September 25, 2022 / Origins / Day Five

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.

Today John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, brings a message in the Origins series

that helps answer the five most important questions in life.

How you live today depends on how you answer these questions.

Here's John Metter with the teaching on the five questions.

We are so glad to be with you this morning as we continue through our walk through the

book of Genesis.

We're back in chapter one and we'll be there for a few weeks and we're on day five.

So take your Bibles if you would.

Turn to Genesis chapter one and beginning in verse 20 we'll read the text in just a

few moments on day five.

I've been labeling these messages each week.

Very simply day one, day two, day three, day four, day five.

Next week, day six as you might predict.

We're looking at how God created man and woman.

It's going to be an exciting week next week.

It really is that climactic week before the seventh day where God rested.

So many things in Genesis chapter one.

So turn to Genesis chapter one beginning in verse 20.

You know one of the most amazing gifts in life for me has to do with knowing people.

I don't know if you feel the same way but I love getting to know people and being able

to know them well.

My wife Kim and I have been married 44 years and it's just been a joy to get to know her

and incredible character in her life and I've come to know her voice and her ways and the

things she likes to do, the things she doesn't like to do and I'm sure that's true of any

married couple.

And then our children when they were born getting a chance to get to see them and get

to know their personalities and get to know what they liked and disliked and today all

of our kids are adults and we still get to interact with them a lot on a regular basis.

But getting to know someone well is a joy.

Whether it's a co-worker or family member or a friend from many years in the past, whatever

it might be, knowing people is a really, really big deal.

And if you can think about those greatest times of knowing someone in your life and

knowing them well and knowing them so well that their character and what you know about

them defines your relationship, magnify that about a thousand times or more and talk about

what it means to know God and to know the power of what it means to know who he is,

to know his personality, to know his character, to know you can count on him when you cannot

count on anyone else.

Jesus said this in John chapter 17 verse 3, he was defining eternal life and he said,

John 17:3

this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you

have sent.

So, it's a big deal to know God, not just to know about him, but to know God and experience

him and I still think about Paul's statement in the book of Philippians where he says,

oh, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.

In other words, there's nothing more valuable on all of the planet more so than knowing

God and the creation account helps us know God.

The Stand Together as we read these three verses today that I'll be focusing on, Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and in addition to all the things that God creates in these six days of creation

before we get to the day of rest, there is something revealed to us about who God is

and that's what I want you to catch today.

Verse 20, then God said, let the waters team with the swarms of living creatures, let the

birds fly above the earth and the open expanse of the heaven.

God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves with which the

water swarmed after their kind and every winged bird after its kind and God saw that it was

good.

God blessed them.

Now, this is God actually interacting with his creation.

God blessed them saying, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas and let the

birds multiply on the earth.

Then the summary of that day, there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Father, in Jesus' name, just allow this text to speak to us, allow the whole creation account

to do that so that we can know you, not just know the earth and not just know your creation

but to know you, God.

That's our highest quest today.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

All God's people said, amen.

Please be seated if you would.

Reading the creation account helps you get to know God without assumptions, without guessing,

without somebody else's opinion.

You can actually just read the Bible.

As you read the Bible, be attentive to what the Bible says about God.

When you read through the first few verses of Genesis chapter one, what grips us right

off the beginning is that we learn some things about what God did, what God created.

As we walk through that, again, in a few moments, you'll see all those different things that

we saw.

We actually put some things on the screen that had to do, in a sense, with some scientific

reproductions of things that we believe look very similar to what God did when he created.

Someone said a few weeks ago, I feel like I've been in a science class.

Of course, the point all along is not being in a science class, but looking at the creation

from a biblical perspective instead of simply a scientific perspective.

Most of us are a little bit brainwashed in that way.

We look at it through a textbook instead of through the eyes of the creator.

What I want you to do is look at creation through the eyes of the creator.

I want you to see the big picture today of what's happening as God reveals himself so

that you can know him through creation.

As this text unfolds, there are some things that I'm going to bring out of the first few

verses of chapter one and on into verse 20 and 22 and 23.

It shows us some characteristics of God that I want you to remember.

First of all, I want you to see God's consistency in creation, his consistency.

I have to tell you that nothing much in life is consistent.

