WEBVTT 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:04.080 Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:12.480 We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:14.640 Thanks for joining us today. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:15.759 Amen. 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:17.359 Let's pray together. 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:23.839 Father, we give you all the praise because of that truth. 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:30.320 Lord, our lives are eternally changed because Christ has risen from the grave. 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:38.799 And God, we pray with the psalmist who in Psalm 85 says, Will you not revive us again? 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:42.320 That your people may rejoice in you. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:50.880 Lord, we pray that you would show us your steadfast love and grant in this place your salvation. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:59.039 And God, we especially pray with the psalmist that you would let us hear what God the Lord will speak. 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:02.320 For Lord God, you speak peace to your people. 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.519 You speak peace to your saints. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:09.680 So, Lord, don't let us turn back to folly. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:13.439 God, we thank you for who you are. 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:26.079 And God, thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit with us now, who is here to reveal more and more the blazing, white hot glory of your Son. 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:29.840 And God, humbly we confess, Lord, we need you. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:33.200 God, we can't live apart from you. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:35.120 We can't do this apart from you. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:37.280 And so, God, help us now as we open up your word. 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:38.879 We want to hear your word, Lord. 00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:41.120 Would you soften the hardness of our hearts? 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:44.079 Would you open our closed ears? 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:49.359 God, we want to see you in all the light of your glory. 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.760 And so, God, work among us now. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.680 We pray, Lord, for supernatural hearing. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:59.040 God, we give you all the praise and we pray this in the name of your Son. 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:00.000 Amen. 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:01.920 Amen. 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:02.480 Amen. 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:05.120 It's so good to be with you worshiping this morning. 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:09.599 If you have your Bibles, you can open them up and turn to Genesis chapter 1. 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:11.840 It's an easy one to find this morning. 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:18.879 In the first pages of Scripture, we're excited to announce to you that this weekend we are starting a new sermon series. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:21.199 And we actually sung the sermon series already. 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:25.520 The name of our sermon series is Faithful Then, Faithful Now. 00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:31.360 And I think this sermon series really captures kind of where we've been as a church. 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:41.039 We can be honest as we look back on the past two years, that it has been an up and down roller coaster in the life of our church. 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:44.319 I think every church can say that that's endured through COVID. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:49.360 If you've survived COVID, you have been on a roller coaster really. 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:58.159 And yet we recognize that even in the context of our church, God has done much in the life of our church. 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:06.240 Even just to mention the changing of a staff, but not even to mention the things that have happened in our own lives. 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:12.240 And we look on back on this these two years, and we can look back and say God was faithful. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:13.840 God was faithful then. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:15.840 Over those few years, God was faithful. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:28.719 And if we just spent the time looking at all the things that God had done, all the ways that God had revealed his grace in those two years, well, we'd for an eternity be able to say that God will forever be faithful. 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:34.000 And yet the witness of Scripture is that we don't just look back on those two years, we look back on our whole life. 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:48.800 We don't just look back on our whole life, we look back to Jesus coming in the flesh, and we don't just look back to Jesus coming in the flesh, we look all the way back to the beginning of time, and what we find is that forever God has been faithful. 00:03:48.960 --> 00:03:58.800 And if God has been faithful for all time, then the exhortation to us as a church is that we trust that he will be faithful now. 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:04.319 If God was faithful then, he can be faithful now. 00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:11.919 And the more faithful we come to understand God to be, the more trusting we will be in God that he'll be faithful now. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:13.439 That's just how it works, doesn't it? 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:18.160 If something in your life has proven to be faithful to you, you trust it to be faithful. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:21.360 In fact, I have a car at home that I talk about a lot. 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:29.120 I'd even maybe put it in the category of I brag about a lot, and I've probably talked about it in my sermons before because I love this car and it's near and dear to my heart. 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:32.160 It's a 2004 Toyota Corolla. 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:39.199 And I gotta tell you that this 2004 Toyota Corolla is one of the most faithful cars you will ever meet. 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:43.199 A few months ago I heard a little rattling in the engine, and I thought, this has got to be it. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:46.480 Like this thing's coming up on 20 years, and so I took it to the mechanic. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:51.439 I was ready because this car has been really good to me, and if it died now, I would say it was a faithful car. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:53.519 Took it to the mechanic, thought it was the last day. 00:04:53.600 --> 00:05:01.680 I walked out of there paying a$30 bill, and I realized this car is gonna be faithful forever. 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:05.920 Well, I'm gonna eat my word someday, and that car will die. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:08.800 But we understand this principle, don't we? 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:12.800 That if something's faithful to us, then we trust it more and more. 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:19.279 If you know a person in your life who's always on time, you start to get worried when that person is a minute late. 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:20.399 That's just who they are. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:21.680 They're never late. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:28.399 And church, what we're gonna see as we open up the pages of Scripture is that we have a faithful God. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:36.639 If we can illustrate these principles from cars, if we can illustrate these principles from people, how much more can we pull this truth from God's Word? 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:42.639 If He was faithful then, He will be faithful now, and He will be faithful for all of eternity. 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:43.920 This is just who God is. 00:05:44.079 --> 00:06:04.800 And so this is my prayer for this series is that the Holy Spirit would do this work in each of our hearts, and we need the Holy Spirit to do this because we can't do it alone, that the Holy Spirit would do this work to reveal to you the faithfulness of God, that looking forward, no matter what trial comes, no matter what circumstance comes, you trust in God's faithfulness. 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:13.360 Genesis, it means origin or beginning, which makes sense because it's the first book of the Bible. 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:23.360 Genesis is written by Moses, and Moses writes Genesis to the nation of Israel as they're wandering through the desert. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:29.199 And so we even by the very writing of Genesis come to understand its purpose in the Bible. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:34.720 See, Genesis is written to the people of Israel to place them in God's redemptive story. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:40.079 People of Israel had come out of Egypt and they look back and they constantly had this question: where do we come from? 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:41.680 We don't have a home. 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:43.279 What's our history? 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:50.079 And Moses writes Genesis to show them that their history is with the foundation of the world. 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:59.199 Moses wants to show them their place in history, but he also wants to encourage them, just as God wants to encourage us as we walk through this book, that he is faithful. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.079 God was faithful all through the pages of Genesis. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:05.040 God is going to be faithful to deliver them through the desert. 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:06.639 This is what we need. 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:17.839 It's true that you can't really understand a story, whether it's a movie or a TV show or a story that someone's telling you, or even more so the story of your life if you don't understand the beginning. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:30.000 Every once in a while, my wife will be watching a TV show, and she's like in season four, so she's pretty deep into the plot, and I'll come in and I'll start watching it with her, and I start to make all sorts of assumptions about the show. 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:31.680 Oh, well, this is the good guy, right? 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:32.480 He's a doctor. 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:36.240 And it turns out, no, that's the evil person, and he's killing everybody. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:41.759 And I start to make assumptions about the plot and how it's gonna end and what's gonna happen. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:48.000 And after a few minutes, my wife will pause the TV and look at me and say, Are you here for a reason? 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:51.519 And the reality is that we've probably experienced this. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:53.199 Maybe we've missed the beginning of a movie. 00:07:53.279 --> 00:08:04.000 You know, you're you're a few minutes late, and that's fine, we're just gonna miss the previews, but you end up missing the first few minutes, and you spend that whole movie kind of scratching your head, asking the question, what is going on here? 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:05.839 Like, did I miss something that was important? 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:13.360 Hopefully, this is one of those like bad movies where the first few minutes is just fluff and you have no idea why it's happening, but I have no clue what's going on. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:23.439 Now, with Genesis, the reality is that you can't understand God's word if you don't have the pages of Genesis. 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:28.240 Because the whole redemptive story starts in Genesis. 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:37.039 Genesis tells you about God's original plan for this world, how he created us in the garden of paradise to be perfect and without sin. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:43.600 But it also tells you about the fall and what happened and what went horribly wrong in the garden. 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:49.440 And then Genesis begins the redemptive story that carries throughout all the pages of Scripture. 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:57.919 And so if you miss the beginning of the redemptive story in Genesis, you really miss a foundation for understanding the story of God's word. 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:00.080 But Genesis doesn't only do that. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:09.679 Genesis gives us a foundation to understand the story of God's word, but the reality is that Genesis also gives us a foundation to understand the story of our lives. 00:09:11.759 --> 00:09:24.399 And the title of this message is The Origin of Our Story, because I want you to see in Genesis 1, verse 1 that this is where your story as a human being begins. 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:32.720 And that without understanding your origin, you can't understand your significance as a human being. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:35.440 You can't understand your purpose as a human being. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:38.240 I mean, really think about it for a moment. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:47.519 If you don't have Genesis 1-1, then ask yourself this question: what's really the significance of your life? 00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:50.879 And you say, well, the significance of my life is to work. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:56.159 I mean, I'm I'm getting promotions and I'm getting raises and I'm really advancing, and it's bringing me a lot of joy. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:59.279 And yet we look at that and we ask, what's the eternal value of that? 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:09.840 And we realize that often what happens is we work for many years, then we retire, and there's a party, maybe there's some cake, and pretty quickly after that we're replaced, aren't we? 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:16.480 And as you begin to think about not only your life, but the span of eternity, you begin to ask, what's the significance of working? 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:18.240 You begin to ask, what's the purpose? 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:19.759 What's the purpose in my life? 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.000 What's the purpose of having kids? 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:24.720 If we're just here for a short time. 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:35.679 But what we find in the beginning words of Genesis is the truth about our origin, about our beginning, about where we come from. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:41.200 And the reality is that every thinker needs to wrestle with this question. 00:10:41.360 --> 00:10:43.360 The question of where we came from. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:51.679 I mean, if you want to understand your life, if you want to have a worldview that kind of helps you live in this world that God created, you kind of need to answer three questions. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:59.519 You need to answer where we came from, you need to answer the question why we're here, and you need to answer the question, where we are we going. 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:04.879 These are the big worldview questions that each worldview must address. 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:09.919 And what God wants to do for us this morning is address the issue of our origin. 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:11.200 Where did we come from? 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:12.240 Now here's the reality. 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:20.320 We live in a world that fundamentally the majority of people might describe themselves as agnostic. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:23.200 And I don't know if you've ever heard that word before, so let me explain it to you. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:27.120 A in Greek means no, and gnosis means knowledge. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:32.639 And so the idea is that most of the time when you talk to an agnostic, they'll just say, I don't know. 00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:41.440 And really what the agnostic view is at its core, and I think a lot of people misunderstand it, is that it's an argument that you can't know. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:47.679 It's not just that you don't know, the agnostic view is that you can't know how we came into being. 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:56.879 And so I have invented a word to describe what I think is the most popular view when it comes to the belief in our origin. 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:00.960 And many of you know that whenever I invent a word, it doesn't gain any traction because it's pretty bad. 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:04.080 But I went to the Greek here, so hopefully this one sticks. 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:11.440 And the word the word is this that many of us and many in our culture are amelloists. 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:13.279 Amelloists. 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:15.919 And in the Greek that means a no. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:18.559 And mellow means care. 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:24.240 See, most of the people I talk to, as I share the gospel with people, just they just really haven't thought about it. 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:26.960 They've never really thought about where they came from. 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:38.720 They're just kind of living this life, doing the things that most people do, getting married because most people get married, having kids because most people get have kids, and they're kind of just living day to day, looking for joy as they find it. 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:51.360 But this is what I want to propose to us is that when you start with God, when you see your beginning, all the puzzle pieces of your life begin to fit together correctly. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:13:08.240 And all the things that you once pursued as an agnostic, as an atheist, as a mellowist, all those things that you pursued, looking to find joy, looking to find significance, looking to find satisfaction, you find them once you find God and begin your life with Him. 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:10.720 All the puzzle pieces of your life begin to fit together. 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:16.320 You start to be able to make sense of the story that you're living and that you've been living for years now. 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:20.480 And so understand in this very moment that God has you here for a reason. 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:27.840 This is God's grace to you, to bring you back to the beginning, to help you understand about your origin, the origin of your story. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:30.000 And so I want you to see this in Genesis 1.1. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:32.960 We're just going to be in the first verse because this is the packed verse. 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:38.000 The first thing I want you to see about your story is that God is the cause of your story. 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:40.080 God is the cause of your story. 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:44.320 Look at the first three words there where it says, in the beginning. 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:45.679 In the beginning. 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:48.960 And so our question needs to be, in the beginning of what? 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:51.759 Was this the beginning of God? 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:55.759 Was this when God came into being? 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:03.919 This is a really important worldview question because materialism would say that the only eternal thing is material. 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:06.960 And that for all of eternity, material has existed. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:14.639 And at the very first three words of Scripture, the Christian worldview comes to butt against that worldview to say that in the beginning was God. 00:14:15.360 --> 00:14:16.799 There was no material. 