Exalting Jesus Pt.1 | September 27, 2026 | Will Rutt

This morning we get to kick off a new series, really a new adventure in the story of God.

In the next 14 weeks, we're gonna go Genesis through Revelation, and we're gonna see the story of God and how the story of God exalts Jesus throughout it.

See, there's you could you could sit down and you could give someone a lesson, but sometimes the better way to teach someone isn't through a lesson, but through a story.

So I could give you a lesson about German shepherds.

Um I have German shepherds, I think they're awesome.

I could tell you, I could give you a lesson about their loyalty, about how smart they are, about how much drive they have.

I could give you a lesson, and all of us would be like, huh.

That's as much as or I could tell you a story.

That how one time we were tracking this buck through the woods, and my German Shepherd, Ellie, you can tell when she's on it, she gets on it and she takes off, and then I hear just thrashing.

I'm running through the woods, catch up, and my German Shepherd is head to head with this angry buck, and they are fighting.

I could tell you some facts about um German Shepherds, or I could tell you a story, and on the one hand we go, huh?

And on the other hand, we go, like, show me a picture of your dog.

Like, you want you there's something that happens in telling a story.

And did you know that most of this is not God saying, sit down, let me teach you a lesson.

Let me give you some facts about me.

You know, most of this is story.

When God wants to reveal his heart, he says, let me tell you a story.

Forty-three percent of the Bible is story.

33% of it about is poetry, which includes prophecy.

And 24% of it is discourse or teaching.

Most of it is God saying, I want to tell you a story.

My hope in the next 14 weeks as we go through this the story of God, Genesis through Revelation, is that we would be able to understand the story of God, that we would be able to hold it in our hands, and as we see the story of God, that we would see God's heart in it, and then as we see God and how the story of God exalts Jesus, that we would actually begin to be able to hold that story in our hands.

We can see it.

And to help us, I want to uh I want to give to us a gift that CIU gives to uh CIU students.

That's Columbia International University, that's where I went.

A lot of us have gone.

There's a class called Progress of Redemption.

And in that class, it takes you Genesis through Revelation, helping you see the story of God and how the Bible isn't a collection of stories, it's actually one story.

And to help, uh, they give this chart.

Now, this isn't the actual Progress of Redemption chart, this is kind of uh a sort of a sort of a redoing of it.

But this is essentially it.

And my hope is that in uh in January, every single one of us would be able to walk through the story of God revealed in Scripture, and every single one of us would be able to do it.

That this chart is actually something that uh you have to do in the class, Progress of Redemption, and uh there's just some cool some cool things that have come out of it.

I want to show you some of the the Progress of Redemption Bible chart um projects.

Uh I liked this one.

One of the things that we talk about in the class is God is not in a hurry, he grows things.

And so this is a a pot for a plant with the chart written and drawn around it.

And it says God's not in a hurry, he grows things.

If you can't see it well, that's a picture of it right there.

I love this.

Um this is another one.

This one was made by Whitney Langley.

This one was made by Grayson Markle.

Um I think I have a picture of this one too.

Yeah.

Kind of like the legs of a stool where the chart is wood burned into these pieces of wood.

Um I got some pictures from some other people.

Uh remember, God is not in a hurry.

He grows things.

When you think of an animal that's not in a hurry, you might think a turtle.

Somebody caught a snapping turtle and drew the chart, and that was their final project.

You know, it's actually kind of funny.

Um I got a C on my project, and I've been bitter about it.

And then I saw people's, I saw these, and then I'll show you mine.

This is this is mine.

And I was like, okay, I guess I get I got why it's I got a C on this.

But this is my Bible chart, and I I thought it was I got a C for creativity.

I was like, didn't know this was art class, I thought this was Bible class.

But it it was my it was my Bible case, like a perfect custom fit.

So I can, yeah, thank you.

That's it.

Is that A material?

It's like my sheath for my sword, you know.

Um so by the end, I'm really hoping somebody's gonna have this tattooed on their back or some other creative thing.