Would you agree with that?

I mean, if anything is inevitable, it's change.

We have a saying like that.

The only thing you can cat on is change.

The only thing certain is death and taxes, something like that.

That's what we say a lot.

That's pretty true.

But there is a constancy, there is a consistency that you can see in God's character as he

creates the heavens and the earth, and you see it every day.

When I read the creation account, I can't help but notice the consistency and the dependability

and the reliability and the order and the planning of God.

And quite frankly, I love it because nothing else, it seems, in life is consistent.

But every new thing that is done is built upon what God has previously done.

For example, as we look in the creation on the fifth day and then again on the sixth

day next week, everything God does on day five and day six is a foundation thing that

has been created for it in day one, two, three, four.

God doesn't create something without going before that.

For example, day one, he creates the elements and the watery sphere that we know as that

original earth.

Then day two, he created the sky and the open expanse of the heavens.

On day three, he separated the waters from the dry lands.

He placed the vegetation on the dry land, the trees in the ground, and he made the seas

and the skies and he prepared for what he does next.

In fact, the trees were bearing fruit and he commanded them to multiply after their

kind, the same with all the vegetation.

But nobody was there to eat it yet.

But on day four, God places the sun, moon, stars, and so forth, the light, the way.

And all the way through creation, everything is planned, everything is created, everything

is prepared for what he does next.

And then on day five, he puts living creatures in those spaces that he created on day four

and day three.

There's just an evenness, there's stability, and a dependability in what God does.

It's part of the good that God declares at the end of every one of those days.

God saw that it was good.

Now when we look at that phrase, God said that it was good, we tend to think, okay,

God looked at what he just created and said, well, that's good.

What I did was good.

But in God's view, according to the scripture, it wasn't just good in and of itself.

It's good for what's next.

It's good for the next day.

It's good for who he's going to place there and what he's going to place on his earth.

It's good in a bigger way than we tend to understand.

Even the birds and the sea creatures that God creates are enjoying God's goodness and

his blessing.

He blesses them and he tells them, I want you to go be fruitful and multiply.

So everything I've just said about the constancy and the consistency of God really plays out

in your life today, even though you don't think about it much.

Let me just give you some principles that I've known to be life principles based on

the scripture found in Genesis 1.

First of all, God goes before us to prepare the way.

God goes before us to prepare the way.

It happens at creation, but it happens over and over again in the Bible.

God's people never go to a place where God has not first been and prepared them and that

place for them.

God goes before us.

I'm walking with a friend right now who's approaching death.

He won't live much longer unless something changes.

But God has gone before him so that he doesn't have to face that death without God preparing

the way.

You say, what do you mean?

But God prepared the way by providing salvation for my friend through Jesus Christ.

And Jesus went before him to prepare a place for him in heaven.

We have the teachings of scripture that tell us and help reassure us that God's got a plan

for our lives and to be absent from body is to be present with Christ.

God has gone before us.

Everywhere we go, God has gone before us before we get there.

God did that in creation.

He's doing that in our lives today.

And actually there is no uncharted territory that you will ever go into that God has not

first been there.

He goes before you.

You know what that does?

That removes an incredible amount of stress and incredible amount of fear and panic out

of our life if we believe that, if we would just believe that.

The second principle is we're God guides, God provides.

We've said this over the years in so many different ways, but we're God guides, God

provides.

Notice that he creates that which will sustain his creatures first and then he puts them

there.

Last week we were looking at how God has already prepared a garden and he places man and woman

in that garden to take care of it, to tell it, but also to eat of the fruits of the trees

that he's already put there where God guides, God provides.

He even cares for the birds and the sea creatures.

Remember Jesus talking in Matthew chapter 6 to a group of people that were kind of worried

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

about their provision and he said, look at the birds of the air.

They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't gather into barns and yet your heavenly father

feeds them.

Are you not of more worth than they?

So he has this principle here that God, where he guides us, he provides for us.

Before he even says he's love, he demonstrates that he's love.

Before he even says that he cares for us, he demonstrates that care.

Before we're even aware that God is there, he's already provided for us.

Constancy, consistency, all those things God does for us.

Thirdly, when God places us, he has a purpose for us.

