1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:05,160 Good morning. Well, if we have not yet met, my 2 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:07,000 name is Cole. I'm one of the pastors here. 3 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:09,240 I get to preach here more Sundays than not. 4 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:14,240 And if you've got a Bible, go ahead and get that open to 5 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:19,600 Genesis 1 verse one. We are in a new sermon series 6 00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:22,480 that we're starting today and like you guessed the, the book 7 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:27,400 of Genesis and I, I woke up on Wednesday without a voice. 8 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:29,720 So it was like a massive week for me. 9 00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:32,240 Obviously, I've got this sermon, I've got other stuff going on. 10 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:35,360 I, I, I helped with a wedding yesterday and I woke up on 11 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:38,600 Wednesday without a voice and I was like, oh, no, I am 12 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,040 absolutely toast. And I'd say like a good 60 or 13 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:45,920 70% of it is kind of back. But like there's, I don't know 14 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,560 if there's a good chance I'll blow through it this morning. 15 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:51,640 So if my voice gives out, I'll just stop preaching. 16 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:56,520 Sound good If it goes again, if he dies, he dies, right. 17 00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:59,480 So whatever happens happens. But maybe pray for me as I'm 18 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:00,840 preaching through this Genesis 1. 19 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:03,400 Where to start with this new sermon series? 20 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:06,080 We'll we'll start at the beginning. 21 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,840 Okay, look at verse one. This has this is the first book 22 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,800 of the Bible. It's got 50 chapters in it. 23 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:15,640 So if you try to calculate, man, we don't. 24 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,280 We work really slowly through books. 25 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:21,840 This book has 50 chapters. When in the world are we going 26 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:23,760 to be done with it? I actually have an answer for 27 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:25,040 it. You might not like it. 28 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:31,040 Currently, we are slated to end this sermon series on April of 29 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:36,360 2028. That's the soonest we'll get 30 00:01:36,360 --> 00:01:37,960 done with it. OK. 31 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,160 There's a likelihood that the length changes as we bump into 32 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:43,280 some stuff where I'm like, OK, I think we need more attention 33 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:45,520 over here. So it might get longer. 34 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,960 It's not going to get shorter. OK, So I'm, I'm going to count 35 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,000 it as a win. If we finish this sermon series 36 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,120 by the time that Malachi graduates from college. 37 00:01:56,120 --> 00:01:59,760 All right, we can pull that off. We'll we'll call it a win. 38 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:01,600 Genesis 1. Here's the way that Luther 39 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:06,040 describes Genesis. Luther said, quote, Genesis is 40 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:11,280 the source of all theology and so whoever understands Genesis 41 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:15,040 properly will have no difficulty with the rest of Scripture. 42 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:21,080 Gerhard von Rod said there is scarcely another book in the Old 43 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:26,600 Testament which speaks in such a powerful and elemental way as 44 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:30,160 the book of Genesis. I really like this one by John 45 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,000 Salehammer. Sale Hammer says, quote, the 46 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:38,520 book of Genesis is the seed plot, the seed plot of the 47 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:40,080 entire Bible? Heck yes. 48 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:41,600 So here's how to think about this. 49 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:43,480 What Sale Hammer is saying is right. 50 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:47,680 The book of Genesis is the seed of the other 65 books of the 51 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:50,160 Bible. So the same way that the entire 52 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:52,600 oak tree and everything that's going to grow out of it is 53 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,880 present within the the teeny tiny sea when it goes into the 54 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:59,960 ground is the same way that all 65 books of the Bible are 55 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:03,440 present in the Book of Genesis. So yes, we're going to be in it 56 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:05,920 for a couple of years. It's going to feel long, but it 57 00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:08,720 won't feel like that because of the diversity of the book. 58 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:11,560 Genesis has so many different characters, so many different 59 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:14,840 genres, so many different stories and subplots that it's 60 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:18,000 really going to feel like we're preaching through the entire 61 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,160 Bible over these next couple years. 62 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:27,080 And when April of 2028 comes, or April of 2029, when that date 63 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,440 comes around and we finish the 50th chapter of Genesis, there 64 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:35,440 is no reason why you should be the same person then as you are 65 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:38,600 today. It should transform you. 66 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,440 It should Jack up your life. Genesis should stretch you, 67 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:47,440 deepen you, challenge you. It'll keep you up late at night. 68 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:49,680 It'll be the first thing on your mind in the morning when the 69 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:52,520 alarm clock goes off. Some of the stories will comfort 70 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:54,800 you. Some of the stories will tick 71 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:57,120 you off. But if you continue to bring 72 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:01,240 your whole heart before the book of Genesis, Sunday after Sunday, 73 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:06,520 after Sunday for the next couple of years, it will transform you. 74 00:04:06,760 --> 00:04:10,240 So I'm going to do some what teachers call a scaffolding. 75 00:04:10,280 --> 00:04:12,280 You taught me that powers. What I'm going to do is I'm 76 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:14,600 going to set up some scaffolding for the rest of the sermon 77 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,440 series. So I'm, I'm putting structures 78 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:20,600 in place that are going to guide you through these next couple 79 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:22,680 years. The big question that people 80 00:04:22,680 --> 00:04:26,480 love to argue about is how do we read Genesis? 