Genesis 1:4-13 - ”The How or The Why” - Who Are We Series

the Old Testament lesson this morning is

from Genesis

1:

5-13 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 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 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 each according to its kind on

the Earth Earth and it was

so 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 and God saw that it was good

and there was evening and there was

morning the third

day the New Testament

lesson is from Romans chap

8: 18-

2 for I consider that the sufferings of

this present time are not worth

comparing with the glory that is to be

revealed to us for the creation Waits

with eager longing for the revealing of

the sons of God for the creation was

subjected to futility not willingly but

because of him who subjected it in hope

that the creation itself will be set

free from its bondage to corruption and

obtain the freedom of the glory of the

children of God for we know that the

whole creation has been groaning

together in the Pains of childbirth

until now and not only the creation but

we ourselves who have the first fruits

of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait

eagerly for adoption as Sons the

Redemption of our bodies for in this

hope we were

saved now hope that is seen is not hope

for who hopes for what he

sees but if we hope for what we do not

see we wait for it with patience this is

the word of the Lord thanks be to

God I love those texts so I thought I

would tell you why I'm passionately

preaching this even though most of our

locals aren't here it's driving me

because I wanted to tell the story to

them but I thought you might want to

know emy's story why this is important

to me when I was a young lad I was

raised in the church um I don't remember

much except that I do remember as a

young lad uh believing that God existed

it was just nice and I was always

thankful and I thank my parents who

happened to be here today which I didn't

plan for that um but they sent me to

those things they made me go at times

when I didn't want to and I got to hear

those stories and it became just part of

my you know world and and of course I

was much more interested in hockey and

other things but those stories sack

around and you had them and God was real

and God created the world right and

that's just the way it was and I didn't

really think anything about it and I

just kind of kept this very superficial

Faith until I got to Junior high and I

took

geography now here came the problem well

Amry how can you believe this garbage

when we know the world is however old

when we know that there are dinosaur

bones much deeper than human bones I

didn't know any of this stuff before

then you know I was more interested in

Star Wars than any of that but pretty

soon I was sitting there going why do I

I believe this and I had my friends

teasing me for being a Christian and I

kept saying back to them

well I just believe this well eventually

as you might imagine uh it came to a

head and I had to make a decision so I

went to a Christian I won't mention his

name he was somebody who had been around

and I knew believed and I said what do

you do with the dinosaurs and the humans

that really bothered me and he said well

emry the reason they're separated like

they are is cuz Satan wants to trick

us that was the

answer well I'm not a smart man but I

knew that was

crap I mean what a view of Jesus let

alone and God and Satan even you imagine

him sitting there going I'm going to get

him in 2,000

years and so I began my journey of

walking

away and I did walk away because it

didn't make sense sense and I walked

away pretty hard now I don't know if he

would have given me a good answer if I

would have stayed but I can tell you one

thing like thousands upon thousands of

kids raised in churches that were not

taught the truth about this they walk

away the number one time they walk away

your kids is

University because they don't know and

haven't been taught what this actually

says

and I'm deeply passionate to get it out

there that we tell them what it

says so that they don't re they realize

that there is an answer and they don't

have to walk away in fact I would say

it's a better answer than the world

gives let's

pray Heavenly Father you are so gracious

to us we pray that you would Breathe

upon us with your spirit that you would

give us wisdom into how to handle this

text and that you give us eyes to see

and ears to hear

amen well you've been hearing me say and

I'm going to start here that this is

nothing to do with the

how no ancient cared about the how

things came together that was not their

particular interest this is all about

the

why we know this because we have

plethora of other creation narratives

and they all told stories about why

humans exist why the gods are there why

our value is there not how did it get

put

together now this is really really hard

for our Enlightenment Minds cuz we were

raised that the most important thing we

can know is how does something

work and all of science God bless them

have been working on how does it work

right every from geography all the way

to the Genome

Project to things beyond that and the

illusion is in our culture and it is an

illusion it actually can happen is

there's now a myth that says if I can

figure out how it works I now know why

it

works but that's a

lie all you know is

how you have no IDE idea if there even

is a

why and this is the difference between

these ancient texts and today and I'm

going to talk about that so when we got

into this you start the Genesis story

and it's a picture unlike any how could

ever be light is there but there's no

sun darkness is there but there's no

light to be dark when the darkness is

there because he's trying to say

something Darkness exists because it's

chaos when the beginning comes there's a

void things aren't there and then God

comes in and creates light light means

order he becomes a functionality this

