Untitled Sermon (4)

Bottom Line: In the beginning a good God created a good world that reflected how good He is.

INTRODUCTION

Does anybody here love movies? Have you had someone walk in right in the middle of a good movie? I’m not talking about while your fast-forwarding the opening credits and still kind of getting settled and perfecting your position on the couch. I’m talking about when your friend comes over fifteen minutes late and waltzes in while you sit there with your home-popped popcorn and a your favorite drink. Then, your totally inconsiderate and oblivious friend starts asking questions. “What’s going on? Why is she mad at him? Who are they running from? Who’s the dad of that baby? Tell me who this guy is? Why are they so scared right now? Why is that guy really short with hairy feet? Wait, what’s a hobbit? Why is the bad guy trying to kill them again? How much time is left in the movie? How do you think it’s going to end? Can I have some popcorn?” This happens a lot in our home. I am the one who walks in on Helen and asks the questions.

It’s so maddening, isn’t it? It takes everything to not throw the remote at them, kick them out of your house, and un-friend them on Facebook. I’m kidding. I would never un-friend them on Facebook. That would be stupid. What if I found out that the amount of people who I am friends with on Facebook really does matter? Not in the grand scheme of life, but how many friends I have is directly proportionate to the amount of Blue Bell ice cream I got to eat for free? Everyday? Without it effecting my health?

TENSION

This is why we don’t start reading a book in the middle. And we don’t start watching a movie an hour in. And we don’t walk into a high school musical after the intermission. Because it doesn’t make sense. Because we would simply miss out on the key elements of the story: the characters, the plotline, the “when” and “why” and “how”—the point and intention behind it all. It just wouldn’t feel right and we would be left completely lost and confused.

Life can feel like we just happened to walk in on the middle of it. Have you ever felt this way? Like you just kind of showed up, and are missing out on some key information? Like you arrived in the middle of something and have a lot of questions about what is going on that need to be answered before you can move forward? These are the types of questions that keep us up at night. Questions like, why are people mean? Why do people lose jobs, get in fights, and hurt each other’s feelings? Why do things never seem to work out for some people? Why do things never seem to work out for me? Why do I feel insecure, down or sad when it seems like it’s so easy for other people to feel confident and happy? Why does it feel like I am so lost in a world that already doesn’t make a lot of sense, and where should I go to start to make sense of it all? Or maybe you have simply asked the question this way: What in the world is going on?

These are big questions. Questions we aren’t going to have all the answers to by the time we leave today. And we may not ever be able to fully get answers in a way that satisfies us. But these are the things we deal with every day. So, what if I told you the reason we have the feeling that we just sort of showed up with all these questions that don’t seem to have answers is because, in a way, we did just show up, right in the middle of the story? In other words, OUR story is right in the middle of God’s story. We have questions because we’ve essentially walked in on a movie that was already going on before we got here. We find ourselves wondering about the plot and guessing about the ending but our story is really just one small part of God’s big story that has been going on since the beginning of time. I’ve heard it put like this, History is His Story. And just like a book or a movie, when we come in on the middle—when we have no idea how it all started to begin with—we have more questions than we know what to do with and no idea how to even begin answering them.

Some of you have never even thought to bring God’s story into your own story—to see your own life as a part of something God started before time began. Some of you hear that, and think, “Exactly! God is where I should go to figure this out.” Some of you have even addressed these questions with God. Maybe you wouldn’t even call it praying, but in frustration, or anger, or confusion you have kind of lashed out, or just legitimately wondered, “What in the world is going on? God, are You there? Do You know what’s going on down here with the George Floyd situation? Do You care about the George Floyd situation? What about the situation with China?”

We ask the questions we do because our perspective is limited. That’s not a dig on you, or me, or any of us—it’s just the reality of life. Our part in the story is so small, and so much happened before we came along to make things the way they are, we feel a little disoriented, like we came into a movie an hour in our opened a book and started reading halfway through. So, in order to get a better vantage point with the questions we have, we are going to see that we can learn more about our own story by tuning into God’s story. Doing this is a perspective-changer! When our questions are put in the context of something that started long before we ever got here, we begin to get a wider view.

So let’s start this week by going back to the beginning. This is something that you really need to know, this series has the potential not only to change how you view the present, but what you expect in the future.

TRUTH

So, how does the story start? It starts in the beginning. God’s story starts with those very words: In the beginning… The first book of the Bible, the first chapter of the Bible, the first verse of the Bible tells us this. And let’s not rush past it too quickly, because that little phrase is loaded with meaning and purpose. Those three words tell us there is a beginning. There is a start to the story. And it is a story before all stories—a story from which all other stories come and in which all other stories take place and have meaning. And God says that the story that started it all was His. “In the beginning,” was the start of the story God began.

Genesis 1 goes on: In the beginning God created… 1:1a. Whatever you see and observe—whatever exists—is here because of those words. God created. He created the heavens and the earth, the sky and the land, the fish and the animals and the plants. Everything. He just spoke and—boom—it was created.

Genesis tells us about God making the heavens, the earth, the sky and land, but let’s not stop there. Think bigger. Everything God wanted, God made. How cool would that be? Grilled cheese! Boom! There it is … with the crust cut off and everything right beside a bowl of tomato soup. That’s what God did. He spoke and something came out of nothing. Everything that is, came into being because God simply told it to. The imagination of God included everything you see and a whole lot of things that haven’t even come to be yet—or at least things the human brain hasn’t even begun to fathom yet. And then God looked at it. He looked around at everything that filled up what used to be nothing, and do you know what He saw? Genesis tells us: And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:10 b

But God wasn’t quite done yet. After He finished setting the stage of creation, He had one more thing to do. He wanted to create something that went beyond good. And while we see imprints of a good God on every part of creation, the next feature was going to be uniquely special—uniquely different from the rest of creation. Scripture tells us that what God would create next would actually bear the image of God.

