The God Who Made It All

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Amen.

Amen.

We should always be excited in worship.

Now, that's not some false sense of, hey, everyone's happy and clappy, so let me be that way.

No, no, no.

It is the sense of understanding, okay?

For all the wrong turns that you've done.

God has the power and the capacity and the willingness to change all of that, okay?

Let me voice a prayer and we're going to get into God's word today.

Let's pray together.

You can have a seat.

God, thanks for your word.

Thanks that it's the truth.

It sets us free.

It doesn't bind us up.

What binds us up is when we believe things that aren't true, that aren't in keeping with the revelation we find in your word.

And so, Holy Spirit, illuminate, shine light on the Bible today.

It's not just words on a page, it's an invitation to intimacy.

It's the God of creation, the creator God, the only God who was and is and is to come, the God who's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That God is inviting us into a relationship where you reveal yourself to us and change us for the better.

You restore and you redeem.

So there's nobody in this room, God, who has sinned so much that you've given up on them.

There's nobody in this room that has done so much wrong that they can't be made right.

This is the beauty of the gospel.

The Lord, remind us of your nature, who you are, and how you are.

Because you created us.

We're made in your image and in your likeness, and you blessed us.

We want to reflect who you are to the culture around us.

So speak to us today about how we do that.

This is our prayer, God.

We pray it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can open your Bibles up if you would to Genesis chapter one.

We're beginning a new series.

Typically, we preach through books of the Bible.

It's called expository preaching, where we just kind of go verse by verse, but we're every once in a while we break it up.

And this is one of those cases, we're going to do a series called Return to Design.

Basically, where we're going to go back and we're going to take different episodes starting in Genesis chapter one, the first 11 chapters of Genesis, where God kind of, you see the way God designed the world to be.

Okay, it's easy to look around and get mad at the world and shake your fist at people and think, oh, that person or this person.

And so we just simply go back and say, let's just look at the way God designed it.

And so I'm going to talk to you today about the God who made it all.

Now, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to read the entire first chapter of Genesis, but I'll make it up to you next week.

We'll only read three verses.

Are you down for that?

Say amen.

And so Genesis chapter one.

Now, a long time ago, matter of fact, 2005, I have two children, two daughters.

Somebody asked me recently, hey, are you sad you didn't have a son?

No, not at all.

Because my daughters took after their mother.

A son may have taken after me, and that would not be always great.

But anyway, uh my oldest loved movies.

And so in high school, she would come in our bedroom at 10:30 at night and go, hey, Dad, there's an 11 o'clock showing of blah, blah, blah, at the Regal up here.

You want to go?

And I'm throwing the covers off, and I'm like, absolutely.

And so we would always go see movies, starting when she was a little kid.

She's eight years old, and she said to me one day, Daddy, I want to go see the adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl.

And I thought she's just making up this pretend stuff.

No, there was a movie called The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl.

And the only thing that made it worse was it was in 3D.

So I had to strap on some paper glasses and waste a hundred minutes of my life that I'll never get back.

And it began early on in the movie.

It came up on a screen, a quote.

One of the characters said this everything that is and will ever be began with a dream.

And I just looked over and said to my daughter, that's not true.

We'll talk about it later.

And so we watch the movie, we go walking out, and we're talking, we get in my suburban, and I'm like, hey, babe, remember when my dad tapped you on the leg and said, That's not true?

And she's like, Yeah, what was that about?

I said, Everything that is and will ever be did not begin with a dream, okay?

Everything that is and will ever be, God is creator, not you and your dreams.

And she's like, Yeah, I know that.

Okay, just don't let that slip in because a lot of bad theology, like cigarette smoke, it gets in our kids' hair when they're little kids by the movies we we let them watch or the books that they read.

And so we had a great conversation.

And I said, You got any other questions?

And she said, Yeah, can we go to the sonic?

I was like, Okay, I think we're done with the theological dialogue now.

And so, anyway, let me just read uh because what I want you to see is the God who made it all.

Now, this is gonna sound crazy, but one of the most crucial, fundamental, foundational things you and I need to understand is the doctrine of creation.

Okay?

Why is there such a big deal about that?

Let me just read Genesis chapter one, starting verse one.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness, and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and there was evening and there was morning the first day.

And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.

And God made the expanse, and he separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse, and it was so.

And God called the expanse heaven, and there was evening and there was morning the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so.

And God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas, and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed.

Key phrase, in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth, and it was so.

The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning the third day.

And God said, To be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, and it was so.

And God made the true great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser night to rule the night, and the stars.