81 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:28,720 Great question. Let's make some enemies right 82 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:31,920 away. A lot of people get hung up on 83 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:36,600 the debacle and debate of do we read it literally or do we read 84 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,520 it figuratively? I would encourage you to not 85 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:42,240 engage with that debate. I find it unhelpful. 86 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:44,080 I don't think those terms are even helpful. 87 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:48,040 What I would encourage you to do is to read it literally. 88 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:51,440 So within Genesis, it's not just one genre. 89 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:55,000 Within Genesis, you've got poetry, you've got history, 90 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:59,280 you've got narrative, you've got genealogy, you've even got legal 91 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:02,640 literature. So the best way to read it is in 92 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:05,440 correspondence to its current genre. 93 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:08,920 So rather than getting hung up on literal or figurative, let me 94 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:12,560 give you 3 actually helpful words to coach you through how 95 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:17,040 to read it. Word #1 is it is inspired the 96 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:21,000 doctrine of inspiration. Actually, I'm losing my voice. 97 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:22,960 Let me hear yours. Can you say inspired? 98 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:26,200 Inspired? The doctrine of inspiration 99 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:30,520 means that God himself has written or inspired this book, 100 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:35,080 even though it's written through an inspired person, in the case 101 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:39,440 of Genesis, Moses. So what God does is God uses 102 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:43,920 Moses, Moses's story, Moses's personality, even Moses's 103 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,760 writing style. But it is God himself riding 104 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,840 through Moses, making it entirely appropriate and right 105 00:05:51,840 --> 00:05:55,520 to call Genesis the Word of God. It's inspired. 106 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:59,480 Second, it is inerrant. Let me hear that one from you. 107 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:02,800 Inerrant. The doctrine of inerrancy means 108 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:07,560 that in its original language, there are no errors within the 109 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:10,000 text. That means that Genesis is true 110 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:14,360 and reliable in all of its aspects. 111 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:17,760 Inerrancy and #3 is authoritative. 112 00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:19,440 Let me hear you say authoritative. 113 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,720 Authoritative means that what the Bible says is more important 114 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,560 than what Cole says about it. What the doctrine of authority 115 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:31,720 means is that the Bible and the Bible alone, the Bible itself, 116 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:34,760 is the ultimate standard for what's true and what's false. 117 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:39,400 So if you feel that God is a certain way, and that certain 118 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:42,480 way is different than the way that Genesis portrays God, 119 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:45,560 you're wrong and Genesis is right. 120 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:48,640 Genesis is the authority, the ultimate standard for what's 121 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:52,280 true and what's false. So the words of Genesis 122 00:06:52,280 --> 00:06:56,400 themselves are more important than my or anybody from the 123 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:59,000 preaching team. Any of our interpretations or 124 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:03,360 explanations of it are, even though we hope that it's 125 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:05,240 helpful. So let's look at the actual text 126 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:07,680 and if you're able, let's go ahead and stand for the reading 127 00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:16,400 of the word of God. I was talking to Peterson this 128 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:23,600 morning and Peterson was like, how many verses you preaching on 129 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:25,360 this morning? And I was like, why? 130 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:29,920 And he's like as me and Kara had a bet on the over under of how 131 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:31,520 few verses you're going to preach on. 132 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:34,640 And so I was like, well, what was the over under? 133 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:39,280 And you said what 3 verses? And did Kara take the over or 134 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:41,480 the under? The under? 135 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:46,760 Carol wins. So this sermon is brought to you 136 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:50,480 by DraftKings. No, I'm not I'm kidding. 137 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:55,440 You know what I'm talking about. Spade one verse this morning, 138 00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:59,600 the Word of God. Where does the Bible begin? 139 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:01,560 The Bible begins where reality begins. 140 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,280 Not with you, not with us, not with me. 141 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:15,800 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 142 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:20,320 That's going to be enough for us over the next 30 minutes. 143 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:28,960 You can have a seat. OK, so while we're making 144 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:31,120 enemies, let's just make a few more enemies. 145 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:35,120 There's a lot of debates that pop up around Genesis, so I just 146 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,880 want to, I don't want that to be background noise that distracts 147 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,159 from the actual preaching. So I'm going to jump into 148 00:08:40,159 --> 00:08:43,559 another thing right away. How about the age of the Earth? 149 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:47,240 Let's do that. Christians, they, they are very 150 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,800 passionate and they love to argue about the age of the 151 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:51,720 earth. The way that some Christians 152 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,680 argue about the age of the earth would make a person think that 153 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:58,040 the first question God is going to ask us at the pearly gates is 154 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:01,600 not did you trust Jesus? But how old is the earth? 155 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:03,320 People get really passionate about it. 156 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,160 There's people in here who have a very strong conviction about 157 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:08,120 it. I think that's a wonderful 158 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:11,200 thing. What I would encourage you not 159 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:15,720 to do is make enemies over this. And so when it comes to the age 160 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:21,080 of the earth, there are essentially 2 big views. 