THE CREATOR AND MAN (GRASPING THE WORD 2025 Episode 1 Month 1)

Grasping the Word is a discipleship initiative of Southern Oaks United Pentecostal Church in which people who desire to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ delve deeper into the Bible, God's Word.

To Grasp the Word is five-fold; hear, read, meditate upon, study and memorize.  For the year of 2025 there is a passage of the month in which all are asked to focus on using the 5-fold methods prescribed.

For 2025 there are 3 memorization levels, 1)scratching the surface, 2) digging deeper, 3) striking it rich.   Level 3 constitutes memorize the entire passage.

The overall theme of the year is "Going for the Gold" and is based upon the following;

Psalms 19:10-11 (KJV)
10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold:
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned:
and in keeping of them there is great reward.

For this year's schedule go to https://southernoaksupc.org/#grasp

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to Grasping the Word 2025. Our focus for the year of 2025 at Southern Oaks United Pentecostal Church. Our passages of scripture. And we are taking a passage of the month for each month, and that is becoming our focus to hear, read, meditate, study, and memorize God's Word. The passage for January of 2025 is from the creation events of Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2. And the passage, although it's not the complete passage, it has portions of verses together that people are encouraged to memorize. We're in Genesis 1, beginning at verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Down to verse number 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them. God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat, and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life. I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And then chapter 2, verse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. We are doing a Bible study on the month on Grass 2025, on the passage for the month, and it will be the first Bible study, Wednesday night Bible study of each month for the year of 2025. It's already taken place this year and this month, and we spoke from Genesis chapter 1, Bible study. We're taking segments from that for our podcast for the month of January. I hope it's a blessing to you, and I want us to draw nearer to God and uh have a firm foundation in His Word through grasping the Word 2025. May God bless you. This this is the lead into what we would call the general account of creation. And um when you look at this, you have the uh days of creation, six days covered in the first chapter, the seventh day would be in verses two and three of the uh second chapter. And the seventh day God wrested from all the works that he had made. And um but the general account of creation is given, it's it's it's a fascinating thing, but I want you to know that the Bible is not about how God made the world. That's not that's not the emphasis here at all. It's it doesn't answer all the questions that people could possibly have. I mean, I I know for us people of faith, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And you can certainly see that in the first chapter. God said, Let there be light, and there was light. We also God spoke. We also see that before God ever spoke, the spirit of God moved. And uh God's word, without the moving of the spirit, it doesn't have the, and I'm I'm it I know it's almost sacrilegious to say that, but it doesn't have the power that it always needs. Because spirit and the word work together. And uh it in fact you can see that also in the tabernacle plan in the wilderness that God had given to Moses and the holy place. You can see in that room that there was a table of showbread, the twelve loafs that that obviously were a type of the word of God, or a type of Jesus Christ, too, but the word of God. And then on the opposite wall of the room was the candlestick, the light. Um the that candlestick was filled with replenished with oil, the oil was to never run out. It was the oil that allowed the light to burn to illuminate God's word, uh or the table of showbread. And so that's a type of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Lord, and uh uh that illuminates the word, it reveals the word, amen. And uh gave me so that that we can go through the Bible and find that that's true. Just if the precedent was set in Genesis 1 in creation. The first thing is the Spirit of God moved and then God spoke. And so that was that was the creative work of God, spirit and word together working. What we do, what we do know is this that the Bible, it's not about all the questions that may be asked in a world that is trying to uh come up with a different answer than what the Bible gives about how things got into being. It's not here to do that. First of all, the the Bible here is to establish the fact that there is a God and God is supreme to everything else. He is over it all. The Lord God made it all, and uh there is the Bible says, without him there nothing was made that was made, and it's true, and so it's to show the supremacy of God, but also what we do find, and what I read to you in the first chapter, but not into the second chapter, was that the whole focus of the creation count of the of the Bible is the whole focus of God is on man making man, and that is it was the sixth day, and the first five days of creation, God was preparing for man to inhabit the earth. I want you to look at this, but but but understand this that man is a direct product of God's creative actions. This chapter speaks of the man as the ideal. He is the ideal work of God, and he was created after everything else was well prepared for him. This chapter is of man as the climax. We're talking about chapter one, climax of God's creative work. What did God do after he made man? He rested. That was the seventh day, and the Bible says God finished the work he was that he his hands had said to do. God finished creation and man. Man was the climax of the creative act of the Almighty God, and and this is this really does make sense. Isaiah chapter 45 and verse number 18. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God Himself that formed the earth, this goes right with Genesis 1 1, and made it. He hath established it, he created it not in vain. Okay, this is an incredible statement. Because if God did not make man, everything else he created would have been in vain. Would you know that? And here's the reason, and it's the next words in this verse. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is none else. In other words, all the fantastic things that we can behold in God's creation, in God's mind, in God's plan. All these things would have been in vain had this earth never been inhabited by man. God did what he did and said what he said. It was about mankind. The Bible's not a science book. It's never claimed to be a science book.