WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.960 So our reading this morning, friends, is in Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:10.160 That's page number one in the church Bibles. 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:13.759 Please feel free to help yourself to one there on the table at the back. 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:19.719 It's also on the screen and it's in the bulletin as well. 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:28.000 Genesis 1 verse 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.000 The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:40.880 And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:47.960 Amen and may God bless to us the reading of his own precious and most holy word. 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:53.000 We've just finished our vision and values series here at St. C's on Sunday mornings, 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:58.600 looking at our DNA, looking at the church that we want to be over the next five to ten years. 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:04.599 And now we're turning for the next seven weeks to the first two chapters of the book of Genesis. 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:06.920 Foundations we're calling it. 00:01:06.920 --> 00:01:12.439 And because we've got seven weeks to look at these two chapters, we're able to slow down, 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:15.280 take some depth, look pretty closely. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:17.799 So we just read first two verses today. 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:21.060 That's all we'll think about today is the first two verses. 00:01:21.060 --> 00:01:23.879 I think, well, this is, this is, this is a fact. 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:31.040 This is the most translated, the most published, and the most well-known sentence in human history. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:34.320 In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. 00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:41.719 It's so well-known that in 1968, Bill Anders on the Apollo 8 mission to the moon in orbit 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:47.439 around the moon on Christmas Eve read Genesis 1, 1 and to the whole world. 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:51.959 But this, this verse that we're looking at today has been read from the moon, you know? 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:53.439 How many books have been read from the moon? 00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:54.679 Not too many probably. 00:01:54.679 --> 00:02:01.879 But this has, it's, it's an enormous and well-known, famous sentence. 00:02:01.879 --> 00:02:06.599 I think though that it is our modern instinct, as soon as we say, we're gonna, we're gonna 00:02:06.599 --> 00:02:13.120 talk about Genesis 1 for all of us probably to say, what is he gonna say about evolution? 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:15.319 What is he gonna say about the days of creation? 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:18.799 What is he gonna say about how long all of it took? 00:02:18.799 --> 00:02:26.359 And we tend in our modern time to immediately think of Genesis 1 and 2 in the lens of faith 00:02:26.359 --> 00:02:28.039 versus science. 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:32.959 And all the questions that come with that, Stephen Jay Gould, who was a very famous paleontologist 00:02:32.959 --> 00:02:39.280 in the U.S. that died about 20 years ago, he, he read this, that religion and science 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:41.759 are two separate spheres. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:43.680 They should never cross paths. 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:45.560 Now, here's the translation of that. 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:50.599 What he meant was, science tells you the truth, religion tells you myth and fantasy. 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:52.760 That's what he meant. 00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:56.480 And instead, I think one of the things we're gonna see more next week than this week, but 00:02:56.480 --> 00:03:04.040 throughout the whole series is that physics and biology are so important. 00:03:04.040 --> 00:03:07.319 And they can tell you how something exists. 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:11.000 And they can tell you the composition of that thing that exists. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:15.039 But they can never tell you why something exists. 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:20.879 They can never tell you who you are, what you're for, and what you should do today. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:23.000 And that's why religion and science are never at odds. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.000 They're always together, always. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:30.199 Because one can tell you what something is, but it can never tell you why. 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:33.759 And when you come to Genesis 1, you have the why. 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:40.039 You have that the world has created, that there is a creator, and later on we'll see 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:43.239 in the series why you exist and what you're for. 00:03:43.239 --> 00:03:45.319 And that's what Genesis 1 is here for. 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:49.919 And so instead of immediately jumping to the faith and science thing, we're gonna try to 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:55.319 just listen to the text and let it take us exactly to the places maybe that God wants 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:57.479 us to see. 00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:01.560 That the world was created, that there is a God who created it, and who we are and what 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:02.560 we're for. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.239 That's really what Genesis 1 wants us to do, I think. 00:04:05.239 --> 00:04:08.280 And so Genesis 1 is a symphony. 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:11.919 It is a triumph of literature. 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:13.719 It is the Word of the Lord. 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:15.479 It's so important. 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:18.000 Two things this morning from these two verses. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.040 First, there was a beginning. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:22.519 Very important to say. 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:27.079 Secondly, we'll think then about the God who made that beginning, just for a few minutes. 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:32.279 So we're gonna spend most of our time a few minutes on the first point and then close 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:33.279 on the second point. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:38.759 First, there was a beginning. The very first thing we read when you open page one of the 00:04:38.759 --> 00:04:42.159 Bible is in the beginning. 00:04:42.159 --> 00:04:43.679 This little prepositional phrase. 00:04:43.679 --> 00:04:46.959 And in Hebrew, this little phrase is only one word. 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:51.919 And this one word shows up four other times across the Old Testament. 00:04:51.919 --> 00:04:57.479 And when you read the scholars on this, they say something very important. 00:04:57.479 --> 00:05:01.519 The grammar is difficult, but they say when you look at the grammar closely of this little 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:07.120 prepositional phrase in the beginning, it's an absolute phrase. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:08.120 What do they mean by that? 00:05:08.120 --> 00:05:09.439 Here's what they mean. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:15.279 They mean that it shouldn't be translated something like, when God began creating. 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:18.240 Now, why does that matter? 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:19.599 And here's why it matters. 00:05:19.599 --> 00:05:24.560 Because if you say something like, when God began creating, there's an idea there that 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:32.000 there's one thing that might have existed at the same time as God existed. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.399 And that is time. 00:05:35.399 --> 00:05:39.160 That in the beginning, there already was time. 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:44.439 In the beginning, there was something existing alongside God, like space and time. 00:05:44.439 --> 00:05:47.959 And God took the space and time and he wielded it and moved it around and made things out 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:49.480 of it. 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:54.040 And when they say that in the beginning is an absolute phrase, what they mean is it should 00:05:54.040 --> 00:06:00.080 be translated or understood something like, when time itself began. 00:06:00.080 --> 00:06:04.240 So in the beginning, there was a beginning to the beginning. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:05.240 Yeah? 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:10.160 In other words, in the beginning, God made time. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:12.080 God made space. 00:06:12.080 --> 00:06:14.360 God made all the dimensions of existence. 00:06:14.360 --> 00:06:16.520 That's what this little phrase means. 00:06:16.520 --> 00:06:19.879 There is no pre-existent matter. 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:26.680 There is nothing existing alongside God that he took like we take Legos and craft something 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:27.680 else. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.680 Not at all. 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:32.439 That it's an absolute beginning by the absolute God. 00:06:32.439 --> 00:06:36.439 And then it says in the beginning, God quote, created. 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:42.159 And last little bit of Hebrew focus here, but this word created, the text that stands behind 00:06:42.159 --> 00:06:43.839 the English is Hebrew. 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:49.560 And in the Hebrew text, the original text, this word created is never used of any human 00:06:49.560 --> 00:06:52.160 being in the whole Bible. 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:53.360 Only ever used of God. 00:06:53.360 --> 00:07:00.480 So sometimes we will talk, we will say, you know, I created a wonderful invention. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:04.040 I created a Lego millennium Falcon this weekend. 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:06.040 Right? 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:07.040 That would have been a great weekend. 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:10.899 I didn't actually do that, but it would have been fun. 00:07:10.899 --> 00:07:15.579 You might say, I created a gorgeous cake for lunch today. 00:07:15.579 --> 00:07:17.800 The Bible never speaks like that. 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:18.800 Never. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:21.079 It never uses the word creation for anybody but God. 00:07:21.079 --> 00:07:25.920 It uses different words when we take stuff and make other stuff out of it. 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:30.240 And that's to say, you put all this together and what you have is the doctrine, the pronouncement 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:35.920 of Genesis one, that God created the world ex nihilo from nothing. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:37.840 He created it from absolutely nothing. 00:07:37.840 --> 00:07:44.960 And so John Calvin, the great reformer, he says, created here means from nothing. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:51.599 And for the last couple hundred years, scholars in the academy have often laughed at that. 00:07:51.599 --> 00:07:55.839 They've said, you know, you can't open page one of the Bible and say, God definitely created 00:07:55.839 --> 00:07:56.839 the world from nothing. 00:07:56.839 --> 00:07:58.479 It doesn't say that. 00:07:58.479 --> 00:07:59.759 There's different ways you could translate it. 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:03.319 There's different ways you could think, oh, there is something alongside God from the 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:06.959 beginning that he wielded into creation. 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:14.279 And people, the scholars oftentimes made fun of Calvin's pronouncement until in the 20th 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:17.679 century, the greatest 20th century Old Testament scholar. 00:08:17.679 --> 00:08:23.559 This might be super boring to you, but Gerhardus von Rod, a Dutchman, thought to be the greatest 00:08:23.559 --> 00:08:26.479 voice of Old Testament scholarship. 00:08:26.479 --> 00:08:30.759 Not in any way in the lineage of John Calvin, far from it. 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:33.000 He came along and he writes this in his commentary. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:39.000 He says, the word created here means from nothing. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:40.000 There it is. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.319 Von Rod, the greatest of the academy. 00:08:42.319 --> 00:08:43.319 He said it too. 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:44.920 And now it's recognized. 00:08:44.920 --> 00:08:50.520 That's exactly the intention of Genesis one, one creation from nothing out of nothing. 00:08:50.520 --> 00:08:52.000 Now what does this mean? 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:53.800 What does this matter to us? 00:08:53.800 --> 00:08:55.360 How does this matter? 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:59.920 This is not new, of course, to anybody in this room that Christianity makes this claim, 00:08:59.920 --> 00:09:01.640 but it's really important to say this. 00:09:01.640 --> 00:09:06.600 Will you take a minute just to reflect on this with me? 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:08.320 And here it is. 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:13.840 All that exists or has ever existed or ever will exist, including space and time and all 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:17.280 the dimensions I have no idea how to talk about. 00:09:17.280 --> 00:09:23.960 All of it was made, created by God, every bit of it. 00:09:23.960 --> 00:09:25.840 And that means everything. 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:26.840 It means everything. 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:27.840 Here's what it means. 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:34.200 On the one hand, it means nothing in this world, nothing in our existence is necessary. 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:36.680 We are not necessary. 00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:39.799 None of us here today need to exist. 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:41.479 None of us who only God is necessary. 00:09:41.479 --> 00:09:42.479 None of us are. 00:09:42.479 --> 00:09:43.479 We're relative. 00:09:43.479 --> 00:09:47.839 On the one hand, on the other hand, it also means that the God who did not have to make 00:09:47.839 --> 00:09:50.879 anything chose to. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:55.519 And that means that while we are not necessary, we are so relative. 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.439 On the other hand, we are not an accident. 00:09:58.439 --> 00:10:00.279 God was very purposeful in what he did. 00:10:00.279 --> 00:10:04.439 And when you put those two things together, here's what you can say about it, that creation, 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:10.960 our existence, my existence, the existence of everything around us is a gift. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:19.160 Prime reality, fundamental nature, the principle that is behind everything is a gift. 00:10:19.160 --> 00:10:20.880 Given. 00:10:20.880 --> 00:10:21.960 We don't own it. 00:10:21.960 --> 00:10:23.640 It's given. 00:10:23.640 --> 00:10:28.560 And that is so unbelievably important. 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:33.080 There is pretty much universal agreement nowadays that one of the things that Genesis 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:38.720 One is doing, and we'll see more of this next week, is Moses is writing to repudiate, to 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:44.360 argue against all the pagan cosmologies in the ancient world. 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:47.240 So stories of origin, origin stories from the ancient world. 00:10:47.240 --> 00:10:51.240 That's one of the reasons Genesis One is here to push back against them. 00:10:51.240 --> 00:10:55.720 And one of those is very well known now called the Anuma Ailish. 00:10:55.720 --> 00:10:58.680 It's the Babylonian story of creation. 00:10:58.680 --> 00:11:00.000 It's very, very old. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:03.960 It could go all the way back to the Tower of Babel about the same time. 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:08.480 And we have many copies of it nowadays, and I read it this week. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:13.480 And it says that in the beginning, from the beginning, when there was no heaven and there 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:19.480 was no earth, there were no gods, but there were two, Absu and Tiamat. 00:11:19.480 --> 00:11:21.960 So these two prime gods. 