And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.

And God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

And God said, Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.

So God created the great sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good, and God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.

And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.

And it was so.

And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock of all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God he created him, male and female, he created them.

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.

And God said, Behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food.

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.

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.

Now, typically when it comes to Genesis chapter one, most Christians focus on two things.

Well, was it a little 24-hour period of days and how old's the earth?

And uh, and there's a time and place for those discussions.

I'm not gonna get into that today.

What I'm gonna get into is basically five things I want you to see in the text uh that are foundational.

Uh, if we're gonna return to design, if we're just gonna get back and look at the way God designed the world to be, because if you just look around at the world today, you will very quickly come to the conclusion that, hey, or you'll be tempted to come to the conclusion there is no God because if there is a God and God is good and he created everything good, how did the world get so bad?

We'll get to that question later.

But let's start at the very beginning.

Uh, here's five statements that I want you to understand about the God who made it all.

Number one is this God existed before anything was made.

God existed before anything was made.

It says, in the beginning, God created.

And so before God created, God existed.

Okay, uh, we have no record of that.

He existed before there was time, but he is not a created being like us, okay?

And so there never was a time when God was not.

You may read in the Bible, sometimes it talks about that God is pre-existent.

In other words, he existed before anything.

Now, the Enlightenment, which was a period of intellectual and philosophical uh movement of ideas in the 17 and 1800s, uh, before that, philosophers, uh, people that were not not Christians, they would give respect to Christian philosophy because they couldn't account for the universe, apart from the idea of some transcendent being.

Uh, but the enlightenment comes along and there's a lot of pressure to generate these possibilities because we have to remove the moral obligation that creation places upon humanity.

And we'll get to that in just a minute.

And so when I say God existed before anything was made, so during the Enlightenment, a lot of people begin to generate ideas about how to explain the existence of things.

Now, years later, a man named R.C.

Sprohl, who just died not too long ago, he was a Christian philosopher, pastor, thinker, writer, he says this.

He says there's only three possibilities for anything that exists.

When you look around, now we're gonna think for just a minute, okay?

I'm not an eggheaded person, but I do think Christians ought to have a mind.

If you agree with that, say amen.

And you ought to engage people you work with because they'll say crazy things to you.

And you don't need to snap back and get all big and whatever.

You just very graciously just speak the truth in love.

And so there's three possibilities for anything that exists, as to, hey, this is how it got here.

Number one, it is self-created.

That's Darwin.

It's just primordial.

It's like a big glorified mud hole.

And and the and the Darwinists say that in this little primordial was all the elements of life, and all of a sudden, so they just nothing acted upon them, they just came together and created themselves.

And I'm like, wow, that takes a lot of faith in the wrong thing, but it's self-created.

Secondly, it you have to say it's eternal.

If it's not self-created, then it's eternal.

Thirdly, it's created by something that is eternal.

Now, notice that the two possibilities, the last two involve something being eternal.

Because if the first possibility can be eliminated, then the thesis that something has always been is proven.

And the first possibility is easy to eliminate because it's the concept of spontaneous generation or what they call nowadays self-creation.

It gets a lot of credibility in our modern society.

Uh uh, but if you look at it really carefully, you'll see what they call in philosophy, it is an absurd logical impossibility.

What does it mean?

In plain speak, it means this cannot be true.

Here's why.

Because for something, now he says it's self-created, okay?

Now, for something to create itself, it would have to be before it was.

It would have to be and not be at the same time and in the same relationship.

Now, this violates one of the fundamental principles of truth and science known as the law of non-contradiction.

I know you shaved your legs this morning and thought.

I hope the pastor talks about the law of non-contradiction.

So just stay with me, okay?

Christianity is not just for smart people, but it does inform the way you see the world because a lot of people build their worldview on this flawed assumption of self-creation, or it used to be called spontaneous generation.

Now it's self-creation.

In other words, that something cannot exist and exist at the same time in the same relationship, because this is what self-creation, the theory of self-creation says.

Oh, nothing existed, but but something it also existed at the same time it didn't exist and it made itself.

And I'm just like, you are smart people.

That cannot, logically and philosophically, that cannot be true.

And so this violates what's called the law of non-contradiction.

It's a contradictory statement.

Hold on to that law of contradiction.

We'll come back to that in the end.

Uh, see, before there was a beginning, now God existed before anything was made.

Before there was a beginning, sounds like a real innocuous.

Hey, that's a lovey-dovey statement.

But before there was anything, there was a God.

He's not created, he simply is.

