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In the Beginning
53 Plays12 days ago
In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about the doctrine of creation where God created the world out of nothing, and the unique role of humanity within this creation. He underscored humanity's responsibility to manage creation responsibly, the impact of sin and free will, and the authority of Scripture in understanding life's purpose and God's intentions. Addressing contemporary debates on gender identity, Ballard affirmed the definitiveness of male and female creation and highlighted the power of God's word against modern information overload. He called for a fresh connection with God's voice, encouraging listeners to observe nature for a deeper experience of God's creation and reaffirming God's good and purposeful plan for all, even through life's challenges.
Timestamps:
05:58 The Bible's creation story is foundational, contested.
09:47 Humans must responsibly govern creation, not idolize.
12:46 Restless until finding purpose in God's creation.
14:53 Live immersed in God's word for transformation.
17:20 Be true to your purpose for contentment.
23:28 Seek God's infinite truth over human perspectives.
24:40 Experience Jesus weekly; it transforms life radically.
29:50 Scripture reinterpreted for self-help, not God.
33:00 Humans created as God's pinnacle, echoing Trinity.
35:59 Creation reflects God's glory and honors Him.
39:43 "Bible reading deepens connection with God."
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Transcript
Anticipation for the Gathering
00:00:00
Speaker
I don't know about you, but I couldn't sleep last night. It was like a Christmas Eve for me, anticipating our being together here and at this place. We are indeed going to be starting at the very beginning as we go through this. You should be somewhere around day four or so. um No pressure if you're not.
00:00:18
Speaker
We will show up at your door this week to check on you and make sure
Starting from Square One in Sermons
00:00:22
Speaker
you're staying in course. But now it's been exciting getting ready for this. There's a couple things I wanna say to you as we get ready to launch out on this. Number one, we are gonna assume, I'm gonna assume every week as we're preparing these sermons that we know nothing, okay? That we know nothing. We're starting all of us at square one. Here's why, two-fold reasons. Number one, some of you don't.
00:00:44
Speaker
Some of you don't. Some of you are new to the faith. Some of you are new to the Word of God. Some of you maybe have been in church, but you've never actually opened up the book for yourself to read the story of creation, to read what God's plan for salvation was. And so I don't want to jump ahead and have any of us be left behind because there's information missing. So we're all going to start from square one. We're going to try to explain thoughts, explain terms, explain illustrations, all those kinds of things to make this book come alive for us. The second reason is because some of you learned, but you learned incorrectly. Some of you have been paying more attention to the videos on Facebook than you have been your Bible.
00:01:22
Speaker
And you can't just assume that because somebody has REV period in front of their name or doctor of theology after their name that they necessarily are teaching truth. In fact, I'm telling you here today for the next 52 weeks or however long we go, I'm actually praying about next year just preaching through the whole Bible, which will probably take 15 years, but we'll hang in there together, right?
00:01:45
Speaker
um As we're doing this every week, do not, do not take what I say to you as the final answer. Go back to the Bible and read it for yourself.
Introduction to Genesis
00:01:58
Speaker
Go back and see if I'm telling you the truth because if there's any place where I got it wrong, I promise you it won't be intentional, but I need to be corrected just like anybody else. If the Bereans had permission to check up on Paul's teaching, I absolutely need you to check up on mine, okay? But we're going to try to walk through this together. We're going to do a whole lot of stuff.
00:02:17
Speaker
We're going to be talking about places of history, places of culture, doctrine terms. Don't let words like doctrine scare you. Doctrine is just a fancy way of saying, this is what I believe. This is the focus of my belief or how my belief is structured. We're going to be talking about all those cool things. We'll throw some Greek and Hebrew and Latin at you. Are you excited about that?
00:02:38
Speaker
No, you're not, quit lying to me. um We're gonna do all of this cool stuff because this is just absolutely an incredible opportunity for us as we journey through this together. If you haven't gotten a Bible, there's still, some I think, some reading plans out there. I'm pretty sure there are. Somebody might have to check me on that. um But i just I want us to dig into this to be, as the series title says, to be completely immersed in God's words because it is going to change us.
