1 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:05,040 Good morning, everybody. How we doing? 2 00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:08,160 It's good to see you. It's good to see we got some 3 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:11,880 students here coming back for the school year. 4 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:15,040 Got folks returning. What's up, Matt and Kylie? 5 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:17,840 Man, it's like this is the this is the celebration of newly 6 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:21,840 married folks in the house today at the Garden Hollow. 7 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:25,680 Good to see you guys. It's you know what it's rainy 8 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:28,240 outside, but this is it's an exciting time of year. 9 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:30,960 Ian's reminding us that football season is back. 10 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:35,360 You know, school is underway. Thank you teachers. 11 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:38,440 Great job parents. If you made it here this morning 12 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:41,760 after is starting off a new school year. 13 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:43,600 Proud of you. Good to good to be here 14 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:45,120 teachers. Thank you so much. 15 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:48,920 And, and there's of course a lot going on here at the Garden 16 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:50,520 Church. If we haven't, if we haven't 17 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:53,280 met, my name is Josh. I have the joy of serving as 18 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:56,520 pastor here at the Garden and, and we're we're glad you're here 19 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,120 today. We are a community of people 20 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:04,040 with lots of we're different in all kinds of different ways, but 21 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:07,640 we're on this shared journey to to be shaped by the love of 22 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:10,320 Jesus, to share that in the places that we live, work and 23 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:12,880 play. That's what keeps us connected. 24 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,160 And if you're looking for a spiritual family, checking out 25 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:18,840 church, just exploring faith, Hey, we're we're so glad you're 26 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:20,000 here. Welcome. 27 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:21,320 We'd love to help you find that gum. 28 00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:25,280 Grab me or anybody with a lanyard back in the back this 29 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,000 morning. We're we're excited to be diving 30 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:30,440 in this morning to to this to September. 31 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:31,640 I don't want to say fall not quite yet. 32 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:33,960 We're not quite there. It feels there, but not quite 33 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:38,200 diving into September and of course, diving into this new 34 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:41,360 series that Amy talked about a titled the story. 35 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:44,960 Maybe you have wondered, maybe not. 36 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:49,120 Maybe you have wondered how to make sense of the Bible. 37 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:52,160 Has anybody ever like, been confused by the Bible? 38 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,360 Like this is the Bible is is crazy. 39 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:58,600 It is unlike any other book that we read. 40 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:03,680 It's really a whole library of books composed over more than a 41 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:06,920 millennia. Different languages, different 42 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:11,120 cultures, different continents. There's a lot going on. 43 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:17,040 And yet this incredible diverse library of scripture tells a 44 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:21,040 single story that is so important for you and me. 45 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:23,200 And that's what we're exploring in the series. 46 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,440 We're going to go Genesis. It's a revelation garden all the 47 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:30,200 way to new creation and attempt to make sense of what's going on 48 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:33,840 in this story and how it matters for you and me. 49 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:38,520 One of my favorite movies is The Bourne Identity. 50 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:40,640 I'm dating myself a little bit here. 51 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:43,280 I love I love some me some good action movies. 52 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:46,560 And in the Bourne Identity, some of you have seen it. 53 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:50,440 Some of you are are old like me. The the movie opens with this 54 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:53,440 great scene. There is like a man, apparently 55 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,760 a corpse just floating in the open sea. 56 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:00,560 He's he's reeled in in the dark of night from the Mediterranean 57 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,840 on to this fishing boat. And and when he comes to and 58 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:05,800 they they realize that he's alive. 59 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,720 There's so much mystery like what is going on here. 60 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,520 First of all, this dude doesn't doesn't even know his name. 61 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:15,960 He doesn't know who he is, doesn't know how he got here, 62 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:17,840 doesn't know how he has bullet holes in his back. 63 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,320 Something is going on, but not only is there mystery around who 64 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,360 he is, but like clearly this is a this is a non typical human. 65 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:31,080 This guy over here like speaks multiple languages, has like 66 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:35,640 elite combat skills, processes things like a a seasoned 67 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:38,080 operative. Something is happening, but 68 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,680 we're not, we're not sure what. And over the course of the 69 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,960 movie, this individual who we end up coming to know is Jason 70 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:49,320 Bourne, goes on this journey to make sense of, to try and figure 71 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:53,760 out who, who am I? Because he's so confused in this 72 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,920 setting, trying to make sense of what his, what he's about, who 73 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:01,680 he is, what his purpose is in the world without the memory of 74 00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:05,720 his story. I love this as an analogy for us 75 00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:10,600 friends, because, you know, I think many of us, maybe you can 76 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:15,000 identify with this, find our ourselves at at at moments in 77 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,120 life where we're we're moving through the world, we're going 78 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:22,200 about our day-to-day and and we find ourselves saying like, who 79 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:26,080 even am I? What, why am I here? 80 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:29,720 What am I supposed to be doing? What is all this about? 