The uncreated creator

[0:00] If you're able, I would love you to stand up. So, stand up. You don't know what you're doing, why you're standing up.

[0:11] ! While wearing red socks, please could you sit down?

[0:33] So, everybody's checking the color of their socks. We've got maybe one person sitting down. Excellent. Sit down if you ate toast for breakfast this morning.

[0:49] Oh, not many people. Serial fans in here this morning. Sit down if you watched a football match yesterday. I'm not standing up with you.

[1:03] You can stay seated if you're sat down. Not many people watching the England match. Interesting. Sit down if you walked to church.

[1:15] And that means all the way. If you drove some of the way, that doesn't count. Sit down if you walked to church. There's a few of you. Some of you do live close to church, to be fair. Final one.

[1:28] Sit down if you were ever born. That is everyone, isn't it? And I should sit down as well. But I have another job to do as well.

[1:42] We were all born. But there is someone here with us this morning who would stay standing if we could see them.

[1:54] Someone here unseen by us. Someone who we have been worshiping together. Who is the great God. God doesn't have a birthday.

[2:07] God the three in one. Father, Son and Spirit. Who's made the heavens and the earth. He's always existed. He never had a beginning.

[2:19] All of us, we have a day when we were born. We have birthdays. We celebrate them. We do weird things like sing weird songs to each other and have cake to celebrate that we've been given life.

[2:36] Every animal that we see, that had a day when it was born. There's a cat that I sometimes say hello to around the corner.

[2:48] That had a day when it was born. Every tree that we see had a day when it was planted and began to sprout up. But God is not like the rest of creation.

[3:01] God has always existed. He never had a beginning and he doesn't have an end. He will always be and always has been.

[3:14] We see that in the verses that we read this morning. Revelation chapter 4 verses 9 and 10. Just a disclaimer before I read.

[3:26] There's lots of weird things in this passage. And we're not going to get into those. If you want to know more, Phil's your man. There we go. No pressure.

[3:40] We're interested in what is plain and obvious about God in this passage this morning. So verses 9 to 10. God lives forever and ever.

[4:15] If you were to turn to the beginning of the Bible, you would read those words. In the beginning, God. What's that the beginning of?

[4:28] Well, it's not the beginning of God. It's the beginning of creation. The beginning of time. The beginning of the world in which we live today.

[4:38] But it gives us a sort of behind the scenes look at what was there, who was there before this creation came to be.

[4:50] And what was there was God. He's always been and always will be. So this morning, we can confidently say that God is not like us.

[5:05] And the difference between us and God is absolutely enormous. God has always existed. And we've had a day when we were born.

[5:17] And unless Jesus returns, we'll have a day when we die. The difference between a candle and a floodlight is pretty big.

[5:31] A candle is a little light, a little flame in a room. A floodlight can help it light up an entire football stadium. Or the difference between a pond and an ocean.

[5:43] A pond can happily be in your back garden, whereas an ocean connects countries together. The difference between a cloud and a cloud and a cloud and a cloud. The difference between this room and the universe is enormous.

[5:57] This room is tiny compared to the universe. But that doesn't even compare to the difference between us and God. The difference between us and God is huge.

[6:12] God is not like us. Let's think about it a little bit differently. Stand up if you can live without water and food.

[6:28] Okay, that seems to be no one. Stand up if you can live without air. Maybe Samuel thinks he can live without air.

[6:40] I have my doubts. Stand up if you can live without the sun. Again, I really don't think you can. Certainly this world wouldn't keep going without the sun.

[6:54] You might be happy staying in your bedroom without the sun coming in. But I don't think you can live without the sun. We need things to live.

[7:05] But does God need food and water to live? No, he doesn't. He was there before food and water existed.

[7:18] Does God need air to breathe? Well, no. Does God need the sun to live? No, he was there before that was created.

[7:29] He's always existed before any of those things existed. God doesn't need anything. He is completely happy and fine by himself.

[7:48] He needs no food, no shelter, no plants, no sun, no stars, no sea, no people. He doesn't need those things. God was just there happily existing with himself.

[8:04] He needed nothing to live, nothing to survive. Acts 17, Paul preaching to people in Athens.

[8:17] Paul says this, The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands and he is not served by human hands.

[8:31] As if he needed anything. He doesn't need anything. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need to be worshipped and praised by us.

[8:46] He doesn't need us to pray for him. We need to pray for one another, but he doesn't need us to pray for him. God always existed. He never had a birthday and he doesn't need anything.

[9:02] And finally, he is on the throne. And who sits on thrones? You can answer that if you want to. Kings. Kings, queens, rulers.

[9:16] Absolutely. And the king of our country, king, and I get mocked about the way I say this, so hopefully I say his name right. You can come and complain to me later.

