Genesis: Tov Meod

I want to welcome you to Venture Church. If you

don't know who I am, I'm Brandon. I'm the lead

pastor of the church. I want to welcome those that

are watching online also those that are listening to this podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

This Sunday Adventure tonight, six o'clock.

You don't want to miss it.

We have one of our special revival worship nights. We

have a special guest, Ross Johnston, who I was first

told about back in February. I was traveling on a

missions trip to the Dominican Republic with a bunch of

other pastors, and all the pastors from California kept talking

about this young revivalist, Ross Johnston, who was doing open

air meetings and thousands of people were coming and it

was sparking a move of God in southern California. So

I got ahold of Ross through social media and booked

him months ago for this service. And subsequently, even since then,

he has blown up even more. He's sought out around

the nation to come and speak, and we have him

here tonight Adventure.

He has a testimony that's.

Gonna blow your mind, a ministry that's gonna move and

impact your life, and your family. I think it's a

camp miss service, so be here at six o'clock. In factors,

to be here early to make sure you get parking.

If this parking lot's full, again, park at the elementary

school and walk over. We're expecting a really great night.

And for those of you with kids, we do have

something special tonight for your kids and the service. Everything

will be promptly over by the latest eight o'clock.

So you guys are aware, all right, by your heads,

close your eyes. We are continuing our series through the

Book of Genesis. I want everyone to repeat this prayer

after me.

Everyone say, Dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change my

life in Jesus' name.

Amen.

When I was a youth pastor, I had this small

group of discipleship we called student leadership, and it's where

I would take students and I would mentor them for

a year in leadership, and there is always a session

that I called whiteboarding. And I still do this today

when I mentor our interns, I talk to the classes

that I teach at Northwest, or even when I'm coaching

my staff, I have times where I will allow them

to whiteboard me. And what I mean by that is

ask me any question. Nothing's off limits. They'll tell me

the question, I'll write them all on the whiteboard, and

then I will answer every single one of the questions.

And a typical whiteboard session with our student leadership always

involve this question.

This is something that.

Only a teenager would think to ask, but it's a

really good question, and it's Pastor Brandon.

When you go to heaven, what is the first thing

you're gonna do.

I don't know if you've ever been asked that one before,

but I get asked it often.

And here's how I respond.

I say, I want to sit down in God's version

of a Dolby at most cinema sound HD movie theater,

and I want to watch a replay of all of

creation happening.

How many of you think I actually think. I'm gonna

add that to the list. Here you go.

The Bible is the most read, best selling book of

all time. There are more Bibles in home homes than

any other book around the world.

The most read, the most reread.

Most debated studied portion of the entire Bible is Genesis

Chapter one, the account of Creation. Today we are going

to talk about the Creation week. There are so many

theories about creation. It would take me literally weeks to explain.

All of the different theories.

There are godly Bible based in love with Jesus, highly

intelligent scholars that are all over the spectrum on how

creation happened.

Here's a couple examples. Probably many of you here. You

would be what's referred to as a creationist. You believe

very clearly that God created the world in six literal days.

There are others of you.

You love Jesus just as much as those people, but

you would be referred to as a progressive creationist.

It's that it's the.

Theory that God created the world progressively over hundreds, possibly

hundreds of millions of years.

And there are others of you.

Who passionately believe Jesus is your Lord and Savior, that

he died on the cross.

And three days later he rose from the grave. You

serve him, and you fall into the category of theistic evolutionist,

which means you believe.

That the world was created through the evolutionary process, but

God initiated the process. Those are by people believing saved

by grace, believe in Jesus Christian views. Last week I

told you that there is a view of people the

believe in the Old Earth theory, that believe the universe

is fourteen point eight billion years old, that the Earth

is four point eight billion years old. And then there

are New Earth people and they believe that the Earth

is six thousand years old. And by the way, in

here today you're sitting next to people that are on

one end of the specter more the other, and you

all love Jesus. Here's an example. This week, I was

given these two books by people that I highly respect

would be mentors in my life. Are some of the

most godly intelligent biblical scholars I know. And in a

twenty four hour period, they gave me these books. By

the way, when you're a preacher and you preach on Genesis,

people are always going to send you.

You need to listen to this sermon, you need to

listen to this podcast, You need to read this book.

I am humbly asking that you not do that. I

will graciously receive.

It, but I don't have time to do more study

on this than I'm already doing. And there are hundreds

of books written on these topics, including these two. Both

of these men I highly respect, value their opinion.

They love Jesus.

