From Creation To Calling: Purpose In A Designed World - Pastor John

Wonder often begins with a small pause: a bright caterpillar, a quiet snowfall, a sky stitched with stars. We took that pause and followed it into a bigger story—one where design points to a Designer, and the beauty of creation becomes an open invitation to purpose. Rather than settling for chance and drift, we walk through Genesis 1, Romans 1, and Job to ask what our world says about its Maker and what that means for us.

We talk candidly about gratitude, pride, and the danger of suppressing truth. If creation carries God’s fingerprints, then humility is wisdom and worship is the only fitting response. From the intricate coordination of rain and rivers to the mystery of the soul, we explore why coherence suggests intention, not accident. Along the way, we press into the difference between a distant “force” and the living Lord Jesus—who stands before all things, holds all things together, and offers eternal life.

Purpose comes into focus through imago Dei and calling. Made in God’s image, we are crafted for stewardship and good works, not mere survival. Ephesians 2:10 reframes ordinary days: we are His workmanship, with prepared paths to walk. That means skillfully using our gifts, tending what’s entrusted to us, and letting light shine rather than hiding it. We anchor this with the great command—love God with all you are, and love your neighbor as yourself—because love is where doctrine becomes life.

We end with practical steps: map your circles of influence, choose one person to encourage, and take a clear next action toward the good you’re called to do. If design reveals the Designer, then direction begins with devotion—and gratitude turns insight into movement. If this conversation stirred you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the show. What’s the one step you’ll take today?

Transcript

Welcome Back & Series Setup

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Welcome back everybody. I didn't see you last week. Where were you? Uh yeah, I came back in shorts and a t-shirt and I was sadly welcomed with some amazing cold attempts and a promise of a nice blizzard coming here soon.

Foundations: Creator And Creation

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So uh today uh just wanted to move forward in our uh mini-series here. We're talking about uh biblical foundations and uh this is part two now. First was who is God? Kind of joking with Pastor Andrew. I'm like, hey, I can go away for a long time because if you're teaching on who is God, it's gonna take a few trillion years just to scratch the surface of that question. And uh, but I know he gave you some uh biblical verses, funny how some of them popped up in this part too, because as you move through uh God, the creator, um, some of those same verses pop up about him, who he is, uh, the connection and the coordination of everything we see if we truly open our eyes and look around at God's enormous and beautiful creation. Uh, I went through part of my life um as a landscaper, and I was just cutting the grass and you know, trimming the edges and fixing the flowers, but I didn't really stop to smell the roses that much. I was just working hard and flying around. But every once in a while, uh uncle of mine who ran the business, he would stop the whole crew. We're talking like 12 guys, and everything just stopped. And he he called us over one time and he said, Look at this. He's kneeling on the ground, and uh, we looked down and there was this caterpillar with every color under the sun on this caterpillar. It was only about that long. And he just thought it was important for us all to stop working for that, you know, to get that view. But it reminded me that, you know, we shouldn't just plow through our day and never open our eyes, you know. So uh so I didn't mow over the caterpillar, don't ask, but I was I was a little more careful after that, but then started to just start looking around a little bit more and just noticing. Sometimes our eyes are not filled with what God is trying to show us, and then we can become cold-hearted and turn away from him, um, not giving him the proper thanks that he is due for all that he has already done, right? Um, so this creation that we see not

Seeing God In Everyday Beauty

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only proves his power, uh, but I believe it shows his ultimate genius. You know, it it introduces us to the God of great uh innovation, intention, uh, purpose, and planning. So part two today will be what is his plan for us? You know, his crowning creation, the day six miracle, when he breathed life into a shell of a piece of clay, and Adam became a living soul. What uh we behold uh is actually the complete opposite of man's favorite aberration, which uh is called random chance, right? People try to posit this theory, we'll dig into that in a moment. But the Bible says Genesis 1:1, the first verse of the entire book, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He doesn't tell us immediately how, he doesn't explain what kind of power that took to do this. He just says, This is what I did. Kind of, you weren't there, so you have to take my word for it. I was there, I was the only one, and then you came later, right? God's visible and his invisible creation, and some of it is so tiny you can't see it even with a high-powered microscope. But the things we see are nothing short of amazing and astounding. And I don't know who you have to be. You don't have to be an extremely uh wise person or a scientific brain to see that what God has made has internal and external design within it, even down to a snowflake, right? They tell me each one is unique and it just combines in certain ways as it drops through the atmosphere, picks up temperatures, and changes shapes on the way down and grabs other pieces of snow. We'll see that later today, so we won't go into that right now. But he is definitely a creative genius. Amen. He is the what I call the grandmaster craftsman of all things. And if we don't give him that praise, thanks, and glory for that, we are moving down a wayward path for sure. Uh, God is not pleased when we reject the truth of his creative power. Uh many of God's invisible attributes, as we see in Romans 1 here, the first uh major passage for today, are his invisible attributes, but they can be seen by what he has created. Romans 1.18. So think on this for just a moment. If I want to know God a little more, it helps to look at