[9:27] If I haven't said his name right, it should be simple. But King Charles isn't like you and me. He was born into a royal family.

[9:41] And as far as I know, none of us have been born into a royal family. If you have been, come and let me know later. Love to meet you. We are born into pretty normal families.

[9:54] We have parents who've had to go to work and do jobs at home for us. None of us, as far as I know, grew up in a palace.

[10:05] And yet the king, his mom was literally the queen, Queen Elizabeth. They lived in palaces. They had servants helping them to get dressed and clean the palaces and to feed them.

[10:21] They have the prime minister come and visit once a week. They are different from us. And yet at the same time, our king is a human being.

[10:34] He has a birthday. In fact, he has two. He was born. He has parents. He has brothers and sisters. Normal things.

[10:45] Normal human things. He gets dirty and has to have a shower. He gets sick. He even goes to the toilet. He is human. And so in some ways, he's not like us.

[11:00] But actually, he is just like us. He's a human being. Whereas God, he sits on the throne. And his throne is not on this earth.

[11:14] His throne is in heaven. Verse 2 of our passage. John gets this glimpse, this vision of the throne of heaven. Verse 2.

[11:26] At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. Verse 3. And just to begin to read from verse 3.

[11:38] The description of the throne. The one who sat on the throne had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.

[11:49] There's all sorts of images in this throne. There's jewels and emeralds and creatures with crowns of gold on them and flashes of lightning and the sound of thunder and rainbows.

[12:03] There's all sorts of amazing imagery going on to try and show us how awesome and amazing our God is beyond description.

[12:16] Because the one who sat on that throne is awesome. So unlike us. Without any beginning. And does not need anything.

[12:27] And so the response from the creatures in heaven is this. Verse 9. Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.

[12:54] They fall down before God in worship. And we read it earlier. That day and night they never stop saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

[13:09] That's the one on the throne. Who was and is and is to come. This is who God is. And he deserves our worship, our praise this morning.

[13:23] And so our musicians will come back again and lead us in another song. And then we'll look at some more. And this is an appropriate song to sing. Singing of the higher throne.

[13:37] I would love to have three volunteers. It can be younger. It can be older. No age limit here. Let's go.

[13:49] Let's go. Let's go for you three on this row if that's okay. Come up. Come up. And why do you need to stand in front here?

[14:02] All of you have, by coming up, entered, let's find the slide for it, the sheep challenge. What's the sheep challenge?

[14:15] Well, I'm going to give all three of you something different to use to create a sheep. So one of you is going to get a clipboard and a pen.

[14:27] One of you is going to get some Play-Doh. So, and then the final one of you won't get anything. You're not allowed to use anything if you're that person to create a sheep.

[14:38] Okay. So we'll see what happens. We'll give you a minute to do this. Okay. So, Bethany, why don't you take the clipboard and pen? There we go. Gracie, Play-Doh, and Isaac, unfortunately, you can't use anything, nothing at all to create a sheep.

[14:56] Do you think you could do that? We'll see. We've got a minute to find out. Okay. There may even be a countdown timer on this clock. So, three, two, one, go.

[15:11] Not sure the countdown timer's working, but I'm keeping. Oh, it is working. That's exciting. Excellent.

[15:24] Excellent. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting technique from Isaac there. Wonderful. Well done. We've got some Play-Doh.

[15:35] An orange sheep going on. People know I love orange, so that's looking good. And we've got a nice sheep coming along here at the front. Wonderful. You've got 30 seconds left.

[15:46] Maybe you don't even need 30 seconds. I don't know. Loving this. Loving this creativity. You've got 10 seconds left, more or less.

[16:02] There might be a bit of an alarm that goes off in a sec. You can feel the tension in the room. And that's your time done.

[16:16] Well done, everyone. Bethany, can you hold up your picture? It is. It's a really good sheep. It's a bit tiny, but well done. Well done, Bethany. I can give you a clap. Gracie, Play-Doh.

[16:32] Do you want to hold that up to everyone? There we go. We've got a sheep here. Well done, Gracie. Well done. Well done. And Isaac has, in his wonderful creativity, is on the floor holding his ears.

[16:50] Great effort. Well done, Isaac. Well done. Well done. You can all go and take a seat. You can leave your items down there. That will be fine.

[17:01] Well done. You can destroy it or you can hold on to it for the rest of the service if you want to. There you go. Well done. Well done.

[17:13] That was a bit of an experiment that you probably weren't expecting this morning. We've heard that God always existed.

[17:26] That he doesn't need anything. And he sits on his great heavenly throne. God doesn't need anything. God doesn't need anything. But we need God. And we need God.

[17:39] Because we have life. And we've been created. And we've been created. And we've been created. And we've been created. And we've been created. To live on this earth. And we've been created.