This is because he's eternal, he's always existed, he will never not exist.

And so this is not just in Genesis 1, this is all through the Bible.

If you look in the New Testament, you look in the book of Colossians, kind of towards the back, verse 17 says this of him uh of Christ.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hear it again.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

This simple verse of the Bible answers two questions that everybody has to answer, whether you want to or not, whether you think about it, or you've ever thought about it or not.

Here are the two questions it answers: the question of creation and coherence.

Creation says, How did everything you see get here?

Coherence says, What holds it all together?

What holds it all together?

See, anxiety is on the rise in our country because people have a flawed understanding of creation and coherence.

They look around and they think, man, this global pandemic, this COVID, this thing could get me at any time.

I mean, is anybody at the switch?

Is anybody in charge?

Or as Paul says in Colossians, what holds it all together?

One of the questions you should ask yourself before you go to bed tonight is what holds me together?

What do I look to for coherence?

What do I look to when everything feels like it's going faster and just coming unhinged?

What holds me together?

Do my kids walk in my kitchen and find their mother at the calm center of it all, just looking at my 16-year-old, going, sweetie, it's gonna be fine.

How do you know?

Because I know the one who holds it all together.

Or are you just as frayed around the edges as everybody else you know?

You see, in Exodus chapter three, remember, we're talking about that that uh uh before anything was created, God existed.

The next book of the Bible after Genesis is Exodus in chapter three, God appears to a man named Moses.

Now, Moses is a man with a past.

If you have a past, say amen.

Y'all are like now, you ain't going any further with that, are you?

Uh because some of y'all are kind of like, I've done so much God could ever use me.

Moses had killed a man and buried him in the sand, and somebody found out, and so Moses bolted.

He went to the other side of the wilderness, he meets a family, goes to work for this man, marries one of his daughters.

He's out there just hanging out, tending sheep.

And one day, Exodus chapter three, check me on this, he's minding his own business.

He looks over and there's a bush that's on fire.

It's called this way, if you ever heard this phrase, you know, I'm my burning bush moment or epiphany.

God appears to him in this bush that's on fire, and he speaks to Moses.

And he basically says, Hey, Moses, I'm I'm gonna deliver my people.

I've heard the cries of my people that have been oppressed, and you're gonna be the person I use.

And Moses, like, hey, dude, I killed a guy.

Okay, if you go in the post office, there's a wanted poster for me there.

Okay, I've got a I've got a past, and God, by the way, God's future is bigger than your past.

Okay, you understand that, right?

So there's none of you in this room that have done something that God just went, well, that's it.

You're on your own, boy.

You just figure it out.

That's not the God of the Bible, okay?

Now, people may judge you, people may hate on you, but the God of the Bible says, when you're on your worst day, when you're hiding in fear being found out, God says, Hey, by the way, look at this bush, it's on fire.

But here's what the Bible says: you check me.

Exodus chapter three.

Moses looked over and basically saw the bush.

And here's what made him curious the bush was on fire, but it was not consumed.

And God speaks to Moses out of that, and he said, Because Moses is like, I mean, who do I tell him sent me?

You want me to go to Pharaoh, the most powerful person in the world, and say, Let my people go.

I mean, who am I gonna tell them?

And God said, You tell them I am sent you.

And Moses is like, that's not helpful.

Basically, what God is saying is, hey, I'm never, I'm always present, active, and digital.

I'm never past.

I am.

I I've never not existed, so I am.

Now, when God says, You tell him that I am has sent you to me, he says, I am the being one, I am the one who is about being pre-existent, self-sustaining, self-sufficient.

This means that God needs nothing outside of himself to exist.

There's an independence of being to God.

Now, sometimes the Bible raises its voice and kind of gets after us.

And sometimes, look at me, the Bible just kind of winks and says, God says, You see what I did there?

Like the burning bush.

Have you ever realized and wondered what why the big deal?

Why does the Bible go into exacting detail and tell us the bush was on fire, but it wasn't consumed?

Here's why.

Because the fire did not depend on the bush for its existence.

And what God is saying to Moses is, Hey, by the way, I don't depend on you for my existence either.

Now you just do what I'm telling you to do.

I know you got a past, I know you got things, there's topics that you hope never come up, there's questions you hope your kids never ask you.

And God's like, I got this, I still got a plan for you.

My future is bigger and better than your past.

So stop living in light of your past.

Live in light of my future.

And God, and Moses is like, Who, who, again, one more time?

Who tell him?

You tell him, I am sent you.

I am the God who has always existed.

