Man the Principal Creation

[Music] [Speaker 1] Church fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individual and families that constitute them. God is involved in a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. Be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Praise the Lord. We are all welcome again to our monthly program for our singles, Singles Club every first Saturday of the month. And we thank God again for this first Saturday in the month of August as we gather together to look into scriptures, particularly for our young people. I trust the Lord that today’s meeting will be refreshing. It will be a time of blessing. It will be a time of encounter for you in the name of Jesus Christ. I welcome you who are joining us on Telegram, those of you who are joining us. We want to say you are very welcome to today’s program. If you are meeting us for the very first time today, maybe somebody invited you to Family Tent Singles Club program of every first Saturday, I want to say you can always reach out to us through our website, www.familytentministry.org. Today for our Singles Club, we are considering a very important topic. I just tagged it: Man: The Principal Creation. What that topic is saying is that God created many things. Many things were created at the beginning. But of all that was created, man was principal. Man is a creation that was principal in all that God created. And I’m looking at that in relation actually to purpose. We want to look at the implication of this in relation to purpose. As a young man, as a young woman, as an individual, we want to make you see that there is a connection between your being here and the purpose of God. What makes man principal is the matter of God’s purpose. What makes man the principal creation is actually the matter of the purpose of God. If you remove the purpose of God, then man is not different from every other thing that was created. But what gave man this principal place is the matter of purpose. And I want us to go to Genesis. Let’s open our Bible to Genesis chapter one. Let’s see how it reads and see what the Lord can help us to learn from this reading. The Bible says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from darkness. And God called the light day and darkness night. So the evening and the morning was the first day. Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the middle of the waters, let it divide the water from the waters." Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. So the evening and the morning was the second day. Then God said, "Let the water under the heaven gather together into one place, and let the dry land appear," and it was so. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the water He called sea, and God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grasses and bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its time, whose seed is in it on the earth," and it was so. And the earth brought forth grasses, the earth brought forth grass, the herbs that yield seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit whose seed is in itself according to its kind, and God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning was the third day. Then on the fourth day, God said, "Let there be light in the firmament to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. And let them be for light in the firmament of the heavens to give light to the earth," and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule by day and the lesser light to rule by night—the sun and the moon—and He made the stars also. Then God set them in the firmament of heavens to give light on earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from darkness, and God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning was the fourth day. Then God said, "Let the water abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens." So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves with which the water abounded according to their kind, 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 sea, and let the birds multiply on the earth." So the evening and the morning was the fifth day. So the sixth day, the Bible says God created animals and man. Now I want to get to that portion when man was to be created. The Bible says that then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon 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 then the next thing was that then God blessed them. He also said they should be fruitful, of course, multiply and on and on like that. Where I am more interested in is in verse 29: "And God said, See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the earth, and to every thing that creeps on the earth in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food," and it was so. Then the Bible concluded by saying that then God saw everything that He made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning was the sixth day. What is this that I'm trying to make you see in this passage? What I’m trying to make you see was that it was after everything was created that man came into the picture. I'm talking about man, the principal creature. It was after God had created everything He wanted to create, every other thing they were in place, then God now said, "Let us make man in our image." And so when He was bringing him, He said, "Let him come and have dominion over everything that had been created before him." Which means God had set everything in place before bringing someone to oversee, someone to manage everything that He created on His behalf. So what is making man the principal of all the creation, of everything that was created, is that he was the one that was brought to manage every other thing. He is to come and manage it. He is to be a manager. So God created several things, but man was created for the purpose of having dominion over those things. Now what that is making us to see is how principal, how fundamental man is. And what makes man fundamental, if you look at that scripture, is that man was created for the purpose of managing every other thing that was created. Man is the principal. Man is the fundamental being in that creation story. And what is the implication of this for us? Why is it that looking at this matter is very important for us as believers? Now when you look into the creation of man, God said, "Let us create him to come and manage these things." Now that is telling you something very vital: that when you remove purpose from man, then man also loses the dignity of being the principal. Man also loses that dignity of being the principal. What makes man principal is that it is when he appears that every other thing that was created, they find their purpose in man. Every other thing that was created before man, they find their purpose in man. It was the man as the man served the purpose of God that every other thing that was created before man will serve the purpose for which they were created. What makes you to be a principal being as a young man, as a young woman, is the purpose of God. Once we remove the matter of purpose from your life, automatically you have lost the dignity of being a principal creation. You have lost the dignity. The reason is because every other thing that are around you, that are about