The A plus work.

I want us to be able to hold the story of God in our hands, and I think a byproduct of that will be um I can see how my story actually fits into God's story, and then that will give clarity to who I am and why I'm here.

When I can see, all right, there's a there's a mug.

I'm just saying, I don't know who that is, but that had to be a C as well.

There's mine that would be able to see the story of God that exalts Jesus and then see myself.

How do how do I fit into this?

And that would give clarity to why I'm who I am and why I'm here.

And the modern story, not God's story, but the modern story is to create your own meaning, to invent yourself, and God and the Bible has something way better to offer.

To draw our hearts to what is true and eternal, to be able to live for something that's truly bigger than ourself and what we can make up for ourselves.

So this morning we get to jump into the story of God that exalts Jesus.

The story starts in Genesis 1, and I think you're there right now.

Genesis 1, verse 1 says this In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

So in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

But before the beginning, there was God.

God before the beginning existed because he has always existed, he has never not existed.

And here's what did not happen for God.

At some point from eternity past to at some point, which we call the beginning, God was not like, man, I'm I'm lonely.

Can I just like make something that I can like?

No, no, no, that is not it at all.

God has from eternity past existed happy in himself in the Trinity, which, by the way, I have notes.

If you got if you came in with the bulletin, I have some notes.

We're gonna experiment with doing some fill-in-the-blank, but I'm not gonna tell you what the blanks are because I'll just forget.

So you gotta be you gotta be paying attention.

But I think I didn't leave any for this, anyway.

If you want to follow along, feel free.

If that's a tool for you, great.

If not, don't worry about it.

So God existed happy in himself, in relationship in himself, in the Trinity.

Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Totally happy, totally at joy in himself, and joy to God is like a bad smell to a teenager.

Do you remember?

Do you remember when you were a teenager and you smelled something horrible?

What's the first thing you said?

You'd go to somebody and be like, hey, smell this.

That's the first thing you do.

That's terrible.

Smell it.

That's joy to God.

Joy has to be shared to God.

God is like, uh, it's not like, oh, I'm lonely.

What should I do?

God's like, man, this joy that we have within the context of the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three and one, is going, okay, I want to create something that gets to share in the joy that I have.

That's eternity past, bringing us to then Genesis 1, one, where God creates the heavens and the earth.

And the the story that's gonna unfold here of the creation of the world is a story that has this pattern with a poetic sort of rhythm.

And we're gonna see we're gonna see this pattern, and I'll I'll just kind of tell you what it is.

Um the first three days, God is going to separate.

Day one, I'll go this way.

Day one, day two, day three.

He's gonna separate some things.

And then day four, five, and six, he's going to fill the things that he separated.

So in four, he's gonna he's gonna fill what he separated on day one.

On day five, he's gonna fill what he separated on day two.

On day six, he's gonna fill what he separated on day two.

Okay, so this is the story and the sort of pattern that happens in the week.

The week had a pattern.

So let's look at it in days one through three.

Pick up with me in verse three.

Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw that light was good, and God separated, okay, that's that's days one through three, he's separating.

God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and there is evening and there was morning one day.

Moving to day two.

Then God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters, or the waters from the sky.

God made the expanse and separated, okay, there's the word again, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the wat from the waters which were above the expanse.

And it was so.

God called the expanse heaven, and there was there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

Day three, verse nine.

Then God said, Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let dry land appear.

So we don't see the word separated, but he separates the water from the land, okay?

And it was so, verse 10.

God called the dry land earth, and the and the gathering of the waters he called seas.

And God saw that it was good.

Then God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit trees on the earth, bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them.

And it was so.

The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them after their kind.

And God saw that it was good.

There is evening and there is morning a third day.

Okay, pause there.

So we got the first three days of creation.

Day one, he separates what from what?

Light from dark.

On day two, he separates what from what?

The waters from the sky.

Day three, he separates what from what?

Land from water.

Okay, so days one through three, he's separating.

