VBS Night 1 2024

Creation to Consummation

Today for our lesson we are going to talk about creation.

What are some ways man has explained how everything came to exist?

The truth is, every solution for the way everything came to exist came from one of two places.

Man’s ideas.

People have made guesses about the past based on their own understanding of the present.

God.

Where does God tell us how he created everything?

In His Word.

For the next few minutes we are going to look at the first 6 days of creation and see how God created things.

Gen. 1:1-5 - Earth and light. Separated light from darkness.

Gen. 1:6-8 - Separated water and sky

What do you think that means?

What does the water under the vault and the water above it mean?

How would you explain that?

Gen. 1:9-13 - Land and plants

Gen 1:14-19 - Sun, moon, plants, stars.

Gen. 1:20-23 - God created swimming creatures and flying creatures.

Gen 1:24-27 - Land animals and people.

Who was present at the beginning of creation? - God. Nothing else had been created.

What did the earth look like in the beginning? - All water.

Do you notice an order in creation?

Day 1 goes with day 4.

Day 2 goes with day 5

Day 3 goes with day 6.

God didn’t just create, he created with purpose and with order.

But

How do other worldviews explain the beginning of time/creation?

Evolutionary View:

Billions of years old and everything started from a single speck or a singularity.

From here there are generally 2 schools of thought.

First:From the one mass, it exploded and scattered matter randomly across the universe.

Second: Over time, the singularity suddenly and rapidly expanded spreading out energy and space.

2. Over vast periods of time the universe spread out and energy began to cool down and some of it turned into matter, specifically helium and hydrogen gas.

The first two elements on the periodic table.

These two gases then collapsed to form stars.

3. Stars exploded, again, over vast amounts of time and through their explosions began distributing elements into space.

These elements stuck together and began to form other things such as earth.

The form of the earth was more like lava rock or “molten earth”

As the elements cooled, they hardened and dry land began to appear.

Again, this happening over vasts amounts of time.

For reasons I can’t honestly explain very well, over more vast amounts of time and from things outside the earth hitting it, this caused the topography and atmosphere of the earth to develop rainstorms.

The rain eventually filled and caused the seas.

4. Once water existed, life began to form from non-living material.

In short, life came to exist from one single cell that existed somewhere in the universe.

To sum all of this up: From one single piece of matter in the universe, earth was made (along with everything else).

On earth, the order of creation was land, plants, fish, reptiles, mammals, birds, and then humans.

What is different about this account from the biblical account?

Let’s list some differences real quick.

Can anyone explain to me where the singularity came from?

Is there a difference between one single piece of matter exploding and everything coming from that one piece of matter… and God who creates all things, but wasn’t created himself?

Is there a difference?

One difference is that the piece of matter doesn’t claim to be god.

It is just an inanimate object.

It holds no intelligence yet somehow created everything intelligently?

That doesn’t make sense.

Yes, it is hard to believe that nothing made God, but it is also far more plausible to think that:

An intelligent being made intelligent things.

If nothing created God, he is the end of the chain and worthy of holding the title God.

IF something created God, then wouldn’t that entity be greater than God?

Therefore, He would cease to be God?

The bottom line tonight is this:

For the Big Bang or for God, how many eyewitnesses were there?

0.

To believe in either requires faith.

I’m simply proposing tonight this question:

Would you rather place your faith in an intelligent God who created with order everything we know and see today.

Or would you rather believe that everything was created at random from a dead, lifeless piece of matter that somehow created something as complex as humans, not to mention planets, galaxies, and ecosystems?

It takes far more faith in my opinion to believe in a random creation than a designed one.

John 17:17 “17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

DO you believe that God’s word is true?

Lastly, perhaps one of the most important, yet overlooked parts of God’s account of creation comes at the end of each day.

It says “He saw that it was good.”

Gen. 1:4, 9, 12, 18, 21, 25.

God’s creation was a reflection of His grace and His goodness.

God’s creation was orderly, perfect, and good.

Man’s idea of creation is chaotic, random, and lifeless.

Anytime man believes he is greater than God, it always leads to problems.

This is what we will discuss tomorrow.

But just because of sin and death and the results of man’s pride…

God still didn’t leave the chat.

God is still there.

And God is a God of promise and redemption.

From creation to revelation, God is present and active.

Do you believe that today.

He’s not a distant God.

He’s close.

He’s engaged.

He cares about the best of you and He cares about the worst parts of you.

Most of all, He cares about you, exactly you, just the way you are and He wants to do something new in you.

Are you giving yourself fully to Christ.

We will talk more about that this week.

Let’s pray.