SPEAKER_01: All right, Genesis chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: Well, to appreciate our present and to shape our future wisely, we've got to have an understanding of the past.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we celebrated our 250th year as an independent nation.
SPEAKER_01: July 4th is always a time to look back to the founding ideals of liberty and free speech and all of those things.
SPEAKER_01: And it's also a time to look back at the cost paid to purchase and to secure through the years our liberty.
SPEAKER_01: How many are grateful for the men and women who fought and who continue to fight for our freedom?
SPEAKER_01: But you know, not all Americans today tragically are interested in American history.
SPEAKER_01: One Gallup poll found that younger Americans, especially Gen Z, report substantially lower national pride than older generations.
SPEAKER_01: And we see this, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: This is in large part due to their lack of historical knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: You don't appreciate what you do not know.
SPEAKER_01: This has led to an undervaluing of liberty and free speech, an underappreciation of the sacrifices made to purchase that liberty, and a lack of understanding about our identity as Americans.
SPEAKER_01: History is important.
SPEAKER_01: And while studying American history and Western history in general is vital, if we're going to truly understand God, ourselves in the world, we have to go back way beyond 250 years to the beginning of time.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's why we're going to study the book of Genesis, which by the way, the word Genesis means origin or beginnings.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to listen to this and not just listen, but let these truths sink deep into your heart today.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't understand our origins, if you don't know Genesis chapter 1, 2, and 3, you risk becoming aimless, desolate, and even nihilistic.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you'll think, man, life has no meaning.
SPEAKER_01: Contrarily, if you and I have a proper understanding of the beginning of all things, as revealed in Scripture, we'll be able to make sense of the world now, which is not easy.
SPEAKER_01: Again, we'll move forward with great wisdom, and we will have hope for our ultimate future.
SPEAKER_01: There's some disagreement over how to read Genesis 1, and you've got arguments about the creation narrative, such as the age of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to tell you today that I'm not going to get any of into any of this because we argue about those points so much, and I think we can miss the forest for the trees.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what I want to focus on today in Genesis chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: I want to focus on what it teaches us about God and what Genesis 1 teaches us about the world.
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, what Genesis teaches us about God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we find in just Genesis chapter 1 almost inexhaustible truths about our great God.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the further you deep, the more you uh the the the further you read and the the the deeper you go into this text, the more you're going to discover about God.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to focus on four truths today that I find very compelling.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, first truth about God is this God exists.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, well, duh, not everybody believes that.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 1:1.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, what God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Straight away, Moses wants us to know emphatically that there is one God who created all that exists.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to point your attention to verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Moses quoting God says this.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Let us make man in our own image.
SPEAKER_01: Which begs the question, who is us?
SPEAKER_01: Because we know that Moses, as were all the Jewish people, they were monotheists.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, they believed in one true God.
SPEAKER_01: The pagan religious religions, most of them were polytheists, meaning that they believed in multiple gods.
SPEAKER_01: But Moses believes in one God.
SPEAKER_01: So why would he write here that God said, Let us make man in our own image?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I believe Genesis chapter one includes whispers about the Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read you verses one through three.
SPEAKER_01: Follow along with me.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, who?
SPEAKER_01: God, that's God the Father, created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.
SPEAKER_01: And the Spirit of God, that would be the Holy Spirit, was hovering over the face of the waters.
SPEAKER_01: And God, that's God the Father, said, Let there be light, and there was light.
SPEAKER_01: So in verse 1, you have Elohim, God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 3, you have uh sorry, verse 2, you have the Spirit hovering over the waters.
SPEAKER_01: Now you say, Where's the Son?
SPEAKER_01: Because the Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm arguing here that all three persons of the Godhead are right here in Genesis 1.
SPEAKER_01: So where is the Son?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the New Testament brings revelation to a phrase used in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: What did God do?
SPEAKER_01: How did God create the heavens and the earth?
SPEAKER_01: He spoke.
SPEAKER_01: This phrase is repeated on each day of creation.
SPEAKER_01: God spoke and it happened.
SPEAKER_01: Now the New Testament brings revelation in John chapter 1, which is John's old creation, own creation narrative, as he looks back to what the word of God really is.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read you John, the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning was what?