81 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:33,360 We find ourselves with compulsions, intuitions, 82 00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:37,080 defaults and we're like, where? Where does this even come from? 83 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:40,280 How do I make sense of my behavior and how I'm supposed to 84 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:42,640 be in the world? Have you ever felt yourself in 85 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:45,040 this kind of like a little bit of an existential, like what is 86 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,240 happening? How do I, how do I be in the 87 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:50,160 world? Well, I want to suggest to you 88 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:54,360 this morning that it's very difficult to know who you are to 89 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,440 answer the question of your identity or, or to answer the 90 00:04:57,440 --> 00:05:01,520 question of purpose. Why am I here if we don't know 91 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:04,520 the answer to the question, where do I come from? 92 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:09,360 Where do I come from? What's my origin story? 93 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:14,160 And this is what we see in Genesis chapter one. 94 00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:18,080 In fact, the word Genesis is from a Greek word that literally 95 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:20,480 means origins. It's the beginning. 96 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,120 It's the origin story of where we come from. 97 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:30,240 And now this is interesting because this story has often 98 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:33,920 been used to answer all kinds of different questions. 99 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:37,200 Maybe you grew up in a church context or situation where where 100 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,400 people use the book of Genesis to try and explain everything 101 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:43,840 about the world. Many people these days are 102 00:05:43,840 --> 00:05:48,480 trying to to answer questions about modern scientific origins, 103 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:52,600 like how old is the earth? How exactly did everything come 104 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,000 to be? That was like, how did creation 105 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:58,480 happen? Unfortunately, I'm not going to 106 00:05:58,480 --> 00:05:59,600 talk about those things this morning. 107 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:02,200 OK. If that's what you were hoping 108 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:04,480 for when you heard that Genesis was on the menu, I'm sorry to 109 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:07,880 disappoint you. And, and I won't be talking 110 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:10,120 about those this morning because I think that those are actually 111 00:06:10,120 --> 00:06:13,200 modern scientific questions that are foreign to what's going on 112 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:14,880 in the book of Genesis. I don't think that's what 113 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:18,880 Genesis is talking about at all. Because what we find here, when 114 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:23,120 we look at these early chapters of Genesis, we find it not a 115 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:28,880 scientific account of material origins, but we find a 116 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:35,920 theological account about who God is, who we are, and what our 117 00:06:35,920 --> 00:06:39,320 place is in this world that he has created. 118 00:06:40,200 --> 00:06:42,200 And this is important. Friends, I, I say this not 119 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:47,600 because I don't believe that the scripture is reliable of enough 120 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:51,440 of a guide to to to take literally about something. 121 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:56,040 It's rather because I respect Scripture enough to pay 122 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:57,480 attention to what it's actually doing. 123 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,240 And I'm going to show you from the text of Scripture why I 124 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,800 think what we have here in Genesis one in particular is a 125 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,600 theological account, the answers some crucially important 126 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:09,160 questions. So we're going to we're going to 127 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:12,720 be all over Genesis 1 today. If you if you have a Bible with 128 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:15,160 you, pull it out. If you have a phone with you, 129 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:18,920 open it up, dial in in your preferred Bible app to Genesis 1 130 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:22,600 because I want to show you some things that are happening in the 131 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:28,200 text of Scripture this morning. In the beginning of Genesis one, 132 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:31,080 we find this description. It literally says in the 133 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:35,840 beginning and then we find a painting of disorder. 134 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:42,160 Genesis 1 paints the world as it exists in Genesis 1. 135 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:45,960 Interesting point that the world already exists in Genesis 1 as a 136 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:52,800 formalist and disordered C, like there's nothing but this C. 137 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:56,760 And into this we see the Spirit of God begin to move. 138 00:07:56,760 --> 00:08:00,800 We read that the Spirit of God is moving above the waters. 139 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:04,760 And then over the course of the chapter, over the course of 140 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,880 chapter 1 in particular, extending into chapter 2 all the 141 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:12,600 way to verse 4, we find this record of the seven days of 142 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:14,520 creation. Now, if you've read Genesis or 143 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:16,680 been around church about you probably familiar with the seven 144 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,400 days of creation. What's going on here? 145 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,120 Well, each day has a lot of structure to it. 146 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:27,000 We're going to notice this and I'm going to suggest to you that 147 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:31,520 the first three days are all about God forming and the, the 148 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:34,559 the second three days are all about God filling. 149 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:36,679 And then the 7th day is about culmination. 150 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:38,679 We see that in the text this morning. 151 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:42,039 But the the big picture, if I were to summarize it down into 152 00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:46,480 almost like a a single arc, we see the move from at the 153 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:52,880 beginning of Genesis 1A, space of chaos and disorder to a place 154 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:56,800 of order generated by the word of God. 155 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:00,680 So look with me here, there's a bunch of structure over the 156 00:09:00,680 --> 00:09:03,480 course of these seven days. You'll notice first of all, 157 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:07,120 obviously there's, there's each day it's talked about, each day 158 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:10,280 begins with God's creative declaration. 