Basic Truths: God is the Creator

Well, good morning. What a privilege it is to be able to stand here today and to proclaim

God's Word to you. I do want to take this opportunity to thank you all for warmly welcoming me and my family here and all the provision that you've made to get us here.

And so we're very, very grateful for that, and we're excited about the opportunity to minister here with you all.

Today, we're going to start a series of messages that I'm describing as basic truths from Genesis 1 through 3, essentially, give or take.

So many of our problems that you see in the world seem to be the result of many of these basic foundational worldview kind of issues that are found in the opening chapters of the

Bible. And so one of the things I want to do over the next few weeks is just talk through some basic truths that God has revealed to us in the beginning of His Word.

And today, what we're going to be talking about is God is our Creator, and the text for today is

Genesis 1, 1 through 5. And so if you do have a Bible, stand with me for the reading of God's Word today.

Genesis 1, 1 through 5, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the

Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light. And there was light.

And God saw the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness

He called night. And there was evening, and there was morning, and the first day was spring. Lord, we thank

You for the privilege it is to be able to think about the Scriptures that You've given us. We thank You that You are there, that You spoke this world that we see into existence.

You haven't left us in the dark, but You've given us a revelation to help us to understand You and the world that You've made.

I pray that You bless our time here today. Help us learn great things from Your Word. In Your Son's name I pray, amen. It's very interesting to me to think that we are basically almost ten years post -Obergerville v.

Hodges. And if you don't know what Obergerville v. Hodges is, it's that lawless decision that Supreme Court justices made where they, you know, quote -unquote, legalized same -sex marriage essentially.

And it's an interesting phenomenon to me to observe just the past, I mean, it's been nine years now, the past functionally, the past decade of our lives, and how quickly things have changed.

You know, growing up, I grew up in a lot of independent fundamentalist

Baptist churches, and in a lot of these churches, you basically had the same kind of messages that were being made over and over again.

So there was a warning about the nature and the danger of the society that we live in.

Like meaning, you know, as growing up, I basically heard a similar kind of warning, like things are getting bad, things are getting bad, things are getting bad over and over again.

Pretty soon, you know, pretty soon they're going to legalize same -sex marriage. And I mean, I think most of my life, so most of my life,

I've heard these kind of messages. And you know, me and my friends, we had different kinds of reactions to that kind of message of warning, like things are getting bad, you know, pretty soon they're going to legalize same -sex marriage.

I think for me, looking at those kind of warnings, one of the things that was interesting about it was

I could certainly see some of the signs that were leading in that kind of direction, but because it was the same kind of warning that happened over and over again, and it never really panned out, there was a temptation that I had, basically, to look at those, have

I turned off? Oh, all right, there was a temptation I had to basically look at those warnings and think, well, you know,

I think that they're probably going to happen, but I'm not sure how serious that we need to take them.

And so I had that kind of warning. I think a lot of my friends, they looked at those kind of warnings and they were thinking to themselves, oh yeah, you know, that's just preachers being dramatic or whatever else.

That's just preachers who are basically blowing things way out of proportion and all that.

But one of the things that's interesting is that now, immediately after the legalization, you know, quote -unquote legalization of same -sex marriage, in the past ten years,

I mean, things have really remarkably changed. And so we knew from the start that, you know, the world we live in, it wasn't going to be content just with that as a statement.

I mean, instantaneously, before the dust even settled on that decision, we quickly turned into the transgender phenomenon, to where transgenderism was being pushed down our throat.

And I mean, now, like, you're living in a world where there's so much rapid change related to these basic topics of who are we, what our identity is, how did

God make us, what did He design us for. I mean, there's just so many rapid changes that are happening over and over and over again.

I mean, it's now… I mean, this kind of thing would never happen to me in the world that I lived in growing up.

I mean, I've seen multiple times, like, adults dressed up as dogs being walked around by leashes in public places.

And so, I mean, you're living in a time of great depravity, and you're living in a time of great wickedness.

And we have a generation coming up who, that's been their whole life. Like, they don't have a way of contrasting the nature of the decline in the way that perhaps

I do. You know, in terms of, I saw a slow decline that was leading to an inevitable place, and then all of a sudden it was almost as if we plunged off a cliff and went downhill.

