Thank you. Please be seated. And as was already said, please stand with me to Genesis and chapter one. Genesis chapter one. Let me quickly get the, the cut out of the bag. I finished preaching last week or rather the last time I was in the pulpit, which is two weeks ago, uh, on the, The Upper Room Discourse of Our Lord, which took us quite a number of years, but finally we came to the end of that portion of scripture, John 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. And now I thought it would be a good time to simply squeeze in a very short series, and the series to be specific is what the title is here, it's The Cultural Mandate. I need to explain, first of all, what that is all about. It's been the burden of the elders of Kabwata Baptist Church to turn us from being bystanders who are watching what is happening in society getting worse, to being individuals that get into the scheme of things in order to make a better world. We have done that with respect to the church in terms of reform. Once upon a time, people were just complaining all the time about church, about the kind of things that were either happening in the church or not happening in the church, and so forth. And so we said, fine, let's throw in our effort. Let's do what we can in order to ensure that we reform the church after the New Testament pattern and then begin to replicate to duplicate that and spread it across the nation, across the continent, and so on. We've tried to do that, and I think there's something to be shown for it. It may not be perfect. We've also tried, as much as we can, to do the same in the context of the Christian family. We are, by and large, most of us, first-generation believers. And we did not grow up in Christian homes. We grew up in religious homes, quite OK. They were church-going homes. But we did not know what it meant to have a culture that is in the home and it is biblical and therefore is able to raise a generation for God, for his glory and for the good of the world. We've tried to do that within the context of KBC. We've had seminars after seminars after seminars for I don't know how many years now, 30 plus years. Every year in November, seeking to take us back to the biblical principles that undergird courtship, marriage, and family life. However, it's really been with respect to the rest of life. We don't just live in the context of the church. We don't just live in the context of our homes. We live out there in the real world. And it is the out there of the real world that is going from bad to worse. And largely, the attitude that we have as believers has been that of, number one, just not getting into trouble. Avoiding doing that which is wrong, which other people are doing. But number two, it's basically been to watch. and complain, but it's to watch, forgetting the fact that in the mind of God and the witness of history, the world as we know it now, the blessings and benefits of civilization that we are enjoying are a product of Christians, ordinary Christians like you and me, Christians who took the cultural mandate, or as it is called, the creation mandate seriously. they realized that, in fact, we are the ones who have been mandated by God to bring about a better world for his glory. And consequently, they did what they called, and we are the beneficiaries. Basically, what the... Mandate does, and it is found in verse 28 of the first chapter. I'll be reading from verse 26 in a moment. What it does is it gives us a purpose for life, a purpose for life. That life is not about me being born, learning a few things, getting a job, hopefully getting married, hopefully having some children, hopefully owning a bit of property, and finally dying. That is a greater purpose for life. And what I want us to do today is to lay the groundwork. That's all I'll do today. I will simply, as it were, give you the site plan. And then the Lord willing, next week, I want us to erect the actual structures. And I'm hoping that between last and this week, we are not going to see the seminars that we have come up with as it's for those, me, I'm busy, but that we'll realize it's for us, to equip us, to transform Lusaka, transform Zambia, transform Africa, that instead of people now wanting to go to other parts of the world, that people in other parts of the world want to come here. Genesis 1 and verse 26. Up to this point, God has created everything else except mankind. 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. Now, I want us to proceed, because I want us to see some similarities with another chapter we'll see during the sermon. 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 breadth 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. Chapter 2, verse 1 to verse 3. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. The phrase cultural or creation mandate simply refers to this same command that God gave to Adam and Eve. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. It is a call that God made to his image bearers. Notice that when he had made the rest of creation, he never gave them any instructions. He never gave them any orders. He never issued a rallying call to them to do something. He just made them. And consequently, they were doing as they pleased, the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals on the ground. Whatever they did, they just did. But to his image bearers, he gave them this call, and it was a call to create a culture, a culture that would be for their good, a culture that would be for God's glory. The details of this culture is what we find in this phrase. Now, in a moment, I will tell you what the phrase culture means and why theologians have put it there. But for now, just be content that that is what it is called. And because it was to be the embryo from which civilization would be born, nurtured, and flourish, when God destroyed the world and began again with Noah, he gave this instruction afresh. Turn with me quickly to Genesis and chapter 9. Genesis chapter 9. Now, one of the reasons why this is important is because sin has entered into the world. And by reading this in chapter 9, what it is telling us is this, that the entry of sin into the world did not obliterate this call of God to us as his image bearers to build or create a culture for our good and for his glory. Chapter nine, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens. Upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Let's go on. Now the food has been increased from just vegetables to a few more. The three, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. So you can see that there was this repeat so that humanity that was now going to come out of the three sons of Noah and their wives would realize that our purpose for human existence has not changed. This cultural mandate is not just for believers. It is for the whole of humanity, for all people. It gives us a sense of purpose for life. And let me repeat this over and over again. If you have children that you bring up, and by the time your children are leaving the front door of your house to go and live for themselves, if they think that life is about making money, you've blown it. Because money is a good servant, but it is a terrible master. They must have a higher purpose for life and living than simply making money. And that's one reason why Although the cultural mandate is made primarily for the whole of humanity, every human being, the best people to carry it out are believers. Because believers alone live for the glory of God. We alone go beyond me, myself, and I. What is it that I can get out of this world? We alone can think in terms of life is about loving God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving my neighbor as I love myself. But having said that, I want to repeat, it is for the whole of humanity. And that is the reason why it is at the beginning of the growth of humanity. Even the second time around, it's at the beginning of the growth of humanity. So as we come to this verse, we should treat this little verse here, verse 28, the way we treat a baby even before it is born. When it is still an embryo in the mother's womb, That little thing that unfortunately every so often is aborted, but that little thing has everything in it that grows up into this human being. There's nothing outside the human being that begins to be really added like spare parts to finally make this human being. Everything literally grows out of that little embryo and finally is born and then begins growing and growing and growing and if it's a girl, even breasts begin to come out. If it's a man, you know, moustache and beard and A bald head and everything else begin to happen. It's all in there. In exactly the same way, this little verse carries the world on its shoulders. This little verse carries the rest of the unfolding of the Bible all the way to the end of Revelation. It's all in there. And because we've got the rest of the Bible, we can look backwards into this verse and go, aha, aha, here it is. That's why we are where we are. Let me just quickly prove that to you in a moment. When the Bible says, be fruitful and multiply, what does it mean, be fruitful and multiply? Is it simply saying, have more and more children, and more and more children, and as you have more and more children, they will finally fill the earth? Well, that's a simplistic way of looking at it. But there's another way to look at it that brings the rest of the Bible into this text. And it is this. The way it says, be fruitful and multiply, it basically is saying, create a social order that will manage human growth. Create a social order that will manage humanity. In other words, we must marry. Yes, we must. So when it says be fruitful and multiply, it doesn't mean that we just start just having sex and having children all over the place and having sex and having children and now we can't even tell whose children some of them are and we're just multiplying like animals. No. There is to be marriage as an institution. That's already a social order we are putting into place. And out of marriage, we are having children. And consequently, we are from there developing organized communities, organized societies that are governed with appropriate laws. So therefore, as humanity is multiplying from family to clan, as it is going beyond clan, and perhaps getting into tribes, and going beyond that, and multiplying, and so on, and in this particular case, becoming nations, and a conglomerate of nations, and so on, it doesn't matter how far it is, that we ourselves as humanity are to develop that. as part of the fact that we are made in the image of God. He has imbued us with the creative capacity that is able to organize us appropriately. I'll come to the details of that in a moment, but let me hurry on. Hence, even in giving them these commands, he's giving it to them in this way. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. It's all part of it, that there is to be a complementarian level of living. that men are to play a certain role, women are to play a certain role, and then together, as a left and right hand, organize society. And so, men are men. Whether they feel like they are women or not, they are men. Women are women. Even if they feel a little masculine, they are women. When we start reading statements like now, you know, biological men should no longer be involved in female games, you ask, are there any other kinds of men? Other than biological men? Why give the adjective? Similarly, there will be parents and there will be children. There will be governors and there will be the governed. There will be employers and there will be employees. Life is to be ordered that way. And that order is to be developed so that we are seeing a social order that makes sense, that provides for humans to thrive. in carrying out this cultural mandate. And that's the reason why be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth is before the part that says and subdue it. And subdue it. Because it's the social order that provides the platform on which we can flourish and subdue the earth. Let me quickly move on to the subduing. Fill the earth and subdue it. What it means is that this growing order is to be the platform on which we are now to harness nature for God-glorifying development. This social order is to be the foundation on which we are to harness what God has already put into creation in order that we might see development. And there is nothing, brothers and sisters, that we ever bring into God's world. There's nothing. Everything is already in creation itself, everything. Doesn't matter what it is. This microphone, there's nothing in this microphone that we have actually brought into creation. All its components, everything is in God's world. Our job has been to discover it, Our job has been to work it out and then put it together to do this. Even this microphone here that has no cables and the one that I'm wearing here that ends with a little thing on my waist. It's not witchcraft that is hanging between here and that studio. It's not witchcraft. Between this and the studio there, it's not just air that is in between. As we will go on to see, through research, through learning, through discovery, human beings have been able to see that in air, there is a lot of things. And harness that potential, that therefore, we are able to have what we have. And so, This subduing has to do with searching, researching, discovering what God has already put into the world, into the creation itself, and then building from there in order to have a better world, in order for God to be glorified in it. This is what gives birth to science and technology, as human beings are inquisitive, inquisitive. And they are saying, what can we do to make this better? What is it that we can do? And then they build on that and build on that and build on that. So, a few quick examples. Before I get to that, the science and technology is possible primarily because all these things that are there, that have been made by a creator, he has created them logically. He has created them with what we today call the laws of nature. Strictly speaking, they are not the laws of nature, they are the laws of God. But he has imbued them into everything that he has made. And that's what enables us to extrapolate quite easily that if A is equal to B and B is equal to C, I know that C must be equal to A. We know that. And if 1 plus 2 is equal to 3, then we can safely say 2 plus 3 is equal to 4. It will make sense because the creator has built his world with actual logic put into it. And that's not just true about the physical world. It's also true about the social world. It's also true. A little child this small, You try and say to that child, you bought him a toy, and then the friends come playing, and you try and get that toy from that child and give it to the friend. That child is going to say, this is mine. With a real sense of entitlement. Because that's the way life is. And when you try to insist, that child is going to produce the words, it's not fair. Now, where did this child learn fairness? Where? Grade 10? Through civics in class? No! It's embedded, not just in the physical world, it's embedded also in our social world. The laws are there. So let's put all this together then. I've talked first of all about the social order, and then now I'm quickly wanting to build on the technological, scientific, developmental side. This is what enables us to be able to develop tools. Horses, axes, quills, which in due season became pens, ploughs that have been developed from merely a hole in the ground, it's become more mechanized. Cars that are attached to animals so that we can carry things on them on wheels and then the animals are moving forward. And then removing the animals and then putting an engine there and then we start calling it a motor car. from sending individuals on horsebacks to convey messages. We now have telephones and media and so forth to convey messages. All that is coming from this aspect of tools and tools. And we need better tools. and better tools, and we improve on tools in order for us to be more effective and efficient in building God's world. And out of that, we plant gardens, gardens of flowers, gardens of crops. Out of that, we compose and play music. We don't just sing it, we strum it, we beat it, and it has a rhythm, and it has different sounds, and so forth, and we know what the octave is, why we have investigated and researched God's world. We make clothes. So we're not just covering our private parts here. We've been able to clothe ourselves for winter completely, and we dress in certain ways and with ongoing beauty and so forth, and loveliness. We build houses. And it's not just getting a few branches from trees. putting them into the ground, and putting mud on them, and finally going to get grass and putting it on top. We've come a long way. Well, village relatives need to come a long way too, but you understand my point. Again, it's a movement. It's us developing that as human beings created in the image of God. and beautifying and adding more and more, improving on the very structures that we have. We've since discovered concrete. And in that concrete, therefore, we are now