And so this is why this is a big deal.

God is not only saying this, He is demonstrating it in this bush that's on fire, but it's not burned up.

Why?

Because the fire's existence doesn't depend on the bush.

Here's the second thing we see: creation is communication.

Creation is communication.

You say, What do you mean?

Uh verse two.

Well, uh the first two verses in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Verse three, and God said, And God said, and you pick up this rhythm and this cadence of creation.

And God said, and it was so and it was good.

And God said, and it was so and it was good.

There's another day, and God said, and it was so and it was good.

There's another day.

Nothing, nothing, nothing comes against what God says.

God said and it was so, and not only was it so, but it was good.

And so when I say that creation is communication, I'm saying God could have kept silent, but he spoke the world into existence to make himself known.

Now, if you read the Bible, one thing you'll see that there's a progression to the way God communicates with humanity.

And it goes like this it's a little four-step process.

Starts with creation and then the prophets.

The Old Testament, the first five books of the Old Testament, what's called the Pentateuch.

It's inspired by God, recorded by Moses.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then it gets into the prophets.

That's why in the New Testament, every once in a while, you'll read this phrase, the law and prophets.

And both those words are capitalized.

It's a reference to the Old Testament.

Jesus says, the law of the prophets, testify about this.

Basically, Jesus is saying to people in the New Testament, hey, check me, check me on this.

Look, look for yourself.

The law and the prophets, they back up what I am saying.

And so God speaks through creation, he speaks to the prophets, he speaks by his word, and then he speaks by his son, Jesus Christ.

He said, What do you mean God speaks in creation?

Again, Genesis chapter one, God speaks it into existence, but the fact that God creates, he's telling us something.

What I'll tell you in just a minute is that creation itself builds a case against humanity so that people can't make an excuse and say, I didn't know.

Every once in a while I'll meet somebody, we'll get in a spiritual conversation, and it doesn't happen as much as it used to, but every once in a while they'll just go, Well, you know, like I'm sitting on my back patio with a guy, he would have him over for dinner.

He's single, we're talking, and I said, Well, just tell me about you, where you are spiritually, what kind of governs your life.

And his response to that was, Well, I mean, I just got a problem with the guy in Africa that never gets a chance.

And I'm like, What?

Where do we where do we just go here?

And I said, What do you what do you mean?

He goes, Well, I mean, my problem with all the stuff you believe is what about the guy in Africa that never gets a chance?

I said, Oh, oh, the guy in Africa that you wake up every day deeply concerned about.

Concerned about, yeah.

I said, you know, like if he never gets a chance, you know, you think it's wrong that he he doesn't get to go to heaven or whatever.

And I said, What about the guy in Sugarland, Texas?

And he's like, Well, what guy could that be?

I don't know.

Anybody.

And I and I quoted this verse.

This was I mean when I say creation, uh uh speaks that God speaks in creation.

This is Romans chapter 1, starting verse 18.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Uh for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.

Genesis 1.

God went on record, if you want to know what I'm like, look what I made.

They've been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made so that so that they are without excuse.

And I said to my friend, my back patio, I said, see, here's the thing, whether you're talking about the guy in Africa or yourself who's kind of disenfranchised from church because you think it's all a bunch of hypocrites, creation.

By creating the world, God builds a case of humanity because you look around, okay, and you cannot you cannot deny that there is a creator.

That doesn't mean that people don't deny, a lot of people do, and a lot of people wage war against the doctrine of creation.

It's why I'm laboring here to help you understand this, because there's a lot of people in our culture that wage war on creation, because if the doctrine of creation as recorded in the Bible is true, then everybody that disagrees with that is false.

And our culture is militant.

It sounds like, oh, it's innocuous.

What'd you church say?

Hey, doctor about you know, page one of the Bible.

I kind of checked out, whatever.

But God speaks in creation through the prophets, through his word.

And then what do you mean speaks through Jesus?

Hebrews chapter one, again, New Testament, thousands of years later.

This is not a bunch of one-off disconnected story.

It's one story recorded by different men over 1500 years, and it all says the same thing.

Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 Long ago and many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

Hebrews 1:1

But in the last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

You see how the Bible, those coherence to the Bible?

He just says right there, by the way, we're in Genesis 1, thousands of years later.

Same thing, through whom he created the world.

Who is this?

Jesus.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Remember that question of coherence?

What holds it all together?

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

And so when we say, hey, this we're gonna we're gonna return to design, we have to acknowledge that creation is communication.

God is telling us something about himself by what he created.