God’s Genius Versus Random Chance

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the craft of the craftsman, right? If you go through like the Situate Arts Festival and you see this amazing painting, your your first thought is, wow, who painted this, right? I want to meet this person, you know, because I've done some painting in my life and certain brush strokes, certain techniques. It's like, how did you do that? I found a watercolor guy over here in Situate, and he uh he had these little white specks on things that would make them look bright and alive kind of in his painting. And I'm like, how do you do that with watercolor? Because I was taught that you just leave the paper blank there. But if you've ever tried to do that, it's not very simple to paint a whole painting and leave little dots everywhere. He said, Oh, no, no, no. He said, We have white watercolor now. You just paint the white right on there. And I was like, I was blown away. I was like, oh, so you paint that at the end when you want to add the highlights at the end. I thought you could only do that with oil paint. So there you there goes the depth of my knowledge. But um Romans 1.18 says, God is not pleased. In fact, his wrath is born when men refuse to accept what he's already revealed. So you might say, Oh, who is God or where is he? He says, Would you start looking around you? We were singing about opening our eyes to his wonder, right? Let's do that in a spiritual sense as well. Romans 1 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, and here's the big no-no, suppress the truth in unrighteousness, right? Seeing things that are true and righteous, but denying those things. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, and I think this means in us as well, as we'll see later in the passage, but in all the things he's made, his divine power, his Godhead, his uh wonderful power and attributes of uh design, creativity, uh, just the wisdom of God, you know, it surpasses understanding of men. Uh and it says, For God has shown it to them, and he's talking about all of us, no matter where you are. You know, I use this verse sometimes when people say, What about the little kid in Africa who never heard the name? You know, I said, Well, you know, you have to start somewhere, and why don't you look around, right? Go on a safari, right? See the animal kingdom, check out what God has made, and it starts to bring you closer to who it is that we worship. Uh, he's definitely amazing in all his attributes, but it says, God has shown it to them, for since the creation of the world, his, the Lord God's invisible attributes, are clearly seen, Paul writes, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power

Romans 1: Truth Suppressed

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and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So if you try to say, well, I'll get to heaven and then I'll say, Oh, you never told me, you know, that you were here, he said, What do you mean? I painted it all around you every night. You got a beautiful sunset. Uh, we saw a few of those this past week. Just brand new paintings every single night in different colors, and it's just God, you know, being God. Because although they knew God, here's this this gets rid of all the atheistic speech in the world. They knew God, but they did not glorify him as God. They just refused to give him glory. Think about it, if you admit that there is a God, then there may be some accountability along the way, right? And he might ask you, Well, what were you made for? Why did I make you? Do you know? Uh, you need to search that out. It says, Nor were thankful. Love in America here. I found in Europe they don't have a typical Thanksgiving. I'm like, wow, you guys are missing it all, you know. Um the pilgrims had something going there, but we need to follow that example, right? When you see something, when you eat something delicious, you know, give thanks. Not just to Sister Sariq and all the ladies in the kitchen there, but to the Lord God who made the ingredients, right? Um be thankful. But it says, but they did not do that. They became futile in their thoughts. That's like an emptiness in the thoughts, right? Uh, and their foolish hearts were darkened. So, right there, unthankfulness and not glorifying God is a sign of a fool. It's a sign of thoughtlessness and eyes that are closed, like mine once were, walking around, seeing all the beauty, but never really acknowledging how beautiful it is or how wonderful it is until God opens your eyes, right? And you start seeing. Then you start seeing things you never saw before, right? Because now you're looking for them. So that's one challenge right there. Keep your eyes open, keep looking. It says, Professing to be wise, they became fools. Have we seen that around us before? The one who is the most foolish is the most prideful, thinking he knows everything, right? I don't know about you, but the first couple weeks in college, I was just learning how much I didn't know. You know, it wasn't about being uh this you know, astute great graduate, but learning how much there was to learn, how much uh you know God has made available to us. And now we feel very small, right, in the eyes of that. So uh foolishly, man's favorite explanation for the great complexity and coordination of this universe. And I put those two together a lot because not only does he make something, but it kind of holds together. It also works with other things, you know, like the clouds produce the rain, the waters the ground, that flows into the rivers, and the oceans feed the fish and the birds. You know what I'm saying? Like everything has this connectivity to it. This doesn't just happen by chance, uh, in my my world anyway. If something is working in my mower and I pull it and it goes, something is working there, right? Something I really don't even know how it does it sometimes, but uh I know the steps, right, that it takes. But this proves that wisdom and common sense is not always common, right? Uh Amen. Uh I saw some funny posters the other day about common sense, and I won't share them right now, but Paul says uh that this conclusion that, oh, somehow this just came about is based not on lack of intellect, but a refusal to acknowledge the creator for who he is, and a refusal to acknowledge the very nose on your face when you look in the mirror each day, right? Even the creation bears out the creator. If you don't see it, you're not looking very closely, or you're not looking with the right kind of eyes. That's called eyes of faith. Uh, according to Paul, the attributes of our creator, as we saw there in Romans, are clearly seen, he said, being understood by the things that are created. We call our species uh homo sapiens, right? That's the Latin word for wise man, right? And with God and our creator helping us, we can achieve some level of wisdom. I think uh wisdom is just taking knowledge and applying it properly, but not everyone does that, as you know, myself included. But when we reject our very creator, the one who made you, that's a very foolish