I saw the contrast between those two things where things are rapidly changing now. I mean, the number of genders that people identify themselves as having at this point are rapidly expanding to the point where we're going to need, like, a book like this size in order to figure out how many genders we're supposed to refer to people by at this point.

But the point I'm trying to say is that there's a God who exists who made the world, who has spoke into these situations.

And my point here is not to suggest, my point here is not just to lament the nature of the decline of the world.

My point here is to call our attention to the basic truths of the Bible, which combat the lies that the enemy is using to great effect, okay?

So for example, we often think, when we think about these kind of topics, we think that if I give you a list of the problems related to the sexual revolution, you think that those are problems that are outside the church, that bear no correlation to the church.

And so the temptation might be to think that I'm just talking about lamenting problems that we don't experience, but then that isn't really the way these things work.

I mean, these problems didn't come in a vacuum, do you understand? Like, they didn't come in a vacuum. And what

I mean by that is just to say that God is obviously actively giving our,

God is obviously in a very real way giving our society over to iniquity.

We're under God's judgment as a society. It's very obvious and it's very plain, and that's exactly what's happened.

But He uses means to accomplish those ends, and the means that He's using are often a lot more subtle than you realize.

So Satan, the great enemy of our soul, is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's at work in the sense of disobedience.

And there's many lies that we're tempted to believe that are the same lies which are giving rise to a lot of these movements, and if we don't identify the lies for ourself, we really, like, what you have is you have yourself standing in an uncertain posture between two different worlds.

So, I mean, growing up, I mean, most of my friends are Christians. I grew up in a Bible belt, so most of my friends are Christians, like, in name, yeah,

I mean, they were Christians in name. Like the transgender kind of stuff, the same -sex marriage kind of stuff, that stuff was like a distant threat looming on the horizon that most of my friends would not fall prey to.

But the problem is that we had all the same assumptions that the world had in so many different areas to where we thought basically the same thing.

So, you know, the individuals in my parents' generation, they thought that the way you fight these battles is to stand strong on a few issues, right?

So you stand strong on a few issues. So, for instance, like you basically, hey, we're going to defend the doctrine of creation.

We don't believe in same -sex marriage, same -sex relationships. We believe that sodomy is a sin that should be avoided and should be repented of.

So my parents' generation, we fought those battles, but at the same time, we're being brainwashed by a secular society with all the presuppositions necessary to make those things make sense, right?

So, I mean, we grew up watching Disney movies, and in Disney movies, what's the major premise of every Disney movie? To follow your heart, right?

Like the major premise of almost every Disney movie is to follow your heart, look for truth from within.

What do you think is, like, where do you think transgenderism comes from? Where do you think the gender confusion comes from? It comes from these premises that, you know, who you are on the inside is more significant than who

God has defined you to be. And so what I'm trying to say is that as Christians, we need to look to God's Word to define who we are and to answer these basic worldview questions of who are we, where did we come from, and where are we going?

And over the next few weeks, one of the things I want to do is I want to look at some of these basic truths in Genesis.

I mean, some of these things are going to be things that you already know. I mean, I hope that maybe there's a few things over the next few weeks that are there that you see that you maybe haven't paid attention to.

But there's a lot that's in this opening chapter, opening few chapters of God's Word that's designed to tell us who we are, why we're here, where we come from, where we're going.

There's much to learn here, and there's much to absorb here, and there's much to help us to stand firm in the midst of a world that desperately needs the gospel and to give us answers in order to how to interact with those who are perishing in that way, too, and to keep us from the same kind of sin so pervasive in our world today.

So the first basic truth that we're going to be talking through is the truth that God is the Creator, and in thinking through this truth that God is

Creator, really, I mean, there's no more foundational truth to think about related to that than the fact that God is not dependent on His creation.

So Genesis 1, 1 opens up with the words, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And one of the things that you'll notice from these words in particular is that it's almost inescapable as you read this to not come away from these words realizing that God is not dependent on His creation.

You say, well, where is that, right? Where is that? How do you see that? Well, obviously, there's a God who existed and who existed before time, before the beginning of time, right?

