Pastor Stephen Pierce preached from Genesis 1:27 in our “God Drew Near” series. He said that humans are made in the image of God. Lector: Erin Warmbier
Pastor Stephen Pierce preached from Genesis 1:27 in our “God Drew Near” series. He said that humans are made in the image of God.
Lector: Erin Warmbier
Good morning Sojourn Kids! I am so excited you guys are here. This is something that we’ve been talking about for a long time. We really wanted to worship with you all and so I’m glad that you guys have joined us this Sunday.
It was not scheduled for me, the family Pastor, originally to preach today, the day that we asked out 2nd to 5th graders to start joining us. But it just so happened to work out this way! The summer sermon series is called God drew near. It’s a time to reflect on how we’ve seen God draw near to us. At the same time, I wanted to tell all of our kids in the room how thankful I am that you all are here this morning. And so I tried to think of a way to show both how God has drawn near and how to tell you I’m thankful you’re here. And I decided the best way to do that was to tell a story.
One of my favorite kind of stories is where the main character finds out something more than what he sees is going on. Like in Harry Potter. Harry is just living a normal life when he finds out there is a whole wizarding world that’s been around him the whole time. He’s felt it’s affects, but then he sees it and it changes him. Another good one is The Chronicles of Narnia, where the kids find out there is another whole world just on the other side of the magical wardrobe. A recent one is Percy Jackson where a sixth grader starts seeing all sorts of weird stuff out of greek mythology only to discover that he he is a part human, part god and there’s a whole world around him that he hasn’t been able to see and now he can. He discovers that he has powers and abilities beyond what he ever thought possible. And he discovers that he has a destiny to save or destroy the world.
But as good as those stories are, they aren’t as good as the original. Did you guys know there was the original story? Let me tell it to you.
Once upon a time, there was nothing except a being known as the Adonai. The Adonai was everything. And out of the overflow of his being, the Adonai created the cosmos. He filled it with stars and planets, rocks and gases. It was a thing of goodness and beauty. And in a far away corner of the cosmos, on a insignificant planet called Adamah, the Adonai put the best parts of his creation. And on the Adamah he put all sorts of living creatures. Birds, fish, reptiles, and furry things.
And then at the center of this planet, in the eternal mountain garden, he took the lowest thing he could, the dirt from the ground and he made something incredible beautiful. He made the Hadam. These beings were going to be his viceroys, his rulers of the cosmos. And he gave them a power which he had not given any other creature in the cosmos. Adonai gave them the power to be like the Adonai. He gave them this power so they could rule over the cosmos with him. And he did all of this because it made him happy.
And everything was right.
But then the evil one, a dark force that no one quite understood, found the Hadam. He told them the Adonai had tricked them. He told them that there was a greater power in the garden than the Adonai had given them. The dark force told them that if they would take it, they would become even greater than the Adonai. And so the Hadam believed the evil one and took the great power for themselves. But as soon as they had done so, the released the Darkness, an evil force that would remake the universe by taking all the light and goodness of the Adonai and twisting into darkness and evil. Thankfully, the Adonai realized the treachery of the evil one and the Hadam and stopped them before they could take the power of eternity as well. If they had, the darkness would have gone on forever with no hope of stopping it.
But now the Adonai faced a problem. He could no longer allow the Hadam to rule with him. They had been infected with the darkness and were corrupt. Also, anytime the darkness was present near the Adonai, the darkness was destroyed. And so now the Adonai, had to remove the Hadam from his presence because they were defiled by the darkness. Had they stayed in the eternal Garden, they would have been destroyed by the Adonai’s presence.
You would think the Adonai would have destroyed the Hadam, but instead the Adonai cared for the Hadam and gave them a new life outside the Eternal Garden. He told them that he would one day restore them to their rightful place as regents of the cosmos. The Adonai told the Hadam that one day he would send a hero, a chosen one, who would destroy the evil one, break the curse of the darkness, and make all things new again.
But such a promise proved to be impossible to understand. What could destroy the darkness? How could the Adonai destroy the darkness without destroying the Hadam as well? When would he do such a thing? It was all a mystery.
And so the Hadam left the Eternal Garden waiting for the hero to come. But the darkness proved to be too much for them. The darkness went deep into their hearts and they did evil and ran even farther from the Adonai into the deep darkness. But the Adonai did not give up. He waited for generations and then chose a family that would become the ancestors of the chosen one. And even though the darkness ran strongly through this family, the Adonai kept them alive, preserving the line of the chosen one being faithful to his promise.
Again and again, the ancestors of the chosen one would give themselves fully to the darkness. The were tricked into the thinking that somehow by giving themselves over to the darkness they might fight back against and remove the darkness. However, this just created more darkness.
And after thousands of years of this failing of the Hadam, the Hadam begin to think they would not be rescued. They began to think they had been abandoned by the Adonai. And into that dark chaos, at the darkest moment, the Adonai did something unthinkable. He became a Hadam. The Adonai wasn’t just going to send a chosen one. The Adonai himself was the Chosen One.
The Adonai snuck past the defenses of the Evil One and of the Darkness by coming to the planet as a child. He allowed the Hadam to raise him, and then, at the fullness of time, He began teaching them what it would look like to live in the Eternal Mountain Garden again.
He taught them that the evil one and the darkness would be defeated, but not through a violent power, but by the power of light and love. But not all the Hadam trusted the Adonai. Some Hadam had given themselves into the darkness so much that they thought the Adonai was the evil one in disguise. And so, some of these corrupted Hadam plotted to kill the Adonai.
