God's Word to God's World (Genesis 1, Jeff Kliewer)

morning. First of all, I want to encourage you after the service is over,

Jeff said his message is no more than an hour and a half long. He told me

I have to be quick so he can take, stay after service as we are going to celebrate the powerful ministry that the

Stockland family has had here and that we are excited that they are going to have at the

Rock Church. We are, we are flat out going to miss you guys, but at the same time we rejoice.

You guys are answering the call. As God gives you the call, you are obedient to go.

And so glory goes to God and to the promotion of his kingdom. Stay after the service this afternoon as we have a time of food fellowship and rumor has it we can even roast the

Stockland family. So come prepared. Also later today and then next

Sunday, if you are interested, you have the chance to talk to Ray Garcia, to our, our budget committee to understand the budget that is going to be presented a week from tomorrow for affirmation, our budget for the following year.

So you can see the details of the budget and, and talk to him. Ray said, I will answer any question you might have for me.

Right? Okay. The congregational meeting then is a week, is a week from tomorrow,

March 11th. We strongly encourage you to come at that meeting. We will be affirming our new church officers, our deacons, our elders, our, our, our board chairman.

So we strongly encourage you. We have some membership to present to you and the budget. If you're a member, please come here.

If you're not a member and you're interested in our church, good to opportunity to see some of the things about our church.

That'll be at seven o 'clock on the 11th. Tomorrow morning, gentlemen, set your alarms nice and early.

We have our monthly fellowship breakfast at six o 'clock here in the church. We have an amazing time because it's iron sharpening iron.

It's men talking about the things of God and how it impacts our life. So join us, set your alarm clock, get here at six o 'clock.

Also gentlemen and ladies, the, the April retreats, please go online and sign up for them.

I know that if there, if there appears to be a real desire to go, but financially this isn't the time, talk to Pastor Jeff, to myself,

John Detoli. There can be opportunities made that we can get you. We want you there and in fellowship with us.

So go online, sign up for the retreats. Come back tonight at six o 'clock for our time of prayer.

Last week we, it was awesome. It was absolutely awesome. We couldn't fit in the classroom. We had to come out here into the sanctuary.

These are, these are exciting times. Next Sunday after service on the 10th, there will be an initial kickoff meeting for people who are desiring, willing, feeling called to help in the

VBS this summer. So if you have a desire to be part of that ministry, to support

Tim and the ministry that's going on there next Sunday after service. Continue to be in prayer as our new officers are being presented and affirmed that God works through them.

Let's turn to prayer. Lord, we come to You. We call on You.

We surrender our lives to You. You are a strong tower. You are the source of our life, our deliverance, and our hope.

Through the strength of Your Holy Spirit, we even cry out, Abba Father. This morning,

Lord, we focus on the truth that You are the creator of all. By Your righteous holy hand,

You hold Your children in Your right hand. The truth of Scripture is foundational.

We pray, Lord, that You teach us, guide us always to turn to You. Be with those in our midst who are in need, and we praise

God for some of the healing that we have heard that You have done the miraculous hand on some of our people.

We say, thank You. Be with Pastor Jeff now. Prepare the words that You would have him speak, and open our hearts to hear.

And we pray in Jesus' name. Drew. Good morning.

And today is also the first Sunday of the month, so we celebrate the Lord's table today.

And as we come to the table, we realize what a joy it is to be here, just experiencing the things we have now as we celebrate communion.

What do we have now? We have the communion with each other. We have the oneness of the body of Christ.

We have the unique indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which we all share of those who believe.

We also have the hope of looking forward to His coming again, and we celebrate that also at the communion table.

But the communion table is also a time of solemn reflection. We remember what the Lord Jesus has done, and I know

I had a chance, because I was preparing communion, this message right now, to solemnly think about what was going on.

What was my life like? And I thought about the sins that I had committed. I thought about the judgment that I deserved.

I thought about the helplessness and the hopelessness that I had without Jesus.

But then, realizing that Jesus, as the substitutionary sacrifice, paid everything for me,

I had no hope and I had no power to remove the sins in my life.

But Jesus, through His obedience, going to the cross, dying for my sins, His shed blood, paying the penalty that I deserved,

I had a lot to think about this week. And we need that reminder. We need to sit and think about the things that the

Lord has done. We celebrate this communion table once a month. Other churches do it at different times.

Why do we do it once a month? Why do we keep doing it? It's because we forget. We need to be reminded of the things that God has done.

We need to be reminded of the things that we have in Jesus Christ. Apostle Peter put it this way.

He said in 2 Peter, chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, he said, Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them and have been established in the truth which is present with you.

And I consider it right. As long as I am in this earthly dwelling, meaning

His body still on the earth, He wanted to stir us up by way of reminder. And it is true.

A lot of things we don't necessarily receive as new things a lot.

Things we don't know. But we need to remember the things that have already been revealed to us through the scripture and through the revelation of the

Spirit in our lives. We need to think upon these things. But because we have a tendency to forget and our minds have a tendency to drift.

Now, I can see a lot of eyes looking at me. Very good concentration. Great. I don't see anybody nodding off yet.

But we have to be honest with ourselves that in this day and age we live in, we are distracted all the time.

And it's hard for us to concentrate. So as I was thinking about this communion time, what came to mind is the sculpture of the great thinker.

You remember Rodin's sculpture where the, you know, the sculpture is like this and he's sitting on a rock and he's bent forward and he's just sitting there thinking and thinking.

And it's very solitude, you know, it's very solitary and it's very permanent. Like there's, you just think like how long is he going to be there?

But we don't spend time and thought more than a few seconds it seems these days. But I found out something about that statue that's very interesting.

A lot of times we will see it today, copies of it, in front of great philosophy halls at universities.

And the idea is, well, you know, this university supports great intellectual, you know, activity and, you know, the heights of philosophy.

And we're going to be, well, that wasn't the original reason that Rodin, the sculptor, made that statue.

Originally he was commissioned to build two bronze doors that were going to be the opening to a museum that was going to be built.

Those bronze doors were supposed to be called the gates of hell. Maybe a museum

I wouldn't have wanted to go to. But the bronze doors were supposed to be, he casted the doors.

At the top of the door was the thinker, a small, much smaller version than we know. Below on the doors were souls that were tormented in hell.

And that thinker at the top of the doors was sitting there thinking about the horrors of hell and the people that go there.

We don't like to think thoughts like that. We don't take time to think about thoughts like that very often.

But back in those days, people had time and they did think about things. I want this morning to think, for us to think, about what

God has delivered us from. What he's done through the sacrifice of his son, the Lord Jesus, for what we could never do.

He paid the ultimate price by giving his life on the cross for our sins. Let's think right now.

Let's meditate. Pray if you'd like. But let's take some time to do that now before the Lord, before we take part in the cup and the bread.

And Father, as we come before you this morning, we do remember what Jesus has done. We also think in joy of the fellowship we have with you now that's going to continue through all eternity.

