God The Creator | Genesis 1:1 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | 08/30/26

Amen. You may be seated. We uh just have

sung a theme of what we covered in

starting point. Uh some men are coming

forward right now to hand out an

outline. If you somehow made it in here

without an outline, they're coming all

the way to the front and they're going

to give it to you. Just lift your hand

and they'll make sure that you have one

as we study in Genesis. Um we've just

been singing This is my story, praising

my savior all the day long. uh Sheran

Hills uh starting point group. What did

I tell you? What kind of worship that we

have this morning? For those of you who

are in Starting Point, what did we say

when pastors used to ask me, "What kind

of worship do you guys have over there

at Sheridan Hills?" What did I used to

tell pastors?

>> 247.

>> Very good. Okay. Enthusiastic. 24/7.

That's the kind of worship we have at

Sheran Hills. That's not the name of a

new band. What that is is the call of

Christ for us to worship the Lord all

the day long. We are called to walk with

him and to worship him as we go. Well,

one of the great things that helps us in

our worship of God as we go is to be in

his word, allowing his word to come and

to renovate re just completely renew our

minds. And so here's another thing that

we often say here in the life of the

church. Truth in the mind brings hope to

the heart. Can you say that together

with me? Truth in the mind brings hope

to the heart. And so that's what we come

to the word of God for. And so this

morning we come to return to our study

of Genesis. And we're going to look at

God, the creator. In fact, today we will

finally finish the first sentence of the

Bible. And so I want you to notice here

with me in Genesis 1 in verses 1 and

two, it says, "In the beginning, God

created the heavens and the earth. The

earth was without form and void.

Darkness was over the face of the deep,

and the spirit of God was hovering over

the face of the waters." Well, this

morning we are going to come to that

first sentence once again and I want you

to see with me some beautiful um

depictions of part of the creation that

we enjoy. How many of you enjoy seeing

the mountains? Do you enjoy seeing the

mountains? I enjoy mountains. I I really

do. And um we have beautiful mountains

on the east coast, but we also have

beautiful mountains over on the west

coast. These are images from um the

Redwoods National Forest Area and the

Great Sequoia uh National Forest Area.

Those two areas, not too far from one

another, grand and glorious forests that

look from a distance um beautiful in

themselves as being in mountainous

areas. Many times when we go visit

those, we want to go and use a map in

order to be able to see the beauty that

is there. Some of you enjoy hiking a

little bit. How many of you have ever

enjoyed hiking very much in your life?

You kind of enjoyed that. Maybe you

can't do it anymore, but you enjoy that.

We love that. I love that. My sister

sent me a picture. I'll show you in just

a minute of her. She and Brad are out

west. And uh the map helps you enjoy

the sites because you see what's coming.

You you looking at the map of the sites

that are to come. Look at this. And

these are from those beautiful giant

sequoas. When I was 9 years old, my

grandparents took me on a 9,000mi

camping trip and we went to Great

Sequoia. I've been in this lodge that is

here. Check this out, boys and girls.

The building, the trees are so big that

when they fall across the road, uh, you

have to cut a hole in it so that you can

even travel through and go on through

and see the glory and the grander of it.

Now, that's a tree, right?

Our biggest trees here would be called

bushes compared to those.

My sister sent me this picture this

week. She grew up here in the life of

this church. She and her husband have

retired and they're enjoying seeing a

little bit of the sights. Does anybody

see what she has around her waist there?

>> Bear spray. That's right. Because all

for all the beauty, there's a little bit

of danger that lurks around. Um, but

when we come and we see the great

wonders of creation, this general

Sherman tree, one of the uh volumewise,

it's the largest tree in the world. more

lumber in that tree than any other tree

in the world. You come to a group of

sequoas that are there and redwoods that

are there called the house and the

beauty of all that is there. We we see

the glory of God's nature of God's

creation, the wonders that he has

created. We walk through the forest and

we see so sometimes we'll we'll see the

beauty of what God has made down on the

surface of the earth. Sometimes we look

to the heavens. Today I just am kind of

amazed. Now I was here in this park in

the Redwoods National Forest when I was

uh 10 years old uh with my grandparents.