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:27.039 And then it says that they beget all the other gods, the many gods that exist. 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:31.480 And then when they did that, all the gods started fighting each other and killing each 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:32.480 other. 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:36.120 And then a bunch of the gods teamed up against the two primal gods, especially Tiamat, and 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.240 they killed Tiamat. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:45.599 And what happened was, is they cut her open and out of her body flowed the world, the 00:11:45.599 --> 00:11:47.120 earth. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:52.839 And humans were told in the ancient Babylonian story came from the guts of Tiamat, the slain 00:11:52.839 --> 00:11:53.839 goddess. 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:58.920 And so if you're living in the ancient Near East, the biggest, widest, most well-known 00:11:58.920 --> 00:12:05.000 story for why you exist is that you are an accident. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.960 And you are the guts of a fallen goddess. 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:14.960 And everybody in Babylon understood that human beings are the slave race to the gods. 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:18.320 And all the ancient Near Eastern stories are like this. 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:22.560 Now maybe you come from an Eastern religion, the Eastern religions, what do they say? 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:28.199 Many of them, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, for example, they all say that in the beginning 00:12:28.199 --> 00:12:33.039 there were two great principles, good and evil, and they were battling it out. 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:34.199 And that's still what we're living under. 00:12:34.199 --> 00:12:39.359 If you go to the Greeks in the ancient world, they say that this world was an accident and 00:12:39.359 --> 00:12:41.679 that it's a prison. 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:49.599 And so physicality, pleasure, comfort, good food, prison, and the goal of salvation, the 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:54.840 goal of your life is to escape, is to get out of this, is to be an ascetic, to leave 00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:59.560 the comforts of the body, to live in the desert, to deny the flesh because the flesh is evil. 00:12:59.560 --> 00:13:01.440 That's the Greek view. 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.920 Come to the modern view, the modern scientific view. 00:13:04.920 --> 00:13:10.040 And the modern scientific consensus, as we're told, is that this world exists by way of 00:13:10.040 --> 00:13:15.560 chance along an infinite series, that you are an accident. 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:20.679 And in the beginning there was a dense, unimaginably hot singularity. 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:22.439 That's the story. 00:13:22.439 --> 00:13:25.799 And that singularity has always existed. 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:27.399 It's eternal. 00:13:27.399 --> 00:13:31.119 And all of a sudden, out from it comes everything. 00:13:31.119 --> 00:13:34.879 Now in every one of these stories, here's what Carl Sagan says, the famous atheist in the 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:35.879 States. 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:40.879 He says, the cosmos is all that was and all that ever will be. 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.000 It's all that was, it's all that ever will be. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:49.200 Now listen, Christianity comes in and says no and gives a different story to every single 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:52.480 philosophy, every single religion. 00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:57.679 The modern scientific consensus shifts it in a big way and it says this, the world is 00:13:57.679 --> 00:14:02.159 not necessary, but it is not an accident. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:04.000 It's a gift. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:06.000 It's purposeful. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.879 And I think, I just want to say to you today, that acknowledging this basic truth will change 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:12.000 your life. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:14.600 It will flip your life upside down. 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:20.879 Look if the pagan cosmology is right, you are an accident and a product of violence. 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:27.879 If the Greek story is right, pleasure, physicality is evil. 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:31.919 If the Eastern principle between good and evil is right, then that means that fundamental 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:34.919 reality is a violent conflict. 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:38.279 And you do not know whether good or evil is going to win out. 00:14:38.279 --> 00:14:42.679 And if the modern scientific consensus is right, ever since at the beginning, the only 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:48.399 reason that you're here is because your ancestors were better at killing. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:51.639 You are a product of being read, everybody had to be read in tooth and claw. 00:14:51.639 --> 00:14:56.360 That's the only way the single cell organisms were going to win out and become humans. 00:14:56.360 --> 00:15:00.240 And look, if you look at every single philosophy, every single way of putting it, here's what 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:01.240 we have. 00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:05.959 One thing, the world is a product of violence. 