SPEAKER_01: The Word, God's spoken word.
SPEAKER_01: And the Word was with God.
SPEAKER_01: And watch this, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_01: He was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_01: All things were made through Him.
SPEAKER_01: Now wait, why are you calling the Word Him?
SPEAKER_01: And without Him was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_01: And in just down a little bit in chapter one, John writes that the Word became flesh, which is in reference to the incarnation of who?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now again, John is taking us back to Genesis chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: And the point is this Jesus was with the Father in the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, Jesus is, he's not just the Son of God, but how many know he is God the Son?
SPEAKER_01: So when God spoke, when God, you know, Genesis 1 refers to God's word, and that word that brought everything to pass is the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And scholars throughout the ages have seen this.
SPEAKER_01: This is not my thought.
SPEAKER_01: Ireneus, who was a second-century theologian and who became the bishop of present-day France, said this.
SPEAKER_01: He understood the creation account as involving the Son and Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I love this.
SPEAKER_01: He famously described this account as the Father's two hands of creation, the Son and the Spirit of God's two hands of creation.
SPEAKER_01: Then you have modern-day scholars like Thomas Schreiner, who said that although the first human readers may not have understand the full Trinitarian doctrine, from the perspective of the completed canon, quote unquote us should be read as referring to the Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: Is the Bible not amazing?
SPEAKER_01: Moses at this point, I highly doubt, had a concept of the triune God.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Well, why would he write this?
SPEAKER_01: Because it wasn't just they, these were Moses' uh words, but how many know ultimately the Bible is not written by human authors?
SPEAKER_01: The human authors wrote it, they have their own personalities that are kind of baked in the books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, the Bible says that of itself that it is God breathed.
SPEAKER_01: So before Moses understood anything about God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he writes, God said, Let us.
SPEAKER_01: And then John brings clarity to the us.
SPEAKER_01: This is the fellowship of one God in three persons.
SPEAKER_01: I thought you'd be more excited about that.
SPEAKER_01: I I love it.
SPEAKER_01: So number one, first truth about God is God exists.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, act like you're happy today because this message didn't took me what six weeks to get together, all right?
SPEAKER_01: It's not an easy text to preach.
SPEAKER_01: Second truth is this God is eternal.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Before anything existed, God existed.
SPEAKER_01: God has no beginning, he had no beginning, and he will have no end.
SPEAKER_01: We serve an eternal God who transcends time and space.
SPEAKER_01: He is not bound by time and space.
SPEAKER_01: That's worth thinking about.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, the here's the third truth that this teaches us about God, and we need to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is primarily about God.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that in Genesis chapter 1, God is mentioned 32 times, in mankind is not mentioned till verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read you an excerpt from the CSB study Bible notes.
SPEAKER_01: It says that he, God, is the subject of the first verb in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he is the subject of more verbs in the Bible than any other character.
SPEAKER_01: And he performs a wider variety of activities than any other being in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Now, obviously, the Bible talks a lot about humankind and creation itself, but the scriptures are overwhelmingly about God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point, is to show us who God is.
SPEAKER_01: So, a great question to ask yourself, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you with when you read any passage, first and foremost is this what does this text tell me about God?
SPEAKER_01: Because that first and foremost is what God means you to understand.
SPEAKER_01: The point of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, it's not just the Bible that's primarily about God, He is the center, He is preeminent, He is the center of all things, He is supreme.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you you heard your mom or dad growing up say, Life's not about you.
SPEAKER_01: And that is still true.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about any precedent or king, it is about the Lord Jesus Christ, the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He's the center of the Bible, God is, and He is the center of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: And fourth truth is this God is the creator of all things.
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, God did what?
SPEAKER_01: Created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The word created here is the Hebrew word bara.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for us to create something, we need raw materials to work with.
SPEAKER_01: And then we kind of change those things, mold them to build something.
SPEAKER_01: Like you and I have no power to create something from nothing.
SPEAKER_01: But do you know in the beginning, this word suggests or demands rather that God did not merely reshape or rearrange something, you know, matter that already existed.
SPEAKER_01: Our God is so powerful.
