In the Beginning...
Notes
Transcript
You know I remember a few years ago my brother was living in Pittsburg and during this time they were shooting the batman movie; “The Dark Knight Rises” and there was a scene that actually took place in the Pittsburg Steelers football stadium
And the scene was supposed to be during an actual football game so what happened is they told anyone in the area that if they wanted to be a part of this movie they were welcome to come to the stadium the day they were shooting.
And thousands of people came
And my brother actually went to it as well.
And I remember when the movie came out we got the DVD pretty quickly and we were watching it and I believe I remember hearing my brother say something along the lines of “This is my scene”
Now here is the issue, because I am not sure how many times I have watched that scene, but not once have I seen my brother in that movie.
I am pretty sure we even paused the movie every time the camera changed shots and found never found him.
But he made so much hype about it that I figured He was one of the main characters,
I thought the movie should have been called “The Brian Shea Rises”
But you know with all seriousness, did you know you are in a story, (not a movie; altough that would be cool), but a story.
And really it is the greatest story ever written and its God’s story.
But God’s story is still unfolding today in our lives.
And this story is amazing
We see that there is hurt, there is happieness, their is sorrow, there is joy, there is a lot of drama,
but in the middle of it all what we are going to find out in the next 31 weeks is that the theme for the entire story is that there is a God pursuing us.
Even when we are the reason for the hurt and sorrow.
The issue is we like to hijack the story, (just like my brother) and make it about us, rather then God.
And we decide that instead of finding my place in God’s story, I am going make God’s story about me.
And my hope that as we get deeper into God’s story is that we move away from saying this is my story, to us finding our role in the greatest story ever written.
And so today we are starting at the very beginning in Genesis.
And we will be starting in 1:1-2 and like I said this is the beginning of our story. It says this:
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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.
So the story starts with God creating the heavens and the earth, and the earth is formless and empty, its dark
We are know there is water, but its important to note that in the Old Testament water represented Chaos.
But so in the beginning of creation you really get this dark picture where the world is formless, empty and some would say even chaotic.
And I read these first few verses and I thought to myself this does not seem like something God would create does it?
And there are a couple views here:
A popular one is that God has not finished creating the world and because of this there is a gap between how everything should look.
But another view is that the first chapter of genesis is more symbolic is nature.
And regardless of where you stand the important thing for us to understand is that God created.
God is the author of life.
And something that is so cool that tells us about the character of God is found at the end of verse 2, because while things seem a little dark and chaotic it says that God is hovering over the waters. He is hovering over the chaos.
And it is beautiful what happens next because we see God begin to make order out of the Chaos
We see God create light and seperate it from darkness
We see Him seperate the Sky and sea
We see Him make the ground appear
We see vegetation appear
And not only that but He begins to fill the eath with creatures
And what is so beautful about this first part is that you might feel like your life is dark or chaotic, some of you may even say it feels formless or purposeless,
But in the middle of our lives possibly looking this way the author of life; the begining and the end; the alpha and omega is hovering over the Chaos
and not only that but He is ready to fill that void you feel and give you purpose and create something beautiful in you.
Its like if you have ever worked with Clay,
I made this at a workshop at the art center downtown (hold up clay plate) and I am proud of it
And you probably know this but the clay did not come looking like this, but it came in a giant chunk.
And I molded it into this plate thing.
But you know the truth is if I (someone who doesn’t have an artistic bone in his body) can make something like this out of clay
How much more can the God we serve make something beautiful out of your life.
Well lets look at this next part because God has created plants, animals but He realizes there is something missing.
Look at verses 26-27 because it says:
26 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.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
So God has made all of this, but He has not made anything in his own image or likeness so He decides to create humans in His own likeness to rule over all the creatures of the earth (which side note: if you are in charge of something you are called to take care of it; we are called to take care of this planet)
But more important then that we are created in God’s image which means the value of your life and the others around you is invaluable
It is priceless because you are made in the image of God
And not only that butwhen you are made in the image of God you have the ability to reflect His image to the world.
Its almost like we look like this mirror, because when people look at our lives and the way we live people should see the God we serve.
And they should be able to see who God is through how we live.