So there's a God who existed, who called time into being, who created every single thing that you see here today.

He created all of it, and it came from Him, like it came from a spoken act, from His words.

So God created the world in a very specific way, and so everything that you see here today has come about because of God.

There was a time where God existed, I mean, there was a time where everything that you see was not here, and so God is not dependent on His creation in that kind of way.

Now, I know that this is a truth that we desperately need to hear as a society.

I know that this is a truth that we desperately need to hear as a church, even. This is the truth that theologians call the aseity of God.

God doesn't need us. We offer nothing to Him. There's nothing of value that we can give to God.

This is a truth that has been neglected for many years. And as I've been a pastor, and I've done members meetings among churches, this is a truth that most people seem to not really understand, okay?

Like meaning most people who come into a church to join a church and go to a members meeting, they think they're coming in order to do you a favor, and they think they're coming in order to do

God a favor. That's their basic posture that they have. They seem to think that if you were to put any kind of safeguards whatsoever into membership process, they look at you like you're some strange alien from outer space, and there's confusion that's written all over their face.

And part of what they're trying to say is something to the effect of, what do you not understand? Like, we're here, don't you want, like, we're here to do you a favor, like, coming here shouldn't you be thankful that we're here and that you're joining, like, any kind of exercise of caution at that point is greeted with hostility, but then that really is the product of the secret sensitive movement.

That really is the product of church shopper culture that seems to put man in the center of the universe and treat man, like, treat

God as if, like, God has a man -shaped hole in his heart, as if he needs man to do him a favor.

You know, one of my favorite sermons, and I'm ashamed to admit this, I really am ashamed to admit this, but one of my favorite sermons is a sermon by Francis Chan.

And I don't recommend Francis Chan for anything at all. Don't look at him as a good source of truth. He's kind of gone off the deep end, but, you know, one of my favorite sermons by him was an

Easter message that he did one Sunday. And you know, in this

Easter message, if you know anything about Francis Chan, if you don't, that's good. Like, just don't bother learning anything about him.

But he's a very nice guy and a very apologetic guy, and he smiles a lot, right?

So he smiles a lot. But in his sermon, this is an Easter sermon that he had, and in this sermon, he basically said, he looked at his crowd, and so if you know anything about church culture, you know that the two days of the year that people show up more than other days are

Easter and Christmas, right? So you can expect that, I mean, I don't know if this is true here, but this is particularly true in the

South, on, you know, Easter sermons and Christmas sermons, there's going to be a lot of visitors there, you know.

So Francis kind of looked at the people, and he basically said, this is a day where most pastors are stressed out. They're mostly stressed out.

They're trying to think, what can we do to tell you of all the good stuff that we have going on, so maybe you'll want to stay here, and maybe you'll want to stick around and be a part of what we're doing.

But then he launched into a sermon on the aseity of God, and he looked at the congregation, and he basically said, but today

I feel a little jealous for God, because you know what?

God doesn't need you. You're not doing Him any favors. He is the

God of aseity. He existed before you ever came to be. You offer nothing to Him.

There's nothing you have that you can give to Him. Everything that you have is a gift from Him to you, and this is the message that we desperately need to remember and know.

We need to know that we serve a God who is self -sufficient, who doesn't need us.

David thought he was going to do God a favor by building God a temple, and instead of God letting David do Him a favor by building

Him a house, God decided to build David a house. He built him a lineage. We call this the Davidic covenant.

So God is the God of aseity. He doesn't need us. He brought this world into being for His good pleasure, for His glory, but we offer nothing to Him.

We need Him, and He doesn't need us. A second point that we could see from the passage here today is that God didn't create a self -sustaining creation.

Have you ever thought about that? God didn't create a self -sustaining creation? Conceptually, you could imagine that God created a world that was independent of Him, right?

So you could imagine that that could be some kind of hypothetical thing that He could do, like He made a thing that operates independently of Him.

When you create things, you create in this way, for the most part, give or take.

The things we make need some kind of maintenance or whatever, but when we create, we make things that have independent existence from us.

But then when you think about the way that God created, God didn't create a self -sustaining creation.

So everything that you see today, it looks as if it's self -sustaining.