Everything God places in the sky, in the sea or on the earth has a place, has a purpose.

Nothing is placed without purpose.

Now that's reassuring to me, but think about the animals, think about the birds.

Remember when we get to Genesis chapter 6 and we have this big old boat called the Ark

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

and when the water subsides, he sends a dove out to find verification that the dry land

is beginning to appear again.

He had a purpose for the dove.

Remember when he sent ravens to feed the prophet Elijah?

Maybe you recall Jonah's life and the uber whale that God sent to Jonah, not just uber

in the sense of big, but uber in the sense of I'll pick you up here and take you there.

The uber whale.

Remember the donkey that spoke to the prophet?

All these animals, all these mammals, all these birds, they all have purpose and God's

placed them there for a purpose and we see it sometimes, but God always has purpose for

every one of them.

God is consistent, he's reliable, he's trustworthy, he's dependable and what that should do to

us is should stimulate us to trust him, to believe him, to count on him even though we

don't understand what the future holds.

He has been in the future, he is in the future and if he does this kind of thing for the

sea creatures, why would he not do those same kinds of things for us?

Who hasn't stood at a moment of crossroads in their lives and filled with doubt may be

wondering what the future held and who hasn't cried out, God, what's ahead of me?

What do you have for me?

What will you do with my life?

He is the right one to ask by the way about that.

He's the only one that goes before you, he's the only one that knows the answer to that

question, but it's really important for us to come to the place of saying the God who

goes before me, the God who provides as he guides, the God who promises that everything

is consistent and reliable with his truth, with his word, that's the one I need to be

looking to for my wisdom.

So God is consistent.

Secondly, the creation account helps us be reminded that God is also full of creativity.

God's creativity is coming to the forefront, God's creativity.

Look at verse 21, it says that God created the great sea monsters and every living creature.

Now, according to my reading, when I'm reading through Genesis 1, we're at vegetation and

we're at plants, but nothing really weird and exotic takes place until I see the word

sea monsters.

All of a sudden, this gets a little bit more exciting, a little bit more interesting.

Sea monsters are being created, sea monsters specifically.

The water's swarming after the kind and every wing bird after its kind and God saw that

was good.

I just think this account gets more and more interesting as we go through.

For the first time, you see the word life, the word life, living creatures that God is

creating.

It's a unique Hebrew word, the word nephesh, and it means soul.

It's not a reference to eternal life, but it does say that these living creatures have

a mind, they have a will, and they have an emotion.

They have emotions.

That's not what plants have and that's what vegetation has, but now birds and now the

sea monsters and all that's in the sea and later on the animals and the mammals that

wander on the earth and of course later on, male and female, mankind, they all have a

soul.

So, we see all this beginning to take place from this moment forward.

He's creating living beings and we see great diversity and great creativity.

Can you imagine how God went about determining how all these creatures in the sea and all

these birds in the air would be designed?

There's an order about it, but there's also an incredible diversity.

I want us to look at some pictures today, pictures that you have seen before, so let's

just let those pictures begin to roll through.

These are pictures that you might be able to find on the internet, pictures of different

sea creatures, pictures of different birds.

Let's look at the variety and the diversity of them all.

Can you imagine God creating all of these birds and all these fish and just saying,

you know, I think I'm going to make this a little cuter than that one.

I think I'm going to make this bigger than that one.

I think I'm going to give this some color.

I think I'm going to make this more unusual than anything that I've created otherwise.

Have you ever looked at some of these pictures and just noticed how strange some of them

look and how weird they actually look?

I wonder if God paused and said, you know, I'm going to throw a curve ball on this one.

Nobody will ever know what to think about this particular thing in the sea or thing

in the air.

Look at that guy right there.

I mean, you don't want to encounter him anywhere, right?

And certainly not the next one.

God, what are you up to?

I really believe this.

I really believe that, and I've said this to you many times and I hope that you will

believe with me, that Jesus does smile from time to time.

I mean, a lot of us have this view of God and Jesus is always perpetually frowning.

I think Jesus smiled.

I think Jesus laughed at his disciples quite a bit.

There's a lot of laughable material there, by the way.

I think Jesus laughs at us sometimes.

Not in derision.

I think he laughs in humor.

I think he is amused by us sometimes.