SPEAKER_01: For the beginning, before God created, nothing existed except Him.
SPEAKER_01: And He created all that we know in this mind-blowing universe.
SPEAKER_01: He created it all out of nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the argument would be this from atheists.
SPEAKER_01: They would say, Well, you know, you Christians, you're just basing this on faith.
SPEAKER_01: You know, this is ignorant.
SPEAKER_01: This is not logical.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they would argue.
SPEAKER_01: Well, okay, it does take faith to believe in this right, to trust the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But I would argue this atheists have faith too.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it takes way more faith to be an atheist and look at the world and all of the universe that is ever uh, you know, expanding and say, well, this all just happened.
SPEAKER_01: David Pawson, the late British pastor, said this.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: He said, every time an atheist, you know, he meets somebody and they say, I'm an atheist, he said, the first thing I would do is congratulate them for their faith.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has faith.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's much more logical to believe in an intelligent designer.
SPEAKER_01: Why does this matter?
SPEAKER_01: Why does it matter that God exists?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know, number one, that without a transcendent being, without a higher pass of power that's above us, that transcends us, there are absolutely no moral absolutes.
SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther King, uh, you know, he appealed to this, to this transcendent being in his, you read about this in his letters from the jail in Birmingham.
SPEAKER_01: His appeal for equal rights and the dignity of all people, regardless of the color of their skin, was based on God, in that man is created in his image.
SPEAKER_01: If Darwinian evolution is true, and we're all here just because, and if life is meaningless, who can say, who can say what is objectively right and wrong?
SPEAKER_01: How can if, listen, if survival is simply the strong eat the weak, how can we say slavery is is wrong?
SPEAKER_01: How can we say genocide is wrong?
SPEAKER_01: We can't.
SPEAKER_01: Now we can agree that this is good for society, but there is no basis if there is no God for moral absolutes.
SPEAKER_01: Then the world has no purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Just here, no purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And then finally, we have no hope.
SPEAKER_01: If God does not exist, we have no hope.
SPEAKER_01: This life is it?
SPEAKER_01: That's depressing.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm grateful that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God in fact does exist, that he is eternal, that he is the center of all things and the creator of all things.
SPEAKER_01: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, what does the Bible, particularly Genesis 1, tell us about the world?
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it tells us that the world is precise, the world is fine-tuned, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: So in verses 3 through 27, don't have time to read that.
SPEAKER_01: You can read it later, those verses.
SPEAKER_01: We read of a very orderly account, an intentional account of creation.
SPEAKER_01: It's like God wasn't just trying out things.
SPEAKER_01: No, He He's a God of infinite wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: He is omniscient.
SPEAKER_01: And He created the world with great intent.
SPEAKER_01: And then here's what He did.
SPEAKER_01: So God created matter and energy, all that exists, and then He took those raw materials and He formed everything that is.
SPEAKER_01: And He built a world amazingly that is habitable.
SPEAKER_01: And this is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Took great precision.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that the earth is the precise distance from the sun in order to sustain life?
SPEAKER_01: Like if it was any further from the sun, when you walked outside in the summer, it would feel like this sanctuary.
SPEAKER_01: I'll wait for you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Mercy.
SPEAKER_01: No, we would we would not be alive.
SPEAKER_01: We would freeze, right?
SPEAKER_01: Life would not be sustained.
SPEAKER_01: If we were any closer to the sun, it'd feel like what?
SPEAKER_01: The devil's place, all right?
SPEAKER_01: We would not exist.
SPEAKER_01: We have an abundance of water essential to life.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if gravity were slightly different, stars and planets and life itself could not exist.
SPEAKER_01: And I could go on and on and on.
SPEAKER_01: Now imagine this.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine you held all the parts next necessary to build a clock.
SPEAKER_01: And let's just say that you just threw all of those parts, the gears, the springs, the hands, the exterior, you just threw it all in a pile pile.
SPEAKER_01: And let's say that billions of years went by and winds were blowing.
SPEAKER_01: What are the chances of that actually becoming a functional watch?
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: We would never look at a working clock and conclude that the pieces arbitrarily arrange themselves.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's order and precision and coordination all point to what?
