Life - Part 1: An Incredible Human Experience

In all the expanse of the entire physical universe, going out billions of light years and down into the infinitesimal smallest reaches of space, human beings are the most special. The most special thing are human beings. There is nothing like them in anything that man can see, high or low, big or small.

As I've mentioned before, within the size of the largest thing that's ever been discovered, and the smallest, tiniest little element that humans have been able to discover, the average median size of all things is the size of a human.

Human beings have discovered in the farthest galaxies big, amazing pieces of rock or burning gas. Down at the smallest things, they have discovered little things that fire and bump and they're here and gone and energies. But again, human beings are the most special. Let's go to Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7 and see why this is the case. The point of this series of sermons is for us as members of the church, forget what's outside the walls, for those who God is calling today to appreciate three phases of life that we all should have.

God wants us to experience three phases of life, and today we'll be talking about one of those. In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7, it says, and the Lord God formed man. Notice those words, the Lord God formed man. If we just pause there for a minute and think of the Genesis creation account, you'll find that we're the only ones God formed. Everything else, He just spoke and it existed. He spoke and it appeared.

But this particular creation, God formed. And He formed Him from the dust of the ground, and then He breathed into His nostrils the breath of life. The others just were created and lived. But this has an intimate involvement in God in its fashioning, its creating, the breathing of God into His nostrils, the breath of life. Remember this breathing, because we'll come back to that in a little bit. The word here, the last word here is life. It comes from the Hebrew word chayah.

It means alive. Basically, it just means alive. He breathed into Him aliveness, right? Liveliness, and something else, as we'll see in a minute. From the UCG Bible commentary on Genesis 2.7, it says, The creation of mankind then appears very different from the other creation. And all these details are intended to impress upon us an intimate involvement with God and man.

You are an individual that has an intimate involvement of God. It's not that God doesn't love the rest of the creation. It is not involved because He provides for them, as we'll see. But He has a very special involvement with you. I have this question. Do you appreciate the body that you have, the life that you have been given, as being the most amazing, impressive thing that exists within the physical realm of the universe?

The very pinnacle of anything that's living in the physical universe. Do you revel in your capabilities? Do you ponder what you can do and what your body can do and what you can think? Do you appreciate the five senses? Do you sometimes just sample them and just stop and pause instead of taking it all for granted? The quality of the eyesight, the smell, the taste, the touch, those things, the hearing, those things that are unmatched in any other source. Do you pursue the opportunities that are available to you as a human created by God and supplied with all of the elements that exist in the physical world?

Do you enjoy? Do you enjoy? Often we humans are rushing about, thinking about something else, thinking about the challenges, the problems, looking outside these walls at what's going on elsewhere, thinking, oh, I wish I weren't here, I wish I was there, or I hope someday, or you know, but now, right now, do you enjoy? Do you explore this marvelous world that we have above, below, in the air, on the ground, in the water beneath? Do you create? You have that element that is part of God creating, and you can create.

Our creating is a little different than the way God does it. Our creating usually is to destroy something like a tree, or a mineral, or a rock, or something, and you know, just melt it down, chop it down, whittle it down, and then fashion it into something and say, I made this! But that is what we are able to do as humans, and that's good, too. It's very good, because, again, God had His temple and the tabernacle created in that manner very carefully.

