All right, well, hey guys, welcome again to all of our campuses and happy new year. And I don't know about you guys, I was just incredibly moved by the song that we just sang, All Glory Be to Christ. Can we give God some praise? It's a brand new year. We're gonna live this life for His glory this year.
In every phase of the game, and I don't know, man. I just really, uh, really, really, you know, enjoyed that, but also was moved by it. Hey, I want to do something real quick before we get into the sermon for today, and that is I want to invite you to a launch party that is coming up January 22nd for the book that we have coming out called Chosen. I'm saying I'm using my language there pretty intentionally. It's we, honestly, you guys know that the story of our chosen ministry at Mercy Hill has really been birthed out of this church.
God has put a burden on us. 2020, we said, Hey, we're going to try to see 200 adoptions by 2025, adoptions and foster families. And by God's grace, we hit that goal. This year, we're resetting that. And January 22nd is a cool night because it's both the night that we're launching our new sermon series that will carry us.
You know, we're doing a couple weeks here, but we always do eight or 10-week series. It'll carry us through the spring. It's called Chosen. We're going to reset the theology and our goals around our chosen ministry, but it's also the night. That we're having a launch party for the book that's coming out.
Honestly, Anna and I would love to invite our entire church to that launch party on that Thursday night. I want you to think vision night vibes. All right, so cool stuff in the lobby, just and it's going to be, man, just service, and then we're going to go out and kind of celebrate, and then that'll be it. But I would love to invite you guys out to that. Our vision for this book is that what has happening at Mercy Hill will spill over and happen in many, many other churches.
I mean, if we can, you know, if it was, you know, beyond what I can ask or imagine, it would be thousands of churches and tens of thousands of people that are catalyzed for Christian adoption. And so, man, I pray that you guys will, you know, get behind that, jump on it. Man, what's happening here? We want to see happen in a lot of other places. And so, anyway, the 22nd is going to be a night to kind of celebrate that and kick some of that off.
So, I wanted to invite you to that. All right. We're going to be in Genesis chapter one today. Genesis chapter one, verses 26 through 28 is going to be our text. But let me just spend a minute here kind of framing up this idea of fortify the family before we get.
Get into this next three weeks of talking about sort of the why, right? Here's the thing: Satan wants to break families down. God wants to build families up. Family is God's idea. Satan hates it.
Do you know why? Because most people in life that come to the king's table get there through the kitchen table. They get there because the family has transferred faith from parents to children.
Now, we love to see when adults get saved. Man, we love to see when college students and adults end up coming to Christ. We send missionaries all over the world to do that. It's an awesome thing. But statistically, most people that become a Christian do so at their kitchen table, right?
Their parents are transferring that faith and then they end up buying into it. They become believers. If that's true, then strategically, I would imagine that Satan hates nothing more than a Christian family. If it is the greatest place of faith transfer, then that's where he wants to bring the war machine, right? And what we're saying this year is: hey, we don't know what is coming, but we know the environment that we live in right now.
Man, the environment that we live in right now culturally is so against the family unit. Man, it doesn't want men to be men, doesn't want women to be women, doesn't want kids to be in submission and respectful and led. I mean, there's so much that is wrong that we want to take a stand and say, hey, we want to see the family fortified. It is God's idea. God can be glorified by the way that we do family, all right?
We want to see children who are following their parents instead of parents who are following their children. We want to see husbands that are leading sacrificially in such a way that they are saying to their wives, everything that God has made me to be, and a provider and a protector, I am pouring out upon you. My eyes are for no one else. It is for you, and I sacrifice and I lay my life down. And we want to see wives, in response to that type of sacrificial leadership, say, I will follow you.
My eyes are only for you. I will not be wooed by another. And in that picture, we will reflect something of God's glory when it comes to Jesus and the church, husband and wife. Listen, this is what we're trying to do this year: fortify the family. And so, what we want to do is we just want to take a couple weeks right at the front end, and we want to say, hey guys, listen, man, let's get the why.