making concrete blocks. And we are making cement that attaches those blocks. We've gone from corrugated iron sheets to all kinds of different types now. We've put in air conditioning into those houses. And I can keep multiplying. That's human beings as God created us. We were never meant to continue living in caves and holes in the ground. We started from there, yes, but we're never meant to remain there. We were meant to be individuals and collectively as societies developing our world. It's all in this text. Let me go further. I spoke in terms of communication, that is now telephones and media and so on, but communication goes even further than that. We've been able to go from tracks in the bush to proper roads, discovering what we call tarmac and putting it there. railway lines, again realizing, especially with the coming of the steam engine, that we could, in fact, put carriage upon carriage upon carriage, and then just put one head on one end, and it would convey 20, maybe even 30 carriages. on laid down lines of steel. Instead of trying to cross a river all the time with a boat or a simplified stringed bridge, putting strong, lasting bridges, and therefore spanning huge rivers and huge lakes, It's us doing it. And today, we even add the computer. If you're sitting in here today and you don't have a computer on you, I'll be shocked. All of us are carrying small computers. Those little things we have in our pockets can do much, much more than the biggest computer that had been there 50 years ago. Much, much more. It's human beings made in the image of God who are continuing to develop. And it's all in this text. So let me take a few steps backwards. What is this text telling us then? It is this, that God, listen carefully, God wants us to use what is in this world already to build civilizations for his glory. God wants us to use what is in the world already, in creation, to build civilizations for his glory. He laid the foundation. And when he laid it, remember what he said. He said, this is good. I like it. This is good. But it was foundational. And then he said, here, here, build it further. If I could use an example, it's like if your father, or let's begin with your grandfather perhaps. If your grandfather had bought a house from the government, and then before he died, he gave it to your father. And then your father lived in it so many years. And then when he was about to die, he gave it to you. And let's just suppose by some kind of miracle, just before you died, your grandfather rose from the dead. And he looked at the house. What would he say? Would he go, wow! You guys have really developed this. Wow! I would have never imagined that my house would be like this. Wow! I really surprised you. Or would he say, is this what you've done to my house? You criminals. I worked for this. Now sadly, For us Africans, most likely that's what our great-grandparents would say to us. They would say, you know, I used to travel on this road. It was nice. Look at the portals. Aren't you guys alive? Can't you think? And so on. They'd be saying that to us. They'd be saying, you see, when we lived, it was one kwacha to a pound. What happened? that you now even had to knock out zeros. What happened? Where were you? Did you stop thinking? And so on. That's what they'll be saying. That's precisely the point about God. God gave us his world, he gave it to us at a certain level, and we should be developing it and developing it and developing it and having a better world, socially speaking. in such a way that the Lord is pleased with us, not just on a Sunday when we are in his house saying to God, be the glory, but also through the week as he's seeing the way in which we are jealously developing the social order and everything else to do with his world. He cares about his world. He's concerned about his world. And we are his regents. We've come in, not only to take care of it as I'll show, but to build on that as well. So with respect to Adam, very quickly, in chapter two, He, in fact, gave him a prototype, chapter two. So in chapter one, we have the record which shows God being a model of development, okay? And in my book, Transforming Our Working Culture, I've already shown you how he did it, okay? That's what he did in chapter one. In chapter two, We read these words, verse 15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden. He didn't put him into the jungle of Eden. He didn't put him in a forest in Eden. He put him in a garden to work it and to keep it. Now, all of us can tell the difference between a garden and naturally growing vegetation. All of us can. Because a garden is beautiful. It's planned. It's well-ordered. Even a vegetable garden is well-ordered. You don't just throw seeds, rapeseeds, cabbage seeds. tomato seeds, avocado seeds, just throwing them there. No, you plant. You put in your thinking. You know that certain plants need more water than others. You put them closer to the source of water where perhaps is damp soil and so forth. You do that. You plan. That's what God did. He did everything. And if it's a flower garden, you even beautify it so that it's incredibly beautiful. One place that people take photos a lot in Geneva is a place where they have planted flowers by the side of a hill that's like a clock. And something actually moves, but it's all flowers, but it moves. And you inevitably want to take pictures there. Somebody planned and put it there. It's part of the way God wants his world to look, and he's saying, take care of it. But in the light of chapter one, it is also multiply it. So you are not just taking care, you are not just a caretaker, but you are one who is using that as a starting point to develop God's world further. So our development is in the