But Lord, when we think of the sins that we've committed against you and the horrors of hell that waited us in judgment that we deserve,

Lord, you poured out that judgment on your son. And Father, as we come before you this morning,

Father, we have hearts of gratitude, hearts of thankfulness, hearts of solemnness. And Lord, we just can't say enough about a

God who would be willing to give his own son on our behalf, Lord. We thank you and we praise your name for your eternal plan that brought many sons to glory by what your son did in obedience,

Father. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. I'll call the men forward to pass out the alms this morning.

As they're coming, I just want to say a word about what Paul warned us of in 1 Corinthians 11.

He said that there are some of us who are weak and are sick and some of us actually sleep.

And that means actually pass away, to go physically death. Why was that?

Because they were taking the communion table lightly. They were taking it in a frivolous manner. They were continuing to walk in sin, and ignore the fact that they had been bought by the blood of Jesus.

And instead of walking in his ways, they were walking in their own ways. So if you're here this morning and you know you've been disobedient to the

Lord, consider what you should do this morning. If you don't have a relationship with the Lord right now, consider what you need to do with the

Lord. This table does not offer you forgiveness. Jesus Christ offers you forgiveness.

If you confess him as Lord and believe in your hearts that he's been raised from the dead, you will receive forgiveness.

But this table is for those who believe, those who are walking with Jesus, a great table of remembrance in the wonderful act that Jesus has done.

So with that in mind, we'll have the gentlemen pass out the bread. In the book of Hebrews, that of the scripture it is written of him that a body was prepared for him to do thy will,

O Lord. And this is what Jesus did. He took on human flesh. That body was broken for us.

Let's do this, taking this bread in remembrance of what he went through for us. And likewise, at that last supper when he was celebrating with his disciples, he wanted to pass out a cup to them.

Let's do that now. We had a few short minutes now to reflect on the wondrous work of our

Lord Jesus Christ and his love for us. I pray that we would do so the rest of this day, reflecting on his goodness.

At that time when he was with his disciples in the upper room, he said, this is the cup, the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Amen. Will you stand with me as we continue to our worship with singing?

There is a truth older than the ages.

There is a promise of things yet to come.

There is one born for our salvation,

Jesus. There is a light that overwhelms the darkness.

There is a kingdom that forever reigns.

There is freedom from the chains that bind us,

Jesus, Jesus.

Who walks on the waters, who speaks to the sea, who stands in the fire beside me.

He roars like a lion. He bled as the lamb.

He carries my healing in his hands,

Jesus. There is a name

I call in times of trouble. There is a song that humphreds in the night.

There is a voice that calms the storm that rages.

He is Jesus, Jesus.

Who walks on the waters, who speaks to the sea, who stands in the fire beside me.

He roars like a lion. He bled as the lamb.

He carries my healing in his hands,

Jesus. Messiah, my savior, there is power in your name.

You're my rocket, my redeemer.

There is power in your name, in your name.

Who walks on the waters, who speaks to the sea, who stands in the fire beside me.

He roars like a lion. He bled as the lamb.

He carries my healing in his hands, Jesus.

God, you walk on the waters. You speak to the sea.

You stand in the fire beside me. You roar like a lion.

You bled as the lamb. You carry my healing in your hands,

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Amen. We are called to trust in him. He is our solid rock, our hope, our comfort, our foundation.

As we read through the Psalms, Psalm 62 says, my soul will wait because you are the rock of my salvation.

And my heart grows faint within when the darkness overwhelms and my fears are pressing in.

I will trust in you, O Lord. In the silence,

I will wait. I will stand upon your word.

You're my solid rock and my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken.

My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you.

You're my stronghold and my shield. In the midst of every threat, though the wicked never yield, they will vanish like a breath.

Yes, I know the outcome's sure. Satan's evil plans will fail.

In your power, I'm secure. You're my solid rock and my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken.

My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you.

You're my comfort when I feel forsaken, my refuge and my sure foundation.

My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you. This is love

I can't explain. This is mercy unreserved.

Through your sacrifice so great, I have peace that's undeserved.

For the battle has been won and I fear no shame or loss.

Now the sting of death is gone. You're my solid rock and my salvation, my steadfast hope that won't be shaken.

My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you.

You're my comfort when I feel forsaken, my refuge and my sure foundation.

My soul will wait. My soul will wait for you.

Pouring out our hearts before you, we will trust in you.

Perfect Savior, strong defender, we will trust in you.

Pouring out our hearts before you, we will trust in you.

Perfect Savior, strong defender, we will trust in you.

I wanted to share a verse with you that has, when I learned it when I was real young, a youth pastor said, this is a great verse to memorize and it's a great verse for you to take as your life verse.

I didn't know the ramifications that it would take, but as you listen to this verse, it is my prayer for you and it is a prayer for me.

As Roman 12 1 and 2 says, therefore I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and prove what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.

What gift of grace is Jesus my redeemer?

There is no more for heaven now to give.

He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deeper, boundless peace.

To this I hold, my help is only Jesus, for my life is wholly bound to his.

Oh, how strange and divine, I can't sing, all is mine, yet not

I, but through Christ in me. The night is dark, but I am not forsaken, for by my side the savior he will stay.

I labor on in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need his power is displayed.

To this I hold, my shepherd will defend me, through the deepest valley he will lead.

Oh, the night has been won, and I shall overcome, yet not

I, but through Christ in me. No fate

I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future sure, the price it has been paid.

For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and he was raised to overthrow the grave.

To this I hold, my sin has been defeated,

Jesus now and ever is my plea.

Oh, the chains are released, I am safe,

I am free, yet not I, but through Christ in me.

With every breath I long to follow Jesus, for he has said that he will bring me home.

And day by day I know he will renew me, until I stand with joy before the throne.

To this I hold, my home is only Jesus, for the glory evermore to him.

Oh, the rest is complete, till my lips shall repeat, yet not

I, but through Christ in me. When the race is complete, my lips shall repeat, yet not

I, but through Christ in me. Yet not

I, but through Christ in me. Amen.

You may be seated. You would set your people free.

We pray for those who don't yet know Christ, hearing this word they would believe.

We pray for us who do know the Son of God, that we would put greater trust in Christ, that you would relieve us of the fears and anxieties of this world, and we would trust in the

God who speaks, the one who made the heavens and the earth. God, we look to you. Help us to understand that you sustain all things by the word of your power, that we may trust you,

Lord. Speak, your servants are listening. In Jesus' name, amen. With one big lie, all meaning and hope dies.

Victor Frankel was a famous psychoanalyst, who said that apart from the sustenance of life, like food and water and the basic necessities like that, the greatest need of man is for meaning, for meaning, for a sense of purpose.

We all need meaning in life, a reason to live, but the biggest lie ever told is that God did not create the world, but that the world simply evolved from eternal matter, and by impotent chance, given enough time, the world evolved to be as we have it now.

Psychoanalysts and teachers and librarians and media conspire to convince the world that this is settled science.

They think it is settled science, and yet the results of this worldview utterly strip meaning from the lives of those who hold it.

A man from West Virginia recently called into a talk show, and I overheard listening on the radio.

He said that he had, he has 15 children. Sounds like one of the parents from this church, many families with large, with a large number of kids, but this guy has 15.