SPEAKER_01: A clockmaker.
SPEAKER_01: Well, listen, do you realize that analogy pales in comparison to the creation?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're quite more as human beings, we're quite more complex than a clock.
SPEAKER_01: And the universe itself, I would argue, is pretty complex as well.
SPEAKER_01: The fine-tuning of creation points beyond creation itself to the wisdom of a creator.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 1 teaches us that the world is precise, intentional.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, and this is so important, Genesis 1 teaches us that the world is good.
SPEAKER_01: The world is good.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verses 3 through 4.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.
SPEAKER_01: And God saw that the light was good.
SPEAKER_01: And God separated the light from darkness.
SPEAKER_01: So in Genesis 1, God uses the word good six times to describe his creation.
SPEAKER_01: And then After the completion of the heavens and the earth, remember said the God rested.
SPEAKER_01: It's not because he was tired, it's because the work was complete.
SPEAKER_01: But he says he looks back upon his creation, looks out upon the creation, and he says, it's very good.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you some implications of the goodness of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, here's what it means: God's world is meant to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01: Every good gift comes from above.
SPEAKER_01: The pleasures of this earth are to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01: Many ancient religions and philosophies, and still some today, they saw matter like physical matter as bad and the spiritual as good.
SPEAKER_01: Thus, in their view, the highest level of being is to avoid any physical pleasure and to focus merely on the spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: And do you know this view is crept into the church?
SPEAKER_01: You know, you think of a monastery.
SPEAKER_01: Like, in order for me to be super spiritual, I have to avoid the maximum amount of pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: So some believers, any even in the Protestant church, attempt to obtain spiritual growth through what we call asceticism.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what is asceticism?
SPEAKER_01: It is the practice of denying yourself physical comforts or pleasures, such as food or sleep or possessions or sexuality in pursuit of spiritual purity.
SPEAKER_01: Now to be sure, to be sure, temporary fasting of these pleasures to focus on God is good.
SPEAKER_01: But it is wrong and damaging when someone treats God's good world and the pleasures he has bestowed upon us.
SPEAKER_01: When they treat the world or the body as evil, it's damaging.
SPEAKER_01: Or if they believe that to you know severely beat the body and subject it to futility is a way for spiritual gain.
SPEAKER_01: Paul warns of these things, these things in Colossians 2, 20 through 23.
SPEAKER_01: I'll read those verses for you.
SPEAKER_01: If with Christ you died to the elements, elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?
SPEAKER_01: Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to the things that all perished as they are used.
SPEAKER_01: According to human precepts and teachings, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism.
SPEAKER_01: There's the word, and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know?
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you the balance here.
SPEAKER_01: The pleasures of this world that God has blessed us with, the beauty of nature, the goodness of food, the blessing of relationships, and even the gift of intimacy with a spouse.
SPEAKER_01: Those things are, and I could go on and on, they are meant to be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01: But the balance is this they are not meant to be your God.
SPEAKER_01: Because we have these two extremes in our world.
SPEAKER_01: You've got one crowd that says, oh, uh, you know, matter is bad, spiritual is good, so we're going to avoid any pleasures of the world.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a slap in God's face.
SPEAKER_01: He created the world good.
SPEAKER_01: We should enjoy his gifts.
SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, what you have in our culture today is that they misuse the pleasures of the world and they look to them to satisfy their hearts.
SPEAKER_01: They make God's out of the things of this world, the created things that God has blessed us with.
SPEAKER_01: And Romans 1, amongst other passages, warns us of that.
SPEAKER_01: So God's world is good.
SPEAKER_01: How many believe that?
SPEAKER_01: Number three, the world is not just good.
SPEAKER_01: It is a stay with me here.
SPEAKER_01: It is a cosmic temple.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love this.
SPEAKER_01: Stretch if you need to, because I don't want you to miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Hit the person sitting next to you and and and tell them, wake up.
SPEAKER_01: Temples are built as a place that reflects the characteristics and the splendor of a particular God.
SPEAKER_01: This was true in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_01: This is true today.
SPEAKER_01: And do you know that's the ultimate purpose?