159 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:13,680 And God said, right? We see that show up over and 160 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:16,240 over again 7 times over here in chapter 1. 161 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:21,880 And God said, and then as God speaks things into existence at 162 00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:24,440 the conclusion of each day, he kind of steps back. 163 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,440 He, he does an assessment, a building inspection, if you 164 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:31,040 will. And each time there's a refrain 165 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:35,360 repeated and it was good six times. 166 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:38,320 Again, we see this refrain repeated and it was good. 167 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:41,560 And then at the conclusion of the 6th day, we're going to talk 168 00:09:41,560 --> 00:09:42,600 more about that in just a minute. 169 00:09:43,120 --> 00:09:50,000 We have and it was very good. OK, so and God said and very 170 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:52,080 good. And then what's going on with 171 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:55,000 sevens here? There is a bunch of sevens all 172 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,120 over this text. There's seven declarations that 173 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:00,520 creation is good. There's 7 words in the opening 174 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:03,560 verse, right? There's seven times that we see 175 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:07,080 a God say something, declare, speak things into existence. 176 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:09,760 Of course we have the seven days. 177 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,320 And all of this suggests to us, many scholars have said the 178 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:16,880 Genesis 1 is like almost a liturgical text again, in the 179 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:19,280 sense that you have a, you have a piece of paper that talks 180 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:20,840 about kind of like what we're doing today. 181 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:25,120 People suggest, scholars suggest that, that the, the 1st chapter 182 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:29,400 of Genesis was used liturgically in a similar way for the people 183 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:31,920 of God. And when we look closer, we 184 00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:34,120 began to see like this liturgical structure, this 185 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:37,760 organizational structure, this poetic structure of, of 186 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:39,680 parallels that we see throughout the text. 187 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:44,120 It's, it's not simply a, a literalistic like chronological 188 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:46,200 history of things. And this is apparent for a bunch 189 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:48,040 of reasons. One of the most obvious is that 190 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:51,440 we see, of course, light shows up on day one. 191 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:55,840 When does the sun show up? Day four. 192 00:10:56,320 --> 00:10:59,200 OK, so like there's some things here that chronologically, if 193 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,040 we're thinking about it scientifically, do not make 194 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:02,960 sense. But there's something else that 195 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:05,120 is going on here. If we pay attention to this text 196 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:06,680 that's super important. Look at this. 197 00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:10,120 I've mentioned already that there's this pattern of forming 198 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:11,920 and then filling that's present here. 199 00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:18,840 So on days 1-2 and three, we see God used separation to form. 200 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:23,760 On day one, we see that He separates the light from the 201 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:26,920 darkness. OK, God creates light and dark 202 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:29,920 on day 2. We see in verse 6 that He 203 00:11:29,920 --> 00:11:32,640 separates the water from the water. 204 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:35,800 Now some of you are looking at your Bibles and you're reading 205 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:37,880 these verses or maybe you've read this in the past. 206 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:42,640 And if you ever read Genesis chapter 2 and verse seven, you 207 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:45,160 probably had the reaction that I did when I first read it. 208 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:49,200 I was like, what in the world is going on here, right? 209 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:52,760 God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from 210 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:55,400 the water above it. I didn't know there were vaults 211 00:11:55,400 --> 00:11:57,920 in creation, right? We're not talking about bank 212 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:00,280 vaults here. What's going, what's going on in 213 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:03,480 this text? Well, in the Ancient Near East, 214 00:12:03,480 --> 00:12:06,160 they didn't have the same cosmology or understanding of 215 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:10,040 the universe that we do today. People did not imagine the Earth 216 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:14,640 as a globe floating in a void of space, right, surrounded by 217 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:17,600 planets and stars. Instead, the imagination was 218 00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:20,680 across cultures that essentially we live on, on a Flat Earth. 219 00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:23,320 It's this big, it's this big flat sphere. 220 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:26,000 In some illustrations, you could see in the Ancient Near East, 221 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,080 it's supported by turtles and all these other things that go 222 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:32,200 down and create a pillar. But but under the earth, under 223 00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:34,840 the ground, there is the imagination that under the 224 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:37,440 ground and around the ground, everywhere there's water, 225 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:42,920 there's sea and it's chaos and, and the sky they didn't 226 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:45,920 understand. As we think about it today, we 227 00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:48,160 think like, OK, there's other celestial bodies. 228 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:50,480 They're these stars. Well, the ancients actually 229 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:52,760 imagined that we were living inside a Dome. 230 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:56,440 OK, like if there was just like when you're if you go to a 231 00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:59,400 football game and it's in a Dome thing, you look up and you see 232 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:01,080 the ceiling. That's what they thought the sky 233 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:04,360 was, was like there was this Dome and and the stars they 234 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:06,160 thought were embedded into this Dome. 235 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:11,240 OK, Dome would rotate had some cool rotating features, but but 236 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:12,880 that was that was how they made sense of things. 