story is not about how God physically

mechanistically put together creation

it's 100% just like all creation stories

about the why it

exists and that's really important if

you're going to live in creation to

understand the why if you're going to be

truly who you were made to be do you see

this is a far more important question

and so God revealing through the times

of his day in light of these other

creation stories and against the other

creation stories see this story of

Genesis creation account is radically

different than all the other ones

because it says something completely

different about God so it starts off God

called the light day and darkness he

called night now we have time and there

was evening and there was morning the

first day now we have time the the

Ancients had circular time these is

linear time unlike anything he's now

created time for function and God said

let the expanse in the midst of the

waters remember the waters were

dark the dark Waters in Antiquity was

Tiamat these were the other creation

stories this chaos that had to be killed

and it was separated this was the chaos

there's none of that in here this wasn't

a fight between two gods no God just

takes these primordial Waters and this

chaos and notice he just uses it for

himself for his creation it's very

powerful actually because everywhere

else Waters never had the control of the

Gods but this God's just like I'm going

to separate

them it's just mine it's like a a child

making a a set at home I'm just going to

do it the set doesn't have power of

itself does

it so he said let there be an expanse in

the midst of the waters I I'm

unfortunately this is where our our

interpreters won't allow us to go back

to the first century it doesn't mean

expanse it means a

ceiling they believed the sky was a

ceiling remember that they actually did

believe they had an how back then and

it's not true and they don't really use

it here but this is one time they do and

they said Okay God made this ceiling to

keep the water

separate okay and that's the part where

and when they looked up at the sky you

understand it was observational it

looked solid to them

and the waters sitting above that's

where the rain comes right and the

waters Below in the springs and they see

this is him separating it the main point

isn't the how though it's that he's now

beginning the process of functionally

creating a space where things can live

by separating these Waters that's the

point do you get

it so number one he's created time here

in a linear fashion I want you to

remember this not in as the pagans said

in a circular fashion you see the the

pagans had time but it was God's

fighting Gods it was Seasons fighting

Seasons the moon fighting the sun and it

never stopped spinning there was never

an end goal for pagans this is radically

different this is a linear thing this

means something can move to a

future and now you've got these Waters

separated and it said let there be an

expanse in the midst of waters and let

it separate the water from the

waters and God made the expanse and

separated the waters that were under the

expanse from the waters that were

above this how they saw the world

works and now you have a space to create

do you see that's why it's good because

right before then it was just

C and it was so and God called the

expense Heaven which is exactly what we

call it and there was evening and there

was morning the second day do you see

now we're starting to move a linear

fashion things are moving on that's

radically different my friends from the

pagans now we're moving on to something

else and God said let the waters under

the heavens be be gathered in one place

and let the dry land appear what is he

doing here what is this story being

telling he's

creating not the how but the why a space

for life

that's all that's saying it's not saying

he got up one day you know like a a kid

and kind of just sticks all this

Play-Doh in One S and then moves the

water

aside that's not the point the point is

he's presenting a place where his end

goal of function of this creation can

happen does that make

sense that's why this is

there and God called the dry land Earth

and the waters he gathered together he

called Seas now here he's using another

thing against the pagans the Sea Gods

right you guys have all heard of that

they lived in a world of Sea Gods the

sea is no God it's just something he

uses do you see how wonderful this story

is this God is under no a anything out

there that the pagans would have been

afraid of or thought had power he just

says no no no I'm using it for my

end and the Earth which is what Pagan

religion mean Pagan literally means

Earth worship he's just presenting that

at a thing for his tool to create it's

very different

folks so

different God called the dry land Earth

and the waters that were gathered

together he called seas and God saw that

it was good now let's be careful with

this word somebody said to me in the

Bible study well does it me what does it

mean good that's a great question

because it doesn't mean

morality you know like I'm a good

person it doesn't even mean something

perfect how do you know what it means

well there's only one thing that's not

good in the creation story do you

remember what that

was it is not good for man to be

alone now that can't be moral is he

immoral because of that it doesn't even

mean perfect what it means is it's not

functioning

right so good means function right

work correctly so when he sees this he

goes good this is functioning right now

I can start doing what I need to do for

the end goal which his end goal is to

live with Humanity which is stunning but

he has to create this Earth which it

will become his

Temple that's the way the story goes and

God saw that it was good and God said

let the Earth spout vegetation plant

yielding seed fruit trees bearing fruit

in which there seed and each according

to its kind on the earth the main point

now is he's now creating this Earth so