They are incredibly godly, scholarly intelligent men.

The first one gave me this book. It's called in

six Days.

It's why fifty scientists choose to believe creation.

So it's basically a.

New worth argument from fifty scientists.

This was this book I was given.

Twenty four hours later, I was given The Rocks Don't Lie.

This is.

Basically a progressive creation. This book that the Earth is

millions of years old. It's through the perspective of a

Christian geologist. And I was given both of these in

less than twenty four hours.

Why do I tell you that there.

Are opinions all over the spectrum, and by the way,

they're fun to debate, They're fun to argue, they're fun

to study. I call it getting sucked in the rabbit hole.

But I want to tell you.

You will never fully know because you weren't there, and

none of it matters, because ultimately what matters is what

they both believe, and is that God made the world,

that there is a creator, that in the beginning, God

Eloheim created Barrah, the heavens, and the earth. That verse

refers to this dateless.

Past when God brought the universe.

Into existence, it is a declaration that God created the universe.

Whenever you study God's word, So die and I teach

biblical preaching at Northwest University. So we teach the next

generation of ministers how to communicate the Bible. And when

we do that, we teach them the process when you

write a sermon, and it always begins.

With good exposition. And this is.

Where you read, reread the text, you study the text.

You read commentaries.

But what you're trying to do is understand the culture

and the context. Who was it said to, why were

they saying it, what was going on in the world

at the moment this was said, because it helps you

understand the author's intent. So good exposition in asking questions

and understanding who, what, where and why. When you read

Genesis one, you need to understand the context with which

it was written.

Let me share it with you.

Moses received this from the Holy Spirit and various different

literary traditions, and it was shared to a group of

Hebrews who had just experienced the Exodus. They had been

slaves in Egypt for over four hundred years. Generations of

being slaves, generations of your value and your worth being

about how many bricks you could produce. And then when

the Israelites were producing many bricks, but they were also

growing in numbers, Pharaoh looked at them.

And said, we got to slow this down.

Let's take away the straw that we were providing them

to make bricks.

They got to get their own straw.

But they still have to produce as many bricks.

So this was a.

Nation of people that for generations never got a day off,

never got a moment of rest, whose entire worth was

based upon their ability to produce bricks. And then God

delivers them miraculously. What else was going on? For four

hundred years? They were inundated with the culture of the Egyptians.

They were taught about the Egyptians many gods.

Then when they have the exodus, all they desire is

that they would be a nation themselves. But they saw

all the nations surrounding them, and they actually envied those

other nations.

They had they had a king and they didn't. They

had a military and they didn't. Oh, and they had

all of the different gods they worshiped. So all these

surrounding nations worshiped all of these different gods. So Moses,

when he wrote Genesis one was trying to help them

understand last week what I shared with you, that there

is a creator and if there is a creator, you

as a creation, are here with a purpose. That you

aren't some accident, that it isn't random chance, but you

have incredible value. So he's telling a group of people

that thought their worth was in their ability to produce,

that you have value just because you are, just because

you were created. That's where your value comes from. And

then he's also telling them that there is a loan

creator and if there's a loan creator, you should worship him.

And then he explained the six day Creation.

There's so many details that I don't have time to

go into today. I did go into a lot of

details on my podcast. Yes So Pastor Tony and I

are Seattle Campus pastor do a podcast every week called

Pastor's Unfiltered. This week we invited Christian Linbeck to join

me and we went in depth on theories about Genesis

one and Genesis two. This is worth you listening to.

It's worth downloading this week because there's a lot of

detail that I don't have time to go into today

that I go into on that podcast. So I want

to encourage you check out that podcast. Genesis one two.

You're ready, let's blitz through this. It says, so God

created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was

formless and empty, Darkness was over the surface of the deep,

and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Describes the state of the earth when God decided something

should exist. Church, if God is the lone creator, he

alone is worthy of our worship, and Moses emphasizes this

by showing us a pattern to God's activities in that

Creation week. Today, I want to share with you the

three acts of creation.

Act one is that God.

Forms the heavens and the earth Genesis one to three.

It says, and God said, let there be light, and

there was light. And God saw that the light was good,

and he separated the light from the darkness. God called

the light day the darkness he called night. And there

was evening and morning.

The first day. God said, let.

There be light, and there was light. Might have looked

something like this. This is at least what AI thinks

it looked like. So what does this scripture tell us.

It tells us that God separated the light from the darkness,

and when he saw the light God said it is good.

That phrase it is good in the Hebrew is key tove,

key tove. Everybody say key tove. Say it again, key tove.