Do you love? Do you share your incredible human life? There are three words in the Bible for life. One is a Hebrew word in the Old Testament, and there are two Greek words in the New Testament. In this three-part series about life, we're going to examine those words, but we're also going to examine three stages of life that God intends for every human to experience. We'll take them one at a time. Let's begin with life, part one, the incredible human experience. We're going to look at just who we are as humans, that incredible human experience that you and I are given by God. You know, God made us, and right after He made humans, He said, it is good. When God says something is good, it's really good. It's not just okay. It is superb, because it's made by God. And we could spend a lot of time, if we chose to, just coming to understand how we're even fashioned and made, and all of the elements that go into the human body, that medical science and physics are still discovering. And sometimes if you go in and you have an issue, they say, well, you're lacking in this, or you're lacking in that, or we need to add this. Really. We didn't even know about those compounds, and they're learning about other compounds, and the way various elements of things that we would eat, or even the sunlight that bumps into our body affect us. We are incredibly made. We need to appreciate the miraculous existence that we have. This week my wife had some surgery, and what do you do to overcome surgery? Wait. That's pretty good repairs. I can't do that at the auto shop. They don't say, oh, your car, this thing's broken. We're going to need to put it in the shop here for about a week. We'll put it in the back where it's dark, keep it cool, and next week it'll be like new. But we take for granted that, oh, something wrong with you? Just rest. Just rest. And you'll have a full recovery. That's amazing. We need also to maximize our opportunities that God has given us in this life to live a good life that we really love and enjoy and appreciate, and we thank God for it. And we actually add some meaning to others' lives while we're here on earth. So let's jump back in here to Genesis 2 and verse 7, and we'll continue. Right after God breathed this into us, it says, continuing in verse 7, And man became a living being. Man became a living being. Now, in the first part it said that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So there's that word, chaeth, and it means alive. Now, continuing on in the same verse, and he became a, it says, living? Well, that's the same word. He became chaeth, or alive, being, it says in the New King James, or in the Old King James, it says, soul. The Hebrew word for that is nefesh, and nefesh simply means creature. So we are living creatures, or creatures who are alive. You'll see in the New Testament quite a few times the Apostle Paul and others talk about creatures, creatures. But the creatures in the New Testament mostly are talking about humans. And you think, well, why would it be called a creature? Let's delve into that just a little bit. In the UCG Bible commentary it says, Despite the special nature of the creative act involved in creating man, man was created from dust of the ground and became a living creature.

Notice how we are limited to being created physical beings or creatures. In Genesis 1 and verse 20, just back a page, Genesis chapter 1 and verse 20. Then God said, notice these words, let the waters abound with the abundance of living creatures. Same two words that he just used for man. Man became a living creature.

Creature here is the same word, nefesh. So let the waters abound with living creatures. And let the birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heaven. So God created great sea creatures. So we have bird creatures, animal creatures, sea creatures, and every living thing which the water abounded according to its kind. So one thing we see here is that we are categorized as a soul or a living physical being just as the bird outside is, the fish is, everything else.

We're made of dust, and when we die, guess where we're going to go? Let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 18. This isn't to scare you, by the way. It's just reality. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 18. Here Solomon is pondering this physical life that we're given, and he says this. Ecclesiastes 3, 18. I said in my heart, concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them that they may see that they themselves are like animals.

We are like animals. If you ever noticed, animals have physical bodies, bones, meat. Sometimes we eat them. Those of us who process some of that, kill them and process some of that, find internal organs. Lungs, heart, kidneys, you know, digestive tracts, etc., etc. And it kind of makes you realize, as he said, they themselves are like animals. For what happens to the sons of men also happens to the animals. One thing befalls them.

As one die, so dies the other. So does an animal dies. So does a human. Surely they all have one breath. We all breathe. We all have lungs. Man has no advantage over animals in the sense of longevity for or because all is—I wish the word vanity weren't in the Bible. I really do because that's not what it means. The word in Hebrew is hebel. It just means transitory. If you replace every word vanity in the book of Ecclesiastes with transitory or temporary or sort of useless in the sense of having some great long meaning, then we would understand what that means.

It's just an old English word that meant that. So all is transitory. We all are temporary, in other words. We have a temporary existence. And we only have a certain amount of time then in order to enjoy this life, in order to appreciate it, in order to maximize the opportunity that we have. And we shouldn't just spend it saying, oh, I don't like this life.

I want to go to heaven. Sorry. I want to be in the kingdom. I want to be, you know, spirit. I just, you know, swing low, sweet, cherry odd, carry me home because I want out of here. I don't like anything to do with this life. Well, what does that say about all this wonderful plan and creation and opportunities that God has made? I think sometimes people sit inside man-made dwellings doing man-made things and just see it all kind of crumbling around them, and they never really get out and maximize their potential.