Here's a third thing that we see in the text: creation obligates everything created to God.

Creation obligates everything created to God.

There was a very influential thinker and writer in the 60s and 70s, his name was Francis Schaefer.

And Francis Schaefer said, if I had one hour to talk to somebody about God, I would spend 55 minutes talking about creation, and then I'd take the last five minutes and explain the gospel.

Now, why?

Because without accountability, you don't need grace and forgiveness.

If creation doesn't morally obligate everything created to God, the creator, then you don't, if there's no accountability, you don't need grace and forgiveness.

Said differently, if we're not morally obligated and accountable to God by the simple fact that He created us and everything we see, then we're free to do whatever we want.

And this, beloved, is why people rage against the biblical doctrine of creation.

It's not because they can, you know, Darwinism or whatever.

It's not because that's logical.

Matter of fact, it's flawed.

The research is documented, it's flawed.

We do not want to be not, we we don't want to not be God.

We don't want somebody to rule over us.

We want to be God.

And I'll show you that in the Bible in just a minute.

And so let me just say this.

I know it, I don't want you to think, man, I went to this church and it was just eggheaded.

No, the Bible's not just for uber smart people.

I'm not very smart.

I just I just want to have more faith, okay?

Now, if you balk at what I just said about how creation obligates everyone to God, that you have a God has moral authority over you and you have a moral responsibility to God simply because He existed before anything existed and He created everything.

If you balk at that, like, nah, I ain't down with that, okay?

Let me ask you a simple question.

On what basis can you expect your children to obey you?

Now, if you've got children, say yes.

Now, you here's why you wouldn't say it this way, but here's why you expect your children to obey you.

You brought them into this world and you provide for them.

True or false?

Where do you think you got that idea?

See, your children are morally obligated to obey you.

Now you can't make they get a certain age, you can't make them.

But that expectation is in you.

That that's part of creation, that's the way God is.

Because by creating everything, it's like if someone, if you went home today and someone was sitting in your house, you'd be like, What are you doing here?

Your husband be like, hang on a second, I got this, honey.

Let me pop a clip in here.

Back up, let me show you where I used to be.

I'm gonna shoot this man sideways.

This is bad boys three?

What's my husband doing here?

No, why?

Because your space has been violated.

It's been violated.

Yes, yeah.

Well, see, when it comes to creation, creation obligates everything to God.

Here's the fourth thing the text tells us that God created everything good.

Y'all are like, dude, do you live in this world?

Have you been?

Yeah, I know, right?

Let me say it again.

God created everything good.

I'll read verse 31 again.

And God saw everything that He had made, everything He had made, and behold, it was not just good, it was very good.

It was very good.

So good, in fact.

We'll talk about this next week.

Then on the next day, God did nothing.

God rested.

God just said, Hey, this is so good.

I'm just gonna chillax and just enjoy it.

It's called the Sabbath.

Now, what do you mean?

God created everything good.

God saw everything, verse 31 that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

Now, if you're a thinking person, you should look around and go, Okay, then what happened?

Yeah, it's a great question.

By the way, before I answer that question, I want you to notice that there's no dualism, there's no good and evil, kind of in a contest to see who's gonna win.

Because everything God created, God created good.

So much so that he was done, he said, it is very good.

It's very good.

And so there is no evil.

There's not this dualism, like, ah, some of y'all believe in karma, like I want to do more good, so bad doesn't get me.

Bad doesn't have authority over you if you're a Christian.

It just doesn't.

You don't have to live in fear of that.

So what happened?

What happened is that what God created turned their backs on God.

We'll get to this in a couple weeks in chapter three.

We talk about the fall.

Well, God created these first people, Adam and Eve, and and along comes the serpent, who is the devil, comes to them in the garden in paradise, and he says, Hey, did God really say that you can't eat of any tree of the garden?

They said, Well, God said we can eat of any tree, but of this one tree, don't eat because we'll die.

And the serpent tells this is the foundational lie that explains why the world is like it is.

The serpent says, Back to Adam and Eve, Oh, you won't die.

God's afraid that you'll be like him, knowing good and evil.

Translation, God doesn't want you to have the capacity to decide what's right or wrong for you.

Who is God to tell you what's right or wrong?

You be your own person.

And when that happened, it's called the fall of man.

Because man turned away from God and tore from the truth and believed a lie.

And sin entered into the world as a result of that, because this broken trust between creator and what he had created.

And so when I say God created everything good, yeah, that's a yes.

And you'd be like, that's so naive and Pollyanna.

No, it's not.

