What is God doing?

We’ve had a bit of a problem with the digital recorder over the last couple of weeks, so the talks haven’t been recorded.  Hopefully its all fixed,  but in the meantime here is a little summary of what was said last Sunday.

This term at central gatherings our sermons are going to be focussed on the question “What is God doing?”  We are a church who claim to be trying to join God in the things he is doing in the world so its an essential question to be asking.  Each week we are going to explore one of the things the bible suggests God is doing.    

This week we answered:  God Creates!   Here’s a little summary of what I said:

The story of creation in the Bible points to the belief that life has meaning, that its not all just a random set of circumstances that has led to now.  
Creation also reminds us that we are not the centre of the universe.  As the maker God is!    As Psalm 24 says:  

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,  the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”

In Genesis 1 we see that God makes people in his image.  This points to two things we share with God:  relationship and role.

Relationship:  Being made in God’s image means we bear his imprint.  Their is something in us that longs for his touch,  as Augustine says:  

“Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you”

Role:  God speaks to man and woman and gives them jobs to do,  they are to be fruitful,  to spread across the world,  to care for and oversee the rest of creation.

The problem is too often people try and take the role without the relationship.  As people made in God’s image we need both.

Learning to be people who share relationship and role with God means we get to do some of the things he does.   In creation we see God doing the following – 

Starting:  God initiates and brings light and goodness out of chaos.
Blessing:  God blesses his creation.  He says it is good and his words make it good.
Sustaining:  God does not leave creation to its own devices,  he continues to work nurturing and protecting it.

We are people who are called to close relationship with the maker,  and to share in his role as the one who starts,  blesses and sustains.

How can we do both those things as individuals and in our MSCs together?