Pride, Folly, And Darkened Hearts

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thing to do. And then he goes on to say, in their foolish hearts were darkened, and then you read this what I call the cycle or the downward spiral of sin takes effect, and we end up in a great and dark pit somewhere. But the Lord God uh he says he can outstretch his arm, right? His arm is not short, that he cannot save. So if you're down there, look up, right? Just reach for him, and he will be already reaching for you. Someone say amen. Here we go. When uh we accept the Lord Jesus as Lord, and that's important, that word uh curios, the uh sovereign master, the controller of all things. That's what that word lord means. When you see just the capital L in your Bible, if it's a large L, it's usually a different Hebrew word, but or a Greek word as well. But when you see Lord, it means the sovereign one, the master, the controller of all things. When we accept Jesus as Lord, the Bible says we receive eternal life with him. And that's that's a forever thing, right? Romans 6, 23. For the wages of sin, right? This this blinding of the eyes, this unthankfulness, this unrepentant heart, looking to a God and saying, No, I know you're there, but I'm gonna kind of pretend you're not there so I can continue on in my evil ways. And we all know what that does to our conscience eventually. We're just like, oh, that wasn't that bad. I'll do something worse tomorrow, I'm sure. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. That's where that ends, that downward spiral. But, and this is one of the most important buts in the entire Bible, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Who? Our Lord, our Lord. That means we need to ascent to that. People talk about, oh, Jesus, you're my savior. Well, first you have to fall on your face and acknowledge that he's your Lord. Then you can re recognize him as your savior because now you've humbled yourself. Now you can realize he is God, you are not, right? And you need him. He doesn't really need you, but he has given you the privilege of knowing him and the opportunity to live with him forever by simply assenting to his existence and worshiping him for who he is, giving him praise and glory like we did this morning with our voice, with our hands, and with our outreach when we leave this place, when the real service begins. Wondering, anyone ever walked into like one of those really fancy hotels? I mean, like you probably we don't stay at these much, like the five-star hotel, and you you just I want to go in and just see what it looks like. You know, I can't afford a room there, but there's, you know, marble floors, they got a they got like a fountain in the middle or something, and they have this chandelier up there that looks like it was created by Michelangelo or something, you know, and you're looking at all this stuff, like, wow, must be nice to

Order, Interdependence, And Design

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stay at a place like this, right? And then you walk outside and you say, Oh, I wonder where that came from. I I think maybe just over millions and billions of years it just showed up, right? Those beautiful lights in the sky, right? Those beautiful fountains of water, they just they just appeared on their own. Nobody had anything to do with that, right? I know some of our smiling, right? I'm being a little facetious here. But maybe those little atoms banging together for thousands of years. Maybe if we just add some more years to it, we can come up with this beautiful hotel, right? If we just wait long enough, it will happen. Anyone out there ever seen an explosion create order? Right? Normally you have a big bang, it just creates a big mess, right? And it's great chaos, let's face it, right? It's not not orderly at all. But God's amazing universe is so far more complex, more coordinated than any human invention ever made. It is mind-boggling more than any fancy hotel, right? So just take a look at those stars tonight. If you can. There might be too many clouds when we get out there, but uh my point, right? Let's think about this a little bit. Let's not lose our minds over our own foolishness, but let's look at God's explicit design. And explicit design requires a designer. Amazing creations require a great creator, like a powerful creator. Uh, it is very clear, even from scientific observation, so that's why I don't give scientists a lot of leeway. I'm like, you guys look at it with telescopes and microscopes. If you look in the mirror, you cannot just conclude this is random chance. So I was checking that out and I just kind of asked Chat GPT, you know, what is the here was my my little prompts. What is the possibility that a human DNA strand could form itself with uh with no outside assistance and just by random chance over many, many years? And the answer was the mathematical probability of a single DNA strand spontaneously assembling itself, this came up in like five seconds, right? Try it, by pure chance is