No, no, it's because what God created, and he created them with a free will, they exercise that free will to disobey and distrust God.

You'll hear every once in a while you may hear somebody say, Well, we live in a fallen world.

Yes, yes, we do.

Uh that's a secondary statement.

The primary statement is we live in a world where everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That's the primary statement because sin's always personal.

It's not this detached cosmic force.

Sin is by someone against someone.

So if you look at the world, what you will see is the compounding interest of billions of people sinning and sinning and sinning and introducing evil into creation that God created to be good.

And so it's easy to look around and kind of go, how could there be a God?

How could a good God let bad things happen to so many people?

What we live in is a world that has been contaminated by sin, by billions of people sinning against God and each other.

And here's the last thing the text tells us not all things are created equal.

Not all things are created equal.

I'm going to read verses 26 to 31.

Are you still with me?

Say yes.

Now listen very carefully because we're going to step on a very hot button issue in our culture today.

And I'm not trying to be hot, but I'm not that guy, okay?

I like to just teach the Bible, but I want you to see the timeless relevance and the truthful authority of the Bible, okay?

We don't just stand up here and give Bibles to little kids and say, hey, the Bible's good and everything when you're in the second grade, but eventually you're going to outgrow this and it's every man for himself.

No, the older you get, the more true the Bible becomes.

And it's not like the Bible's changing, it's that we we're knuckleheads.

We sin enough to kind of go, you know what?

I think I'm just doing it the wrong way here.

Because what you're gonna see is that God created all of you men to be in a monogamous relationship called marriage with a woman who exists to meet all your needs.

How could you not trust that God?

Some of you are like, Have you met my wife?

Some of you, husbands, your wife's thinking the same thing.

So when I say, Hey, by the way, not all things are created equal, here's what I mean.

I want you to listen for these three words.

You're gonna hear them in here, okay?

And they're simply this uh starting verse 26, you're gonna hear image, likeness, and blessing.

Image, we're in his image, in his likeness, after our likeness, that God says, Hey, it's the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit saying, Let's make man in our image after our likeness, and then he's gonna bless what he creates.

Verse 26.

And God said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them, 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, over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Now, there's two things.

Now, first of all, I want you to notice there's two accounts of creation in Genesis.

There's one in chapter one that kind of focuses on the cosmos as a whole, you know, the earth and the heavens and water and all that stuff.

Then in chapter two, it zooms in on the creation of humanity.

It's not two contradictory creation accounts, it's just two different focuses of the creation narrative.

Uh, but two things that distinguish the creation of human beings from everything else that was created.

Number one, we're the only thing created in God's image.

And number two, we are the only thing given dominion over everything.

Human beings are the only thing created in God's image.

And secondly, we're the only thing given dominion over everything.

Now, when I say dominion, don't hear dominance.

Dominion means stewardship, that we represent God.

We steward the resources of creation in a way that glorifies God.

Now, now you say, what do you mean?

What that means, and that our culture, especially some very educated people, they don't believe that.

They don't believe that we're made in God's image and likeness because they deny the existence of God.

And when you deny the existence of God, then you have no logical basis upon which to say, hey, human beings are more important than that spotted owl.

But we live in a culture that kind of says, no, no, no, no, no, no.

See, this is why you have to have a biblical doctrine of creation.

Because human beings are the only thing they're created in God's image.

And secondly, we're the only thing given dominion over everything God's created.

That's why we hunt deer, they don't hunt us.

Yeah, like I say to my wife every once, I'm just kidding, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go mow the yard, but I'm gonna go rule over creation and subdue it.

And she's like, that's pretty heroic.

Just mow the yard.

I sound better when I say, honey, stand back.

I'm gonna rule over creation and subdue it.

Matter of fact, I would go so far as to tell you, nothing that's ever been created is created to have dominion over you as a human being.

You're to have dominion over all things.

Again, dominion is stewardship, it's not dominance.

Now, notice that what God created, here's one of the things.

Remember, note when he creates, starting in verse 26, what we see here is image, likeness, and blessing.

This is important for us to notice and remember.

Because remember, I said earlier, hey, we're gonna end talking, we talked about the law of non-contradiction.

I said, we're gonna end talking about that.

Well, this is your indication that we're at the end, okay?

If you're for being at the end, say amen.

Quitters.

Uh now look at me.

Pay careful attention.

One of the things, go back and check me on this.

You see in the creation narrative, is that God created this thing, and here's this phrase that gets repeated over and over and over when he creates stuff, and it says, the earth, like verse 12, the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind.

So look at me.

