Identity | Find Your Way Home Week 1

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We're all on a journey in life.

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Some people know where they're going

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and some people don't.

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The difference?

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It's knowing your origin story

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and finding your way home.

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You have to know where you came from

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if you're going to know where you're going.

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We believe that there is a God

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and He made you for a journey, a life of adventure.

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Crossroads exists to help you get there,

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and we're going to go all the way back

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to the beginning of the story in Genesis

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to find our way home to identity.

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When we know where we come from,

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it helps us to know where we're going.

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Gosh, that sounds like a lot

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like a Matthew McConaughey commercial.

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But why am I here? What's my purpose?

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What's the point of all this? Who am I supposed to be?

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How am I supposed to be that?

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We all wrestle with questions of meaning,

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identity and value, and the whole reason

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we're doing this series is to help us start

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to answer those questions.

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Welcome to Crossroads

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and welcome to the Garden of Eden.

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My name is Brian.

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Today, I want to help you know where you come from.

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Yes, we all know that when a mommy loves a daddy

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and they're married, they come together.

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We all know that, we know how that goes.

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But what I'm talking about is a little deeper.

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I want you to know who created you and why.

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Today, I want to help you find your way home.

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And today we're going to find our way home to identity,

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going all the way back to the Book of Genesis.

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All the way back to this old book,

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all the way to the very first book in the Bible,

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the very first chapter of the first book in the Bible.

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It unlocks for us all kinds of secrets

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and insights about who we are, who God is,

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and why life works the way it does.

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And over the next six weeks, we're unpacking

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a lot of the crazy, confusing,

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and sometimes downright awful moments.

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Some are stories you've heard

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and some you likely haven't.

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But if you hang through, you're going to understand

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more of where you came from

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and why the book of Genesis is crucial

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to our understanding of God.

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Now I know you're already kind of hung up.

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You're like, Whoa, whoa, the Book of Genesis,

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the beginning. I know this part.

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This is like creation.

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This is like where science and religion collide.

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This is where I'm supposed to believe fairy tales

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like 6,000 year Earth and in 24 hour literal days,

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or at least some people believe those are fairy tales,

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and some people have very deeply held convictions

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that that's the way it was.

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Here's the deal.

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I know you're going to judge me today.

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I know it, because it's part of our national pastime.

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We love judging one another, especially

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when it comes to things like this

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in the Book of Genesis.

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Because we all have our opinions.

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I've never heard anybody go,

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"Hey, I'm really an open slate

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on what happened in creation.

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Tell me how it happened."

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We all know what we believe,

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and we're looking for someone to verify what we believe

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and just help us feel better about ourselves.

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I might do that today, I might not do that today,

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but no matter where we are, what we think,

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I think you're going to see some things about God

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you haven't seen before

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and some things about yourself and his creation.

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So let's try to dig in. Here we go.

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Genesis 1:1,

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There's actually a lot going on here already.

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Here's the biggest thing, it says right at the beginning,

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in the beginning, God.

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Before we get into in the beginning,

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God created the heavens and the earth.

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Let's go, in the beginning, God, that is the point.

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God, he is before you. He precedes you.

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He has created you however he chose to do it.

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Now, when we take a look at things in the Bible,

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just in their immediate context, sometimes

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we go all the way further into it,

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we can see other things and it all strings together

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and starts to make sense.

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The Book of John 1:1, it's in the New Testament

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portion of the Bible after Jesus came around.

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Here's what it says:

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This says that Jesus is the spoken word.

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Actually, Jesus was present in creation

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because Jesus is God.

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We see the Trinity here.

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The Trinity isn't fully mapped out

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in the Book of Genesis

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that God exists in three persons as one person.

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Crazy, I can't give us definitive explanation

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on everything we look at today, but the Trinity,

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God is the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit,

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co-existence, co-eternal, co-substant,

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all the same substance.

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All three members are here in creation.

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Remember it said the spirit of God

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was hovering over the waters?

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Ok, there's the spirit.

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The father is creating and he's speaking creation.

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And when he speaks creation,

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Jesus is the actual word itself.

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In the beginning, God.

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You know, every voice in culture today

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has something to say about who we are

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and what our real identity is and what we should do.

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And here is probably the most powerful reading

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of Genesis 1 that's ever taken place.

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- While orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve,

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December 24th, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8,

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Bill Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman

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read of the creation account from the Book of Genesis.

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- Too many people are missing the point

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of our origin story.

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Our success in the future depends on

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our firm grasp of our origin story.

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We should ask ourselves questions of

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when, how, why, by who, for what,

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when it comes to our beginnings.

