This was a sermon preached at Capitol Hill United Methodist Church as a part of a larger sermon series called “God’s GPS,” a stewardship series. This was the first sermon of the series.
Imagine that you’re going on a journey – destination irrelevant. What’s the first thing you need to know before you know how to get to your destination?
You need to know where your journey begins or else the directions to your destination will make no sense.
With this sermon, we begin a journey through a new sermon series called God’s GPS where we will learn about how God guides us in life through gratitude, prayer, and faith. But here in this sermon, we actually begin with our starting point, where we begin our journeys of faith – Creation.
In the first creation story of Genesis 1, we learn that all of us – regardless of gender – are created in God’s image, and that is our starting point. It is in that creative, loving beginning that each of us start our journeys together, so we will explore what that even means – being created in God’s image – and let that ground us for our journey through the rest of the series.
As you prepare to listen to this sermon, I hope you’ll take time to read the passage from Genesis 1 as well as the gospel lesson from Mark.
Listen to it here:
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Scriptures inspiring this sermon include:
Genesis 1:26-28
26Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28God 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 air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (NRSV)
Mark 12:13-17
13Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. 14And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? 15Should we pay them, or should we not?” But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.” 16And they brought one. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” 17Jesus said to them, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him. (NRSV)