And so we had left South Florida. We had

driven all the way across the United

States down through the Grand Canyon. We

went to 37 states. And when we wound up

on the other side of the United States,

true story, um we were there and

granddad pulled the van in to this

forest and we got out to go up to one of

the little ranger stations and I simply

climbed up on a little wooden fence. I

was standing there on a wooden fence

looking out into this forest across the

ferns and everything else. And from

behind me, I heard Andrew Vance Coleman,

"Get off of that fence.

It was my third grade Sunday school

teacher from here at Sheran Hills."

I could not believe it. I thought, "Wow,

I go all the way across the United

States and I still can't get away with

anything."

So

it was in a setting much like that where

we see the beauty and the wonder and I

was learning at that time to be in awe

of all those things and uh then

sometimes of course the joy of

imagination comes in to our lives and

some of you know where that's taken care

of from but

this morning we want us to look again at

the God the creator and we see this in

Genesis Number one, let's review from

last week a little bit. Review from last

week. Number one, go Genesis gives us

the foundation of a biblical world view.

Of a biblical worldview. What it begins

with is this. In the beginning, God. In

the beginning, God. This is our

presupposition.

This is our presupposition that that God

is there. Everybody comes to nature with

presuppositions.

For the materialist, he begins by saying

in the beginning material

um for the naturalist in the beginning

nature something happened. There was

something there. We come through

scripture with this very blatant prod

from scripture. this very blatant

picture from scripture that we come that

it is God that is literally at the

beginning place of our understanding and

our theology. Scripture makes no bones

about that whatsoever. The very first

subject of scripture is God. The very

first subject of scripture is God.

Number two, Genesis 1 through 11, those

chapters 1-1 concerns the whole human

race. We looked at the fact last week

that the whole human race is affected

through Genesis 1-11. All that were

there uh upon the earth. So Genesis

1-11, God and the world. God and the

world. And then we also said in Genesis

12 through 50, it becomes God and do you

remember what it says? What did we say?

God and

>> one family. That's right. The family of

who? Of Abraham. the family of Abraham

and his descendants. We will see that

story. But for this study, we're looking

at God in the world. He's at work.

Number three, in the beginning is the is

the beginning of creation, not the

beginning of God.

We we clearly saw that God transcends.

He's before the creation. Look at this.

Psalm 90 and verse two. Before the

mountains. Can you circle the word

before on your outline right there in

Psalm 90:2? Before the mountains were

Psalms 90:2

brought forth or ever you had formed the

earth and the world. Underline it. From

everlasting to everlasting. What does it

say at the end?

>> You are God. Underline that. You are

God. This is who he is. This is the

presupposition of scripture. This is the

grand and glorious picture of what

scripture clearly tells us and this is

his plan for our faith and our

understanding of the world. Number four,

everything ultimately falls into two

categories.

Creator

versus created

or creation.

So everything is either the creator or

that which was made. Everything that

exists in all of the universe um is

either God or the that which God has

made. You see this great distinction is

going to dominate the remainder of

Genesis 1. This concept you say, "Well,

that's such a basic concept. Why are you

why are you mentioning that, Pastor

Andrew?" I I want to mention that. I

want you to see this because this is

what the creation narrative is going to

show us is that everything comes down to

creator versus created and that he

indeed has created all things. Now a lot

of the times when we want to have an

overview when we want to look like I

showed you a picture of a map. The idea

of a map is that you can look down on

the whole landscape here and you can see

where to go. you can see better the

whole picture. If you're right there in

the forest in the trees, you may not be

able to see where to go. But a map

allows you to have a bird's we call a

bird's eyee view. Well, we don't want

just a bird's eye view on this. We would

like an airliner view on this. So,

notice this. Number one, I want us to

see the creation account from a 30,000

ft. Um, we we want a 30,000 ft view on

this. We want to back out and see the

big picture.

