Genesis: In the Beginning

Now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on.

Earth, the crew of Apollo eight. Hasn't that that we

would like to beend you.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,

and the earth was without form and void, and darkness

was upon the face of the deep.

And the spirit of God.

Moved upon the face of the waters. And God said,

let there be light. And there was light, and God

saw the light.

They was good. And God divided the light.

From the darkness.

And God called the late day, and the darkness he called.

In the morning with the first day, and God lived there,

and the most of the waters. Divide the waters from

the waters, and God made the prom and.

The light of the waters which were under the prom

the waters, which were both the propos. Then it was so,

and God.

Called the Roman heaven at the inn. In the morning

with the second day, God said, let the waters are

going to Heaven.

Begether together into one place, and let the dry land appear.

And it was so, and God called.

The dry land earth.

And the gathering together or the waters called the seas.

And God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of apolloing, we closed with good night,

good luck. I'm Merry Christmas, and God bless all of.

You, all of you on the good Earth.

Welcome to Venture Church. If you don't know who I am,

I'm Brandon, I'm the lead pastor of the church.

I'm Black. God you've joined us here.

This is a great Sunday because all your kids are

back in school, you're done with all your summer vacations.

We're starting a series through the Book of Genesis, and

the NFL season starts today.

What a great day.

This is also a really historic day in the history

of Venture because picture this is the official first service.

In fact, it started at ten o'clock. Simultaneous with this

official first service of Venture, Seattle merged with Westside Church.

In our brand new building in Ballard.

So I want to start off by praying for them

and also praying for you. So please buy your heads

and agree with me as I pray. Lord Jesus, I

thank you for just the great things that you've done

in this church. And I look back at the short

period of time that we have been pouring into downtown

Seattle and the miracles that we've already seen. And today

is such a historic day in the history of our church.

Not just that campus, as you have provided an amazing facility,

and God, I want to pray that from the very beginning,

that there is unity at that campus. There is excitement

in that community. And Lord, I asked that you would

draw people from all over that region to services there.

I pray for Pastor.

Tony and his team that they would just have an

overwhelming sense of your presence and sense that there's other

campuses believing and praying and standing with them. And now, Lord,

as we begin the series through the Book of Genesis,

I pray that you would speak to each person that's

here over these next several months. God, we invite your

presence into this place, and we asked that you would

speak to our hearts and change our lives in your name.

I pray Amen. Well, today we.

Are beginning a series through the Book of Genesis. This

is gonna take us all the way to Easter. We're

gonna take a break here and there, break for our

twentieth birthday, a couple weeks off for Christmas for the

kid's Christmas program, our adult choir, then we'll do a

month in January. We talk about different things, but for

the most part, we are gonna be entrenched in the

Book of Genesis. The thing I want to encourage you

with is that God's Word is inexhaustible.

In other words, no matter how many times.

You've read God's word or studied God's Word, there's always.

Something new to learn.

Now, I've been a student of God's Word as a

minute for thirty two years. I couldn't tell you how

many times I've read through the Bible.

But every time I read the Bible, there.

Is something deep and meaningful that I learned. I can't

tell you how many times I've read the Book of Genesis.

I'm gonna bet you've read Genesis more than any other

book in the Bible. Here's how I know, because you

make a commitment at the beginning.

Of every year to read through your Bible, and you

start with Genesis. So you've at least made it through these.

First few chapters in Genesis. But whether you're a seeker,

whether you're someone that's here with no Bible knowledge, maybe

you're new to faith, or maybe you're here and you're

a Bible scholar. Since the Bible is inexhaustible, get ready

to learn many new things over the next few months.

Genesis is one of the first five books in the Bible.

It's referred to in Hebrew as the Torah. It's referred

to in Greek as the Pentateuch. We know that Moses

was the author of the Torah, that he wrote it

somewhere between fourteen forty six BC and fourteen six BC.

We know that Moses wrote it to the Israelites after

the Exodus. They'd been slaves in Egypt for over four

hundred years. God miraculously delivered them, and then he gave

them his word. Now, Moses was obviously not an eyewitness

to the events in Genesis, but he compiled it from

various oral trade editions through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

The Book of Genesis is quoted over one hundred and

sixty five times in the New Testament. Jesus himself quoted

Genesis six times. In fact, in John five and in

Luke twenty four, Jesus cites all five books of the

Torah and tells us that its authorship is Moses.