SPEAKER_01: This is the forest that I was talking about earlier that we miss because of the trees.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Genesis 1 and the end of Revelation is all about in everything in between.
SPEAKER_01: This place is meant to be, it was built to be a cosmic temple that reflects the glory and the splendor of our great God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just read you a few passages.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 6.3, and one call to another, these angelic beings saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: The whole earth is full of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 1.20, for his God's invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.
SPEAKER_01: When we look around the world and we see their beauty and splendor, it's to remind us and point us on beyond themselves unto the splendor of our great God.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 19:1.
SPEAKER_01: You know this one.
SPEAKER_01: The heavens declared what?
SPEAKER_01: The glory of God in the sky proclaims his handiwork.
SPEAKER_01: The earth is a temple, reflecting God's glory, but it gets even better.
SPEAKER_01: Generally speaking, the last thing in the ancient world, especially, to be put in the temple, you want to guess what it is?
SPEAKER_01: It's an image of that God, generally a statue.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read you uh Genesis 1, 26 and 27.
SPEAKER_01: I'm about to dance up here, and that's scary for you.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Let us make man in our what?
SPEAKER_01: Image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see how many times this is used?
SPEAKER_01: God's trying to get us to see this is the point.
SPEAKER_01: In the image of God, he created them, male and female.
SPEAKER_01: Important to know in our culture, he created them.
SPEAKER_01: When did God create Adam and Eve?
SPEAKER_01: On what day?
SPEAKER_01: On the last day.
SPEAKER_01: Everything's done.
SPEAKER_01: God puts on the final day an image of Himself in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Gets even better.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, how could this get any better?
SPEAKER_01: I know.
SPEAKER_01: Pagan temples were not just a place where an image of the God was, but it was a that they are places even today where you are supposed to be able to connect with your God, to offer prayers and worship and sacrifices.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, this is God's intent with the with the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember in the Garden of Eden that in the Garden of Eden that God dwelt with Adam and Eve?
SPEAKER_01: That's the point.
SPEAKER_01: Think of this.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think of heaven as just some space up in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: NT Wright points this out.
SPEAKER_01: Tim Mackey points this out, and I love it.
SPEAKER_01: There's scholars in Jewish history.
SPEAKER_01: Think of heaven as God's space and the earth as human space, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: And do you know that the original intent see in a temple, and this is true of the Jewish temple when it was built?
SPEAKER_01: Remember you had the Holy of Holies?
SPEAKER_01: It was it was a place where God's space, heaven, and man's space, earth overlapped.
SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what the world was designed to be.
SPEAKER_01: A place where heaven and earth overlap.
SPEAKER_01: It is a cosmic temple.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you may look at the state of the world, and you may have heard all this and you think, really?
SPEAKER_01: The world is really good.
SPEAKER_01: This is the temple that's supposed to reflect God's glory with wars and rumors of wars, violence, natural desires, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes, and such.
SPEAKER_01: When we get to chapter three, we'll be reminded that this cosmic temple that God designs has been desecrated.
SPEAKER_01: Tragically desecrated.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because of Adam and Eve's sin and ours.
SPEAKER_01: So the the bad news, the world itself has become corrupt.
SPEAKER_01: The bad news is we are now corrupt, and thus our relationship with God, because of our sin, has been fractured.
SPEAKER_01: And the bad news is there's nothing we can do about it.
SPEAKER_01: We can't repair the world.
SPEAKER_01: We can't repair our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot fix our brokenness.
SPEAKER_01: But the good news is this God sent one who did.
SPEAKER_01: And here it is, point three, you're gonna love this.
SPEAKER_01: God is making the earth great again.
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be the greatest earth ever to exist.
SPEAKER_01: I can't do any impression, so I don't know who that sounded like, but you get the gist.
SPEAKER_01: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: And oh my goodness, I hardly ever hear this preached about.
SPEAKER_01: All I hear is one day we're gonna go to heaven, we're gonna go to heaven and praise God.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the end of the story.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the great news God is going to renew the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He has not abandoned the good world that he has created and we have broken.
SPEAKER_01: What a God of grace! He doesn't need the world, he doesn't need you.
SPEAKER_01: I hate when people said, Well, well, God needs me.
