Genesis 1. You know, as we looked
the other day, just as a very quick review, we talked about
in verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. And what we saw was that God was sending us a postcard,
as it were, of the original paradise. And essentially, on the front
of that postcard, it would have said, this is our Father's world. He's the one who's created it.
And remember, this wasn't just some kind of postcard that was
meant to give us a picture of something that had no relevance
to our life. This postcard was sent to people who were between
a rock and a hard place. And the postcard was not meant
to merely solve their problems, but it was meant to show them
that it was God's design and plan for them to enter this land
that they were going to. And because of that, because
our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heavens and
earth, that we can draw confidence from that, hope from that, vision
for that. And so that's kind of the first
postcard that we saw in chapter 1, verse 1. Today I want to briefly
look at two other postcards I believe that God has sent. I wish a pastor
would let me stay longer, or I wish I could stay longer. A
couple years ago, when I was pastoring a church, and I preached
through the first three chapters of Genesis, and I preached through
15 postcards that I believe, probably a whole lot more than
that. I'm not saying it was all, but there were what I saw in
Scripture to be 15 of these postcards or messages that God sends us
about the original creation story that apply to our lives daily. Today, I'm just going to touch
on the second and third one briefly. and how they, what they mean
and what I believe the scriptures are intended to mean by them
and how they apply to our life. So the first postcard in verse
one was our father's world. In verse two, we're going to
see a postcard that says, this is our father's work. And in
verse three, we're going to see verses three through 31 essentially
is our father's word are going to be the three postcards that
we're going to look at. Have you ever been to an assembly? Have you ever been to an assembly?
I can remember one or two in high school. I can actually remember
one that my daughter was just at in seventh grade, where she
came home and she said they had an assembly, and the person at
the assembly was the Guinness Book of World Records holder
in jump rope. In other words, this person was
the best ever jump roper. I remember when I was in high
school, I got to see the best ever free throw shooter. It set some
kind of record in shooting free throws with a basketball. And
it's one thing, and it kind of captures your attention, doesn't
it, when someone's introduced and said, this person is the
best ever. Now, sometimes we can overuse
that phrase. But in many contexts, it really
captures our attention. And we kind of sit up and take,
oh, this is kind of neat, the best ever. But isn't it even? cooler, neater, when we actually
get to see the best ever do what it is that they do. What they're
the best at. When Hannah talked to me about
this jump roper and her watching, you know, this jump roper just
going for, you know, could go forever and all the tricks and
stunts and so on and so forth. It's pretty cool. And here, when
we come to the Scriptures, in verse 1, we're introduced to
the main character of creation. God created the heavens and the
earth. Just a kind of a little sidebar.
Actually, it's not really a sidebar on verse 1. When we see God created,
I do want to bring our attention to the fact that the word created
there, there are several words in the Hebrew that mean create. But there's a specific verb that's
used here, that's bara, that doesn't have much significance,
but the meaning has significance because it's a creation of a
different kind, and it's used 28 times in the Old Testament. And like any other verb, it carries
with it a noun, and guess what noun is carried with this particular
verb every time it's used? God. Only God creates this way. It's like if you've ever seen
two people who are always together, and you say, you never see one
without the other. Oh yeah, I see so and so. And
whenever I see so and so, I know that he's going to be there,
or she's going to be there. In a similar way, when we read,
when we see bara, when we see this verb to create, which means
that this absolute power of creation, there's only one other person
that we ever see with that verb in all of Scripture. And that's
God. So we're introduced to the main
character, God, the best ever, the creator of the heavens and
the earth. But now in verse 2 and in following,
we're going to get to see Him do what only He can do. Read
with me the first three verses here of Genesis chapter 1. In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the
earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface
of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, let there be light. And there was light. When we
come to these verses, You know, we've talked about how oftentimes
as Christians we can neglect these chapters. I said the other
day, it's almost as if sometimes we just started Genesis 3, but
we can't neglect these chapters. But I think even of the sermons
and the messages you might have heard from Genesis 1, the one
verse that seems to get neglected more than any other is in fact
verse 2. But let's look at it a little
bit more closely. Because we see that what happens
here is we begin to see God's work of creation. The tone actually
begins in somewhat uncomfortable nature. Seemingly a little bit
negative. It's kind of quite ominous. And
you know where we read that we read that the earth was formless
and empty. These words that are used for
formless and empty are very unique in scripture. There's elsewhere
in Deuteronomy, elsewhere in Jeremiah, he uses these words. And these words, here's what
they mean. Formless and empty. They mean complete desolation. They mean the place was uninhabitable. No life could exist where it
was formless and empty. Complete and utter chaos. No
one, no thing can live in a place that is formless and empty, as
these words are used. Jeremiah would later use these
words to warn the Israelites while they were in this adulterous
state. And he says, in Jeremiah 4, 23, he says, if you don't
wake up, here's what's coming. And he points them back to this
formless and empty state of the earth. He says, that's going
to be your doom. And so this is a very unique, word here that
that that is something that we don't see a lot in Scripture.