But why should you and I.

Study a book that's this old? Why should we study Genesis?

Because Genesis is the book of beginnings. It's the beginning

of creation, man, woman, Sabbath, marriage, home, sin, murder, sacrifice, grace, trade, agriculture,

city life, race, languages. There are endlest list of things

that begin in Genesis. But most of all, Genesis is

a story, a narrative that begins in eternity and ends

with eternity's future. You see, in Genesis you get the

opportunity to learn.

About God, ourselves, and our world. And most of all,

you are.

Gonna discover that our story is found somewhere in this story.

You see, Genesis is more than just the story of creation.

The story of creation is actually only in two chapters

in Genesis, a couple chapters in the Psalms, a couple

other chapters in Isaiah. But Genesis is actually about redemption.

See Genesis is about my redemption. It's about your redemption.

Genesis is God's.

Plan for our.

Redemption, God's plan to restore our relationship with Him.

Church.

I will promise you, over the next several months, you

will meet yourself in the story of Genesis.

Are you ready?

So let's start studying Genesis. So turn in your Bibles

to John chapter one, and I'm serious. John one, Verse

one says, in the beginning was the word.

Referring to Jesus and the.

Word was with God, and the world word was God.

He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all

things were made. Without him, nothing was made.

That has been made.

This is this incredible reminder that Jesus is on every

page of the Bible, that in the beginning, Jesus was there,

that Jesus is God, that he's a part of the Trinity,

that he was there in the very beginning. But then

we read John one fourteen, which says, then the Word

became flesh and made its dwelling among us. We've seen

his glory, the glory of the one and only son

who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus was there from the beginning. My hope is, if

you're here today and you don't you do not know Jesus. See,

Genesis isn't to help you find your purpose. It's not

to help you find your beginning. Genesis is to help

you find Jesus, because the thing you're missing in your

life is not purpose.

The thing you're missing in.

Your life, if you do not have it yet, is

a relationship with Jesus. Every page of scripture leads us

to the person of Jesus Christ. All right now, let's

really look at Genesis. Genesis chapter one, verse one. If

you don't know where, Genesis is the very beginning of

the Bible, and it says this in the beginning, God

created the heavens and the earth. Did you know that

many scholars believe that that is the most important verse

in the Bible. In fact, today I want to share

with you.

Why I agree.

I think this is the most important verse.

In the Bible.

There is so much wrapped up in that short verse.

There's so much theology. There's so many things that it

immediately refutes that we are taught. It's quoted at the

Apollo moon landing. I want you just to picture that setting.

There was a time in our world where all of

the eyes were on TV watching that moon landing. And

when they had a captive audience of millions of people,

what were the first words they spoke? They'd read Genesis

chapter one. The first words spoken were Genesis one to one.

In that one verse.

It puts so many false theories and isms to rest. Atheism,

which says there is no God, is silenced by Genesis

one one. There is a God pantheism that says everything

is God.

Is put to rest.

By Genesis one one because we see a God that

is transcendent and distinguishes himself from creation. Polytheism that says

there are many gods is settled in Genesis one one,

there is one God. Humanism which says man is the

ultimate reality. No, not man, but God is the ultimate reality.

Evolutionism that says you and I are here by random.

Chance, by a cosmic mistake. No, God created the heavens

and the earth.

Verse says in the beginning God, Notice how it doesn't

begin with God's origin.

That's because God has none. God has no beginning. He

is eternal.

As we talk through Genesism, we talk about God and

we discuss God. You must understand the immutable laws of God.

Now theologians understand this, scholars understand this, and I hope

by the time we're done today you understand this. We

call these the God attributes. You have unique attributes about

you that make up you, that.

Are non changing about you.

God has his immutable attributes. That word immutable means that

these are unchanging over time.

They're unable to be changed.

To understand God, you first need to understand.

These God attributes.

Number one, God is omnipresent, what does that mean. It

means God is all places at all times, that God

is not bound by time or place. That God has

always been he always will be. God has no beginning

and he has no end.

God is omnipresent.

Second immutable law attribute about God is that God is omniscient.