Then God said, Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Genesis 1:26 God has an idea. “Let’s make something special. Not like the animals. Something different. Something in My image. Something that can actually have a relationship with Me. Something that will be like Me: that will have a will, a mind, and a sense of morality. Something that can truly appreciate and enjoy Me and My creation.” So what does God do? He makes us. Humanity. Mankind. Creation was already “good,” but when God decided to make human beings, He made it personal.

It’s one thing to tackle the Do It Yourself custom corn hole set that is reversed stained or paint your bedroom wall a great new shade of blue—there’s something really satisfying about the whole thing. But when you start to put the pictures of you and your friends and family on the shelf or hang your own artwork on the wall, that’s when the whole thing starts to get personal. That’s when it starts to feel like more of a labor of love than just a fun project. And that’s how I imagine God felt about creation. Creation was good in and of itself, but once humanity came on the scene, it became personal in a whole new way.

27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” Genesis 1:27-29 Okay. Let’s just stop right here for a minute. How cool would that be—to rule over creation? In other words, imagine if all living things obeyed you. I don’t know about you, but I would command all snakes and spiders to cease to exist. My hunting method would definitely change.

So God does all of this. He makes all we see and don’t see. And He says it is good. Then He makes us. Humanity. People. He makes us to have souls, and minds and hearts. With humor, compassion and determination. He makes us like Him. And then Genesis tells us this: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31

In the beginning a good God created a good world that reflected how good He is. Did you catch that? It was very good. Before, it was good. But through the creation of humanity God took creation to a new place. Now, it was very good—because the most prized creation of all, humanity, bore His image—bore His personal mark. In the beginning, God made us like Him. It was paradise. God created Adam and God created Eve and put them in an unbelievable world; an unbelievable garden full of life, beauty, adventure, fun, pleasure, and excitement—with food and animals and plants. A world where human beings were in charge and had the privilege of taking care of everything. And when I say taking care of, I don’t mean doing the chores you hate to do—like cleaning the toilets and mowing the lawn and emptying the dishwater. Work in the beginning wasn’t work like we know now. It was fun work. It was work with purpose and it was fulfilling. In the beginning, God created a world without evil or sickness or violence or death or hurt feelings or insecurity or failure. It was a world where people weren’t mean to each other, didn’t leave each other, and didn’t use or hurt one another. It was a world without divorce, and cancer, and bad economies. It was simply a place of wonder and discovery where the humanity God created was in an amazing love relationship with its Creator and with the world around them: it was a magnificent paradise. And that’s the beginning of the story you’re now in the middle of. That’s the story you were born into.

It is a story that started well, and it is a story that bears the marks of the One who wrote it in all He created. This is the bigger picture we get to participate in. This is the bigger epic we get to share in. It is a good story. And it is a story whose Creator is woven into all the details, especially you and me.

APPLICATION

So what does this mean for you? It means that this story that started so long ago—this story that started with a powerful Creator, an imaginative Creator, an intentional Creator—is also a good story, created by a good God. He created good things. He created a good world. He created a good design. He created good relationships. He had a good purpose. In the beginning, things were good. And they were good because a good God made them that way.

But you and I know that our story doesn’t always feel good. We started this week by saying sometimes it feels like we have walked into the middle of a story. Sometimes we have these big questions about why the world is the way it is, and we feel so confused because we arrived in the middle of a story already unfolding. And while we may not have answers to all of our big questions, we do have this: We have a beginning. And with that beginning, we have an understanding of how things were meant to be. How things were created to be. We resonate with the beginning of God’s story because it feels how we think things should still be. We long for something better because we were created for something better—we were created for the good in the garden, and when we experience something less, it makes us eager for the start of the story and the One behind it—whether we realize it or not.

Knowing this gives us a starting point worth holding onto. It gives us a place to go when we want to believe in something better than what we see around us everyday. We can go back to “in the beginning” and take comfort in the truth of God’s original plan. When we begin asking questions wherever we are in His story, we may not have the clear-cut answers we’re looking for, but we can say, “It wasn’t always this way.”

“Why do bad things happen to good people?” “I don’t know. But in the beginning—it was good.” “Why does life hurt so badly sometimes?” “I don’t know. But in the beginning—it was good.” “Why is there sickness? “I don’t know. But in the beginning—it was good.” “Why can’t things fall into place for me? Why do some people just seem to have an unfair advantage in life? Why is there disease? Why can’t I make sense of all this?” I don’t know. But in the beginning—things were good.

It may not be an answer right now for the big questions that really do keep us up at night, but it is a place to start. It is the only place to start. In the beginning, God created... And knowing it started out “good” means believing there is a good Creator involved in telling this story. But He did more than just start the story. He intentionally put Himself in it.

In other words, we also know this about our Creator: We know that what He created bears His mark. Bears His imprint. Bears His stamp. It began this way in the garden. And while life may not look all that much like the original “good” creation, we know this much about it has stayed the same: Creation still bears the image of God and God is still in the story.

I have found that knowing the back story—learning history and appreciating the past—always makes for a better understanding of the current story, whether it is a movie, a play, or life. If you don’t know what happened before, you are going to have a hard time knowing where to go from here. Which is why, when it comes to the story God is telling, it matters that we go back. It matters that we understand the direction the story has always been heading in. That way, when we see where the story turns, when we experience some twists and turns in our own story that confuse us and prompt us to ask bigger questions, we are confident and capable of looking back first.