Genesis Conclusion
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Northside Church
Jamey Mills
May 19, 2024
Genesis #30 Summary and conclusion
Good morning Northside! My name is Jamey, I am the lead pastor here at Northside, it’s great to be with you…
Well… you did it! Today is our very last message… #30 in our series on Genesis called “Bringing Chaos to Order”...
And I know what you’re thinking… Well, there are 30 weeks I'll never get back!
In all seriousness, I do feel like this has been a good study for us…
I feel like God revealed Himself, His plan, His desire and His design for humanity in really clear and tangible ways…
I’ve reviewed over 320 pages worth of sermons and today I’m going to do my best to highlight what it is that we’ve talked about…
It feels a little irresponsible to try and do that…
The very first question I asked is…
What do you really believe about God and why?
I shared with you that the #1 thing that caused me to put my faith in God…
wasn’t what I learned in science or
What I found in the thousands of pages of books on deep theology…
But it's when I began to notice the fingerprint of God… everywhere and on everything. Including me.
In the way the sun rises and sets everyday without fail.
The way the oceans… somehow… know their boundaries
That somehow, for reasons I can’t explain… my heart beats somewhere around 100K times a day.
That everyday my lungs, without cause…
That we just so happen to be sitting on this planet that is tilted at just the right angle and spinning at just the right speed… to make days, nights, seasons and even life possible.
It was that kind of thinking that caused the apostle Paul to say…
Romans 1:20 (NLT)
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
At the most basic level, the evidence of God is overwhelming!
He’s saying stop looking down… but look up and around… the reality of God is so clearly seen that we are without excuse…
Genesis… is absolutely critical to an accurate view of God… Jesus… humanity… God’s desire and design for humanity, marriage, sex, family, and gender…
The question is… do we care enough to look… and listen.
And with something so critical and so important… it’s no wonder that it’s come under crazy attack… and it's so interesting… that the best humanity can come up with apart from God sounds like this…
There was this big bang… and somehow… matter lined up all by itself in such a way that it caused the universe… the solar system… the planet… life and everything that needed to support and even reproduce life…
Everytime I hear that I wanna say… You serious clark…
It goes to show that one of the biggest issues our world has is that it doesn’t start with God.
Even now, secular scientists are making movements toward intelligent design…
Genesis has been saying that for thousands of years. It;s the admission of a sophistication that cannot be explained by chance…
Genesis 1:1–2 (NLT)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
God spoke creation into existence…
And we learn that when God speaks… and it’s obeyed… it’s good.
We see God’s power… and sovereignty…
We see that God existed before creation…
God points to the trinity. One God in three persons…
1. God the father is there
2. The Holy spirit is there
3. Jesus the Son is there
Jn 1:2-3 tells us that everything that was created… was created through Jesus.
This is incredibly important
We learn that Jesus was there from the beginning and that He is God.
And we talked about how clearly Genesis points to Jesus… one author said… so much so that it's almost like the 5th Gospel.
Jesus is the central theme of the entire Bible.
Genesis goes on to give us a 7 day outline of creation…
Showing His design for creation… you can read it in Gen 1…
God created it all in 6 days… but on the 7th day, God rested…
And it wasn’t because he was wiped out… He was setting an example for you and I. God’s desire is for us to work hard for 6 days, but on day 7… we step back and rest in His presence… refresh…
And I personally believe it's still a thing… and God tell us… it’s for us. Humanity wasn’t created for the Sabbath, but Sabbath was created for humanity… it meets a designed need in you.
Genesis teaches us that God is highly relational
And we learn that God has the power to bring life and light… through His presence into the most dark and chaotic points in your life.
Genesis 1:26–27 (NLT)
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
In all creation… There is something different/unique about humanity… and the role God has designed for us to play. We can look around… and see the difference.
God has given humanity the authority to steward… creation.
You are intentionally and wonderfully created in the very image of God.
All of creation reflects God… but we are the only things that bear his very image.
There is something deeply woven into you… that uniquely reflects God.
That should change the way you see yourself…
You have incredible innate worth and value as an image bearer of God
It should change the way you see every single human being
And… It's why the Church takes such a strong pro life stance.
The image of God is worth protecting.
Several times it says that God looked over creation and said… It’s very good…
But eventually… There was one thing He said that was not good and it was the aloneness of man…
We are built for community- designed for relationships… relationships play a huge role in our spiritual, mental, relational, emotional well being.
And it says that God created a woman specifically with man in mind… to meet a need in man and God reveals His design …
Genesis 2:24–25 (NLT)
This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. 25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
In Matthew 19 Jesus Himself quotes this passages and adds… What God has joined together, let one split apart…
This is the first marriage…
God’s design is that marriage is between one man and one woman and it's intended to be for life.
Marriage is a sacred covenant before the Lord.
Genesis teaches a lot about family… and His design for family.
