World-Week 1

There’s a big question.

How does God interact with the world?

There’s lots of theories.

There’s the impersonal God. God isn’t a person or a personality - he’s just some force that obeys general laws. Like gravity.

There’s the impartial God. He created us, but is content just watching us do what we do.

It’s like an ant farm. You don’t direct the ants. You just watch the drama unfold.

There’s an idea called the ‘clockmaker God’. he winds up all of creation, sets all the rules, and then just…watches it spin.

This isn’t the same as above. It’s a belief that God created the universe to operate just with his rules, without his outside interference.

It’s like a watch. Multiple, complex pieces all interconnected, all running to make a big whole working piece.

There’s lots of ideas. But we need to take our information from the Bible. So we ask ourselves the question - What does the bible say that God is doing with the world?

There’s 4 categories that we need to consider to talk about this, that we’ll go over in the next few weeks.

The first is creation.

FIRSTLY:

God brought order to chaos

Genesis 1:1–2 NIV

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The Genesis 1 account is about God bringing about order.

Day 1 - Organized the light into ‘day’ and ‘night’.

Day 2 - Organized the waters on the earth and the sky above the earth

Day 3 - Organized the earth into land and sea, and created vegetation

Day 4 - Organized the sources of light into the sun and the stars

Day 5 - God filled the empty seas with fish and other living things

Day 6 - God filled the empty land with animals, and created humanity

That extends even to today!

God can bring order to your chaos

Philippians 4:6–9 NIV

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

The only kind of problems are the ones that we let inside. And God’s advice about life? Don’t be anxious about anything.

Ever tried that? It’s hard.

But god says - if you give everything to me, and dwell on ME - I’ll protect your heart.

This is God’s promise for us today. He did it in creation, and he can do it in your life.

But we need to trust him, and present everything to him. Then we need to dwell on the good thinsg in him.

SECONDLY:

God’s intention with creation was ‘purpose’

In the creation story, we see God bringing order to chaos. But we also see him bringing purpose to meaninglessness. Bringing the personal to impersonal.

Taking random, formless waters, and shaping them into oceans, seas, and land

But not just that. Filling the world with life. And not just life - ecosystems.

God could have easily just built a static world to look at. But he wanted everything to have meaning, to have purpose, to make life.

STORY - The Lego Movie.

God continued this story to the creation of humanity.

Genesis 1:26–27 NIV

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

We were made on purpose for a purpose

Psalm 139:13–14 NIV

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Psalm 139:16 NIV

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Whatever the circumstances of your birth, your life, whatever. Everybody else on the earth may be just the worst, but God did not make any mistakes.

He made you on purpose. The God who crafted the stars, who moulded the earth - he created you too.

He made you for a purpose. God has a plan for every single one of us.