a quality of life called the Garden of Eden i'ma try that one more time the Garden of Eden was a quality of life that reflected what God believed his human person should have an experience and when we are experiencing anything less than that all right we are compromising God's image in us let me tell you something else it's not only what other people think of you in terms of the image of God it also means what you think of yourself because if you're suffering from low self esteem low sense of self-worth then you are not paying attention because God has conferred a status on you that immediately levels our playing field between you and every other human being and whatever you do from there on is added value but you're value begins hallelujah your value begins with the image of God that you carry and that you bear sooner we get this sooner we'll see changes in our society in my book lessons for my grandchildren the Christian social ethic outline ten principles and this is the first one the life and dignity of the human person that lies in the image of God stamped on every human being I hope you got something out of this today come on give God a good hand clap often hallelujah come on let's all stand can I pray over you listen child of God you leave here knowing who you are and do not accept anything less than that don't let the devil mess with your mind because he's tricky he's tricky he said to Eve God knows that in the day you eat you'll be like him but wasn't she already like him so he tries to convince you that you are less than what God has declared you to be and then you'll try to make up that deficiency with things that actually take away the image detract from the image lower the image don't you ever speak another word that's negative about who God has created you to be and the image of himself that he stamped on you [Applause] he said look at that coin whose image is stamped on that coin said Caesar and give Caesar what is his but also give to God what is his and without him saying it what was he saying just like Caesars image is stamped on their currency God's image is stamped on every human being and that's your currency that's your value that's your self-esteem that's your self-worth and everything you do after that is built upon that and you have a responsibility to add to that value but God started you out by giving you value I don't care what your circumstances situation has been I was born into this world out of wedlock my father rejected my mother and I and I never knew him grew up without him but he didn't take that value from me I still am Who I am today achieve what I've achieved today but come on how many know what I'm talking about it doesn't matter how you're born in how you come out it matters how you leave let's pray father I thank you for every heart and mind that open themselves to the wisdom and instruction of your word today what an amazing thing to know that every one of us you have conferred a special status to we are your children called by your name we bear your image and in that image is our dignity our value our worth to ourselves and to this world so father let this word be indelibly marked on the hearts and minds of your people and let them rejoice and then live it out with victory in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus amen and amen I love you abundant life god bless you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what a word what a word what a word so if we're all in the image of God regardless of our exterior situations regardless of all those attributes regardless of how we look where we come from how much we make how we vote then how do we treat our neighbor those who disagree with us we treat them like image bears even those that don't know Jesus still bear the image of God love your neighbor as yourself this word is a solution that is a church as the body of Christ we need to bear in our interactions with one another and with the world around us praise God what a great word thank you Father so good thank you for being with us I want to thank those that are with us online god bless you I want to release you with a blessing just lift up your hands in the name of Jesus may the Lord bless you and keep you may he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you may lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace and may something great happen in your lives this week in Jesus mighty name amen and amen god bless you have an awesome week [Music]

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Keywords: Family, Church, Syracuse, Upstate New York, Hope, Inspire, Resources, Life, Joy, Peace, Sermons, Sunday, Abundant Life, Syracuse Church, John Carter, Empower, Victory, Faith, self image, self respect, god's image, church sermons, church 2019, dr ar bernard, christian cultural center, steven furtick, elevation church, mike todd, transformation church, pastor john carter, abundant life church, self, selfless, respect, meditate, created, purposeful, politics, racism, race, gender, equality

Id: wV78JQ3qzM0

Length: 46min 53sec (2813 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 29 2019