161 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:24,440 OK there, there are more nuanced positions than these two 162 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,960 positions, I get that. But the two big positions are 163 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:30,960 old Earth creationist and Young Earth creationist. 164 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:32,840 Let's start with you, Young earth creationist. 165 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:36,160 A young earth creationist believe that the world is 166 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:41,920 roughly 6 to 10,000 years old. This comes from a literal rating 167 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:44,840 of the 24 hours of days that we see in Genesis. 168 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:49,800 Old earth creationists are also creationists, but they have no 169 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:52,600 problem affirming the possibility that maybe the age 170 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:56,760 of the earth is older, maybe even much older than 6 to 10,000 171 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:58,720 years old. The most important thing about 172 00:09:58,760 --> 00:10:01,680 old earth versus young earth creationists is not their 173 00:10:01,680 --> 00:10:03,560 differences, but their similarities. 174 00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:07,800 They're both creationists. They're both Christians, right? 175 00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:09,960 They're both lovers of of Jesus. OK? 176 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,280 They've got a big similarity. They both believe that God 177 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:19,160 created everything ex Neilo or out of nothing for his very own 178 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:20,880 glory. So I think it's a wonderful 179 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:24,360 thing to have a strong view on old or young earth creationism 180 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,240 be convicted. Don't poke anybody's eye out 181 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:30,880 over your opinion on that. I mean, the question, though, is 182 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:36,640 like who at the end of the day, who has more scriptural support 183 00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:39,240 for their case? You're probably not going to 184 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:41,280 like my answer to that question because my answer to that 185 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:46,880 question is both young Earth creationist versus New Earth 186 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:51,000 creationist who has more scriptural support for their 187 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:52,520 case. I think that there's a case to 188 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:55,440 be made for both of them. Young earth creationists take a 189 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:57,600 literal approach to the six days of creation. 190 00:10:57,600 --> 00:10:59,960 So when we read about the six days of creation in Genesis 1, 191 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:03,240 we're reading about 624 hour days. 192 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:07,280 I think that's great. I heard somebody in our church, 193 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:09,000 I think, I can't remember who it was. 194 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,880 I think it was Christian. Christian said, you know, I, I 195 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:14,080 don't really have a strong opinion on it either, but at the 196 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:17,960 end of the day, I would rather look like a fool in the eyes of 197 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:20,600 the world for taking God's word too literally. 198 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,040 And when I heard him say that, I was like, that's good. 199 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:25,560 So I I really do like that position. 200 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:29,600 I do, I like it. I tend to lean towards an old 201 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:32,800 earth creationist view. I'll give you one simple reason. 202 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:36,480 I personally think it has more in common thematically with the 203 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:39,640 rest of the creation story. For instance, Adam and Eve were 204 00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:43,960 created by God as mature people who are ready to bear fruit 205 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:46,600 sexually. They weren't created infantile. 206 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:50,360 So it makes logical sense to me that God would or perhaps 207 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:53,440 possibly would create the heavens and the earth in that 208 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:57,440 same way. Not infantile, but mature, old 209 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:01,440 enough already to bear fruit. And what that does for me is it 210 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,200 puts me in a position where there's no scientific discovery 211 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:06,840 that could possibly scare me. If science discovers that the 212 00:12:06,840 --> 00:12:09,040 earth is 6000 years old, that's great. 213 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:14,000 Wonderful if they decide that it's 10 bajillion years old, 214 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:15,680 that's fine. It doesn't really bother me. 215 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:20,000 I'm indifferent to it. The scientific consensus, which 216 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:23,160 is fun to keep up with, it tends to shift so much that it just 217 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:25,920 kind of feels like sand compared to the rock of God's word. 218 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:29,840 And so that stuff is it's fine. It just like it's just like 219 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:32,840 nobody's ever like sprung that on me and I've been like, crap. 220 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:35,520 How do you know I'm a Christian now? 221 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:38,400 I just the word of God is a rock compared to all of that. 222 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:41,960 So listen to me. The primary function of the book 223 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,000 of Genesis is not to teach the age of the earth. 224 00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:50,040 It is to teach about the character and nature of our 225 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:53,000 Creator God. Amen. 226 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:57,040 Personally, I think Moses would probably be shocked to discover 227 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:00,040 that Christians were dividing themselves over this issue on 228 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:05,280 the basis of his writings. So Genesis is not, it is not a 229 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:10,320 modern scientific textbook. If you treat it that way, you're 230 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:13,840 not going to see it clearly. And if it's not a modern 231 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:18,760 scientific textbook, what is it? Here's the answer. 232 00:13:19,560 --> 00:13:26,840 It is a theological revolution. That's the right way to read the 233 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:31,400 book of Genesis. It's a revolution in the way 234 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:37,560 that we see, think about and know God. 235 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:40,200 OK, so let's go deeper into this. 236 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:41,840 We got to go. We got to go deeper into this. 237 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:45,280 Even just a lot of things to say. 238 00:13:47,560 --> 00:13:53,000 Even if you just look at this one verse, there are so many 239 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:55,160 things that are revolutionary about them. 240 00:13:55,560 --> 00:14:02,040 OK, in the beginning, God, The idea of an eternal God who 241 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:04,000 existed before there was a beginning. 