00:15:05.959 --> 00:15:07.959 Every single origin story except Christianity. 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:11.120 The world is a product of violence. 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:14.320 And in the beginning, God created in the heavens and the earth comes to you and says, it is 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:17.360 not a product of violence, it is a gift. 00:15:17.360 --> 00:15:25.160 And that fundamental reality, prime reality is love, not violence, not conflict. 00:15:25.160 --> 00:15:30.160 Just think about it and we'll move on to the final point. 00:15:30.160 --> 00:15:35.960 The modern scientific consensus, Carl Sagan, he says the world was a complete accident, 00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:39.400 a singularity that got too hot and blew up. 00:15:39.400 --> 00:15:44.879 And you are an accident on top of an accident, on top of an accident, read in tooth and claw, 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:47.960 conflict after conflict after conflict, and that's why you're sitting here today. 00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:50.080 That's the only reason. 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:54.320 And so love your neighbor. 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:59.200 You know, treat everybody with equality. 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:01.040 Everybody deserves rights, human rights. 00:16:01.040 --> 00:16:03.360 We should all have rights. 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:06.080 And you can see that it's a bad syllogism. 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:07.440 One does not follow from the other. 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:12.320 You know, our kids sing at school, all the kids in Edinburgh, maybe beyond the, what 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:13.320 did they say? 00:16:13.320 --> 00:16:18.080 They say, you are a star, just the way you are. 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:21.440 I started to sing it, but I stopped myself because it would have been rough. 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:23.759 But you, that's what we sing. 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:25.759 That's the school, that's the school music. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:26.960 You are a star. 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:27.960 You're an accident. 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:28.960 You're a product of conflict. 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:34.000 That's the fundamental reality, but you're a star, right? 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:38.720 Let me just suggest, only Christianity makes real sense of this world. 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:43.200 Only God, the maker of heaven and earth, can make sense of reality as you actually experience 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:44.200 it. 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:50.680 And boy, long for Carl Sagan and other, the many others and Dawkins to see this. 00:16:50.680 --> 00:16:55.400 If you deny the existence of the maker of heaven and earth, one of the greatest losses 00:16:55.399 --> 00:17:00.000 you have is the possibility of gratitude. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:02.519 Gratitude in this life is the key to joy. 00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:06.599 But if you don't believe that God made the heavens and earth, who can you be grateful 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:08.839 to? 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:13.279 Relatively to your parents, relatively to a teacher, a coach, maybe, for a little while, 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:15.759 until they upset you. 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:17.519 But who do you have to be grateful to? 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:20.319 And gratitude is the key to all joy in this life. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:26.000 And friends, Christianity says there is a reason you can actually be grateful and get 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:27.639 outside of yourself. 00:17:27.639 --> 00:17:33.919 The world is a gift and gratitude is the only right response to that gift. 00:17:33.919 --> 00:17:39.119 I hope you know today, wherever you are in life right now, that you're not an accident. 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:40.799 The world says you are an accident. 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:42.599 The consensus says you're an accident. 00:17:42.599 --> 00:17:44.480 You're not an accident. 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:48.919 You're an object of the love of God, the maker of heaven and earth. 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:52.800 And briefly, finally, the world had a beginning. 00:17:52.800 --> 00:17:54.400 God created the heavens and the earth. 00:17:54.400 --> 00:18:01.000 Secondly, let's think for just a moment about the God who created the heavens and the earth. 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:02.000 Who is this God? 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:03.000 We've already said some things. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:04.000 He's necessary. 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:06.000 We're not. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:07.279 He's purposeful. 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:08.279 He created the world. 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:09.840 It was not an accident. 00:18:09.840 --> 00:18:12.080 He's a gift giver. 00:18:12.080 --> 00:18:15.480 He's love, we could say, from the very beginning. 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:20.680 In the language of the interverse one is God made the heavens and the earth. 00:18:20.680 --> 00:18:22.839 And that's sort of like a title. 