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But too many people are hyper focused on

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the wrong questions when it comes to our origin story.

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The point is not when, but what.

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What is the point? What does it mean to me?

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What is God? Who is God?

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As much as I would like to stay talking about God,

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you won't let me, will you? You won't.

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You're just wondering when I'm going to declare myself,

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what I'm going to say about science versus faith.

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What I'm going to say about Genesis 1.

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So, okay, I'll go there right now.

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You know, we talk very little about God

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when we read the creation account in Genesis.

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Instead, we want to talk about these debatable areas,

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like: Are these literal twenty four hour days?

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How long ago did this happen? Was it 6,000 years ago?

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Was that hyper millennia, hyper eons and eons ago?

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What about the dinosaurs?

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Did Adam and Eve have a pet brontosaurus?

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All these burning questions?

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The Bible needs to be taken holistically.

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We need to let things in the Bible

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interpret other things in the Bible.

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In the Book of Hebrews 11, written long, long, long,

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long, long, long, long, long after

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whatever happened in Genesis 1, it says this:

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What's the key word there? By faith.

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It doesn't say by fact, it doesn't say by science,

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it doesn't say by verification.

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I'm great with fact. I'm great with science.

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I'm great verification.

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But you're just not going to get a lot of that

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as it relates to Genesis Chapter one.

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It takes a level of faith to believe that God

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did something to create what we're in right now.

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It's a matter of our faith in God,

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not a matter of understanding science,

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though it's great to understanding science

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and we should try to understand science.

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Now I'm going to give my understanding

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that you can take or leave.

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You're not a bad person if you don't agree with me,

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and I hope you'll believe I'm not a bad person

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if I disagree with you.

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I am uncomfortable saying

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these are 24 hour literal days.

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I think we get into a real, real hard time

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when we say the Hebrew word "yom"

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always means 24 hour literal days.

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I don't think that's important.

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I don't think that's necessary.

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St. Augustine, one of the greatest believers

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in the history of the church and around 400 A.D.

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he said that this doesn't have to be

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literal 24 hour days, he said that in 400 A.D.

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just look in the text.

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He wasn't trying to combat Darwinism in science.

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Darwin wasn't born for 1,100 years afterwards.

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There's also something interesting here

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about the word create when it says

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in the beginning, God created, God created.

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That word that's used is the word, "bara,"

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in the original language.

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It can mean and does mean the initial creation,

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but it also means redemption.

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It's the same word that's used in the Old Testament

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for rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.

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It's a word of re-creation. It's a word of redemption.

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I find it very compelling knowing that

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the central theme throughout the entire Bible

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is one of redemption, that you are meant to be redeemed.

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There are second chances for you.

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God doesn't make junk. God doesn't give up on people.

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God doesn't give up on his creation.

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Knowing that that's a central thing

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all the way through the Bible,

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that the very first story in the Bible

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is about redemption.

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Perhaps, and when the initial creation happened

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before this, I don't know.

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I think this is a reformatting of the elements,

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the redeeming of the elements.

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That verse we read earlier

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before all the different days happened,

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it says the spirit of God hovered over the waters.

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So there's water there already, right?

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What's -- what's happening there?

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Let's dive a little deeper.

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In verse 14 of Genesis 1, it says:

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God saw that it was good.

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Why? Because God is good.

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And you notice this is the fourth day?

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And how do we know when a day comes and goes,

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when the sun rises and when the sun sets.

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It's the Sun that tells us these days.

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The sun and the rising, the setting,

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the way we count days is until even the fourth day.

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So to try to say the first three days

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or literal twenty 24 blocks,

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I just find that not necessary personally.

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The first listeners heard nothing new

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about the physical universe when they heard this,

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whenever that was.

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All the emphasis was on who created the world

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and who and why he would create humanity

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and how this being was good, very, very good.

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To try to get beyond that, try to get beyond

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the identity of God and dig into deep science questions

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in Genesis 1 is just not the intent of the text.

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Verifying Genesis 1 with modern science

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is like trying to verify everything in the Bible

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with modern science, and you just can't do that.

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Let me give you an example.

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The Book of Psalms 93:1, it says:

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So if I'm going to take this literally

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and scientifically, wait,

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the world's firmly established, it can't be moved?

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So is this saying the Bible isn't talking about

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rotating stuff and [indiscernible]?

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No, it's not saying that.

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This is poetry here, just talking about,

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hey, things are established.

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You can't use science to understand everything

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about Genesis 1, and you can't use

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modern knowledge of the cosmos to understand Psalm 93.