00:03:07
Speaker
um Genesis chapter one, the creation story is the beginning of the metanarrative of all of scripture. Now that word metanarrative you will hear it over and over again. Metanarrative is a fancy way of saying there are 66 books in the Bible and they tell a lot of really incredible stories but every single one of those stories come together to form the big story.
00:03:30
Speaker
the story that really matters, the story of God. From beginning to end, this is His story. And so we're going to be digging in, we're going to be looking at all this information, we're gonna we're going to study it as it unfolds and as God inspired men to write it and as those events occurred.
00:03:47
Speaker
This book Genesis today, this book Genesis is named from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Genesias is the Greek term there, which literally means birthing. ok um The Hebrew term for this book actually means beginning. In other words, the idea is that this is a book of origins.
00:04:06
Speaker
Genesis was originally part of four other books which now make the five first books of the Bible. Those five books together created the Torah or the Pentateuch. You may have heard either one of those terms. Torah simply means law. Pentateuch means five vessels. Those five vessels being brought together as one. Up until second century BC, all five of those books were just one book together and that's the way the Hebrews studied them and knew them and recognized them somewhere around Like I said, the second century, they chose to break them apart for ease of reading. In fact, for those of you who don't know this, chapters versus were not a part of the original scriptures. They were added much later at councils that came along where they decided, hey, we need to make this easier for people to find things and associate things
The Foundational Role of Genesis
00:04:51
Speaker
in there. So they created chapter divisions and verses as well.
00:04:55
Speaker
um The Old Testament and the New Testament both agree in multiple places that the book of Genesis was written by Moses. okay Now around 1850s, 1860, somewhere around there, liberal theology entered the picture, critical theology entered the picture. Those are terms you won't have to learn for the test. um but But it entered the picture and it began to question whether or not Moses really actually wrote the book.
00:05:21
Speaker
A lot of that argument was primarily based on the fact that in the books, the five books that we just mentioned, there are stories like um the the death of Moses, which obviously Moses could not have written about his own death.
00:05:35
Speaker
Very simply put, we know that Moses wrote this book because in the New Testament, Jesus and Paul both refer to him as the writer of this book and Jesus wouldn't lie. So we know with certainty that Moses wrote this book. Those passages that were put in later were just simply additions that were made to help bring clarity to the story and even put a bow on Moses's life so we understood more about it.
00:05:58
Speaker
It is one of the most read and least understood books in the Bible. And I think that's on purpose because this book more than any other in the 66 puts a foundation to our faith. And if you know anything about building a building, you know that the foundation is critical.
00:06:16
Speaker
So you start to attack that foundation as Satan has done, and you undermine what God is doing. You undermine the story of God. If you can get people to question why we're created, or how we were created, or how the story unfolds, if you can get people to doubt that, then suddenly all the other things in Scripture become in question.
00:06:37
Speaker
I would argue that John 3 16 for God so loved the world that Satan could live with that better than he could live with the fact that God created the heavens and the earth. And here's why I would say that because the fact that God created the heavens and the earth means that God had a purpose from the very beginning and part of that purpose was the salvation of man.
00:06:56
Speaker
You see how it all connects? And we're gonna see those kind of connections all the way through this book as we are studying the word together. This book understands and addresses the issues of creation, of gender, of sexuality, of marriage, of race, of family, of law, all kinds of things are covered in the book of Genesis. And sadly, I have about 30 to 40 minutes to try to put all this together for you. And I will fail. Just be ready for it.
00:07:25
Speaker
oh So here's like my little plug. Wednesday night, 6.30 right down here in Keyes Chiropractic. We are going to be meeting for Bible study there. And two things I will tell you. Number one, be there.
00:07:38
Speaker
Be a part of these conversations because it's a chance for us to go even deeper than we'll be able to on Sunday morning. But also, come prepared with questions because as you're reading this stuff, I am not going to be able to cover the 12 to 18 chapters a week we're reading as we read chronologically. I'm only going to be able to highlight, in this case this morning, about five verses that we're going to go through.