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:19.120 God had existed for all of eternity. 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:22.720 And so these words aren't talking about the beginning of God. 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:26.080 But we need to qu wrestle with that question. 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:27.759 When did God begin? 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:29.759 When did God come into being? 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:32.000 And the answer of Scripture is that He didn't. 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:34.000 He's been eternal. 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:42.399 And while our world isn't eternal, as our while our world, Genesis 1 says, has a beginning, God does not have a beginning. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:43.840 He does not have an end. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:45.279 He's eternal. 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:50.159 And so you ask, what was God doing before the foundation of the world? 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:53.360 Was he just twiddling his thumbs for all of eternity? 00:14:54.559 --> 00:15:02.559 And the answer that Scripture gives is that because God is love, that's what John says, God is love. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:06.960 God has been existing for all of eternity in a relationship of love. 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:12.320 For all of eternity, before the foundation of the world, this is how God existed. 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:21.200 The Father loved the Son, the Son loved the Father, and the Spirit was the union of their love. 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:27.360 Now I can tell by the way you're looking at me, you're saying, this makes no sense, and I want to declare to you, I'm on the same boat. 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:30.480 But this is the witness of Scripture that we serve a God who is triune. 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:32.799 It's one God in three persons. 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:41.600 And the reason that God could exist for all of eternity is because he existed in this relationship in which he was completely satisfied. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:46.159 This is the testimony of Scripture is that you are not needed. 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:51.440 What a comforting message for you to hear on launch Sunday. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:54.320 God didn't create you because he needed you. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:25.360 God wasn't in heaven, loving the Son, the Son loving the Father, the Spirit being the union of the an expression of that love for eternity until the point that they said, all right, this is really boring. 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:27.200 Like the reason that some people have kids. 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:30.879 Like, I just can't stand you anymore, so we gotta get someone else in this house. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:32.799 And that's not what God did. 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:39.600 Nothing compelled God to create us out of necessity. 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:43.519 The reason that God created us was for his pleasure. 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:51.360 God didn't create us because he was lonely. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:53.200 He also didn't create us because he needed some praise. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:56.399 It wasn't like God was praise-hungry or deficient of glory. 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:00.879 The Son was glorying in the Father for all eternity. 00:17:01.039 --> 00:17:02.639 And the Father was glorying in the Son. 00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:08.720 This is why Jesus says in John 17, verse 5, and this is going to come up on the screen. 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:09.759 He says these words. 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:11.839 He says, And now, Father, glorify me. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:19.200 Speaking of the cross, glorify me in your own presence, but listen to this, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:24.160 It's not like God brought us into being so that we could praise him because he needed praise. 00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:29.200 He was perfectly satisfied with the sufficient praise of his son. 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:37.359 No, what happened in our creation was that the Father's love for the Son was so full and overflowing. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:46.480 The Father's glory in the Son was so full and overflowing like a fountain that he creates the world out of the overflow of his love. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:18:02.079 And the most loving thing that he can do for us as a human race is create us and be the cause of our story and then invite us into relationship with him so that we can experience this overflowing love and this overflowing glory. 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:06.160 He creates us out of the overflow of his love and glory. 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:09.519 And I love what Jonathan Edwards says about this. 00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:17.279 He says it's no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain that is inclined to overflow. 00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:22.640 And the same truth is true of our God, that he didn't create us out of a deficiency or out of an emptiness. 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:32.000 He created us out of the overflow of what has been happening for eternity, the love of God for the Son, the love of the Son for the Father. 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:39.519 Now, the question that we have as we consider that God created us for his glory, as he created us to that we might love him, is that is this. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:42.720 How can God cause us to be? 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:48.000 And how can God say that our purpose is to bring him glory? 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:51.039 How is that at all the good thing to do? 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:56.160 Imagine that we launched this Sunday and I put up a sermon series, and the sermon series was this. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:18:58.160 You need to praise Miles. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:00.000 Imagine that was a sermon series. 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:03.680 I would hope that in that moment some of you guys would stand up and walk out. 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:08.559 Not even the back door, like you're taking the fire exit, and you're gonna spray the fire extinguisher on your way out. 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:10.559 Some of you would be kind of disgusted like that. 