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The first question from the questions we had you turn in from this new series, God Questions, Real Answers is a combination of two questions that were turned in, they are: “Why Does God love me? And “Why does God care about us?” These two questions being closely related will be addressed tonight
Raise your hand if you have children.
Hands down. Now, raise your hand if you love your children. Yeah, same ones.
Now, the question can be asked: Why do you love your children? Why do you care about them?
Very easily you could say, because they’re my kids. But that’s not really an answer is it? Maybe you aren’t really sure why you love your kids. Or even why you wanted to have kids in the first place. But you love them. Why? Maybe… because you made them. Perhaps, because they're made in your own image. If you look at your children, they look like a combination of you and your spouse right? You look like a combination of your mom and dad. That’s how it works. And maybe we love them because they’re some of us in them, and they’re in a way our creation. Not only did we give birth to the child but we also raise the child and teach the child our values and beliefs. So nature, and nurture, all building a person as they grow up.
I don’t think it’s a big stretch to say then, that God love you because he made you. You are extension of God in the world. God is like our father, and we are his children. But it’s also much more than that. It starts there, but there’s much more.
God is our Father. But God didn’t give birth to us. God actually designed our bodies. He designed our blood, our circulatory system, he designed the anatomy of our brains, our heart, our muscles and tendons. He conceived of the idea of creating a human being. The senses you have of seeing with your eyes, hearing with your ears, feeling with your hands and your skin, those are all creations of God. That is one reason God loves you, you’re like his brilliant invention that he created and now he enjoys watching us walk around and do things and explore the world.
Have you ever played that computer game called The Sims? It’s where you have this person you made and they live in this house and they have other friends, and you can design their house. And you try to meet their needs, have them eat, work, spend time with friends, and earn money and so on. It’s a little like that, God watches us live our lives, and provides for us.
Point one is that we are the invention of God, God designed our bodies and our minds. But God also created our soul. Those are the little things about you, the fact that you like a certain flavor of ice cream, a certain kind of music, that you are gifted in a certain area, maybe you’re a writer, or a painter, or you make wonderful meals, or you decorate your home beautifully, or you have a gift for encouraging others, or a gift for serving others. Those various traits of your soul, what you love to do and what you bless others with, is an aspect of why God loves you.
God decided the world needed one of you. God designed me to be a pastor, to write sermons and share them, to shepherd a flock and care for them. God designed many of you to love your children, to provide for others, maybe God designed you to be a great farmer, or to be a great architect or to be someone good at administration or good with tools and fixing things. Maybe God designed you in your soul to be one who listens well to others, or one who talks well. Think about all the people in just the city of Owosso… you’ve got people who gifted in government, people gifted to be police officers and administrators and business leaders and cooks and cleaners and construction workers and salesmen and pastors and teachers and coaches and shift managers. And God designed each of us to do these things, and to love doing these things. God cared that much, and he loves who you are.
First point, you are the invention of God, second point you are a soul designed by God uniquely, third point, God created humanity with something infinite within each of us.
In Ecclesiastes it says that on the heart of every human is a longing for eternity. That’s why nothing in this life, romance, buying stuff, new houses, new cars, drugs, women, men, none of it really satisfies our longing for eternity. We long for something beyond this world. God created messengers, millions and millions of what we call angels, who are servants of God who do his work in the world behind the scenes. God also created planets, stars, galaxies, and so on. God also created plants, and all the animals and insects and creatures. But then God created humanity, and something very special happened there, because it says God created us in His own image. Where there is a piece of the divine nature in us. God did not create us just to be servants like the angels, he created us to reign with him. To be in charge, to have power over the Earth. Of course we know Adam and Eve messed that up, and ceded that authority to Satan the deceiver. But we were originally designed to rule and reign. And the Bible says if we have Jesus christ as our savior we will one day reign with him as coheirs in Christ.
But I think part of this mystery of being created in the image and likeness of God, is explained by this concept that God created us to create. We are not satisfied just reading a beautiful poem, we want to write a new poem, with our own thoughts and ideas. We aren’t satisfied just looking at a beautiful painting we want to paint one of our own. We aren’t satisfied seeing how beautiful someone’s child is, we want to have our own children. An architect isn’t happy just looking at a fantastic building, he goes out and builds one just as beautiful in it’s own unique way. We were created to create. God told Adam and Eve to subdue the Earth and spread across it. Build beautiful kingdoms, and God would watch us do it. Remember God invited Adam to name each of the animals, because God was curious what Adam would name them. He wanted Adam to have authority and to make those decisions as his chosen one.
In the same way God invites us to create. Just as God created the heavens and Earth. We create cities, paintings, books, children, arts crafts, and so many other things.
And lastly, I want to return to the original picture, God loves us because he is our beloved Father. He cares for us like a mother and father love their son or daughter. It’s an unconditional love, a powerful love that fills them and fills the child. God is love. That’s what the Bible says. The fundamental reality of the universe is love.
But if you don’t have Jesus Christ as your savior today then you are actually an enemy of God. You’re like the prodigal child who has left home and is away from God and his love. And if you don’t return to God through Jesus Christ, then when you die you will have to sent away into quarantine, a place of torment called hell, where God is not, and only pain is real.
But if you simply accept Jesus Christ as your savior, and turn away from your sins, and live holy, you have God as your Father, and He loves you so much. Even while we were still sinners God loved us enough to send Jesus to die for us. So receive him now.
God loves you because you are his own invention.
God loves you because He designed your own soul.
God loves you because you are made in His own likeness to create as he creates.
God loves you because God is love, and He is your Father, and you are His child.
And God loves you because you’ve received his son Jesus Christ as savior and have turned away from your sins.
Amen.