you, all of them will never be able to serve the purpose of God. What I'm trying to say is that the dignity of man is that once man can find purpose, every other thing will find their purpose in man. Once man cannot find purpose, every other thing will not be able to serve their purpose, what God created them for. They will not be able to serve it. So their being able to serve the purpose of God depends squarely on man finding God's purpose. Now I noted something here, let me read something that I wrote here. I said, "Indeed, man is God's principal creation. Man is God's central creation. Purpose for all other creations except man was not clearly defined. Yet, what actually happened was that their purpose was defined in man. God created them, God made them to be, then God now brought man and said, 'Okay, rule over these things. Use this one for food. Name this animal.' So they began to serve the purpose of God because there was a man who was serving the purpose of God." Everything around your life—your money, your relationship, your academics, your business, just mention all of them like that—all of those things, they will never be able to find their actual purpose until you as a person, you have been able to find your purpose. What I'm saying is this: that once you as an individual cannot find the purpose of God for your life, once you cannot define it, you cannot properly say, "This is the purpose of God" and such that you are following after that purpose, every other thing that God places around you, you will abuse them. They will be abused. They will not be able to serve the actual purpose for which they were created. I give you a good example: sex. God is the author of sex. I'm talking about sexual intercourse. I'm using that as a very practical example because that is what you find everywhere today. Sexual intercourse was actually a child of God's brain. It was the product of God's endeavor. It was God who made one male and the other one female. It was God who allowed, who made anything like what happens in marriage. It was the idea of God. Now when you look at that, we know that God is the author and the creator of sex. But look at something: when a young man or a young woman is not following the purpose of God for his life, when a young man or a young woman is not serving the purpose of God—God created every young man, every young woman for His pleasure. Revelation 4:11 says, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Now what am I trying to make us see? That we were created for God's pleasure. Man was created for God's pleasure. Now what I'm saying is this: when you don't run in the pleasure of God, your own life could not find purpose. What will happen to sex is that sex will not be able to serve the purpose for which God created sex in your life. God created sex for the purpose of marriage. But what will you find is that before marriage, there will be premarital sex. In fact, after marriage, there will be extramarital sex. Now you can see that sex could not serve the purpose of God again because man could not find his purpose. Once man cannot find his purpose, every other thing around man will also lose their purpose. They will also lose their purpose. I noted here, I said, "Until a man finds purpose, all other things with him can't serve their actual purpose." Once it happens that a man could not find his purpose, everything that is around him will be subject to abuse of purpose. They will not serve the purpose that God intended for those things. So what makes man the principal creation is that it is so crucial for you as a young man or a young woman to be able to find purpose, to be able to define purpose in your life. Once purpose can be defined, then every other thing around your life begins to enter into their own purpose. Money will now serve the purpose for which God expects of it. Riches, wealth will begin to serve the purpose. But once you cannot find your purpose, once you cannot see, you cannot understand your purpose, you will discover that because you cannot find your purpose, everything God places around you, you will begin to abuse them. And as you are abusing them, the actual purpose for which they were created has been defeated. This is what makes man to be the principal creation. That is why man is principal. And that is why you need to understand what is the dignity of being human. The dignity of being human is that you are serving the purpose of God. Once you are outside God's purpose, you have lost what it means to be a human being. The dignity that made a human being, "Wow, human being," that dignity of being human being is something that is lost. It has become a loss in any life that cannot find purpose. So finding purpose is a very crucial thing. Or else every other thing around you, apart from the fact that every other thing around you will not find their purpose because you are the principal one to define purpose for them. Once you don't define purpose for them because you have lost purpose, those things also lose their purposes. So what happens? You know what now happens? Those things will now define you. May that not be your portion in the name of Jesus. When what you ought to define begin to define you, you have lost the dignity of being human. Let me give practical examples so you can understand me. When someone, let us use the concept of sex that we have been talking about, sexual intercourse, not just sex in terms of male and female. When you look at that, and I like using it because that is something that society has become so sexually pressurized today and sexual permissiveness is alarming. Sexual permissiveness has become, in fact, sometimes the church is not even clear in its message on this matter because of the level of permissiveness. Society is sexually pressurized. It’s like it is normal to go into premarital sex, extramarital sex. It looks so normal. It looks like when you are talking about virginity and faithfulness to one partner, then it looks you are not normal. That seems to be it, and that’s why I’m using the example of sex. Now you notice that when a young man or a young woman begin to have sex before marriage, sex has been abused, has become premarital sex. As far as the Kingdom of God is concerned, it’s a "flee fornication." It doesn’t matter what they're doing in the world, but I’m talking from the principle of the Kingdom. From the principle of the Kingdom, because Jesus came to establish a Kingdom, He said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." So you're either inside that Kingdom or you are outside the Kingdom. That's why we speak of two kingdoms. There are just two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. You're either in the kingdom of light or you're in the kingdom of darkness, there’s no midpoint. If you are not with Him, then you are not for Him. So you're either in His Kingdom or you're outside His Kingdom. So I’m talking from the point of Kingdom principle based purely on the scripture, the Word of God. Now when somebody practices premarital sex, which the Bible described as fornication, sexual immorality, what has happened? How do you describe—you see the Bible describing what the person is based on what the person has done—it says, "This is a fornicator." So what has happened? Sex has