242 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:07,040 You know where that began? With the book of Genesis. 243 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:14,520 In the beginning, God, not Gods. The idea of monotheism was a 244 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:19,000 radical idea that had its roots only in Genesis. 245 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:26,560 In the beginning God created or but ah the Hebrew but ah is only 246 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:30,240 attributed to God. Humans are creators but we don't 247 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:32,600 Bara. All we can do is create with 248 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:36,360 pre-existing materials. The Hebrew root Bara, it means 249 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:40,480 out of nothing. So this idea of God creating out 250 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:42,320 of nothing, you know where that idea started? 251 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:45,800 The book of Genesis, even the other ancient near Eastern 252 00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:49,200 worlds, their gods when they built the world they did it from 253 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:52,600 pre-existing materials. So everything about this one 254 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:54,960 verse in the beginning God created the heavens of the earth 255 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:56,840 is revolutionary. And this might be the most 256 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:57,880 important thing I say this morning. 257 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:06,920 I think yes, if you have studied literature out there, a lot of 258 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,120 the literature is correct. There were other similar 259 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:13,400 creation myths from other religions during the time when 260 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:18,000 Genesis was written. That's demonstrably true. 261 00:15:18,720 --> 00:15:23,280 However, sometimes what skeptics will do is they'll compare 262 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:27,080 Genesis with a Near Eastern creation myth, and they'll say, 263 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:33,360 look, the writers of the Bible are just stealing and 264 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:38,000 repurposing other creation myths from their Babylonian neighbors. 265 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:41,400 And this means that we can't trust the credibility of the 266 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:44,760 Bible. And here's what these skeptics 267 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:50,440 miss. Yes, Genesis is stealing and 268 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:55,240 repurposing from other creation myths in its day, but it's doing 269 00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:58,840 that on purpose. The way that Genesis uses other 270 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:03,560 creation myths is the same way that Saturday Night Live 271 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:07,440 repurposes the news. If you were like, man, I watch 272 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:11,120 Saturday Night Live and I I noticed that they stole a lot 273 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:14,760 from the president, you would be like, yeah, that's the point. 274 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:18,560 And So what Genesis is doing is a theological revolution. 275 00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:23,880 It's correcting and criticizing the other creation myths of the 276 00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:25,200 day. So the point of repurposing 277 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:27,200 these creation myths isn't to imitate them. 278 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:29,080 That's not what Genesis is doing. 279 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:36,400 Genesis is not saying, yeah, the God of the Bible is exactly like 280 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:38,360 the gods of Babylon. Wrong. 281 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:40,640 It's doing the exact opposite of that. 282 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:44,680 It's not to imitate them, but to show how the God of the Bible is 283 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:49,280 unique and differs from the popular ideas about God at the 284 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:51,120 time. We have to understand that from 285 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:56,320 every era of history, there's always been a popular culture of 286 00:16:56,320 --> 00:17:00,320 ideas that's developed around what God is like. 287 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:04,760 And sometimes these popular ideas about God are not rooted 288 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:06,480 in any objective grounds of truth. 289 00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:10,359 For instance, the popular idea of God among the ancient people, 290 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:14,560 it was actually the exact opposite of the popular idea of 291 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:17,040 God in the modern world. So if you look in the ancient 292 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:20,520 world among non biblical religions, so non Bible 293 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:23,520 believing religion, the ancient world, the popular idea of the 294 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:28,280 gods was both pluralistic and brutally angry. 295 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:30,960 They had a polytheistic view of the gods, that the heavenly 296 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:35,320 realm is a heavenly heavily populated with these competing 297 00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,160 gods who are like human beings. They're petty, they're easily 298 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:41,320 angered. They don't care for creation 299 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:43,040 very much. And what the ancients were doing 300 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:45,160 is they were following their gut. 301 00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:48,520 So the ancients looked at the world around them. 302 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:51,880 They saw famines and wars and bloodshed. 303 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,440 They saw hatred among different tribes, and they followed their 304 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,440 gut. And they said, OK, the gods must 305 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:02,280 be angry and violent. And they were wrong. 306 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:06,320 We've made like the opposite error in the modern world. 307 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:08,880 Modern people have done the opposite thing. 308 00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:11,080 We've shifted. Now the world is filled with 309 00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,440 more order and structure and polity, thank God. 310 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:16,160 And so modern people have assumed that, well, God must 311 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,760 just be a divine teddy bear, right? 