We see that God created this beautiful garden and placed humanity in it… it was a place they were to experience God’s presence, favor and blessing…
There were two trees in the middle of the garden that represent life and death…
And God told Adam… look around… I created this for you. The only thing you can’t do is eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil…
The serpent comes… Satan… and got Eve to question God and what God really said… the Bible teaches that Satan is real, the father of lies… and wants to get at God and all that He holds dear… that is you… God’s design… family… marriage… truth
Eve saw it looked good… and wanted to she thought it would provide… to be like God… to decide for herself what truths as…
She ate it, gave it Adam… and just like that… sin entered the world and for the first time, humanity felt shame. It caused them to cover up… and hid from God.
Sin is an attack on our identity, His design, truth, relationships, and His blessing in your life.
Then and now… sin comes with real consequences…
Painful childbirth… the desire to control your husband… scratching out a living through hard work…
But the worst by a mile is…
Sin blurs God’s image in us.
They were banished from the Garden..
The place they were intended to be… with God… and in God’s presence.
And we see the impact sin has…
On our relationship with God, on us, marriage, family…
Sin is relational… which means… repentance… is too.
Sin brings death… spiritual, physical, relational, mental…
There is this downward spiral sin… as things are getting worse, we see humanity move further and further away from where God wanted them to be…
And Gen. 3 points to Jesus… who would come and defeat death… and crush satan under His heel.
Eventually… Adam and Eve had two kids…
Cain and Abel… Abel was a shepherd, Cain worked the ground…
The time came for them to offer a sacrifice before the Lord…
Abel brought the best portions of His lambs…
Cain… just bought some
What was in their hands mattered only because of what it reflected within them…
It says that God accepted Abel and his offering, but rejected Cain…
And that God found Him… and told him…
I think that we learn sin is not always just something we do… sometimes, its what we don’t do.
It says God came to Cain and said… you know you’ll be accepted if you do what's right… but if you chose what's wrong… sin is crouching at your door…
But Cain refused to hear God… and eventually killed his brother.
The first baby born on earth…
Cain’s sin… wasn’t hidden to the Lord and neither is ours.
It wasn’t ignored by the Lord and neither is ours.
Your heart… matters. What’s in it will eventually come out… through your mouth… your hands… your actions…
We see Polygamy shortly after… and it reminds us that sometimes the Bible reports what happened… it doesn’t mean that God condones it.
Vs 25 Adam and Eve later had another son named Seth… whose name means… substitute… out of all the pain and brokenness that sin has caused… came a substitute…
Pointing to Jesus…
Once again pointing to Jesus…
Sin got so bad, that God flooded the earth… sin is serious.
And there is proof that to this day.
God saved one family… Noah, his sons, and their families…
But sin found its way… and we are reminded there is such a thing as unhealthy unity…
Humanity wanted to make their name great… and it says that God scattered them…
Who we are unified with… and what we are unified on… matters.
To this day… one of the top indicators on how your life will go… is right there.
Over and over… Genesis points to a universal need for a solution… again… pointing to Jesus.
Genesis begins to focus on one man… Abram.
God told him to leave the life and land he knew, and by faith… take hold of a land/life He’d show him…
And He did… God gave Abraham amazing promises…
His presence… protection… that He’d have many descendants that would become a great nation, and that somehow… all people on earth would be blessed through his line.
To this day, his faith is legendary…
And we need to see this connection… giving up our will and way to follow Jesus.
Abraham and Sarah tried to take God’s promise into their own hands… they had a s on through her servant Hagar…
Ishmael was born… who God said would be violent and a wild donkey of man…
And that sin created all kinds of problems that impact our world today…
Eventually… Abraham and Sarah has a son together named Isaac…
And God passed the promise….
Land, Lineage, and Lord… on to him…
But Islam… believes that it goes through Ishamel….
It was and is incredibly messy. To this day, the violence in that part of the world… stems from this. As we preached about this… is when Hamas (a biblical word that means violent) attacked Israel.
Through Abram… God is not just pointing at the solution of what is to come… but to the role faith will play within it. So powerful.
God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, but Abraham knew God was up to something… It says that Isaac carried his own wood to the place… and as Abrahm prepared… God stopped him… and provided a lamb to take Isaac’s place…
A picture of what Jesus does for you and I.
We see Abraham involved in Isaac's life… even at an old age…
And it helps us see God’s design for us not to be unequally yoked… to not date or marry an unbeliever… There are many to say that sounds archaic and old-fashioned, but the truth is if you want to love, follow, and honor the lord, if you want to raise your kids up in the Lord… it gets incredibly complicated if you're not on the same page.
As parents, your job is never over
Kids… hearing and honoring your parents… brings blessing.
Isaac marries Rebekah… they too have a hard time getting pregnant…
And you see this picture of two people seeking God within that…
But once their kids come… it's like their kids become idols…
Their focus comes off of God, off of their marriage and onto their kids.
We mentioned the priorities that God points to in Genesis…
1. Relationship with God
2. Relationship with spouse
3. Relationship with your kids
Esau… was a red headed outdoors man… dad loved it
Jacob… was more of an indoorsman… and mom loved it.