Eyes Of Faith And Wisdom

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effectively zero. I mean, that's what a math math genius would say. That means there is no chance at all. The probability was so uh minute. So, so what do we do? So, godless theorists tried to add billions and trillions of years, but that doesn't fix the problem. That doesn't tell us where it came from. It's just trying to determine, well, if it happened long, long ago, you know, then we don't have to deal with it, right? Or if it if it was just this big explosion or whatever. But if you try to take God out of the picture, an old farmer once said, he goes, You got a lot of splaining to do. Because he was in the dirt all day and he saw God uh grow things right out of the ground. You know, he'd drop the seed and put the water, but God brings the increase, the Bible says. Anyone who's worth their salt knows that. Any surgeon, right, who's operated on someone, then they see them three weeks later. You know, one guy almost took my nose off, you know, in an operation. He came back, he goes, Wow, what happened? He goes, I did pretty good work. He was laughing. He's like, I did nothing. I just stitched everything and God did the rest. Anyone worth their salt gives God the credit, right? And uh you ask the doctor to come and fix your dirty heart, right? Clean it out, take away all the pride, you know, and the and the uh ambivalence, right, to God, all the stubbornness, and that surgeon will tell you every time that's that's way beyond his pay grade, right? He can't do that. Only God can do that. So let's focus on him today. Remember the the young man Job. Remember him? One of the most uh persecuted men on the planet, right? He started out with everything you could imagine, and he lost it all, like in a day's time, right? Very short period of time. And then finally, sitting in his self-pity, he questioned God, you know, like, you know, why would you do this? As though he could kind of bring some knowledge to the Almighty, right? And then he was silenced by God's questions about his creation. Let's just pick a few verses. Job 40, verse 1 says, Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Question mark. Job. He who rebukes God, let him answer it. And then he goes on with like tons of questions in the chapters before as well. First, he says, Can can you lift up your voice to the clouds that an abundance of water may cover you? God asked Job, can

Lordship, Sin, And Eternal Life

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you bind the cluster of the Pleiades or loose the belt of Orion? Have you ever seen Orion's belt up there? You know, the three stars in alignment. Can you can you make them go wider when they gain some weight? Just kidding. No, we can't. We have no power to do that, right? Who does those things? Who has that control? He was just trying to silence Job a little bit and let him just sit on those facts. Even our most advanced computer models, uh, when we're uh looking for the snow today, like if you check three channels, you get three different times that the snow will begin, right? Uh Pastor Andrew said, not till seven. So I'm going with his, you know, but I'm gonna be ready by four just in case, because you gotta kind of, I think you're gonna have to take this one in stages, right? But even with the most advanced models, you know what the problem is, no one knows which way the wind's going. So they don't know how fast it's coming, when it's gonna start, how long the duration will be, because they don't control the wind, right? Think about it. So don't, yeah, like I said earlier, don't go into meteorology. It's a tough sport. Uh John 3.8 says, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. And then it goes on to say, so is the man of the spirit, right? The people who are blown by the wind of God, those who are directed by him, by his calling and his purpose. They don't know where you're going. Satan doesn't know, but God knows, right? The one above, he knows. I told uh Pac-Man there that he's he's two for two on snow outs. We can we made some calls like, hey, we're not coming today. Remember the last blizzard, and then we had a men's breakfast and it started snowing right around eight o'clock, right when we were gonna show up. I said, uh, dude, you're like uh you're like Elijah with the rain. You know, he can predict snow. So we'll ask Pac-Man uh if we're gonna leave early today. But yeah, pray for him. His daughters are in a big uh closing school program today, praising God. And one of them's not little Brielle's not feeling too well, so keep her on your heart in your prayers. As with me, too. I don't know. I went south and got a cold. How do you do that? I just so no high fives today, but I love y'all. Here's the fact, though, if we are filled with God's Holy Spirit, with his presence, if we pray without ceasing, if we study God's word diligently, right, and give ourselves to it, and we can even consult all the greatest theologians who have ever lived, it will still take eternity to search God and to scratch the surface of what can be known about him. But he certainly is our great creator. Amen. Told an Indian gentleman on my trip, you know, they worship thousands of gods, right, in India. That's uh the Hindu religion, I guess you call it, but it's it's really just making up a God for any problem that you might have, you know, and put it on your dashboard and you say a few words and you feel like you're good, right? We told him there's one God, and he has made all things. So whatever material you're using to make these gods, well, he made that material. And he he admitted, he said, yes, I know there's only one. He said that. And I was we were happy. And I learned later that everyone in our family witnessed to this guy before the trip was over because he was like our head waiter every night at five o'clock. And I noticed he was hanging around just to hear the talk, the chatter. He saw the joy coming out of this family of