In fact, we know that at the beginning there is there's only
one beginning, right? There's only one true beginning.
So we're dealing with something here very unique, and it's formless
and it's empty. And if that's not uncomfortable
enough, then it actually gets worse before it gets better.
Because darkness was over the face of the deep here again.
You know, it's one thing to kind of do your work, but it's another
thing to actually have to do it in the dark. But then, something great happens. The shift, there's a shift in
the tone. And we see something, we see
the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. It's as if when we do this best
ever Imagine the best ever when I was talking about this high
school assembly I was at where we had this free throw shooter.
And he sat there and made I don't know how many free throws in
a row. And it was great. But you know what he did that
really blew my mind? He put on a blindfold. And he was making
free throws with a blindfold. In the dark. Here what we see
in verse 2 is when we see God at work and the beginning of
it is formless and empty is this A good thing? It's like the drama
is heightening. The stage is being set to see
the magnificence, the absolute magnificence, of what God is
going to do. In fact, we see this repeated
in Scripture, don't we? I mean, what about when Moses
sets the people free in Egypt? And they leave Egypt, and they're
gone, and they're running, and all of a sudden Pharaoh comes
barreling down after them, right? And they get to the Red Sea.
And there's nowhere to go. And the drama heightens. Oh,
no, they went through all this stuff, and now they're going
to die out here by the Red Sea because there's no place to go?
Lord, did you do this? No, it's just then when the drama
builds. It's heightened, and it seems
as if all is lost. And then what happens? He parts
the Red Sea. They're out in the desert. There's no food to eat,
no water to drink. People are griping and complaining.
It's just then. when it seems the absolute darkest
that God delivers. And of course, again, in Gideon,
right? I mean, Gideon's got to fight the Midianites. And he's
got this big army. But the Lord says, no, that's
too many. No, you've got to go from 30,000 down to 3,000 down
to what? 300. And you're saying, no, please
don't do it, Gideon. You need all your soldiers. You
need everybody. But the drama is building. And
he goes in and triumphs building. Why? Because we're going to see
how great God is. That's why I believe oftentimes
in our own lives that sometimes rather than just when you want
things to get better, they actually get worse so that when actually
God does deliver, there's no one else to give the glory to.
Of course, maybe my favorite story
in the Old Testament of this is the story of Elijah. You know,
when he's going up against the prophets of Baal. And there he
is, right? And he puts, and there's on the
altar, he puts the sacrifice on the altar. You know, and they,
of course, the prophets of Baal had been praying unto their gods
and so on and so forth, and nothing happens. The sacrifice is not
consumed. All day, and the whole deal,
and Elijah's trash talking to him, and it finally gets to be
Elijah's turn. And what does he do? He pours water on it. I mean, the goal is for this
thing to burn up, not get soaked. And He's pouring water on it.
Not once. He just keeps pouring water on it. Why's that? So that
when God delivers, He's the only one who gets the glory. Now,
what's happening here in verse 2, when the earth is formless
and void, and darkness is over the face of the deep, the drama
is just building. Because what's about to come
is going to show the magnificence and the glory of God in creation.