context of taking care. It is in the context of being good stewards of creation. And brethren, this aspect of beauty and excellence, this aspect of it is good, is something that we all appreciate. We may not want to admit it to the public, but we all appreciate it. It's what makes individuals, for instance, want to leave Africa to go and live either in America or in Europe. It's what makes them do so. It's real, because there's something in us as well that God has given us as his image bearers. We want to be in a place which is well-ordered. This order, social order, this predictability concerning life. We want to be in a place where we have better amenities, better paying jobs, better houses, better cars, a better life, a more beautiful environment. We do. But here is where we are failing. We are failing to realize that it was a previous generation of Christians who did this. You just have to go back just a thousand years ago, and those same places were like the way it is in Mwanza Bombwe's village. That's exactly the way it was. Survival of the fittest. And it was largely, I want to emphasize, it was largely Christians who said, no, the Bible is teaching us differently. We need to bring about social reform. And they brought about social reform. It cost them a lot because the bigger people did not appreciate this, but they fought for it. most of the scientists that discovered so many things that we were learning about in secondary school, they were Christians. All the John Newtons that, Isaac Newton, sorry, in the religious circles is John, Isaac Newton and others, they were Christians. And from there, they developed the world to which we are now running to And nobody should blame anybody for running there because it's in us. It is. But here's the challenge. What's stopping us from doing that for ourselves? What is it? What's blinding us? Because this has been given to us by God. It is in this text, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the whole of creation. Isn't there? I mean, even when COVID came, we've got degrees upon degrees upon degrees. Let's face it. But literally, the whole of Africa was sitting waiting for people out there to sort out the problem and then send it to us. We've got all the doctors, all the PhDs, both in terms of medicine practice, but also in laboratories. They are there. But that's our attitude, the failure to realize that it's in our hands as those who are made in his image to do something about it, other than complain, other than complain. Let me quickly wrap up. As evangelicals, We have over-personalized salvation. Yes, salvation is personal. It brings us to God. But sadly, we often just end there. And we don't think about going further. Next week, I will try and use examples. But let me just throw one out. An auntie of mine went to India for medical treatment. She was very hesitant, but she finally yielded. A lot of people pressurized her, and so she finally went there. And when she came back, this is what she was telling me. She said, I was shocked. In fact, she said, I can now understand why the world is rushing to India. what processes she had to go through with the medical people there. And she said it was out of this world. But that's not the primary thing that hit me. She said this, that on the day I was being discharged, they brought me forms where I had to assess everybody that worked in my ward, the cleaners, the maids, the nurses, and the doctors that were there. I had to fill it in. I said, when I finished and handed it in, the medical superintendent himself came and sat with me and talked with me about how my experience was in this hospital. He had read the report and was able to apologize to me for those areas where I had put a negative statement and said, I'm giving you my word, we will work on this. If you ever come back, we don't wish you will, but if you ever come back, this should not be in your report. That auntie of mine, is roughly 80 plus years old. She was herself a nurse in the earlier years of her life. But she said this, never, never before in my entire life did I ever experience that. So I asked, are you surprised that Africa is making a beeline to India? No. Why shouldn't we do that here? Why should we always just be complaining? Why? Why shouldn't we, to the glory of God, make a better Zambia? Make a better Lusaka? Come together and say, we're going to put together the best hospital on this continent. Doctors there, medical guys there, accountants there, human resource people there, IT people there, everybody there, those with money, we're putting it in. What's to stop that happening? To the glory of God. Now brethren, that's what these seminars are about. that we may see that God wants to glorify himself through us beyond Sunday when we are praising him in here. That we might leave a better world to his glory when we die. And oh, that each one of us today, at the end of just this first session, may resolve and say, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to you. Oh, that there might be a real outrage in our souls. Instead of simply complaining, But we should say, let's get in there and make a difference. We've had the training. A lot of you here, you're professionals, proper professionals where you work. You should be able to say, let's move in and make a difference. And this is not just about making a better Zambia, being patriotic. It's about being Christians, realizing this is what God wants us to do. It's what God wants us to do. So when this generation is gone and another one comes, they will thank God that they were godly men and women who went before them and who took their calling, creation mandate, cultural mandate, whatever you call it, seriously and they gave themselves to it. Amen.