He said that by the time each of them finished middle school, they had each received a diagnosis of some kind of mental disorder, whether ADHD or some kind of anxiety disorder.

Every single one of them was diagnosed, and he was coming to the realization that some of the psychoanalysts who were saying these things were themselves contributing to making them sick.

John Hopkins University reports that an estimated 26 % of all

Americans ages 18 and older, that's about one out of four adults, suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.

Now, hear me. There are certain disorders and problems that require help.

The answer for something like anorexia or some difficulties that people go through, it's not the answer to say, simply pray and deal with this on your own and trust

God. There are times you need to go to a counselor to receive help because God has given the body of and those with maturity in the faith to disciple one another and to help one another.

When you see a brother down, pick him up. But listen, the vast majority of what is diagnosed in this world's culture as mental disorder is caused by this world's culture in the rejection of God.

God made the world by His power, and He upholds everything and sustains everything by His providence.

The world does not debate whether God made the world and whether Genesis 1 is true.

That debate happened back in the 1920s in the Scopes Monkey Trial. And although it was definitively shown that, in fact, the

Bible is true, yet the way the media portrayed that trial eventually won the hearts and minds of the

American people and really of the entire Western society. Such that people no longer debate whether evolution is true.

They simply assume that it is. And Genesis 1 is regarded as nothing but religious tradition.

The peculiarity of Christians and Jews who happen to believe it. It is not taken seriously.

While the world seeks to eliminate everything found in Genesis 1 through chapter 11, we as Christians understand that it is the very words of God that give order to the universe.

That keep people mentally fit. Made in the image of God with a sense of meaning as image bearers.

Aware that there's coming a judgment where each of us will stand before the judgment seat of God.

And there is a world to come that is more important and greater and eternal. Whereas this world is fleeting.

It makes sense to be riddled with anxiety if you believe and have been taught since you were a child that the world is about to be consumed by the fires of global warming.

If you've been taught that the oil in the earth is fossil fuel from dinosaurs existing millions of years ago and is about to run out.

And the world will grind to a halt and no longer be able to warm their houses in the winter or provide food.

And so young people grow up no longer desiring to get married and have children. They grow up afraid that this world is about to come to an apocalyptic end.

Since it's out of control and there is no God to govern it. And so they seek to flatten everything out.

The distinctions of the world as God has designed it have become the target of the enemy.

The world seeks to eliminate every ordered difference in the world. In Genesis 1, rather than believing that God spoke all that exists into being, the world says there is no

God. In Genesis 2, when God makes them male and female, the world now says there is no gender.

And in Genesis 3, when sin enters the world, the world says there is no sin.

There is no law from a divine lawgiver. And so there is only mistakes and bad choices, but no such thing as sin.

On and on it goes that everything that God creates from government to nations, mercy and judgment, all of the things outlined in Genesis 1 to 11, which give the world its very order and foundation, is under attack by an anti -religion.

And the starting point of this war for truth is in Genesis chapter 1.

We are going to study Genesis chapters 1 to 11.

And believe it or not, it will only take 11 weeks. It will be a short study in Genesis to reaffirm the foundations, the very things that are under attack in this culture.

After that, I'm preparing to go to a New Testament book and pick up from there.

But I want us to take 11 weeks to lay this foundation. And then Genesis 12 to 50 will be exposited on Wednesday afternoons.

And you guys can keep up with that online once we move on to the New Testament. We're going to begin now in Genesis chapter 1, the very beginning.

As the world came into existence by the Word of God, so God's Word continues to establish the order of the world, even against this rise of anti -religion.

We begin in the first verse. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Truer words were never spoken. More profound words were never spoken in such an economy of words.

Seven Hebrew words which describe everything that is.

Charles Darwin, of course, was the famous evolutionary philosopher whose theories have since, many of them, been utterly disproven by science.

But after Darwin died, another evolutionary biologist named Herbert Spencer took the role as one of the foremost in the field.

Herbert Spencer was the first to create a taxonomy that describes everything that exists in five words.

Science is the investigation of reality. Science just means knowledge.

It's to know things. Just as conscience would be with science, with knowledge, the word science refers to knowledge.

And Herbert Spencer, the evolutionary biologist, said that all things that exist can be described under five categories.

Time, force, activity, space, and matter.

Time, force, activity, space, and matter. It describes everything that is, that science seeks to investigate.

And of course, the evolutionary biologist says that the Bible is an irrelevant and useless book.

They wouldn't be so aggressive as that, but that's the underlying philosophy to what they said.

Look again at Genesis 1 .1. In the beginning, time,

God, force, created activity, the heavens, space, and the earth, matter.

God accounts for everything that exists in one summary sentence, seven

Hebrew words. God is the ultimate force, omnipotent force, who speaks the world into existence.

And here in Genesis 1 .1, we have the beginning of everything that exists. And without God, there is nothing that exists.

Amazingly, as we study through the book of Genesis, it's like opening a wound.

The word means beginning. Matthew Henry pointed out that the gospel of Matthew starts the same way that Genesis does, with the word

Genesis in the and it's there for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry will say, bless be

God for that book which shows us our remedy as this book opens our wound.

Matthew is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Matthew in the

New Testament will give us the remedy to the problem of sin. But the book of Genesis must first open the wound, show the

God of all the universe, creating what is, and then in chapter three, display to us the fall of man.

And so from the very beginning, the wound is laid open in order that all things would point to the one through whom the world was made and through whom the world will be redeemed.

Matthew 1 .1 is about Jesus Christ and so is Genesis 1 .1. Here the wound will be laid open in the book of Genesis and in the entire 39 books of the

Old Testament. The law, like a mirror, showing us how sinful we are in order that we would then trust in the

Messiah, that light of the gospel shining forth in the New Testament. But B .B.

Warfield said that in the Old Testament, we have all the furniture of the gospel.

It's just that the room is dimly lit. The message of Jesus Christ is present and hidden like furniture in a dark room in the

Old Testament. Look at that first word for God. Elohim.

It says, in the beginning, God. The word Elohim is a plural form.

But the grammar of Genesis 1 .1 unmistakably presents this plural formed word as one person.

Speaking of the Father, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. How is it that God can be spoken of as a singularity and as a plurality at the same time?

In the furniture of the Old Testament, in the dimly lit room of Genesis 1 .1, we can only guess.

But in the New Testament, as the progressive revelation of God's word came to bear, we understand that God has always existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Three in one. And so the very word Elohim is in the plural in order to hint at the fact that God exists as a three in one.

In fact, as you read in the Hebrew, these seven words, Bereshit, Barah, Elohim, Et, in the beginning,

God created. The very next word after God, before heavens and the earth, it actually reads this way, it reads right to left from my view because Hebrew reads opposite of English.

The very next word, Et, is untranslatable. The other words of the text account for our

English rendering and every English translation handles it the same, unless they pluralize heavens.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But listen, that middle word Et, Aleph, Tav, two letters, is untranslatable into English.

And it's interesting that it appears so much through the Old Testament. Strong's, when giving a definition, says it's untranslatable.

How is it that the letter Aleph, Tav, put together and sitting in the middle of this verse, exists as it does?

