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Dr. Raymond, who was here with us just a few weeks ago, was speaking of a conversation that he had with Francis Schaeffer just prior to Dr.
Schaeffer speaking at Yale. And he asked him, he said, now, excuse me, he said,
Dr. Schaeffer, you know you're only going to get one chance to speak at Yale, you're not likely to be invited back.
And so what are you going to say to these young people? And it was very, very interesting what he had to say.
He said the most important thing that has to be driven home to the young postmodern generation is
Genesis chapter 1, verse 24, 25, 26, and 27.
That they are specific creations of a creator
God. That they are not the result of random collisions between molecules and eons of time.
And that until they recover that idea, that they are in fact specific creations of a creator
God, that you're wasting your breath trying to speak to them about their need for a savior, their sin, or any of those very important things that we talk about.
And so this morning, I would like us to look at Genesis chapter 1. And we're going to investigate three specific verses.
Reading from the English Standard Version, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good.
And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. And God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.
And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse.
And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.
And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas.
And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants, yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth.
And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. Do you notice a pattern developing here?
And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.
And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so.
And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars.
And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.
And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And God said, let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.
So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let birds multiply on the earth.
And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.
And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. And here's the critical verse. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created him male and female.
He created them and God blessed them. And God 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 on the earth.
And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit.
You shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life.
I have given every green plant for food and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Now, as brief as they are, the opening verses of Genesis are among the most profound within the
Bible's pages. These few verses define who we are.
We are personal beings. We are beings created in God's image and God's likeness.
They also tell where we came from. We are not the product of random collisions of random elements in a random universe taken together with eons of time.
We are the results instead of the actions, the specific actions of a creator
God who purposed to make us by an act of his will. And therefore we have value.
Now most of society is running around today frantically searching for something to give their lives meaning.
But it's quite a problem because what does modern society say? It says you're just the result of random chance.
And at the end of your life, you're going into oblivion. But in the meantime, have a meaningful life.
That's not the way it works. We have value because we are created in God's image.
Why is it, for example, why is it permissible to kill an animal but not a human being? If you remove the distinction that man is created in God's image, you ultimately can't answer that question which is why that's the ethical challenge to society today.
We have dignity. Generally speaking, societies everywhere treat the bodies of their dead differently from the way they treat dead animals.
That's across the board. And why is that? It's because even pagans instinctively know that they are special in the universe even if they don't understand why.
And because we are created beings, we are responsible to our maker.
Someday, we will have to stand before him and give account for our lives because the created is always subordinate to the creator.
But we also have grounds for asserting that we are significant in the universe.
If we are created in the image of God, we have grounds for the claim that we are persons that make meaningful and significant decisions.
We are not merely cogs in the machine. And finally, we have a rational basis for morality.
We have an answer to the law of the jungle. After all, if we are just products of random time and chance, why shouldn't the survival of the fittest be the law that we function by?
Why should we let women and children get on the lifeboat first? Why not when grandma just gets too old to take care of, why don't we just put her out and let the elements and the wolves handle her?
Why don't we do things like that? Because we know that we can't treat each other that way because we are created in God's image.
And yet, when we destroy, when we jerk out from under that foundation, then we no longer have any rational basis for asserting that we're special, that we deserve, we're just one more of the animals.
And no better or, you know, we clawed our way to the top of the food chain and that's about the only distinction that we have.
And finally, we have grounds for believing that we are not, after all, merely pieces of flotsam in the cosmos.
We have purpose. We're here. Now, postmodern man, and to a very disturbing degree, many who claim to be evangelical
Christians reject the biblical narrative. They reject the Genesis narrative as a reliable account of what actually happened in the beginning because that's a question we have to face.
Is the Genesis account a reliable account of what actually took place?
Now, when you think about it, it would be logical to assume that it is because none of the naysayers were there.
Only God was there. So God is an eyewitness to creation. He can tell precisely what happened.
And he's the only one who was there. And so God tells Moses, Moses writes it down, and we have it in Genesis.
But what happens so much of society today, they reject, at worst case, they reject the
Genesis account entirely as just a myth and put it on the same level as the other creation myths that exist in ancient literature.
Or at best, they accept the Genesis account as a religious story that is scientifically inaccurate, although it does tell some practical applications to our lives.
It explains a few things. For example, why are most people afraid of snakes? Or, you know, why are we so nasty to one another?
Things of that sort. But it's not an accurate account of what really happened.