It has the appearance of it being there. I mean, like the pulpit, it looks solid, like it's there, like it exists.

So a major presupposition of evolutionary science is that matter is essentially eternal. So you look at this, you say, hey, it looks like it exists, it looks like it's there, it looks like it's stable, the building looks like it's there, it looks like it's stable.

When you look at us as creatures, it seems like we have a life, it seems like we're independent kind of creation.

I mean, that's what your eye is telling you. But then when you look closer at the Genesis account, one of the things that you'll see is that you exist, you have a life, but that life is a gift of God, and you don't self -sustain in the way that you think.

So Genesis 1 .30 says, into every beast of the earth, in every bird of the heavens, into everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life,

I've given every green plant for food, and so, so, right? So Genesis starts out with, in the beginning,

God created the heavens, the earth. What kind of creation is it? Well, you look at God's description of the animals.

These animals live and move because they've been given the breath of life, you understand? What about human beings, right?

What about human beings? Genesis 2 .7, the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and he breathed into his nostril the breath of life, and man became a living creature.

What type of creation is it that we see here today? It's not a self -sustaining creation.

So Genesis hints at this with the language of the breath of life, but then when you read other passages of Scripture, you'll see the same truth showing up in multiple ways.

So, for example, Acts 17 .26, he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined the allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek

God, perhaps feel their way towards him and find them, yet actually he's not far from each one of us.

In him we live and move and have our being. And even some of your poets have said, for we are indeed his offering.

Colossians talks about God, like Christ upholds the world by the word of his power, like if God were to cease to sustain the world that you live in today, it would all fall apart.

Despite the fact that it looks solid, despite the fact that it looks self -sustaining, like it looks like it's there, like it's a distinct kind of entity, the

Bible testifies repeatedly in multiple ways that the world itself would simply unravel if God were to stop sustaining it, you understand?

When you look more deeply into science, one of the things you'll realize is, science doesn't prove this point, but science essentially agrees with this point.

The more that you learn about the world that God actually made, the more that you realize that this really isn't a self -sustaining kind of world, right?

So, you think about the laws of physics, the universe operates under very precise physical laws such as gravity, electromagnetism, the strong and weak nuclear forces.

These fundamental forces are constant and govern everything from atomic interactions to the movement of galaxies, okay?

If these laws or forces were to cease or to change even slightly, the universe itself would unravel, okay?

Now I mean, Darwin in his book, The Origin of the Species, one of the things that he argues is, one of the ways you prove the evolutionary theory to be false is to demonstrate that the world is irreducibly complex, okay?

So the idea of irreducible complexity essentially is the idea that you have a system that is so complex that you can't remove any one of its parts, does that make sense?

So you can't remove one of its parts without it ceasing to function. So a mousetrap would be an example of a system that's irreducibly complex, meaning like if you think about a mousetrap, you need a base, you need some spring, right, you need some lever mechanism, you take any part of that out and then it ceases to function as a whole thing.

So evolution is based on the assumption that simple life gradually evolved into complex life.

So you start with an organism that's fairly simple and over time it's going to evolve and it's going to turn into something relatively complex, that's evolutionary theory, right?

So you have amoebas that get more and more complicated over time due to random chance over time and through all the mechanisms that are present there, but the idea there based on evolutionary science is simple goes into complex, but here's the thing, the way

Darwin said you disprove all of this, the way you disprove all of this is to show the world is irreducibly complex.

The world is so complex to the point and so fine -tuned to the point where even slight variations and changes would cause the whole thing to fall apart.

The more we learn about science, the more we realize that this is true and this is pointing to this ultimate reality that God did not create a self -sustaining universe.

The second law of thermodynamics states that systems tend towards disorder or entropy over time unless energy is supplied in order to maintain order.

This principle implies that the universe if left unintended would simply wind down or fall apart. The fact that the universe remains relatively unchanged over large periods of time suggests that there is some kind of intelligence maintaining it, right?

The precise values of physical constants such as the strength of gravity or the cosmological constants are finely tuned to allow for the existence of matter, stars, and life.

Even small changes in these constants will result in a lifeless chaotic universe. This fine -tuning suggests that the universe ongoing stability depends on precise conditions that are being sustained as they are not self -regulating in the sense of being able to exist beyond variations.