We will not fight for family in the way that we need to. If we do not value it in the way that God intends for us to. And the way that I wanna show you the value of it is, here's what I wanna say: you were created for family. There is something in the image of God. Family is not something we do, family is something we are.
It is something that is baked into who we are.
Now, you might say, listen, I'm single. I plan on being single forever. That's fine. The New Testament actually speaks positively about that, okay? But that doesn't take away the family image of God in you.
That means you express it in other ways with the family of God. But we are created for a relationship, and we're gonna see that in Genesis 1 today. Here's the big idea: God designed us to live within a family for our good and His glory. We will not do what we need to do. In an environment that is so against family, if we don't value it the way that God values it, and we're gonna look at how we should value it today in terms of it being baked into our very DNA, our very image of God in us is something about community and relationships.
Guys, listen, last thing, and then we're gonna dive into Genesis 1. I don't know what's going on in your family right now, I have no idea. All right, you guys might be absolutely crushing it. Man, the kids are being discipled. The parents are just in love with one another and growing that relationship.
It ain't perfect. Nobody is, but it's great and it's growing. Great, okay? I pray that that's the majority of people in our church. And I hope it is.
And if it is, then you know what we need to do? You need to say, hey, but 2026 is a new year, man. Let's go to a new height.
Okay, let's take it that we can always grow.
So, if that's where you're at, we can always grow. Let's get serious about this. But others of us. You might be saying like, man, you have no idea the brokenness in our family.
Some of you are like, man, my family looks like an episode of Yellowstone, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and a Sad Country song all mixed up. into one. And some of you might say, and I'm the problem. Maybe you're like, I'm the problem.
Okay. I don't, I don't know. It could be great. It could be in shambles.
Some of you are hanging on by a thread.
Some of you are already planning. how the exit is going to happen. You know, to get out. And I'm telling you, that's just real talk, all right? Here's what we need to do.
In either case, can we can what? How do we end the year last year? God can rebuild what looks irreparably broken, right? Like we need to ask the Lord to redeem those things. We will not fight for it, though, if we don't value it, right?
The value comes from the very stamp of the image of God in us.
So here's what we're gonna do: we're gonna pick this thing apart, starting in Genesis 1:26. Then God said, Let us make man in our image. You can underline us in our. after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish.
You see it? Birds, livestock, everything that creeps on the earth. This sermon is not about dominion. I would love to talk about dominion. I love that idea.
The idea of dominion is just that you and I are vice regents of God. He put us on earth to subdue. Subdue is not a bad word. Subdue means put into control, have dominion over, bring out the best in. That's what we're supposed to do with this earth.
And relationships with each other. I can't go all the way into that, but that's part of our purpose. Dominion. Listen, verse 27.
So God created man in his own image and the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them.
Now, I just want to pick apart this passage and kind of build a case for you and I to value relationships generally with the church, community group, things like that, very specifically with our wives and husbands or future wives and husbands.
Some of you are like, man, I'm single. This has nothing to do with me. If you're single, this is more important for you than anybody else.
Okay? Because what I mean by that is you have the opportunity to prepare. For what is coming, if you end up being married one day, all right?
So, so here, so let's just kind of walk through this. The first thing that I notice in verse 26 is: then God said, Let us make man in our image. After our likeness now What's funny about that right is that Christian even if you don't know a lot about Christianity Somebody in our campuses right now is like man, I'm new to this But one thing I know is that Christianity is supposed to be a monotheistic religion right? I don't know a lot, but all the Abrahamic religions seem like they are fiercely Monotheistic, right? There's only one God, but then right here baked in chapter one of the whole book and what does it say let us make man in our image after our likeness.
Now, there are some people that interpret this and they say, well, apparently God is maybe in a host of angels and he's holding court. And he's got a bunch of people around. Let us do this, let us do that. And I think that's skirting the issue, man. What actually is going on here, in my opinion, is what we see fleshed out in the rest of the scripture.
that the nature of God is triune. He is one God, but in three persons.