And for what purpose? As the Greek Septuagint translates the

Hebrew, Alpha and Omega correspond to Aleph, Tav, first and last.

And I say to you, church, that even though it's untranslatable and only the dark furniture in a dim room, here again, is an indication that the

Alpha and Omega, Jesus Christ, described that way in the last book of Bible, Revelation.

Jesus was present in Genesis 1 .1. The Aleph, Tav, the

Alpha, Omega, the beginning and the end, referred to Him in the first verse of our

Bible. As Elohim is in the plural and yet singular, here we have the Father, now the

Son, and look in verse two, you have the third member of the Trinity already introduced.

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.

The third formless void of the early earth creation.

Water and earth mixed together in a muddy, unformed state.

And the Spirit of the living God will be instrumental in organizing and bringing life from what was dead.

In the same way, the Spirit of the living God must bring life to us. And that is through God's creative work when

He says, let there be light. Here in the text, Genesis 2, and God said, verse 3,

Genesis chapter 1, verse 3, let there be light, and there was light.

Corresponding to that in 2 Corinthians 4 .6, God who said, let there be light, referring to Genesis 1 .1,

has made His light to shine in our hearts, to enlighten us to who

Jesus Christ is. It says, let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness He called night, and there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

So, we're going to quickly go through these days. Just take it one day at a time. You'll notice that I'm moving very quickly today.

I'm not going to take just one verse and stay there for the entire sermon. There's value in doing that, because every word of God has depths of riches for us to plumb.

But sometimes, it's better to take larger sections in order to pick up on themes that develop throughout a chapter, and that's what we're going to do today.

I want you to notice that what appears in Genesis 1, verses 3 to 5, will repeat throughout the days of creation, and there are four phrases that repeat themselves again and again.

Can you see what they are? The first, in verse 3, and God said.

This will appear 10 times, so it is the most important, the big idea of Genesis 1, and God said.

That's the first. The second appears many times as well, and there was, or and so it was.

There again in verse 3, and there was light. God said, and there was. He's speaking things into existence, and so His Word becomes the central theme.

The same God who spoke things into existence speaks His Word in Scripture that we would know how

He has ordered the world and how we are to order our lives. And God said, and there was, and the third phrase that will repeat itself again and again in chapter 1 is an appraisal of what

He just made on that day. So notice in verse 4, and God saw that the light was good.

God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. You'll see this again and again in the chapter, and then finally

He numbers the days, and there was evening, and there was morning the first day, or again the second day.

These four expressions repeat themselves all through Genesis 1. I want you to see why that becomes important.

Let's look at the second day, and as I read, try to notice which one of the expressions is missing.

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

And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse, and it was so.

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

Let's go through our list. First, and God said, there's the big point.

It's there. Then the assessment, and I mean, then the statement of what it was, and it was so, verse seven at the end.

But notice that the third expression is missing. Here is the only day in the creative process where God does not say, and it was good.

I searched the commentaries, and I have not found a reason for that, which means

I just get to conjecture what I think it is, right? Now listen, what God tells us in His Word, we know with certainty.

As we pull together theological concepts, we can conjecture and try to understand, but it doesn't carry the same weight as a direct statement in Scripture.

I think I have a conjecture. I think there's a good reason why this is the only day where God does not deliberately state, and it was good.

What happens on the second day? The world is formless and void.

It's like a muddy ambiguity, water and dirt all mixed together, and He takes water from the earth and lifts it up over the earth, creating an expanse in between waters on the earth, expanse air in between the heavens, and then somewhere above is this heavy immense layer of water suspended in the sky.

Well, that's just what the text tells us. We know that much for sure, but here's my thought as to why He doesn't call it good, because that water was suspended over the earth in God's sovereign, meticulous providence for the destruction of the world in the flood, and there is a certain sobriety to God in dealing with judgment.

Everything else in Genesis 1 is with reference to the goodness of God's creation as He fits it for man, that He would provide for man, and man would be his vice regent, his viceroy, to rule in his place having dominion over the earth, and yet here on the second day,

He created a flood of judgment hanging over their heads. According to Genesis 1 31, everything that He made was very good, and so even this suspended layer of water over the earth is good, but He does not identify it as such because, listen,

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He is solemn in His expression of judgment, and this, though it would be used for God's judgment in the flooding of the earth, is something that we deal with and tread on very carefully, and I think that's why it's just, it's only a hint at this point, but if you ever wonder what is the point of the second day of creation, to separate this water, which is different than as the world exists today.

We'll learn about this in Genesis 7 and 8, that there would come a day when God would destroy the world with a flood, and then

He would promise never to do so again, and this gracious arrangement, this economy that we are under, we will learn about.

Continuing on to the next day, day three, verse nine and following, and God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so.

There is always a distinction between things in the created order. Holiness means separate from.

Wisdom is being able to tell the difference between things, even if they look similar. In Genesis 1, you're going to see this theme that God is separating and creating distinction, that there would be order and understanding in the universe.

Verse 10, God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together

He called seas. He's now ordering the earth, creating this distinction, and God saw that it was good.

Especially good for man, as a place for man to dwell. We're not fish. We need land.

Verse 11, and God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth, and it was so.

That's the second expression. Notice the distinction there. Fruits are not vegetables. Vegetables are not fruits.

There's a distinction there. Balance of nature that sells their product on Fox News or whatever.

They did not invent this distinction. God's order has upheld from the founding of the world.

Chapter 1, verse 12, the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to its own kind, trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, and God saw, here's that expression, that it was good, and there was evening, and there was morning, the third day.

Verse 14 to 19 is the fourth day. 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 just remember

Genesis 1 .1, the greatest miracle in the Bible. In the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth. Every difficulty that you have with the supernatural disappears.

If you can accept that God spoke and everything was, how hard is it to believe that the light that He made was also all that light that's in transit?

So, the earth may have an appearance of age. Adam and Eve, they weren't made as babies in the

Garden of Eden. Little Adam didn't grow up without a belly button. Adam was made with the appearance of age.

He was a fully formed man, and the universe in the same way. So, if a scientist comes to the world with the presupposition that there is no

God who made it, outlawing the supernatural at the outset, then of course, their scientific investigation will conclude that the earth is billions of years old.

But the point here in the text is that God made the sun and the moon days after light itself was formed.

It's all the supernatural work of His breath. He spoke and it was.

This is to exalt God, and God said in verse 14.

In verse 15, And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.

And it was so. Many people in our culture are deathly afraid of the rise of the tides, of global warming, of climate change.

They're afraid because they do not know that there's a God who speaks into existence and upholds the universe by the word of His power.

I think it was an inconvenient truth in 2006 when Al Gore said that all the snow on Mount Kilimanjaro would be gone within a decade.

And here we are almost 20 years after he said that, and the snow on Mount Kilimanjaro has never been thicker.

And Greta Thunberg said the world would be destroyed within five years of 2018.

And here we are in 2024. And all things go on as they have for generation after generation because the truth is

God speaks into existence and upholds the universe. The great lights, verse 15 to 17, in the expanse.

And it was so. God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night.