And so when we read in the second half of this verse that the Spirit
of God was hovering over the waters, we see the work of God
in creation beginning. And I love one of the words,
the Spirit of God was hovering. That's kind of a nice word, isn't
it? Hovering. This word elsewhere in Scripture
is used in Deuteronomy 32 and 11. And the description is this.
It's a picture of an eagle fluttering over its nest and the young ones
in its nest. Preparing for their life. Preparing
an environment where they can grow and flourish. And this is
the picture that we're given in verse 2. That the Spirit of God is hovering
over this lifeless, formless mass. Hovering with all his power
One friend of mine who I know who is a world-renowned Scholar
biblical scholar writes in a it's writes in one of his books that
and I can't say this and he can't he doesn't say this with biblical
certainty, but The more I think about this the more I think there's
there's something to it He says that as the spirit is hovering
over remember that we have this formless and empty and You know,
we can't describe it, no one was there, but the best that
people talk about is this watery mess of, you know, that God has
put together that he's now going to form the Earth. But at this
point, it's formless and void. And there's molecules that are
not energized, there's no gravity, there's no electromagnetic force
or any of that stuff. But as the Spirit of God is hovering,
did you ever wonder where the law of gravity came from? Have
you ever wondered how molecules and the electromagnetic forces
that play such an instrumental part of the physical universe
that we live in, how they all work and came into being? The
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep. Very likely
could have been creating all of the laws of physics that hold
this whole thing together. That's his power. We're starting
to see that this lifeless, formless mass, the Spirit of God hovers.
He's preparing the way. I don't know if we're going to
get to hear Brother Webb play the guitar. There was some talk
about that last night and somebody talked about passing along the
guitar to him. But we were having a conversation
about guitar players the other day. We were sitting around talking
and We got to talking about a person who many think is the best guitar
player ever, certainly of our time, a guy by the name of Phil
Kege. And imagine if we had Phil Kege
here to play a concert for us. I happened to hear him in concert
one time. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.
But if we went to the airport and picked him up, if Herb and
Young went and picked him up at the airport and brought him
here, and he walked up and he had his case with his guitar
in it, And he's going to sit down. What do you think the first
thing he's going to do when he opens up that case? He's going
to tune it. He's going to tune it. In some
ways, I almost think of what the Spirit of God hovering, hovering
over creation. He's tuning creation for a performance
that is going to blow your mind. Because the Word of God is coming
and it's all its power. And it's going to bring something
out of nothing. The Scriptures say in Hebrews that by faith
we believe that God formed the universe by the word of His power.
And the Spirit of God is preparing the way for that. In Psalm 33, the psalmist writes
this, By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their
starry hosts by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters
of the sea in the jars. He puts the deep into storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the people of the world
revere Him. For He spoke, and it came into
being. He commanded, and it stood firm."