defined the person. He’s being defined by it. That person, he or she, that individual is being defined by it. Instead of him defining it, it ought to be him when he or she finds purpose, "My purpose is I need to fear God and keep His command. I need to pursue the love of God, which is to obey Him. I am created for the pleasure of God." And I begin to search the scripture, "God, what is Your pleasure? What is it that I will do that will give You pleasure?" You begin to seek the face of God. And as you find out that, and begin to walk in that, you discover that sex will now serve the actual purpose of God. Sex will now become for the purpose for which God has created it: the purpose that it should be within marriage. Why? Because somebody has found purpose. Somebody has seen that no, this is who God is. This is what God wants me to do. This is how God wants me to live. And as the person pursues that, the other things that God created begin to fall into their actual place, begin to fall into where they should be in the life of that person. And that is why you are the principal creation. Once you lose direction, every other thing around you will lose their direction. And what will now happen is that instead of you defining them, they will be the ones defining you. May you not be defined by what you have been created to define in the name of Jesus. Then you will now ask me, how do I find purpose? Of course, if you are in the Kingdom, finding purpose, you already know the foundation to it: you must be born again. You must, not just being in church, you must. And when I mean being born again, what I simply mean is that you have come to an understanding that look, I need to have a relationship with God. Born again is an experience of having a relationship, a relationship, having a walk with God. Being able to walk, being able to relate to God. God created man to relate with Him. Being able to talk to God and hear God, becoming a son or a daughter of God by consciously and deliberately repenting. When the Bible says "repent and be baptized," when they were asking Peter, "What do we do? How do we come into this Kingdom?" Peter said, "Repent and be baptized that your sin may be blotted out." Confessing faith in Jesus. Now when that is done, you come to the next level of creating time for that decision you made. You must create time, time of fellowshipping in the place of the Word of God and prayer. But you must also exercise faith, the third thing: faith. What is this faith? Jesus says, "My sheep hear My voice. They know Me and they follow Me." You must understand that look, I am able once I’ve given my life to Jesus, I can hear Jesus. That is faith. Jesus can speak to me. I am His sheep, so I will hear His voice. I will hear His voice. And as you come into His Word, you come with expectation and faith to be directed by Him, to be instructed by Him. That's number three. Number four: principle of association. The Bible says walk with the wise you become wise, companion of fools are destroyed. Walk with men who have found purpose. Walk with men who have found their foot in God and they are following God, then associate with them. Let your association be association of men who have found purpose. Don’t mingle with men who are casual and careless with their life. The Bible says walk with the wise you become wise, companion of fools are destroyed. The law of association: don’t be deceived, evil communication corrupts good manners. Walk with the correct people, then you will become correct. I believe that if you take these first steps, you would eventually be somebody who can say, "Okay, this is the purpose of God for me. This is the purpose of God for me. This is what God wants me to do." Now what I mean by that is that there is the "why are we here, why are we humans?" We are humans because we are created to fear God. We are humans because we are supposed to bring pleasure to God. I’m talking about why we are humans. That is clear. But I’m also talking about the purpose of you as an individual. Just like when you look at the part of the body: the eye is for seeing. Of course, the eye is a part of the whole body. But the eye is not the one that does the walking; it’s the leg. The eye is for seeing, the ear is for hearing. So when we come into the body of Christ, while there is a general purpose, there’s also the specific purpose. So normally you begin from the general. I am created for the pleasure of God. I will serve God’s pleasure. My whole duty is to fear God and to keep His command and to go into the world and preach the Gospel. I’m the light of the world, I’m to shine. As you begin to look into the Word of God, you start seeing all of this, the wholesome purpose, the whole duty, you begin to see them. But also as you begin to walk in those four things I have explained to you, you also come to the point of where you begin to find your specific: that see, in God I am actually an eye. I am not a tongue. I am designed specifically as I serve the general purpose to also serve this specific purpose. May you enter into purpose because as a young man or a young woman, once you cannot define purpose, you have lost the dignity of being a human being. You have lost that dignity. That is the dignity. That is what makes you principal. You don’t just exist. You are not just there. No, no, no. Don’t just exist. You live a life of purpose. That’s what makes you principal. And as you live the life of purpose, everything around you will find their purpose. May that be your portion in life. May that be your path in the name of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ. As we round up this morning on this topic, wherever you are, I want you to pray. I want you to pray: "God, God, cause me to walk in purpose. Lord, I don’t just want to exist. I want to walk in purpose. I don’t want to be defined by what I should define." Oh Lord, help me to stand tall. Help me not to Lord, help me to stand tall. I will walk in the dignity of being human. I will not walk below my dignity. I will not walk below my dignity. As a young man, as a young woman, I will not walk below my dignity. Thank You, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Almighty God, we thank You again for this morning. I just commit my hearers into Your hand, Lord. I pray that everywhere they are listening to me this morning, Lord God, I just pray regardless of the junction where they are in their life, Lord, Lord, increase them in the matter of purpose. Let there be an increase in this understanding, let there be insight into this truth, let there be a walking in this reality in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank You, eternal Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen. Let’s share the grace together: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen and amen. [Speaker 1] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the life of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God’s Word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission help. Our regular activities are: Discipleship Class every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp, by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite the Rejoice filling station along Ijede Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you.