I think God smiled at creation.

All this diversity, all this creativity.

I think God enjoys the variety and the diversity.

Otherwise, why would he place this on the planet?

And here we have in this account life's most perplexing question.

We've dealt with some pretty tough questions, but this one I haven't really brought up,

but I think you need to get the answer for this question today.

Of course, came first the chicken or the egg?

And of course, the chicken came first.

Biblically speaking, God didn't create an egg.

He created those animals, those birds, fully mature and then blessed them and told them

to multiply after their kind.

God created creatures that you and I have never seen and will never see.

It's kind of interesting that the word used in the Hebrew is a word that makes room for

any creature on record, even some of those that are called prehistoric creatures in history

books or in biology books.

Those categories of creation that we have here would also include flying mammals like

bats and flying reptiles and pterodactyls and some of those other words that you know

and associate as dinosaurs and we'll cover that subject a little later.

One marine biologist stated this, that there could be 700,000 different types of marine

life and according to the National Ocean Service, scientists estimate that 91% of all the species

in the ocean have yet to be classified and many of them have never been seen before.

80% of our ocean is unmapped and inaccessible to us today.

God's creation is so big you can't explain it.

A science textbook can't explain it.

You can't come up with common sense enough for God's creativity, God's diversity is

way beyond anything you and I can fathom.

He loves creativity.

He loves diversity.

That's why we're not all the same.

Aren't you glad we're not all the same?

I'm glad everybody's not like you and you're glad everybody's not like me.

I'm glad we have all kinds of people from all kinds of colors and all kinds of personalities

and all kinds of sizes and shapes.

I love the diversity that God has placed on the planet and somehow he brings it all together.

Somehow he makes it all work.

Somehow he makes the sun, the moon, the stars all operate in perfect orbit just like they

need to to give just enough light to the earth to function in the way he created that.

The same with the sea, the same with the birds and everything else he created.

It really leaves me grateful with the size and immensity of this that I am not the general

manager of the universe but that God is the general manager of the universe.

One of my favorite stories is a guy that I knew years ago who when he came to Christ

made this statement about his life.

He said, you know I'm a controller.

I like to control my life.

I like to control other people's lives.

He said when I came to faith in Jesus I had to give that up.

He said the day I came to faith in Jesus Christ I resigned as general manager of the universe.

I've never heard anybody call themselves the general manager of the universe.

I know some people who think they're the general manager of the universe.

He said I resigned as general manager of the universe.

He said I was able to do that because I knew that the God I was trusting, the Christ I

was putting my life in the hands of was capable of managing the universe and I could not manage

my universe or my world.

So here's God in this diversity and his creativity bringing the world so massive that it really

stuns us that it all works well together and it does work well together.

But more than all that the creation account helps me know God in this way.

It helps me know God's character.

But I want you to walk away from this mess today and this day of creation with this mindset.

When I read Genesis chapter 1 I'm walking away knowing who God is and knowing what I

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

can count on him for.

God's character.

In verse 22 God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the sea

and let the birds multiply on the earth.

And God does the same thing every day with all these creatures that he does with plants.

He places them with the capability to multiply to reproduce future generations of themselves.

He creates that DNA in just such a certain way where it absolutely makes a replicate

of themselves and something we can't even fathom.

Every seed has the ability to reproduce itself perfectly.

And that word seed is also the word in the Hebrew for sperm.

So every animal reproduces in the same way.

Every human reproduces in the same way.

And it's why again we value the unborn because we know they are life and they are living

creatures and you can't just put them in a corner and say they have no life.

From the very conception of everything there is life and that life was created by God.

It's true.

But Genesis 1 also begins to answer the most important question on the planet and it's

not about chickens and eggs.

Here it is.

Who is God and what is truth?

Who is God and what is truth?

Let me tell you, you're being bombarded today.

You're being blasted today to believe wrong answers about that question.

Who is God and what is truth?

People are redefining truth right and left today.

They're redefining truth based on something other than God.

And some of these people say I believe in God.

I just don't believe in God's truth.

Who is God and what is truth?

Did you know that from the very beginning God gave answers to who he is and who he is

for us today as well and what truth is?

Let me give you three phrases that describe who God is today.