[17:50] By God. we can create things if we have things to create with a Bethany could create a sheep on her piece of paper with a with a pen Gracie could create a sheep with some play-doh she had something to create with and Isaac even managed to create a bit of a sheep with his own body we can create things if we have things to create with but none of us can create something out of nothing none of our three volunteers could create a sheep out of nothing they needed something they needed tools just like we all need things to make other things with we need wood to to make something or snow to make a snowman or or pens and pencils to draw a drawing but the bible clearly shows us that our great gods created life out of nothing there was nothing but God remember in the beginning nothing but God's and yet the bible shows us God spoke and creation came to be and that shouldn't surprise us because of what we've already heard this morning

[19:21] God has always existed he doesn't need anything to exist and so it shouldn't surprise us that God is powerful enough to create everything out of nothing and in the rest of the bible it speaks some more about God and his creative work and we're told in John chapter 1 verse 3 we're told of Jesus who's described as the word we're told that through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made through God through God's word through the Lord Jesus all things were made and we see that God keeps things going as well here's a verse for you Hebrews 1 verse 3 the son the Lord Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining keeping all things by his powerful words

[20:40] God can exist perfectly fine all by himself God's glory and the exact representation of his being God's glory and the exact representation of his being

[21:46] God's glory and the exact representation of his being God's glory and the exact representation of his being can thank God because we need God for life he's the one who's given it to us and when we're given something it's a good idea to thank thank someone for it now hearing that we need God for life is an important reminder to us that we are not the centers of the universe sometimes we think we are not the universe sometimes we think we are sometimes we live like we're number one like sometimes I think I want everything to go my way in a day

[22:55] I want to decide what happens I want to eat I want to be in charge of all the conversations I have with people I want my music to be played and if something doesn't go my way well then maybe I'll get upset but the truth is from that we see in God's word we are not the most important people God is neither are the most important people like your moms and dads they are great but they don't uphold the universe your teacher that they they may teach you all sorts of wonderful things you may really like them but they don't know all things your husband and wife you you may love them and think they are wonderful human beings but God loves you with an even greater love God is great and he sits on his throne and all of us need him even though doesn't God doesn't need us it doesn't mean we're not important let's have a look at Revelation 4 verse 11 again

[24:20] Revelation 4 verse 11 you are worthy our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being all of us have life because that is God's will by your will they were created and have their being and so this morning your your life here is not an accident God has chosen to create you by his will life is precious a precious gift from our uncreated creator gods and human life is especially precious Genesis 1 verse 27 says so God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them male and female he created them them we are not God we've seen that today but God has chosen to make us human beings in his image and so we are each worth something we are valuable in God's sight because God has shown and said we are worth something he created us in his image the world may say you are valuable by all sorts of other things by the things you do by choosing who you are by choosing who you are by riding fast and loud motorbikes but the voice that we need to listen to is God's voice who says that you are a human being made in my image and he's even the one who's created us as male and female and that's a good gift to thank God for and something that we shouldn't choose for ourselves that's good for us to hear because maybe this morning someone has been unkind to us maybe about what we look like or what we say or about the clothes we wear but let's listen to God's voice he says I have made you and you are beautiful human beings made in my image but the final thing to say in all of this is that our image has been ruined here's a human being here it's not a very well drawn human being but here's a human being here created in God's image but our image has been ruined by something called sin and so let's ruin this image of God here because that's what sin is like we are precious images of God but sin has messed us up sin has entered our world and we are not the perfect images of God we were supposed to be and so instead we live like we're the centers of the universe like we deserve all the glory and praise and not God's maybe we want to protect our reputation

[28:22] and so we say a lie to try and make us look good we are sinful and so we need God to save us because we're precious human beings made in the image of God God our great creator has not left us alone and we said that God doesn't have a birthday this is true because God has always existed but also it's sort of not true because God chose to have a birthday God chose to be born like you and me were born God chose to become small to become a weak little helpless baby we know that story well because of Christmas time which though Jesus wasn't born on December the 25th as far as we know it's good we have opportunity to remember his birth and here's what we read we often read this at Christmas time here's what we read in the Bible

[29:35] Matthew 1 21 as the angel spoke to Mary she will give sorry as the angel spoke to Joseph about Mary that's what I should say she will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins so God is the great uncreated creator he had no birthday and always been he doesn't need anything and he sits on his throne in heaven but he chose to create this world that we live in he chose to create and give life to you and me we are not an accident and even though human beings fell into sin he chose to become like us to be small he chose to have a birthday in order to save us from our sins and that's good news this morning and so why don't we give the glory again to God by reading again these wonderful words in Revelation 4 verse 11 let's say them together you are worthy our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being amen and we're gonna have two songs to end the first song is on a video clip it's not a song we've sung here before the lyrics are all on the screen