I had a grandmother, by the way, who never left the county that she was born in. Couldn't get her out of it. That's all she wanted to know. She could make good biscuits and fried chicken, stay at home, and that was her life until she died. She really never got to go out and realize what potential humans have for life. Man then was created from the dust of the ground, and our lives are transitory. But in the meantime, in this window of birth to death, we have special features. We do. We have very special features. The first feature we find is that man was the last being to be created in the creation week.

God waited till the end. And then in Genesis 1 and verse 26, God said, Let us make man in our image. So here's something that begins to distinguish us from the other flesh and blood creatures. The first is that ours is made in the image of God. And according to our likeness, dropping down to verse 27, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. We have then a special construction. I don't know if you've ever stopped to consider how you're constructed and how you're made.

I'm always amazed that we do things without even thinking about it. Do you realize that you do things without even thinking about it? How your hands move, your lips move, your feet move, your lungs, your heart are moving? We just think and we do. We come up with an idea next thing you know, we're doing it. We don't think, hey, send a signal down to that arm. Extend your arm. Now move the fingers out flat. Now do this graspy thing, you know, opposing joints. How's that working? That's what you do if you're running a robot, you know?

We don't think about that. We just do. Incredible. The man creature, this man creature that we all are, is very unique from others in being in the image of God. I'd like to explore with you four distinct differences between human creatures and all other creatures.

Again, forget what people think outside. Let's just focus here on the understanding that God has given us and gives us through His Word. The first thing I'd like to mention is that God and humans share a likeness of form. A likeness of form. No one's ever actually seen God other than Jesus Christ, but let's look in Ezekiel chapter 1 and verse 26. We'll see a vision that was given to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 1 and verse 26.

This is what I call the portable throne that I'm pretty sure Jesus Christ goes to and from on. The Father's on the throne. Jesus Christ has a bride. He has a church. He is the one who did the creation. I imagine He is very involved in using this portable throne that you read of in Ezekiel chapter 1. We're going to drop down all the way to verse 26.

And on this throne that goes with majesty and straight lines and fast, it says, And above the firmament over the heads of these angels was the likeness of a throne, an appearance like a sapphire stone, and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man.

Notice those words. This is God. This is the one, the word, no doubt, that became Jesus Christ, or it could be God the Father. But the appearance is of a man. We look like God. We are created in the likeness of God. And this confirms it. Also, from the appearance of His waist and upward, I saw as it were the color of amber with the appearance of fire, and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw the appearance of fire with brightness all around. Breaking into verse 28. So when I saw it, I fell on my face and I heard a voice of one speaking. We speak. God speaks. He has a voice. We have a voice. There are other elements of the physical description of—or not the physical description, but the bodily description of God, of His various things, and they all are human in their shape and their form. Or we are all—we could say it in reverse—we are all God-like in our shape and form. We share that form. The second point is that human beings are given a miraculous spirit. The Bible calls it the spirit in man. This differentiates us from the animals. If we go to the book of Job, Job 32, verse 8, but there is a spirit in man. Now remember that breath that God breathed into Adam? Remember God breathed the breath of life into Adam? Personally, He put His mouth on him and breathed the breath of life. Notice this. But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. So different than anything else that God spoke and said, be created for the animal world, He has put this spirit in a man and given him understanding. There is no animal or any type of other created being or anything in the whole physical universe besides humans who have understanding. Sometimes animals can function, but to have understanding, it's an intelligent mind—intelligence. So we have an intelligent mind functioning in a body that is like God. It's in the image of God. And this provides certain things—reasoning. The ability to reason, to think, to have awareness, to formulate ideas, to make choices, to be creative, to be self-aware, to ponder concerns, to have worries, to have happiness.