Design Demands A Designer

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40, you know, just praising God. And uh I think my uncle gave him a Bible. I found that out later. So yeah, we'll pray for him. His name is Raj. He said he's coming to CBC if he ever hits the Boston port. So we're we'll welcome him at any time. So pray for Raj. And uh he was a wonderful, smiley guy, but we know he needs to know the one, right? And he needs to know his name is Jesus, right? And that's the only one who can save you from your sin. So we cannot deny God's presence as we just open our eyes and look around. Those on that side, you can peek out that window. Quite a scene, right? I lose a lot of folks there when I'm preaching. I see it, they're out there. Wow, look at that bar and the snow on there. This looks like the stable where Christ was born, right? I have a cool photo, it does look like that. But we cannot deny his presence, his preeminence as we were singing, he is the name above every name. As we look around at what he has done, and if we conclude otherwise, we are prideful fools indeed. And I know this is stiff language, but I'm not saying this. This is the Bible, okay? So I'm just the I'm the male man delivering the word. You can, you know, talk to the sender, right, if you have a problem with that. He said, if you don't give me my due, you're just a fool and you're prideful. You're also a very stubborn person. So just saying, I was there once and I did not understand all of it. I still don't, but at least he's opening my eyes to look around. So let's do that. God says that he created the heavens and the earth. He was there, we were not there. And it didn't happen millions and billions of years ago. His word basically tracks it down to about 6,000 years. So uh I think that we see the erosion and the kind of things that are happening in just the last few years. We can tell this planet's not going to be around forever. God has a timetable, and he's always right on time, and he's gonna wrap it all up. The Bible says he's gonna consume it with fire, and then he's gonna build a brand new heaven and a brand new earth where righteousness dwells. Someone say amen. So the challenge there was that put myself in this one too. How sinful, how prideful, and how stubborn do I have to be to contend with such a powerful, wise God. Uh, that's kind of what the story of Job is all about, right? He's showing himself powerful. So when I embrace God, when I embrace him as Lord, when I accept his word, when I see the beauty and the majesty of his creation, everything starts to come alive to me. And the puzzle, the giant puzzle that he's created, uh, which is him really, uh, starts to come together in pieces, right? Little times, and things that we will learn about him just by listening and watching. Uh, and then the where and the when starts to come together. The picture gets more clear until we get to eternity and we see it from the correct side, right? Which is from God's view, heaven's view. Uh I used to be a troubleshooter in the electronic industry. You had like a journeyman's and fire alarm and burglar alarm installation for about eight years. I did that. And we would come into situations where we've never seen anything, but we're like, whew, there's a problem. Uh, Houston, let's find out where it is, right? So you troubleshoot, you turn on this, you try that. You know when you're getting cold, right? You're walking down a cold path, you're like, this isn't fruitful

Job Humbled By Creation’s Questions

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at all. Like, this is not where the problem is. Because the further I go down this track, the less and less it looks like we're gonna find the problem. So you work your way back, you try a different option. One time they told us every time we turn on the hot water, the alarm goes off. I was like, oh. So I ran down the basement, I'm checking all the wires on the hot water pipes. I'm like, well, maybe there's a short, or maybe what it was is this thing had been going off at all times, but the most inconvenient time was when you're in the shower and you got to run down and shut off the uh the alarm. So that's the only ones you remember, but had nothing to do with the shower. There was a there was a burned out transistor right in the in the electric panel. And we're I'm in the basement looking at my boss, goes, I smell something burning. And he w he followed his nose right to the uh alarm panel and found the little transistor. Sure enough, that's the problem. When we're searching for reality and truth, and our path becomes cold, you know what we do? We just build more and more ridiculous postulates and theories. You know, we try to explain a different way around it. But the the truth is we're just not on the right path, right? And those are the ones who are trying to explain creation without a creator. Their theories and postulates become so preposterous, so ridiculous. At some point you have to say, wait a minute here, it has nothing to do with the shower or the hot water, right? But when I embrace and accept God's word and his truth, that's why Genesis is foundational. We're calling this biblical foundations of faith. You have to start with Genesis 1-1. God created the heaven and the earth. After that, there's not too much else that you have to worry about God doing, right? If he can make all this and we can't depend on him now, you know, he brought life to us, life itself. So uh the the great puzzle about where or when, um, yeah, it will come together eventually. But uh part two here today, we just want to touch on this, it won't take too long. Um, is what is our role? If God did all this, which we know he did, what is my identity? What is my connection to his wonderful creation? I know I'm just a part of it, but what role do I play? What is my purpose, right? How many young people are searching for that today, right? I'll tell you, there's a lot of places where you're not going to find your purpose, right? And that seems to be where you'll find most young people today. They're in all those places where they will not find truth or righteousness. We saw a person out in front of the docks as we left our ship. You could tell that person was up for a long time the night before, and her friend looked up and I saw her eyes. I'm like, oh, she is hurting right now. But I guarantee tomorrow night she'll be doing the same thing, right? Get in that vicious cycle of, oh, I want to find my purpose in, you know, drugs or alcohol or whatever. You know, you're gonna wake up the next morning, you're gonna feel just as bad. You're gonna say, Why did I do that? Hey, you want to do that again? Let's go. I don't know. I guess you have to be a little older to