00:07:57
Speaker
So come, be a part of that. I'll let you know that we are intending a live streaming Wednesday nights. So if you can't be there, hopefully that will make be available and it'd be quality enough that you can follow along. Also Tuesday afternoons, our podcasts will be all about these readings that we're doing. So you might want to subscribe to that, follow along. All of those tools hopefully will help you get this a little bit better, comprehend it a little bit more, soak it in. And then finally, of
Creation and Humanity
00:08:25
Speaker
course, John will tell you, get in these life groups. These life groups are a great place to to do this in community, which was the way it was intended.
00:08:35
Speaker
So, Genesis 1 is primarily to reveal the statement that God is and God created. And God created specifically ex nihilo. That's a Latin term, it's a fancy word, you can go and press your friends with it later this week. Ex nihilo just simply means out of nothing. When God created, there was nothing. Nothing to work with, nothing around, nothing had existed before him.
00:09:00
Speaker
Adam and Eve were created in God's image and they were unique from the rest of creation because they were created specifically to fellowship with God. God created us so that we might have relationship with Him and in doing so that we would bring Him glory and that we would worship Him in that place. We are the pinnacle of creation. The Bible was very clear about this. Again, this is an area where the world's trying to flip it. This is why we spend so much time trying to save the spotted owl and the baby sperm whales and all those kinds of things, but we won't talk about saving babies because we've gotten our priority out of whack. We are the top
Sin and Its Impact
00:09:38
Speaker
of creation. In fact, part of being made in God's image is that God gave us God-like authority over all of creation.
00:09:46
Speaker
You'll see that in just a minute. God specifically said, subdue it and lord over it. It is our responsibility to be the governor of creation and to to manage those resources. No doubt that we have to do it with responsibility and take care of it, but we're not supposed to worship an animal more than we do a human being.
00:10:05
Speaker
We're not supposed to give it more significance than we do the significance of God in our lives. On the other hand, we're sinners who use God-given resources and abilities to violate God's law, to hurt one another, and to be selfish and seek our own desires. This is part of the story as we move from creation to fall, to flood, and then to one specific family through which God chooses to work to bring a covenant to reality. And he says specifically, I will through you bless the nations of the world. Evil and sin did not originate with God. God did not create sin. I get asked that question all the time. Why did God create sin? Here's the reality so that you understand. This is something we could spend a whole 30 minutes talking about. God created Adam and Eve in perfection.
00:10:55
Speaker
The moment they were created, the moment life was breathed into Adam and he was created out of the dust, he was a perfect creature. And because God loves and wants to be loved in return, which is part of honoring him, God created man and woman, Adam and Eve, with a free will.
00:11:14
Speaker
And unfortunately Adam and Eve used that free will to choose their path, their selfish way, following the lead of Satan. And because of that, every human being since their time has the sinful nature inside of them.
00:11:31
Speaker
Just as much as we're confident that blood flows through our veins, we are sinful people, all of us. Romans 3, 23, Paul confirms this. He says, we are all sinners and we fall short of the glory of God. So every single one of us in this place need the grace and the mercy. We need this rescue story that we're about to read about. And I know you love your grandmother, but she's included, okay? Everybody is without.
Understanding Creation's Purpose
00:11:59
Speaker
outook without without Jesus. So as I said Adam and Eve were created innocent with the capacity to choose and when sinner entered into the picture they lost their innocence and they lost their freedom. And that sinful nature has continued to push us and we live in what we would call a fallen world. And what I mean by that is as creatures who try to follow and connect with God, we aren't guaranteed anything except for that God's presence will be with us and that he will deliver us in the end. In this season, as we live on this broken earth, we will experience pain, suffering, grief, we will experience disappointment, frustration, all of those things are part of the reality of living in a broken world. Genesis 1 tells us that we are made by God,
00:12:46
Speaker
We belong to God. We exist for God's purposes. Our hearts are restless until they rest in God. And ultimately, we're going to be with God if we choose to receive the free gift of salvation that he has offered to us through his son, Jesus Christ. Now here's why we're starting with Genesis 1.1 today. Without a developed and confident doctrine of creation, we live for nothing.
