Difference between revisions of "Genesis 1: The Manager"
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==Preview: Within the text of Genesis 1 we are going to work with three major themes: God, Man, Us== | ==Preview: Within the text of Genesis 1 we are going to work with three major themes: God, Man, Us== | ||
| − | As we look at these themes I want you to | + | As we look at these themes I want you to look out for the theological truths about who God is, what God created man to be, and how we today should live in light of those truths. |
==Setting the Stage:== | ==Setting the Stage:== | ||
| − | Have you ever thought about the circumstances or reasons why God led Moses to write Genesis? This is something we do all the time when we talk about the New Testament. Think about it, we talk about Dr. Luke writing for his Gentile audience or Paul writing to the church in Corinth. In Genesis, Moses is writing for | + | Have you ever thought about the circumstances or reasons why God led Moses to write Genesis? This is something we do all the time when we talk about the New Testament. Think about it, we talk about Dr. Luke writing for his Gentile audience or Paul writing to the church in Corinth. In Genesis, Moses is writing for an audience of Israelites leaving Egypt to enter a new land and take responsibility for that land. The Bible uses the phrase inheritance to describe the land but a careful to understand something important. The Land of Israel always remained the property of God (see Lev. 25:23). The Israelites were simply the managers of the land, those who took possession of it. So as we read Genesis we need to understand exactly what God was communicating. We could think of the first five books of the Bible as a sort of employee handbook and the first book, Genesis is going to give us the background we need in order to understand how the company works. |
=Body= | =Body= | ||
Revision as of 00:48, 23 February 2022
Theological Proposition/Focus: God, as creator and sustainer of creation has exclusive right to determine how creation functions.
Homiletical Proposition/Application: God created man to be the steward of his creation and as such everything man does should reflect the will of God as owner and operator of creation.
Contents
- 1 Introduction:
- 2 Body
- 2.1 God: God owns and operates it all because God made it all.
- 2.2 Man: Man was created to manage everything God created.
- 2.3 Us: God values good management (Matthew 25:14-30).
- 3 Conclusion:
Introduction:
Image: The One Minute Manager
In 1982 Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson made waves in the world of Business with their book The One Minute Manager. The book quickly became a New York Times bestseller and has sold over 15 million copies. Within the book, a few key ideas stand out. One of the most prominent ideas is that a good manager teaches others to be good managers. A good manager uses his resources: time, money, people, wisely. A good manager provides an opportunity for those under his management to bring praise to the good manager.
In Ecclesiastes 1:9 Solomon tells us that there is nothing new under the sun and this case is no exception. You see God is the Owner/Operator/CEO/Chief Manager of the universe and he is training each of us to be good managers as we manage well we bring praise to the ultimate Good Manager - God.
Need: We need to understand what it means to manage under the Good Manager.
I have been using the word manager a lot but I want to switch terms. You see there is a more theological word we often use to describe management, that word is Stewardship. Over the next several weeks we are going to be studying the concept of Stewardship and trying to understand what it means for us today.
Subject: Stewardship
Text: Gen. 1:1, 26-31.
Preview: Within the text of Genesis 1 we are going to work with three major themes: God, Man, Us
As we look at these themes I want you to look out for the theological truths about who God is, what God created man to be, and how we today should live in light of those truths.
Setting the Stage:
Have you ever thought about the circumstances or reasons why God led Moses to write Genesis? This is something we do all the time when we talk about the New Testament. Think about it, we talk about Dr. Luke writing for his Gentile audience or Paul writing to the church in Corinth. In Genesis, Moses is writing for an audience of Israelites leaving Egypt to enter a new land and take responsibility for that land. The Bible uses the phrase inheritance to describe the land but a careful to understand something important. The Land of Israel always remained the property of God (see Lev. 25:23). The Israelites were simply the managers of the land, those who took possession of it. So as we read Genesis we need to understand exactly what God was communicating. We could think of the first five books of the Bible as a sort of employee handbook and the first book, Genesis is going to give us the background we need in order to understand how the company works.