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:26.120 It's like a superscript you see in the Psalms. 00:18:26.120 --> 00:18:30.960 Heavens and earth there, everyone agrees, summarizes just everything that exists. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:33.360 Things that are up, things that are down. 00:18:33.360 --> 00:18:35.599 Things that are visible, things that are invisible. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:37.559 It's a double entendre in that way. 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:39.160 It just means everything. 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:42.880 And so Terry Eagleton, this is maybe a way to summarize the whole of what we've just 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:43.880 said. 00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:50.480 And he says, this is balm for all human arrogance. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:55.000 Because what we see here is the world is not our possession to be molded and manipulated 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.000 as we please. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.640 No, God made the heavens and the earth. 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:01.480 Now we've got a problem at my house. 00:19:01.480 --> 00:19:07.880 And the problem is that we have public Lego boxes at our house. 00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:10.200 We have lots of boxes of Legos. 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:11.800 Anybody can use them. 00:19:11.800 --> 00:19:12.800 Anybody. 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:15.039 We don't even play Legos. 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:20.480 But what happens in our house is that certain people in our house build things from those 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:22.799 Legos like spaceships. 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:29.960 And as soon as the next person who may or may not be of their flesh and blood comes along 00:19:29.960 --> 00:19:36.559 and takes apart pieces of that spaceship, because they need it for their spaceship, 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:40.839 the first one comes and says, what are you doing? 00:19:40.839 --> 00:19:42.720 I made it. 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:45.799 It belongs to me. 00:19:45.799 --> 00:19:50.600 And they're bumping up against these two conflicting principles of a relative creatureliness. 00:19:50.600 --> 00:19:53.759 One is you can own stuff in this life. 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:57.600 The other is, but none of it's ultimately yours. 00:19:57.600 --> 00:19:58.960 Right? 00:19:58.960 --> 00:19:59.960 You see that? 00:19:59.960 --> 00:20:01.600 We've also, it's hard to share in other words. 00:20:01.600 --> 00:20:02.600 That's the story. 00:20:02.600 --> 00:20:03.600 It's hard to share. 00:20:03.600 --> 00:20:04.600 We have to. 00:20:04.600 --> 00:20:06.360 Now look, but we know the principle. 00:20:06.360 --> 00:20:08.299 We know the instinct of a five year old. 00:20:08.299 --> 00:20:09.299 I made it. 00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:10.299 It's mine. 00:20:10.299 --> 00:20:11.920 And there's something really true about that. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:17.120 And when you come to this passage, it says God made the heavens and the earth. 00:20:17.120 --> 00:20:18.120 He made everything. 00:20:18.120 --> 00:20:20.160 And let me just say, what do we learn about this God? 00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:22.759 We learn that he is absolute. 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:24.440 He can do that. 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:28.800 And if he can do that, if he made it, he owns it. 00:20:28.800 --> 00:20:33.960 Only the absolute God could claim total ownership over that, which he has made. 00:20:33.960 --> 00:20:36.720 And that we see that he's King. 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:37.720 He's almighty. 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:38.880 He owns it. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:41.440 Second thing we learn here in final thing. 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:46.000 And at the same time, in verse two, we're told the very first thing in the creation 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:53.519 act is the spirit of God came down and hovered over the face of the deep. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:56.279 We'll come back to the language of formless and void next week. 00:20:56.279 --> 00:20:59.720 So I'm not skipping over that, but let me just focus on this as we close. 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:02.720 The spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. 00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:04.200 That's the next thing we say. 00:21:04.200 --> 00:21:07.600 The world in the beginning was a watery surface. 00:21:07.600 --> 00:21:08.880 That's what we're being told. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:12.080 And the spirit of God condescended and hovered. 00:21:12.080 --> 00:21:13.480 That's the word that's used now. 00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:19.000 This word hovered to flutter or hover is only used one other time in the exact form that 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:20.000 we see here. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:27.280 And that's in Deuteronomy 32 verse 11 exact same verb by the same author, Moses. 00:21:27.280 --> 00:21:31.800 And it's a reference there to an eagle or to a bird. 00:21:31.800 --> 00:21:38.280 It could be any number of birds, a mother bird who has hovering over her young. 00:21:38.279 --> 00:21:43.559 And it says that the eagle, like an eagle nourishes her children. 00:21:43.559 --> 00:21:44.559 It's the same exact verb. 