Well, my guess is that we share
a few things in common. One of those is that probably
like me, you have a favorite pitcher. Maybe it's pitchers,
a group of pitchers. These favorite pitchers usually
are of our favorite people. There's a pitcher that I have
of my wife, Linda, and I, you know, walking along the beach
holding hands. And oftentimes these pictures end up in frames
on our desk. In this case, this picture ended
up as a screensaver of mine for a very long time. And it not
only is a picture of my wife and I, the person who I love
the most, but we're walking down the beach. It's at a place that
is just majestic, that we love to go to the beach and spend
time there together. These pictures are, they just,
they kind of warm our hearts, don't they? They remind us of
the best of this life. And even though they're just
a still moment in time, they still serve to kind of warm our
hearts, give us some encouragement, and they help us to realize,
in fact, what is possible. Those deep moments of intimacy
that are very real. I mean, these pictures that we
have are no fantasy world. This is real life, real pictures
of some really special people at some really special places
in these moments of time that just capture the best. It's almost
as if they're picture perfect. It's like they're postcards from
paradise, because they have like heaven-like qualities. And these
pictures or these postcards, they end up serving, I think,
multiple purposes. As I said, they kind of warm
our hearts, but they really give us a vision and a hope for what
is possible. As I said, oftentimes they capture
a moment of time of special intimacy, or it's in a majestic mountain
scene, this rare beauty that we see. And so now, we experience
these moments in small case, in small increments. We long
for them to be much more though, don't we? I know, I seek to try
to be a good husband in many ways, but many times I fail.
And I'm not creating the intimate environment that I really think
that my wife deserves. But we do experience these small
times of it. And I just pray that they would
continue to grow. And I continue to need a vision of what that
looks for. And these pictures oftentimes remind me of that.
And the other thing I like about these pictures, these screensavers,
sometimes, you know, people have these screensavers at work or
on their desk at work, these pictures, because the fact of
the matter is that you and I every day when we wake up, we don't
wake up to a picture perfect world. We wake up to a fallen
world, a world in which sin reigns, a world in which there are many
struggles, personal struggles on our environment, struggles
in our own heart, struggles in relationships, struggles in finances,
struggles with our health. Everywhere we turn, we see the
reality that we do not live in a picture-perfect world. But
these postcards from paradise, they kind of warm our hearts.
They kind of give us courage and hope to move forward. A perfect
example of this, and even talking to Brother Webb, I was just reminded
that I don't remember the whole story, but his son is coming
home from Iraq. Is that correct? Very soon. I hope you don't mind me saying
that. And so when I think about soldiers, if you've ever seen
a soldier going to war through the airport, and you see him
dressed in their camouflage, and they have a backpack, don't
they? Those soldiers are always carrying that backpack. And that's
all they're taking over there to war for however long that
tour is going to be. And I've often wondered, as I'm
sitting there in the airport and I see the soldier walking
through the airport with that backpack, I say, I wonder what's
in that backpack that they're going to be on that tour of duty
for however long it is. And I'm sure there's all the
basic necessities. But I would bet you that almost
every soldier, if not every soldier, makes room in that backpack somewhere
for a picture. It's a picture of their favorite
people, probably, or their favorite place. And I bet when they get
over to camp and they set up their campsite, I bet they put
that picture at a prominent place. Why? Because they want to be
reminded of the best of this life. In a sense, it not only
reminds them of where they come from, It reminds them of what
they're doing there, the purpose that they're fighting for. They're
fighting for freedom oftentimes for other countries so that they,
other people can experience the same freedom and joys and relationships
that we experience. So these pictures are far more
than just a nice reminder of some of the niceties of life.
They really can go much deeper than that. But the soldiers who are in Iraq
right now, are not the first ones who have been wandering
over in the desert fighting a battle. As we look to scripture, we're
reminded of some of the first soldiers who were ever out in
the desert. The Israelites had been in captivity
and slavery in Egypt for many years. And finally, the Lord
delivers them out of there, and they're going to go into the
land of Canaan. And you remember the whole story. And now all
of a sudden, and they don't go in and fight. Now they're wandering
in the wilderness. They're wandering in the wilderness.