God knows all things. Nothing can be hidden from him.

He has access to all information of the past, in

the present, and in the future. God knows all And finally,

we know that God is omnipotent, which means this.

God is all powerful.

There is nothing God cannot do. We're sang about that

in worship, that there's nothing that our God cannot do.

There is nothing outside of God's ability to accomplish. Genesis

does not begin with God's.

Origin because he's always been.

Instead, it begins with God acting.

In the beginning.

God created the heavens and the earth. I'm going to

share with you too quickly Hebrew words from that verse.

The first one is the word that's used for God.

It is the word elohem. The word elohem in Hebrew

ends with i am, which is plural in Hebrew, and

Hebrew is the unique thing about Hebrew. It's like Spanish,

and that a plural noun is always followed by a

plural verb. Many languages are that way, unfortunately not the

English language. But what's unique about this is you have

an elohem God, which means a plural God. It's a

plural word. But God is then acting singular. He is creating,

and that word for create is bara single, So you

have an elohem plural God doing a singular barah. Event

that right there is a hint to the trinity. So

we already read that Jesus was there in the very beginning.

Aw Tozer, who's an amazing scholar, I'm gonna read several

of his quotes, he said, the trinity, Father, Son, and

Holy Spirit doesn't mean God manifests himself in three different forms.

So in other words, it's not three.

Different gods, but it's one God exists in three persons who.

Are all equal in their attributes.

So the Trinity is all omnicient, all omnipotent, all omnipresent,

yet individual in their offices.

And then Tosar begins to describe.

Creation when he says God has a voluntary relationship to

everything that he has made, but he has no necessary

relation to anything outside of himself. So in the beginning, God, Elohim,

father Son, Holy Spirit.

Guess what. God didn't need you, He didn't need me.

He has a voluntary relationship with us. But in the beginning,

Tozar says the Trinity was in loving communion, had no

need for anything else. And then Tosar ends this whole

discourse by saying, the Divine Trinity planned redemption, my redemption,

your redemption, our redemption. In the beginning created the heavens

and the earth. The word in Hebrew for created is barra.

It's only used in the Torah, and it's only used

in connection with God. And let me explain why. Because

of its meaning, the word bara means to create something

out of nothing.

So Lohem was all there was, and then Elohem.

Bara created the heavens and the earth. Now I know

many of you went to secular universities and you've heard

and might even be here adhering to the big bang theory.

Well, I'll tell you there was a big bang.

Because Elohem Barah created boom everything out of nothing.

That is a big bang.

God creates the heavens and the earth out of absolutely nothing. Interestingly,

there are dozens of well thought out, godly scholarly Christian

arguments for Genesis Chapter one and how creation happened dozens.

I'm not going to explain dozens of theories to you.

I'll mention two.

One of those theories is referred to as the Young

Earth theory. Many of you probably adh to the Young

Earth theory. It's this idea that the Earth is about

six thousand years old. But then another theory is the

Old Earth theory. Now many of you might adhere to

the olderth theory. The Old Earth's theory says that the

world the universe.

Is fourteen point eight.

Billion years old, that the Earth itself is four point.

Eight billion years old.

The Young Earth people and the Old Earth people never

can come to any sort of conclusion together. These two

do not agree with each other, and they argue vehemently

against each other. Young Earth people say of Old Earth

people that they're heretics. Older people say of Young Earth people,

not that they're heretics, but that they're stupid.

I had a friend who.

Whose daughter went to the University of Washington and go Huskies.

Two kids went to U dub.

It was her freshman year of college, and they wanted

to ease her into the academic rigor of you Dub.

So another friend had advised her to take Geology one

oh one.

Uh, my kids took Geology one o one. It's known

affectionately as Rocks for jocks.

It's the easy a class that all the athletes take

at U dub And it.

Was the first week of Rocks for Jocks.

And the professor said.

Can someone tell me how old the earth is? My

friend's daughter, probably a little bit too enthusiastically shot her

hand up in the air and she said, six thousand

years old. Well, she realized really quickly in that secular

environment that she was all alone with that thought. Can

I be honest, I'm not here as a scientist. I'm

not here to persuade you anyone of the dozens of

different theories. I want to tell you what really matters

from Genesis one to one, and it is the simple

reality that God created it. That's what matters. That there

is a creator. The fact that God created something suggests

he must.