Day four, five, and six, he's going to fill the thing.

So day four, he's gonna fill what he's separating in terms of light and dark.

So join me in verse 14.

We're in day four now.

Then God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.

And it was so.

God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night.

Okay, so sun and moon.

He made the stars also, so he filled it.

Verse 17.

God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness.

And God saw that it was good.

There was evening and there was morning a fourth day.

Moving on to day five, he's gonna fill what he separated on day two.

Then God said, Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.

God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind.

And God saw that it was good.

God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.

There is evening and there is morning, a fifth day.

Now we're going to day six.

He's gonna fill the land.

Verse 24 Then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind.

And it was so.

God made the beasts of the earth after their kind and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind.

And God saw that it was good.

Day six.

Okay, so uh the week had a pattern, days one through three, separating, days four through six, filling.

But it's not just that the week had a pattern, it's that the days had a pattern.

Each day the same sort of thing happens.

It starts with God doing what?

Speaking.

Let there be light, bam! And he just speaks it into existence.

Out of nothing, bam.

And then he speaks, and I love I love how uh the writer, Moses, articulates what happens in response to God's speaking.

Let me just read it.

Verse 6 says, then God said, and then later it says in response to that, in response to that, and it was so.

Verse 9, then God said, later in that verse, and it was so.

Verse 11 says, then God said, later in verse 11, and it was so.

Verse 14, then God said, verse 15, and it was so.

Verse 24, then God said, and it was so.

This is the pattern.

God said, and it was so.

And after that, after it was so, God gives an evaluation of what he saw based on what was so, based on what he said.

And what's the evaluation he gave each time?

God said, and it was so and it was good.

See, the week had a pattern, but the days had a pattern.

God said, and it was so, and it was good.

It is good when God speaks, and it is so.

Why is it good?

Like, what what what is it about the creation that made God go like, dang um?

That's pretty good.

Psalm 19.

You don't need to turn there.

Just read it, just listen as I read the first three verses.

The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.

Day to day it pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are their words.

Their voice is not heard, their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world.

In them he has placed a tent for the sun, and he continues on.

The heavens are declaring the glory of God, declaring his handiwork.

See, what makes what makes all this good, you know, and God said, and it was so, and it was good, is God saw that everything he made showed how awesome he is.

He spoke, and it was so.

And the way Romans 1 would say it is God worked in a way where his eternal power is clearly seen.

So to fill us in with our chart, it starts with God.

That's what the triangle represents.

The triangle, because it's a tri-unity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he creates the world.

God spoke and it was so and it was good.

He said, Let there be light, boom, and it was and it was so.

And it was good.

He said, Let there be a sun, boom, and it was so, and it was good.

God separated the waters from the land, and it was and it was so, and it was good.

God filled the land with trees after their kind.

Boom! Like, did you see my power here?

These are declaring this is what God put in the world to be able to declare like this, as this symphony of praise.

God going, I am glorious.

Do you see that?

Fill the waters.

These are declaring, God is awesome.

And the land.

Amazing how um hard it was to make sure that I was choosing pictures that weren't AI, honestly.

I was like, I want to make sure these pictures are real pictures.

So we can just see and behold this is the glory of the God of eternal power.

When God speaks and it is so, it is always good.

So at this point, we've got a week that has a pattern, we have days that have a pattern, but in day six, the pattern gets an upgrade.

Okay?

Look at verse 31.

God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was what?

Very good.

Very good.

See, the pattern gets an upgrade.

Before it was, and God spoke and it was so and it was good.

And on day six, God looks at all that he made and goes, mmm.

Very good.

See, something happened on day six that made everything that made good get an upgrade.

What happened on day six?

Let's read it.

Verse 26 says, Verse 26 says, Then God said, Let us make man in our image.

Plural there.

Yeah, we'll get back to that later.

God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, Okay, here's the first command that we get in the Bible.

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Then God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you.

To every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food.

And it was so.

Why?