Now you say, well, I don't really understand that. Try to explain it to me with an analogy. I can't because it's not analogous to anything. There's no illustration. As soon as you start saying, well, you know, it's kind of like water.
You know, it's like it's a liquid, it's a gas, it's ice. Oh, no, that's heresy.
Okay, that's a heresy. You're saying that God is one thing, just in three different forms. Anytime you start going down the road of, well, it's like this or like that, you're going to get in trouble.
Okay. We just have to say, it just is. God is one in three.
Now we read this for the rest of the scripture, all right?
So you read the Bible front to back, but you interpret the Bible back to front. And when you interpret the Bible back to front, you understand God is Father, He is Holy Spirit, He is Son. But He is one being in three persons.
Now, what's funny is many of us don't understand this and It's hard to understand truthfully, and it can even lead us to doubt. There was one guy who was the opposite. His name was Francis Schaefer, okay? I like to read Francis Schaefer, theologian, philosopher from back in the day. And here's what he said: Somebody asked Schaefer, they said, Hey, do you believe in the Trinity?
And he said, Of course I believe in the Trinity. If it weren't for the Trinity, I would still be an agnostic. Agnostic means I don't believe in anything. I don't, you know, I don't really know. I'm just kind of.
And I thought that was funny because I thought for most of us, we might say, because of the Trinity, I'm thinking about being an agnostic.
Okay, like, I don't understand it so much. And yet he was saying, no, no, the Trinity is the thing that made me believe. Why? Why do you say that? For him, the Trinity was the only thing that made sense about God in light of what he sees in humanity.
Because what he sees in humanity is this: I'm looking at all these different people at the campuses, thousands of people, right? Every one of you is your own person. but we're all joined in being human. Right? And so he was saying there's something about what God has done with us that is reflective of who he is.
Now, this is very important for you to understand because the rest of the case that I'm going to make today is banking on the God who created you in his image said to himself, let us make man in our. Why does that matter? Because God has eternally been a relational being. There is love that is poured out between Father, Son, and Spirit. You got to make sure you understand this today.
God did not create you because he was lonely. He didn't create you because he needed a friend. He created you out of an overflow of the love that already exists within the triune body, within the triune God.
Alright, and so when we overflow from let us and make our in his image, when we overflow from that, we overflow into people who are what? Highly relational.
Now, for some of us, and we're going to get into marriage and family. I mean, that's what this is about: male, female, you know, become one flesh, produce fruit. Got it. But first and foremost, even if you're like, man, I'm single again, I'm never doing that again, maybe you're very, I don't have any kids or whatever it is, you don't feel like you have that family that I'm talking about, you are still created in the image of God, who is, let us make our.
Okay, it is a relational being that created you in his image. Therefore, you are a relational being. I don't care how many strengths finders or disk assessments you take to tell you you're an introvert.
Okay? Mine all do as well. But we are called, and we are, well, we are created rather, to be in relationship. Look at verse 26. Then he said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion.
Now, I'm building a case today, okay? The first case is we learn something about God. The thing we learn about God is He's triune. He's relational. We overflow from a relational God.
The second thing we're going to look at is this phrase right here: let us make man in our image. What does it mean that you and I are in the image of God?
Well, all right, the second part of the case I'm building has two parts, okay? The first part is: I just wanna show you, in general, we need this. We've gotta value humanity better than we do. All right, we just need value. But then, secondly, we're going to see that that image of God's full expression is in relationship, male and female.
All right, so let's talk about value first. Let us make man in our image. What does it mean to be in the image of God? It means that you are the crown jewel of creation. It means that we have immense value because we are in God's image.
It means that you and I, all right, and I don't know how you feel about yourself, I don't know how you feel about others, I don't know what's going on in your life, but you need to hear this today. When God created you, He broke the mold. There is something unique and special about you. And that thing is that all of us share is that we are stamped with the image of God. It is not an add-on, it is not something we possess.