312 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,360 And you hear this come through whenever somebody appeals to the 313 00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:25,720 human heart rather than the objective reference point of the 314 00:18:25,720 --> 00:18:27,080 Bible. So whenever you hear somebody 315 00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:33,000 say I just don't think God would ever or I could never believe in 316 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:37,480 a God who did X or Y, usually in reference to something 317 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:40,760 conflicting their desires. When you hear statements like 318 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:49,400 that, you are hearing what the popular cultural ideas about God 319 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:55,160 coming through. And what Genesis does is neither 320 00:18:55,160 --> 00:19:01,880 of those things neither it presents us with a God who is 321 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:07,440 the ground of our being, self-sufficient, loving and the 322 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,600 very truth itself. And to disagree with him, no 323 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,200 matter what your gut tells you, puts you in the wrong. 324 00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:16,960 So what Genesis does is it helps us fight off the popular ideas 325 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:22,320 about God and gives us a theological revolution, an 326 00:19:22,320 --> 00:19:26,960 objective true vision of God. How we doing this is a lot. 327 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:30,440 OK, It looked like less on paper. 328 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:32,360 Now that it's coming on, that's a lot. 329 00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:35,120 OK, you guys are with me. So let's go deeper. 330 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:37,720 Take the ancient Babylonian idea of the gods. 331 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:40,280 They were really close neighbors with the Israelites. 332 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:42,600 So this is actually a really good contrasting point. 333 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:46,480 If you take the ancient Babylonian idea of the gods and 334 00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:48,600 compare it to the biblical vision of God, it's 335 00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:50,640 breathtaking. So the Babylonian creation myth 336 00:19:50,640 --> 00:19:57,280 was called the Anuma Elise. Like Genesis, it has the gods 337 00:19:57,280 --> 00:19:58,720 creating the heavens and the earth. 338 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:03,080 That's true. Does that invalidate Genesis 11? 339 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:05,560 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 340 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:09,200 Oh, is Genesis just stealing from the Anuma Elish? 341 00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:12,600 If it is, it can't be trusted for everything in life and 342 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:13,520 death. Wrong. 343 00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:18,200 What Genesis is doing is it is specifically showing how 344 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:20,920 different the God of the Bible is from the Babylonian gods. 345 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,640 How? Because how do the two different 346 00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:25,360 gods create heavens and the earth? 347 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:29,000 This is crazy. The first time I learned this, I 348 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:32,640 was like, I can't believe. OK, so the answer that the Anuma 349 00:20:32,680 --> 00:20:34,720 Elish gives is radically different. 350 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,960 The creation myth in the Anuma Elish has that the gods in the 351 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:43,440 heavenly realm were violent and at war with one another and 352 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:47,040 rivals with one another. And there was this war in heaven 353 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:51,200 that went on and on and on until the Babylonian God Marduk, who 354 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:54,840 was the chief God that Babylon worship, he ended the war. 355 00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:57,720 Marduk ended the war by defeating and slaughtering the 356 00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,400 other gods. And I swear to you, this is in 357 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,640 the Anuma, a leash to create the heavens and the earth. 358 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:08,200 He split the corpses in half and made the heavens and the earth 359 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:10,160 from the corpses of the other gods. 360 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:19,240 Why does that matter? Because in Genesis 1, the God of 361 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:23,600 creation, the God of the Bible, has no equals. 362 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:29,960 He has no peers. He has no rivals. 363 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:33,760 Creation in Genesis isn't the result of bloodshed. 364 00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:39,880 It's not the result of violence. What's it the result of? 365 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:45,320 It's the result of poetry. This is a radically different 366 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:50,400 vision for creation in Genesis. Creation is effortless. 367 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:55,560 The biblical loving God speaks the word of his mouth and 368 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:59,360 creation explodes effortlessly into reality. 369 00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:04,920 A theological revolution, a massive shift in ideas about God 370 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:07,640 and it's day. And This is why this matters so 371 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:09,400 much. It matters because what you 372 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:16,200 believe about creation shapes your everyday life. 373 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,000 Because everyday life is about creation. 374 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,320 That's what we do. We're we're trying to 375 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:27,560 participate with a million different little new creations 376 00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:29,560 every day. Our daily lives are filled with 377 00:22:29,560 --> 00:22:31,920 small acts of creation, trying to create new relationships, 378 00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:35,280 better relationships, trying to create goods to be purchased or 379 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:38,520 teaching lessons for students or financial plans for our 380 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:41,240 consumers. The question is what creates? 381 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:46,640 And the Babylonian myth says violence is the engine of 382 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:50,440 creation, end of violence. As the engine of creation, 383 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,240 violence is what you get. So that's why the Babylonians 384 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:56,640 were notoriously brutal. It didn't come out of nowhere, 385 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,160 it came out of their creation story. 386 00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,720 There were public acts of brutality and enslavement and 387 00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:04,040 constant never ending war mongering. 388 00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,440 When God's people were in Babylonian exile, there were 389 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,880 brutal acts of barbarism, cutting off hands, gouging out 390 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:13,320 eyes, cultural erasure. Why? 391 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:19,080 Because of their creation story, violence is how we move the 392 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:26,160 world forward. So do you see how Genesis is a 393 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:31,680 theological revolution, right, That the question that Genesis 394 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:36,160 poses is what if violence isn't the creative engine in in the 395 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:38,160 world? Genesis is God's way of saying 396 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:40,720 I'm not like that. Don't buy the pop ideas about 397 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,800 me. Genesis says poetry is the 398 00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:47,480 creative engine and This is why the Christian ethic is love, 399 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:53,520 care, submit, sacrifice, die to yourself, serve. 