What is it about what we just read that makes God go, it was good, it was good, it was good, it was good, it was good, but now that this has happened, that's very good.

Well, what we've seen so far, and I don't know if you picked up on it, is ten times what we've what we read is God made this after its kind, and this after its kind, and this.

After it's kind, kind, kind, kind, kind, kind, kind, kind, kind, ten times.

But then God steps in in verse 26 and goes, I want to make something after my kind.

Something that's going to demonstrate my nature in a way that whales and elephants and stars can't.

I'm going to make something after my kind, something that's going to demonstrate my image.

And so God created people.

And what God does with people, man, there's so much that uh that I would love to go into, but to summarize two things that God does with these people that he creates in his image is he infuses them with immeasurable value and divine purpose.

He infuses them with immeasurable value by creating them in his image.

Yes, it was a biblical worldview that gave that that affirmed the value and dignity of people that led to the abolition of slavery.

Yes, it was a biblical worldview that did that.

Human beings with immeasurable value, as ones made in his image.

And with divine purpose.

So what does it mean to be made in the image of God?

It means that it is in people that God's divine nature, his invisible attributes, are going to be seen in a way that can't be seen through whales, elephants, and stars.

That is in the image, that the image-bearing people are going to be the canvas on which God paints so much of his own nature.

Kindness, compassion, mercy, love.

These attributes of God that as much as we look up into the stars, we can't see except when in the context of people created in his image.

What makes good very good?

I want to get this really clear in our notes.

Good got an upgrade, it became very good.

Good got real good when God formed people and infused them with immeasurable value and divine purpose to multiply his life on earth.

We can look around, again, Romans 1 says it, we can look around at creation and go, man, eternal power.

God's good, that's good.

But then there's some some things that can only be observed in the context of people that would make you go from oh that's good to that's what.

Yesterday I was in the woods because I love to hunt.

And I'm in the woods, and it was just it was a beautiful morning.

Sun's coming up, cool, crisp morning.

It was good.

It was good.

But good became very good when I pulled the bow back, just kidding.

Um good, what was very good is my wife, who actually wanted me to be out there because she knows how much that just fills me.

See, you can look at a at a pretty sunrise all day, but that's that's good.

But what's very good is that kind of love in my wife.

That's the image of God.

We had a meal last night.

You know what it was?

It was good.

You know what was very good?

Steak is very good.

No, that's I want to be clear.

I'm just in my thinking.

Uh it wasn't steak, steak is good.

What made dinner last night very good is the the conversation, the laughter, the talking, the love that happened around that table.

See, as as ones who bear his image, the food was good.

What was very good is when God's nature is clearly seen, tangibly expressed.

That's very good.

I just want to get that distinction right.

Um, what's good, again, meals and food, what's very good is last week when we had a member in our church have um crisis hit, and then uh and then within two hours, six weeks worth of meals had been accounted for to support them.

Look, meals, good.

Generosity as ones made in God's image, where God's image can be can be clearly seen, tangibly expressed.

What is that?

Very good.

That's very good.

The good is good, but but humans made in God's image have the capacity, as ones who bear his image, to bring what is very good.

And I just want to be really clear what I mean by very good.

God's nature, clearly seen, tangibly expressed.

That's very good.

And that's why both of the commands that we read, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, uh, are important.

The the first command that we read was in Genesis 1, 28.

It's called the creation mandate, where God says, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, rule, and subdue it.

Because the more people who are created in God's image and are very good, what fills the earth?

That which is not just good, but very good.

And what is very good?

God's divine nature, clearly seen, tangibly expressed.

So, yeah, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, because image-bearing people in relationship with God are expressing that.

It's very good.

It's very good.

That's why the other commandment that we haven't read yet, um, and not sure if we'll have time to, is in Genesis 2, the command that we're actually more acquainted with, where God says, Hey, any tree in the garden you may eat except for this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Don't eat from that.

And this commandment was necessary for the very good because that there is only love where there is choice.

Otherwise, there's no relationship.