00:13:15
Speaker
Let me say that to you again. Without a developed and confident doctrine of creation, we live for nothing. In other words, if we came from nowhere, if we don't know where we go when we die, if we don't know what we're supposed to do between birth and death, if we don't understand who we are or why we were created, if we don't understand where we are going, then our only option is to try to figure it out on our own. And look where that has brought us.
00:13:45
Speaker
The chaos that exists in this world is because we've tried to play God in place of the one true God in our lives.
00:13:55
Speaker
Genesis answers all of these questions about why are we here and why did God choose to do this and why did God act in a particular way and what our response needs to be to him. So, we're gonna jump in right here, Genesis 1.1. Before you do, I wanna read another passage for you.
00:14:15
Speaker
And the reason I wanna read this is because I'm gonna invite you to make this your prayer for the next 52 weeks together. We are approaching a divine book, divinely inspired, divinely protected, divinely anointed for our purposes. It is the most powerful word in the universe and because of it, you and I exist.
00:14:38
Speaker
So here's a prayer I want you to to pray for yourself. It's Psalm 119, verses nine through 11, if you want to turn, you can, but I'm just gonna read to you this morning. It says, how can a young man keep his way pure by keeping your word? I have sought you with all my heart. Don't let me wander from your commands. I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.
00:15:01
Speaker
My prayer for us this season is that we be immersed in this word in such a way that we live and breathe the Spirit of God because of what it's done in us.
00:15:13
Speaker
Can you imagine what the town of Chapel Hill would look like if we all fell in love with this book and lived in obedience by it on a daily basis? How our interactions with one another would change, how our relationships would change, how our ethics would change, how our purposes and goals in life would change. The goal, shalom.
00:15:35
Speaker
to align our lives with the purpose of Christ for us. And when we get to that place, to know that we have experienced the ultimate in peace.
Foundational Scripture: Genesis 1:1
00:15:44
Speaker
So, let's dive in. Genesis chapter one, verse one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
00:15:54
Speaker
Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the watery depths and the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, let there be light and there was light.
00:16:06
Speaker
God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night. There was an evening and there was a morning, one day. Now I want you to skip down to verse 26. We're gonna continue reading there. It said, then God said, let us make man in our image according to our lightness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.
00:16:36
Speaker
So God created man in his own image, he created him in the image of God, he created them male and female. I want to stop there for just a second. Does anybody have a translation where it goes on to add 127 other options? Does anybody have a footnote in their Bible that says, this may not be all there was?
00:16:59
Speaker
then we can rest confident and content that the book itself says there is male, there is female, and there is nothing else. And can I just submit to you that if you here today or someone you know struggles with that whole concept, then that's the source of your lack of peace. I used this illustration this morning. I don't know if it worked well. My wife laughs, so that's usually a bad sign, but I'm gonna use it again anyway.
00:17:25
Speaker
If God created me to be a chef, but I chose to be a police officer, that would create some friction in my life. I would spend all these hours learning the police code, going to the academy, learning how to handle certain weapons, learning how to approach different situations. I could be doing all those things and be so unsettled till one day when God shows up and looks at me and says, hey, you'd find a whole lot more contentment if you would do what I created you to do.
00:17:54
Speaker
And be what I created you to be. And then you could stop using your weapon as a spatula. See where I'm going with this? We've got a lot of people in our world who are trying to be something that God never created them to be. To the point where they're making things up now. And trying to redefine science that has been established for 6,000 years. And looking at us going, follow the science.
00:18:20
Speaker
And we're like, you stopped at science a long time ago, you're living in fantasy. The reality is that God created male and female stop. End of story.
00:18:33
Speaker
Verse 28, God blessed them and God said to them, here it is, the the God divine, God ordained authority, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the seas, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth. They are ours for our purposes, to be enjoyed by us, to be loved by us, but to be ruled by us. So,
00:19:00
Speaker
With all of that in mind, let's go back to Genesis 1.1, which I would argue is one of the most important scriptures in all of the Bible. So much so, we're gonna read it again. This time I'm gonna ask you to read it with me.