Why do we do this? Well, letter A is

this. We ask ourselves, why are there

creation accounts in both Genesis 1 and

Genesis 2? And the reason that I bring

this up is because when I was at Florida

State University, I remember somebody

saying, "Well, my goodness, in the first

chapters of the Bible, there's

contradictory accounts of how God

created the world." One says one thing

and then another one immediately says

something else and the skeptics's view

was that the Bible is full of errors and

can't be understood. Well, that's only

because they have not they have not

taken the time to carefully look and

even see literarily and contentwise

what is truly being explored by this

gloriously beautiful and intricate word

of God. this this beautiful expose of

what God has done not only on the

surface but the underlying meaning of it

all in his great intention. So it's a

very ignorant thing to say that well

Genesis 1 is in contrast to Genesis 2

and they conflict. That's a very

ignorant thing to say. That's a skeptic

that has not done his homework and does

not understand the nature of scripture

at all or understand what is being

accomplished by God through Moses and

explaining to us what he has done. So

what we're going to see here is this and

this is because that we're going to

study both of these chapters. There's a

creation account one and then a creation

account two. We're going to see both of

them and be able to compare them. But I

want you to see from the outset this

picture. This will help you notice that

Genesis 1 through chapter 2 and just up

to verse three. So it's mainly all

Genesis chapter 1 is what we call the

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

panoramic view. It's the panoramic view.

It's that wide view of creation. And

notice what is in that. Do you see the

list that is below that? Notice these.

The heavens and the earth. We see that

mentioned even in these verses that

we're studying now. And then we're going

to see light and darkness. And then

after that, it's the sky and the seas.

And then after that, the land and the

vegetation. And then after that, the sun

and the moon and the stars. And then the

sea creatures and the birds. And the

land animals as well. So that's that's

one whole picture that we're going to

see there. And then look at the next one

over here in Genesis 2:es

4-2.

We see another account and notice what

we see here. This is the closeup view.

This is the close-up view regarding

humanity. Look at this. Formation of

Adam, the Garden of Eden, God's command,

man's work or his vocation,

man's need for companionship and God's

design in that and the formation of Eve.

And then we see this glorious thing

toward the end of that creation account,

the institution

of marriage. And so we see that even

marriage, the the grand and glorious not

physical creation of the world, but the

the spiritual creation of the world, we

begin to see this relational aspect that

is so important to God that goes beyond.

Last week we talked about that. Last

week we looked at how many chapters are

dedicated to explicitly telling us how

God created the world. Two. How many

chapters are in the Bible?

One. No chapters. Not books of the

Bible. Chapters.

1,189.

So only two chapters dedicated to

explicitly telling us how the world came

to be. And then there's 1,187

chapters that are talking about all of

the other things, the spiritual aspect

of who we are as beings and God's

relational nature to us. What we see

here is is that the spiritual things are

far more important to understand than

the physical things. Now, by God's

grace, we can understand a tremendous

amount of physical things. He's given us

very good brains. He's given us

intelligence. He's given us the ability

to learn and to grow. We have cognition

and the ability to think. We we we've

been given a a just vast vast uh

landscape of knowledge that we can

appreciate and learn and grow about the

physical universe. But what we learn is

that's not the most important thing.

The most important thing for us to come

to understand is who God is and who we

are.

And so what we see that God is revealing

himself through the creation and we'll

see that from Romans chapter 1 in the

Romans 1 · chapter mention

coming weeks. But notice this down there

at the bottom of your page. The

panoramic view is talking about all of

creation. And the closeup view is

looking at humanity. Two very different

purposes in this setup for the rest of

God's word. And so the skeptic that says

these two accounts are in contrast to

one another simply does not understand

what is happening in these two chapters.

God is gloriously setting us up to

understand what is most important to

him. Number two, uh or letter B here,

Genesis 1, I want us to to overview.

