God Created You In His Image (Genesis 1:26-31)

Valley View Baptist Church Pastor Curt Audet
6N656 Route 25 February 15, 2026
St. Charles, IL 60174 vvbcil.com

“God Created You In His Image”
Harbors For Our Soul
Genesis 1:26-31

BI: God designed and created the human race for personal relationship with Him.

Ship manifests are historical treasures. The passenger manifests records the individual, valued human life on board. Though many items are on each ship costing invested money, humanity is the premier valuable cargo. With the manifest we can see who was on any ship and what goods and equipment was on the ship as well. Geneological records trace through ship manifests following the path immigrants may take from their native country through Ellis Island, up the Hudson River and west toward the Great Lakes Region. Cities were growing all around the Lakes’ perimeters in the 1800’s and 1900’s. Immigrants of all kinds are the heartbeat of our country. Most of us can trace back to our great grandparents’ homelands. Immigration made a beautiful melting pot throughout America and in and around Lake Michigan.

A passenger manifest documents the listing of the passengers, and the every crew member. The manifest records passengers and their personal cargo listed as being on board at the beginning and there when arrival at its destination.

The manifest contains a specifications of who and what is on board, and is attested to officially, and often notarized. This manifest is essential in the case of searching for someone. Immigration authorities require passenger-carrying vessels to provide a passenger manifest listings of names, birthdates, country of origin and ports of embarkation and disembarkation.

In case of a shipwreck, the manifest is of supreme importance. In the first steps after a shipwreck, these question are rightly asked: ‘Who was on the ship?’ ‘How many survivors?’ ‘Who are the survivors?’ At the early emergency stage. ‘What resources are needed to rescue victims of the shipwreck?’ The passenger manifest helps with the answers.

Every crew member is likewise listed in the manifest. A manifest recognizes each and every human being on the ship.

Last September (2025), a 130 year old Schooner was found only 25 feet below the Lake Michigan surface just east of Rowley Bay in Wisconsin. In 1887 the F.D Barker sunk nearby due to inclement weather. The F.D. Barker was a wooden vessel that—unlike most ships of its time—had a distinctive design for its work in the Great Lakes. Its was built to carry grain from ports around Milwaukee and Chicago north to Lake Ontario. Then, when it returned west, it transported coal from Lake Erie to be used for fuel.

The F.D. Barker schooner’s final sailing was on October 1, 1887 started out like any other day. It set out from Manistee, Michigan, bound 111 miles west, northwest for Escanaba, Wisconsin on the northern end of Green Bay. The task was to pick up a load of iron ore.

Unfortunately, the ship got caught in rough weather and drifted off course, ran aground near Rowley Bay which is surrounded by reef all around. Fierce waves began to break the ship apart. Captain W. H Lynch and his ten crew members abandon ship and seek safety on a small, largely barren, Spider Island. Over the subsequent winter, the F.D. Barker was battered by the waves eventually sinking into obscurity until September ’25. The manifest of every large or small ship is critical to account for, rescue, save and preserve every man aboard.

As always, of course, the goal is to not shipwreck the ship. We’ve been reviewing ways to avoid becoming a shipwreck statistic in Lake Michigan are (1) Know where to find the safest harbors. (2) Get to a safe harbor before storms, winds and visibility conditions deteriorate. (3) Understand person-to-person communications so everyone onboard can work together to save the ship, cargo and the human lives on board. Let’s see how much we know on this. I tagged the walls in safety orange to help us know.

• Give a shout from the Starboard (aka, ‘steering side’, right side of the ship).
• Give a shout from the Port (aka, ‘loading side’ or left side of the ship).
• Point to the bow (aka, front) of the ship.
• Point to the stern (aka, back) of the ship.

Like every ship set in the open waters, every human life conceived in this world is meant to not shipwreck. You and I are learning how to protect our minds, our lives and our families from hitting hard times and shipwrecking!

Last week we looked at Genesis 1:1—”In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the most stabilizing, most establishing, most solidifying harbor for our soul.

A ‘Harbor for Our Soul’ is a truth in God’s Word that when we embrace it, strengthens us, encourages us, protects and prepares us. Jesus described what I am calling ‘Harbors For our Soul’ like this:

“If you abide in My word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. . . 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-36)

A ‘Harbor For Our Soul’ is truth-for-living. Our truth-for -living for today comes from Genesis 1, God created you in His image. God has a personal relationship with each and every human being that has ever lived, and those who are living today. In fact, God designed and created the human race for personal relationship with Him. What does this mean?