Also, another element in intelligence that humans have specified is problem-solving. To form constructs, ideas, to image a future unseen thing so far, then to devise plans for it, to set goals, to scheme, to make tools, to make something that doesn't exist, and then to build it, and then to learn how to improve it. Learning is another element of intelligence. To come up with knowledge, or to be given knowledge as part of learning, and then to be able to compare that knowledge with other knowledge and determine which is better, to have experiences and compare experiences and to learn from experience, to ponder, to understand, to improve. Another element that comes along and has been defined with intelligence is emotion. Having emotion. Emotion, feelings, worries, concerns, compassion. Providing, giving, loving. I'll add another one that I hadn't found anywhere, and that is memories. Memories. The ability to remember and sort of walk back through your entire life. To remember it. The spirit in man sets us up to live our lives. It gives us those tools we need to live life as human beings in a wonderful physical world. One famous book put it this way. You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose, you're on your own, you know what you know, and you are the one who will decide where you go. Dr. Seuss, oh, the places you will go. So, so far we've seen that God has provided us with a form that's like His, with an intellect that mirrors His in many ways. He has given us an intellectual and emotional nature like His that is reflected in Scripture. He has all of those elements. He's created and placed us within an awesome environment. Just incredible things we take for granted. It seems like any time humans want to make something just bizarre or unreal or super, super scientific, just so happens you can do that with the elements that exist. Isn't that amazing? God's creation has every conceivable and inconceivable resource that we would need to bless our existence here.

Go on to the third point now. How we are different than the animal world. Point three. Human beings are given marriage as a bond of oneness in body and mind. Human beings are given marriage for oneness of body and mind. The final thing that God created in Creation Week was woman.

In a sense, the woman is then the pinnacle of His creation.

She was saved for last. She is very, very special. In Genesis 2 and verse 20, we find here, as Adam is busily given some responsibilities, some leadership responsibilities, one of them is to name all the animals. There is speculation as to why God brought everything to Him to name it. But let's read verse 20. Genesis 2. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. The King James Version says a help-meet. That's not in the correct order. It should be a meet-help. Meet meaning comparable. A helper comparable. Not just comparable in the sense of one level, but on all levels. He was looking at the kinds of creatures that God had made, and he said, there's nobody of my kind.

We find that the emotional component of our intellect is best and fully satisfied through intimate, intelligent, and emotional companionship. Now, we don't have to have that in life, but to maximize the emotional element that's coming to us through the Spirit in man, it is through intimate, intelligent, and emotional companionship. Sharing the intelligence, combining the intelligence, sharing the emotions, combining the emotions in a unified one companionship.

The UCG Bible commentary says this. God directed the man to name various creatures, indicating the man's leadership. Yet at the same time, it impressed on the man his own lowliness and need for a companion. God then took one of the man's ribs and from it made a woman.

When it says, made a woman, we're going to find an interesting word there. Verse 21, in the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept. This is not sure what you call it, but he knocked him out. You know, you go into surgery, they put you under. Not too far.

And he took one of his ribs. Now, we don't know if that's the whole one all the way across or just the one.

And he closed up the flesh in its place.

Then the rib, you know, ribs are kind of meaty. You ever go out and have ribs for dinner? Well, ribs have meat on them. We're going to find out here in a minute.

Then the rib which the Lord had taken from the man, he made into. The words there, made into, come from a Hebrew that literally means built. Okay? With that rib he took from the woman, he built from the man, he built a woman. I don't know what he made her out of. Maybe he made her out of more dirt, it doesn't say, but he just built a woman.

Why did God take a rib to build a woman? Everybody asked that question. It's like, which came first, chicken and egg? Well, we could hypothesize a few things about this, and I think it's good to do that. First of all, I would say point A to this, because we're doing four points and we're at point three here. A, the making of the woman from the rib of Adam emphasized that the woman was the very same essence as man. Same bone, same meat on the bone, because Adam says that. Verse 23, and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. So we are of the same human species, male and female. Same bones, same flesh. She shall be called woman, or ish sha, ish meaning man, sha meaning of man. So she shall be called ish sha because she was taken out of ish. That's kind of interesting. So that's why woe man, that doesn't mean stop, but it does. It's what happens. You see a beautiful woman's like, whoa, man.

