Let's open our Bibles this morning to the book of Genesis, chapter 1, beginning with verse 26. And God said, and I'm not going to preach on every word, let us, plural, let us make man in our image, plural, after our likeness, plural, and let them, I'm going to create man, but let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, made, created Him, male and female, created He them. Father, we come this morning and As we stand before your people, may we never forget the solemn responsibility to preach your word, to attempt to nourish and feed your sheep so that they, in turn, might reproduce other sheep They would be instrumental in witnessing and bringing other lost sheep into the fold. Lord, may everything we say and do point us to Jesus Christ, for it's in His name we ask. Amen. There are many, many sins that we mankind commit every single day. I'm going to look at just a couple very, very, very briefly, and then I'm going to focus on the rest of it. will be after we look at the seeing side, let's look at the divine side and see what we can in Christ, what we should in Christ. And I was sitting there during the devotion and during Sunday school, both of you touched on at least one point that I'm going to try to make. I love it when that happens because it means that God is trying to get a point across and He used one, two, three people in the same service to try to get across a point that we need. First of all, there's the sin of pride. I think you know what that is. That is where I look at myself as better than others. I know a person who, well, I knew them years ago. I opened my mouth one day, and he said, huh, you're so dumb. My IQ was triple your IQ. I've had a complex ever since. But really, that's nothing more than pride. I'm better than you. I'm smarter than you. I make more money than you. I got a better job than you. And it's always comparing ourself with others and always making ourself look better than the other people. I look at myself as more deserving of a promotion. Well, I don't know why she got that promotion. I'm smarter. I'm a better worker. I'm better organized. I should have got that promotion. That's a form of pride. We sometimes think like Haman. If you remember when we studied the book of Esther on Wednesday night, you remember who Haman was. He was the wicked, wicked Haman who hated the Jews and tried to kill the Jews, especially Mordecai, who was the cousin of Queen Esther. And so one day the king said to Haman, what would you do if the king really wanted to honor someone? And Haman thought to himself, who in all the kingdom is more deserving? Who in all the kingdom would the king honor more than me? If there's anybody in the kingdom that deserves to be honored, it's me. And of course, you know the rest of the story. Then there's the other side, which I call a false humility. And I say false to differentiate between genuine humility, which is biblical and which is Christ-like, and the humility of the world. I sometimes hear Christians, not everybody that says this is a hypocrite, but certainly a large number You know, I just don't know why God loves me. I'm just so unworthy. I just don't deserve God's blessings. And you can tell by the way they're saying it. They really don't believe it, they're just saying it because it makes them look better in many people's eyes. They talk about how terrible they were and I've got a problem with anybody. There used to be a guy when I was working at the museum who every time he was there speaking or whatever, he had to introduce himself every time, and I mean every time, as all of his accomplishments. you know, I used to do this, and I was voted number one in this, and I'm, you know, I'm the best-selling author, and I was on the New York Post or Times best-selling list, and You know, every time he got in front of people, he had to tell you how great he was, and how wonderful he was, and how he had, you know, been with so many famous people. And he was excellent, but I got to where I could hardly stand him. It was all about him. But if you talk to him one-on-one, oh, you know, I just don't deserve to have been with the president. I'm just so unworthy to have accomplished this. And you could tell it was as phony as a $4 bill. It's a false sense of humility They say all the right words, but deep down inside they really don't believe, they really don't see themselves the way God sees them. If you ever see yourself the way God sees you, you will fall on your face before God and you will say as the publican, oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And you will not be bragging about, oh, I was such a terrible sinner. You will fall down before God and you will give all honor and all glory and all praise to none other than God Himself. Then there are people to whom Satan has gotten their minds so twisted and Satan tries so hard to tell them, you're terrible. By that I mean, God won't save you. God can't save you. Why, I know what you did when you were five years old, and you think God's gonna save you after what you did. I know what you did at 16. It was so horrible. There's no way God will ever save you because you are so bad. That is Satan working, trying to get you to the point that you give up any hope of being saved because you stole somebody's pencil at five years old in kindergarten. Satan is a master. I've got a sermon that I preached many, many years ago. I want to find it because I want to preach it again, how Satan works. But Satan will get into people's mind and tell them, you cannot be saved because you're such a terrible person. Then there's the last side. And this is where I'm gonna focus most of my time. These are people that are genuinely saved. But Satan has gotten into their mind and has so twisted their mind that much, much of some people actually doubt that they are saved. And I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands, but have you, please don't raise your hand. Have you ever gotten to the point where Satan made you doubt your own salvation? I don't know if I'm saved or not. I'm gonna let you in on a big secret. I've been there myself. See, Satan's job is to play with your mind. His job is to mess up your mind, and if he can get a Christian who is genuinely saved to a position that they are struggling with, am I, am I not, am I, am I not, And they're struggling with that. And I know in my case, when I went through it, I was so obsessed with, am I saved? Am I not saved? Am I, am I not? That I became absolutely worthless in the service of God because all of my attention was focused on, how do you know you really repented? How do you know you really believed? If you were really saved, you couldn't have done what you did. That's the group I want to focus on for the next hour