The Spirit of God prepares the way for the Word of God. How
does God do this? We talked about it the other
day when I was giving you the illustration of my wife basically doing an
overhaul on the house. And how if I really loved her
and appreciated what she would do, I would kind of walk through
that room that she painted and got everything just right, and
I'd say, this is magnificent. How did you do this? This must
have taken forever, and so on and so forth. Well, when we come
to the Scripture and we see God's creation in all of its glory,
we say, God, how did you do this? And we learn here in verse 3
and in all of chapter 1 that He did it by the word of His
power, the absolute power and authority of the word of God,
brought everything that is in the being, everything that is
seen and unseen by the Word of God. So the work of God, let's
summarize this to this point so we can now look at it in our
own lives. To this point, what we're seeing
that the work of God is, is that God takes disorder, this formless,
lifeless mass, and He brings perfect order. He takes utter
chaos and turns it into paradise. Do you see what the work of our
God is? He can take chaos and turn it
into paradise. If you remember the first message
I said that the Garden of Eden was meant to be and was a temple. The first temple for God. A holy
dwelling. That the temple was the holy
dwelling of God. Now we know that God is bigger
than and can't be contained in a box or in a garden or in an
ark. But a temple or an ark, they
represent the special dwelling of God with His people. And He
creates the earth. This is very important to understand
how it all ends in Revelation, which we're going to get to in
a minute. But He creates the earth and the garden as a holy
dwelling for Him to do what? For Him to live and be in fellowship
with who? His people. The ones who He's
made in His image. The One who He's made us for
what purpose? To give His Son a bride. That's
how much the Father loves the Son. He's giving Him a bride. And so He's created the earth
as His holy dwelling. Adam and Eve were put in the
garden. And do you remember what they
were commanded to do? Of all God's creations, it's
great, right? Let's just bullet point it really fast just to
show God's perfection and his order and his power. In day one,
he forms the light. In day two, he forms the sky
and the waters. In day three, he forms the land
and the vegetation. In day four, he puts the luminary,
he fills the luminaries in the sky. In day five, he puts the
birds in the sky and the fish in the sea. And in day six, he
puts the animals. And then, of course, the peak
of the creation story, he puts human beings in his image on
the face of the earth. Now, if you notice, I ran through
that really fast. But if you were to play that
back, you would notice that the language I used was this. That
in day one, he formed this. In day two, he formed this. And
in day three, he formed this. In day four, five, and six, he
filled it with this. Days one, two, and three, remember
verse two said the earth was formless and empty? Isn't it
kind of mind boggling that What he does in creation is he forms
creation in days 1, 2, and 3, and he fills it in days 4, 5,
and 6. The very thing that verse 2 said
the earth was formless and empty, he takes care of it. He brings
form and he fills it. And these days actually parallel
each other. This is a God of order. That's
why Pastor says up here we can get as happy as we want, but
there will be order. Because God is a God of order.
But he's also got a beauty, and he's got a majesty, and he's
got a holiness, and so we can express this in a very real and
tangible way. The fact of the matter is, God's
work is to bring order out of disorder, to bring paradise out
of chaos. I was talking with Brother Sasser
the other day, and I never thought I'd quote Mick Jagger in a sermon,
but I'm going to quote Mick Jagger. He said that Mick Jagger said,
you know how to tell if it's a real good concert? Brother
Sasser, what was the answer to that one? Total bedlam, total confusion,
total chaos. That's how you tell if a concert
was a success, if there was total chaos. You know what Scripture says?
It's the exact opposite. You know what Adam and Eve's
job was? God creates them in verse 26. Then God created man
and woman in His image. And then in verse 28, we get
this great title. We're made in the image of God.
But then in verse 28, what comes along with the great title? Responsibility. And they're given the responsibility
to do what? To multiply and to exercise dominion. Over the earth they were to the
garden as I told you the other day wasn't the entire earth Their
job is to expand the garden to the end of the earth which is
a picture of the kingdom of God and a picture of the assignment
that you and I have today because This assignment wasn't just given
to Adam and Eve It was given all to who are made in the image
of God that our job is to expand the kingdom of God to the ends
of the earth as brother Webb was telling us last night we
do that by bearing fruit and Because as we bear fruit, really,
Adam and Eve were in a garden. So they were cultivating the
garden and domesticating it in a source. And so as we go out
and as we bear fruit, as we give this fruit to others, guess what's
happening? The kingdom of God is expanding
in our own hearts and in the lives of other people. You see, Darren, Brother Darren,
when he shared to us the other day, I so needed to hear this. And I'm guessing we all needed
to hear it. when he said, you know, God, you know, sometimes
we look at God, we come to God in the wrong way, we come as
problem orientation towards God rather than the worship orientation.
And I don't know about you, but I really needed to hear that. And what I also want to say is,
though, there's, I also think that there's two sides to that
same coin, that that just because we have that problem, and we
often make our problems our orientation towards a mighty and a powerful
God, does not mean that God does not want to hear our problems. We don't worship a tyrant ruler.