It is not just the spiritual side of our life, it is who we are. We are after Him. We are in his image in the ancient Near East. You would have this kind of concept, right? Like, oh, well, there's gods, and then there's like a pharaoh who's the king, and the pharaoh is like the god that is sort of the image of God among the people, right?
Like, he's supposed to be kind of the king and the leader, and he's sort of the image of God among the people.
Now, what does Christianity say? Oh, no, that's not for the king. All of us are his children in his image, in a sense. Even if you're not a believer, you are still in the image of God, right? You are after his likeness, and that is where our value is.
It is what is special about us. We are not the children of nature. We are the children of God. I want you to think about the things that are so different about humanity. consciousness, personality, love, dreams.
The way that we communicate with one another, we become sad, feel guilt. We worry about things. What other creature in all of history has thought about their retirement, okay? Financial picture. We beg God for the salvation of our kids.
We get homesick. We feel shame, joy. We pray to God because we know he's there. There's no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole. When it comes down to it, we cry out.
Like we know something is there's some spiritual thing out there that we are crying out to. And I want to tell you this today. The gap between you and everything else in creation is like unto the gap between God and you. It's huge.
Alright? You know, the the Avatar movie's out right now, and it's the big rage, you know, billions and billions of dollars and all that kind of stuff. And that's fine. You can like the Avatar movies. My kids like it.
I like the movie. That's fine. But all these movies that have kind of that indigenous sort of, it's like indigenous Western trope, you know, it's kind of that theming of the clash, they always do the same thing. They take the world and they make the world and creation almost elevated above whoever the human is. I know the avatar, I know the Navi people in the movie are not human, but like the human characters are, and they make the forest seem like it knows more than the people.
It makes the forest seem like it's more valuable than the people. The creatures in the land are more valuable than the people. And here's what, and they know more, they're more intuitive, they're more sensitive, you know, they're more connected or whatever. And I'm going to tell you where that works. That's fine for the movies because it ain't true in the real world.
The real world ain't like that. The real world is, it's you and I. You can say it like this. Man is a part of creation. But man is set apart from creation.
It's fine for the movie. It's not fine in real life. I mean, think about it. Not that it's a competition or anything, okay? But you get on the Discovery Channel and they're like, look, the monkey just figured out how to open a coconut with a rock.
He's just like us. Really? That's a pretty big jump. I mean, we have an international space station for crying out loud, okay? Not that it's a competition, but it's like, I don't know that the monkey opening the thing with a rock is truly, you know.
Elevating them to man status here. You know what I mean? There is something different about you and I than everything else in creation. We are his children, not the children of nature. You are special.
You are the crown jewel of creation. We need to sit in that for just a moment. I mean, I think about this in our. Listen, we send our kids off to school. They say nothing about God.
They say everything about Darwin, survival of the fittest, and then we wonder why we got a bullying problem. I mean, how it's like, you know, I mean, just when you say it out loud, you're like, oh yeah, you know, I guess that kind of we we act as if there is nothing special about us and then we can't understand why people are killing themselves with addiction. It's like, come on, man. Listen, the image of God in you is different than anything else. Maybe you are at the end of your rope.
Maybe you're at the bottom of the barrel. You got to understand, you are still in the image of God, and there is immense value over you. There is more value in you than there is all of the stars in the heavens. Than the trees, than the grass, than the rivers. You are more unique and valuable to God than any of those things.
Those things were created to be conducive for you. Because that's how valuable you are. And if you're struggling with it, go read Psalm 8. God is mindful of you, and that's a mind-blowing idea. You know, I told you one time I walked into work one day when I was working at the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham.
This guy walked in, he was totally frazzled, okay? I mean, looked like he hadn't slept. You know, he was, I mean, clothes were a wreck, all this stuff. I'm like, dude, what is going on with you? He's like, man, this weekend, my wife convinced me.