Mom and dad play favorites… and end up elevating their kids not just the the #2 position, but really to the #1… and it's not healthy for anyone. Their kids end up not being ready for life…
One author said…
Outside the Church parents tend to under parent…
Inside the church parents often over parent…
I spend about 1\2 of my life working with teens and parents… this is 100% true.
God’s design and priorities for your family… are best for everyone involved.
We also begin to see generational patterns more clearly… our habits and priorities… rarely end with us. Part of my motivation to live God’s priorities is right there… Genesis paints a clear picture… what your kids experience and face matters.
Jacob and his mom deceive Esau and Isaac…
In a dirty move, he steals Esau’s birthright and blessing and it creates so much bad blood, Jacob has to run for his life.
But God chose Jacob… to move this covenant forward…
God works and and uses people that we often would disqualify…
And so these are the OT patriarchs…
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
Jacob was duped into having 2 wives that turned into 4… He had 13 kids… 12 boys that become the twelve tribes of Israel and one girl named Dinah.
It became Northside's most watched sermon…
Jacob continues to struggle…
He moved his family to a place and people they never should have been…
The environment we create for our family matters…
Genesis 34:1–2 (ESV)
34 Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had born to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her.
This is horrible… no one should ever have to go through that and we need to know that it’s not God’s plan or design… it is sin. God hates it… and He will deal with it.
The evil that has been done to you, has not gone unnoticed by God…
And we talked at length at just how pervasive this issue is within our culture.
1 in 4 Women and 1 in 8 men are victims of sexual assault and the age continues to drop…
You or someone you know has faced this…
The way our culture operates… with the internet and social media… and parents who often don’t engage with their kids or know what their kids are doing… things aren’t going to get better.
To add insult to injury… her father Jacob did nothing… to be there for her, comfort her, to defend her… or to lead his family…
His sons got angry… and took matters into their own hands… and wiped out the entire people… which was also… sin.
That is the issue with absent fathers.
Jacob… was failing as a believer, husband, and as a father.
Eventually… Jacob began moving toward God… and did go where God had been wanting him to go…
God changed his name to
Israel literally means “wrestles with God”
Wrestling with God… is not a bad thing if we do it the right way…
Jacob begins to wrestle facing God…
Out of all his kids, Jacob loved Joseph most.
His brothers hated it and eventually… sold him into slavery… where he was falsely accused, thrown into prison and forgotten.
But we learn that God’s presence went with Joseph everywhere he went, and that's true for you too.
People noticed… Joseph gave to God those things he could not control, but worked hard and with integrity wherever God put him… and he constantly pointed people to God, and each time… Joseph rose to this place of power and favor.
Joseph lived his life on mission for God. no matter where… no matter how hard
Missional living isn’t just something that happens on the other side of the world… It's also what's happening on the other side of your street…
He became the #2 man in all of Egypt and God used him to help navigate a horrible famine… it was so bad that people from all around were forced to come and buy food from Joseph… including the 10 brothers responsible for selling him into salary…
His brothers had been carrying this grief and guilt over what they did…
Greif, guilt and shame can lead us to repentance, but we were never intended to carry that stuff… we leave it at the cross.
We also see that even though Joseph is blessed… he was hurting.
But Joseph put the issues aside in order to work on the relationship…
And that's exactly what God does for you in Jesus… God knows the context for health, healing and change is relationship…
There are many who live their lives held captive by guilt… refuse to come to Jesus because of it.
There are many… who live their lives in captivity… because of forgiveness.
Forgiven people are forgiving people
Joseph was restored with his family…
And it changed them all.
Jesus meant it when he said…
Matthew 11:28–30 (NLT)
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
28 “Come to me, all (that all inclusive) of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
God doesn’t change.
Where He’s found doesn’t change,
His truth,
His priorities,
His design doesn’t change to fit culture or even my own desires.
He is not allusive. He is not a moving target.
He is consistent… dependable… trustworthy… faithful…
And in a world that is so full of change, Chaos and unpredictability… God is the rock that does not move… does not change… does not send mixed signals… the only firm foundation.
#1 repeated promise in scripture is what?
God is with you - His presence
#1 repeated command is what?
Fear not (more than 150 times)
I wonder if they are connected.
The best place you can be is right in the middle of God’s will.
There is an aspect of God’s will that is universal… things that God desires for all who follow…
But there is an aspect of it that is not. God may call you to something specific.
And Romans 12:1-2 talks about how we get to the point of knowing God’s will.
Discerning the part of God's will that is not universal… that might be specific for you… seems to be connected to the parts that are universal…
Teaching your kids where and how to find God’s will is huge.
It’s more important than teaching them good form, a great shot, a good swing, how to cook, or sing…
Genesis reveals creation… God’s design for life, family, marriage, sex, gender…
It clearly points to Jesus…
And it sets the stage not only for everything else we read in scripture…
For for every day of our life.
God uses sinful… messy people… to accomplish His will.