We worship this God who is the maker of heaven and earth, is
our Father. And He loves us, and He cares about us. Now, it's
not about solving our problems, but He does, as Darren said the
other day, use our problems to fulfill His purposes. And, in
fact, He does take pleasure in helping us from our problems
and delivering us from our problems. Now, that doesn't mean that's
the main purpose, but He can still take pleasure into it.
So when we cry out to Him in weakness, Rather than selfishness
God wants us to do that, but the problem is that we get it
backwards as Darren was saying But you see this God the chaos
of my life and the chaos of your life cry out to God say God Can
you please bring some water as I was talking to her coming from
the airport? Coming here, and he was recounting to me a little
bit about how It was just blowing his mind and that all of the
relationships and all the chaos and all the bedlam in his family
relationships has all been restored. What has God done there? Has
God taken the chaos and bedlam, something that was formless and
lifeless, and brought life to it and restored it to give us
a taste of paradise? I think so. The testimony that we heard last
night. Is that not God taking chaos and bringing order and
peace and salvation? Who can do that? This is what our God does. He's
in the business of doing this. No one does it like Him. Why? Because He's the maker of heaven
and earth. We talk about sovereign grace.
Sovereign grace is great, but He's also the sovereign ruler.
That's why he can hand out sovereign grace. Because he's got that position
and that authority and that power to do so. And we can cry out
to him, Abba? Father? He's our Father. Now I know many of us have not
had the relationship with an earthly father that can even
give us a picture of that. I'm thankful that I have. But
God's not limited and bound to show you His love by our earthly
relationships. And many of you are already testimony
to that. But now, once we have received
that, then as our brother encouraged us last night, it is our command
to bear fruit and let others eat from that same tree. To be
gracious to one another. And isn't it weird how sometimes
it's easier to be gracious to strangers than it is the person
that you love the most? Sometimes when my wife and I
get going a little bit the wrong way, and I walk away from an
argument, whatever you want to call it, and I say, how can I
not be the most gracious to the person I love the most? that
it seems like sometimes I actually offer the least amount of grace
to her. And how can I be stingy in giving
away grace when God has so freely given it to me? That's bearing with one another's
burdens. That's bearing fruit in the lives of other people
to partake in. You see, the root of all of this
What I was hoping that we could see is this is not just a New
Testament doctrine. This is not just a New Testament
teaching. This started in the Garden of Eden. It all connects. And part of
the reason of seeing that is, one, to grow and be even more
sure of our faith and to grow in our faith. Just to see the
magnificence. There's been one plan from the beginning. Genesis
to Revelation. One plan. God's creating a holy
dwelling in which he can dwell with his people. And what he
has called us to do, he's made us in his image, and then he
calls us to multiply, to produce what? Other images of God. You
know, in the ancient Near East, when these kings had these vast
empires that they were ruler over, because they were finite,
they were only one person. You know what they used to do
to remind people Who was the king? Say you had this empire
that was a huge, huge empire. What do you think they did to
remind people that they were the king? Put their image. They built statues all over the
place. They put it on coins, whatever. Why? To remind people
who was in charge. Every time we look at another
person, we need to be reminded that you are precious. Herb was
talking about last night this message he got from his grandmother
about respecting every human being, no matter whether they're
a Christian, not a Christian, no matter what state of life
they are, that every single person has dignity and respect because
they're made in the image of God. And we're reminded of that
because we have a very special place in God's creation. But
we also have a huge, huge responsibility. That doesn't mean that God is
dependent on us. He doesn't need us. Jesus did
it all, from A to Z. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
We don't add to that. But it just so happens that what
I believe the Bible teaches is that it's God's plan, that the
mystery of this gospel is Christ in us. that the light of Christ
would shine in our lives into the darkness of this world that
God-like might shine in other people's lives. And as we bear
fruit, in essence, what's happening is God's kingdom is expanding
and growing. To what end? Until all of sin
is eradicated from, until Jesus comes back to what? A holy dwelling
for God. Let me close with two things.