237 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:17,160 So here in verse, in day 2IN verse 6, when God is separating 238 00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:21,000 the waters below and the waters above, in the imagination of the 239 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,320 writer here, what's going on, if we were to try and make sense of 240 00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:27,720 it scientifically, is is is the waters from below are getting 241 00:13:27,720 --> 00:13:31,600 pushed down and the waters above are getting pushed up above the 242 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:33,920 Dome. It's not a perfect seal. 243 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:35,600 Occasionally you have rain, right? 244 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:37,160 That's why there's rain, obviously. 245 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:40,200 But the waters above are being pushed up above the Dome. 246 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:45,360 So God creates in this way by separating the sky and the sea. 247 00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:48,680 OK, so that's day 2. So we got light from darkness. 248 00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:51,600 We've got separation of waters to create sky and sea. 249 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:55,440 And then a day three, we see God separate the land from the 250 00:13:55,440 --> 00:14:00,400 waters. We see this, of course, here in 251 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:03,720 verse 9. So God is using this tool of 252 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:07,000 separation to create order, separating light from dark, 253 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,800 separating sea from sea, separating land from water. 254 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:13,920 And then we get a one more thing in verse 11. 255 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:18,280 At the end of this first movement of forming on the land, 256 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:22,520 plants sprout up, right? God creates the plants. 257 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:27,480 All right, So that's days 123. Now, when you look at it, days 258 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:30,400 4-5 and six, this is, there's a parallelism here. 259 00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:35,560 There's like a poetic structure. Days 4-5 and six run in parallel 260 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:38,480 to the first three days. In the first three days, these 261 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,680 expanses, these voids, almost like a, a canvas has been 262 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:44,840 stretched out. God has created these three 263 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:49,200 domains, right? Light, dark sky and sea, and 264 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:53,240 then land and water. And then we see in verse 4, God 265 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:56,280 returns to this light, dark domain that he's created. 266 00:14:56,280 --> 00:15:00,160 And what we see created all the celestial bodies, the sun, the 267 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:03,400 moon, the stars. On day five, God returns to the 268 00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:05,960 skies and the seas. And what do we see created? 269 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,280 Well, the fish in the sea, the birds in the air. 270 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:11,560 Day 2 is brought into completion. 271 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:15,640 Day 6, God returns to the land. And what do we see created? 272 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:20,960 All of the animal life comes into abundance. 273 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:24,640 And then we have God's ultimate one more thing, one that would 274 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,280 put Steve Jobs to shame, right? God says. 275 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:30,880 Oh, and one more thing. And then we get to the end here 276 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:37,640 where he says in verse 27, God creates his final masterpiece, 277 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:41,200 us humans created in God's image. 278 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,040 All right, so this is the structure of the first six days 279 00:15:44,040 --> 00:15:46,240 of creation that we see through the course of Genesis 1. 280 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:50,000 And then at the end we get kind of like almost the marching 281 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:51,760 orders, right? The assignment. 282 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:54,520 So what what happens then? There's something for God to do. 283 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:56,880 There's something for us to do. And we see that in these final 284 00:15:56,880 --> 00:15:59,400 verses. So humans are given the 285 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:02,640 assignment. You're created in God's image, 286 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:06,040 in God's likeness. So fill the earth and subdue it. 287 00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:08,680 Rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, every 288 00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:11,280 living creature that moves on the ground. 289 00:16:11,280 --> 00:16:16,880 And then at the beginning of chapter 2, we see God completes 290 00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:20,000 his work and what happens? He moves into a 7th day. 291 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,680 The 7th day, we find out in Hebrews is not a 24 hour period 292 00:16:23,680 --> 00:16:24,840 for sure. I don't think any of them are, 293 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,160 but certainly in Hebrews day 7 is ongoing. 294 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,800 God enters into a state of rest now that he has completed his 295 00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:37,560 work. All right, there's a lot of 296 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:40,960 stuff there. Welcome to Genesis one O 1, I 297 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:44,120 guess. So what does all this mean guys? 298 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:47,760 Like what, what's going on here? Why do I point out all of the, 299 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:50,680 the structures and the symbols and what's happening here, this 300 00:16:50,680 --> 00:16:53,560 poetic parallelism that happens in Genesis 1? 301 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:55,720 Why, why does it matter for me and you? 302 00:16:56,800 --> 00:16:59,280 Well, first of all, to, to, to really appreciate what's going 303 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:03,400 on here, we have to understand the stories that Israel is 304 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:08,359 surrounded by. So Genesis the the, the origin 305 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:11,599 story obviously speaks of the beginning creation and these as 306 00:17:11,599 --> 00:17:15,400 oral traditions go back to Moses for sure, at least even before. 307 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:19,599 But but most biblical scholars for a bunch of reasons also 308 00:17:19,599 --> 00:17:23,079 found in the text, they think that these came to be compiled 309 00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:26,839 and composed in the way that we read them today, sometime in the 310 00:17:26,839 --> 00:17:30,440 period of the Babylonian exile, OK, way later in Israel's 311 00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:33,600 history. This is important for a couple 312 00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:38,120 of reasons. The first reason is that in this 313 00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:44,200 moment of history, the people of God found themselves deeply 314 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:48,040 disoriented right there. There were all of these places 315 00:17:48,040 --> 00:17:50,800 that they had attached their identity to, these these rituals 316 00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:52,400 that they had attached their identity to. 317 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:54,960 There were all of these things that made them special and by 318 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,760 which they interacted with God and knew who they were. 319 00:17:57,760 --> 00:18:01,920 And it had all been blown up. Jerusalem had been destroyed. 