First of all, God is almighty.

God is almighty.

And the very first usage of the word God in the Hebrew language in Genesis chapter 1,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Elohim is the word that's used.

Now Elohim is one of multiple names for God but this is unique in that it's a Hebrew name

for God and it's based on the name El which is chief God in multiple civilizations.

That's the unique development in the Hebrew language in that it's used to represent plurality.

Meaning that every time you see the word Elohim it's plural in form but it's used in a singular

form in a sentence.

In other words, thy God, the great God, the mighty God who has more than one expression,

more than one persons in that God.

The plural doesn't mean there's more than one God but it does leave room for the three

persons in which God expresses himself and that understanding unfolds as we walk through

the scripture.

For example, if you go to Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 it says the spirit of God was hovering

Genesis 1:2

over the face of the deep and the logical question is where did he come from?

Who is the spirit of God that's hovering over the face of the deep?

If Elohim is used in verse 1 who is that spirit in verse 2?

The answer is Elohim is not only God the creator but also the spirit hovering over the face

of the deep.

If you get to Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 where he creates male and female mankind it says

Genesis 1:26

let us make man in our own image and you have to ask the question who is us?

Who is us?

If there's more than one and yet no man has been created yet who is us?

The obvious answer is Elohim the creator God the spirit and later on we learn Jesus the

son.

You jump ahead to John chapter 1 which is John's genealogy of Jesus and the beginning

John 1 · chapter mention

was the word.

The word was with God the word was God and the word became flesh it says in verse 14.

So every time you see Elohim you have a mature understanding having the whole Bible now of

knowing that it is the father it is the son it is the Holy Spirit.

By the way if you go to Romans chapter 1 verse 20 there is a word used once in the Greek

Romans 1:20

there that describes the father son and the Holy Spirit.

Let me read Romans 1 verse 20 for you.

Romans 1:20

It's where we get our understanding of the word Trinity which is the Latin word later

given to it but here is a Greek word translated in English that describes this well.

It says for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen

being understood by the things which are made.

Please note Paul writing in Romans 1 is talking about creation.

Look around you at the world God has created.

His attributes are clearly seen by creation and then he says even his eternal power and

Godhead.

The word Godhead in the New King James Version is a clear word and his Godhead to the faith

are without excuse.

So that idea there the Godhead can be translated divine nature or divinity or Godhead but that

describes the Elohim in Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Pastor why are you telling us all this?

Because this God is like no other God ever described in any point of civilization or

any time period.

He is Elohim.

He is almighty God the great one.

Father Son and the Holy Spirit.

This is the one that created the heavens and the earth.

He's not simply a God of history.

You can go read a history book about other civilizations God.

This is not what that is.

He is almighty God and he uniquely reveals himself as Father Son and Spirit and he's

active and speaking and overseeing the world in which we live.

I absolutely love it and he's the only God that deserves our worship and our praise and

our adoration and our devotion.

He is the only one.

There is no other but this almighty God.

It describes him with just that one name Elohim.

So God is almighty.

Somebody say the word almighty.

God is almighty.

God is also eternal.

That's the second part of God's character that we'll look at.

He is eternal.

Now again, remember I'm taking the big picture here of creation and I'm going back to verse

one.

It says in the beginning God created.

Now the word eternal means without beginning or end.

It's very clear in the creation account that before anything was created God was.

In the beginning God was there.

So the creation account places God before time began.

Now time is something that's built upon time and space and matter and events unfolding.

You know evening and morning were the first days so the rotational orbit of the earth

around the sun began to create those days that God called day and night.

So he actually created time.

It's a time created by God but God was before all that.

He precedes all that.

He'll be on the other side of all that but it gives him some unique characteristics.

If somebody is eternal they don't operate the same way we do.

You are finite.

For example, he declares the end from the beginning.

Isn't that amazing that somebody can declare the end from the beginning?

We're not talking about predicting something.

We're talking about declaring what will happen before anything ever happens.

We're talking about the sovereignty of God.

We're talking about the idea that God is all knowing.

His omniscient is another word for that.

It's really, really important that we see that.

That's the God we worship.

One of my favorite verses is in Isaiah 46 verse 9 and 10 where God is reminding the

Isaiah 46:9

Israelites what they need to be reminded of that he is God and there is no other.