400 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,320 This was radical in a world where violence explained 401 00:23:56,320 --> 00:23:58,760 everything, politics, law, religion. 402 00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,680 Genesis 1 opens. It was something unheard of. 403 00:24:04,040 --> 00:24:11,240 No violence, no battle, no corpses, just a God speaking 404 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,760 poetry. Why? 405 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,800 Look at Genesis 11. In the beginning, God but ah, 406 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:25,680 created the heavens and the earth. 407 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:30,200 Why? And of course, the answer to 408 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:33,760 that question is why does anybody create anything, whether 409 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:38,000 it's art, music or children? Mekoto Fujimura, a Christian 410 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:43,080 artist, he said this about painting, Quote art is created 411 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,720 out of the overflow of our hearts, and so we cannot 412 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:50,640 separate what we make from who we are. 413 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:56,520 So you take Picasso, right? And you look at Picasso's wild 414 00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,920 artwork. That's a reflection of Picasso's 415 00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:03,760 inner turmoil. Picasso's creation is a 416 00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:08,880 reflection of Picasso's nature. In that same way, all of the 417 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,880 universe, all of creation, exists to display the nature and 418 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,400 character of God. Colossians one says this 419 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,520 perfectly. For in him all things were 420 00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:19,840 created. Things in heaven and on earth, 421 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,400 visible and invisible. Thrones, powers, rulers or 422 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:26,640 authorities, all this stuff, it's all been created through 423 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:34,160 him and for him. He did all of this to reflect 424 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,360 who he is. Jonathan Edwards. 425 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:37,960 Who can say it better than that guy? 426 00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:43,040 Edwards famously said, quote, God's ultimate end in the 427 00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:49,560 creation of the world is the manifestation of his own glory. 428 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:57,600 Think, I mean like, think about how Genesis starts it. 429 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:01,920 Like it doesn't even start with us, it starts with God. 430 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:05,800 I don't even, I don't even notice this before. 431 00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,840 We don't actually enter the picture until verse 26. 432 00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,280 Even the birds show up on verse 23. 433 00:26:15,360 --> 00:26:19,920 We come after the birds. It's not God. 434 00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:22,000 How does it start in the beginning God? 435 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:23,920 It begins with God. Why? 436 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:29,080 Because all things have been created through Him and for Him. 437 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,040 That's the purpose of all of creation. 438 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,880 If you don't get that, you don't get it. 439 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:43,600 That's why. That's why the Bible is so hard 440 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,760 on apathy, right? That's why apathy is a sin, 441 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:51,280 right? Apathy is essentially saying to 442 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:56,880 God, you've created nothing of value or worth in this world. 443 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:01,360 That's what apathy says, right? You've created nothing that 444 00:27:01,360 --> 00:27:05,200 sparks my wonder and nothing that sparks my adoration. 445 00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:09,880 So I'll go through life bored. And of course the main mistake 446 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:13,880 of apathy is that it's profoundly man centered. 447 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:18,040 Creation exists from my consumption. 448 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:24,280 And so if there's not an immediate benefit, then I don't 449 00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:27,680 care about it. I'll look at creation with 450 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:29,440 indifference because I feel like it. 451 00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:32,520 It's a creation is not man centered. 452 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:39,400 Creation is God centered through and for God. 453 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:45,120 This is key. Genesis is not it. 454 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,960 Genesis is not trying to convince you in the existence of 455 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:55,920 a God like atheist. Like when this was written, 456 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:58,360 atheism had not yet been invented. 457 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,320 There was no such thing as an atheist. 458 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:05,080 Genesis is not trying to convince you that there's a God 459 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:09,120 out there who probably exists. Everybody. 460 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,680 When Genesis was written, everybody believed in the 461 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,880 existence of the gods. Everybody. 462 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,960 What Genesis is trying to convince you of is not just that 463 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:22,760 God merely exists, trying to convince you that all of 464 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:27,280 creation is God centered, and that this God is not distant and 465 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:31,040 indifferent, but intimately and lovingly involved with all of 466 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:33,920 creation. That's what it's trying to get 467 00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:38,640 you to see, that everything that atoms in the molecules, the 468 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:42,240 sunsets and the seas, the black holes and the star 469 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:47,920 constellations, everything, it all exists for the chief 470 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:52,760 purpose, displaying the invisible glory of God and 471 00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:59,640 making it visible. Like the only way you could ever 472 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:09,880 look at a sunset and yawn is if you think more about yourself 473 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,720 than you think about God. That's the only way you could 474 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:15,440 look at a sunset and be indifferent. 475 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,320 The proper responses. What the proper responses? 