that it is something you can live on do

you see and that's the main point of the

why why is he doing this because he has

a purpose that this Earth is to be lived

on it's not the

how he didn't sit there and go okay well

let's make the Mustard Seed over here

you know these are far side

Comics the how is irrelevant to him what

we need to know is he did it and how he

did it it doesn't matter what they're

telling us is the why he wants a wor

Earth worth living

on that's his goal each according to its

kind on the earth and it was so he goes

on to repeat himself the Earth brought

forth vegetation planting yielding seeds

according to their own kinds and the

trees bearing fruit in which is their

seed each according to its kind and God

saw that it was functioning

and there was evening and there was

morning the third

day unlike the pagans who were always

dependent on the gods for all their

vegetation for their food this God said

no I made it for me there's no humans

yet are there I made it for me for the

purpose of eventually yes bringing

humans

in this is all a story of how of why

creation's

here and the whole story is beautifully

told in a genre we don't understand that

has no concerns with

Evolution geography

geology they don't have it they wouldn't

none of them did they already knew the

what God made the world and that's all

that mattered to them the how would not

have mattered What mattered was the why

and we're going to get to the why and

get what's going to happen next week

humans are going to be created

because he's creating this all so that

he can make people in His image and he

can dwell with

them do you see why this is working does

that make

sense so when somebody came to me and

said

emry how do you deal with this that we

got dinosaurs and humans on different

layers I'd say who

cares because I can't argue

science through a book that's not

written to argue

science but I can go back to them and

say but let me ask you a question why is

that important and why should it matter

to us humans and why should we live our

lives a certain way because that is and

they can't answer

that because it's just a

fact

right an evolutionist will come up to me

and say emry and I'll say I don't know

maybe you're

right this book doesn't tell me

that but why does it

matter why are we here why does this

matter to how I live my

life you see that's the

fundamental problem is people are not

asking the right

question they're asking the wrong

question and it comes from a philosophy

of the Enlightenment that was came way

back when that if if we can learn things

through our senses once we figure those

things out then we've got Humanity

figured out and we became like gods in

and of ourselves so the more we figured

out the more we understood why we

existed and the less we needed a creater

God to tell us

why and this went on for the 16th 17th

18th and by the time of the 19th

century somebody named frederich nii

Rose from the

grave a philosophical thought and he

went you guys are

madman you figured everything out and

you're like a madman who doesn't know

how to

live because you don't understand the

why now Nichi is not going to be a hero

at the end of the story but he pointed

out the

problem he pointed out the problem that

you guys have all this figured out thank

you Darwin for your thesis on

life but I'm telling you Mr Darwin you

don't have a question that you need to

ask and that's the why and need you

realize if you don't ask the why you've

got

nothing you

see and the saddest part is you and I

are raised in a culture that's exactly

like this where if you don't believe in

the how then who cares about the why

because if the how doesn't answer

it and so people go to universities and

they they go off to science and they go

and they find out and people say oh you

really don't believe that do you we know

about genomes

now

right and they don't know how to answer

these poor kids yeah but

why I was kind of stupid I I'm often

stupid and I like a fight I like I I I

got to say my biggest problem and I I

have really done better in my old age

I'm pretty good at debating and I'm in

the middle of this body biology class

evolutionary biology you Vic third year

student brand new Christian not very

smart no

Theologian and I'll never forget the

teachers talking about how we all come

from monkeys and

apes and I didn't know better I didn't

know but I asked a question I'll never

forget that no one could answer I'll

never forget this I put my hand up and I

said this she says yes and of course

everyone's asking like oh okay so what

kind of AP and all that and I just said

but if we act if we're Apes then why are

why would that we stop just acting like

apes if we're really

Apes why be any

different so he asked a why

question and there was no

answer I had two people walk up to me

and they said you must be a Christian I

said well I am but that was when I did

it but this poor lady came up and she

said that's an inappropriate Christian

for this

class well it is cuz they are teaching

the how not the why you see it was

actually inappropriate and I knew it

would be and I thought it was

funny but as I've aged I've realized

this is a fundamental question my

friends and the biggest saddest thing

I'm going to say to you is there's no

reason for a fight between religion and

science they're completely different

things religion at least through our

scriptures does not claim to tell you

how it came together okay cuz that's not

its goal that's not the genre mandate it

was not a 20 Century science

book it isn't and you read it and you go

okay and if you haven't figured it out

yet there's light and day have you

noticed but there's no sun and

moon

Maybe we should look at this and go

maybe something far deeper and by the

way something so profound is being told

through this about the why that it's

unbelievable by the time we are done the

11th chapter of Genesis you're all going

to agree with me we should have

predicted jesus'