320 00:18:01,920 --> 00:18:05,520 They've been taken away captive, and now they were homeless and 321 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:09,800 somebody else's land. And so in this moment in the 322 00:18:09,800 --> 00:18:12,680 history of the people of God, where where there's deep 323 00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:15,160 confusion, there's deep questions about who we are. 324 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,440 How do we make sense of our life and our story. 325 00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:24,280 God leads his people back to these stories, these origin 326 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:28,640 stories, this theological account of how we as a people 327 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,080 came to be in order to ground them. 328 00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:33,000 That's the first thing I want you to notice. 329 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:36,520 The second thing, which is also really interesting, is that just 330 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:42,400 like today, this was not the only account of origins, right? 331 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:46,520 This wasn't the only story that was around that the people used 332 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:49,920 to make sense of who we are and how we got here and what our 333 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,560 place in this world was. In fact, at New Year's every 334 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:57,520 year, all of the the Jewish people in Babylon would have had 335 00:18:57,520 --> 00:19:02,400 to listen to their neighbors recount the Babylonian origin 336 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,440 story. If you're super nerdy, you can 337 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:08,600 still read it. It's one of the oldest extent or 338 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:11,160 existing documents, the oldest human stories that we have 339 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:13,640 available. It's called the Enuma Elish, and 340 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:18,240 the Enuma Elish paints a very, very different picture of human 341 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,240 origins, a different imagination of God and the world and who we 342 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:26,480 are in this. See Babylon was this Kingdom 343 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:31,080 located in ancient Mesopotamia, OK Mesopotamia comes from 2 344 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:33,800 words in the Greek Mesa, which means middle. 345 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,240 And there's a word potamia. Basically is is the Greek word 346 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:40,320 for rivers, OK? It means the land between the 347 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:45,240 rivers and Mesopotamia is this area that that was known as the 348 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:48,120 cradle of civilization for, for the place where some of the 349 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:54,280 oldest human settlements and cities emerge between the Tigris 350 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:58,680 River and the Euphrates River. OK, we see the same rivers 351 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:04,160 talked about in Genesis 214, like this creation story comes 352 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:08,040 together in conversation with a Babylonian story. 353 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:12,360 These rivers were very important. 354 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:16,200 They were in many ways the source of life for these first 355 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,840 civilizations because every year they would flood and that the 356 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:23,240 silt from the floods would cover the land and it created a rich 357 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:27,240 space for agriculture. But the the the rivers didn't 358 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:33,360 just create life, they also were a source of great violence and 359 00:20:33,360 --> 00:20:37,760 chaos. Archaeological digs at cities 360 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:42,120 throughout the region have found in places like Shrewpak, ER and 361 00:20:42,120 --> 00:20:44,920 Kish that there are these sedimentary layers. 362 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:48,160 Where there was this big town, there was the civilization. 363 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:51,440 All these things were happening. There was just obliterated by a 364 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:55,240 flood. This was common practice in in 365 00:20:55,240 --> 00:21:00,000 this early ancient Near Eastern world, water very often again 366 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,320 symbolized as chaos rose up and just wiped everybody out. 367 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,200 This was a common thing that many of these ancient 368 00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:10,000 civilizations talk about. And in the Babylonian story, in 369 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:15,240 the Annuma at least, water is personified as a God, The God 370 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,080 Tiamat. OK, some of you know better from 371 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:19,680 Dungeons and Dragons, but Tiamat. 372 00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,440 OK, so Tiamat is this, this ancient God, right? 373 00:21:23,440 --> 00:21:26,160 Who is the sea God? And like the mother of all 374 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:29,840 chaos, she's constantly sending chaos monsters at everybody and 375 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:32,000 destroying people, wiping people out. 376 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,920 The storms come, the floodwaters come in and obliterate everyone. 377 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:40,240 And according to the Babylonian origin story, Tiamat is 378 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:44,520 ultimately defeated by the patron St. of Babylon, Marduk. 379 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,640 And Marduk is a baddie. Like he comes in and he just, he 380 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,120 rips up Tiamat. It's very gory, like slashes 381 00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:55,400 Tiamat in half and according to the Anuma, A leash. 382 00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:57,360 Like that's how the world comes to be. 383 00:21:57,360 --> 00:22:00,360 Like the earth is Tiamat's ribs, right? 384 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:04,320 Her, her great tears form the the sources of the Tigris in 385 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:06,800 Euphrates River. Her tail is still visible in the 386 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:08,960 Milky Way. This is how the Babylonians 387 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:12,800 understand the world, right? The world has come to be through 388 00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:16,720 this conflict between the gods. There's great violence, the gods 389 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:20,360 are competing with each other and ultimately Tiamat, our God 390 00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:24,400 is stronger and so he wins and and creates the earth, the world 391 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:26,840 from the corpse of his defeated foe. 392 00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,680 This is the origin story and you might be saying like what, what 393 00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:33,280 where are people in this? Like where, where do we fit? 394 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:38,080 Well, if you read the story, basically the gods were 395 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:42,840 capricious, like immoral and lazy, right? 