Again, this is our map of where we're

going. Uh, letter B, Genesis 1, creation

by the day. Creation by the day. Um, and

this means each one of the days

mentioned, day one, day two, day three,

all the way down to day seven. Remember

with me that Genesis 1 is going to

outline these. The light day and night

is going to be expended. The expanse,

waters divided. There's there's several

statements that are here about what God

is doing in the physical universe of

this dry land and seas, the vegetation,

the sun, moon, and when you say stars,

that's the rest of the universe. Um, so

all of the galaxies and all that exists

beyond our own solar system. How about

number five? Sea creatures and birds,

land animals, and then look at this on

day six. land, animals, and man and

woman. This is God's um a this is his

his premier pinnacle of his creation is

when he makes man and woman. We're going

to look at that. We're going to talk

about why is it that when he created man

and he created woman, when he created

humanity, that this was his prized

possession. This was the pinnacle of his

creation. We'll look at that both

physically and um uh in its in its

symbolism as well. And then what

happened on day seven?

>> That's right. God rests. God rests. And

we're going to see the beauty and the

importance of that. Now, the box here

also shows us another way this breaks up

a little bit. And it's going to help us

to understand as we study. First of all,

days 1 through three. In days 1 through

three, we see that God forms. God forms

light, darkness, sky, waters, land, and

vegetation. And then days 4-6, we see

it's not just that he formed it, but now

he fills it. Um, so the luminaries

governing the day and the night, the

birds and the sea creatures filling

skies and waters, animals and mankind

inher inhabiting the earth. This is

important because what we see that God

is revealing as he unfolds what is

important and what is what is focusing

us on him as creator. He first forms

everything and then he fills it and then

once again on day seven what does he do?

>> God rests. Doesn't tell us how he rests.

It just simply tells us that God rests.

Well, we want to dive back into the

actual words here as we come to once

again and to finish the first sentence

of the Bible and we see it in God

created. So that's next. Last week we

looked at in the beginning God. In the

beginning God, the the presupposition of

God, the glorious first subject of that,

but we not only see the first subject of

the Bible, but we see the first action

of the Bible. And that is God created.

Um would notice there on your outline,

God created. Below the word God is

Elohim which is the the Hebrew word for

God. The generic Hebrew word for God. It

is not his personal name. That would be

YHW

which we have often pronounced Yahweh.

But here we see this is the general word

for God. So the assumed word for this

one who can create created. Bara. This

is a Hebrew word that is used throughout

the Bible to talk about the creative

nature of God in this that he creates.

Well, here's some key things. First of

all, we said that God is the subject and

the Bible's first action is God's

action, not man's action. It is his

action. This first action is that of

what?

>> Creating. Circle that. That's the first

thing we see of action in the Bible is

that God created. In the beginning, God

created.

Now, we're making such a big deal of

this and going over this because

friends, this is monumentally important

for anyone seeking truth to understand

where all things began. This is what the

Bible deals with. This is what the Bible

lays as a foundation for everything else

we can know about God is that he comes

and he creates.

Notice this with me. Barra is used in

the Old Testament to refer to God's

creating work. Um that's the way this

word is used over and over again. That

is the assumption that is being here.

And the context is this. The context is

creation of something from what? From

nothing.

Last week I told you that Marcy is a

great cook, but she can't do an I dream

of genie thing that just goes boing and

there's flour and there is sugar and

there is uh butter and there is all

these things. No, she has to go to the

store and buy the ingredients in order

to make what has to be made. There is

only one who creates from nothing and

that is the very first one mentioned in

all of scripture. The eternal God.

Notice the Latin phrase ex nahilo and

that the x means from. Nahilo means

nothing. From nothing. This is not a

Hebrew uh statement. This is a Latin

doctrine. So the Latin doctrine is the

assumption. this picture that we see

through the scripture by total inference

by clear inference that God is creating

from nothing. That is logically that is

clearly academically scholastically

what we see the Bible is teaching that

this is the assumption that God is

creating from nothing. And then the rest

of scripture makes clear that that's

exactly what's happening. Remember with

me, the Bible fits together like lock

and key. In fact, let's fast forward

thousands of years to Hebrews. Hebrews

11 in verse three. Look what it says

there at the bottom. Look what it says.