But by their very act of rejecting Genesis, they destroy the hope of finding meaning in their lives because they have rejected the chief end of man, which is to glorify
God and enjoy him forever. Now, postmodern man has lost the perspective that he is the result of the particular activity of a creator
God. Therefore, he is not concerned that he is answerable to his creator or that he has mightily offended him.
He is not concerned with any question of how he might be made fit to stand before God. Instead, he runs frantically about in a futile search for happiness or meaning or success or whatever, not knowing that he has abandoned the very basis for any of those things.
As Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes, apart from God, everything is just Hebel.
Everything is just a vapor, has no substance, no lasting characteristics.
It's just God. Now, modern naturalistic science, of course, is in the forefront of these efforts.
And any suggestion that there might be a supernatural first cause at the root of all things or that there is a divine intelligence behind the design that is everywhere apparent in nature is sure to produce a reaction bordering on the violent.
The ironic thing is science owes its very existence to a
Christian worldview. Without a creator God, the very idea of science is ludicrous.
And we'll talk some more about that later. But right now, I want to spend some time looking at three specific verses in the passage we've just read.
The first is Genesis 1 .1. So go back to the text. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Ten short words.
And yet, there is so much content present there.
First of all, note what it states or at least implies. First of all, it states that creation is absolute.
God created everything that exists out of nothing. He creates ex nihilo, something from nothing.
But even when there was nothing, there was still something because there was
God. God was there. God has always been there. And he spoke the universe into existence.
Now think about that. There was nothing there. Nothing there. And then all of a sudden, there was.
The protons and the neutrons and the electrons that form atoms suddenly sprang into existence.
And all of the they busily got about forming themselves obediently into the structures that God had decreed for them to be.
And all of those rules that we now think of science, the laws of science, suddenly came into being.
And all of those atoms that had just been created busily got to work arranging themselves according to those laws.
By simply God saying, let there be. Genesis 1 .1
says that phrase over and over again. Let there be. And God said, let there be this.
Let there be that. And it was so. So who is this creator
God that can create something from nothing? Well, first of all, the
Bible notice begins with God. It does not start out with philosophical arguments for his existence.
And Genesis 1 .1 implies several absolutes. First of all, it's a denial of atheism.
If God created in the beginning, then he exists. And that he existed before that beginning.
So God is eternal. And second, it is a denial of materialism.
If God created the universe, then he is apart from it. He exists apart from it.
Matter has not always existed. But God has always existed.
God caused matter to come into being. And third, it is a denial of pantheism.
Pantheism is the idea that God is nature or God is in everything. A little bit of God exists in everything.
You've got a rock. You've got a little bit of God here. And there's a little more of God in human beings. But it's still basically the same idea.
And most of your animistic religions believe something along these lines. But God is not matter.
God is not in matter. In fact, the Bible specifically states that God is a spirit.
God is separate from and superior to his creation. And therefore, he rules over it.
He rules over it. And finally, note that the Bible begins and ends with God, not man.
So he is over us as well. God is self -existent.
He created all things. But he himself was not created. He is eternal. He has always existed.
Therefore, he transcends creation. He transcends creation. He is over creation, not a part of it.
God's self -existence also means that he is unknowable unless he chooses to reveal himself.
And one of the magnificent messages of his word is that he has chosen to reveal himself.
In the Garden of Eden, God communed daily with Adam. Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 tells us that God has revealed himself in the person of his son.
God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake to the prophets, so forth and so on, hath in these last days spoken in the person of his son to us.
Jesus tells us that he who has seen me has seen the Father. And to paraphrase
Francis Schaeffer, God is there and he is not silent. He is a God who speaks.
Another thing about God's self -existence, it means he doesn't answer to us.
God doesn't answer to us. God does not account for himself. He does not give answers.
He does not explain. We have a way of stating that. We say that God is sovereign.
He rules over his creation. God is self -sufficient.
He has no origins. He has no needs. He has no dependencies.
He even has the psalmist say that if I needed something, I wouldn't tell you.
It's not like I need anything from you guys. And that means
God does not cooperate with anyone. It's not a little bit of God, a little bit of us.
God does what it pleases him to do. And this applies to salvation as well. Salvation is of the
Lord, first and last. We also gather that God does not need worshippers.
Think about this. God was under no obligation to create. He didn't have to create anything.
That's one of the things that means to be sovereign. The words have to and sovereign don't go together, you see.
And so he didn't, he was under no obligation to create. He was not lonely, so he created man, you know, as has been said, believe it or not.
He created because it pleased him to do so. He created, he works all things according to the counsel of his will,
Ephesians 111 tells us. He created to manifest his glory.