396 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:45,200 All the gods in the, in the, in the, in this Babylonian origin 397 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:46,520 story, they didn't want to do any work. 398 00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:48,680 And it turned out that there was a lot of work to do. 399 00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,280 There was like fields that needed to be tended and temples 400 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,000 that need to be built. So essentially the gods got 401 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,600 together and they said, OK, we need some slaves and so we'll 402 00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:01,080 create people. And this is in the Babylonian 403 00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:06,120 story, the origin of people, the slaves, so that the gods can 404 00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:10,680 take it easy. People exist, so gods can rest 405 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:15,800 all right? In contrast to this violent, 406 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:20,920 messy, disordered, chaotic story, we have Genesis 1, 407 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:26,040 Genesis 1 and written at a similar time. 408 00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:30,160 Like it is mind boggling how different this is than the 409 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:32,480 Babylonian origin story. What? 410 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,680 What do we see in Genesis 1 about the world, about the God 411 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:38,120 who creates, and about we as humans? 412 00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:42,000 What we see that first of all, that creation is not random, 413 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:45,360 it's not a conflict to just emerge or happen. 414 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:50,800 That the Spirit of God enters a space of chaos, not by violence, 415 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:54,800 not by coercion, but by the power of His Word, begins to 416 00:23:54,800 --> 00:24:00,520 design, to create poetically bringing order to the disordered 417 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:04,800 chaos of the world. Unlike the Babylonian account, 418 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,600 we don't have a bunch of gods. Like in the Babylonian account, 419 00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,720 the sea is a God and the land is the God and the sun is a God. 420 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:13,720 And honestly, your doorpost is probably a God. 421 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:18,760 You're like, everything was a God in in the Genesis account, 422 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:21,160 all of these other gods are depersonalized. 423 00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:24,480 The sea just becomes a force, right? 424 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:28,480 Natural things. There is but one God who rules, 425 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,880 who moves, a single creative God. 426 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:38,480 The world is created not randomly, not as a source of 427 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:41,840 conflict, not the spoils of war. But it is this beautiful, 428 00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:45,680 ordered place which God declares to be very good. 429 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:48,840 And where are people in this story? 430 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:52,440 Not the slaves who are just there. 431 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,520 So the gods can be lazy. People in this story are God's 432 00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:02,720 crowning achievement, the the very good, the the pinnacle of 433 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:07,840 creation created in Imago day in the very image of God. 434 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:12,840 And this is theologically wild for for a text that's a couple 435 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:15,200 1000 years old. Like we look back at texts that 436 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,680 are a couple 100 years old and we're like, oh, some messy stuff 437 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,920 in there. This is a couple 1000 years old. 438 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:28,120 And God says in the image of God, he created them, male and 439 00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:31,240 female, he created them. Not just the king bears the 440 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:37,680 image of God, not just the dudes bear the image of God, all of us 441 00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:43,760 created in the image of God. This idea of images is 442 00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:46,080 incredibly rich. I could talk just about this for 443 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,680 like the whole, the whole time, but I have to tell you a little 444 00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:51,120 bit about it. So in the ancient Near East, 445 00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:53,680 right, people didn't have telephones. 446 00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:57,160 You couldn't FaceTime somebody. They didn't have Internet 447 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,760 broadcasts. So there were kings still who 448 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:05,400 ruled and had authority, right. But most people in a Kingdom of 449 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:08,480 any size would have never physically encountered the king. 450 00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:10,680 Just like you probably haven't met the president or the Pope, 451 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:13,960 right Then they probably didn't physically encounter they they 452 00:26:14,120 --> 00:26:17,480 didn't have broadcast journalism where you could TuneIn and hear 453 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:19,760 the voice. You can get an e-mail. 454 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:24,720 And so how would kings in the ancient world demonstrate who 455 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:30,000 they were and, and present their identity to their subjects to 456 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,120 the world? Well, at the edges of ancient 457 00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:35,440 kingdoms, and you'll still see this if you travel the 458 00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:40,320 Mesopotamian area, these ancient kings would go and they would at 459 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:42,120 the edges of all of their kingdoms, they would set up 460 00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:47,000 these images, these statues of themselves. 461 00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:50,680 And these statues would represent that when you arrived 462 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,280 in that place, when you showed up and you saw this, this 463 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:58,040 towering statue, a beautiful piece of art, it, it would tell 464 00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:03,720 you, oh, in this place that king is in charge, his rule and his 465 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:07,360 reign extends to right here. And and this is what that king 466 00:27:07,360 --> 00:27:10,040 is about. There would be inscriptions in 467 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:13,520 cuneiform describing what this king was about, why he was 468 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:18,240 great, who he was, the image of the king. 469 00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:27,480 And so God says in Genesis One that he makes not statues, but 470 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:36,240 people to be his image, His representation, his life force 471 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:40,120 in the world, those who carry his authority. 472 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:43,920 I need to take just a minute and look at the person seated next 473 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:45,680 to you. Make it awkward. 474 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:48,320 Like turn and look at somebody I don't like. 475 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:50,880 Make eye contact. Hold it for an awkward second. 