Implications Of God Having Created You
God knows you.
God knows your name.
God knows your story.
God sees you as relationally valuable—He wants to be known by you.
God sees you as eternally valuable—He wants to redeem you.
God sees you as intimately valuable—He wants to pursue you.

The fact that you are designed and made by God shows us that He has not forgotten you. He has not written you off. He has acted boldly on your behalf. In Genesis 1:26-31, this stunning reality becomes clear:

“26 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
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and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’

27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28 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.’ 29 And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 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 breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. 31 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.”

By the power of God’s spoken word God brought nearly everything we know to Creation in Days 1-5. Everything we know came to existence out of nothing. The earth, the universe, the land, the oceans, the trees and plants, every living creature from insects, fish, birds to animals. But Day 6 brought about the crowning creation of God, humankind.

I. God made humanity unique from all of Creation with His image.

• All of Day 6 is dedicated to the Creation of humanity. (v.26-31)
• God convened the first recorded ‘Trinity Council’ while creating humanity. (v.26; see Gen 3:22 following the fall; 11:7 Tower of Babel; Isaiah 6:8 ‘who go for us’. Matthew 3:13-17 Jesus’ baptism).
• God blessed humanity uniquely. (v.28; John 3:16) CORRECTION NOTE: God blessed the animal kingdom on Day 5 as we see in v.22.
• God appointed humanity to be the stewards of the world and everything in it. (v.28) The idea is ‘to use responsibly’. Exercise dominion over the earth; subdue it, meaning to cultivate it for the good. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the whole earth.
• God uniquely declared Day 6 to be ‘very good’. (v.31) The ‘very’ emphasizes the complete conformity of Creation to God’s perfect design.

II. God designed God’s image only in humanity.

• What aspects of God’s image do we share with Him? His ‘personal’ nature; ability to express will, emotion, intellect. Possession of an invisible part, a spirit / soul)
• We share relational connection with God. (v.2:5-25) From Day 6 on, the Bible is all about humanity and his relationship with God.
• We share triune-type of unity with God. (v, 26-27; Ephesians 5) Notice how God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are ‘one God’ (Deut 6:4) yet expressed 32 times in Genesis 1 alone as ‘elohim’ (over 2550 times in the OT, the plural form of the singular Hebrew, ‘El’. What illustrates the ‘Trinity’ the best way is the idea of one family consisting of the Father, the Mother and the Child. Each of these are of the same essence, not one better or above the others except in their distinct roles in the Family Home.
• We share eternity going forward with God. While God is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90) always existent and immortal; humans have a beginning point, but unlike all of the rest of Creation, humans were created to live forever and to exist with God for eternity future. (John 5:24)
III. God gave humanity His image-bearers representative role over Creation.
• We are given dominion over Creation. (v.26) Like God Creates and Sustains all the earth, humans are given dominion and rule over all other created, living beings. (Col 1:26)
• We are given all greenery growing on earth for food. (v.28; 1:11-13) There are over 2,000 types of fruits cultivated worldwide. Approximately 20,000 varieties of edible vegetables exist globally. Common fruits include apples, bananas, and oranges, among many others. Popular vegetables include carrots, spinach, and tomatoes. Many fruits and vegetables can be consumed raw or cooked. Seasonal and regional availability can affect the variety you can access. While all of this is created on Day 3, it isn’t until Day 6 we its primary and secondary purposes. First for human consumption, and second for animal consumption. Note: No animals are recorded as ‘eaten’ until after the Flood.
• God gave humanity a huge, beautiful garden. (1:11-12; 2:4-17)
• God gave humans a moral mandate. The who dominion, multiplying and subduing the earth elements. God carefully made the earth. We carefully steward it.
• God gave humans a moral choice. It is given to man to ‘bear the image of God’. This start as a stated reality and grows into a responsibility and in time a mandate. Of all things we as human must do is to bear God’s image well.
Application: Brothers and sisters, in a world filled with confusion, chaos and crisis, you and I need a harbor to come to that places the uniqueness of humanity where it is placed here in Scripture. Genesis begins the laying out of the truth that sets free a man or woman as integral to God’s Creation plan. Next week we will see in part 2 of God Created You In His Image. Issues of personal identity, belongingness to the family of God.

The object of going through this world is that we do not shipwreck.

“Have you not known?” You know now! “Have you not heard?” You heard now! The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to we who have no might He increases strength. The Bible is loaded with Harbors For Our Soul.

Prayer

Sources:
1 Ghost Ships Of The Great Lakes:Lost Beneath The Waves; National Geographic 2023; 47.17 minutes; https://youtu.be/CULF6vzesPI