By faith, we understand. This is one of

our key verses that we've been talking

about. Yes, faith is involved in our

understanding. By faith, we understand

that the universe was created by what?

>> Word.

>> The word of God.

So that what is seen,

look what it says, read it out loud, was

not made out of the things that are

visible.

So what was seen is not made out of the

things that are visible. This comes from

God. Something that is invisible,

something that is there and it only

exists in him. Look at Romans 4 and

verse 17. The Apostle Paul writes about

Abraham. So that that family that we're

going to trace um in in Genesis 12-15,

that family that we're going to trace,

but the Apostle Paul's writing about

him, look what it says. As it is

written, I have made you the father of

many nations, speaking of Abraham, in

the presence of the God in whom he

believed, who gives life to the dead.

and read it out loud and calls into

existence the things that do not exist.

Isn't that amazing? He calls into

existence the things that do not exist.

This is the God of creation. This is God

first subject of the Bible creating.

First verb of the Bible, first action of

the Bible, God is creating. Look at John

1 and:3. The Apostle John writes about

Jesus. All things were made through him

and without him. Read it out loud. Was

not anything made that was made. So it's

only through him. The only thing that

exists are the things that he has made.

All of scripture testifies that

everything that that is owes its

existence to God. owes its existence.

Sorry. Everything that exists begins

with him. Okay. So this is why we have

entitled this series the God of what?

What did we say? The God of everything,

right? The God of everything. I mean,

notice this slide that shows us this is

the picture of the whole series. The God

of everything. This is what he's made.

This he this is who he is.

He is the God of

>> everything. Number three. So God created

and then what does he create? The

heavens and the earth. Now this is an

important phrase. This is an important

phrase and I want you to see the

importance of why it says this here in

the first sentence of the Bible. So

remember with me this is the first

sentence of the Bible.

What we see here is in the beginning God

created what? The heavens and the earth.

Why does it you say? Well, wait a

minute. It's going to break it down as

he goes and he goes in to more detail in

the verses to come. Yes, but that's not

the intent of this. I want you to see

what the intent of this is. This phrase

is the first sentence in the first

sentence of the Bible is a murism. This

is a murism. And what is a murism? A

murism is two extremes. Two extremes

expressing totality.

say what in the world do you mean by

that? Well, I've given some examples

that are here. I like these examples.

Common examples of other morisms here.

Look at this.

Um, high and low. I searched high and

low. What does that mean?

>> I searched what?

>> Everywhere.

Um, body and soul. He dedicated body and

soul to his work. What does that mean?

All he had, everything he's got. How

about this one? Day and night. She

thought about it day and night. What

does that mean?

>> All the time, right?

>> How about this one? Lock, stock, and

barrel.

He sold his company. Lock, stock, and

barrel. That means he sold everything.

Now, that actually is a a very old

medieval statement about firearms. He

sold the whole gun. He sold the lock. He

sold the stock. He sold the barrel. The

whole thing. Um, not peacemealing it.

How about this one? Ladies and

gentlemen, step right up. What does that

mean?

>> Everyone. Everyone. These are

morrisisms. And that's what the Bible

begins with. The point is this. The

first sentence of the Bible is simply

and profoundly saying God made

everything.

This is the opening point of the Bible

and this is the main point of the Bible

that God made everything. You see,

creation is not God.

That's that's showing us that pantheism

is absolutely false.

God is not part of creation.

You see, God transcends creation. He is

in his creation, but he's not bound in

his creation. He goes beyond his

creation. Now, think with me how we see

this. Now, and just these two that are

already mentioned here. God is not

creation is not God. What we need to

understand is is that humanity is prone

to worship creation as God.

This has to do with all of the idols

that are around the world. We often look

we will see in if if you study world

history if you study the the events that

are going on even around God's people as

they come into the Canaanite um beliefs

as they come into which is in the

promised land Canaan or they come out of

Egypt or they go over to Babylon they go

to the various gods that are all around

them you know what they do they're

worshiping the sun

they're worshiping the moon. They're

worshiping the rain. They're worshiping

all of these that they're worshiping the

stars. They would worship trees.