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:14.720 Like, really, you're gonna ask us to praise you as though you're something great? 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:24.000 And here's the Father who creates us for his glory to give glory to him, to give praise to him, and then tells us to live for his glory. 00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:29.359 Why can he do that? 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:33.119 Why is it fair for God to do that and not fair for me to do that? 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:40.000 Why is it fair for God to call all people to praise and glorify him, and not fair for me to call all people and praise to praise and glorify me? 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:58.720 Well, the answer is that God is the highest being, because in the beginning was God, God was eternal, God was infinitely glorious and infinitely loving, that if God were to direct our attention to anywhere else other than Himself this morning, he would be selling us short. 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:07.200 God is the highest being, he's the greatest joy of our lives, he's the deepest well and fountain of satisfaction. 00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:21.440 And the beautiful truth of the gospel is that this self-sufficient God invites us, despite our sin, to despite our sin, to make our story all about Him. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:24.400 God is the cause of our story. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:28.480 He doesn't need us, he chooses to create us. 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:36.240 And this is the application from God's word for you this morning that because God is sufficient, you don't need to be. 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:41.839 Because God is self-sufficient, you don't need to be self-sufficient. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:44.640 We didn't cause ourselves to come into being. 00:20:44.880 --> 00:20:49.839 We didn't start our story, and so the story isn't about us. 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:54.480 Our story as human beings is entirely about God. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:59.359 He's the cause of our story, he's the reason that we came to be. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:05.440 And our story as human beings, really our life comes in the middle of a story that's all about God. 00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:10.720 See, some of us, we kind of live like we're the main star on this new hit Netflix series. 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:13.680 And we live as though everything revolves around us. 00:21:13.920 --> 00:21:21.039 But really, what it is more like is like you're kind of like a B character on season 17 of Law and Order. 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:23.519 And no one really watches it anymore, but you're there. 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:25.440 You're part of the story. 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:29.920 And this is the reality of our story is that God caused it to happen. 00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:34.559 We aren't the main characters, we exist to bring praise and glory and honor to him. 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:42.160 Church, there's great freedom we should take in knowing this. 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:47.759 There's great freedom in the reality that many of us, again, launch Sunday, hard cold truth. 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:48.799 Are you ready for this one? 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:53.759 Many of us will die, and many of us will be forgotten. 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:56.079 I think about my great grandparents. 00:21:56.559 --> 00:21:59.759 I don't even really know their names, and I could do a bit of research, probably a few. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:04.079 Minutes to figure it out, but then past that to know their life, to know what they did. 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:07.839 And I'm, you know, can be pretty ignorant with that stuff. 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:11.920 And so maybe you know your great-grandparents saying, but what about your great-great-grandparents? 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:17.599 See, in the matter of three generations, most of us will be completely forgotten. 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:21.839 Most of us in this room will not have biographies written about us. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:26.079 I often wonder what a biographer might say if he were to write a biography of my life. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:27.440 I think it might be pretty boring. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:28.799 I don't know if anyone wants to read it. 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:32.079 The biographer might say, Oh, on this day he made another coffee. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:36.960 And you turn to the page the next day, and then this day he made another coffee. 00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:39.759 Chapter 5, New Roasting Method. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:40.240 I don't know. 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:42.160 I don't know what the biographer would say. 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:48.319 And maybe some of you are special enough to have a biography written of you someday, and that'll be really special. 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:51.519 But the reality is, how long is that biography going to be around for? 00:22:52.640 --> 00:22:56.079 The reality is most of us will die and be forgotten. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:23:16.000 And I think the words of Nicholas Ludwig, who was on the path to be a governor, his father was in was a ruler, and because he was the son of his father, he was supposed to be something special, but he lived his life to preach the gospel, and he said these words. 00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:17.440 He's known for these words. 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:20.640 He said these words, preach, die, and be forgotten. 00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:22.880 And I think those are beautiful words. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:28.960 Maybe we're not preachers of the gospel, but ultimately to live for God, to die and to be forgotten. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:37.039 Now we hear this news, and some of us are maybe sad, but I want you to realize that this is amazing news. 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:39.680 This is gospel news. 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:44.799 That you don't have to be self-sufficient in and of yourself. 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:49.839 Your worth as a human being has nothing to do with your self-sufficiency. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:52.480 It has nothing to do with your accomplishment. 00:23:52.640 --> 00:23:55.039 This is amazing news in our world, isn't it? 00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:02.960 Because the predominant view of our world is that your worth as a human being comes from your self-sufficiency. 