Everything God creates, God creates with the capacity to keep on creating itself.

It has seeds inside of it.

Now the Bible doesn't waste any words, okay?

And so right now there's a big hot button conversation in the culture, and I don't know, I don't get it.

It's with the LGBTQ community, and people say, Well, what about this?

What about that?

And it's just very simple.

Here's why God creates Adam and Eve.

He does not create a same-sex couple.

Listen, I'm not being flippant, not trying to be cute.

He creates a man and woman because, in keeping with the order of creation, this man and this woman have seed inside of them, okay?

In which they can reproduce after their own kind and they can continue to create more people.

This is why God says to them, be fruitful and multiply.

How does a same-sex, same-sex couple be fruitful and multiply if they don't have seed in them, which allows them to multiply?

Now, that doesn't mean we get mad at the LGBT community.

No.

Anybody that struggles with that lifestyle is welcome in this church and will be loved by the people of this church, okay?

I had a conversation not long ago about transgenderism.

By the way, it's upped 3,000% in the past five years.

That is what's called a statistical anomaly.

In other words, it cannot be sustained by science.

But here's what happens: you have predators out there and trolls out there that are already in this lifestyle and they're on the internet, and some seventh-grade girl in her bedroom says, you know, I hate my body and I just don't feel comfortable when I go to PE.

That's called seventh grade.

We had PE in the seventh grade.

We had community showers.

Everybody prayed Jesus would come back.

I mean, the first day, none of us took showers.

Our coach's like, What are you boys doing?

You're gonna take shower.

We quit early.

We're like, next day he said, We're quitting early, y'all taking showers.

We got nobody what no guy walked in and said, I'm nude and I'm proud.

No, there were guys with body wraps, they would drop it, jump in there, and be like, I'm done, I'm done.

But look at me, look at me.

Our culture comes along and says, Oh, seventh grade girl, you hate your body.

You know why you hate your body and you're insecure and you have self-loathing thoughts?

It's called puberty.

No, they don't say that.

They say, you know why you hate your body?

Because your body's not the body you were supposed to be in.

You're you're really a man trapped in a girl's body.

And again, look at me.

We're not mad at that person.

If you're sitting in this room right now and you're like, dude, I relate to that.

I'm not mad at you, I'm not coming down on you.

I'm just telling you, that's not the way God created you to be.

And so this is why we don't lose our temper and lose our mind and scream at people.

I've had transgender people.

I'll be somewhere at a restaurant, they'll find I'm a pastor, like, so what do you think about me?

I think you're a person created by God in the image of God for a relationship with God.

That's what I think.

And I and I see that you identify differently, but but but see, here's the problem with that that makes you God and not God, because to say that not all things are created equal, it cuts both ways.

They say, Well, what do you mean?

We'll get into this in a few weeks.

But the mental ethic that drives our morality these days is rooted in the fall, not in creation.

It goes back to where the serpent says to Adam and Eve, Oh, God's afraid you'll be like him.

Look at me.

At your core and my core, we want to be God.

We want to be God.

I want to get my way all the time.

But I don't, which is why the inside of my house is now painted agreeable gray, and I hate it.

I can't stand like this is gray.

What?

There's nothing agreeable about this.

What's a more neutral palette?

Stop talking.

Yeah.

And the guy said, Hey, we they only sell five-gallon buckets of paint down here at Sherwin Williams, so you got about three gallons left over.

What are you gonna do with that?

I'm gonna paint my wife when she gets home, agreeable gray.

Maybe that'll make her more agreeable.

And he looked at me and said, I'm not gonna repeat that.

No, look at me, because I'm not God, I don't always get my way.

And I would tell you this the world works because you're not God.

Look at me.

We're just about done.

You're like, you said that three times.

Stop counting.

Look at me.

The world in which you can control everything, you can be God, is a very small world.

Ask yourself if you really want to live there.

The world in which God controls everything, because God is God, is huge.

Huge.

That's the world you were created to live in.

And we continue to fall for this foundational lie, which sets up men and women as God, able to decide for themselves if they want to be a man or a woman or be in a relationship with a man or a woman.

And this is not the ethic of creation, but it's the thumbprint of the fall that continues to be lived out in our day.

So the question becomes why submit to God when you can be God?

Because you're not God.

You're created and he's creator.

And again, not all things are created equal.

You do not want to put yourself in that position because it feels empowering in seventh grade, ninth grade, when you're 21, when you're around everybody that agrees with you.

But look at me.

That world will slowly shrink over time to where you are the most anxious and depressed person.