00:19:17
Speaker
In the beginning, God, oh, come on now, uh-uh, that ain't gonna work. They are a little slow on the draw, let's go again. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. All right, I want you to stop, I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to say it again with me without looking at the screen. If I catch you cheating, I will throw something at you. Close your eyes, close your eyes. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I do not want any one of you in this room to come up to me and say, I cannot memorize scripture, because you just did it.
00:19:52
Speaker
And again, it's one of the most important scriptures in all of the Bible because it establishes some incredible realities for us. And that's what we're gonna spend the balance of our time talking about here this morning. Number one, because of this, we know that God exists. God exists. The first step in pleasing God and bringing honor to God is simply just recognizing that he's there and that he is the reason we are here. He has always existed, he always will. I've used this before, so if you recognize it,
00:20:22
Speaker
that's There's a reason, but I bring it out because a friend of mine, Jay Strather, showed it to me years ago, left an impression on me, and I hope you will understand once I'm done with this. This is human history, okay? If you see it, at the end of it, it's closed on one end. Why? Because human history starts at one point, and that point is where we just read today. God created the heavens and the earth.
00:20:47
Speaker
That's where human history begins, okay? You have to imagine it, but it goes all the way that way as far as anybody has ever gone and will ever go and continues on and on and on and on. That is eternity. You with me? So this is human history, and can you see that piece of lint there in the middle of the jar? No. Because just like you, it doesn't matter.
00:21:09
Speaker
Okay, it's not it's not key to human history. You're a part of human history. Guess what? There are eight billion people on that lint with you. And they are that small part of all of human history.
00:21:23
Speaker
God, this is the part that blows my mind, God exists outside of this. He's out here. Which means God looks at you and you're down here fretting about your history test tomorrow or that business meeting, phone call that you've got tomorrow or whatever and God looks at it and goes, I can see all the way down there and all the way to right there and even way back before there and none of that really scares me because I'm still on my throne. So quit worrying about that, I got it.
00:21:52
Speaker
Okay, so God is outside of all of this, human history is out here in your existence on that planet, gone in a moment.
Truth in an Age of Information Overload
00:22:04
Speaker
Man, that was brutal, wasn't it? Number two, God's word, capital W, God's word has life-giving and world-creating power. Without the scripture, without the word of God, all the big questions we've been talking about have no good answers.
00:22:25
Speaker
Here's the thing that can frustrate us and discourage us. We live in an age of limitless information. And this little thing right here, we have more knowledge than you and I can even handle. More things than you and I can even think about or consume or even ponder. There are answers to questions that you haven't even asked on this thing right here.
00:22:48
Speaker
This morning, no joke, I sat at the table and I said, hey Siri, tell me what the best church in Chapel Hill, Tennessee is. You'll be glad to know we made the top three. And I didn't fret too much about that because I looked closely and realized it's because they're in alphabetical order, okay? So we're number three on the list, but all of that information is right there. We have more information than any era in human history, and yet we are more confused than ever. We are more uncertain than ever. We are more lost than ever, even though we are inundated with all of this knowledge.
00:23:28
Speaker
We have endless access to all kinds of things, but the question we must ask ourselves, is it truth? Because it's only truth that sets you free. And the truth is that much of what we consume, whether it's through here, the TV, the radio, other parts of the internet, that most of it, most of it comes from the perspective of frail human minds that are finite, rather than the infinite truth of God's word.
00:23:59
Speaker
What we need, what Grove Hill Church needs, what the body of Christ internationally needs, is a fresh word from God. A fresh ability to hear his voice as it speaks.
00:24:14
Speaker
My prayer for you guys, ah and ah we prayed last night, as we always do up here on Saturday night, one of my friends prayed this over me, and then I turned around and just agreed with this prayer. My prayer is that over the next 52 weeks together, that you do not see and you do not hear your pastor, but that you simply hear God's voice.
00:24:36
Speaker
This book has that.
00:24:40
Speaker
And sometimes sometimes it will come to you in a whisper as it did to the prophet Elijah. Sometimes it will come to you in a loud roar, like the wave of a million oceans. But my prayer is every week you experience this Jesus in a way that you've never ever thought or felt because it will radically change your life.