And it's here, in the wilderness, after they've left Egypt, that
the Lord would have inspired Moses, by his Holy Spirit, to
write the book of Genesis. And the very first people that
would have read the very first words of the Bible were these
soldiers, as it were, in the wilderness, in the desert, wandering
around, when they were supposed to be going to war in Canaan,
to take that land that God had promised them. And if you remember,
when they're out there in the wilderness, what was their cry? Well, if we march forward and
go fight in Canaan, they knew something because they had sent
spies in there. They knew that Canaan was a huge city with fortified
walls that you have never seen before. And that their army was
a big and a bad and a strong army. So fortified walls and
a big army, if they go to fight the Canaanites, it's their sure
death. So what did they start begging for? Well, many of them
started begging to go back to Egypt. They are, that might be
the epitome of the phrase of what we often say, being between
a rock and a hard place. That's where these soldiers were.
They were wandering in the wilderness. Between a rock and a hard place.
If I go forward, we surely die. If we go backwards, we're back
in slavery. Neither option, very appealing.
I don't know about you, but I have oftentimes in my life found myself
in that very situation. Between a rock and a hard place. To move forward in faith seems
like sure doom, sure failure. But to go backwards is equally
as much of a failure. And it's here that the Lord sends
them the book of Genesis. For what purpose? It's as if
God is sending them postcards from heaven that he's hand delivering
by his spirit to his people. And what of all things is the
Lord going to say to these people wandering in the wilderness?
Remember, this book was not written as a textbook just to sit on
the shelf somewhere. This book was written through
real people This is what we call organic inspiration, that he
used the life of Moses, all the ups and downs of it, and real
people in a real situation to deliver his message that would
be good for all time and all people. That's how great this
God is. But let us not forget that this
account is not just something that goes in the systematic theology
book somewhere. Of all the things that he would
say to these soldiers, These people in the wilderness, he
starts off this letter by saying what? One of the most famous verses
in all the Bible, maybe the most famous verse is what? John 3
16. If we took a vote, maybe people would say. But what is
among the second most famous verse in all the world? In the
beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. I bet you could
walk down the streets and there would be so many people that
could quote you Genesis 1.1. But do we really know its impact
in our daily life? Or is that just something that
we're going to leave to the experts? To the theologians? My guess
isn't here that if I asked you, do you believe that God created
the heavens and the earth? My guess is most, if not everybody
in this room, would raise our hand. But then if I ask, well,
what application does that have to us every day? Then we might
get a little fuzzy. We might not be sure. But what
I want to do in the next 15 or 20 minutes or so is show exactly
how this scripture is maybe more relevant to our everyday life
than we ever imagined. You know, to put the scripture of creation, that God created
heaven and earth on a back burner, is a huge mistake on a couple
of fronts. First of all, like I talked about
how those pictures, those favorite pictures we have, that they're
not fantasy, that they're real pictures. Remember, this is no
fantasy either. The Garden of Eden is no fantasy.