SPEAKER_01: No, God needs nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture makes that very clear.
SPEAKER_01: He uses us, he doesn't need anything.
SPEAKER_01: He existed long before the world for all of eternity, and he'll exist long after.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 8, 19 through 21.
SPEAKER_01: For the creation, the creation, Paul personifies the created world, waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
SPEAKER_01: As beautiful as this world is, it is subject to the bondage of creation.
SPEAKER_01: So a lot of people, they think that's it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the world's just gonna be gone and never to be rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: But Revelation 21, let me just read you part of verse 1 and verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: John writes, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_01: And I've argued before that I believe in not a hill I'll die on, but I believe that the word here suggests like restoring, um, like you restore a vehicle or a home.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, Behold, I'm making all things new in verse five.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Lord says.
SPEAKER_01: God's plan is not to abandon creation and to get rid of it, but to renew and restore it or reconneate it, re-recreate it, whichever you like.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01: As beautiful as the earth is, listen, it's tainted.
SPEAKER_01: Kim, I want to go to Ireland so bad.
SPEAKER_01: You know this.
SPEAKER_01: If I don't get to go in this life, I get to go in the next.
SPEAKER_01: And there won't be wars between Protestants and Catholics.
SPEAKER_01: And there's not going to be land that's subject to futility.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be more beautiful than ever.
SPEAKER_01: And when we've been here 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we've first begun.
SPEAKER_01: I've asked the Lord if I could live there, you know, at least for a season.
SPEAKER_01: In Ireland, that is.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's coming.
SPEAKER_01: The renewal, the redemption of the earth itself.
SPEAKER_01: But watch this.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that that renewal has already begun?
SPEAKER_01: And if you are in Christ, you are part of new creation.
SPEAKER_01: Let me show this to you.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 1, 18 through 20.
SPEAKER_01: And he, Christ, is the head of the body, the church.
SPEAKER_01: He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_01: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
SPEAKER_01: Watch this.
SPEAKER_01: And through him to reconcile himself all things, to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
SPEAKER_01: Sin, as you know, brought death and decay to both the earth and to humankind.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus, when he died, he conquered death, hell, and the grave.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: And the new creation process, watch this.
SPEAKER_01: It was inaugurated.
SPEAKER_01: It was inaugurated upon Jesus' resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, over and over, the kingdom of God is near.
SPEAKER_01: That was the essence of God's Christ's message, his preaching.
SPEAKER_01: It was a summation of what he was doing, the work of the kingdom and the teachings of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom that is breaking in as part of the new creation, and that kingdom one day will fill the entire earth.
SPEAKER_01: So that process has been inaugurated.
SPEAKER_01: And watch this.
SPEAKER_01: The work that was started, you know when it will culminate?
SPEAKER_00: It will culminate when Jesus returns.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the great news.
SPEAKER_01: We are part of God's restored humanity.
SPEAKER_01: Second Corinthians 5 17.
SPEAKER_01: You know this, many of you, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is what?
SPEAKER_01: A new creation.
SPEAKER_01: The old has passed away.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_01: And you know that progressive change like the earth is the same in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You become positionally a new creation, but day by day you're being formed into the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But when he returns, you will be completely changed into that person you were created to be.
SPEAKER_01: What does Jesus refer to himself as?
SPEAKER_01: He refers to himself as the third temple.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a temple will be rebuilt, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Before Jesus returns, the third temple has to be rebuilt.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe it will be a physical temple, but that's not what Jesus was referring to.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I am the third temple.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the third temple.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's that?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the one who houses God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: He is the fullness of God, and he's the one that brought heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_01: But watch this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus now has ascended to the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul says that you and I, this is why he warns against sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: He says, flee from it because your bodies, your bodies are what?
SPEAKER_01: Temples of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He said back in the book of John that rivers of living water representing the Holy Spirit will flow from our, not just to us, but from our bellies, which means this, everywhere you go, not because of yourself and your own doing, but because Christ is in you, you become a channel of God's presence, a little, your your temples walking around, and you're supposed to be pointing others to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're called to preach the message of reconciliation so others by the power of the Spirit and through the blood of Christ can come to know that God again, to walk into the cosmic temple.