It is why the suicide rate in the trans community is six times what it is in the general population.

Because adults are lying to those little kids.

And I just end on this note God, everything God creates has the capacity, has the seed in it to keep creating after its own kind.

This is why God made a man and made a woman.

Okay?

And so don't that's not licensed to be hateful to people that struggle with the sin of same-sex attraction.

It's it's not license to make lie to people that struggle with gender dysphoria.

No, no, it's just to lovingly engage people and say, you know, because the lady said I was walking out of the restaurant and she said, Now say that thing again about what I was created.

You were created by God in the image of God, image, likeness, and blessing.

And God doesn't violate the law of non-contradiction.

God doesn't create something and say, I bless it, and then later, oh, I changed my mind.

Now it's sin.

That's not who God is.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And that lady looked at me and she said, Man, can I thank you?

I said, No, thank you.

I love you, and I'm gonna pray for you, not at you, but I'm gonna pray for you.

Because I want you to know the God that created you.

She said, Man, thanks.

Not everything's created equal.

You're given dominion because God trusts you to represent Him in the world.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible, then give you some soul space to think about it.

Some questions come up on the screen.

You may want to discreetly slip your phone out and take a picture.

We have what's called community groups that meet.

They're sermon based discussion groups that may start meeting tonight in homes all over our city.

And they process and talk about these questions here.

Let me voice a prayer, and Clyde may sing something over us while we just contemplate for a few minutes.

Let's pray together.

God thanks for the word.

When we read the Bible, it's like a room full of pinatas.

You just swing, you're gonna hit something that's good.

And candy's gonna come out.

Rich, nourishing soul candy is gonna come out.

So, Holy Spirit, just brood over us.

We're not created to go around being angry at people that disagree with us.

That is not the gospel.

We're created to be loving, gracious, winsome, engaging people.

And we can do that because of the gospel.

So, Holy Spirit, just brood over us right now in Jesus' name.

God, that's uh that simple lyric is our prayer.

We want to see your will be done in all the earth.

We want to pray like Jesus, you taught us to pray.

Your kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We're not here to win religious arguments, we're here to be the winsome, joyful, juicy people of God.

So, Holy Spirit, equip us.

It's like the Bible said you would.

Lead us into the truth, because the truth is what sets us free.

Everything else is just our chosen form of bondage, and we were not created for bondage.

So, Lord, thank you for the freedom that is ours in Christ because of Christ.

We say thank you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being here.

Hopefully, you had a chance to pull in those guest cards in the seatback pocket in your row and fill it out.

If you haven't and you'd like to, take an opportunity to do that before you leave here in just a minute.

And on your way out, drop it one of these wooden boxes by the door.

That's all we ask of you today.

For the rest of us, you consider this your church, and today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity.

That's where you take care of that as well.

We have a few things coming up in the life of our church, and so give your attention to our screens for our video announcements today.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Hilarious Sunday is October 17th, where all money given that day will go directly to the cost of our new sanctuary.

Our request is simple: pray, listen, obey.

After the service today, we have guided tours available for the new sanctuary.

Once the service is finished, walk across the north parking lot to the main entrance of the new building where tour guides will be waiting for you.

Men's breakfast begins this Tuesday at 6 a.m.

in the warehouse.

It's free, so come and enjoy.

The men's weekend is coming up on October 15th and 16th with Speaker Jared Wilson for a weekend of worship and renewal.

Pumpkin Palooza is happening October 1st here at the church.

All families with kids are welcome.

Regenerate the Fall Retreat for Students is on November 12th through 14th.

To register or find out more information about these events, head to Grandparkway.org slash events.

If you're new or would like someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Thanks for your presence today.

Look at me.

Uh I went a little long today because in a passage like Genesis 1, and you're like a one-eyed dog in a meat factory.

It's hard to know when to stop, okay?

And so I don't want to be overwhelming.

So if you're visiting, you're like, is it always that long?

Not really, but sometimes you got to make room for what the Bible actually says.

Does that make sense?

Uh let me remind you the guided tours of the new sanctuary.

It's not complete, it's still under construction, but it'll be complete in early November.

We'd love you to just take some time to walk through it and see what your faithfulness makes possible.

That starts right out this door.

You just walk out that door and you're dismissed.

And there's the guys over there, the guys on the staff, they want to give you a guided tour, okay?

We'd like to conclude our service with a smoking blessing, so stand to your feet if you would.

Hold your hands out.

Because you're not God, you don't have to try to be God.

Because he is God.

Let his word find a place of residency.