The point here is just to say that we are dependent creation. Christ is upholding this world by the word of His power.

Everything that you see exists as a result of the sustaining power of God. Everything that you've been given has been given as a gift from God and He is upholding

His creation by the word of power. God does not need us. Here's the point. God is the creator. He made us.

He does not need us, but we desperately need Him in every way to continue to exist.

I know that we think about this in terms of life being given to us as a gift. Your life has been given to you as a gift from God.

The time that you've been given is a gift from God, but everything that you see would utterly fall apart if God would just cease to sustain it for just one moment, you understand?

So that's the kind of world that we live in. We live in the kind of world that God made where we are a creation that's not independent of our maker.

We desperately need Him. We need Him for life. We need Him for answers. We need Him for hope.

We need Him for fundamental solutions. We need Him for existence. We need God for everything. Third point here that we see today is that God created from nothing.

So Genesis 1, 1 through 5 says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

So, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the

Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light, and there was light.

Now you can imagine that there's many different ways that God could create, but the way that God chose to create,

He chose to create from nothing. So you have God who is a self -existent God, the

God of the satiety, the God who does not need us. He didn't, you know, create in the same way that we create.

Like when we create a thing, we take pre -existing materials, like if you take some

Legos and turn it into a building or something like that, you're taking pre -existing materials.

There's no way to escape this. Everything that you see around you, whenever you're going to make something, you're going to make something from pre -existing materials.

You're taking what's there, you're rearranging it into a usable part with a usable function.

That's the way that we create. So in that way, we're mimicking our Creator, but we're not creating in the same way that God created.

Okay? So when God created, God created from nothing. He didn't use pre -existing material in order to make everything that you see.

God spoke the world that you see into existence, right? So that's very clear from the nature of the way that God creates in Genesis.

But Hebrews 11 .3 says the same point. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the

Word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Now why am I pointing this out? What does it matter? I mean, it's obviously there. It's obviously there in the Bible. It's the feature of the creation that God made, but why is it important?

Why is it relevant to our situation? We see that we're living in a world right now where there's a clash of worldviews.

As Christians, we believe that there's a God who created out of nothing. We believe that we are creatures dependent on our

Maker. We believe that we are a special creation of God who's created dependent upon Him from nothing.

So you can step out of that worldview for a second and consider the evolutionary worldview.

One of the things you'll realize is that there's two stories to the world, right? There's two stories to the world.

There's a story that said that at some point, poor phrasing of what

I'm trying to say, but at some point God decided to create of His own independent authority. He made the world. He's spoken into existence out of nothing, and He is the

Creator, right? So there's a worldview that says that God is the Creator. He made us. He has a purpose for us. He has a plan for us.

We are made after a particular design, and so we should look to the designer to figure out why we're here.

And then there's another worldview that essentially says that matter is essentially eternal, that is constantly changing over time.

So matter is eternal, constantly changing over time. We're not fixed, right?

Human beings are not fixed in terms of who they are, what they were designed to do. The other worldview is just to say that human beings arose over time and chance, right?

So we weren't created as a special creation from nothing. We have arose from time and chance, and there's an evolutionary imperative behind all that that we have a duty to keep on evolving and changing.

You understand? Do you understand the different worldview? Like you're living in a world right now that believes that.

They don't believe that they're a special creation from God that's designed in a distinct way with a distinct purpose.

Like you live in a world that believes the evolutionary story, that we're the random product of time and chance.

There's no inherent meaning. There's no inherent purpose. There's no inherent value. Nothing. You assign all that, right?

So it's not about truth, capital T truth. It's about my truth, your truth, and what's helpful.

And like we're part of a, like our purpose and our plan is to keep on evolving and changing. And those who are in the know, who are writing the books, they know this and that's what they're using to argue their points.

You understand? So evolutionary biologist Joan Roughgarden states sexual and gender diversity are natural products of evolution.

Evolution is about variation, and that includes the many forms of gender and sexuality can take across the species and in humans.

So you think about the nature of your starting point and what you're seeing, right? So obviously you look around the world, what you're seeing is a result of moral problems and spiritual problems.