But anyway, that's my own definition. It's not Greek or Hebrew. It's like, whoa, man. He called her, whoa, man. But he meant, evidently, she's of man. Now, it's interesting, the Hebrew really doesn't say any of that. It just says, you got ish and you've got ish sha. And there's no real definition of what those words mean. It's interesting. I find it curious that if you go to the New Testament and you look up the word woman, the word woman from the Greek word in the New Testament means woman.

About the same thing. So I'm like, hmm, well, that doesn't really tell me much. Why did he call her woman?

But if you go a little deeper in strong, here's what you'll find.

Woman means woman, but it comes from a root Greek word, genomei, genomei, which means to come into existence.

I find that interesting. So he calls her one who, from the root at least, is to come into existence. So the woman came into existence as a component of her man or a component of her family or a part of her man.

Now, B. Fashioning Eve from Adam's flesh and blown shows that the husband and wife are whole together. He's no longer whole. He's missing a rib. She's got his rib. So he's only whole if he's with her. Right? So they're whole together. It says in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 4, A wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

In other words, they share each other. Adam and Eve shared bones and flesh. Literally. And we share in marriage each other and even authority over our bodies. C. Why God may have made Eve from Adam's rib. Together, they procreate other human beings. Remember that Greek word, the root of the Greek word for woman that I mentioned, meaning to come into existence? Well, there's also another meaning that goes with that word, and that is to generate.

To come into existence, if that's applicable to Eve, she came into existence with her husband. They were both created by God. Adam didn't create Eve. God created Eve. But they came into existence together. And the word woman also carries this meaning to generate. And from her husband, she generates existence to her children.

That is a very special thing that a woman does. To be able to generate existence from her husband, together they generate the existence of other humans. So special. It is so miraculous. And kind of like, well, it's just amazing.

As a man, I can make a few things. A woman can make children, can make human beings. Sometimes I'll ask, do you realize what you're doing? The bumps coming out in the tummy. Do you realize what's going on? I don't know. You're actually making something. The guy who makes that bridge and that car and that rocket and this computer, he can't make what you're making.

This is really something. You are making a human being. That is so special. Of course, those humans can bring quite a lot of joy. And if they live their lives right, a quiver full of those brings great joy and satisfaction. In Genesis chapter 1 and verse 28, then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. They can only do that if they are together, they are unified in mind and body and spirit and have the ability to generate through the woman from the man, children.

So those are some ABCs of why God may have made woman from a man's rib. Paraphrasing the poetry of Lady Mildred North, woman was not taken from man's head to rule over him, nor from his foot to be crushed by him, but from under his arm to be protected by him and from near his heart to be loved by him. It's kind of a sappy emotional way of looking at that rib. But it is a wonderful thing.

Now, there is a caveat to being married. A good life can be lived as a single adult. Remember, Jesus was single. Okay, don't need to say anymore. The Apostle Paul said that being single can be preferable for spiritual health in certain situations of crisis. I have an opinion. My opinion is that Paul didn't tend to say very many good things about women in his epistles. Paul was once married. Perhaps his marriage hadn't gone well.

Just saying. In the UCG marriage ceremony, it says this, surely there can be no greater human joy than to have a happy marriage. So let's put that out there as sort of the pinnacle that we can have. There are other relationships, and sometimes things kind of get soured in life, and opportunities may not be possible. But let's just say, when we look at Genesis and what we've covered so far, I agree that there can be no greater human joy than to have a happy marriage filled with giving and sharing.

The ceremony continues. There is no deeper relationship, deeper, again, relationship between humans than that which God provides a husband and wife in the union of marriage. Marriage was designed and has been blessed by God since creation.

When he created life on earth, God made human beings the pinnacle of his creation, fashioning them in his own image. He gave men and women creative minds with the ability to make choices, develop plans, and to build their lives on those plans. So this is a fabulous opportunity you and I have to be alive. It's wonderful to see romances develop. We have a couple of weddings in the near future. Solomon was intrigued by that particular fact—not these weddings, but ones he was seeing. Let's go back to Proverbs 30, verse 18. Proverbs 30, verse 18 is a guy I've thought about this often.