He created us to manifest his glory. That's why we're here. But God does not gain from our worship.
God is due our worship. But man's worth is according to grace.
It was God's grace in creation. It was his grace in election. And he demands our worship as his due, but he doesn't beg us for it, nor does he reward us for it when we do worship.
You know, it's not, well, we did something for you, God, and now you owe us one. It's not the way it works.
He bestows what he bestows on his creation out of the goodness of his grace. We don't earn merit before God.
We worship him because he is worthy of worship. We worship him because he is our creator.
Also, God does not need help or helpers. He assigns men tasks out of his grace.
That's another manifestation of grace. Not because he cannot accomplish his ends without our assistance.
For example, he has assigned us the work of the management of the earth, as Genesis 1, verse 28.
Work, per se, is not the result of the fall. The fall meant work was going to be hard.
But Adam had work to do, useful work to do, before the fall.
He was to tend the garden. He was to name all the animals. He had lots of things to keep him busy.
He was not sitting around idle. And so, that's one thing. He has also assigned us as believers, he's assigned us the work of spreading the gospel.
But that, too, is a work assigned to us as a privilege and out of his grace.
God does not need us to spread the gospel. He stoops to use us to spread the gospel.
He could have the stones preach, frankly, and the stones would probably do a better job. God does not need defending.
God does not need defense or defenders, which is a very good thing for us. Because a
God that needs defending is useless as a defender. Right? And yet,
God defends us. He says, I look out for you. You're under my care.
I watch over you. I superintend your life. And you are much more important to me than any birds, any sparrows, anything else in nature.
Why? Because you're unique. You're created in my image. Only God can properly trust in himself.
The rest of us are to trust in him. Refusing to trust God is sin because it says that something or someone is more trustworthy than God is.
To refuse to trust God is to reject what he says about himself. In effect, you're calling God a liar when you do that.
It says God is not trustworthy. It is to slander his name. It's also folly to fail to trust
God. The Bible repeatedly states that God is eternal.
First of all, verse 1 starts in the beginning. But God precedes that.
But here's just a few examples. Genesis 21 -33. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the
Lord the everlasting God. Or, for unto us a child is born.
Unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the
Prince of Peace. Or, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world. From everlasting to everlasting you are
God. Or, at the very end of the
Bible, and he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end.
Revelation 21 -16. And so God, because he is eternal, he can be trusted to remain as he has revealed himself to be.
He is holy and will remain holy. He is righteous and will remain righteous.
He is omnipotent and will remain omnipotent. He is omniscient and nothing can be hidden from him.
He is the righteous judge and he will remain the righteous judge. He is also our father and will remain our father.
He is omnipresent. Therefore, he is inescapable and he cannot be ignored.
He does not change his mind. What he said is sin today will be sin tomorrow and will be sin a year from now.
And will be sin a thousand years from now. Should Jesus Christ not return in that period of time.
He can be trusted what he says. But he also says, if he says, you are my sheep and your sins are forgiven.
Your sins are forgiven. And they will be forgiven today and they will be forgiven tomorrow.
And they will be forgiven throughout eternity. Because his promises are yea and amen.
And so you can count on his promise. You can count on the promise that says sin will be punished. You can also count on the promise that says,
I know my sheep. And every one of those sheep is going to come to me.
And I'm not going to lose any of them. You can count on what
God says. He does not move away. He does not move away.
He doesn't go to the next town. Eventually, you're going to have to face him.
Whether you are one of his children. Whether you are a believer or whether you are not. You are going to face
God. Every one of his created beings is going to kneel before him.
Now you may kneel voluntarily or you may be forced to your knees. But you're going to do it. Now this truth that God is constant and eternal and remains as he revealed himself to be.
Is the basis for modern science. Now what we know of as science.
The scientific method was developed in Europe. By men who largely speaking had a
Christian world view. They had a Christian world view. In fact, many of them were in fact believers themselves.
And they reasoned along these lines. Since there was a creator God who did not change.
The universe must be operating according to fixed laws. And therefore, if that's the case and since that is the case.
Then by experiment and observation. They could learn something about how the universe worked.
Secure in the knowledge that whatever they discovered today would still be true tomorrow. That it wasn't going to change.
And so this is the basis for my statement. That the very idea that science was possible.
Grew from this view. It's only when you believe that things are going a certain way.
Because God has decreed that. And then that lets me say. Well, whatever
I learn about the universe is going to be constant. And I can depend upon it.
And so the idea that one could think God's thoughts after him.