But this was part of the Adonai’s plan. When the Corrupted Hadam took the Adonai to kill him, he began to absorb all the power of the evil one and the darkness into his body. He allowed the darkness to fully enter him. And the chosen one became the darkness. The Corrupted Hadam took cursed item, the etah, and filled with darkness. They put all the power of the darkness and the evil one into this instrument and they murdered the Adonai with it. And through doing this, all the wrath that the Adonai had stored up for the darkness, was poured out on the Adonai himself. But you see, by taking the power of the darkness into his body and then putting the power of the darkness into the evil instrument, the Adonai had made it so that the darkness destroyed itself. By using the darkness’s power against itself and the evil one, the Adonai achieved a victory over them.
Sadly, this left the Adonai dead. And the Hadam were still outside the eternal Garden. It seemed the plan had failed. But this was not the end. You see the the Darkness and the Evil forgot that the Chosen One was not simply a Hadam. He was fully Adonai. Nothing could kill the adonai because all life flowed from him. And so, the Adonai’s overflowing life brought him back to life. This was where the mystery of how the adonai would save the Hadam was revealed.
If all the Adonai had done was deal with the darkness, then the Hadam could not go back to the eternal garden. They could not just be not darkness. They had to be light. Here is where the Adonai was about to do something even more amazing than defeat the darkness and the evil one. By taking on the form of a Hadam and defeating the darkness and the evil one, the Adonai could now allow them Hadam to become one spirit with himself. The Hadam were saved because they would share the same spirit as the Adonai. What they had not known was that from the very beginning, the Adonai had given the Hadam the power to be united to him. The mystery of how they could be saved was solved. They would become one with the Adonai. They would have the light and life of the Adonai and could live in the eternal garden once more. No other beings in the cosmos could do this. And now, the Adonai was using the power that he’d given the Hadam to save them by uniting them to himself.
The hadam thought this was the end of the story, and yet it was only the middle.
Again, the Hadam would have to wait. Though the Adonai had crushed the darkness and the evil one, they were not fully dead. They would fight as they died a slow death. And though the Hadam had the spirit of the Adonai living in them, this was simply the down payment of what was to come. The Adonai left the world but promised he would return and bring back the eternal mountain Garden. He left the Hadam with the ancient message, the solving of the ancient mystery, that the Chosen One was the Adonai and the Adonai was now in the Hadam who believed in the Chosen One. He told them to go forth and tell that story to everyone. A story that is too good to be true.
That’s the original story.
You are a hadam. You are part of an ancient race that is imbued with the power of the Adonai. Hadam is just another way to say “Adam” or human. Adonai is just another way to say Lord. The darkness is just another one to say sin and the evil one is Satan or the devil.
This story is true. You are a descendant of the ancient human race. You are imbued with the powers and dignity of the Adonai because you are made in the image of God. You have powers and abilities beyond your wildest imagination. But its not the power to shoot laser beams out of your eyes and lift cars over your head. It is the power to love and be united with God. And that’s just the beginning.
If you believe in and follow Jesus, the Chosen One, not only are you a Hadam, you also have been united with God’s spirit. You have the power of God and you are united with God. Such a gift comes with incredible powers and abilities. You have the ability to take evil and transform it to good. You have the power to love in a way that changes destinies. You have the ability to have peace that transcends all understanding. You belong to the only race of beings on the cosmos who have heart, soul, and body capable of wielding such a power. And to use such a power properly, you have give your life to follow Jesus. But by giving your life away, you’ll find out what it means to be truly human.
Today, as with the ancient Hadam, there are evil forces that would have you use your power selfishly. They want to trick you to live for yourself, to define evil and good on your own. We have to recognize that we only have such power because we user gifts in the way that God says to use them. If we use our powers in ways that God says not to, we twist our powers and instead of using them for good we start to use them in the ways that lead to darkness.
But so what? Just because you can imagine yourself with these powers and abilities, does it really change your life?
For me it has. Because here’s the thing. Since you are a Hadam, it changes the way that I treat you. First off, you are made in the image of the Adonai. I respect the most powerful being in the universe and so I respect anything that he made, especially something he made in his image. To disrespect someone made in his image would be to disrespect him.
Second, if you believe in and follow Jesus, not only are you an image bearer of the Adonai, you are a adopted son or daughter that is united to him. How do you think you would treat someone if you found out they were they adopted son or daughter of the King of England? Well, being an adopted son or daughter of the Adonai is a much bigger deal. So, I am going to try to treat you with the honor and respect you deserve, not because you’re earned it, but because of who God is and who you are.
And lastly, this is for you kids, the Chosen One, Jesus, Adonai in Flesh, said something amazing about you. He said the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to people like you. The Chosen One said that I should pay attention to you, learn from you, and become like you. That means all of us adults need to be around you.
And I will say that spending time with you all is where I have experienced the nearness of God. Especially in my own kids. And since that is what I was made for, union with God, oneness with the Adonai, that’s what I long for. And that’s why I’m so glad that you all are here this morning. Because as much as we have to teach you, you have something to teach us. We need each other. Through each other, we can further experience our union with God. So, thanks for being here this morning.
So with that being said, I hope you all understand the story that you’ve been born into and the destinies that you are living out. I hope that you see who you really are. And I hope that causes you to draw closer to the one whose image you were made in.
Here’s what the Ancient Book says about you.
“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
Let’s pray and then declare his praises.