476 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,480 God created humankind in his image. 477 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:04,040 In the image of God. He created the male and female. 478 00:28:04,360 --> 00:28:08,800 He created them. Friends, this is you. 479 00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:13,720 You are the image. You are the statue. 480 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:17,880 You are the representation of the very life and identity of 481 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,600 God that says to the world, this is who I am. 482 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:27,840 This is what I'm about. He decides to put that in US. 483 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:31,440 Isn't this crazy? Like is anybody? 484 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:37,040 I mean, I this stuff blows my mind, but but I friends, I think 485 00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:39,680 this is so significant. This is so significant. 486 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,880 Like I think some people have been so worried about Genesis 1 487 00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:48,280 being a literal historical text that talks about how how 488 00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,400 scientifically the world came to be, that they completely miss 489 00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:54,400 the theology of what God is actually saying in this text of 490 00:28:54,400 --> 00:29:00,640 scripture, which is incredible. God, God is saying here to his 491 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:08,240 people in a space of chaos and disorder, in a space where you 492 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:14,360 feel lost and confused, in a space where things feel 493 00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:20,400 bewildering. I'm in control by my voice, by 494 00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:23,360 my presence. I'm moving in the chaos and 495 00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:28,480 bringing order, bringing beauty, bringing goodness into the 496 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,280 world. I have created good. 497 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,440 And not just the world out there, but you. 498 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,440 I I've placed my very life in you. 499 00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,920 Friends, what does this mean for us, for me and for you? 500 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:50,720 So I've, I've done a lot of history in this message. 501 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,120 I've done a lot of like big picture theology. 502 00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,120 When we think about the scope of Scripture, the story of 503 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,840 scripture that we're going to be talking about over the course of 504 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:08,720 the next 9 weeks, it all starts here with this origin story. 505 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:14,400 God creates us. He places His very image in me 506 00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:17,160 and you. And then there are two things 507 00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:19,920 that we already looked at that happened in this text that are 508 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:24,080 so significant. First off, God gives us 509 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,720 stewardship, dominion, responsibility. 510 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:29,800 I know this is going to be a shock to some of you. 511 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:34,120 Work is not part of the curse. We're going to talk about that 512 00:30:34,120 --> 00:30:40,120 next week, OK? Now God actually says she's 513 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:42,520 getting wild. God could have done things a lot 514 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:45,400 of different ways. God goes in and says, look like 515 00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,360 I have created, I have taken things this far, It is 516 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,240 beautiful. But I've left creation 517 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:59,920 unfinished. And now my steward, my image, my 518 00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:03,960 representative, you are my deputies to go on and continue 519 00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:08,000 the work of creation that I've begun, right? 520 00:31:09,080 --> 00:31:12,360 To be creative, to bring order out of chaos, to bring beauty 521 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:14,680 and goodness. I, I freaking love this. 522 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,320 I sometimes we get in a mindset where we imagine that there are 523 00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:21,480 like good jobs and bad jobs. There's like spiritual holy 524 00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:22,960 jobs. And then there's just like, I 525 00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:24,880 just, you know, I got to do something to make, make some 526 00:31:24,880 --> 00:31:28,880 money, friends, whatever you are doing. 527 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,440 I mean, you could be doing something that's creating 528 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:32,920 disorder and disaster in the world. 529 00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:40,760 If you are, please stop, OK? But for most of us, like there 530 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:44,920 is a creative ordering, like if you, if you are, if you are 531 00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:49,480 writing software code, right, if you are coming into a classroom 532 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:52,120 and helping these little learners, right, If you are a 533 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,160 scientist on the, on the frontier of researching chemical 534 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:58,320 compounds. Friends, whatever you are doing, 535 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,880 do you think about it this way, Like you are continuing the work 536 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,320 of God in creation. Isn't that cool? 537 00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:10,280 Friends? I, I think sometimes, like 538 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:16,200 sometimes we take ourselves out, right? 539 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:19,200 We say, well, oh, you know, I don't know, those people have 540 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:20,440 important things to do in the world. 541 00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:23,360 But little old me, like, I don't, I, you know, I just don't 542 00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,560 have very many gifts. I, you know, I don't have the 543 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:27,320 background, I don't have the education, I don't have the 544 00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:30,720 competence. I don't really have much to 545 00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:37,120 contribute. Blasphemy, like God has made you 546 00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:40,840 in His image, take carry forward the creative potential that He 547 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,400 has put in you for the good of the world. 548 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:47,440 It's important. I don't know what that looks 549 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:48,840 like for you, but it's important. 550 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:51,240 Don't downplay it, don't miss it. 551 00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:55,400 Don't minimize it as a way of keeping yourself safe or secure 552 00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:57,560 or not not feeling very intimidated. 553 00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:01,360 God has placed in you the creative DNA that brought the 554 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:05,760 world into existence. You are part of this Co creating 555 00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:08,920 endeavor. But I love this. 556 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:13,920 God not only gives us work, he also gives us rest. 557 00:33:14,760 --> 00:33:18,240 Not only stewardship but also Sabbath. 