In fact, when I first began working on this sermon series, this is one of the things that popped right up. I mentioned it to a couple of people. Proverbs 30, verse 18, there are three things which are too wonderful for me. They cause wonder in his mind. Wow, I just can't appreciate this too much. Too much. They're too wonderful.

Yes, for which I do not understand, but I'm trying. Here's the wisest man of his time, and he can't understand these things. First, the way of an eagle in the air. I mean, that—if you've not been around eagles and hawks and things, and understand how their telescopic eye and their abilities work, and how you can possibly see something even in the water far away, and zip down there when you and I can't even see in the water, and go, whoop, I got a fish. Or fly upside down as you're stealing somebody else's fish.

Eagles are kind of lazy in nature, and they would rather see the osprey catch the fish, and then go get the fish from the osprey, and they will fight and twirl, and I've seen them go up to, I don't know, how many thousand feet? Why don't you just go get your own fish? He's going to get that one from the osprey. Anyway, the way of a serpent on a rock. It's got no feet. You watch snakes, you see how they go. They're incredible animals. People like to have them for pets. Some of you do. A serpent on a rock. The way of a ship in the midst of the sea.

Some of us are just intrigued by sailing, and people are sailing right now, all around the world, challenging parts of the world, not just the Caribbean. You know, and how, the challenges of how that works, and what's out there, can be seen. And the way of a man with a virgin. The way of a man with a virgin. John Gill, a commentary, says of this, The many artful ways and methods he uses to gain her company, at first, and then to convey the sentiments and affections of his heart to her, to gain her love for him, and obtain her in an honorable way of marriage.

And I just sometimes stop right there, you know, for people who don't understand that. Think back to, we had three girls, and from the minute they could, I don't know, almost breathe, they wanted to hold a doll. They wanted a baby. They would name their babies. A little bit taller, they would all do weddings. We had weddings all the time in our house.

Sometimes the dog was, I don't know, getting married, or sometimes they have me come in and do something. I forget what, but usually crawling around in sheets and everything, and we're doing a wedding. And for some reason, I do not begin to know a beautiful young lady will like a guy. I mean, go figure, you know. Hello? People like to talk about evolution. Well, there's a little link that would be missing in evolution. That's why there would be no humans, number one.

But for some reason, some unexplained reason, women like men, or a girl likes a guy, or whatever, and she wants babies, and she wants to be married, and she wants to kiss, etc. Wow, I think guys are the luckiest. No, we're the most blessed elements on earth. And here Solomon is pondering this and wondering about it. He's like, wow, this is really something. So we can see here that we are very different than others, and we are very blessed in this experience to have this life experience.

And we come now to the fourth difference between humans and their animal world, and that is that human beings are given dominion over all the earth, over everything on earth. God has created this earth and all of its resources and everything in it and on it and under it, and given us dominion over it. In Genesis 1.26, again, I skipped apart intentionally.

Let's go back to Genesis 1, verse 26. He said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on earth. The word dominion, by the way, from the Hebrew means one of two things that I've been able to find. One is to subjugate. In other words, all the animals and all the elements are subject to you.

Just you. You're a human. And God has given you dominion. Those are your subjects, as it were. Another meaning, however, is to tread down. Let them tread down the fish of the sea, etc., etc., and all the earth. That's not the meaning God intended, but that is what we see. That's what we see when people do something outside the walls, let's say, of God's body. Now Solomon has just linked marriage, and what we read before, to a life of exploring the wonders of God's creation.

Remember the eagles in the air, the snake on the rocks, the ship in the sea, and all that's there. Marriage and romance and how that works. In Job 12, verse 7, let's notice what is said here in Job, right before Psalm 12.