Wind, Providence, And Uncertainty

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appreciate that. And it's like, no, that's probably not going down the right path. Uh if we've rightly concluded that God alone is the creator, he's the controller of all things, then what does that say about who we are? So let's, if you don't believe that, let's accept that just for a moment, right? That God is the creator, he created you two. So then what is your responsibility? What is uh stewardship look like? What are you called to do? So I'll just look a few verses and then we'll close. Number one, we were made uh in God's image. We are called to fill the earth and to rule over his creatures, his creation. So that's part of the thumbprint of God in your life, because he's the great controller, right? He's the great shepherd of the sheep, he tends things, he takes care of things, and he gives man the privilege of having part of that duty, right? Right here on the earth. And he says, you know, take care of the things around you, right? Subdue it, rule over it, and in that sense, uh you will be like us, right? He said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And it says, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God created uh he him, Genesis 1.27, male and female. Get that? There's two kinds. And uh he created them, it says. Then God blessed them, and and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. Remember uh the Tower of Babel? They're like, no, let's stay here, let's build a tower. We'll just, we're not spread out. We have it great right here. We're gonna build a big hotel. It goes right to the sky. No, God said, fill the earth, subdue it. That's a sign of dominance, a sign of leadership. So God puts some things into your trust. The more he puts in your trust, the better steward you have to be. And I know there's many here in this audience have great responsibilities, and I uh, you know, I don't take that lightly, but you have to really rely on God so much. If he gives you a lot, you have to be so reliant on him. If he gives you little, be thankful. He said, Those who are faithful in a few things someday will rule over many things. So he's watching the very fine details of our lives and what we do. Now, evolutionary theory, if you look that up on chat GPT, it says uh humans' purpose is

God’s Vastness And Our Limits

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to survive and to reproduce. So they got one part right. Survival, though, that's up to God, right? You can't control your health. You could have billions of dollars and you could be the sickest person walking around. Yeah, and you could be the most unthankful and grumpy person as well. But humans are the result of natural selection and adaptation, survival of the fittest. No, actually, that's not true, right? That makes you sound like a brute beast, an animal that has no cognitive thought. Uh, you know, that Homo sapien thing, wise man, wise men don't come to that conclusion. Those who reject their savior are very foolish. Uh the look in a big bang theory. The the postulate here is that, and get this a quote, unimaginable force, whoever that is, wherever that is, caused a big explosion that dispersed a tiny dense atom. Now they're saying it started very tiny, because if it gets small enough and far enough away, you can almost believe that, right? But it still had to come from somewhere. If they were saying it was this big giant mass of matter, we'd say, well, where did the matter come from? But if they say it's a tiny little atom, like a black hole, it's almost invisible, it's almost not a thing, right? But it is a thing. And it came from somewhere, and somebody created it. And I don't know how God expanded the universe into all these stars, what he used as his dynamite or whatever blew it up and made it so huge. But it came from somewhere from someone. There has to be someone at the beginning, right? And even like the famous Greek uh poets and those, they they believed there's there had to be a beginning to something. Someone had to start, because if you don't have that, there's no beginning to anything, right? So there had to be one here before any of the stuff, and that would be God. So if you assume the first particle of matter was tiny and long ago, you might buy into that, right? But it doesn't make it any more plausible if you deeply think about it, right? And I had a whole week to think about this, all right? So it has to come, it has to start somewhere. If but if you can reduce God into an unimaginable force, the force is with you, right? Then there's no obligation to him because he's not a force.

One God Amid Many Idols

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He has force and power, but he is a person and he made you like him, right? He says we are male and female. He is everything, right? He is all. But he is not just a force, although he has great power. Uh the uh the BB theory, right? The big bang theory. I call the BB theory the bad, bad theory. Uh, this has this gives no explanation of where the tiny matter came from or where the unimaginable force comes from, right? So there's no explanation of beginnings whatsoever. You know, even Darwin will tell you that. His theory has nothing to do with beginnings or how it got there. He just tries to describe how it got better and better instead of worse and worse, which is what we actually see, right? Things, you know, depleting. I don't know about you, but my eyesight used to be pretty good, but now it's even better, right? I said, my my sight's not bad. My arms are just getting too short. No explanation for the soul, the spirit, the emotions of mankind, logic, love, right? No explanation for that. How about memory, the ability to retain understanding? Uh how about the the ability to hope for something, to have a desire? Where does that come from? Who created that? Uh we just, a piece of rock just has hope, has joy? No. So when scientists finally reach the peak of understanding, I heard one man say, it goes, and they climb the hill of knowledge and they scale the heights of all man's wisdom, and then they get to the pinnacle and they find a bunch of theologians up there having coffee, and they say, What took you guys so long? The key is you have to accept God first, and then you can start looking at what he made, and then it opens the world up to you. If you look at the greatest inventors of all time, these guys took that for granted. There is a God, even Christopher Columbus, who came over here. His verse was, God, why have you revealed these things to babes, you know, and hidden them from the prudent and the wise? You know, he felt like he was just a stupid guy, but he he felt the earth was round and he was gonna travel and find out what's on the other side because he read the verse, the Lord, he sits on the circuit