558 00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:21,480 See, some of us downplay our contribution. 559 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,920 We think like I just don't have that much to offer. 560 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:28,760 I'm not really a big deal. Those other people over there, 561 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:31,040 they're the people who really matter. 562 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:36,600 But others of us, man, we out here hustling, trying to prove 563 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,640 something to somebody, especially in Boston, right? 564 00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:41,960 I'm going to be a big deal. I'm going to get it. 565 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:43,720 I'm going to get this next certification. 566 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:46,120 I'm going to get this next degree. 567 00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:48,280 I'm, I'm going to get this next position. 568 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:50,120 I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to, I'm, I'm going to 569 00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:51,840 get this person to endorse me on LinkedIn. 570 00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,680 Like I'm going to get to this next level and and then I'll 571 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:58,800 have really made it. And I love this even here in in 572 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:03,600 the first chapters of Genesis, God gives us this, this massive 573 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:07,840 responsibility of stewardship. And he also introduces Sabbath. 574 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:10,600 He says, Hey, I worked now I'm off. 575 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:13,159 And what does he do in his rest time? 576 00:34:14,199 --> 00:34:18,639 We read in Genesis in the following chapters that he comes 577 00:34:18,639 --> 00:34:22,360 and he walks in the cool of the day with the humans. 578 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:28,719 God wants to like hang out with us to walk and talk with you 579 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,520 friends. You have a crucially important 580 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:36,840 responsibility in the ecosystem in the Kingdom of God and also 581 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:41,280 you are not your work. You are not what you do. 582 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:42,880 You are not what you would produce. 583 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:47,560 You're not a doing. You are a human being. 584 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,880 And so God invites us into stewardship and he also invites 585 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:56,159 us into Sabbath to take responsibility for extending his 586 00:34:56,159 --> 00:35:00,840 Co creating energy into the world and then also to rest and 587 00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:06,720 to be with him to enjoy him. What a beautiful picture of our 588 00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,800 design. Over the next weeks we're going 589 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,360 to be looking at what that what happens from there. 590 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,600 It doesn't end with creation, but this is the beginning of the 591 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,240 story. This is where it all starts. 592 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,080 This is our origin story and who we have made to be been made to 593 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:29,760 be the band is going to come and this morning we're going to 594 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:36,000 enter into a time of communion. We're going to start our 595 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:37,640 response time this morning with communion. 596 00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:44,520 And so as they come, I want to invite you to sit with what 597 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:48,320 we've talked about this morning, to sit with this responsibility 598 00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:54,120 to steward and also to Sabbath to Co create and also to enjoy 599 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:58,760 the presence of God in communion. 600 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,920 I love it because in this beautiful way it's a practice 601 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,640 that invites us back into our identity. 602 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:10,400 See Colossians explains that that Jesus is the ultimate image 603 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:16,600 of the invisible God. You mean all of us have been 604 00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:20,760 created to image God. Jesus is the, the perfect 605 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:28,880 undistorted image of God. And in Jesus God has once again, 606 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,240 just as we see here in Genesis, has come to walk with his 607 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:36,760 people, to be present to us, to give his life to us. 608 00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:41,680 In fact, in in John chapter 6, when Jesus is talking about this 609 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:45,560 gift, this practice of communion, he, he says that when 610 00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:49,840 we ingest his body, his blood, when we participate in this 611 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:52,800 right, when we take these elements, we are, we are 612 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:58,880 participating in his life. Genesis says that it uses the 613 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:05,160 plural, I love this. God says, let us make man in our 614 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:09,840 image from the beginning. There is this communion in God 615 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:16,040 and and we use this word communion to talk about what we 616 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,880 do as we enter into that relationship. 617 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:25,160 We are getting to participate in the calm together union, the 618 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:28,120 together union that exists in the very Godhead. 619 00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:34,800 And we get to do this because of Jesus, because Jesus has made 620 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,400 the way back to God open something we'll be talking a lot 621 00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:42,600 about in the coming weeks. So this morning, as you reflect 622 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,200 on what we've talked about this morning, this this fascinating 623 00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:48,120 text in Genesis, There's like 1000 other things I wish we had 624 00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:53,120 time to talk about, but I want you to invite about, I want you 625 00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:58,440 to invite you to consider this simple question, how do I see 626 00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:05,240 myself? What's the story I tell me about 627 00:38:05,240 --> 00:38:12,080 me? Do I believe that God's own 628 00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:17,200 image abides in me? Do I live as if that's true? 629 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,440 Do I walk with that kind of courage and confidence and 630 00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:25,560 responsibility? And also, do I move from the 631 00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:30,480 grounded place that knows that I don't have to produce or perform 632 00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:35,680 in order to be somebody? Because I have what God wants 633 00:38:35,680 --> 00:38:39,160 for me from creation. He's already given it to me.