Untitled Sermon (8)

In order for us to properly understand the value and purpose of a thing, we must understand the origin and intention of its beginning. Today as we study the concept of creation we are looking to identify who initiated it and what the purpose of that creation was in the first place.

I am an avid television watcher. My wife and I spend many a night winding down form the busyness of the day by watching a sitcom or some drama from the past and or present that is entertaining to us. One of the lost aspects of television viewing since the onset of streaming is the faithfulness of commercials. Yes, commercials are annoying, but they also had moments of true and lasting humor. All of us can remember certain commercials that stuck with us long after the plot of the program had come to an end. But a commercial that maybe not all of us saw was from German television back the Ipad first came out. It was around Christmas time and a woman is visiting her father. She asks him if he is enjoying the new Ipad she gave him and he says yes it works perfectly. We are then shown him cutting vegetables on the screen of his new tablet. Everyone has a simultaneous cringe as they watch the man use such a valuable and expensive device for such a trivial and insignificant task. The man did not treat the product properly or access the full potential of possessing it because he did not understand why it was created in the first place.

It is inportant for us to understand what creation is and what it means for us because in order for us to properly value life as the precious commodity that it is we must understand it’s origin. You and I are not simply the product of some protoplasmic accident. We are the intentional creation of a divine being that we know as our Father. Look at what the Psalmist said about us.

Psalm 139:14 NKJV

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

Made, we have been made. This is referring to the creation of a thing. We were created with significance and care. Let us know that as we embark upon the understanding of that creation.

We are first presented with the traditional view of creation in the book of Genesis. We are told that in the beginning there was a being that predated everything. God was before all and therefore He is the creator of all.

Genesis 1:1 NKJV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

This is how the journey begins. God who exists in and of Himself an eternal being that has no beginning and will have no end created everything. We will be given more detail as to the methodology of His creation as we continue on in the narrative but in order to understand our purpose we must understand who it is that generated the thought of us in the first place. It was God.

We are introduced to the tools of God’s creation a few verses later in verse three.

Genesis 1:3 NKJV

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

God did not compile contents and atoms and glue them together with some cosmic substance that we do not have knowledge of. God created all that is with one simple tool. His Word. The God of heaven that existed before all created all by simply saying the word. When we understand the concept of words and sound we know that breath is actually what gives audibility to sound and therefore the Word of God spoken from the mouth of God is what carries the breath of God. It was the breath of God that did the creating of the world.

This becomes even more evident as we continue on the creation narrative. God creates all the land and sea. He creates living creatures. He separates the land from the sea various aspects to the creation are given throughout the first couple chapters of the Genesis account but we are given the most intricate part of God’s creation when we are introduced to the being that God didn’t simply create with a Word. There was one being that God created by forming the dirt of the ground into a shape, an image if you will. Let us look at this aspect of creation.

Genesis 1:26 NKJV

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 2:7 NKJV

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Man was made in the image of God by being formed in the dust of the ground but Man did not have life and therefore was not a complete creation until God breathed life into the nostrils of man. What a consideration of the beauty of creation to think that everything else in the world exists through nothing more than the breath of God…but man, before we experieinced life had already felt the touch of God. We were formed by the hand of God before we possessed the breath of God.

Upon reception of the breath man was tasked with a purpose…to have dominion over the rest of creation. It was within the release of this dominion that we see one or our purposes…to rule over the created world in relaitonship with our creator. It is within this context that we truly see the heart of our God towards us. He created the world for His glory and He created us to help rule that world and bring glory to Him. The intended purpose of mankind and creation remains today the only question is will we fully understand that and live accordingly.