Preeminence Of Christ In Creation

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of the earth, which means the circle, right? And other people were saying, Oh no, the earth, she's a flat. You're going to fall off, you're going to get hurt. No, that's a really bad Italian uh thing. Wasn't he? Uh I used to be Italian, but come on, that was good. Come on. Now I'm Norwegian, but I used to be Italian. And my wife says I'm Italian by consumption because I eat all her meat the balls, you know. Uh all right, I I digress. Here we go. It was a long cruise, a lot of food. All right. Biblical fact right here. God created you for his purpose, his good purpose. So that's a good thing, right? He gave you something good to aspire to. It's finding him. And when you find him, he will direct you to his work. Ephesians 2.10. For we are his workmanship. He's the creator, he's the one who formed us out of clay. Created in Christ Jesus, why? For good works. That's our main purpose. Which God prepared beforehand. So he already knew what you're gonna do. Like any good employer, right? And he hires you, he has a task. You sit down, he tells you, these are your roles here, right? This is what you're gonna do. And you're gonna do this for my glory. We'll see that in the last two. But that we should walk in them. So Christians ought to be walking in good works. We know we will stumble, we know we will not keep it perfectly. But Solomon said, man's uh the whole conclusion of all Solomon's travels and everything he tried, he said, fear God and keep his commandments, and you will it'll go well with you, right? That's not that difficult. Fearing God just means respect him, reverence him, put him first, and then whatever he says, you just do it and you will be blessed. And all those who have done it, even if they don't know God, they're still somewhat blessed. But knowing him is the most important one. So what what we got to do here is start walking, right? He said, I want you to walk in these things. Unfortunately, for the prideful, for the God haters, um, there is an all-powerful, all-seeing God who created all things for his own glory and for his purpose, and all who reject his free gift of salvation unfortunately will die in their sins because they have rejected the most precious one, Jesus Christ. And they will be judged for that sin, the Bible says. But there is some good news behind that, right? But uh, but if we receive him, right? If we honor him, if we accept him as Lord, uh, we can live with him forever. Uh, second part, and then we'll wrap up with the last. We are created to give God glory. I added honor and praise. I think that's part of glorifying God, and we're to do that for all of our days. Isaiah 43, 7. Everyone who is called by my name, the Lord says, through Isaiah the prophet, whom I have created for my glory. There's our purpose, there's our identity. I have formed him, yes, I have made him. There's God telling us who did it. Okay? Who done it. Paul described Jesus to the Colossian believers, and I believe uh Pac-Man shared this passage last week, or at least a part of it. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I think Tara alluded to it, is Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, right? He took on flesh so that we could see his visage, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, right? I believe all three uh members of the Godhead were involved in creation. I could prove it to you biblically, but he created

Genesis And Purpose Revisited

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all things. He was intimately involved in the creation of all things. All things created that are in heaven and are on earth, visible and invisible. He knew there were some things he made that we can't even see, but they're still there. And in fact, those are some of the things that are holding things together. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. Not for you, not for me, for his good pleasure, right? For him. And he is before all things. He is the prime mover, he's the starter, he's the one that lit the fuse, that blew the air into Adam and Eve's lungs, right? And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. So there's no glue in the universe. It is God. He holds it all together. That word Lord, curios, you know, also means controller, but it means he's the one who gels it all together. Without him, it everything falls apart and dissipates. So we need him. We cannot live without him. And he is the head of the body, the church, right here. He's at the head. There's no man, woman, or child that's at the head. It's Jesus Christ. And it's he said, and the gates of hell will not prevail against this church that I am building, and he is the head of that church, the firstborn from the dead. He proved his power over death by raising himself from the dead. That in all things he, the Lord Jesus Christ, may have the preeminence. That means number one. This morning in our class, they said that means no idols in front of him, nothing, no family, no children. Sorry, moms, I know they're beautiful. Can't wait to see my grandbaby, haven't seen her in ten days. But she's not the universe, right? Unless I say her name and then we have to say, uh, let's call her. But God, Jesus Christ, He's the head of all things. He's number one. Creation is by Jesus, through Jesus, for Jesus. He precedes it, he holds it together. He is the head of everything that we see. Let us give him praise and glory. Someone say amen. Lastly, uh, the final purpose that we see in the New Testament is we don't just sit with all this great understanding and this love that's been poured on us, but we need to share it wherever we go. We need to be that light. We need to take what he's given and not hide it, not put a bushel over it, not cover it, but just let it be exposed. It's okay. He's there to protect us. Just let him have it, right? That waiter, I'm like, somebody's gonna

Identity: Image, Stewardship, Calling

SPEAKER_03 42:53

tell this guy. I didn't realize like six people already did, but I'm just gonna make sure I don't leave this place without telling this person that you're not gonna find it in idols made with men's hands. That's complete and utter foolishness, the Bible says. Luke 10, 25, and a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, Jesus said, What is written in the law? What is your reading of it, Mr. Lawyer? He was a man of the word, man of the book. So he answered and said, Quote, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. Feeling a purpose yet? With all your strength, everything I give you. And you young ones got a lot of strength. So get those snow shovels ready. And with all your mind, right? Think on these things. Sunday is our day of rest, is a day to contemplate. And we might have to do some shoveling too. But and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said to this man, You have answered rightly. Do this, and you will live. Oh, just love God with everything you got. Right, and let it pour out of you to whoever you touch. And you are on your way, right? You are following me. You're a Christ follower if you're doing that, right? So I believe the two major commands, loving God and loving others, these are intertwined, they're connected. Because the Bible says, How can you love the one who you cannot yet see, right? But you can't love the one that you can see. So you're not loving at all. So God determines how much love is coming back his way by how much we're reaching out, how much are we touching the lives around us? Loving God is loving others, but we're loving others in his name. It's a little different, right? It's not just doing good works and oh, look what I did, you know. And this one lady, she was telling everybody about what she did, and she does some awesome stuff. Like she eats a half a meal, packs up the other half before she eats, and she always gives it to a homeless person before she goes home from the restaurant. I mean, that's pretty cool. Thoughtfulness, she's thinking ahead, but she's Jewish. She knows that the law is important, but she doesn't know really how to connect that to her purpose in Christ. She's not doing it in Jesus' name, and she's losing a great reward. So I'm kind of sad, you know, but she's connecting with a lot of Christians. I think God is thinking in, He's showing her that there's a certain kind of joy that you just can't buy with your money or your good deeds. You know, it gives you a little warm fuzzy once in a while, but until you know our Savior Jesus, you don't really know love completely. Jesus said, Go, just make disciples. Tell them what you learned, right? Make disciples of all nations. It doesn't matter if they came from Sri Lanka or uh, you know, India, or we went