Was what drove the likes of Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday. Who were both Christians by the way.
The early fathers of modern science. However, differed from their modern day counterparts in one important respect.
The fathers of science. Viewed the universe as an open system.
That ran according to laws. But it could still be effected from outside. And so this left room for a creator
God. That still is active in his creation. And still effects it. He could still intervene in his creation.
By contrast, modern naturalistic science. Views the universe as a closed system. A system that is closed to itself.
Nothing is allowed in from the outside. Now that raises the issue of where did it all come from?
The universe is undeniably here. Unless you're really into some weird eastern mysticism.
The universe is here. You can't really deny that it isn't. And so where did it come from?
After all, one of the basic principles of logic. Is that out of nothing, nothing comes. Sounds logical, right?
But much of naturalistic science today. Is trying to say exactly that.
They're trying to say. That the universe that we observe. Somehow created itself.
Now this is a headlong flight from reason. But some of the most educated men of our day.
Are trying to convince themselves. And trying to convince us. That the universe created itself.
And too much of modern society follows blindly along. After all, if you want to make a statement.
And really drive it home. You say, scientists say. And if you really want to emphasize it.
You say, leading scientists say. I mean, nobody's going to question a leading scientist.
Are they? And yet, here's just one example. From a physics professor at City University of New York.
I promise I am not making this up. This is a word for word quote. The universe as a young bubble.
Had tunneled like a metaphysical mold. From somewhere else to arrive in space and time. That someplace else was nothing.
Did you all get that? Let me tell you, it doesn't get any clearer. If you read it again.
You know, I have to agree with. Again, with Dr. Raymond. Who said, when educated men make absurd statements.
They are no less absurd. Than when uneducated men make them. Okay. But enough of that.
If you would like to pursue this line of thinking further. I would recommend two books. First, How Should We Then Live?
By Francis Schaeffer. And also a book called, For the Glory of God. By Rodney Stark.
If you would want to go further reading on that subject. But let's return to our text. Because I've already taken the position that men are created in God's image.
And that is what gives them their special place in the universe. So let's look at the theological implications of that.
Turn with me to verses 26 and 27. Then God said, let us make man in our image.
And after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea. And the birds of the heavens.
And over the livestock. And over all the earth. And over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.
So what then does being created in God's image imply? Well, first of all, it implies knowledge.
It implies the ability to reason. And you might ask, well, don't animals reason?
Within very narrow limits, yes. But not like men do.
Not like men do. Men have the ability to analyze, to take in information, to process that information.
Make decisions based on that information at a very, very high level. Man also has a will.
Man was created with volition. A will. That is the ability to make moral decisions.
And this is one of the things, again, that separates us from animals. Animals do not make moral decisions.
They react according to their instincts. Why does your dog do what it does?
It does it because it's a dog. Or whatever animal that you come across.
Elephants do what elephants do because they're elephants. Not so for men. Men are created with the ability to make moral decisions.
And Adam, the father of us all, exercised his volition negatively and rebelled against God.
And so he fell, and so we fell with him. That's where the doctrine of total depravity comes from.
That's why we're born sinners. We don't become sinners as we live.
We are born sinners. Sweet little baby in the arms there. That's a little viper in your bosom, as Jonathan Edwards put it.
You know. We also have a certain element of freedom that comes from the fact that we are created in God's image.
We also have responsibility. Because we are created with the capacity for moral decisions, we are responsible for the consequences of those decisions.
That is why if a man commits a crime, he is put on trial and tried.
An animal, we don't do that, too. We might kill the animal to take it out of our harm's way.
But we don't try it. But a man is tried.
Why? Because he's morally responsible for his acts. We are also made for communion with God, the
Creator. We are valuable. We have value.
We are the object of God's special love and attention. He pays close attention to us.
It also means that we are to rule over the rest of creation. Man is the apex of earthly creation, and it was to rule over all the rest that God had made.
And the Bible goes through that several times. That's not a casual thing. He was to rule over, and it specifies it, the fish in the sea and the birds in the air and all of the animals on the earth, and both the wild animals and the livestock, the domestic animals.
It goes through the whole thing, and it says that repeatedly. Man was supposed to do that. And one of the consequences of the fall is that there is now enmity between us and the animals.
We are also created with God consciousness. We are aware of God. God is the
God who is there, and we are born, even in our fallen state, with a vestige at least of the knowledge of his presence.
Children, you don't have to convince a child that God exists. It's not until they become sophisticated and grow up that that knowledge is suppressed.