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:49.119 And so the metaphor that we're being given here in the beginning is that the Holy Spirit 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:56.639 of God came down and hovered like a bird, a mother bird who nourishes, who cares for, 00:21:56.639 --> 00:21:57.639 who protects. 00:21:57.639 --> 00:21:59.960 And so what we see here is two things. 00:21:59.960 --> 00:22:05.359 One, the God who is absolute and holy other, who has the power to make everything and own 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:14.000 it is the same God who immediately comes close and shows up like in nourishment, in 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:17.599 protection, who wants to be near unto us. 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:20.799 And so immediately you see why were you created? 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:23.839 And the very first thing we learned from verse two is this. 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:28.359 The God who made you is the God who wants to know you. 00:22:28.359 --> 00:22:29.759 Is the God who wants to be close to you. 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:32.679 Is the God who wants to be in your presence and you and his. 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:35.680 That's the very first principle we learn from the beginning. 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:41.080 Now Christopher Watkin, one recent writer, he says it like this. 00:22:41.080 --> 00:22:47.279 If the world had a beginning, then reality is shaping up from page one of the Bible 00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:51.360 to look remarkably like a story. 00:22:51.360 --> 00:22:54.680 See the very first word that we have in the Bible is the beginning. 00:22:54.680 --> 00:22:55.880 That's the first word. 00:22:55.880 --> 00:23:01.480 And that means that we're about to read a whole book, this book, that says, that suggests 00:23:01.480 --> 00:23:04.880 the world, the history of the world is a story. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:08.799 And if you have a beginning, you know, if you've got a beginning, you're going to have 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:11.720 a middle, you're going to have an end. 00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:16.839 And so the reason that we see our whole lives in the form of narrative, in the form of story, 00:23:16.839 --> 00:23:20.799 history in the form of narrative, in the form of story is because God created the world 00:23:20.799 --> 00:23:22.960 to be a story. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:24.480 A history is story. 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:27.000 There's a beginning, there's a middle, and there's an end. 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:30.519 And the story is simply this. 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:38.879 God made this world and he owns it and he gave us this gift of life to return gratitude 00:23:38.879 --> 00:23:42.440 towards him, to be near him as he wants to be unto us. 00:23:42.440 --> 00:23:46.639 And we are not grateful. 00:23:46.639 --> 00:23:48.920 That's the story of the world. 00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:54.160 God made us to be infinitely grateful to him, and we're just not grateful. 00:23:54.160 --> 00:24:00.480 And so from the very beginning, we replaced gratitude with unbelief, gratitude with dishonor. 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:04.960 Gratitude with hatred for God. 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:07.640 Gratitude with everything that is its opposite. 00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:10.519 And that's the story of the world. 00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:15.160 I know that I was chatting with somebody this week connected to our congregation and one 00:24:15.160 --> 00:24:19.720 of the things they mentioned to me was they had grown up in the church and one thing they 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:23.720 really struggled with, maybe this is you today, was the idea of sin. 00:24:23.720 --> 00:24:29.160 A lot of people in our city will struggle with the concept of sin. 00:24:29.160 --> 00:24:33.800 And to understand that, for them, they said, you know, sin, when I hear the word sin in 00:24:33.800 --> 00:24:39.880 a pulpit from a church, the thing that it raises in my mind and heart is someone dressed 00:24:39.880 --> 00:24:45.200 very formally who is very angry pointing their finger at me. 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:49.320 You know, the sinners, the good people and the bad people. 00:24:49.320 --> 00:24:53.160 But that, let me just say, that's culture. 00:24:53.160 --> 00:24:55.920 That is not what the Bible means by sin. 00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:59.360 And here's what the Bible means by sin, maybe I'll frame it this way. 00:24:59.360 --> 00:25:02.360 Have you really thought about this? 00:25:02.360 --> 00:25:13.080 Imagine an orphan, a little bitty baby, who is left for dead, disowned, not wanted at 00:25:13.080 --> 00:25:15.519 all. 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:20.320 And that baby is rejected and left to die in the cold. 00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:27.200 And in the night, a man and a woman, a future mom and dad, they come along in the street 00:25:27.200 --> 00:25:32.519 and they see this little baby wrapped up in this basket, left to die. 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:35.759 And they pick him up and they bring him home. 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:41.200 And they don't have a lot, but they make a go of it and they adopt this little baby and 00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:46.279 they nurse him back to health and they scrap and they scrape throughout their lives to 00:25:46.279 --> 00:25:51.519 give the baby everything it needs and he grows up and he becomes a little boy and he becomes 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:52.720 a kid. 00:25:52.720 --> 00:25:57.319 And they sort of go to the ends of their means to love this child. 