They would worship animals. So animals

would be part of their worship. Their

their worship has to do that. This is

the reason when we see Israel's

idolatry, they're just mimicking the

gods that they had seen. So they made a

golden calf to worship it.

This is this is panthe the the idea of

worshiping things in creation or seeing

all of creation as that which can be

worshiped. So you would say how stupid,

how ridiculous. Well, let me tell you

that there are plenty of people on the

planet today that worship parts of the

creation.

And there are plenty of people, listen

to this, in America, there are plenty

plenty of people right here in South

Florida, and there's maybe even some in

this room

that worship creation

by by exalting creation as the great

God. In fact, in a very very small way,

we see little hints of it. We we we call

Earth what?

>> Mother Earth, right?

In a small way, we can begin to elevate

the creation toward those things. When

we look at extreme environmentalism,

there are people who have just dedicated

their lives to saving Biscane Bay or

there's people who have dedicated their

lives to saving a certain turtle or

certain people have dedicated their

lives to various things. Now, should we

be good stewards of Biscane Bay? Yes.

Should we stop pollution from going into

Biscane Bay? Yes. Should we save the

green leatherback turtles? Yes, we

should do that. We should not we should

not discard and abuse God's creation.

And anyone who would suggest those

things that that uh the idea of caring

for our environment is not a Christian

value clearly does not understand

stewardship from scripture. We should be

passionate about those things. There is

no doubt about it. But should those

pursuits come anything close to the way

we worship the creator of all things?

>> No.

But there are people who would say the

most important thing in this life is to

take care of the environment.

There are people who would say there's

nothing more important because this is

an existential threat. If we don't take

care of the environment, then we're all

going to die. Now there are some

politicians that even said that I think

we still have about five years left

before one particular politician said

the world is going to end because um of

uh global warming.

Friends,

this is not what we are called. We we

are called to care for the environment

without worshiping it. We are called to

enjoy the world that God has made us,

but we enjoy it that much more. Listen

to this. When we can wonder and exalt

and rejoice in the one who made it.

>> And that's the point of this opening

sentence.

In the beginning, God created the

heavens and the earth. He created

everything. You're wondering where it

all came from. It was God. There are no

moons to worship. There are no cows to

worship. There are no uh hydraologic

cycles to worship. There is no god of

fertility that we are called to worship.

No, what we are do what we are called to

do is to worship the one true God. And

the second thing as we mention here is

that God is not part of that creation.

This is in very very important God

keyword transcends that means to go

beyond. And so Jesus comes and he comes

into our world. But was he bound

by creation's laws? No. And he shows us

this over and over again. Here he is God

in the flesh. And what does he do when

he comes up to lame people? When he

comes up to blind people? When he comes

up to people who cannot speak, when he

comes up to a leper, the the the person

with leprosy all over their body, what

does he do? He defies the physical. He

defies all of the things of creation.

And he goes beyond those laws over into

his overarching law of dominance

in rulership

and lordship. You see, he's the Lord of

all creation. So, he can suspend the

laws of time and space whenever he wants

to. He transcends the kind the creation.

He goes beyond it. And this is how he

saves us. If he could not do that, he

could not save us. But that's exactly

what he does. He is not bound by

creation.

Well, the third thing that we see here,

and two verses are going to help us with

this. Not only is God um over all

things, but God owns all things. He owns

all of creation because he made it. He

owns it.

So, this is the the picture of it. When

when we see Bernard make a great

painting and he just he kind of creates

that out of yes using the paint and

everything else but he makes a painting

that's his painting. I mean that's

that's that's his painting and it's his

painting to do what he wants. He can

sell it or he can give it away or he can

do whatever he wants to do but he

created that and he and he made that and

he gives it away. The creator has the

right of ownership.

And notice Psalm 24 and verse one.

The earth is whose?

>> The Lord's. The earth is the Lord's and

the fullness thereof. What does that

mean? The fullness thereof.

>> Right out there to the side. Everything

in it. Right. The fullness everything

that makes it full. The earth is the

Lord and the fullness thereof. And the

world and those who dwell therein. Can

you circle the word those?

