Joy in His Creation

VIDEO: Creation: The Story

In the beginning, God created! These are the first five words presented in the Bible in Genesis 1:1 and they are probably some of the most important words to be recorded in history. Why? Because these words tell us how everything was created, how created it, and implies purpose and intentionality.

Tonight we continue our series that has covered the topic of Joy and I begin again with this question: Aren’t you glad for the joy that we have in knowing the Lord?

So far, we have discussed how His joy can and does serve as our strength.

We talked about how we should absolutely find joy in our salvation AND in the salvation of others.

Next we talked about how our joy in the Lord is unconditional. It is not based off our surrounding circumstances but is in fact founded in the One and only true God!

Last week we spoke of the joy we find in the Sovereignty of God. He is in control. He is the all-knowing, always present and almighty God. NO ONE and NOTHING can or will ever compare to Him. He is the ultimate authority.

Today, as you might have guessed from the video we just watched and the opening scripture of the message, we talk of the Joy we find in God’s creation.

This truth - the truth that God created - is one of the most important truths for us to grasp. Why? Because the entire rest of the Bible and its credibility depends on it.

What is the danger in discrediting the beginning of the story?

Simple. The devil knows that if we begin to question the beginning then the rest of the book becomes meaningless to us.

With no creator comes no order. With no creator comes no commands. With no creator comes no hope. With no creator comes no joy.

With no creator we are meaningless creatures brought about by the largest cosmic accident the universe has ever known.

And make no mistake about it friends, our world is working hard to remove from God the credit of creating the universe.

“Where is your proof?” they may ask or “Where is the evidence?” And to that I answer with this. Our evidence is all around us. Our evidence is found within us. Our evidence is beyond scientific reasoning and understanding. For how can a supernatural phenomenon be explained using natural reasoning?

Tonight is not about presenting evidence or making argument for creation over evolution. In here, we simply accept the truth that God literally spoke the universe into motion.

If you desire studies backed by scientific research then may I suggest to you two very good resources.

Answers in Genesis – www.answersingenesis.org

The Case for A Creator – By Lee Strobel, an atheist turned Christian now writing books to share his belief in Christ.

RightNow Media, an free and available resource through HWC, has great video Bible studies ready to stream that cover the book of Genesis and other creation truths.

These resources are fantastic as science is used to back what we believe. But I hope we understand that science is not the final word regarding our creation beliefs.

Hebrews 11:3 NIV

3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

A necessary starting-point for any consideration of creation is Heb. 11:3, ‘By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God.’

This means that the biblical doctrine of creation is based on divine revelation and understood only from the standpoint of faith. It is this that sharply distinguishes the biblical approach from the scientific.

The work of creation, no less than the mystery of redemption, is hidden from man and can be perceived only by faith.

In other words, we accept His creation of the universe BY FAITH - by what is not seen - not by viewable evidence!

So let’s bring this back to our topic of discussion: Joy.

By faith, creation brings us joy in two major areas.

One, Through His creation we find evidence of His existence.

Suddenly we begin to see viable evidence of God’s existence all around us

Two, In His existence we find unlimited hope and purpose.

Suddenly we realize that all that is around us was not formed by accident. We have a glorious hope and purpose in the Lord!

His Creation Points to His Existence

As we consider the origins of the universe and the existence of God who designed and set the whole thing into motion, I want you to apply this one simple thought into the equation: every design has a designer.

How many arrived at church this morning by way of car, truck, van, motorcycle, or other form of mechanical transportation?

We realize this morning that the vehicles we drive or ride in are made up of materials that come from the natural earth around us.

But we also realize those materials did not come together on their own to form the vehicle we drive. Such things had a designer. Such things were created.

Chevy, GMC, Pontiac, Buick, Cadillac, Dodge, Honda, and I guess we should mention Ford are all designers and creators of vehicles we utilize every single day. We look at such things and know “someone designed that.”

Now some may wonder what does this have to do with the creation of the universe. Simple. As complex as a modern car may be today it comes nowhere close to the complexity of the universe around us! Yet some would claim it all just happened! Some would claim there is no designer!