He said, for I am God, there is no other.

I am God and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient

times things which have not been done.

He declares the end from the beginning.

That's pretty impressive.

But also you need to see that eternal and being an eternal God means that he always

has been and always will be.

There will never be a time when God is not God.

There has never been a time when God was not God.

There will never be a time where he's not God, where he's not on the throne, where he's

not almighty, where he's not all powerful.

There is no competition for God.

He is it.

In Revelation chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus says, I'm the Alpha and the Omega says the Lord

Revelation 1:8

God who was and who is and who is to come, the Almighty.

God is almighty.

God is eternal.

Now this kind of sounds a little theological, but it's actually very simple what I'm about

to say.

The fact that God is eternal means that he's self-existent.

He's dependent upon no act of nature, no other power, no other presence.

He alone is God.

He is self-existent.

You and I are not self-existent.

We're dependent upon a God who created us.

We're dependent upon a lot of things.

But God is not.

He's self-existent.

He alone is God.

Here's what this means.

It means his actions do not depend on another deity, another circumstance, other forces

of nature, anything that is unforeseen because nothing is unforeseen.

He doesn't need us to give permission or freedom.

He cannot be held back by laws, by rules, by regulation, by angels, by demons, by armies

or movement.

He is God.

No one holds him back.

Nothing thwarts his ways.

He alone is God.

There is no other.

That's just who God is.

God is almighty.

God is eternal.

And then thirdly, God is all-powerful.

Now, these sound somewhat similar, but they're very different in features.

He's all-powerful.

Now, when I talk about the fact that God is almighty, then I'm comparing him with all

others.

There is none like him.

When I talk about the fact that God is eternal, I'm speaking of his duration and his self-existence.

But to be all-powerful means that what God determines and what God says will happen.

To be all-powerful means that what God determines and what God says will happen.

Now, let's just think here for a moment.

Go through creation.

God said, let there be light.

And there was light.

And in other places, let the earth bring forth vegetation.

And it was so.

Everything God says and determines will happen.

Now, this is incredibly important for us because of how it impacts us.

It may be the most important thing that I say today for you about your life.

Think about this.

This means his word is authority.

He spoke, and it was so.

The elements obey him.

The creatures obey him.

The birds obey him.

The winds and waves obey him.

They understand that the creature is all-powerful.

And by the time you get to Genesis chapter 3, we see the first evidences of God speaking

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

specific truth and laws to his creation.

He's telling them to do certain things beyond multiply and replenish the earth.

He's talking about what to do and what not to do.

Now, many of you remember this really important scene called the garden scene.

About that, I mean the Garden of Eden.

Remember the Garden of Eden?

Perfect.

God had placed this garden there for mankind, for Adam and Eve, and placed them in there

to take care of it, and gave them one command, just one.

He says, of all the trees of the garden, you can eat freely, but not this one.

This one you should not touch.

And in this garden scene, we find the woman interacting with the serpent, who we know

as the devil.

And let me just read this in Genesis chapter 3, verses 2 and 3.

Genesis 3:2

The woman said to the serpent, from the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but

from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall

not eat from it, or touch it, or you will die.

That's a command.

Does God have the authority to speak commands into existence?

Does He have authority to enforce those commands?

Apparently so.

Absolutely so.

He's God.

He's almighty.

He's eternal.

He's all-powerful.

So the serpent questioned what God said.

Adam and Eve disregarded the command, and death entered into the life God had made.

Death did come.

The huge question and the decision then was, does God have the authority to say, this is

right and this is wrong?

Adam and Eve disobeyed, they fell from innocence, they lost fellowship with God, they were cursed

as a people, they caused a curse to come about the ground, and God's declaration of death

was immediately enacted upon man's innocence.

And from that moment forward, we were all born in a sinful image, even though we were

created in God's image.

From that moment forward, the consequences of sin and disobedience took place.

And all posterity, including us, was cursed because Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

You know, it's a really important question to ask today, what is truth?

We all kind of have our forms of truth, apparently, if you can believe what the world is saying,

what the culture is saying, you need your truth.

Well, do you think your truth compares with God's truth?

And the answer is, you'd be pretty arrogant to think that.