00:25:11
Speaker
genesis Genesis tells us the universe had a beginning, that God spoke everything into existence, that it was a good world when God created it for us, and the reason we can know that it was good is because God himself is good. Nothing bad ever comes from God. Remember, God said everything you see, hear, feel, he said it all into existence by speaking.
00:25:40
Speaker
ah few words. And as that second song we sang this morning tells it so beautifully, a billion galaxies were formed in that
00:25:52
Speaker
Years ago, when I was on a cruise with my first wife, we went out one evening, I remember it very distinctly, it's the first time I'd ever been on a cruise out in the middle of the ocean, walking, beautiful, beautiful, clear night. As we're walking the deck, I remember looking and thinking out across the waters. I don't see one light, one sign of any other humans, no sign of land. And in that moment, this thought struck me. This is what planet Earth must feel like in the cosmos.
00:26:21
Speaker
one drop and a zillion drops, one planet out of all of it, one ball of rock and dirt and gas inside of one solar system, inside of one galaxy, out of billions of galaxies, and all of it spoken by the power of God.
00:26:46
Speaker
And my fear is that as followers of Christ, we become so familiar with the story that we lose our all in what happened in that moment. You have never had a bright idea of your own. I can say that because neither have I. But God in one instant created every bright idea. Every good thought.
00:27:14
Speaker
every great recipe, every great road trip, every good punchline to a joke, God spoke it in a moment. Let that sink in for you because He is that sovereign and powerful. So here's my encouragement. In addition to reading every day, I want to challenge you to do some other things this year. Go for a walk.
00:27:44
Speaker
Put your phone down. Yes, the world will still go on. And go for a walk. We have this incredible resource right down the road, Henry Horton State Park. And as you walk, listen. Listen to the creation that God made for you. Watch the sunset go down. Listen to animals make their noises. Laugh at a good joke with a friend.
00:28:11
Speaker
Get down in the floor and pray with your nieces, nephews, grandkids. And if you need help getting back up, call our deacons.
00:28:19
Speaker
Experience this, experience this life in a new way.
Life's Struggles and God's Purpose
00:28:26
Speaker
In a way that you never have before. And the best way to do that is understanding His greatness and your need for His greatness.
00:28:39
Speaker
When the Bible says things are good, it means they fulfill God's purpose. God has a plan for you and that plan is very good. That doesn't mean that it will be free from pain or free from grief or free from suffering. It just means that it will fulfill God's promises. And so one of the things you can take away from this one sentence today is that because God is intentional, the struggles you're having in your marriage, God can use those. That bad relationship with that friend that's fallen through,
00:29:09
Speaker
God can use that. The challenges at work, the challenges with your finances, the illness that you're facing, every single one of those things can and will be used by God if you just lay it at his feet and trust him. Remember, he's outside of all of history. Number three, God is the main character of the Bible.
00:29:33
Speaker
God is the main character of the Bible. You see, the book is about him and to read it with any other primary interest is to misread it. And and I suggest to you today, this is where a lot of Christians today have missed this because we have turned it into a self-help book. We have reinterpreted scripture not to ask what is God up to and how do we join him, but what is God doing to bless me?
00:29:59
Speaker
How's God gonna fix me? You go into a Barnes and Nobles or any bookstore, they still exist, I don't know if y'all know that, but if you go into a bookstore and you walk up to the even the Christian section of the bookstore, you'll see as many self-help books as you will anything else. ah Here's how scripture can help you lose weight in 30 days. Here's how scripture can help your finances in two weeks. Here's how this can happen because God wants you to live your best life now. Heard that phrase before?
00:30:29
Speaker
The Bible's not about you. The Bible is not about you. To read it that way is like to read the story of Cinderella and focus on the singing mice. They're just one small part of the story. But those mice were were there so that Cinderella could be the center of attention. If we put ourselves in the middle, we do not live in truth.
00:30:56
Speaker
It's like taking an axle out of the middle of a tire and putting it at the outer edge. You know what's gonna happen? A very bumpy ride. Because that is not rotating around the centerpiece that it should. You put Jesus at the center of your life and come to know. Shalom. So, here's my encouragement for you today.