We're just robots.

And so, in order for there to be a very good world that is expressing God's nature, uh it making it clearly expressed, tangibly seen, um, there has to be choice.

This is what God gave as a gift for the very good to fill the earth.

So good got an upgrade.

But then, interestingly, um good took a twist.

Go with me to chapter two.

God's like, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's very good.

And then we go to chapter two.

Verse 18.

Y'all with me?

All right, verse 18 says, Then the Lord God said, It is what?

Not good.

It's like, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's good, it's very good.

It's not good.

And by the way, Genesis 2 is a retelling of the creation story where that zooms in on day six.

It's not good for man to be alone.

So here's what God does in response to what is not good.

I will make him a helper suitable for him.

And we're gonna come back to this later.

Out of the garden, um out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

The man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

It was not good.

Verse 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept, and he took out one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which she had taken from the man and brought her to the man.

The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

So in response, when God says it's good, it's good, it's good, it's very good, because my nature clearly seen, tangibly expressed, this is not good, man to be alone.

And so, in response to what was not good, God gives Adam a a helper that's suitable to him.

He gives him woman, he gives him a wife.

Two things that God gives in response to what is not good um women and family, marriage and family.

For the family is in verse 24.

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked and unashamed.

See, in this very good world where God's nature clearly seen and tangibly expressed, you could be fully known, fully vulnerable, and zero to hide.

No shame, no skeletons in the closet.

This is a good, this is a very, very good world.

So, what was God doing?

Um, the God of infinite joy was showing his metrics for very good.

Very good is when his nature is clearly seen and tangibly expressed all over the planet.

That's what's very good.

When his nature is clearly seen and tangibly expressed all over the planet, that's very good.

Um we're going to uh Luke Matthews, who is playing here, is going to be leading us in worship.

And when we leave Sunday, we might ask ourselves, uh, how was the worship?

Was it good?

And I want us to be able to apply biblical metrics for what will make it good.

And what will make it good is if we all put our scorecards away and say, God has metrics for good in terms of our worship.

And and and yeah, it is good when when music sounds good, but what is very good is when God can see what heart what ears can't hear, and that is hearts worshiping God, where his nature is visibly, is is visible and tangibly expressed.

God has certain metrics for good, and I want us to share those metrics.

So this is the creation.

God creating the symphony of praise.

God is awesome, he is glorious, and people created his image.

You can see his nature.

But spoiler alert for next week.

Um what looks like this in Genesis 1 and 2 is gonna look like this next week.

And at the beginning of chapter 2, it says that on the seventh day, God rested.

Why did he rest?

Because he was tired.

Incorrect.

Why did God rest?

Let's let's see.

Chapter 2, verse 1.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed.

And all their hosts, by the seventh day, God completed his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had done.

He didn't rest because he was tired.

He rested because he was finished.

He was completed, he was done.

And if we carry that reality through the story of God, we're gonna see that we actually come to a point in the Bible where there's another retelling of the creation account.

It's in the book of John.

I will just read it.

John 1.

This is John's version of Genesis 1 and 2.

In the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him, and apart from him, that's Jesus, nothing came into being that has come into being.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

See, up till this point in the creation story, we've talked about God.

We saw the spirit hovering over the source uh over the surface of the waters, but exalting Jesus in the story of God.

Where was Jesus in Genesis 1 and 2?

Answer John 1.

It's like he is the part of the Trinity that is the active agent in doing the creating.

He's in it.

And with the spoiler alert, where we're gonna ruin all the very good, it created another work for God to do in Christ, where he will come to another point of completion.

Where he will do a work, where he will be the light and the life.

He'll live a perfect life.

And then he'll be condemned to death.

And then in John 19, verse 30, he will hang on a cross and he will say one word in Greek, it is finished.

John 19:30

See, Jesus is gonna come and he's gonna do another work, and he's gonna say, It is finished.

And when he says, it is finished, it is so and it is good.

It is so and it is good, it is finished.