But there is a worldview that undergirds those things that some people are more self -conscious of than others, right?

There's a worldview that produces this. And in an evolutionary worldview, constant change and constant variation makes sense.

Do you understand? Constant change, like nothing gets fixed. We're constantly evolving. We're constantly changing. And so we're free to reinvent ourself every day.

That's the point, right? So in an evolutionary worldview, you're free to reinvent yourself and discover who you are.

In the Christian worldview, you don't need to reinvent yourself. You don't need to discover who you are. You need to discover who

God made you to be. You understand? You need to look to the scriptures and see who God made you to be. How did he make you?

That's the point, okay? So God created the world from nothing. So that has implications for who we are, like why we're here, what our purpose is.

God made us in a distinct way, and our design is the same, right?

We're the same type of human being that was created at the beginning of the world. We haven't been constantly evolving, and we haven't been constantly changing.

You don't have to discover yourself and take it to the next step of human 2 .0 and all that, right?

Like the issue is God made you as a creature. He has a design for you. He has a plan for you.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to talk about what that design and what that plan is. But this isn't something that you need to discover, like what the next step of human evolution actually is.

This is something that's fixed, that God has determined. But then what is also, what is another implication of the fact that God created us from nothing?

Well, you know that God is not limited to natural means and his ability to handle your problems, you understand?

Like you serve, if you're a Christian here today, you serve a God who created the world from nothing. He spoke this world into existence through words of power.

That's the kind of God that you serve. Do you think that your problems are difficult for him to solve, are hard for you to solve?

When you have a problem, look, let's be honest, when we have a problem, what do we do?

We think that the way God is going to solve our problem is typically going to happen through natural means, right?

So meaning like God created a system, he set up a system, and he's going to work within the rules or parameters that he set up.

So then when you're thinking about how is this problem going to be solved, typically you're leaning on explanations that are natural, that make sense, that are normal.

Certainly God does ordinarily work in very predictable ways, right?

God certainly ordinarily works in very predictable ways, so let's say that you have a diagnosis from a doctor that you have a problem.

Typically you think, well, let me cycle through all the natural ways that this can be solved.

And then when I'm praying, I'm normally praying that God will solve it in one of the ways that make sense to me, that I understand, right?

That's typically how we think about doing. So you have a problem, you think about all the natural, the normal ways that God can solve it, and then you're praying along those lines that he'll solve it in a way that makes sense to you.

And I'm not saying that there's anything necessarily inherently wrong with that, I'm just trying to say that you have to take a step back.

You serve a God who created the world from nothing. He didn't use pre -existing material. He didn't create the world through natural means, right?

He spoke it and it came into existence, that's the kind of world that God made. So what that means is whatever your problems are, they're insignificant to God in the sense that solving your problems is a trivial, insignificant act to him, do you understand?

I'm not saying that you're insignificant to him, like you don't matter, or your problems don't matter, I'm just trying to say that it takes no work or effort for him to solve your problems.

He's not limited in his ability to solve it, he can solve it any way he wants to solve it. Your problem can be solved in the same way he created the world, do you understand?

God can fix it. And there's been many testimonies of individuals that I know, personally, who

God just fixed the problem in a way that they were completely and totally unexpected. But here's the thing,

God created the world, he spoke this world into existence. He creates in a way not like us, we're creating through pre -existing material,

God spoke this world into existence from nothing. He can solve whatever problem that you're going through, he's there, he sees it, and he's a

God who created with power. Fourth, God has authority over his creation, where do you see that in the text?

It says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was out form and void, the darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water.

How did God create it? And God said, let there be light, and there was light. Do you ever think about that as it relates to an act of authority?

God said, let there be light, and there was light. I can think of no more authoritative act than that, right?

God said it, and it was so, right? So it says, the text says, and God said, let there be light, and there was light.

That was it. God has authority over his creation.

A central feature of the creation narrative is that God's authority over his creation is absolute.

And God created the world by speaking this world into existence. He created this world in a particular form.

You can imagine he would create it in different ways, right? You're not meant to press this analogy, so don't press this analogy, but just imagine.