Have had a great purpose for it, which means.

If there's a creator, you were created by God, which

means you aren't a mistake.

You aren't here.

By random chance, you are a cosmic accident.

God created you with a plan with a purpose that

means you have value. All of that is wrapped up

and in the beginning.

God created in the earth. There is a creator, He

had a plan, he had a purpose. You and I

have value. In Genesis is the story of our redemption.

I want to ask everyone to buy your heads and

close your eyes. I want to begin this series by

giving you an opportunity to begin a journey with Jesus.

I don't know why you're here. Maybe it's the beginning

of a school.

Year and you thought I want to start off this

school You're right by getting my kids in church, by

getting some healthy rhythm of life going on. But you're here,

and that's not an accident either. If you were here

and you do not know Jesus, but you want to

say pastor Brandon today, I want to begin the journey

of following Jesus. I'm going to count to three, and

when I say three, if that is you, I want

you to raise your hand. I also know that there

are probably some of you here. You've prayed prayers, you've

gone to church. But if you were honest when you

answered this question, are you right now in a right.

Relationship with Jesus? You don't know how you would answer that.

If that's you and you want to leave this place

knowing you are in a right relationship with Jesus. When

I say three, I want you to raise your hand

to so here I go, no one looking around. If

you're here you want to begin a relationship with Jesus,

or you're just far from it and you need that

fresh start. That said today, I want to begin fresh

in my relationship with Jesus. When I say three, raise

your hand here.

I go.

One, two, raise your hands now three hands up everywhere? Awesome,

you can put them down? Can I have everyone stand

up on your feet? I shared this in the first service.

It wasn't my intent. I really believe that this is

a prophetic word from God for you.

Or area.

I just came back this weekend. I was speaking at

a church family camp. It's for a church in Bellevue

that was having a family camp in Olympia. In other words,

I did a lot of driving this weekend back and forth.

This was a church that about twenty five years ago

had its heyday, was a large influential church in our region.

But since then it has really had multiple pastors, has

really struggled and they brought in a new pastor, and

they're believing that their best days aren't behind them.

They're believing for their future.

And so I had spoken at a couple of their

Bible camps two years or twenty five years ago, and

they brought me back just to kind of hopefully reignite

some memories of what God had done in the past.

And the very last night, as.

I was getting ready to leave and drive back to

Mill Creek, the phrase that I kept hearing over and

over again in my heart was God's not done with

you yet. That God's not done with.

The Seattle area yet.

There's more to our story, Church. God is not done

with you yet. If he created you, he has a

plan for you.

He has a purpose for you. You are not a mistake,

you are not an accident. God has a redemption story

for you. He has a redemption story for your family,

for your kids, for your.

Marriage, for your dreams.

All of those things that the enemy is trying to

rob you of. God has a redemption story for it.

Twenty years adventure, we're about to celebrate. We are not

going to look back and say those were the greatest

twenty years in our history. Now that is just the beginning.

There's more to our story. God has got more for

this region. He's got more for this area, He's got

more for you. So for those of you that just

raise your hand, I'm here to tell you today there's

more to your story. Want to ask that everyone would

bow your heads, close your eyes. I want everyone in

this place to pray this prayer of repentance. But those

of you that raised your hands. The Bible says that

if you confess with your mouth and believe in your

heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him

from the grave, then you were saved. This is your

opportunity to confess. So there's nothing special about this prayer

that I'm leading you through, but it becomes special if

you believe it while you pray it. And I ask

everyone here to pray this prayer together because we're family

and we want people that pray this for the first

time to know they're not alone. And I also know

that there were some of you you wished you would

have raised your hand, and you feel like maybe I

missed my moment, but you haven't pray this like you

mean this, and you leave this place today knowing you

are right with Jesus. So with every eye closed, every

head bowed, I want everyone to repeat this prayer after me.

Everyone say, Dear Jesus, I stand before you today and

I admit I've messed up. I've made mistakes. But today

I ask you to forgive me, and I invite you

to come into my life and to change me.

I choose from this.

Stay forward to serve you with my life. Thank you

for forgiving me and for saving me. In Jesus' name,

Amen

You never gave up on it