It's no fairy tale. It's a real place meant to give
us hope and a future, and it's giving us a picture of our future
destination in many respects. And nothing could be more relevant
then to us than this account for our daily walk. I remember
seeing a cartoon one time, a comic strip. And in this comic strip,
there were two towers. And the one tower was a Christian
worldview tower. And the other tower was a secular
world tower. And in these floors, there were
different floors, and in these floors they had labels over here
on the Christian tower, like there was the doctrine of creation,
then there was the doctrine of inspiration, then there was the
doctrine of the resurrection, and so on and so forth, all these
different doctrines. And then over here were the world's
answers to some of these things. And they showed these little
stick figures kind of shooting arrows and bullets out the windows
at each other. But the thing that was unique
about this comic strip and the picture was that from the world's
tower, all the bullets and arrows that were shooting over at the
Christian worldview, the biblical worldview, guess where they were
aimed? At creation. Why? Because they know if creation
falls, this all falls. It all falls. Yeah. I pray that
if nothing else tonight, that you would leave here with the
renewed zeal and zest for understanding a newfound courage and faith,
strengthened in your faith, I should say, hopefully not newfound,
but to stand firm on the fact that God is the creator of the
heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. Some people might say, well,
you know, I just want to talk about Jesus. I just want to talk
about my relationship with Jesus. Well, let me suggest that if
you want to talk about your relationship with Jesus, then this is very
relevant to the discussion. Can somebody tell me, other than
one of the pastors here, what Colossians 1 tells us about creation? Colossians 1 says that Jesus,
by Him and through Him, all things were created. He's the very one
who created. So if we want to concentrate
on our relationship with Jesus, don't you think it's a good idea
to concentrate and to worship him and to love him for what
he's done? Let me see if I can say it to
you like this. Recently, my family just moved to Indianapolis. And
when we moved, we had been living in Charlotte, North Carolina
for 13 years. So, you know, that's a lot of
stuff over 13 years, a lot of things just sitting here, there,
whatever the place may be. So when we moved with three children,
it's a big move into a house that we were going to rent that
needed some stuff done to it. Well, I don't want you to read
too much into this, but it just so happened that the week that
the movers, the day the movers were coming and the time that
everything needed to be done in the house, I actually had
to be out of town that week. I didn't plan it that way, it
just happened to be that way. But my wife during that week,
it was amazing the work that she got done. And I'm not ashamed
of it because I really did have to be away. But she was amazing. I mean, here she is with three
children, all by herself, I'm nowhere to be found, and she
ran the whole show. Got the movers in, got everything,
Then not only that, it was a place that we were renting that needed
some work, so she painted rooms, rearranged furniture, did all
this stuff. Okay? Now imagine this. I come
home after a week, and I walk in the house, and I don't acknowledge
a thing. I'm not saying that happened.
I'm not that smart, but that would be pretty dumb, okay? But isn't that what we do with
creation sometimes? I mean, rather, what happens
if I walk into that house and I just walk into the rooms that
she painted and say, Linda, you did an amazing job with this
room. How did you do this? This must
have taken hours. You took the time to tape this
up, just every last detail of how you painted this room and
every little and the way you rearrange it. How did you put
so much love in this? Every little picture frame, it
was at the right spot. The little things on the wall,
man, she just meticulously went through that place and transformed
it from a place that we were renting to a home. And somehow, when I tell her
that, when I go through each room with her and thank her for
her work, acknowledge her for her work, I'm honoring her. And
I'm thanking her. Isn't that the same, to a much
lesser degree, than we would in our relationship with Jesus?
If we don't stop and marvel at His work and creation? Or is
it simply enough to say, I believe He created the heavens and the
earth? That's like walking in and saying, thanks, Linda. You
did a great job. That's a little acceptable. You might expect
that from a six-year-old. You wouldn't expect that from
an adult. You wouldn't expect that from someone who's mature.
You wouldn't expect that from someone who deeply loves the
other person. No, I'd expect a little bit more
than that. Not out of guilt. It's my joy to acknowledge her
work. And to see her face shine with
the work that she's done. Man, it's good. It's good to
do that. It's good to bow before God as
the creator and to read the first couple chapters of Genesis in
awe and imagine, God, how did you do that? You are awesome. There is none like you. You have no equal, God. Who does
this? Who creates like this? Who has
this kind of power? Who rules over all things like
this? Every detail, God. Every detail. Remember, we're talking about
the original creation. And Genesis 1 and 2. This is
paradise. Sin is not in the world at this point. Sometimes, you
know, we all should be very aware of how sinful we are. We should
be very aware of the fact that we live in a fallen world. But
sometimes I think we think our Bible started Genesis 3. They started Genesis 1 for a
reason. We've got to know what Genesis
1 and 2 said. We've got to understand its meaning
in our life. You see, the fallen world is
not normative. It's not God's design that we
live in a fallen world. Now, He accommodates us and He
works through it to obtain all the glory for Himself. But the
picture in Genesis 1 and 2 is He crafts paradise. This sinless,
perfect world where Adam and Eve are made in His image, walking
in perfect harmony. That's God's design. And as we
stop and marvel at that, it gives us what? It gives us a picture. It gives us a vision. It gives
us a hope. It gives us a faith to know,
oh, that's not just something of the past. And guess what the
good news of the Bible is? That picture of paradise is only
like the beginnings of the paradise to come. The picture that the
Bible presents is that this is just kind of the Garden of Eden,
just kind of FYI, was not the entire Earth. The Garden of Eden
was what most people would agree, most scholars would agree, was
probably an area, if you go Google fertile crescent, okay, if you
Google fertile crescent, you'll see probably about the size of
the Garden of Eden, which was about 250,000 square miles. The rest of the earth was fine,
but it wasn't the Garden of Eden. You see, the Garden of Eden,
where was God? God was in the Garden of Eden.
