Session# 2 God is the Creator
Notes
Transcript
Good morning y’all! How did you sleep?
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION
Okay, I need two volunteers to come up please 🙂
Volunteer one, “can you draw? Okay great. I am going to give you a paper, and you are going to have thirty seconds to draw this flower, can you do that? Perfect.
30 seconds later, show off picture
Okay volunteer two, I am going to get you to recreate this flower too, but you're not going to draw it…I want you to try and speak it into existence. Using only your words I want you to try and make a flower. Do you think you can do that? No? Why not?
That’s right, because you can make something with just your words. Okay thanks for your help anyway.
OPENING ILLUSTRATION
How many of you like watching movies or books?
The best books/movies always begin with a hook line. It’s the first phrase written or spoken to the audience to draw them into a story.
I’m going to give you guys a phrase and I want you to guess what movie, or book it's from.
This is the story of how I died. (Tangled)
In a galaxy far far away (Star Wars)
Alright, let’s do this one last time. My name is Peter Parker. I was bitten by a radioactive spider and for ten years I’ve been the one and only Spider-Man. I’m pretty sure you know the rest. (Spiderman into the Spiderverse)
These are some examples of hooklines. The Bible starts with a hook line, just like any other story. Michael did a good job explaining yesterday that the Bible is a collection of books that connect together to serve as one uniformed story about God and his relationship with humanity. And unlike Star Wars, or many of the other stories we hear it is a true story. So let’s see what hookline the Bible starts with…. I’m going to get you guys to flip to the very first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1, when someone gets there do you want to read it for us?
SCRIPTURE
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
So here is how the Bible opens. In fact the first two chapters of the Bible go on to expand on this verse. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So for the next fifteenish minutes I want to read you the creation story and then we can talk about it!
Read Genesis 1:2-25
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.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Okay, so there was a lot in that passage. Let’s summarize what happened. The story starts with God, in the midst of chaos, emptiness and nothingness, and then into the darkness God speaks and says, let there be light.
Remember when “insert name” was up here before, and I asked them to speak a flower into existence, could they do it? No. But we see in the story that God could. In fact as we read through scripture we see that God speaks all of creation into existence.
This is the act of a powerful creator.
No matter how hard you and I try, we cannot create something out of nothing using only our words. Even the greatest artist in the world could not look into pure darkness and speak light into existence, but God can. Everything that was created exists through the power of God. On day one he creates light and darkness, day two he creates the sky, on day three he creates the land and sea, day four the sun moon and stars, day five sea creatures and birds then, day six he creates land creatures and later on man. In six days God created all of creation! Is that not crazy!
Not only did God created everything by his power, but he created everything perfectly. Let’s look back the text.
God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
God creates the light and calls it good.
The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
God creates the land and calls it good. And so on and so forth. Every time God creates something he calls it good. When God creates something, it is perfectly good. From the stars in the sky to the ants on the ground God made it all good. You see a perfect God can only create good things. It’s like this, say it is fall and you have an apple tree in your backyard. You go outside to pick the fruit from the tree…what fruit are you expecting? Apples right! It would be strange if an apple tree produced lemons, in fact it would be impossible for an apple tree to produce lemons. The same is with God. God is good, so all he does, and all he creates is good.
Now you might be wondering, wait how is that true? What about the wolf who eats a baby deer, or the dog who attacks people, or the weeds that kill other plants, or people who kill other people. Originally everything God created was good, but then man rebelled against God (which we will learn about later) separating creation and humanity from God, and because of this separation from God and his goodness, we have things like sickness, violence and disease. That does not change the fact that God is still a perfect creator.
So far we have seen that God is a powerful and perfect Creator and now I want to talk bout how God is also a Caring Creator. You see not only did God simply create everything he also cares for his creation too.
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
Astronomers estimate that there are 200 billion trillion stars in the observable universe. This number is hard to fathom, but it is roughly 10 times the number of cups in all of the earth’s oceans. And God knows every single star by name! Can you imagine! Sometimes I struggle to remember one person’s name. There is no way I could remember every stars name, but God is wise enough to remember each one.
Here is another verse that shows how God cares about his creation.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.
Sparrows are little birds, who in bible times were considered to be worth very little. However the Bible points out that God cares for the little birds that seem to be considered of little value. This shows us that God intentionally cares for and made his creation. He sees worth and value in everything he created including the sparrow.
We have talked about God as a powerful creator, a perfect creator and a caring creator, but finally God is a purposeful creator. I want to spend the most time on this point, because I think it is super important to understand this!
You see God did not create the world on a whim or because he was bored. God was not sitting there one day and suddenly like “I don’t have anything fun to do, so a guess I’ll just make something and see how it turns out.” God created the world for an intentional purpose. He had and still has plan for all of creation. So what is creation’s purpose?
I want you guys to flip to….
You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
You see all of creation’s purpose is stated at the end of the verse. Creation is sustained (given life) by God and because of who God is and what God does, creation’s purpose is to worship Him.
So what is worship?
Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth. ~John Piper
In other words, worship is understanding and acknowledging God’s worth or who God is and what He has done. Worship is the response of awe of who God is. It points to God and honours his character and what he has done.
Here is another verse to help us understand this…
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
How does the heavens/sky declare God’s glory/value if it can’t speak?
One of my favourite things in the whole world is a good thunderstorm. Michael can confirm this. The other night we were sitting the couch watching a movie when we both heard the sound of thunder in the distance. The first thing I did was run to our door, grab my jacket and sit in our porch in the pouring rain. The sound of the rain falling down around me filled my ears, the sweet smell of freshly watered grass and dirt filled the air as I patiently waited. The door opened behind me and Michael stood there waiting for the same thing I was. A flash of light struck down in the distance creating a fork in the air that lit up the dark sky, and a loud crack split the air. Both of us smiled, because the lightening and thunder were a powerful force and it reminded us of its creator, God and how powerful He is. See this is how creation worships God. By reminding us of Him, by displaying his powerful, perfect, caring and purposeful nature. It leaves us in awe. Maybe you’re not the biggest fan of thunder, but a starry night, or the sound of ocean waves crashing against the rock, the powerful roar of a lion, the delicate appearance of a butterfly can leave us in awe of who God is. Creation speaks of who God is and
draws us into a sense of awe.
As I prepare to close today, I want to leave you with a challenge. As you go about today and experience God’s creation. Whether it’s at the lake or walking around camp, take the opportunity to see God’s hand in creation and what he has done. Thank him for all the things He has created.
I’ll close in prayer :)