God's Sovereignty and the Trinity
00:31:19
Speaker
There is a God and you are not him.
00:31:24
Speaker
Number four, God has done what no human being could ever do. The Hebrew word here is barah, which means to create. Catch this. It's used numerous times in scripture. It never has a human subject. It never has a human subject.
00:31:42
Speaker
It never says John created. It never says Paul created. It never says that Mary created. It always uses God as its subject because it signifies the work that is uniquely done by God. It's only two times in scripture. Number one, it says God created the heavens and the earth. Number two, God created salvation for us. Neither of which is capable at human hands. God who makes all things,
00:32:12
Speaker
also makes all things new. Some of you need a new beginning today. You need to be reminded that God's mercies are new every morning. You need to be reminded that God's grace is limitless and that his forgiveness is always there for you.
00:32:29
Speaker
You need to be reminded that instead of what the culture tells you, you are the apex of God's creation. You are the final piece of the puzzle. You are above every other created thing. There is never once anywhere Genesis to Revelation where God lumps humans in with animals. Science did that. And we've been messed up ever since.
00:32:51
Speaker
because we put ourselves on the same level as a white-tailed deer or a greyhound puppy. And that's just not the way God created it. God created us to be the pinnacle of everything he had done. And that's why when God got through creating Adam, he said, this is very good. Number five, we learned from these seven words in scripture that God is mysterious. He's mysterious.
00:33:21
Speaker
You might have noticed when we read verse 26, it says, then God said, let us make man in our image. Those are plural pronouns. And the reason plural pronouns are used there is because in the beginning with God was the Spirit of God and the Son of God. All three, the Trinity, as we refer to them, have existed for all of eternity. They will always exist for all of eternity.
00:33:47
Speaker
That word there in verse 2 where it says the spirit of God, that Hebrew word is the word ruach. Ruach, which means either wind or spirit. It can be used interchangeably. The wind or the spirit catch the image. The spirit and the word always work together.
00:34:08
Speaker
The Spirit and the Word always work together. Look at John chapter 4 verse 24 real quick. I'm going to throw it on the screen for you. This is Jesus speaking. He says, God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Spirit and truth. The truth is the Word of God. The Spirit, of course, is the Spirit of God.
00:34:27
Speaker
They always work together. And when Jesus said this to the woman at the well in John chapter four, he was very much alluding back to the passage we just read today, reminding us that the spirit and the word always go hand in hand. Some of you this morning are feeling empty in your life. You're looking for purpose, you're looking for direction, you're looking for hope amidst despair. What you need is the spirit of God.
00:34:56
Speaker
What you need is the word of God working inside your life, because God's word brings order out of chaos. Number six, God is creator of heaven and earth. God didn't just modify a bunch of existing matter. There wasn't a bunch of rocks floating around in space that he put together. God created matter from nothing. There was nothing before him, and to the point where he decided to create, there was nothing there. When we create, when you and I choose to create something, whether it's a great musical or a great work of art or create a barn out back, whatever we're doing, we are always doing two things. Number one, we are creating using things that God has already created and we're creating because God inspired us to create. Without God, we wouldn't even want to create.
00:35:50
Speaker
But God inspires us to create, He gives us the stuff to create with, and in doing so, we honor Him and reflect His glory. We honor Him and reflect His glory. Did you know when you were building your chicken coop? That you were honoring God? Some of you did because you were calling His name through the whole process. Did you know when you were sitting down at the piano at age five to take those piano lessons? That you were honoring God?
00:36:18
Speaker
Because again, you were going, oh my God, why am I doing this? And God answered you and said, because you bring me glory when you create, because you act the same image as me. But there's only been one God who spoke into nothingness and created, new word for you, everythingness. Only one God has ever done that.
00:36:41
Speaker
Remember, everything in creation, everything to the far reaches of the universe exists because of his word. Number seven, God is not dependent on his universe. The universe is completely dependent on him.