God could have created the world through a finger snap, right? Like, just a finger snap, and there it's there, you know?

I'm not trying to say that God the Father has incarnated himself in a body or something along those lines.

You're not supposed to think in those terms. I'm just trying to say that God could have created the world in a different way, but how did he create it?

He created the world, like he created the world through words. So those words that he created demonstrate his authority over the creation.

What does that mean? That means that you serve the kind of God who has authority to call into being things that don't exist.

Like, when God says something, it happens. Do you understand? Like, you can't read through the opening chapter of Genesis and come away with any other conclusion that when

God says something, it happens, right? So God said, let there be light, and there was light.

Go through the narrative, right? God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so, right?

And God said, let the earth spout vegetation, plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit, in which is there a seed, each according to their kind on the earth, and it was so.

So over and over again, as you read the Genesis narrative, you're going to see that God says it, and it was so. Creation bows to the will of God.

Now, here's the thing. Like, you live in a world that hates authority. You're tempted in your own heart to hate authority.

God is the ultimate authority, right? God is the ultimate authority. If God made you, like, the statement that God is the creator is the foundation for all human ethics.

If God made you, then you do not belong to yourself. You don't get to call the shots. God gets to call the shots.

Creation itself bows to the will of God. God made you. He made you for a purpose. You're here.

You exist, not as an independent entity. You exist as a dependent entity on your maker who has revealed his expectations for you in his word.

That's the point. So God has authority over you.

He made you as a dependent creation on him.

He has authority over you, and what he says goes, right? That you can't read this opening chapter of Genesis without coming away from that conclusion.

And so it's our job, here's the point, it's our job as Christians to figure out what God's plan is for the world.

And one of the things we're going to be doing over the next few weeks is talking through what is God's plan for the world? Why did he make us?

Why are we here? What has he designed us to do? And so much of everything that you're going to see here, even

Christians, you know, I know that we say we believe all this stuff. I could talk about creation over and against evolution, and most

Christians, they agree with all that, but then God has given us a plan, and here's the point, God has given us a plan in these opening chapters of Genesis, which is deeply controversial and problematic to most

Christians, okay? We don't like the things that are in here. We don't think of them as being as binding as what they are.

We don't like most of what you're going to see here. And so over the next few weeks, what we're going to be trying to do is do an exercise in just talking about the obvious, right?

Some basic things that are found in the opening chapters of Scripture, which will help us to navigate our time here in the world.

The last thing we see when we think about these basic truths from Scripture, namely that God is creator, is that creation was a

Trinitarian work. So Genesis 1 -1 says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So notice you have a reference to the

Father. The earth was out, form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. It says the

Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water, a reference to the Holy Spirit.

And then you have, and God said, let there be light, and there was light, a reference to the second person of the

Trinity. Over and over again, as you read the New Testament, you're going to find that the New Testament references these words as references to Christ.

So John 1, 1 -3, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him, and without Him was not made anything which was made. Hebrews 1, 1 -3, long ago and many times and many ways

God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He's spoken to us by the Son, who

He has appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature. He upholds the universe by the Word of His power.

We serve a Trinitarian God who created the world with power. We spoke this world into existence. We serve that kind of God who's actively involved, like all three persons of the

Trinity, actively involved in creation of the universe. They're actively involved in the affairs of our life. We serve the

Trinitarian God who knows what we have need of even before we ask. It is there for us and will help us when we come to Him.

So we serve a God who's not limited in His power. He's not left us in the dark. And my prayer for us as a church over the next few weeks in particular and through the life of our ministry here is that we will look to God's Word to define us, to give us a definition for who we are, for why we're here, so we may glorify

God better and enjoy Him forever. And that's my prayer for us today. Let's pray. Lord, we thank

You for Your work in creation. We know that You are a good

God. We know that You're a good God who loves us, who has done wonderful things for us.

We know that if we were to look at Your Scriptures and try to find all that's there, that we would never be able to discover it.

And ultimately, we're going to spend all eternity learning more about You, Lord. But I pray that You would help us today to be thankful for Your work, be thankful for what

You've done, thankful for the gift of life that You've given us, and help us, by Your Spirit, for Your glory, to use it in a way that is glorifying to You.