The work of Jesus to take my sin on himself and impute to me his righteousness, it is finished.

So why why does that matter?

Because look at uh no, I'm just gonna turn.

Yeah, I just need to turn.

To 2 Corinthians.

Look at what is true because of what we just read.

That Jesus said, it is finished.

He completed another work.

Verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 4 3 says, And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

In whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants, for Jesus' sake.

Listen to this.

For God who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, Genesis 1.

It is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

That is a mouthful, but it is great.

Jesus says, It is finished, work complete, he's done.

It is done, but he still has more to do.

And here's the work that he still has more to do: to be able to come to people whose hearts are darkened, who cannot see the glory of the gospel, and to say this let there be light.

This is the work of the gospel.

To know that in just one chapter later, in 2 Corinthians 5, he says this.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a what?

New creation.

See, Genesis 1, we get the first creation.

And it was good.

Everything that God said, it was so.

But then it was very good because his nature got to be clearly seen through image-bearing people.

But then when we ruined it, Jesus comes to do another work, to complete it, and then to say, Let there be light.

And let there be light still happens today.

And for every single one of us who have put faith in Jesus, here's why that happened, or how that happened.

God said to us, Let there be light.

And for a lot of us, we have this story where it's like, man, I know I'd heard the gospel, but I felt like I just understood it from the first time.

Here's what here's God said, let there be light, and we're made a new creation.

The old gone, the new has come.

So this is the story that exalts Jesus.

Um, so let me just give this this exhortation here.

Um first, if it is true that let there be light still happens today, then for every single one of us who has identified our one and yet you're discouraged because you've been praying for your one, like the lost person who you want to win to Jesus, knowing that it's by his doing.

For every single one of us who have begun to lot to lose hope on that, here's I just want to encourage us let there be light still happens today.

Where God would speak and do for the person what that person can't do for themselves.

So don't stop.

Don't stop second exhortation to us.

If um, well there may be a sense in in some of us here that we go, man, I I feel like the darkness that that I blazed through in 2 Corinthians 4, the darkness, I feel like that's just me.

And um I don't get it.

I think this morning you could say, God, would you speak, let there be light in my heart.

To let me understand what up to this point I have not seen.

That the work that Jesus did on the cross somehow it applies to you.

God, let there be light.

Let me see it.

Let there be light still happens today.

And if anyone is in Christ, these are in your notes.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

So be who you are.

That's the last week.

The new creation, not the old jar, the new jar from last week.

And we are equipped by a good God to bring very good wherever very good is very absent.

I really, really appreciated that line.

I'm equipped by a good God to bring very good.

In other words, his nature, clearly seen, divine, uh, tangibly expressed.

His nature to bring very good where very good is very absent.

For some of you, very good is very absent in your work.

And if you are a new creation, then you're equipped by God to bring very good where very good is very absent.

For some of us, our homes is where very good is very absent.

And you're equipped by a good God, a new creation to bring very good where very good is very absent.

And actually, I mean we're just in Genesis 1 and 2, but we've already got such a great foundation for missions.

Because there are parts of the world where very good isn't just very absent, it's totally absent.

Good is there, but not very good, where the gospel is absent.

And already, I hope that there may be uh in seeing the story of God to be able to see, man, I'm made in God's image.

Every person is, but because of Jesus, I'm a new creation and dwelt by God's spirit to bring very good where very good is very absent and maybe totally absent.

So maybe there would be like in some of us going, oh man, like I got something in me that God wants to use me to bring very good, where very good is non-existent.

Would you stand with me?

And um want to be able to uh to see in Genesis one and two that God is creating the symphony of praise where his nature can be clearly seen, tangibly expressed, whether it's dinner table or work or across the world, but it's it's gotta start with God, you are awesome.

Look at the stars, look at the clouds, look at the seasons.

God, you are good, and then look at the cross where God completed another work to make me a new creation, to drink very good, we're very good.

It's very absent.

Let's sing how great thou art together.