and a half or two. I'm kidding for our visitors. What, how does the Bible portray us in the sight of God? How important am I really in the mind and heart of God? I spoke with someone a week or two ago, and maybe that's what got me thinking They said, you know, I am so bad, God doesn't even know my name. I'm so bad. And I began thinking, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Is that possible? And I'll answer that, no, it's not possible. Jesus said, I know my sheep. I call my sheep by name. I know every one of my sheep. I know how many hairs they have on their head. I know I know everything about them. I know their mind and we're going to look at that. So I begin thinking, yes, God does know me and God does care about me. Now I don't, I'm not going to make my points to cause pride. It's not my point. If you come out pride, you missed my whole entire point. But I want to show us that God's love for us did not start with me, is not with me, and will not be because of anything that I do in the future. God's love for me is eternal. God's love for me is unconditional. God's love for me is never changing. God's love for me is not dependent on what I do or don't do other than I repent of my sins and trust in Jesus Christ. So let's look at a few things. And I've got six things, but most of them are short, to see how much God loves you and I. First of all, and this goes to our text, God created me in His image. You know, when God said, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and without Him was not anything made that was made. God just simply spoke. Just like that. The entire universe appeared. God spoke. and the trees instantly appeared. God spoke, and the sun, the moon, and the stars appeared. God spoke, and all of the sea animals just miraculously appeared. And suddenly, the seas and the oceans are full of animals. God spoke, and all the land animals were formed. Everything from the fly to the mosquito, all the way up to the elephant, and then all the way up to the dinosaurs, T-Rex, and all of those other sores, sours, whatever you pronounce. God just simply spoke, and instantly, they were all there. They appeared. But when it came to making man, God did not just speak, let there be man. There's Adam. No. God took dust. God began to form and make and mold and build the toes and the feet in the calves, in the thigh, and God began to put all the intestines and all of the other organs, the heart, the lungs, and God made and put design, by divine design, God made the brain and made it ready. It still, even now, surpasses the supercomputers that NASA uses. But God wasn't done. This is my special creation. And so after he formed man, he breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. He didn't breathe into the elephant and say, elephant, come alive. He didn't breathe into the cow and make the cow in his image. He simply created them, but man, man was special. Man was different. Man is the only creature in the universe that's capable of communicating with God. The animals can't pray. The animals can't praise God. Not like we can. But man is made in the very image of God. And man is the only thing that God breathed a spirit into. Trees have a body. If you don't think it, go out and hit your head and say, whoa, it's got a body. Animals have a soul. That is emotions. Animals can show affection, but animals don't have a spirit. Man is special, created in the very image of God. And then God breathed the spirit into him. Then God did even more than that. The animals, he created them. You know, you males find your females. You know, y'all, I just created you. But in the case of Adam and Eve, he made and fashioned Adam. Then he took a rib, and from that rib, he perfectly designed and made Eve and brought Eve to Adam and said, Adam, this is your wife. He didn't do that for the animals. Didn't do that for the bees that pollinate all of our flowers and everything. Number two, Bible compares me to the universe. Now, I did a little arithmetic, but I didn't get very far because my calculator wouldn't go up that high. But I'm told that lightning travels at 186,000 miles per second. That's almost as fast as some people drive that I've had to ride with, not talking about anybody special. 186,000 miles per second. Multiply that times 60 seconds in a minute. Multiply that times 60 minutes in an hour. Multiply that times 24 hours in a day, and then multiply that times seven days a week, and multiply that times 52 weeks a year, and my calculator lost it at about, after an hour, my calculator lost it. That's how big the universe is. What does the Bible say? David wrote in Psalms 8, when I considered thy heavens, the work of thy fingers. I love it. You know, if I, well, I don't build anything. I'm great at destruction, but I don't build so good. God created the universe with just his fingers. Didn't even have to use any muscle, didn't have to use his strength. When I considered thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest. I remember a few years ago, I don't remember, I might still have been at the museum, maybe, but they showed the earth, and in their presentation, in their slide, the earth looked humongous. Then they compared the earth to just our galaxy, which is just one galaxy out of thousands. And when you compare Earth to our Milky Way, Earth was a little spot. Now, take our galaxy and reach out to a hundred galaxies, and you can't even see Earth. Earth and that point is so small, you can't even see the Earth when it's compared to the universe. The Earth is not visible at all. Now, on that invisible Earth, picture you. Now, I'm going to tell you something. If you repeat it, I will have to whoop you with 30 lashes with a wet needle. I'm 5 foot 7, weigh 175 pounds. Compare me to the non-visible Earth in the universe. I'm smaller than an atom. I'm smaller than a molecule when compared to the universe. And yet, as David considered the heavens, he asked himself, what is man that thou art mindful of him? And the devotion. we were told that we need to get out alone. I wholeheartedly agree. Sometimes we just need to get away from everybody and everything and just stop and stand or sit in awe of Almighty God. In this vast universe, on this invisible planet, even in the Milky Way, which is just our galaxy, Earth is really, really teeny. And yet God loved man, that out of all of the vast universe, God made man as the, by the way, People sometimes ask, do you believe there's life in outer space? I believe there are angels. I believe there are seraphims. But no, I don't believe there's Martians on Mars. I don't believe there's life on other planets. There's no biblical reference to it. But out of the vastness of the universe, God saw five-foot-seven, 175-pound Wilbert Ellis on an invisible planet, and God set His love upon me. That's how important I am. Number three, and this is one of my many, many, many favorite passages, Psalms 139. If you want to turn, I'll give you five, four, three, two, one seconds. Psalms 139, verse 13. Now, the whole chapter would make a great sermon, but I'm just going to look at verse 13, 14, 15, and 16. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me Talk about pro-life. David said, thou hast covered me. You covered me! in my mother's womb. David said, I was already in existence. Me was already there. Me was present and alive. And from me, God began to cover me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. If you ever get out to the museum, you must go through the portion called fearfully and wonderfully made. Did I get that right? Fearfully and wonderfully made. If you don't come out pro-life, you really do have a problem. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, that my soul knoweth right well. Look at verse 15. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret. You know, with all of our science, we still can't understand how a itty-bitty teeny-weeny microscopic cell can curiously rot and make our whole body. From that one teeny little cell, my eyes were already determined what color. My hair was already determined My height from that teeny cell. My height, not my weight. My weight is from overeating. That's not God made me fat. It's overeating. Thine eyes did see my substance. You saw my entire body, yet being unperfect. And in thy book, All my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, who fashioned them? God, when as yet there was none of them." How important am I in the sight of God? He didn't just say, poof, here's a sale, I'll wait and see what it grows into. And then 20 years later, it's like, oh, it's a girl. No. God personally, individually shaped and formed each part of David's body Every part of his body was already written in thy book. All my members were written, when in continuance there was none of them there. God designed my body. He designed my head. He designed every part of me. when there was nothing there but a single cell. He didn't do that for the animals. He doesn't do that for trees and flowers, but he personally designs every single human being and makes them exactly according to his plan. How do I know what God thinks of me? Number four, he died for me. He did not die for the animals. He didn't go to the cross for animals. I got in big trouble. Man, I got in big trouble about that. I was trying to think. It was in this building. So that would have been 25, 30 years ago, maybe. And I made the comment that your little poodle, your little pet dog, when it dies, it doesn't go to heaven. And we had a member at that time that got so mad they stormed out and to this day have never set foot in this building again because I said their little doggie, their little kitty cat does not die and go to heaven because God didn't die for animals. And the man replied, My dog will be there waiting for me in heaven." It's like, sorry, it ain't gonna be there. Now, there will be animals in the kingdom. There will be animals on the new heaven and new earth, but it's not gonna be your little fluffy or whatever your animal is. God did not die to save animals from their sins. They were cursed in the curse, yes. But God did not die on the cross to save animals. But he did die for us. He did not die to save angels. But he did die to save Wilbert Ellis. and anyone else whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's how important I am. I'm important enough that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the creator of the universe, the God that spoke and created everything, the very God that shaped and formed me in my mother's womb is the very same God who died to save Wilbur Ellis. And he died to save you. if you have repented of your sins. Number five, he intercedes for me. Now, I don't have time to read all the verses, but Revelation tells us that the devil goeth about and that the devil constantly is running up before the throne of God and accusing God's people. Hey God, did you see what Wilbur Ellis did? And he tries to, you know, make us somehow so that God will turn away from us. Did you see what you did? God, do you know what she did? And God says, Jesus Christ says, Father, her sins are paid. God says, case closed. Satan goes to God and literally, according to Revelation, he accuses us. But the Hebrews chapter seven said, wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost. that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. When Satan goes up and says, did you see what your son did? Jesus Christ makes intercession. God is satisfied. Satan has to go somewhere else. He doesn't intercede for trees. He doesn't intercede for animals. But he sits at the right hand of God and he intercedes for you and for me. Number six, last point. He loves me enough. I'm important enough that someday He's gonna take me home to live with Him forever and forever. Isn't that a great thought? Like I said, there'll be animals in the new heavens and new earth, but God's not gonna give them a new body. Paul wrote in Thessalonians, that the trump shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be called up together with them, those that were dead that rose first, we will be called up together with them, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. He didn't do that for anything else, but he will do it for those who are saved. This old body is, and I think of others who have gotten more problems than I do, this old body's in pivotal shape. You don't have to be quite so agreeable. My body literally is falling apart. Literally. Except my good ones. But one of these days, God is going to take this wicked, sick, crippling, dying body and he's gonna make it immortal and incorruptible. Then he's gonna take me home to heaven to live with him forever and forever. I can't imagine being invited to live with the king. one of these days, not my fluffy dog, not my mowly mice, not my kitty cat, almost said not even my horses, but I won't say that. He's not gonna do that for anything else. But he created me in his image He formed me. He died for me. He intercedes for me. One of these days, I'm gonna live with Him forever and forever. Mankind is the only creature that can say that. So the next time Satan comes along, Satan says, oh, God doesn't love you. After what you did, now, your spouse may turn against you, your neighbors may turn against you, your friends may turn against you, but God made you and no matter what, he will never leave you he will never forsake you and he will never turn against you because you and you alone were made in his image father we come