00:25:57.319 --> 00:26:01.200 And they say, we want you to do great things in life, but you know what? 00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:03.960 We love you no matter what. 00:26:03.960 --> 00:26:05.119 Unconditional love here. 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:10.639 So no matter what you end up doing in your job, in your career, you have our love. 00:26:10.639 --> 00:26:15.799 And years later, one day, the phone rings and this young man, this middle-aged man, 00:26:15.799 --> 00:26:19.720 he gets the call and they say, it's you. 00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:23.000 You're the prime minister of the United Kingdom now. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.440 You've just won the Nobel Peace Prize. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:27.799 Pick your great achievement. 00:26:27.799 --> 00:26:31.159 And you say, wow, what a story. 00:26:31.159 --> 00:26:36.200 Left for dead and a little orphan and now look at the prime minister of the United Kingdom. 00:26:36.200 --> 00:26:40.919 And you find out that this young man, this middle-aged man who's become this, a month 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:46.240 goes by, a week goes by, a year goes by and he never called. 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:50.480 He never picked up the phone and called mom and dad to say thank you. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:51.480 Never. 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:53.080 Didn't acknowledge him. 00:26:53.080 --> 00:26:59.279 And you would say, would you say something like, you know, he is a great person. 00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:05.120 He's achieved a lot, but boy, he's an ungrateful sinner. 00:27:05.120 --> 00:27:09.840 You say in your heart, you know, you would say, you would recognize, how could you not 00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:13.240 call your mom and dad and say, thank you so much. 00:27:13.240 --> 00:27:14.240 You saved my life. 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:15.240 You rescued me. 00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:16.879 You gave me everything. 00:27:16.879 --> 00:27:20.279 You would say that he lacks gratitude. 00:27:20.279 --> 00:27:24.599 And I think if you look down at the bottom of your soul and push away every sense of 00:27:24.599 --> 00:27:31.399 sin that the culture has offered you and just simply say this, God made everything and he 00:27:31.399 --> 00:27:38.119 owns it and it's all a gift that maybe you'd be able to recognize the truth in your life. 00:27:38.119 --> 00:27:40.639 I am ungrateful. 00:27:40.639 --> 00:27:42.239 I have rebelled. 00:27:42.239 --> 00:27:45.159 I do not acknowledge him in the way he deserves. 00:27:45.159 --> 00:27:51.039 The middle of the story, the story has a beginning, middle and end and then the middle. 00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:56.039 God himself, the maker of heaven and earth became a wiggly little baby to do exactly 00:27:56.039 --> 00:28:01.000 what the spirit did over the waters and Genesis one, two, to get close to you. 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:03.159 To make a way, to fix it. 00:28:03.159 --> 00:28:06.759 And do you know that at the cross, Jesus Christ, Son of God, we'll see this next week, the 00:28:06.759 --> 00:28:11.879 maker of heaven and earth himself, the very word of creation. 00:28:11.879 --> 00:28:14.720 He was decreated. 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:17.640 The one who had the power to create, he underwent utter chaos. 00:28:17.640 --> 00:28:20.720 He was decreated. 00:28:20.720 --> 00:28:24.759 He got everything that never should have been at the cross. 00:28:24.759 --> 00:28:27.400 Creation that God would dwell with humanity forever. 00:28:27.400 --> 00:28:29.720 Jesus lost it. 00:28:29.720 --> 00:28:30.799 He took our place in that. 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:34.400 He took our ungratitude, our lack of gratitude. 00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:35.400 He took our sin. 00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:36.400 He took our injustice. 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:42.160 And he was decreated at the cross so that today, well, can you say today, despite my 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:46.920 indifference, despite my rebellion, despite my lack of gratefulness to the Lord, I can 00:28:46.920 --> 00:28:55.040 say today, my father, almighty God, maker of heaven and earth, my God. 00:28:55.040 --> 00:28:56.040 That's an invitation. 00:28:56.040 --> 00:28:57.040 Let's pray. 00:28:57.040 --> 00:29:03.080 Father, maker of heaven and earth, we thank you. 00:29:03.079 --> 00:29:09.879 We come before you now and just repent and confess our lack of gratitude. 00:29:09.879 --> 00:29:10.879 We forget. 00:29:10.879 --> 00:29:11.879 We don't care. 00:29:11.879 --> 00:29:12.879 We are indifferent. 00:29:12.879 --> 00:29:17.679 Lord, we run away from and we suppress the truth that you made us and we are yours. 00:29:17.679 --> 00:29:22.559 And so, Father, I just pray today that you would strike us in the best possible way in 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:29.119 the heart and reframe us that we would know we are recipients, stewards, not masters and 00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:30.799 owners of this life. 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:33.079 Boy, how that would change our lives. 00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:34.559 Lord, bring it to us. 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:41.799 Lord, that we might stop saying my rights, my choices, my life to do with whatever we 00:29:41.799 --> 00:29:42.799 please. 00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:44.759 Lord, take that away from us. 00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:51.000 Take away our self-centeredness and return to us a heart of stewardship. 00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:52.839 And we pray for this in Jesus' name. 00:29:52.839 --> 00:30:00.839 Amen.