And with the word of His power, He threw galaxies out for us to observe.

The stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate.

There's that word separate that's so important. Light from darkness. In Isaiah 5 20, woe to those who exchange good for evil.

Light for darkness, sweet for bitter. The muddying of the waters, the collapsing of all differences.

This is the essence of evil. But God creates distinction and separateness that we would live in His ordered world according to His design.

And this is how God separated, verse 18, the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. Are you recognizing these patterns again? Verse 20, and God said, let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures.

Let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves.

And there's some weird fish under there, aren't there? The design of God in sharks and whales and the fish that you catch off your fishing boat.

Just beautiful and just amazing. With which the water swarm according to their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. The earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in His own image. What does the image of God entail? Distinct from the animals, we have intellect to one degree or another, right?

We have intellect. We have will. That is choices to make a real capacity to choose to follow

God and obey on that straight and narrow path that begins at Genesis 1 .1. In the beginning,

God. And to take Him at His word, has God really said? Or to reject

God's word and to follow the broad, easy path that leads to destruction. There is a will in the image of God.

Now we'll learn from Genesis 3 that it is corrupted in the fall and we end up dead in our sin.

We also have spirituality, the ability to relate to God. In the image of God, He created them.

Male and female, He created them. Next week as we go through Genesis 2, what you have is the specific creation of day six explained in Genesis 2.

So Genesis 1 gives you the larger general teaching and then day two,

I mean Genesis 2, zeroes in on day six. And there we'll see that male and female,

He created them. How He created marriage between man and a woman. And that there is distinction between men and women, which is amazing that we need to say it, but culture is collapsing those differences.

Verse 28, and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

Or as the world says, population control, God says, fill the earth and subdue it.

And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed and its fruit, you shall have them for food.

And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life,

I have given every green plant for food. And it was so, and God saw everything that He had made and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Now quickly, a word about that word yom, day, the sixth day.

There are some that will tell you that it refers to an age and not to a literal 24 hour period of time.

And it's true that the word yom can refer to an age, but every place in the

Old Testament, in the Hebrew that uses this word, that does so following an ordinal number, it refers to a 24 hour period of time.

And I want to ask you a question. If Moses, being the author of Genesis, wanted to communicate age, would there not have been a way to say that?

But in reading this refrain that repeats again and again and again, why is it there? And there was evening and there was morning, the first day and the second day and the third day.

The point here, as it is throughout the use of yom with an ordinal, is always to say this is a day, a 24 hour period of time as understood by us who observe them.

That of course is confirmed, and we don't have time to spend on it. But in Exodus chapter 20, verse 11, during the 10 commandments,

God appeals to his creating on seven days as the reason that we exist in this seven day cycle.

Have you ever noticed that there's a seven day cycle that governs the world? Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, et cetera.

It's not a 10 day cycle or a five day cycle. It is as God built it based on how he made it.

Do you get the point? Exodus 20, 11 makes that point. And here the repetition again and again, and there was evening and there was morning, the first day, second day, third day.

The point is it's a literal six day creation. Now others would say, and I think it's just because they would like to make room for scientific theories to be esteemed, that there's a gap between Genesis 1 .1

and Genesis 1 .2. So God created a formless void world, and it sat there for billions of years.

And then here in the last 6 ,000 years, he ordered it and set it into motion. That misses first of all, the flow of the text.

Genesis 1 .1 is the general, and then 1 .2 through the end of the chapter is the specific.

That's how the text unfolds. In fact, Genesis 2 follows the same pattern. It gives the specific of day six creation of man.

So when you follow the big swoop of the text, you recognize that what Moses is showing you is that this is one literal creation.

No gap is assumed. There's no literary reason to see a gap there. But even more important, theologically, a gap introduces a major problem.

Remember what God said, the appraisal of each thing. And it was good.

And in verse 31, it was very good. Which means the world was not formless and void.

And then developing life, dinosaurs and crazy animals that eat one another, velociraptors that pounce on the poor little gazelle, that would be death in the world.

You can't have animal death for all these years and then

God declare that this creation as such is very good. The point of the text is to set apart

God's perfect creation without sin, without death in Genesis 1 and 2.

And then introduce sin and death in Genesis 3 at the fall of man, after which the animals start eating each other.

We saw it very clearly in Genesis 1, 29 to 30, that the animals were eating nothing but green plants before the fall of man.

So for all these reasons, we need to take God at His word. Just the simple, plain reading of the text that God made the world about 6 ,000 years ago.

And you know that science used to consider that utterly ridiculous that the world had a beginning because they thought everything eternally was as it is.

But now even scientists have had to admit that this universe has a beginning.

As they've observed the expansion of the universe, they've traced it back to some point of origin.

And of course, they think that a big bang exploded and sent all the particles out into the universe.

But still they cannot reckon a ball of mass and energy that would explode in the big bang in the first place.

I actually went to a place called CERN, C -E -R -N, in Switzerland in college. I studied in a work study in Geneva.

And we went to this place where they researched the beginning of the universe. We went like a hundred stories underground and observed this particle tunnel where they collide particles together.

It wasn't running while we looked at it, but we got to see this as students. And I asked one of the scientists there who was giving us the tour, giving the students, what do you guys think about that ball of mass and energy that you say exploded in the big bang?

Where did the ball of mass and energy come from in the first place? And even though these scientists think they can trace the big bang back to within a second of that event in their evolutionary hypotheses, he said, most of the scientists at CERN believe that God made the ball of mass and energy.

Most of the scientists in Switzerland think there's probably a God that intelligently created this because it's the fundamental problem.

Romans 1 talks about it. It's obvious by the things that are made, there is an eternal power and divine nature that can only be described as God.

And so we close with this thought. We live in a world that is completely rejecting

Genesis 1, but it's Genesis 1 that gives order to the world.

And so everything around us is falling apart. You may in your own heart and life feel like everything is falling apart.

And the world will tell you it's because of this anxiety disorder or that problem. And they're going to want to prescribe to you some kind of medicine to take your anxiety away like they do to the children.

And there is a use for medicine in some cases. God can give you wisdom as to when or when not to, but it's not the the cure -all.

Listen, what Christians need in this world is a healthy dose of Ezekiel, I'm sorry, of Job 38.

After Job's struggle and in all that pain, God called him to bear.

And no longer did Job question God, but God questioned Job. And he said, were you there when

I laid the foundations of the world, when I told the oceans you can only go this far, when

I put the Pleiades in the sky and created the distant stars? Were you there? And here's the issue.

We forget Genesis 1. We forget the God who made us and who speaks to us in his word.

We try to tackle our problems on our own. And we simply need to come back to the

God who speaks. Did God really say? He did. He's spoken into existence.

And we must return and believe what God has said, that it is so and that it is good, and begin to order our lives according to his word.

And there is healing in that. And church, you have a message for a world that's falling apart.

You're the evangelist, but they don't even believe there is a God. So in your evangelism, destroy the strongholds of mind that are holding captive the people of this world.

Show them the absurdity of a world that came about by impotent chance.

What Phil and I and Tim and others like to do when we go to the colleges to evangelize.