476 00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:23,000 Worship. Worship of God Who created it? 477 00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:32,640 Genesis one. In the beginning God created the 478 00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:37,200 heavens and the earth. I wish you could see my notes 479 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:40,880 because there's a massive typo. My notes say in the beginning 480 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:47,520 God created the beans in the earth, which is actually true 481 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,680 and serves the point that all of creation from the biggest stuff 482 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,360 like the heavens and the earth down to the smallest stuff, the 483 00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:57,280 beans are His creation. So yes, He did create the beans 484 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:02,640 in the earth. But here's what made me worship 485 00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:06,120 God about this moment this week. Have you ever wondered what the 486 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,800 look on God's face was in Genesis 11? 487 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,520 Like when he created the heavens and the earth and laid his eyes 488 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:16,640 on it for the first time? Like what do you think the look 489 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,840 on his face was? The truth is that Genesis 490 00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:27,320 doesn't tell us, but the revelation of Jesus does tell 491 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:31,000 us. So like what was God's look on 492 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:32,680 his face when he created the heavens and the earth? 493 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:35,360 Look, I don't know. Here's my best guess. 494 00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:39,400 A couple weeks ago I was at Mars Cafe. 495 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:41,880 I was about to meet with a couple different church planners 496 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,640 throughout the US. So I'm, I'm on my laptop working 497 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:50,240 at Mars Cafe and suddenly even though I'm, I'm staring at my 498 00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,840 laptop screen, but suddenly I I felt like I was caught up in the 499 00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:58,640 tension of something like the air just got thick. 500 00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:04,200 So I looked up from my screen and I looked over and there was 501 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:08,120 this elderly woman. How do I describe this? 502 00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:19,520 She was staring longingly with tears in her eyes at me. 503 00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:22,440 And I was like, how do I know this woman? 504 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,760 And then it hit me. She's not looking at me, she's 505 00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:28,520 looking past me. And I was like, that makes more 506 00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:30,000 sense because I don't know this person. 507 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,560 And so I'm like, what? What could she be looking at 508 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,560 that way? So I turn around and a couple 509 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:43,760 tables away there's this young married couple who are obviously 510 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:48,080 very happy but also very frazzled with bags under their 511 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:51,920 eyes that had just formed. And it's because on top of the 512 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:58,000 coffee table, they had this kicking, wiggling, burping 513 00:31:58,000 --> 00:31:59,920 little baby that they were caring for. 514 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:03,320 And the mom was clearly frazzled but also in love, trying to pick 515 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,720 boogers out of this kids nose and the kids swatting back, 516 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:07,680 right? Because it doesn't know any 517 00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:14,560 difference. And the woman who was staring 518 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:21,600 longingly at the baby, she was an elderly woman, which means 519 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:25,360 that this wasn't like a naive look on her face. 520 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:31,720 She been through it. So she knows. 521 00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:39,200 She knows that what that baby is going to do is that baby's going 522 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:42,400 to grow up to annihilate her. Because that's what children do. 523 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,240 They annihilate their parents. They annihilate their sleep, 524 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:48,120 they annihilate their social life. 525 00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,360 They annihilate all of your attention. 526 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:52,840 And this elderly woman knew that. 527 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:57,880 She knows that babies grow up to destroy their parents in the 528 00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:03,760 most loving way. And still she was just beaming 529 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:09,560 longingly at the baby. I could like I could tell in her 530 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:14,480 eyes that she would do anything to descend back into that season 531 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:17,680 of life and let the child annihilate her. 532 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:32,560 And what is that? I think that has got to be very 533 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:38,280 close to the look of God's face when he created the heavens and 534 00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:42,840 the earth got to be close. God knows. 535 00:33:43,840 --> 00:33:48,840 He knows in Genesis 1, He knows that the the heavens and the 536 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:52,720 earth just this helplessly wiggling baby of the heavens of 537 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,600 the earth in Genesis 1, He knows that the heavens and the earth 538 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:57,640 are going to grow up to annihilate him. 539 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:04,040 He's not naive. And what's he do? 540 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,040 He still creates it and delights over it. 541 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:13,000 And then when the time is right, He willingly descends into His 542 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:16,360 creation, the very heavens and earth themselves in the person 543 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,120 of Jesus Christ, and is willingly killed and crucified 544 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:24,440 by His own creation. All of creation humans 545 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:28,639 definitely. Look, the wood of the trees that 546 00:34:28,639 --> 00:34:33,159 he creates in Genesis 11 was repurposed into a cross to kill 547 00:34:33,159 --> 00:34:36,080 him. The thorns in the bushes he 548 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:39,800 created in Genesis 11 were jammed into His head. 549 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,679 The humans he's going to create to pay for their sins and to 550 00:34:44,679 --> 00:34:47,679 cover us in righteousness. He dies on a crossroads. 551 00:34:47,679 --> 00:34:51,159 Like, Can you imagine? This is when I say theological 552 00:34:51,159 --> 00:34:57,840 revolution, I mean that there's no other idea about God that has 553 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:01,320 ever been posited. Like the Christian manifestation 554 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:05,440 of what kind of God creates a world that he knows is going to 555 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:11,120 crucify him. Only the God of reality, only 556 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:19,920 the God of Genesis. And so Genesis 11, we're not 557 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:25,640 even in the picture yet. We're still 2627 verses away. 558 00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:30,080 But already in Genesis 11, the gospel is here. 559 00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:33,920 There's no fall, there's no sins yet, but the gospel is still 560 00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:35,360 present in here. OK? 561 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:39,400 So I want you to hear the gospel through the lens of Genesis 11. 