You're learning Hebrew. I'm gonna teach you Hebrew. That means

it is good. So God looks at this and says.

It is good. And it was evening and morning the

first day.

So God's first act is that he is forming the

heavens in the earth. And the first thing he does

is he separates light from darkness.

Then verse six, and.

God said, let there be a vault between the waters

to separate water from water. So God made the vault

and separated the water under the vault from the water

above it. And it was so God called the vault sky.

And then there was evening and there was morning.

The second day. It might have looked something like this.

So imagine the earth is just covered in water. God

is separating the water on earth from the water that

is in the sky, using these clouds as an analogy.

Solomon said this in Ecclesiastes. He said, if the clouds

are full of water, they pour rain on the earth.

You and I know that these clouds are a vault

of water. Just waiting to pour out rain on us.

We live in Seattle. I mean we know we look outside,

we see those clouds. We know the ones that are

holding water, and they're gonna rain. In fact, we are

to the point where we can smell the rain coming

come on. Literally. So on the second day, God is forming,

and he separates the water. There's water in the sky,

and then there's water on the earth.

Verse nine.

And God said, let the water under the sky be

gathered in one place, and let the dry ground appear.

And it was so.

God called the dry ground land and gathered the waters

he called seas.

And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, let the land produce vegetations, seed bearing

plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with

seed in it, according to their various kinds. And it

was so, and of verse eighteen. And God saw that

it was good. And there was evening and there was morning.

The third day might have looked something like this. On

the third day, God is finishing his forming, is gathering

all the water together.

Land is now popping up.

You see seas and oceans and rivers and lakes, and

you see land. And when God saw this, he said

it was good, keetove it, you're good. Then he allowed

trees and plants to grow and seed bearing plants to

produce their crop, and he saw it and he said,

it is good. Kee tove hi, you're learning Hebrew.

I love it.

One of the things that I teach students that to

be a good scholar, you should ask questions. That there

is something that you experience growing up in church that

you don't even realize you go through. And people call

it the lullaby effect, and the lullaby effect means you

hear something so many times you don't ask just normal

questions that you should ask about something because you just

accept everything as truth before you even ask questions. And

by the way, there is not a question you can

ask that Scripture cannot answer. Don't be afraid of questions.

But you have friends that are sincere seekers that you say,

you need Jesus in your life, and then they say.

Well, how do I meet Jesus?

And you probably tell them one of two things, maybe

both you should go to church, that's one way, or

you should read your Bible. And when they hear about

reading the Bible, they start in Genesis and they read

Genesis and they're like There's so many questions that I

have about Genesis, and my advice to you is you

should read Genesis and ask these same questions because they're

totally obvious.

We're going to get to them. Let me just mention one.

Go back to this picture.

Did God create these trees and plants fully grown? Or

did just the seed in the land calm and then

they begin to grow and then eventually there was fruit.

And you know that you have some trees in your

yard that are dozens of years old.

So what did God do? Is it possible that an

omnipotent God could.

Have said, let the land.

Produce crop and boom? It looks like this. Of course,

God is that he can do anything. There's nothing impossible

for him.

But also, is it possible that an omnipresent God that

is not confined to time and space, that is eternal

might not think in terms of a day like you

and I think in terms of a day. Is that possible? Again,

neither really matter. What matters is there's a creator. But

by the way, hey, that is a normal question that

someone would ask about that third day. So the first

three days God forms and then God's second act in

creation week is after He's formed everything. He begins to

fill the earth. We see the beginning of that verse fourteen.

You should ask a big question. When I read this,

it said in God said, let there be light in

the vault of the sky to separate the day from

the night, and let them serve as signs to mark

sacred times and days and years.

And let them be lights in the vault of the

sky to give light on the earth. And it was

so here they are.

God made two great lights, the greater light to govern

the day, the sun, the lesser light to govern the night,

the moon. And he also made the stars. God set

them in the vault of the vault of the sky

to give light on the earth. And God saw that

it was good. That's my preacher voice. And there was

evening and there was morning on the fourth day. Okay,

I have a gallon my preaching class. I was using

this as an example when I was talking about exposition,

and she asked this question.

She said, Professor.

Bels, how can there be light on the first day

when God didn't create the sun, the moon, and the

stars until the fourth day?

Said pause.

To Kapan, and I wrote her name on the board, Gretchen,

and I put stars all the way around her name,

and I said, she is my favorite student in this

class because she asked the most obvious question that.