We try to start here and we talk to them about God the creator.

And often we'll point to a building and say, hey, do you see this building here? Would you believe that nobody built that?

That over millions of years, it just fell into place and impotent chance made it to be that way.

And they say, of course, we would never believe that. And then you reduce the argument of evolution to absurdity by pointing out that our bodies, the design of the human eyeball, is infinitely more complex than that building.

And yet you believe that a human being and the intellect of a man could evolve over time.

And that tends to be an eye -opening experience. So tell people this.

Remind them that you would never believe that a painting painted itself or that a book organized itself in words with meaning, but that there must be intelligence to design.

And so go back to Genesis 1 in sharing the gospel. Let's pray for help in this.

Father God, we have begun the study of Genesis. And Lord, I'm just going to ask that you would help me in preparing and preaching your word, that you would find me faithful in it.

And help us in receiving your word that we would be able to order our lives according to what you have said.

Restore our faith in the God who speaks all things into existence.

For those who are captured by fear and anxiety, whether it be for a warming globe or just the nefarious plans of world leaders or just the struggles of this life and the dangers of illnesses, that we would remember

Genesis 1, that there is a God who spoke everything into existence and sustains us by the word of his power.

Set your people free, God, as we keep you at the center. And Lord, I pray that you would send this church out to share the good news that in the beginning

God created the heavens and the earth. Remind us of how profound this truth is.

Help us to be used to set people free, those who have bought the lie of evolution.

We pray that you would use us to destroy those strongholds of mind. Lord, we believe what you have said.

Strengthen our faith, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Turn your eyes to the morning, and see

Christ the light in the way.

What a glorious dawn, fear of death is gone, for we carry his life in our veins.

Jesus, to you we lift our eyes.

Jesus, to glory and our power, we adore you, we hold you, our

Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Turn your eyes to the heavens, our

King will return for his own.

Every knee will bow, every tongue will shout, all glory to Jesus alone.

Jesus, to you we lift our eyes.

Jesus, to glory and our power, we adore you, we hold you, our

Savior ever true. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Amen. All right, guys, we have a luncheon to honor the

Stockland family. And Michael, what a great way to end there with turn your eyes to Jesus. That's what we all need to do, keep our eyes on Jesus.

We have a luncheon today. It seems like there's almost 200 people in here right now, and there's 210 sandwiches.

So how many does each person get? One and not more than one. If you've got to run, please just head out and get lunch somewhere else.

But if, because we have some people coming back too. But if you're able to stay for the Stockland luncheon, then please do grab a sandwich.

You might want to hang out and talk a little while and let other people go, because it could be a madhouse trying to get to the buffet line.

So there's sandwiches, chips, and a water. And then we're just going to come right back in here and eat.

So I'm going to bless the food now. And then we're going to talk and just give honor to the Stockland family.

So if you're able to stay, please do. I do also want to read Colossians 1 as our benediction, verses 15 and 16.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through him and for him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word this morning.

And we thank you, Lord, for the Stocklands to whom we want to give honor this day. We pray that they would be blessed by this banquet and the church fellowship.

Lord, we thank you for it. We pray that you would bless the food to our bodies and that the name of Jesus would be honored and receive glory in this place.

In Jesus' name. Amen. Check, check, check.

Attention. All right. Well, thank you all for sticking around.

Now that we've been fed with sandwiches, nobody's in a hurry to run out. We can just relax and take our time.

Let's invite everybody in the hall to try to come on in. We wanted to just take some time here after second service, just to gather as a family, to have fellowship, and ultimately to say thank you and to give honor to the

Stockland family. So can we just give a round of applause to the Stocklands? What we're going to do is

I'm going to open in a word of prayer and just give thanks in that way. And then what we're going to do is we're actually going to open this mic.

Now, whenever the pastor opens the mic, he gets nervous.

Because pastors preach sermons. And we know that those can be like 45 -minute -long expositions of the

Scripture. What I'm asking for is not a sermon, because I want a lot of people to have a chance to give a word of appreciation and thanks.

So maybe just trying to keep it within a couple of minutes, two, three minutes. If you do want to put

Michael on the hot seat, I think was it Drew that said that, that we're allowed to roast Michael? Did you say that or did

Drew say that? That was Drew, all right. So no, we're not trying to roast Michael here. Why not?

Yeah. All right, Harry, you can do one roast. Yeah, not allowed.

So I am going to give open mic. So be thinking about just a word of appreciation you can give.

But we do need to keep it brief, because there's a lot of people here that want to say something. So I will open in a word of prayer, and then

I'll take a seat for whoever's ready to come on up. And maybe I'll call on somebody first.

Drew, you want to go first? All right, I'll have Drew go first, because I'm just going to pray. All right, so Father God, thank you so much for what we're doing here.

And we ask for blessing on it. Lord, you know our hearts. You can see the love that's in the hearts of your people for the

Stockland family. And our prayer, Lord, is that you would help us to bring that out in words. Lord, that the love that we feel would come out in expressions of love.

So thank you, Lord. And we ask for blessing on this time. And already we say thank you for the

Stockland family in Jesus' name. Amen. So first off, do you know we're still in negotiations that to keep

Rob and Andrew and your children? I said we're still in negotiations.

Yeah, we're going to keep... Because I want to say, I don't want to steal everybody else's thunder, because the amount of things you guys do here is incredible.

And I think a lot of people will be talking about that. But the most thing that I appreciate about you guys is your family dynamic and how you've raised your children and how you guys are always together.

You have such a loving family. It's such an example to everyone else here in the church. And that's the thing that sticks out to me the most about all that you guys are about and all that God has done in your lives and just made so many differences in so many other people's lives.

And I got to give a special thanks to Brendan, because I think I've pronounced his name wrong.

Just about every time I've tried to say... I think I've called him Brenda or Brandon, right?

I'm not even sure if I have it right right now. But you guys are a special couple. And I thank you for all that you've done around here.

It's been a glory to God. And we're going to miss you. But praise God. I'm so excited for the rocking over there.

It's going to be a thrill. And I wish some of those guys were here today. But I guess you'll see them soon enough.

But thanks, Michael. Thank you. So anybody else? How much time do

I get? 45 minutes. Because you're a pastor. You get... Yeah. I only have three alliterated points.

We love this family tremendously. The whole family. I don't know if you all know this.

But besides knowing them here, they also came to Portugal to help with the ministry there.

And we had a great time with them. They contributed to the ministry very well.

And Michael also did while he was there. He did, besides the technical aspects, he did a seminar on worship, which people really enjoyed very much.

Because one of the things that I appreciate about you is your biblical approach to worship, which is desperately needed in our days.

It's not just a show. And I don't know if you all realize the type of work that goes into preparing worship for a service here.

But it's not something Michael just throws together. Anyway, love the whole family. The kids, they were great times.

And we're not saying goodbye because we're going to see you guys around. They became fellow espresso drink lovers.

You know, when you come to Europe, you have to get into the espresso drinks. And then they got a fancy machine and everything.

They have a coffee corner. And so I'll have to stop by once in a while for an espresso drink or something like that.