There is nothing random about the universe around us! And it’s very existence and complexity is evidence enough that God is real, He exists, and His glory can be seen all around us!

Romans 1:20 NIV

20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

What excuse is Paul speaking of? The acknowledgement of the existence of God! God can be seen in His creation. Paul lists out two specific qualities of God that can be realized through His creation:

One: His Eternal Power – The fact that God was there before any of the universe was there. His power is eternal. It has always been and will always be. He created the universe from nothing. He spoke it into existence.

Nothing and no one comes even close in comparison to the power of our God!

Two: His Divine Nature – Or His God-like attributes. God was able to speak the universe into existence because He is God! His nature is supernatural, beyond our comprehension and explanation!

God can literally be seen in all of creation!

Psalm 19:1 NIV

1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

His glory surrounds us! His work is proclaimed by the skies above us! Yes He is real! Yes He created all things! And Yes this should bring us joy!

OUR GOD IS REAL! And the evidence of His existence should bring us joy!

But what about the killjoy? If God’s existence is so evident through His creation, why is it that so many people deny the truth that He created all things?

I would argue it is because the enemy is trying to place blinders on God’s creation. Satan does not want anyone seeing God in what He has made.

As the blinders go on, people run from God and grab a hold of other ideas. Letting go of God as creator opens the door for a vast array of secular ideas to take root. As mentioned before, if you discredit the beginning of the story, you discredit the rest of the book.

As secular ideas are believed or taken to heart, people become misled and life becomes defined by happenstance and accidents. As secular ideas take root… hope, value, and identity gets lost in the process.

Habakkuk 2:18–19 NIV

18 “Of what value is an idol carved by a craftsman? Or an image that teaches lies? For the one who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. 19 Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.”

In this passage, God is warning against the worship of lifeless idols.

First, what is an idol? An idol is a representation or symbol of an object of worship. An idol is a false god. This representation refers to something of human manufacture which people have substituted for the true and living God.

Secularized teachings regarding the origins of the universe have become nothing less than idols in our society, and like any other idol there is no breath in it. There is no life, there is no hope, and there is future. There is only an image that teaches lies. We believe and trust our own creation something that cannot speak or “wake up.”

When God is taken out of creation, it robs creation of any and all value. It places a manufactured idea in control of what we believe regarding our own existence.

It’s time we begin to discredit a theory created by man, and fully embrace the truth spoken by God!

And here’s the deal… science is not necessarily the bad guy! True unbiased science is finding results that absolutely back what the Bible has to say regarding creation.

It points to an intelligent designer. What that means is the more we have discovered about our world around, the more it points to the FACT that someone had to design, had to plan the world as we know it.

When people take a good honest approach regarding the evidence around us… the evidence points people back to God and His existence! And what joy should fill our hearts when we realize and accept WE ARE NOT HERE BY ACCIDENT!

The universe around us proclaims the existence of God! He is real and He is with us!

i. And understand this truth today, God not only created all that surrounds us, He created YOU as well! He created you on purpose for a purpose. In Him we find hope and value and that brings us to our next point:

We Find Hope in His Existence

We find joy in this because WE HAVE HOPE! Hope in the assurance that WE HAVE A PURPOSE!

I want everyone in this room to say that phrase with me: I HAVE A PURPOSE. Now say: I HAVE A GOD-GIVEN PURPOSE.

You are no accident. You are no happenstance. You are not the result of a billion year evolutionary process. You are a created being, created by a supernatural being, and “in Him we live and move and have our being.” As we read in Acts 17:28

And out of all the created world around us it is we who stand out from the rest of the crowd.

We are not mere animals. We are not simply another type of mammal. We are special compared to the rest of God’s creation. Why? Because He made us special.

Genesis 1:26–27 NIV

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.

Nothing else in all of creation can make this claim: We are created in the image of God. Let me make this personal tonight, YOU are created in the image of God. And if you think God simply created a human mold and began stamping us out, you’ve got another thing coming!