God has a truth.

He's a creator.

Truth is not what the serpent said it was or was not.

It was not what Adam and Eve thought it was.

It wasn't what they felt about it.

It was not what we desire.

That's not what truth is.

Like Eve desired the fruit.

It's not what it seems to be, but truth is what God says it is.

He alone has the authority to define truth.

Now stay with me here.

Words have weight because of who speaks them, not because of how good they sound.

Words have weight because of who they align with, not what they are in and of themselves

or by themselves.

Therefore, opinions mean nothing if God has spoken differently.

Now what does that mean for us?

It means that we have a God who's almighty, who's eternal, who's all-powerful, who has

spoken into our lives, and it means we cannot change how God created us or wired us and

expect anything but chaos.

In every circumstance where I have disobeyed what God's calling is on my life, it's been

utter confusion, utter chaos, and I end up running back to God's plan as fast as I can

possibly run because it's clear that only God's truth is real.

Now we live in a culture that wants to ignore all that, but to call God's truth a social

construct, and to deconstruct from eternal truth will bring about ultimate destruction

of the individual, and it's proving to be culturally catastrophic for our society, any

society.

Know instead the important thing is to yield to God's truth.

Resign as general manager of the universe.

Acknowledge he can speak truth and has the authority to say right and wrong.

Resign to the one who knows all and who created all.

You know, it's amazing today that you can walk through the book of Genesis and you can

know a great deal about God, but what's even more amazing to me is I can know not only

about God, but I can experientially know God.

I can have a relationship with God.

I can be close to God, and even though he's so big, so majestic, eternal, all powerful,

almighty, God lets me know him, lets you know him through his son, Jesus Christ.

Now if that wasn't so real for us today, that would sound absolutely ridiculous.

Most of the world looks at Christianity and says there's no way you can know God, but

you can know God because Jesus Christ came to reveal God to us and to allow us to have

a relationship with this living God and the truth that he gives us.

Oh, day five was a big deal.

All of creation was a big deal because what we have today is based on all that God has

done, and from this point God moves quickly to the point of him wanting you to know him

and trust him and follow him and follow his ways.

I am so glad we have a God that's so big and so personal, and there's nothing that you're

going to go through that he has not first prepared the way, even though you don't know

that, even though you might not even believe that until you get there.

He's there, he's able, he'll help you, he'll lead you, he'll be with you.

I want you today to take him at his word for that.

Just a few moments, we're going to close the service with prayer.

There's three things I want to encourage you to do.

First of all, I want to encourage you to stop by our decision station and talk to somebody,

especially if today you feel far from God and you want to know what it takes to get

near to God, the God who invites you to have a relationship with him.

And those at decision stations that are either placed in the back of our room are ready to

talk to you, pray with you.

It may be today you want to resign as general manager of the universe and allow him to lead

your life.

It may be today you want to invite Christ into your life as Lord and Savior and begin

to walk with him and know him like never before.

Let's stop at a decision station, that's number one.

Number two, I want to invite you, if you're a guest, to come to our guest reception area

right outside the center exit door across the hallway.

We'll talk about these things and a number of other things, answer any questions you

may have.

Number three, as you leave today, I want you to pick up a card that we've prepared for

you and this is what we would call an invite card.

And I would encourage you to invite someone to come back with you next week and just make

a practice of that every day.

Think about who you might invite every week, take a few cards and invite someone to go

with you to come and find out about this God who created heaven and earth and he works

in such powerful and personal ways with his creation and bring them with you.

Would you stand with me as we pray?

Father, today I am so thankful for every person in this room and the opportunity we have to

pause in a very, very busy lives and to spend time with you in your word and worship.

And Father, my prayer today is that every person in the room will be honest with themselves,

open and willing to allow you to change them for whatever needs changing in their lives.

And Father, I pray today that you'll allow each of us to come to trust you and have confidence

in you.

If you can be trusted to build the heavens and the earth the way you have, to keep everything

moving as it should be the way you are, then you can be trusted with our lives.

And I pray Father for many to take that step of faith and trust you.

Father, thank you that you love us, that you're so incredibly magnificent and yet at the same

time so personal to each of us.

Lead us, guide us.

Thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.