But thank you so much for your ministry and your example as a family, a family that loves

Jesus. I really appreciate that. Thank you. So I did prepare several things

I wanted to say, but I'll keep it short. I'll pare it down. There's just so many things I do want to say to your family because you're a beautiful family.

And we've known you for so many years, ever since you came to what was MLEFC at the time.

We watched your children grow. We watched your family expand with Charlie.

I believe he was born when you first started coming. And then Allie, Miss Allie.

We've had all of their children in our children's Sunday school classes. And it was just always so fun to have you guys.

I think one of the things that I love so much about your family is your heart of service and you serve as a family.

So many different ways. And I know I'm going to probably forget some, but whether it be instrumental or voice, your skills in technology, baking and I for decorating, your creativity, artistic abilities, leadership, administrative skills.

You have done so much for this church and there is going to be huge holes to fill. I do believe that the

Lord will provide for those holes, but you will be missed greatly here at Cornerstone.

And we do send you with joy to the rock. It's our sister church and we know it's another solid church and we're thrilled that you'll be there and you'll be blessing them there as well.

So we go and continue the work the Lord has for you there, but we will miss you and we love you dearly,

Stockland family. So it's no secret that you're all blessed with many gifts, which you happily share with all of us.

So thank you for that. The way that not only do you share your gifts with us, you teach us and you love us so unconditionally.

So thank you for that. We do love you very much. And this is not goodbye because I'm stuck with you. You're stuck with me.

It's just the way it is. No, I'll be very brief, but I want to thank you.

And we're all very grateful for you, for your leadership, for your family.

Thank you for sending me those pictures when you're on vacation. It's very cool. We all put together a little gift for you.

We love you very much and we look forward to you just blessing that body over there the way you blessed us.

Thank you. And thank you for keeping me from having to answer budget questions. Well, I just came from Brock and I can tell you they are very, very eagerly looking forward to you showing up.

Hopefully that wasn't for all the sour notes that I sang. They're like, I can't wait for Michael to get here. But thank you.

Thank you all, but Michael, especially so much for your leadership. And I know

Trish and I have been coming here for a little over four years and just to be welcomed onto the worship team and just to see how you do things and how

Christ has led you and just touched my heart.

And Rob also, especially, you are just so unique. I second whatever we can do to keep you here.

He's over 18. He can make his own decisions. But you're a blessing and your whole family.

I don't mean to single you two out, but I have interacted the most with you two and love you both so much. So thank you.

And this was the card. So try to think, not get emotional.

This isn't a eulogy. You guys, I'll still see it because you have my canoe. So I'll be around and Rob, I like you.

But Andrew, you know what? I'm gonna miss you too. Okay, I want you here also. But yeah,

I remember some times with the family and we had some really good times. I remember Andrew, matter of fact, picking up an arrow.

I don't know if you remember this over the canoe. And he said, I think there was a yellow jacket nest over there. And I'm like, oh.

So he said, but can you get that arrow? So I went to get the arrow and right there was the yellow jacket nest. I got bit in the eye here.

Do you remember that? And now I'm allergic to bees. Go figure.

But man, I love you guys. You know I do. And I'll be seeing you around. And Charlie, we're gonna do it, man.

We're gonna keep doing that, okay? And my little girl, I love you. Brendan, I was just telling the guys,

I remember that from Brendan Fraser. And so I can keep that name in my head. It's pretty shallow, but that's how

I do it. And yeah, so I love you guys. And I'll be seeing you around. So I figured while the microphone was still tall, another tall guy would come up.

It's funny, there's a couple. So Charlie, I was also stung by bees at the Stockins House as well.

Trying to move, when we were moving Alice out, I think we tried going through the Velco doors and there was like a ton of leaves.

I was like, oh, I gotta get this out. And there was a huge hive in there. And I got zinged by like six or seven of them.

So, but yeah, I'm definitely gonna miss the whole family. I think a lot of things, so I'm one of the people that could say like,

I remember when you came. So that means that we've been here for a long time, my wife and I and family. So, you know, we've enjoyed having you here.

I think the word passion was used. You have a passion for God and for service and your family.

Had the ability to serve with you as an elder. Your attention to detail and for everything, church decorations, the way that things are done administratively will certainly be missed.

When you called me to let me know about the decision, you know, I was happy for you. But then I started thinking of the board.

I'm like, all the holes that I think Jen had said, like that you fill and your kids fill and Brenda fills, that will need to be taken over.

Charlie, center cup. I took the center cup today. When I would serve communion,

Charlie always, when I would come down, cause they used to sit over here before Jeff took over the row. And I would try to get this side because when the first row of Jews came by,

Charlie would always take the second cup and it'd be like, yep. And then when they weren't here, I was like, nobody took it.

So I took it for you today back there. And, you know, so I'm happy that you're going to go serve and follow

Jesus at the rock. But we went to visit there last week. There's a lot of paper there.

We saw a lot of paper. That was the other thing, Michael, no paper, everything, you know, obviously digital and on the app and everything.

So, but we love you guys and we will miss you, but we know that you're just across town and we will continue to see you.

And we ask that the Lord bless you over there. Let me interrupt with a quick announcement.

Feel free to go for seconds now and feel free to go to the dessert room. So anybody who'd like to do that, we are hoping we're going to hear from you at some point though.

Is that in the cards, in the mix? Okay. Michael, what

I love about you and your family is your humility and the way you serve God. Through humility.

And I trust in God's call from the rock to you because you weren't the original worship leader that was hired here in this church, but you felt called to this church and you came anyway.

And shortly after that individual step, you stepped into this role. And I love also the fact that what you do every week on the stage is not a performance and it's never been about you.

It's always been about you worshiping God and leading us in that worship.

Thank you for that. I can't talk because I don't have a guitar in front of me.

That's all you get. I didn't prepare anything.

So just from my heart, ultimately,

I want everyone to focus that everything that I've done, everything that our family has done to serve the church has only been for God's glory, period.

There's nothing else that we would rather be doing than to using our gifts that God gave us in whatever capacities they are.

If they are decorating, administration, sound, music, wherever God allowed us to serve, we were willing to serve.

So please take that as an encouragement that whatever your talents are,

God has given you talents for a season. And if you don't use them, you'll lose them.

We are so thankful for first, everyone that even prepared today just with all the food.

And we are thankful that each one of you have warm, encouraging things to say to us.

We have been here. I think I'm in my 15th year here. I remember when it was, you know, 40 people.

And, you know, John and I would, through the summer months, we would say, okay, what is our high and low number?

So we would be, are we going to get 40 people above or below or 50 people above and below?

You know, there was 4th of July's that were, you know, barely anyone here. But John and I and the team that was here when

I arrived, they would faithfully serve whenever we had to. And it was enjoyable to see it grow.

And when Jeff came along, you know, as more and more people came, I even thought last week, you know, with all the guys up here, vocalists and piano and drums and everything, it's easy.

It's pretty easy just to stand up there and play the guitar and sing. Because they make it easy.

They're all great musicians. They're fine men and women. They're humble.

We work together as a team really well. And I am blessed to have them. When I go to the rock, there won't be anybody but me.