We went down to the pound and got a dog. And he's tearing the whole place up. He's chewing up everything. He's barking. I mean, it's terrible.
He's like, actually, I gotta go home right now. I said, why? He's like, I got to go home and see what else he's torn up and take him out and try to pick up everything. I mean, he was very frazzled. And I said, well, hey, man, you know, they make this thing called a dog crate.
Okay. And it's kind of cool. Like you put the dog in the crate, and when you leave, now he ain't gonna like it, okay, right at first. But over time, it kind of becomes like his little cave or den. You know, he kind of gets in there and he'll calm down.
And eventually, you don't even have to shut the door. He'll just get in there and like to sleep in there and all that. And he said, I told my wife the same thing. He said, You know what she said to me, and I didn't have an answer for it? I said, What?
He said, She said, Well, how would you like to be locked up in a crate all day? And he said, I didn't know what to say. He said, what would you have said? I was it If you lock me up in a crate, I would wait till you leave and then I would let myself out. Go in there, make a sandwich, you know, hang out, watch TV.
Me being in the crate has nothing to do with whether or not you should put the dog in the crate, okay? Like this is a thought. We just don't, like, we view other things in creation as if they are the crown jewel. They're not. I love them to death, but they're not a human, right?
I mean, think about it. We watch a movie where 100 people die in a row. The dog dies, we all start crying. Why? Why is this?
Right? It's like, hey, we need to value what God values. We are stamped with His image.
Now, that is very general, and I listen, that's a little bit off track, but I want us to understand: you and I bear the image of God.
Now, here's the case that we're making, okay? Triune God creates out of relationship. You and I have immense value. That's a little bit of a sub point, but we get it. We got immense value.
Here's the thing. What about the image of God as relational in us? Look what he says in verse 27.
So God created man in his own image, and the image of God he created him. Listen, male and female. He created Them. You and I, in the image of God, baked into the very way that we are created, need each other for the mission that He is calling us to.
Now that's true now even in the New Testament era. I understand that in the New Testament, hey, some of our mission has changed. We're making disciples, multiplying churches. I get that. That's kind of a re-envisioning Jesus had on be fruitful and multiply.
But just because the mission is bigger now doesn't mean that the foundation of is still not true. The foundation of this is the family. Don't you understand? What I'm saying is that part of the way that we are created in his image is male and female, that we would come together, one flesh, and that we would produce kids. I mean, that's just as plain as day.
I want to say it as plainly as I can. All right, something about male and female is the fullest expression of the image of God. Listen, we are in a culture right now where all we're trying to do is dumb down the differences between men and women. Don't you understand if we were all the same, one of us would be unnecessary? And this is the opposite of what God does.
He elevates. The image of God is fully expressed in God creating us, male and female. The church needs to continue to prop up what the culture is trying to push down. And that is that there is immense beauty in the way that God has created us, male and female. You know, Mercy Hill is one of many churches.
Sadly, there are a lot of churches that aren't. One of many churches. Listen, we will fiercely defend. The theology of gender. Why is that?
I promise you this, it ain't for some political point. It's not so that we stand up here and we kind of are taking our stand and feel strong. It has nothing to do with any of that. It's because this is not political before it is a Bible issue. When churches decide to give on the theology of gender, they have no idea how much of the game they're giving away.
Because when you give on that, suddenly you are going all the way to the image of God in you. and dismissing it, much of it wholesale. The image of God in us that is to be so valued is expressed in male and female for this reason. Look what it says in verse 28. And God blessed them and 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.
I told you, I don't have time to get way into dominion here together this morning. But this is the case that we're building. Look what he says in verse 28: Be fruitful and multiply. God is a triune God in relationship. He has created us in his image with immense value, but he made us male and female.
Third point and final kind of idea here, building the argument, is that is expressed when men and women come together in marriage and they produce fruit that are children. In other words, you can say it like this: marriage and family are more than a task. Marriage and family is an expression of who God has made us to be.