00:36:58
Speaker
You will learn this and this is a good thing to keep in mind throughout the rest of the year as we are studying and reading the Word. In the ancient Near East where all of these stories take place, naming an object or a person means you had authority or lordship over it. okay Think about the story of Abram and His name being changed to Abraham, if you remember that story, or you may have already gotten to it if you're reading ahead in the stories. Sarai, his wife, her name was changed to Sarah. Jacob, his name is ultimately changed to Israel. In every one of those instances, the reason God did that is because it said to them, a new day has come and I am in charge. The story's being rewritten now and it's being rewritten according to my authority.
00:37:42
Speaker
So in the very beginning, that passage we read, verse three, when it said, let there be light and there was light, it says that God called the light day and the darkness he called night. By naming light and darkness, God said, you are under my authority. And that's true of every part of the universe. As you continue to read the story of creation, you see that God names these things and then gives Adam permission to name the animals.
00:38:12
Speaker
giving him again the authority given by God to be in control. Last thing, God's entire word points to Jesus.
The Bible's Central Figure: Jesus
00:38:24
Speaker
God's entire word points to Jesus. John chapter one verse one that Noah read for us just a minute ago says this, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Verse 14 in that same chapter says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. I love the the message translation there, not usually a big fan of it but the message translation says and God moved into the neighborhood.
00:38:50
Speaker
Doesn't that change the way you think about what you're gonna do for lunch today? Oh, God's in the neighborhood. But this this is the reality, that that Jesus is on every page. You remember after Jesus' resurrection, Luke 24, the story of him walking to Emmaus with two of his disciples? And the Bible as it tells that story says, they're walking, Jesus suddenly appears, he begins to walk and talk with him, but their eyes don't see that Jesus is the resurrected Christ. They don't realize who they're talking to in other words.
00:39:17
Speaker
And it says in that story that he began to go back to the law, the Torah, and the prophets to show the reason why he must die. What Jesus was saying to them is, go back and look at the book because I'm on every single page of it. Every single page of this book we call the Bible has Jesus as its focus. Jesus as the center of it all.
00:39:48
Speaker
Some of you asked the question, so why did you decide to do this year? sir why Why are we reading through the Bible? Well, I didn't do it so that you could beat your family at Bible trivia. I did not do it so you could go to work or school and pat yourself on the back and tell people, hey, look at me, I'm reading through the Bible. My prayer, as I said earlier, is this. Whether it's your first time, your 10th time, or your 20th time.
00:40:15
Speaker
My prayer is that as you immerse yourself in this book this year, that God will become so close to you, or more appropriately, you will become so close to God, that you begin to live and breathe, to exhale and inhale the Spirit of God as you live day by day. That your natural inclination would not be to turn to the internet, to turn to a friend, or even to turn to your spouse to find solutions for life,
00:40:43
Speaker
but that you would look to this book. This book is life itself. Will you pray with me?
00:40:55
Speaker
Father, we ask your forgiveness that we have allowed this book to sit too many times on our shelves without us really consulting it. That too many times we've allowed others to tell us what this book says
00:41:09
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without us digging in for ourselves and finding out what the power of this book is all about. Forgive us for taking this book and making it about us, instead of recognizing that you are indeed on every single page front to back, drawing us lovingly towards yourself.
00:41:32
Speaker
This morning, Father, we commit ourselves this year to absorbing this word, to, as the slide said a minute ago, to being immersed in this book. Because your promise is that when your word goes out, it never returns void. Something's gonna change in us if we do this.
00:41:59
Speaker
So Father, I pray that our spirits would be willing, that our flesh would be able to, by your power, to pursue this journey through to the end. So that this time next year, we're talking about the greatness of a God who has changed us inside and out. We're celebrating how our community has been changed, how our schools have been awakened to the power of the Creator, how our businesses are being run more ethically, and how our courtrooms have been just shut down because crime has come to an end.
00:42:43
Speaker
that no child has to go hungry, no family has to go through so struggles all alone, that the people of God are being the people of God in a way that God can't be denied.
Commitment to Transformation through God's Word
00:42:59
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That journey begins today.
00:43:10
Speaker
so