And lets get back to the story because in Genesis 2:7 it tells us how we are best able to do this. It says this:
7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
You see God takes the dust of the ground (really nothing special about it) and God breathes life into it to make man out of the dust because of His breath in man.
If it was not for His breath man would just be dirt.
But God breathed His breath of life into us.
And the truth is if we are just dirt we do not accurately reflect God, but when we have His breath in us we are able to.
Its almost like this: Where are the people who are addicted to coffee in this room?
You can probably finish this phrase: I cannot start my day until I have a cup of… what?
Coffee, right?
And you know as Christ followers we should be saying “God, I cannot go on without your Spirit breathing and living in my life.
And can I just say this is such a good place to sit, because the picture we get right now is perfect.
God has created Adam and Eve and He has breathed life in them, He has placed them in this garden, there is no sin, everything is perfect, Adam and Eve are so close to God that they are talking with Him, in fact later on it tells us God is literally walking in the garden with them.
I mean it is beautiful. But things change quickly, because God tells Adam and Eve that they can eat from any tree, except the tree of “knowledge of good and evil” that was in the very middle of the Garden.
And I want you to look at chapter 3:1, because this is where things begin to go very wrong. It says:
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
So the serpent comes representing Satan and he comes to Eve and ask did God really command you not to eat from any tree in the garden?
And I want you notice something here because God did not say that, but Satan actually twist his words.
Satan distorts the truth
And what begins to happen is Eve recognizes thats not what God says, but Satan continues to distort until she takes a bite from the fruit.
Eve gives into the lies that Satan gave her, and not just Eve, but then Adam does as well.
And what happens in this moment is sin enters the world and this beautiful image (point at mirror) begins to get distorted (twist the mirror).
And from this point things go down hill quickly. Look at 3:8-13 because it says:
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
I mean this is a huge domino effect happening, because you can begin to see the effects of sin creeping in.
For the first time they are hiding from God
Not only that but when God finds them they begin to point fingers
Adam points fingers at Eve and even God, by saying the woman YOU put here made me do it!
Then Eve points fingers at the serpent; saying its his fault!
Andif you read the passage neither of them are willing to even say, “Yeah, I messed up and am sorry!”
But really this is what sin does because you are not just seeing finger pointing, but really the relationship between God and humans gets shattered.
Because they get kicked out of the Garden (which is actually an act of mercy on God’s part)
And not just that, but you see tragic story after tragic story occuring in their children and grandchildren
You see Cain murder Able
And you get to this place where you are hearing what has happended and are just thinking; how did this happen?
How did we get from this place where God was literally walking in the garden with them to siblings murdering each other.
(Grab Mirror and hammer) Because if this is what we are supposed to look like, where we are supposed to reflect God’s image then it is safe to say that image has been shattered. (hit mirror with hammer)
I mean this is what the world seems like:
Its broken
People do not seem to care about God (hit mirror)
There are heart breaking situations around the globe (hit mirror)
There are sicknesses occuring (Hit the mirror)
There is people doing evil things Hit the mirror)
The world looks like this mirror
WHERE IS GOD?!
But here is the phrase that this past week I could not get out of my head.
Its 3:9 (which we already read) but it just says this because while Adam and Eve are running away from God it say:
9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
For a moment I want to stop the finger pointing at the world, at that person who did you wrong, even at God, and start looking at ourselves.
Where Are you?
Are you broken?
Because God is doing what He has been doing since the beginning of creation.
He is pursuing you.
This morning like I said God is pursuing you, but have you begun to seriously pursue Him.
If you were to be honest has sin drifted you away?
Because this week the story ends and all the people of earth drifted away from God, except one man named Noah and his family
And we could get into this story more but for the sake of time what I want you to understand about this story is that while everyone else strayed away from God, Noah walked faithfully with God and God choose Noah to start something new.
You know it might feel like everyone is pulling you away from God, but stand firm
Because God can and wants to use you to make a very real difference in this world.
And when He does this we begin to see God take these broken pieces in our lives and world and put them back together in a way only He is able to.
We serve a God who hovers over the chaos and is ready to make somthing beautiful in your life.
But we need to ask am I ready to let Him?
Will you pray with me?