Your unchurched friends are going to ask when they read Genesis,

and odds are you've never even thought.

About it before. We actually answer that on Pastors Unfiltered.

So listen to that you can hear the answer. Okay.

So God creates the sun, the moon, and the stars,

and he says, keitav you say it, it's good.

Verse twenty.

And God said, let the water team with living creatures,

and let the birds fly over the earth across the

vault of the sky. So God created the great creatures

of the sea, and every living thing within the water,

the teams and that moves about in it according to

their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.

God saw that it was good.

God blessed them and said, be fruitful and increase in number,

and fill the water in the seas, and let the

birds increase in the earth. And there was evening, and

there was morning the fifth day. So God, it's created

the water and the sky on the second day, and

he fills the water and the sky on the fifth day. Birds, fish,

Why does Moses point out giant sea monsters seems very random.

Like he doesn't like tell us.

That giant land creatures come so giant sea monsters. Here's why,

because Moses is helping them understand that there is a

creator and that eloheme.

God use thirty two.

Different times in Genesis one is that creator, and he

is arguing that you should not worship the creation. Yes,

I know the Egyptians worship all of these created things

and created beings. And I know that all these countries

that are surrounding us, in fact, there's some that even.

Worship the great sea creatures.

And Moses is saying, isn't it crazy to worship something

that's created when the actual creator is the one who's

worthy of your worship. Worship him. So he's explaining this

over and over again. Are you still with me?

All right?

Verse twenty four, God said, let the land produce living

creatures according to their kinds, the livestock, the creatures that

move along the ground, the wild animals, each according to

its kind. And it was so God made the wild

animals according to their kind, the livestock according to their kind,

all the creatures that move along the ground according to

their time, and God saw.

That it was good.

Keith ofv. Everybody say, keith tov, this might be what

it looked like. On the third day, God takes the

water and he collects it together, land appears, creates the seas,

the oceans, lakes and rivers.

Then on that third day.

He allows plants and shrubs and vines, trees to grow.

Then on the sixth day he puts animals. There, bugs,

creepy crawley things. The earth is full of all of

them at this moment. And then he steps back and says,

and it is good. Keitov, say keithov. But you know,

God wasn't done on the sixth day. We read about

something else that he does on the sixth day, Verse

twenty six. Then God said, let us make mankind in

our image, in our likeness.

Before I go on, I want to point out something.

Notice that it's let us plural, make mankind in our image.

This is another hint towards the Trinity, Father's Son, and

Holy Spirit, that they were there in the beginning, that

they were all involved in the process of creation. But

he says, let us make mankind in our image, in

our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish

in the sea, and the birds in the sky, and

over the livestock, and all the wild animals, and over

all the creatures that move along the ground. God created

mankind in his own image, in the image of God.

He created them male and female.

God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and

increase in number.

Fill the earth, subdue it.

Rule over the fish in the sea, and the birds

in the sky, and every living creature that moves along

the ground. Then God said, I give you every seed

bearing plant on the face of the whole earth, and

every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They

will be yours for food.

And it was so. Man is unique.

Woman is unique, radically unique from all of the rest

of creation. It's unique in several ways. Number the one

we were formed. Genesis two seven tells us that the

Lord God formed a man from the dust of the

ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,

and man became a living being. You and I are

like a piece of art that imagine. There is a

lump of clay, and God took it, and he fashioned it,

and he created you. And then he breathed into its

nostrils and gave it life, so you and I were living,

breathing creatures. Why are we different from the rest of creation?

We were formed. Everything else was borrowed, created out of nothing,

but you and I were created out of something. So

you picture an artist making a sculpture that is a

work of art.

We re formed Number two.

Second, thing we were creating in God's image. You've heard this,

You've heard terrible sermons on it, probably in your life.

What does it mean to be created in God's image?

Does it mean you look like God? Now? It means

you have a personality.

You have a mind. God gave you a mind to

think with. He gave you emotions to feel with. God

gave you an inner spiritual nature that allows you to

know Him and worship him.

And then the craziest thing.

That God did is that he gave you a free

will to choose whether or not you would do it.

So he gives you this desire to worship, but he

also gives you a mind that lets you decide, yes,

I'm gonna worship Jesus or no I'm not. And finally,

why are we different than the rest of creation? Because

we are created to over the earth. We are created

to have dominion over the earth. Moses is telling the

Hebrews all of this creation that all these other nations worship.

When God created you, he created you to have dominion

over it. Why would you worship something you are told

to have dominion.

Over That makes no sense.