SPEAKER_01: And we're called finally to reflect God's goodness in the world.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's ultimately God and only God who can make the world great again.
SPEAKER_01: But He has chosen to work through us to do so.
SPEAKER_01: You know, many Christians, and goodness, another soapbox for me, they're looking to escape the world.
SPEAKER_01: Just get me out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Get me out of here.
SPEAKER_01: You know what that is?
SPEAKER_01: That's the old ancient philosophies that says the world is bad, heaven's good.
SPEAKER_01: God's creation is good, it's broken.
SPEAKER_01: But when Jesus prayed in in John chapter 17, we have a record of his priestly prayer.
SPEAKER_01: He prayed for his disciples, and then he prayed for all of us who would be saved.
SPEAKER_01: He said, God, I pray that you do not take them out of this world, but you keep them separate from the world.
SPEAKER_01: Keep the near because we're supposed to be spreading God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: Created in the image of God, we are.
SPEAKER_01: Why I said that like Yoda, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_01: But we are we are created in the image of God.
SPEAKER_01: Trying to be serious here, and I can't even listen.
SPEAKER_01: We're created in God's image.
SPEAKER_01: The image has been tainted, but in Christ, that image is being restored.
SPEAKER_01: We are to reflect God's goodness and glory.
SPEAKER_01: We ought to love this world and take care of this world.
SPEAKER_01: We ought to be the last people to litter.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, seriously.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's good creation.
SPEAKER_01: And we ought to reflect his goodness back into the world.
SPEAKER_01: So what if we instead of complaining about the state of the world?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we should just ask this question every day how can we add goodness to this broken world?
SPEAKER_01: One more illustration here.
SPEAKER_01: In the second and third centuries, plagues, epidemics swept through the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_01: You know that many of the men and women who had means, the means to do so in those centuries, when the when the plagues came, they fled for the hills, leaving sometimes sick family and leaving the marginalized behind.
SPEAKER_01: But do you know that many Christians stayed?
SPEAKER_01: They entered the homes of the sick of at great risk to themselves.
SPEAKER_01: They fed people out of their own minuscule supply.
SPEAKER_01: They gave water to the fevered, buried the dead, gave them proper burials, and they cared for not just family members, but strangers whom they had no obligation to care for.
SPEAKER_01: And the world took notice.
SPEAKER_01: Amidst a broken world, they gave people a glimpse of the compassion of Christ and the world God intended it to be.
SPEAKER_01: But through Christ, new creation is breaking through the decay.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever Christians bring help instead of hostility, generosity instead of greed, beauty instead of ashes, and hope instead of despair, the world catches another glimpse of Christ and the world to come.
SPEAKER_01: You know what we're supposed to be?
SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to be signposts, pointing people to the world to come, to the Christ who is now and the world that is to come.
SPEAKER_01: So, unbelievers, if you're here today, I want to invite you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to invite you, if you've not yet received Jesus, into this new and better humanity, into this kingdom that is spreading and one day will encompass the whole world.
SPEAKER_01: I want to invite you to receive eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: I hate when people just present the gospel like this.
SPEAKER_01: They start with a question, hey, do you want to go to heaven?
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
SPEAKER_01: But the blessing of Christianity is not just future.
SPEAKER_01: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: When you are in Christ, this is my invitation to you today.
SPEAKER_01: You get to come to his presence now.
SPEAKER_01: You get to be part of his kingdom now.
SPEAKER_01: You get a foretaste of what's to come.
SPEAKER_01: And oh, how beautiful it is.
SPEAKER_01: Come to Jesus today by believing his burial, his death, his burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Repent of your sins and turn to him, make him Lord of your life.
SPEAKER_01: And we'd love to help you do that at the end of service.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here and you're a believer, I just want you to ask, I think there might be a question maybe at the end of your notes there.
SPEAKER_01: What is one practical way this week that you could bring help, generosity, beauty, compassion, or hope into uh this broken place to a broken person?
SPEAKER_01: We don't ask that enough.
SPEAKER_01: How can you reflect the goodness of God and the goodness of his creation and the goodness of this new humanity?