Of all of the souls that have walked this earth, no one has had the same finger print you have.

Of all of the souls that have walked this earth, no one has the same DNA that you have in your body.

There has never, nor will there ever be another one like you!

Your kids and your family will share similarities… BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE YOU. God made you one of a kind for all time! That’s pretty dog on cool when you stop and think about it! You truly are fearfully and wonderfully made as expressed in Psalm 119:14!

Be joyful today at this revelation! In God we find value! In God we find hope! In God we find purpose!

Believing otherwise strips us of value. It strips us of purpose and hope.

But in God we find a much different story! We find that purpose we so desperately need.

Acts 17:24–27 NIV

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

This passage tells us why God did what He did.

One, so that we might seek Him.

Is this to say that God is hiding from that which He created? Not at all! In fact, God desires to have fellowship with us! God desires for us to pursue Him, to follow Him, to trust in Him, and place our faith in Him.

His eternal power and divine nature can be seen all throughout His creation. Will we choose to seek Him… or will we trust in the manufactured ideas that seek to remove Him from the creation equation?

That choice… really plays out in the next part of verse 27.

Two, Reach out to Him.

In reaching out, we acknowledge our need for God. Instead of reaching toward man’s “understanding” of the world, we reach out for God and His truth

In reaching out to God, a person turns away from the lifeless, joyless, breathless, meaningless “idols” mankind has set up in place of the one true God.

Reaching out to God leads to the third and final part of verse 27...

If you reach… you WILL find Him.

He’s not far away, and He’s not hard to find. He is with you all the time.

The key to finding God is… looking for God. Instead of looking beyond the evidence displayed in creation… a person must recognize that only God could do what has been done.

What I love about what is said in verse 27 is the assurance that comes with reaching. When you reach… you will find. Again, God is NOT hiding or distant from us… we must choose to see Him and to reach for Him through all the noise that our world is making.

Seek. Reach. Find. This purpose brings us hope as we know that when we find the Lord, we find forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ. We know that when we find the Lord we find relationship with the King. We know when we find God we find eternal life! So what are we waiting for? Let’s get to our purpose, make hope a reality, and embrace a joy like we’ve never known before!

Conclusion

Tonight, I want us to truly realize the joy that we can find through all that God has created.

The world around us, the sky above us, and the universe that surrounds us all proclaim His work and His glory. They give evidence of His existence. And in this truth we should find joy!

With every sunrise and sunset we see His handiwork. Every single day we are reminded by all that surrounds us… that God is REAL. God created all of this on purpose and with purpose.

The enemy wants us to forget this truth. The enemy wants us to believe that all of this… is nothing but one great big cosmic accident.

The enemy does not want you to see the evidence in creation that points to God!

The world is going to throw all kinds of different ideas your way. The world is going to try to explain God out of creation. And it is going to present this information with conviction.

If a person is convinced to take God out of creation… then church… it leads a person away from having purpose, hope, meaning, and joy. Life becomes nothing more than random sequences of events that we navigate to the best of our ability.And all the while… a void is created within out souls that can only be filled by the One who created us.

We MUST never forget that it is BY FAITH that we believe this world was created by the word of God!

As the enemy tries to challenge our faith, I pray we will become more resolved in our belief that in the beginning, GOD CREATED.

Ultimately church… this all comes down to believing God at His Word… we either believe it or we don’t

It doesn’t matter how much scientific evidence we have or do not have… FAITH is the key. And… if we allow faith to open our eyes… we will see the evidence of God’s existence all around us in His creation!

I pray this evening… that faith… will lead us to seek, to reach, and to find the Lord our God.

You may be here today and you may be walking a joyless life. You struggle to find purpose. You struggle to find value. You struggle to find hope. You struggle to find meaning.

If this describes you then I encourage you to stop the busy schedule for a moment and look around you. You will see His glory. You will see His works, and you will realize His existence.

Tonight can I encourage you to get back to the purpose God intended for you. Let’s seek Him. Let’s reach out to Him. Let’s find Him.