The garden was a temple. It was the first temple. We had
the tabernacle in the wilderness. Solomon built the temple, but
the first temple was the garden. Because what was the purpose
for the temple? The purpose for the temple was it was the special
dwelling place of God. And there was God walking in
the garden with Adam and Eve. And so when we read this, we
see God's design. And now when we come to the new
paradise, when Jesus returns, guess what? We don't float up
to the clouds. He's bringing with him a new
paradise, a new heavens and a new earth. This just doesn't all
blow up. Jesus' salvation is so great
that it not only saves souls, it saves the entire cosmos. It's
far bigger than we ever thought. There will be an earth that will
be perfect, and there will be no sin. And we will be together
in there, reigning with Jesus. Paradise is not some kind of
heavenly spa where we just go up and get treatments all day. It's a place where we labor and
reign with Christ and we worship Him. Not just sitting around
playing the flute and so on and so forth. That will be nice and
there will be much singing. But there's going to be a whole
lot more. And we start to learn about that. We start to get a
glimpse of that in Genesis 1 and 2. To understand that this is
what's coming. This is what's coming. And I
don't know about you, but there are days in my life... Lord,
yes. Amen. I was just a little ahead
of you. I think this is the part... You're
a little older than I am. You probably had a little bit
more pain than I have. Preach it. No, no, no, no, no. I'm just teasing. I thank you
for agreeing with me. But there are times in my life,
I'm glad he said that because I was about to break down, that
the effects of sin are so ravaged in my own heart and in this world
that I can barely stand. And if it weren't for God giving
me a hope and a faith to believe that Jesus' salvation is so great
that it will eradicate every square inch of the cosmos and
make it right. That's how great he is. You know, we look elsewhere in
the scripture. Psalm 124, excuse me. If the Lord had not been on our
side, let Israel say, if the Lord had not been on our side
when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they
would have swallowed us alive. The flood would have engulfed
us, the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would
have swept us away. Praise be to God, who has not
let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird out
of the fowler's snare. The snare has been broken, and
we have escaped." And then verse 8. It's a great closing verse,
and Calvin would quote this often. Our help is in the name of the
Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. The psalmist is crying out. He
recognizes that our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker
of heaven and earth. Do we have any idea how many
times Scripture says that? I don't know how many times it
is, but it's a lot of reference to that. And the application
to those soldiers, to those families who would have been wandering
in the wilderness, is somewhat like this. Maybe I can explain
it by a story. When I was about 8 or 9 years
old, my dad was a high school football coach. And I was going
to one of his football games with a friend. And we took a
football along with us. And the game's going on. But
you know how eight or nine-year-old boys are. I wanted to play. I didn't
want to watch the game. So we went down far end in one of the end
zones. And we're just throwing the ball
around, just he and I. It was a high school game. There were
fairly many people there. But we're off by ourselves way down
here outside the one end zone. And playing for about a half
hour or so, next thing I know, we're surrounded by about six
or seven high school bullies. And I don't think they were going
to try to physically harm us, but they had made a circle around
us, and they were intimidating us. They were harassing us. They
were emotionally and verbally abusing us, you would say. I
was scared to death. I was eight or nine years old.