coming once we understand the

why and by the way the church never saw

this until the 19th century as a

question there of how versus the why

they always understood they were

different

Francis Collins was the founder of the

Genome Project a Christian and he

understood how to read these texts

because he hung out with the right

people and he said one of the greatest

tragedies of our time is the impression

that has been C created that science and

religion have to be at

War it's completely

stupid you see because when they mock

you because you believe in the god of

Heaven and Earth and then they come back

to you and say well the Genesis story

isn't real I always go back to them and

do this they don't like you but go so

you like to read it like a

5-year-old because they're reading it as

if it's

history but when you teach them the

truth that this is about the

why that changes everything and I'm

going to make an argument my friends in

this world right now more than any time

I've been alive we need the

why we are living in a meaningless

world we are living in a world where

people don't have a story to live by so

they're living up into their own stories

they have to

create because all of this science could

never answer the why they have the how

but the science never could and what has

science finally said about creation they

have their own creation story in the end

you're all Cosmic dust and you're lucky

to be here just kind of came

together now go be human well what does

that even mean to be

human do you see if you're not asking

the why question you can tell me all the

DNA I have you can put me on 23 and me

turns out I'm part Swiss German which

makes me

happy I knew I liked Carl Bart for a

reason but you I don't know if I I

should be careful cuz I just said that

don't go and do that cuz they might be

using this stuff for crazy stuff I don't

know but my point

being Emory don't tangent ADHD off

okay my point being is they have nothing

to tell people of the why and we're

walking around with people living on

streets junkies doing more and more

drugs we're watching teenagers trying to

figure out who to be and how to be

living out their own s what's my

identity who am I supposed to be because

there's no story of what it means cuz

there's no

why and don't think this isn't crushing

this world it is our culture is a

mess because it has no

meaning because it gave it up and they

lied to the church and said ah this

creation story didn't happen so it must

be untrue so now create whatever

religion you want and even in the church

now people go I doubt this text not

because they understand

it and they say oh well let's just

Embrace Jesus what does that mean he's

the Creator

God if you don't know the Old Testament

you're not going to know Jesus I can

promise and so we have a world that's

messed up and it's the world nii pointed

to nii saw this coming nii looked out

and he saw a world where people were

saying nothing's meaningful and listened

to his quote and to ask you did nii win

listen to this

quote you have your way I have my way as

for the right way the correct way and

the only way it doesn't

exist there's no

why and so you're living in a world who

proudly purpose is

nothing cuz there's nothing to

be and that's why you see all the funky

haircuts and all the crazy things and

people sticking things in their head and

all over the place and walking there and

that and not knowing what gender they

are or what they're doing with their

lives or whe whether they should have

four couples or three couples I mean I

just learned about thres this summer you

know a thruple is a thruple is when you

have a your exclusive are you ready for

this this is reasonable exclusive with

more than one person

that's

happening and we laugh about it and it

makes me cringe but the truth is this

has been laying a foundation for

hundreds of

years where we've been told that

everything is meaningless while

scripture is standing out going excuse

me quit reading me like morons read me

like I am and I'm going to let you know

why do you see and our world like that

ancient Pagan world where times spun

remember there was no hope cuz time was

just going to be circular you had

nowhere to go but unlike that we have no

hope because once your little dust comes

together and you live for your 50 to 100

years it all breaks down and there's

nothing

now because you don't have a why you

have no

hope and that's why you lead to this

death cult that's in our culture right

now where people with mental problems

who aren't being told how to there's a

purpose are taking their lives by the

government of course that's going to

happen Jurgen mman wrote right after

World War II after he had been in those

concentration camps totally without hope

one cannot live to live without hope is

to cease to

live we've given this culture no reason

to live

so they live on the little things they

can grasp that are cheap

nuggets wealth sexuality power and we're

back to

paganism right that's all paganism

was Christianity is the antidote to

this and we're going through the why

through Genesis and it's a powerful

why for those who want

it it's a powerful why of who God is why

creation exists and why we exist and

it's a beautiful story my friends it has

the highest view of humanity male and

female no other creation story does

that made in His

image it's an incredible story that's

been lost because somebody thinks well

dinosaurs and humans are separate so it

can't be

real you see the sadness can you

understand it

you see the pro beautiful thing is we

have a purposeful

world you know why we