Now, I get it. Because some of us are like, man, I'm single. I feel like I'm gifted in singleness. I'm going to be single my whole life. Paul says that's a good thing.
All right. Actually, Christianity is the only ancient religion in the world that views singleness in a positive light. There is something about the new covenant and what we're doing with Christ that has expanded the mission. The mission now is to be fruitful, multiply by making disciples in all the earth, right? But that does not mean for a second that what he originally said about the full expression of the image of God being male and female coming together in one flesh and producing kids is not still true.
It is still true.
Now it's expanded upon now, but it is still true. Look what he says: be fruitful and multiply. Mercy Hill is a church where people take this literally because there's a bunch of kids. I mean, you just watch the parking lots. It's either a big truck or a Honda Odyssey, okay?
Just rolling right down. It's the land of trucks and minivans, okay? A lot of kids. That's awesome. I think that is expressing some of what it means to be in the image of God.
Now, some of us, listen, are married and we don't have children. Maybe we can't. We experience miscarriage. It's heartbreaking.
Okay, some of us want to be married and we're not. We're single. Maybe some of you are single again, you've lost a marriage. These things are all very hard. And with them, what we have to do is run to Romans 8.
And to say, God, what I'm experiencing right now in this moment. Is not, this is not what I would have chosen. This is not what I think is good. We have to run to Romans 8. And we have to say, but.
The Lord tells us very plainly, we don't see the game like he sees it. And what it says very clearly is that all things are going to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
So even in this pain, I'm going to have to trust that he's using this for my good and for his glory. We're going to have to run to the book of Joel and say, God, you are the God who can restore the years that the locusts have eaten. If there's tragedy and breakup and family pain, I get all that. But I cannot shy away from saying the plain truth today.
Something about the image of God in you is expressed in a yearning and a desire and a valuing of marriage and family. Marriage and kids. And so here's what I want to call us to do, man. This is our application for this week. Do marriage and family to the glory of God.
All right, think about it that way. Think about it for the glory of God. If you're single, you're young, prepare for this. To be why you do marriage and family. Let me tell you something today.
Statistically speaking, Most everybody here will be married at least one time in their life. Not everybody. But almost everybody, when you think about statistically speaking, just as adults go, here's the tragedy. Almost everybody will get married. And very few people really understand why.
Now think about that. If you ask somebody on the street, why did you get married? I mean, what kind of answers are you going to get? It's probably going to boil down to this. I don't know.
That's just like what people do. I mean, you know, do we want to have a slightly more positive picture of it than that? Do we want to think about it a little more deeply than that? Here's the problem with the I'm not really sure answer. When we're not really sure, we just make up the rules on our own, and that's what we've done as a culture.
We have played with fire when it comes to marriage and family. We have devalued it like crazy. We set our own rules. We decide to do it our own way. And you tell me what it is producing.
Is marriage and family thriving in our culture today? What do we embrace? Our culture embraces no-fault divorce, abortion on demand, the encouragement of cohabitation, economically de-incentivizing the poor from being married, which is crushing them, by the way. The advent and almost religious fervor regarding birth control, and on and on and on and on, I could say: this is the fishbowl. This is where we live, work, and play, and what is it producing?
It is producing brokenness. And here's what we're saying as a church. Actually, there's another view. There's another view that is very deep. It's not really that complicated either.
When God created you, he created you out of an overflow of himself. which is the image of God in you, which is inherently relational. Generally, that means we should not live in isolation. But specifically from Genesis 1, what it means is that male and female should seek each other out and come together in marriage and produce fruit. And that is going to glorify God because it expresses something of his creation in a way that nothing else can.
And it is, in a sense, something that we were created for. And, oh, by the way, Sin didn't wreck this. Not in a way that couldn't be put back together. Sure, it messed it up, okay? It defaces the image of God, but it does not erase the image of God.
