Created for Glory | Pastor Joel King

``Your obedience matters even when no one else sees it. Your suffering matters because God sees you. See, the world says our value comes from your protect productivity, your success, your beauty, maybe your influence. But God says your value comes from being created and loved by him. That cannot be taken from you. You don't you don't need to be an influencer on social media to matter. So this should change how we see ourselves. Not as insignificant, not as disposable or forgotten, but seen as being known and cherished. [00:25:21] (53 seconds)  #I’m missing a clear count of the quotes — the text repeats and has many paragraphs. Do you want one hashtag per paragraph (separated by blank lines), or can you number or re-list the quotes so I can ensure the count matches exactly?

And when God is finished, he looks at everything and he says, it is very good. Now you don't know, but the first because we didn't go over it today. But the first creation, the first five days, he just says it's good. It is good. It is good. Only on this day does he say it's very good. Because mankind is the culmination. It's not it wasn't barely acceptable. It wasn't flawed from the start. It was very good. Now sin, brokenness, all the thorns and the thistles, and everything that's gone wrong came later. But originally, creation begins with with perfect goodness, with beauty, with purpose. We were not created broken. We were created beloved. Beloved. [00:14:24] (51 seconds)

And I've had some time to think about this. It's the beauty of being the pastor. From the very beginning, god has had a purpose for humanity. We are not accidents. We are not accidents. We are not random collections of atoms. We were not created for emptiness, survival, or self invention. Reflect on that. We were created in God's image for his glory and for our joy. That's why for centuries, the church has anchored itself in fundamental truths. Because we don't answer ask the fundamental questions often. We don't reflect. And so God has given us his word over time. And and today's truths are are rooted from the beginning of time. [00:01:05] (54 seconds)

Having read through the powerful description of Yahweh's creation in Genesis, the natural order, David the psalmist is amazed at the care lavished on the creation of humankind. Humans who seem so powerless and small in the scheme of things are invested with stupendous worth and responsibility by the creator. Responsibility. We're created in the very image of God. They are given responsibility to extend God's dominion and protective care over the rest of creation and for each other, by the way. [00:23:42] (28 seconds)

But the scriptures, the one true god says something entirely different. We were created in his image, which means that every person, including the one on the other opposite of the aisle, whichever part of the aisle you sit on, every person has dignity, has worth, has has meaning that no failure can erase. We are to reflect that image to the world around us. [00:07:30] (33 seconds)

This is God's favor, not because we earned it, but because he, God, chose it. And and he continues to say, you, you made us rulers. You are the one who that we result in the work of your hands. You put everything under our feet. It was his work, not ours. He has set us apart for glory and honor by his image. That means your life matters. Your life matters even when it feels small. [00:24:50] (31 seconds)

And so for those of you who ever lived out in the country or far right, we've talked about this. There are a gazillion stars. And I know gazillion is not a number, but it should be. And he is just amazed. Not only are the stars, but there's a pattern to them. There there people can get their self from point a to point b by following them and knowing them, and and and the seasons are kept by the moon. He's he's just seeing all the logic of that. I often liken it to a a fine watch. Whatever in that your mind that is. It'd be like looking looking at an Apple watch or a or an old, you know, single timepiece. And looking at it and going, that's amazing how that happened by accident. No one says that. You might say, wish it had this other feature. But you don't think it happened by accident. [00:18:16] (54 seconds)

So we don't we don't declare this stuff and believe this stuff because some person somewhere, some religious guru thought this would be a good way to summarize and this would be a great idea. We we believe this because from the very beginning, God spoke and established this is the truth. And it actually tells us something radical about humanity, that we were made in his image, in his likeness. Male and female. Now for for us, it doesn't maybe seem like a huge, radical idea. But actually, when this was established among the nations, it was a radical idea. [00:06:09] (42 seconds)