First, I believe one picture or illustration that comes to
my mind for what God has called us to do is something that you
get an A plus on. That Grace Centers of Hope, this
is what Grace Centers of Hope does. That the essence of what's
called turning chaos into order, disorder into order, is that
not what this place does? Taking that a step further, it's
like if you've ever seen that show, extreme makeover home addition. What do they do? They take chaos,
bedlam, disorder, and turn it into a sort of paradise, don't
they? In many ways, they're mimicking
what the church should be doing, what you're doing, for instance,
over on Seneca Street. But I've heard pastors say, Seneca
Street is just the beginnings. It's to turn this city upside
down. It's to turn this world upside down. Now let's not all
get big egos or anything thinking like, you know, we know we're
not going to do this, and we don't know what role God will
call us to play. I don't know. If my role is to go over there
and put nails in those houses, then I am going to put those
nails in the houses to the best of my ability for the glory of
God. I'm going to enjoy the people that are there with me. The pastor's
going to be on the radio every day telling people about this
gospel. That's the way it works. But
together, we're doing an extreme makeover on the earth to prepare
a dwelling for whom? For Jesus to return. Let me close with this in Revelation
21. Then I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away. And there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city,
the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared
as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband." And then in
verse 3, "'And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
Now the dwelling of God is with men. And He will live with them,
and they will be His people. and He will be their God. This
is the New Covenant, brothers and sisters. You know, so many
times we're just living for the here and now and for the little
taste that we get now. But let me just tell you, this
is just the beginning. This is great. It's just a foretaste. That's right, brother. It's just
a foretaste. But the real purpose is to prepare
this holy dwelling that God can... You see what happened in the
Garden of Eden. Was God dwelling with Adam and Eve before sin
entered the world? Yes. That he said that the scriptures say
that he was strolling in the garden in the cool of the day
with Adam and Eve in perfect relationship. And then what happens? Sin enters the world. What happened
to Adam and Eve? They got kicked out of the garden.
And essentially, here's what happens. At that point, when
sin enters the world, then the dwelling of God, the Garden of
Eden, separate. And Jesus, King Jesus, As I said,
He not only saves you and I, but He saves the entire creation. So that now in Revelation, see
the first two chapters of Revelation, of Genesis, kind of parallel
the last couple chapters of Revelation. I don't know if you've ever looked
at it like that, but that's really kind of what's happening. Because
what's happening at the end, what did I just read? Heaven's coming
down. It's coming back. God's going
to again dwell with His people. And it's all because of Jesus.
But don't lose this. The call. My challenge to you. My challenge is that in the meantime,
until that time, He has called us, not in our own strength,
but by His grace and power to give this away freely. To give
it away freely to others, just as we've received it. Give it
away in your graciousness to others. Give it away in the way
that you do the work that you do. to the glory of God. Excel
and do your very best in word and in deed at whatever it is
you do. As the pastor was saying the first night, be kind to one
another. And in so doing, you know what's
happening? The actual, as Jesus taught us
to pray, Lord, let Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. We're actually, God is using
us to usher in His kingdom here on earth. as it is in heaven.
Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we stand and marvel at your power
and your majesty in creation. We thank you, Lord, that it gives
us a foretaste of the perfected paradise that is to come. Lord,
give us a vision in our heart that this earth, that we are
about your business, that we are about your business preparing
a dwelling for you, in which we will be united to our groom,
Jesus Christ himself, that we can live forever and ever in
all eternity with him. And Lord, even though we don't
fully understand how you might use us sinful finite human beings,
Lord, I pray you would give us a faith that would so compel
our hearts, that we would give away the grace and love and mercy
that you've given to us to others, and that your name would be magnified
and glorified through it. Father, give us the strength
to see that. And Father, as we struggle in this effort, Lord, help us to cry out to you,
to know that we can cry out to you. and that you are a God who
is mighty to save, that you hear our prayers, that you know are
the motivations of our heart. You hear the desperate cries
of our own weakness, but I pray, Lord, that it's in those times
that you meet us in a special way and strengthen us to do your
will for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.