And the people are hearing this, And the sixth day

ends by God saying this. It says God sob what

he had made, and.

He said.

It was very good, and it was evening and morning

the sixth day. Notice something different here the other four

out of five days. The second day he didn't say anything,

but the other four out of five days he says keitav,

it's good.

And then actually on the sixth day, after he creates

all the animals, he says ketov, it's good. Then he

creates you and I and he says.

It's very good. That word in Hebrew, that phrase is

tove meyode. He doesn't say key tov, he says toveyode. Now,

let me explain the nuanced difference. In English. Our language

is interesting because one word can mean a million different things.

I mean, good means a lot of different things in English.

But Hebrew is specific, like it's being very specific. So

For example, Uh, I know the Raiders game is going

on right now. Any chance anybody's wearing a Raider jersey? No?

Great.

You are probably wondering, why is Pastor Brandon wearing a

brock Purty jersey? Why is he wearing a Niner jersey?

You're offended in many different ways. You're offended because you're

a Seahawks fan and you hate the Niners. You're also

totally confused because he thought I was a Raider fan. Well,

I lost a bet, that's why I'm wearing this. Well,

you look at this brock Purty jersey, and you would

say it this that's good. But you know what that's

good means. It doesn't mean it's good means it's terrible.

I'm saying it's all right, it's fine, gotta do what

I gotta do.

It's good.

But then if I was wearing this, please let the

video there it is, I'd say it's very good, that

is good, this is good. Notice how when I said

the same thing about the same thing, but it means

something totally different.

In Hebrew, this would be key tove. What does keith

tove mean?

Means it's all right, it's fine, it's good.

But in keep the picture up, they have to be blessed.

But in in Hebrew, this would be tove me old,

key tove toveod. You're getting it, key tove tove maod.

Very good. Now picture this.

God forms, God fills, looks at everything he created and

he says, key toove, that's good. It's all right, it's fine.

But then he creates us and he says, tove.

Mayled it is very good.

And on the seventh day, his third act.

Is God rests.

I go into detail on the God resting on the podcast,

but let me is simplified as much as I possibly can.

Doesn't omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God needed break. Now here's why

I think he rested that day.

Any of you ever been to Florence, A bunch of you.

I bet when you went to Florence, you went to

a museum that has a famous piece of art in it.

You have to pay a big fee to go into

this museum. There's really nothing else of interest in this

museum other than this piece of art. But you aren't

gonna go to Florence and not see Michael Angelo's The

Statue of David. What they say about the statue of David.

Just get it over with. They're gonna pop up a

picture of the statue of David. We're strictly pg. Thirteen Adventure.

When you saw.

When you saw the Statue of David, you probably just

stared at it for a while. People say that this

is a perfect piece of art, that it's flawless. Then

it would be toe of Mayode. If you picture Michael Angelo.

He would chisel away the marble, and then he would

sand it away, and he would step back and he

would say, kee, Tove, and he'd go back to work

some more.

H it's good, but it needs more. He'd choosel away

some more. It's pretty good, but it needs more.

There came a moment where he stepped back and he

looked at this piece of art and he said, Tove, Mayode,

this is perfect.

This is flawless.

What he was thinking is, if I do one more chisel,

I'm gonna ruin it. If I sand anymore, I'm going

to ruin that. So then what is does every artist

do once they finished a perfect piece of art, they sit.

Back and admire it. Moses was trying to tell the

Hebrew that you are the pinnacle of creation. You were

the purpose of creation.

When God finished you, he said Touve Mayod, and the

only logical thing that he could do is sit back

and admire his piece of art. Genesis really means two

things for you and I. It reminds us that there

is a creator, and if there is a creator, you

are not an accident. That he's created you with the

purpose that you have value beyond what you do.

You have value by who you are.

And the second thing, he's trying to remind you that

if he is the creator, he alone is worthy of

your worship.

I want everybody to buy your heads, close your eyes.

I know I give a message like this you want

to respond, but I have a revival meeting tonight and

that seems like a great opportunity to let you respond.

So I'm just going to pray for you, and I

want you to think about this message today, and then

I want you to come back hungry to worship a

God who values you that much, hungry to worship a

God who looks at you and says Tove mayoed Lord Jesus,

I thank you for our church, and most of all,

I thank you for your word. And if we look

hard enough We'll find hope in your word. We'll find

purpose in your word. And Lord, I pray that everyone

here would be encouraged by the word of God that

was preached today and would be inspired to come tonight

and to respond in Jesus name.