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We've got to take the scientific part scientifically,

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the faith parts faithfully,

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the poetic parts poetically.

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And when we apply that and when we don't

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is a very delicate dance.

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And I'm just saying, I think we need to lighten up

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a little bit on making this a battleground

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for the Bible and science.

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There's nothing that I've ever read in the Bible

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that I believe the contradicts science. Nothing.

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And there's things in the Bible some people think

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is interpreted a certain way that I just don't.

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The Bible has never, never challenged

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my understanding of science, and I'm a pro science guy.

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This isn't the only creation narrative story,

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but it is the only one where there is a loving God

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that's actually blessing us and creating a place for us,

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a beautiful place, the Garden of Eden; Cincinnati, Ohio;

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Los Angeles, California.

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Well, Los Angeles, California,

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yeah, it's kind of beautiful, I guess.

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The weather's great.

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The football team I don't like, but the weather's great.

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The Bible tells us, no, God is good,

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and he creates a world that is good.

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He's not competing with anybody.

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This isn't an accident that came into being.

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God is good and he created it as good

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because God is fundamentally good.

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Our world was initially and fundamentally good,

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and that creation is made as a result

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of God's holy space, his goodness,

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and that means it is designed for you as his creation

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is to reflect his goodness. That's good.

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- I hope you're enjoying this episode.

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I wanted to take a quick moment to share with you

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something about tithing

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that I've actually struggled with.

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This capital T word tithing,

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it just means giving 10% of what I have to God.

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And I knew that in the back of my head,

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so I kind of always just did it.

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I would put the money in.

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Never thought about what it meant.

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And then I was just following the rule.

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But I learned that it actually is to do

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a lot with your heart, and there's actually

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some better things to take place

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with tithing than just following the rules.

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- Right. There's a bunch of joy to be found

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in actually following God, it turns out.

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It's not about following the rules.

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And if you're like Hannah and you want to experience

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something new when it comes to you and giving and God,

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you can go to Crossroads.net/give for more.

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And we use those funds to make things like this happen,

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just telling people about the story of God

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in a language that they can understand.

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We also use those funds to partner with people

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all across the world to make change.

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Here's just one of our partners.

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- Hey, Crossroads, I'm Stephen Feliciano

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from Hungry Corp., Crossroads' Reachout partner

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here in Puerto Rico.

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Because of givers like you, we're able

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to commit ourselves with the most challenged communities

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in our city and by building houses,

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doing legal advocacy, launching small businesses,

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and rehabilitating our public schools,

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we're able to dignify the lives of

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the most vulnerable in our city.

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So thank you for your generosity.

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- The whole story builds up to this point.

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It sets up humanity as the pinnacle of God's creation.

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That's what we see in Genesis 1:26.

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Did you catch how it said,

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our, let us make man in our image?

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It's another little hint to the Trinity,

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the triune god present here.

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Where do we come from?

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We come from, God. That's where we come from.

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You were handcrafted as a one off.

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You haven't been mass produced by Henry Ford

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or on an assembly line of robots.

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You've been formed by a personal and relational God.

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And and we wonder why there's a self-esteem crisis

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in our world when we're told,

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"Well, you're just random chance.

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There was cosmic goo and then there was you.

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It's survival of the fittest.

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And if you're not fit right now,

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you're not going to survive."

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And we wonder why there is so much despair

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and anxiety, more than ever before,

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because we're told that natural selection

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is the only reason we're here.

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No, no, no. That's not true.

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You're here because God put you here

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because he's good.

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And there's a higher power who has your back.

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You're not only on your own, thrown to the wolves.

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When this idea of God creating us

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and us being important and him having our back,

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when this sunk into my mind first as a young man,

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15, 16 years old, I've got to tell you,

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this changed everything about my future.

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It gave me an x factor of knowing that

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there was something I could never quite quantify

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or even defend to you that was present in my life

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and backstopping my life.

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And as I've looked at peers who've

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never understood this truth of being created

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in the image of God, being a reflection of God,

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God caring about us, God pouring into us.

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When I take a look at how my life

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is contrasted to theirs, so frequently

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they're caught up in endless pursuit of either

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trying to find purpose, what their point is,

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or trying to find meaning in things and materialism

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and just getting caught up in the flavor of the day

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as opposed to the blessing of going,

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"I don't know exactly what my life holds in the future,

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but one thing I know, God holds my life

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because I'm important to him and he is good."

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God in contrast to everything else in his creation,

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He creates mankind in his own image

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and he puts his own breath inside of their lungs,

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our lungs.