Evolution Claims Versus Vocation

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to the Dominican Republic, met some very good people, but make disciples of all nations and then follow the protocol, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And here's one of my roles teaching them to observe all things, right? Whatever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Uh, end of my comments, but I want to leave you with that one challenge at the end. Love the Lord God with all you've got, with everything you have, and do so by loving the people that He created that are in your life, anyone you touch. I told one guy, the steward, I'm like, there's only one other permanent thing here. It's like your heart, your soul, and the souls of every person you deal with. Those are eternal things. Let's pour our lives into something eternal, and then it won't be a big waste of time at the end. Amen. Here's a couple ways how, and then maybe if a musician wants to come or not, we'll pray either way. But where can I best invest the gifts God has given me in my life? I want you to think on these things as we pray. What has he given me? How can I invest them properly? So when he returns, he says, Well done, good and faithful servant. How can I be a stronger, more faithful steward of all God's creative blessings in me, right? Gift, these are things that you are talented in, but you have to work to work them out, right? Talent and giftings are one thing, but skill is quite another. Skill means you gotta work it every day, you gotta practice it, you gotta bring it out. That's why the Christian faith is a it's a marathon, it's not just a little sprint, right? We've got to put things into practice. So, what one step can I take in God's direction today? What's my baby step to a great destination? What is it for you? It might be different for each of us because God can only bring us from where we are right now to where he wants us to be. And he's not gonna make you take giant leaps and bounds often. But if he calls you to something great, you just pray a lot more, right? And get more people around you. Uh, so what one step can you take? How has God uh and or sorry, who has God placed in my sphere of influence? I believe we each have some kind of family, some kind of friends, someone around you, co-workers. Maybe you need to map it out and just put little circles. Say, these are my circles. Some of them converge, right? Some of them are some of our family work with us, you know, and my family, a lot of them work with me. It's really cool, but we call it ships passing in the night. We don't get to talk much except about ministry and what's going on here at CBC, but it's still something that we need to give an impact. Be thankful to those people, right? Tell them once in a while, you're doing a great job, bro or sister. Keep it up. Um, who needs some spiritual encouragement today? Uh, the owner of Hobby Lobby says every hand should go up when I ask that question. He said, if you're human, you need encouragement. And you need it very often, right? So put yourself in that shoes and don't be afraid to pray for yourself. Lord, I need encouragement. Send someone my way, send some little inkling of that. I'm going down the right path, right? We all need that encouragement. Just like, you know, athletes in the in the winter games, you know, they need a coach on the side saying, You're doing great, keep going. And then lastly, how can I help someone else take their step one step closer in Jesus today? And maybe I have a friend who's really hurting. He's not even able to call me, so I call him. Right? Let's let's be purposeful, let's be intentional, let's try that out. Uh, think on that as we pray now. Let's stand together and go to the Lord. None of this can be done without his help. And when he's helping, nothing can stop his church, right? When he's at the head. Let's pray.

Beginnings, Big Bang, And First Cause

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Dear uh gracious Heavenly Father, creator of all things, uh, Lord, we thank you for your beautiful and amazing creation, which is all around us and even within us. Help us to see and to discover these things and to give you praise and glory. Thank you for our divine Savior, Jesus Christ, the one who shed his blood to die and pay for our ransom, so that we would have a way back to heaven. To the Father. Help us, Lord, to love you back with all that love you poured on us. And that, Lord, we can do so with all our heart, with all our soul, our strength, and even our mind, those of us who are still studying and in school, help us to apply this to find you and to learn more of you. And may we not hoard your great love to ourselves. May we not put it under a bushel and let it shine, but share it with all those who are around us. Help us to discover those circles of influence wherever they are, whoever they are. And may we share the good news in creative and practical ways today, so others can see and understand like we do. Thank you for your knowledge and your wisdom, Lord, and for showing it to us. With your help and the power of the Holy Spirit before us, behind us, and within us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may go in peace and do not slip on the sidewalk. Be careful out there. God bless you. We love you guys. It's good to be home.