Jesus came in order to put back what we all broke in sin. You know, three things were broken in the fall: our relationship with God, our relationship with each other. and our relationship with the earth. In the gospel, we have an opportunity to have that relationship with each other put back together. This is what God gives us in the new family.
Listen, Jesus Christ came to this earth 2,000 years ago to die on the cross for your sin. You and I, because of our sin, were kicked out of the family of God. How are we going to do family to God's glory when our sin has kicked us out of the family to begin with? It's not going to happen. God created us for his family and for families, all right?
But in sin, that's taken away. But Jesus Christ, through his death, burial, and resurrection, offers us a new path. He comes forth from the grave saying, come and be united with me. And come into new life. Come back into the family and do family to God's glory.
You know what's crazy? This is what Jesus did. One of the Gospels says this, that when Jesus came forth from the grave, He gets his disciples together and he breathes on them. How weird is that? I mean, it's weird, right?
You know what he was doing? It's a retelling of Genesis. Because God breathed on man and he became a living soul. Jesus comes forth from the grave and breathes into us, signifying just like what God said in Genesis 1: This is man, this is woman. In my image, they will fulfill my mission, which is to populate the earth, be fruitful and multiply.
And Jesus breathes on his disciples, saying basically the same thing: hey, you go be fruitful and multiply by making disciples of all nations all the way to the ends of the earth. And that's the mission that we're on, all right? The New Testament expanded it, but it doesn't take away the image of God in us. In terms of being fruitful and multiplying.
So, you say, well, how do I apply this specifically?
Well, here's what I would say. I love to preach sermons where I get done and I'm like, hey, here's the four things you got to do. I like that because I like to do that. I like a list and I like knowing, okay, sorry, man, this ain't that sermon. This sermon is simply this.
How do you value family? Because if we don't value it right, we won't fight for it right. And if we don't value it right, it's probably because we're thinking it's a bolt-on, it's a task. It's something that we do, you know, for fun, like bowling. This is what we think.
But if we realize, wait a minute, this is who I was created to be, and this is an expression. Of the very, I mean, all the way down to the core of who I am. It'll change the way we do it. Because we value it in a different way, right? And so hey, if you're not a believer.
Man, the first call today is... Hey, you need to get your relationship with the family of God right before you try to get your own relationship with your family right. Right? Because that's never, man. You got to put these things in order.
You have the opportunity to come into God's family today. Admit your sin, believe in what He has done, confess him as the Lord of your life. Man, come into the family. But others of us just need to wrestle a little bit value value value Image of God, relationships. Are you isolating from people around you?
Single person is the person that you're dating, is like, man, that ain't, that's not this. That's not what we're talking about. Yeah, we're playing around. Are you living with somebody? Man, I look around we look around this culture you got so many people playing house it's time to build a house Right?
And you do that with value. I value the way God has created me. I want to express it fully. I want God to be glorified in the way that he has created me. Don't want to play around.
We want to build. Man, for some of you, I said, Hey, you're hanging on by a thread. It's like you're already starting to plan the exit strategy. You need to talk to a pastor. Man, you know, that's a spiritual issue.
People want to run to a counselor or a therapist. I'm not saying those things aren't helpful and I'm not saying we don't need to get there. But if you have a spiritual issue, like, man, your family's about to break up, you need to come talk to a pastor. I mean, that's why they're here, okay? You know, and let's get value, right?
Things are going well. Great. Come forward. Let's pray. Let's ask the Lord to give us a greater sense of weight and value.
For marriage and family. All right, let's pray. Father. We come before you right now. And God, we ask, Lord, that you would just give us an immense...
Sense of spiritual weight when it comes to marriage and kids. And strengthening and growing in our relationships and fortifying our families. And may it start with the image of God in us. God, that something about us is created for relationships. Mm-hmm.
Father, I pray that our altars and all the camps will be flooded today. With families in prayer. In Christ's name, amen.