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Mankind is created according to Latin,

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the phrase is Imago Day, which means literally

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we are made to be an idol.

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Now I know it sounds really weird,

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especially when there's a part in the Bible

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that says we're not supposed to have any idols,

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but we're a representation of God's will, of his heart,

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of his character and of his power in this world.

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We are the presence of God physically in this world.

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This is why maybe God told his people

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not to make idols of him because he'd already done it.

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He created us as mankind, an image, a reflection of him.

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When we know her origin story,

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it's going to help us ask the right questions

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about our existence, like: how, why, when.

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All these things become less important

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and questions instead, like: What do I do?

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Who do I worship?

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These things come to the forefront.

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We have creative capacities in common with God

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that nothing else has.

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God feels about us the way he doesn't feel

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about any other creative thing.

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I love my dog, Peanut. You would too.

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Everybody who meets Peanut, loves Peanut.

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She's fantastic. I love Peanut.

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And I like my friend cat, my cat Frank.

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I like him. I like him.

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As cool as those creatures are,

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they're not loved by God the way God loves you.

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And as powerful as they may be in their own right,

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they're not powerful the way you and I are.

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They don't create anything.

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We, as humans, we can create because God creates

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and we're made in his image.

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If God created you, then words uniquely apply to you,

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like justice.

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There's no justice in the animal kingdom.

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Purpose. Frank isn't trying to figure out

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purpose for his life.

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Service to others, kindness, and creativity.

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These aren't just abstract terms.

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We're the only ones who fully represent them.

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We're the only ones who fully create.

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You might say, "Well, you know, a beaver creates a dam."

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Okay, they do.

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But beaver beavers don't jump into

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a whole different quadrant and say,

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"Now let's work on the microprocessor."

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It's human beings that can figure out how to fly

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when we haven't been created to fly

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because we have creative capacities of God.

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You have creative capacities.

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You have potency in who you are

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simply because God is good

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and he's chosen to create you.

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If this kind of invigorates you, you've got to know

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these are the kind of truths that are

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set against our world that is increasingly nihilistic

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and is increasingly cynical and pessimistic.

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These kind of truths that are all throughout this book.

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This is why we're in 2022 doing the Bible Challenge.

00:24:37

And I want you to just enter the Bible Challenge

00:24:40

with me, get into a Bible, get into the Crossroads App

00:24:43

and read with me and a bunch of others a chapter a day.

00:24:48

And maybe you want to journal your thoughts in it.

00:24:50

And maybe you'll learn from others

00:24:52

or learn from reading the Bible yourself,

00:24:53

what God thinks of you

00:24:55

and what God might want you to do today,

00:24:58

not just with your life, today.

00:25:05

- Do you know where you're going?

00:25:08

To get different results in life,

00:25:10

you're going to have to do some different things.

00:25:13

And if you're up for an adventure this year,

00:25:16

do the Bible Challenge with me.

00:25:18

Read every day, get inspired,

00:25:21

and see what others are saying.

00:25:24

I believe the Bible is more than a book

00:25:27

that's meant to sit on a shelf and just collect dust.

00:25:30

It's meant to take you somewhere in life.

00:25:33

What about you? Where are you going?

00:25:36

Download the Crossroads App

00:25:38

and do the Bible Challenge today.

00:25:46

- Hey, you know that Bible Challenge

00:25:48

that Brian mentioned, you can actually do it

00:25:50

in the palm of your hand.

00:25:52

It all happens in the Crossroads App right here.

00:25:55

You read and you journal and then you've done it.

00:25:59

That's pretty simple.

00:26:00

And you can join Kyle and I there.

00:26:01

- Yeah. - We both journal in the app

00:26:03

and you can see what we're up to.

00:26:04

- We'd love you to join us.

00:26:05

And we've also got this for you.

00:26:07

This is kind of a guidebook on Genesis.

00:26:09

It turns out that there's some helpful context

00:26:12

and history even beyond what you find in these episodes

00:26:14

that you're going to want as you engage

00:26:16

in the Book of Genesis.

00:26:18

So you can get this for complete free,

00:26:19

we'll mail it to your house

00:26:20

by going to Crossroads.net/BibleChallenge.

00:26:23

- We'll see you next time on Crossroads.

00:26:26

You know, people ask you when you're young, like,

00:26:29

what you want to be when you grow up.

00:26:31

And I think more than anything, I knew that I wanted

00:26:34

to be liked and loved and accepted.

00:26:39

And so as someone who's always sought

00:26:41

and strived for acceptance,

00:26:43

God use this wild creation story

00:26:47

to show me something different.

00:26:49

And I want to share it with you.

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