Back to the big basics, right? Just worshipping, learning music and song.

And so I'm excited to have the opportunity to go somewhere that desperately needs help in that area.

God gave me the gifts. All of you will be in great hands with those who lead behind me.

All I want to do is be found faithful in the end. So I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My family will say the same, that it was an honor to serve here.

It was an honor to get to know each one of you and the capacities that we did. And it's not, you know, that we'll never see each other.

We may not see each other in town or at church, but we will see each other someday.

We will be worshipping one day, our Savior, our King in heaven together.

So I look forward to that time if I don't see you before that. In a moment,

I'm going to ask if it's okay with you, Michael, for the elders to come and lay hands on you and send you because in a very real sense, you're a missionary.

And Brenda, your family, you are missionaries to the rock. The rock was born in January of 2021.

It's still a baby. And you are being sent to establish a church for the sake of the name.

You're being sent out for the sake of the name. So we want this to be a commissioning of you to go and do the

Lord's work. So we will, do we have elders near me? I see elders around. So we'll have the elders come and pray over you here in just a moment.

And anybody who's been an elder who isn't currently on the session, so to speak, please you also come and pray.

Did anybody really want to say something, but I'm cutting you off and you didn't get a chance? You can always come right after this time and talk to the

Stocklands directly too. Not everybody wants to be in front of a microphone. I want to say some things that most people here probably don't know because they were behind the scenes.

So I don't want to share any specific examples, but to say that for eight years now, and interestingly, my first Sunday here at Cornerstone was the first Sunday in March of 2016.

So this is exactly eight years. This is the first Sunday in March, 2024. It's remarkable to say that for eight years of serving side by side, we never disagreed theologically.

And any little difference we always work through within a day or whatever. But Michael is the same as what you hear in the pulpit.

So every time behind the scenes, we had to face a question about what to do about COVID lockdowns or what to do about,

I don't know, wokeness and the stance that I was taking. I got pretty aggressive at some point.

You might've noticed against the wokeness movement. Hopefully that has died down a lot in the

EFCA, praise God. But I want you guys to understand that Michael always believed exactly what

I did. And together, when I would want to preach something or to take a stand,

Michael was always there believing exactly what I did. And he was a support to me in so many of those things that as an elder, as a leader, even when you weren't still on session, so to speak as an elder, you were still as an administrator and as one who leads worship, a pastor in that way, holding the same line.

And I believe that the growth that we have seen since 2016 has largely been due to the fact that we decided that we are going to stand on everything that God says, that we were gonna hold the line that we weren't going to compromise with culture.

When every blog article was saying one thing, we decided to say that, no, this is what the word of God says.

And all of the elders were together in that. And Michael was right there as a part of that. So thank you, brother.

You made a stand for truth and the Lord used you. You were the face of the worship team and everybody saw that.

But behind the scenes, you were a truth warrior and you still are. It's not past tense, you still are.

When you go to a church plant, I imagine that you will be faced with difficult questions.

And what the rock is receiving is not just a worship leader, but a true elder, a pastor, an overseer in the true sense of the word.

That like Titus 1 .9, you are able to uphold the word of truth and to refute those who contradict, that you know the word.

Guys, you don't know the inner workings of the Stockland family, but I used to be in a community group with them. I talked to Michael and we would meet a few times a year and talk about life and family.

Michael is a pastor shepherd of his family. If there's a model of what it looks like to bring your whole family together, and you guys can attest to this, right,

Brendan? Doing Bible studies together, leading. Brenda, as a help meet to Michael in the same way, you are leading and raising up a generation of godly kids.

That's a legacy that is inestimable, the value. Just to have

Andrew and there's Robert, there's Robbie, there's Brendan. Where's Charlie? Is Charlie in here? There's Charlie. Praise the

Lord for five children who walk with the Lord. Wouldn't we all agree what

John says in his epistles? I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk with the

Lord. And that's the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. We don't take glory for that as if it was your parenting, but your parenting was the instrument that God used to bring these children to faith.

And that's your legacy, and it goes with you, and it still testifies here as we see your lives.

And you know we're still gonna see each other all about playing Saleo soccer. Brendan, go a little easier on Abby, you know, like, no.

Or Abby, go easier on Brendan. Yeah, okay. We'll still see each other in life, you know.

It's not goodbye, but it is in a church family saying goodbye. There is an aspect of goodbye here that's painful.

As I said in my pastorgram, it's bittersweet. It's not sweet, it's bittersweet. But in the big picture, we recognize that we are just passing through this world.

It's a vapor. And then we're going to be together, the rock and cornerstone, and every true church is going to be one church in the presence of the

Lamb. So we're just doing the Lord's work until he comes. So to send you there is a joy because you're going out for the sake of the name.

You're gonna build the kingdom. The rock will be so much stronger for it. As you know, the worship needs you, and so many other areas of pastoring, they need you.

And they need you as well, Brenda, and all the kids as well. So the Lord is gonna bless you as you go.

So at this time, can we just pray for the whole family? Why don't you just stay here? We don't wanna call you up on stage, but Drew, there's

Eric, I see Matt, any other elders that are here, we're just gonna lay hands and pray for the Stocklands. Boys, come on up.

You gotta get prayed over. And there's Rick. Phil, you're about to be an elder.

Come on. He starts April 1st, so we'll get a jump on him. Can I call on, let's say,

Rick, Matt, and Eric? Sure. You're leading worship to allow us to worship you even more.

Oh God, I thank you for the Stocklands, for all the work that they've done here in the church. God, I thank you for bringing us here to Forreston.

God, so I just, I thank you for them. I thank you for all the work that they've done for this church. Sir, do you hear me or God?

No, Lord, I thank you for asking me to be with the Stocklands as they go to the front. Lord, I ask that they would be welcomed with open arms.

And Lord, as Jeff talked about, the relationship that he and Michael had with us, that would be the same relationship that I'm in, that they could be united in, and we just ask that you would bless this time.

Amen. Hey guys, you're welcome to stick around. Please do say hi or bye to the

Stocklands and share a quick word with them. Yeah, is there more food?

All right, seconds are over. All right, what are you doing?

I'm sending things out to this guy.

All right, my mayor, because I didn't sign up for that.

He's got a small ghost. And then he goes walking in to see his pastor. And he's like, oh, hey

Jeff. I was just sitting right here.

And so then this pastor came to me and said, hey, I heard the guy trying to steal our pastor. And I'm proud of him.

And I realize that we need each other. And so I turned to my pastor and was like, oh my goodness.

I heard you're a conservative church guy. And I understand that you talk about the school.

But I just don't remember him right now. So that was my sign. You're a racist. You're a conservative church.

So I was like,

OK, this guy actually wants to see me. And I'm like, you're supposed to see me.

But actually, he's got a clock. And I'm like, no, he's not in the school. He's in there. So now we're trying to settle in together.

So yes, I'm proud of him. And I'm like, you're such a weirdo.

You're such a weirdo. You're such a weirdo. You're such a weirdo.

You're such a weirdo. You're such a weirdo. You're such a weirdo. You're such a weirdo. You're such a weirdo.