We'll begin in verse 7 and read through verse 10. But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you, and the birds of the air, and they will tell you, or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, and the birds, or the fish of the sea will explain to you. How do these things happen? Go out and look and appreciate and explore. Get away from things man-made. Get out of town. Go find as you have opportunities at feasts or vacations or take trips or whatever. Go explore and go appreciate.

Verse 9, who among all of these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? You know, just appreciating creation. And like I started to hear when we moved here a couple of years ago, I started taking pictures of what I call the bug of the day. You know, we have a lot of bugs here, insects. And they're so intriguing. They're so different. Some of them are just bizarre. Just crazy bizarre. I'm here with my camera and my phone.

I'm taking a picture and sending it out to the family. Here's the bug of the day. Bug after bug. Some of them are like little miniature frogs about this big, little green things. You put on your finger and take a picture of it. Cute little thing. It's just amazing the stuff that's out there. It just keeps coming.

Who does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? Then you think about, oh, okay, so we live in the country and you begin to see the relevance of all of these things, the interaction. Every one of them has a certain purpose, and you begin to see how all of these birds and animals and insects all work together. There are all kinds of animals that come and go. There are all kinds of insects.

There's all kinds of plants. They all relate to each other. Things that you do, like if you say, toss something out there, watch what happens to it. Or when the natural branches come down, go watch what happens to that. See the first things that come along, the molds that begin to break certain elements down, and the ants that come in and make their nests in there. Just gradually, this stuff, each year we harvest a deer. I harvest a deer, and I'll take the carcass of that deer and the skin, the entire carcass, and I'll put it way out in the woods.

Well, not way out in the woods, but in the woods on the margin of our property. The next day, or the day after, I say the next day because I think that's always or generally what happens, is the next day or the day after. Nothing remains. No hide, no bones, no hoofs. Nothing. It's just gone. I don't know where it goes. I could guess where it goes. I've looked around way out in the woods, searching for it. A year later, I've come across some hair from the hide. I don't see the hide, but I see some hair. Maybe that was from the same one. I don't know. God does all of this. He's so wise and so smart.

And then sometimes you'll say, what is this? This is a little flying insect. It is so small. I need binoculars just to see the thing. And look, it's got little wings. I wonder where it is in the chain. Like, what is this thing doing? I can't fly, but it can fly. I don't smash flies anymore. I don't kill bugs unless they're in the house. That's the perimeter. If you're in here, sorry. I'll try to get you out.

You'll notice that most people know. I try to capture them and let them go, but otherwise, that's the way it is. But I mean, these are things God created, and they function well. So, in verse 10, in whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind?

This is a lot of appreciation and marveling and wonder that should come from us. David was enamored with all the elements of God's creation. We think sometimes David was sort of in the castle fighting the, you know, fighting the Philistines or whatever. But let's go over to Psalm 104. We don't have time to read it all, but let's just glimpse in here Psalm 104 and see what David was seeing in his life.

Just starting in verse 1, Psalm 104. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my God, you are very great. Dropping down into verse 5. You laid the foundations of the earth so that it should not be moved forever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment, and the water stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled, the voice of your thunder they hastened away. Drop down, verse 9. You have set a boundary for the waters that they may not pass over.

You ever go to the coast land and you watch the ocean just pounding and pounding, or go to Niagara Falls or Victoria Falls in Africa and just watch the water pounding and pounding and pounding? It's done that for as long as there's been a human record. It's still pounding. The rocks are the same.

The river channel is the same. Nothing changes. It is fixed that they may not return to cover the earth. He sends the springs into the valley. They flow among the hills. Sometimes when you want to go out and water your garden, think about how much water is coming down the river.

Think about how much is falling from the air. Yesterday, Rand sent a photograph. I thought it was snowing in Colorado. That was just hail. It was of a highway, and all the fields, as far as you can see, were white, deep white. Now, what would you and I, if we took our ice makers in our fridge and wanted to make that much ice, what would it take?