know because we have this

story that tells us exactly why things

exist and it has a good God that has a

purpose of putting things

together you see we have a God who came

and we don't have to worry about the how

he put this world together so that it

was functional for

life it was functional for us to live it

was functional for us to bring order and

it was pointing to something even

greater he walks in the cool of the day

in the garden what that means is

functional enough that he can exist with

us that's

incredible he gave us a purpose and the

Jews knew it and the early church knew

it but we failed didn't

we we failed by trying trying to be God

but he doesn't and he's going to keep

moving on that linear time and he keeps

bringing it and bringing it and then he

fulfills his purpose through one

man Jesus

Christ who does exactly what they didn't

do and what does he do does he float

above the Earth like a spirit does he

come down like

Superman he comes like a slave and a

servant to serve and what does he do he

takes care of his garden he heals his

creation every time he heals

somebody he's healing his

creation have you ever noticed that

every time you run into quote unquote a

demoniac in scripture he's trying to

destroy creation throwing the person in

the water or the

fire this God's come back to redeem his

creation oh now it's full of thorns and

thistles isn't it but even that he takes

on his head

and he breaks the curse and gives us the

purpose that this God's always

had he gives us a reason to be and he

says now you want to know how to be

human in my world which is my world and

it is

good I've shown you because I came back

and showed

you now you can bear my

image but we're not quite there yet are

we you know

nii godess bless him before he wrote his

sad stuff he actually had a happy time

in his

life and he said this one thing that I

think if he would have stuck with it

would have changed him and he wouldn't

have died as an insane syphilis Survivor

because he lived a horrible life he said

in early in his life he who has a why to

live can bear almost

anyhow isn't that powerful let me say

that again he who has a why to live can

bear almost anyhow I wish somebody would

have taught him

this that this is a story about why and

it's worth living for and it's worth

dying

for and not only that it's a story with

a

promise you see the best part of this

story of this God he never gives up does

he he starts Humanity he creates the

world and he continues and you always

get the sense this is going to work out

in the

end and he sends his son and then and on

that day after we brutally kill them

what

happens you don't win New

Creation

right and now we get to see the promise

of this God who brings order fulfilled

the tree of life is now ready again and

now the spirit gives us the wisdom the

tree of wisdom of Good and Evil but he

shows us how to use it

Paul says in that famous text where

we're at right now and it's a total why

question for I consider that the

sufferings of this present time are not

worth comparing with the glory that is

about to be revealed in

us this time the how is a garbage we've

messed this world up we have says

creation

groans but he says hey hey hang on

there's purpose and he's going to

fulfill

it Carl Bart said that Humanity

now has a totally different

goal unlike this world who has

meaninglessness got Bart rightly said

the goal of human life is actually not

death now it is

resurrection isn't that good

news I guess it's really good news if

you got a cancer diagnosis

this is fantastic this is the gospel

this Creator God didn't give up he gave

us purpose he gives us purpose now he

shows us how to live in Christ and he

promises us because of his resurrection

that if we will follow him we get to be

part of New

Creation isn't that a little different

than the world that's telling you that

nothing matters and just go do whatever

you

want or is it just

me so right now we get to be a people of

purpose we get to be a people of the

why now if you want to study the how

great there's nothing in here that says

you can't study or believe the other

hows cuz this isn't about the

how but you better bloody well listen to

the

why because that's what life and death's

about and because we have Jesus Christ

that Resurrection we can do it

that's what SK your promises I'm going

to lend my quote here the gospel is

about living in the light of Jesus

resurrection power every

day it is about who we trust in every

moment with our life and

Eternity do you trust the God who gave

us the

why or do you trust the gods that are

obsessed with the

how I'll tell you one only one lived for

you only one died for you and only one

is resurrected and there's only one that

leads us to eternal

life let's

pray Heavenly Father you are so good to

us you are always good to

us even when we blow it again and again

you never gave up on Humanity you

created this world you didn't have to

you created us you didn't have to but

you chose to because you're

generous and you've got purpose and you

didn't let us destroy it and you will

not we know you are going to return

through your

son and whatever the hows will be

irrelevant on that day when we

understand the

why of who we

are and the why of who you

are and in the end I believe the the

answer to the why will be

love and new

life even this morning as we come to

this table to this gift you gave

us remind us how utterly faithful and

good you

are and how great a sacrifice you made

so that you the Creator God who brought

order could stamp on chaos in our hearts

and bring new

life in Jesus name amen