562 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:41,640 Last point. Then your butts are out of the 563 00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:47,520 pews and we're singing. Genesis 11 is not only a distant 564 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,320 story about how God created the heavens and the earth. 565 00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:55,240 Yes, it's that, but it is also the story of your own salvation. 566 00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:59,800 Check this out. How does the Bible describe your 567 00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:03,080 salvation? The New Testament describes your 568 00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:07,400 salvation by calling you. When you turn to Jesus and 569 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:13,240 faith, it calls you a new what a new creation, right? 570 00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:18,320 Paul says anyone who is in Christ is a new what a new 571 00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:21,520 creation. So that means that God has 572 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:28,240 created your salvation the same way that he created the heavens 573 00:36:28,240 --> 00:36:32,080 and the earth. Your salvation is second 574 00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:35,560 Genesis. This is profound. 575 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:39,600 That means that God created it the same way as He created the 576 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:42,800 heavens and the earth. Ex Nilo, out of nothing. 577 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:46,480 What did the universe do to earn its creation? 578 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:53,840 Nothing, It didn't exist. What did the universe do to 579 00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:57,240 merit its creation? Nothing. 580 00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:01,000 It didn't exist. The same is true of your new 581 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:04,440 creation. This is an exact parallel with 582 00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:08,680 your salvation. What did God see in you to earn 583 00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:10,560 your salvation? Nothing. 584 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:17,640 You'd do anything to earn it. How did you muster up the faith 585 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:19,520 to believe in God when your neighbors don't? 586 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:23,000 You didn't. You didn't muster up your faith 587 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:25,080 even. That's a gift of God. 588 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,920 Even your faith. That conscious decision where 589 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:30,400 you said I'm going to trust in God. 590 00:37:30,720 --> 00:37:33,960 God created that ex Neela out of nothing. 591 00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:38,800 It was not there. He spoke and boom, it was there. 592 00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:42,800 You are as responsible for your salvation as the heavens and the 593 00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:44,760 earth are responsible for their creation. 594 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,480 Which is to say not at all. You did nothing. 595 00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:50,360 All you did was receive the gift. 596 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:53,240 And so let me ask you a question. 597 00:37:53,240 --> 00:37:55,200 Are you, are you a Christian this morning? 598 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:04,320 Don't ever think to yourself I'm a Christian because I'm morally 599 00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:09,640 superior than non Christians. No, never think to yourself I'm 600 00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:13,640 a Christian because I'm spiritually more in touch with 601 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:18,480 other people. Wrong answer dad, wrong answer. 602 00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:23,920 Never think to yourself I'm a Christian because I at least had 603 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:29,840 the good logic to add up all the stuff and say, oh, trusting 604 00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:31,920 Jesus is the right choice with my life. 605 00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:33,440 That's not why you're a Christian. 606 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:37,920 Maybe it felt that way to you. That was an illusion. 607 00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:44,520 Why are you a Christian? Because of Genesis 11? 608 00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:51,520 Because God created your faith, ex Neilo, the same way he 609 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:53,600 created the heavens and the earth, ex Neilo. 610 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:59,520 And so you know what the proper response to that is A lifetime 611 00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,320 of worship and adoration to this creator God. 612 00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:04,560 So let me pray and we'll do that together. 613 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:11,520 Heavenly Father, thank you for being our creator. 614 00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:20,160 It's amazing to live in this crazy cosmos of heaven and earth 615 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:25,040 and sunsets and seas and galaxies and black holes and 616 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:27,680 beans. All of it is just wild. 617 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:31,240 I remember, Lord, it blew my mind the first time I read 618 00:39:31,240 --> 00:39:35,920 Jonathan Edwards and he talked about this silkworm that was 619 00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,040 crawling across his lap. And as he looked at the 620 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:43,640 silkworm, he said, what is this but a revelation of the person 621 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:45,600 of Christ? And I was like, who would ever 622 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:48,200 see that in a silkworm? That's crazy. 623 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:53,160 And he goes on to say the same way that this silkworm will be 624 00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:58,880 crushed and it's materials would be used to create the finest 625 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:03,760 garments. Silk is the exact same way that 626 00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:06,120 Christ would be crushed and that. 627 00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:08,160 That his righteousness would cover us. 628 00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:11,160 And when I read that, I thought, Oh my gosh, there should never 629 00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:15,640 be anything in the universe that I look at that doesn't remind me 630 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:17,600 in some way of Jesus. And so I pray that you would 631 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:21,360 give us that type of faith and imagination, point us to Jesus 632 00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:24,960 in all things, and help us believe in the theological 633 00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:28,480 revolution of Genesis. So it's in the precious name of 634 00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:30,040 Jesus that all God's people prayed. 635 00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:33,320 Amen. Let's stand and let's worship 636 00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:34,080 this God together.