What would it take to water the southern region of our country? There's a storm today. There's rain everywhere. Really? How many trillions of gallons of water is falling in a storm? And so, he just goes on. He says, you know, this is really incredible. Verse 11, they give drink to every beast of the field.

The wild donkeys or the deer quench their thirst. And by them the birds of the heavens have their home. They sing among the branches. The waters of the hill from his upper chamber. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle and vegetation for the service of man, our vegetables. And, you know, those of us who have gardens, how exciting is it to go out to a garden and get something you can eat?

I mean, I tend, if you're not gardening, then I understand that it's not exciting. You just go to the store and get it. And I'm there, too. But my wife loves to garden, and she works herself silly, as it were. Putting all those seeds in there. We wrote a tale and plants and... Look, look, look! I see a little something coming up. Not too much longer out there. What are you doing? I'm bringing in peas, beans. Look here. We've got carrots, potatoes, what else? Radishes, yellow squash, strawberries. And it's fabulous. It's miraculous from those little seeds she put out there. We're getting this stuff, and it's enough for us to, a little bit, anyway, to have a special meal of it.

Last night she said, look, everything on our plate came from the garden. Every single thing came from the garden. And so, and that's kind of miraculous to see it. It really is. And he causes vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth. And wine that makes the heart glad. Not just one kind of wine, but what's your favorite kind of wine? And you just start naming them. What color, what flavor, what type, what grape, you know, what vintage, what mix or blend you like. And bread, which strengthens a man's heart. The trees of the Lord are full of sap.

The birds make their nests. The stork has its home in the fir trees. The high hills, the mountains for the mountain goats. The cliffs are refuge for the rock badgers. He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows it's going down. You make darkness in its night. And then we can see stars. And with telescopes we can see planets.

And with satellite telescopes we can see galaxies way off in the distance. And these nebula, these gaseous clouds. If you use color film over long exposure times, it pops out in full color. It's amazingly beautiful. The young lions, verse 21, roar after their prey and seek their food from God.

Verse 23, man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. And dropping down in verse 26, there the ships sail about. There is that leviathan, or whale, the whale, the great whales, which you have made to play there. Have you ever seen whales in the ocean? They're incredible creatures. Al Handy up in Washington and I were out one time in our little boat. We were fishing, still, and a whale came up beside us. That was really neat. We were out another time and a pod of killer whales passed by. That was really neat. Mary and I, when we were going to Africa often, we would go out to where the wild animals were.

We would sit and turn off the car, roll down the windows, and just listen. Then they would all go back to eating. You could hear a whole herd just munching and crunching. Just watch what they do. You could watch the giraffes looking at you over the tree, have a bite here, wander around, various other elements and birds. It's just fabulous to see all that God has made.

You know, that is life. That is our life as well, the opportunity to live. It's a wonderful thing. God wants you to live a very blessed physical life. Now, He's given everything that He can so that you can enjoy this life, appreciate this life. It won't be without challenge. That's a good part of life. It won't be without even big challenges, major challenges, but those develop us to another level as well. So, we take what comes in life and are blessed by it. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 11. Deuteronomy 28 and verse 11. Notice how God wants blessings to come to humans. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to you. Now, this is the physical Israel, but God also wants you and I to have life. Jesus wants us to have life and have it more abundantly. So, we'll talk about that one in the future, but he wants us to have life and have it more abundantly.

In verse 12, the Lord will open to you his good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only and not be beneath if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today and are careful to observe them. Now therein lies the key of part one, an incredible human experience. If we will obey the commandments of God, and if we are careful, careful to observe them, then we can have a very incredible human experience that is blessed by God. So in conclusion, you are a human in God's likeness. You are given every created element as a resource to enjoy and enhance your 70-some years here of life. Love it. Live it. Revel in the blessings that come from life the way that God provides it for you. I'd like to finish by reading Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 7, part of the summary that is given by Solomon. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 7.

See, when we do what God says, and we within this room are striving to do what God says, it says, He is cheering you on if you are carefully obeying Him. Verse 9, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

Next time we'll look at part two and step up to a new dimension of human life, living as children of God.