Because we see here that the psalmist is

showing us it's not just the cosmos of

the whole creation but it is those those

who dwell in it. This is talking about

people.

God is the owner of every person.

Look at Psalm 10:3.

Psalms 10:3

It is he who made us

and we are his.

We are his people and the sheep of his

pasture.

And if you if you read Psalm 100 and

verse 1, 2, and three, that is the

point. It it's not a statement, the King

James translates it that it is he who

has made us and not we ourselves. THAT'S

BECAUSE OF ONE tiny little mark over

Hebrew character that it's it's either

that we are not ourselves or we are his.

And so there's there's depending on

which text you look at, it shows the

difference in that. And the text that is

obviously most accurate is the one that

says that's all about ownership and

about who are his. And that's what we

see in Psalm 24. Psalm 24, the earth is

the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the

world and those who dwell therein. God

owns the inhabitants of the earth. He

has made us. We are his people and the

sheep of his pasture.

This is his grand and glorious plan.

Now, this is so beautiful because

here's what God cares about.

God made all of creation.

And his prized

creation is humanity.

It's the thing he cares most about.

And this is this is what it translates

to you and me.

He wants you.

>> He loves you.

>> He cares for you.

You see, this creation account

becomes intensely

personal.

This isn't just about the cosmos. This

isn't just about the universe.

Where all this is going is that God

cares about people. He cares about you.

And what he amazingly does,

we see and we find as we study scripture

and as we go on in scripture, he makes

us twice.

He first makes us physically.

But for those who are in Christ, he

makes us again

spiritually.

This is what he does. And this is

clearly the teaching of scripture

>> that we see that he is all about the

rebirth of men. He is all about the

rebirth of human beings saving them,

listen to this, from their living death.

We're going to see that as part of the

curse, he says, "The moment that you eat

of this tree, you shall surely die." And

we will see in the that the doctrine of

the fall where all of humanity is

tainted with sin turned against a holy

God. And what God is intent on doing

from that very moment. Listen to this.

God is going to show us his grace and

his mercy and his power

by giving us a second birth.

This is the amazing good news of the

whole Bible that he is all about not

just creating us once

but creating us again so that listen to

this so that we may see what love looks

like. We may see what grace looks like.

so that we may see

what the true power looks like that he

has to change not just physical cre

creation but also our human hearts.

John chapter 3 and verse three, a

John 3 · chapter mention

teacher of the Bible, the teacher of the

law comes to Jesus in the dark of night

and he's asking him a question and Jesus

responds to him and says this truly

truly I say to you unless one is what?

>> born again he cannot see the kingdom of

God. He cannot see the kingdom of God.

So he can see the creation.

He can see the kingdoms of men.

But he cannot see the kingdom of God.

This is the glorious plan of God that we

may be born again through Jesus Christ.

Amen.

>> Let's stand together as we pray.

Father in heaven,

I thank you that you are the God of

everything,

that nothing exists apart from you

and that you had a grand and glorious

plan from the beginning to show us your

heart.

Lord, we look at the tragedy of Nepal.

We look at the tragedies of cancer. We

look at the tragedies of abuse,

of sin, of fallenness, of death.

And we see that from the start, Lord,

you made it and it was good. But

rebellion

turns us away

from all that is holy and good. And yet,

Lord, you had a plan to overcome it all.

Lord, I thank you that you have a plan

for our rebirth because we so

desperately need it.

And so Lord, I pray that as we see the

creation that we would see a God who not

only is powerful

and intelligent and amazing in those

ways, but we see a God who is loving and

kind

and that would lay down his life so that

we too may live. Lord, I pray that this

truth would come home to those who have

not yet received it. Lord, I pray for

those who've been struggling with this,

maybe for decades, Lord, that you would

do a work in their heart to see that

yes, there are presuppositions.

Everybody has presuppositions, but

you've called us to the presupposition

that all of creation testifies that our

very existence shows your existence.

And not only that, but you show us your

love. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.