It was just me and my buddy. And there's six or seven high
school kids around doing this to us. And finally, they're harassing
us. And finally, one of them says
to me, hey, give me some money. Give me a quarter so I can go
get a soda or something like that. I don't remember the exact
exchange. And here I am scared to death. I don't know what to
do. The only thing I could think to do was to say this. I said, do you know who my dad
is? He just looked at me like I was
stupid or something, you know? And then I said to him, my dad
is Coach Reich. And they took off and they ran
so fast you would not have believed it. Why is that? Because my dad was the coach
on the football team. He was also the metal shop teacher.
And my dad is, I am small compared to my dad. My dad's shoulders
go out to like here. He played football when they
wore leather helmets with no face masks. He broke his nose
like eight times so it's all over his face. He's got these
huge leathery hands. And the thing about my dad is
the most scary. I promise you this. You talk to anyone who
knew my dad in his prime, he had this look that would put
the fear of God in you. And when everybody walked through
the hall in Lebanon High School, they knew one thing. Don't mess
with Coach Wright. Because He will take you out. So you don't think, when God
sends a message to those people in Israel who are between a rock
and a hard place, and says, in the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. And you are my people. You can
call me Father. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. I'm your God. You don't think that has application
to our everyday life? To know that no matter what struggles
you face relationally in your life, whatever struggles you
face financially in your life, whatever struggles you face health-wise
in your life, you don't think it has application that you can
call on the God and call Him Father, the One who is the Maker
of the heavens and the earth? I don't know much more that can
be more applicable. especially in light of the fact
that that person is none other than King Jesus. It's no wonder that King Jesus,
the One who has the power to create it all, could somehow,
in His wisdom, in His power, and in His divine plan, incarnate
Himself and take on human flesh. but yet remain fully divine.
It's no wonder that King Jesus, while walking on this earth,
would exercise His rule over creation by healing the sick,
by calming the storm, by turning water into wine. Is it any wonder
that King Jesus, the one who created the heavens and the earth,
could conquer sin and death? No, this King Jesus, He's Creator
and Redeemer. This is our Savior. The picture that we get in Genesis
1 is that our Savior is awesome and holy and bigger than we ever
thought or imagined. And so I would just want to close
by saying, I don't know where each one of
us is today. I have my own struggles, my own adversaries that are in
front and behind me, my own baggage, as they say, my own challenges
going forward. But as I read Genesis 1.1, in
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I just
want to call out and say the Lord is my help. The maker of
the heavens and earth. He's the one that delivered them
out of slavery with His plan to bring them and to redeem them
into the land of Canaan. And in the same way, that's what
the prophet Isaiah talked about. He was speaking as we look in
Isaiah chapter 40. In Isaiah chapter 40, he says
this. He's talking to Israel. Much of Israel had been taken
into captivity. They're in exile. They're away from home. And this
is the Lord. To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal, says the Holy One? Lift your eyes and
look to the heavens. Who created all these? Who brings
out the starry hosts one by one? Who calls them each by name?
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them
is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and
complain, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord.
My cause is disregarded by my God. Do you not know? Have you
not heard that the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator
of the ends of the earth? He will not grow tired or weary.
And His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength
to the weary. He increases the power of the
weak. And even youths grow tired and weary. Young men stumble
and fall. But those who hope in the Lord,
He will renew their strength. And they will soar on wings like
eagles. And they will run and not grow
weary. And they will walk and not be
faint. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you that you have
sent us this postcard of paradise, the original paradise, as a hope,
as a comfort, as a vision to increase our faith, to help us
understand how great our King is, our King Jesus. We thank you, Father, that this
is just a foretaste and that you even do give us glimpses
and tastes in part now, but yet in full it will come when Christ
returns. And so, Father, I pray that you
would raise us up and give us strength to soar among difficult
trials, that you would give us the faith to march forward, the
strength to march forward, to do all that you have called us
to do, to be the men and women of God that you have called us
to be. Father, you know all too well
our weaknesses, our failings. But, Lord, in your great grace
and in your great mercy, continue to fill us with your spirit and
to help us overcome those obstacles that are before us through Jesus
Christ our Lord and for his glory alone, we pray. Amen.