But what does Paul say in Romans chapter 1? He said, because you knew
God, you knew God, but you didn't glorify him as God. You rejected the knowledge of God.
And he uses that as the basis for condemnation, that you have rejected as an act of your will, you have rejected the knowledge of God, which is the lower animals do not have knowledge of God.
Animals do not consciously glorify God. Animals cannot be guilty of moral and spiritual sin.
Animals just are what they are. But we can. We are to glorify
God. Therefore, we are unique in all of the earth's creation.
We are superior to the rest of the earthly creation. Notice it also says we are created.
We are not made. We did not evolve. There's a Hebrew word that is used only in verse 1, verse 21 and verse 27.
And it means to create from nothing. It means to create from nothing.
It's where it's the beginning of all things. And then when life entered the creation,
God uses it those three times. Otherwise, the Hebrew word that is used is for made, meaning to fashion.
But out of things that already exist. It means it says, you know, later on in the
Bible, it says Noah made the ark. Well, it means he made it out of wood and things that he gathered, you know.
But God created the original creation. And also he said he made, he created man and made him a living soul.
The breath of God entered that clay that God had fashioned into Adam.
But then when the breath of God entered, he becomes a living soul. And so we're created in the image of God.
But that image has been shattered by sin. Man was marred by sin.
But in God's grace, he was not instantly destroyed. Because even though it's another sermon,
I'll mention it here. Adam's fall did not surprise God. God had already accounted for that in his plan.
Because even marred by sin, vestiges of God consciousness remain in us.
But what happened to Adam? First of all, spiritual death occurred instantly. He was instantly dead spiritually, separated from God.
But physical death did not occur until almost a thousand years later. But he started downhill at that point.
Physical decay started. Genetic damage began to build up. And the lifespan steadily decreased.
If you read Genesis chapter 5, there's a phrase that occurs over and over and over and over again.
And he died. He lived, you know, it's the same thing. He begat all these children.
He lived 800 years. He lived 900 years. And he died. And he died. And he died.
The one place that stands out is Enoch was not because God took him. Otherwise, everybody else died.
And the lifespan began to get shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter. So the
Bible doesn't tell us how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world.
But I get the impression myself that it wasn't too long. But however long or short it was, man finds himself with a problem now that he's been struggling with ever since.
How can I be made right before God? That was Elihu's question in Job.
He asked, can mortal man be right, be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his maker?
And so modern man is attempting to deal with that same problem by just simply getting rid of God.
The trouble is that doesn't work. We only have two choices,
God or nothing. But men refuse to accept either one.
They refuse to accept that God is there and that they are accountable to him. They also refuse to accept the implications of their practical atheism.
And they leap at anything that somehow makes them feel significant, however briefly.
But there is an alternative. Return for a moment to the message of Ecclesiastes.
Solomon does make the point that without God, nothing has any meaning. But he goes on to say that with God, everything becomes a gift from his hand.
And because of Genesis 1 .1, we can define God as the one who creates.
And because he is the creator, there are standards and absolutes. Because God is the creator, he is the true deus ex machina, the true
God outside the machine. Therefore, he can help us.
God is the creator and therefore he is qualified to say what is right and what is wrong. He is qualified to define the limits.
He is able to help. And more importantly to us, he is willing to help.
Even at an incomprehensible cost to himself. Because God's creation is in trouble.
Man is not what he was created to be. But only a perfect, sinless sacrifice can atone for sin and set matters right.
And therefore, God will send his own beloved son to die. So that the believing one should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus said, for this is the will of my father. That everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life.
And I will raise him up at the last day. There is a solution. And so I would urge you if you're under the sound of my voice.
And you have not believed in Jesus Christ. Then repent.
Confess your sin. Believe in him. Put your faith in him. And gain life.
To be rightly related to the creator God of Genesis is the only source of life. The only life that matters.
And that we can be rightly related to him is a glorious message of the gospel of Christ.
Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we come before you acknowledging that we are in fact rebels.
We in fact shake our fist in your face. We have exercised the volition that you created us with against you.
Not once but over and over and over again. And yet, father, you have reached down to us.
You have drawn us to yourself. And so, father, we can do nothing but fall on our faces and praise you and glorify you in the face of that.
We thank you, father, that you are the creator God. We thank you that you did create us in your image.
And that, therefore, we are unique in the universe. And you have not abandoned us.
Rather, you have reached down to save us. And so, father, for each one here,
I would pray that you would make that truth real to them. Quicken their hearts, lord.
Grant them eternal life. Grant them regeneration. We would ask this in Jesus' name.