00:24:03.279 --> 00:24:07.839 Your worth as a human being comes from your ability to provide for yourself. 00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:16.480 This is why one of the arguments for abortion is that as long as the baby isn't able to survive outside of the womb, then it's not a human being. 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:24.720 And underneath that argument is this idea that a human being is someone who could provide for themselves, who's sufficient in and of themselves. 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:34.480 This is the same argument for euthanasia, that once as a human being, you've grown so old that your body can no longer take care of yourself, you're no longer you cease to be a human. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:49.440 And the Bible interrupts this narrative to say that your humanity has nothing to do with what you can contribute, nothing to do with what you can accomplish, nothing to do with your self-sufficiency, and everything to do with who God created you to be. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:52.720 We don't exist to be self-sufficient. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:25:00.640 And yet we live in a world where we hear this kind of language all the time that affirms that you are kind of sufficient in yourself. 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:05.279 And so you might go on Instagram and someone you know shares a post about how they got this job interview coming up. 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:06.000 And what do you read? 00:25:06.079 --> 00:25:07.599 You read, oh, you've got this. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:09.920 You've got this, you can do it. 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:14.480 If you just look deep enough inside of yourself, you can be sufficient. 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:17.200 Just trust your guts. 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:19.920 You're more than enough for this. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:21.119 This is the language we hear. 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:23.680 It's this idea that we're sufficient in ourselves. 00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:27.920 And Jesus steps in and he says, it's not about your sufficiency. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:37.039 That's why in John 15, verse 5, he says, I'm the vine and you are the branches. 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:42.559 Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:45.359 For apart from me, you can do nothing. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:48.319 Jesus comes and he reverses the script. 00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:55.119 It's not about how much you can do, it's really about the reality that you apart from Jesus, you can do nothing. 00:25:55.680 --> 00:25:58.559 Jesus is not looking for self-sufficient people. 00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:02.000 Jesus is not looking for those who can help themselves. 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:05.440 Jesus is coming for those who aren't self-sufficient. 00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:09.279 He came to do something through a people who could do nothing. 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:13.759 Jesus doesn't say to his disciples, hey, follow me once you get your life together. 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:21.599 You know, once you're accomplishing some goals, once you're a little more moral, a little more righteous, then you can follow me. 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:27.200 Instead, what Jesus says that if you want to follow me, you need to deny yourself. 00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:34.160 It has nothing to do with your self-sufficiency, everything to do with his sufficiency working through you. 00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:42.880 Wouldn't it be true that if our relationship with God had anything to do with our sufficiency, we would just lessen God's sufficiency. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:47.039 God's not looking for us to be on his team as though we could add anything to him. 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:50.160 If we were to add anything to God, it would take away from him. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:57.680 In fact, this truth has been illustrated in my household numerous times as my oldest daughter has come to learn to play card games. 00:26:57.759 --> 00:27:05.200 And then whenever we I play a card game with her, my second daughter, who's not yet old enough to play card games, comes and joins my team. 00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:14.000 And I have about a minute of patience with this because I firmly believe in the parenting rule that you should always win against your kids and never let them win. 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:21.839 And so my second youngest daughter comes who's not of the age of understanding, and she's flipping cards and showing my cards. 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:23.440 And I start to lose my mind. 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:25.920 You're not adding anything to my team. 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:27.359 Go to your room. 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:36.240 That's a silly way to illustrate a principle of what would happen if we thought we could contribute to God's kingdom. 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:37.920 Church, we need this truth. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:38.799 We need this truth. 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:42.160 A few weeks ago, we sent out a serving survey. 00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:48.000 And we asked for many of you to think about ways that you might serve the kingdom of God in this church. 00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:54.640 And we were honestly so blessed by that, by how the response, by the eagerness of so many to just serve wherever they could. 00:27:54.880 --> 00:27:56.720 We're incredibly encouraged. 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:12.640 But I want you to know, and I think Joel and Hanya might come and tackle me as I say these words, if you desire to serve this church because you think you have something amazing to contribute to this church in and of yourself, we don't want you. 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:23.920 If you think that you are self-sufficient and you can be the life of this church, and you can revive this church, and you can bring life to this church, we don't want you. 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:28.160 We don't want you to attempt to do the work that only God can do. 00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:30.880 But something is drastically different. 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:43.759 See, if we had a hundred volunteers who were serving in the power of their own flesh, who were serving in the power of their own self-sufficiency, it would be better just to have one or two who were serving to give glory to God. 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:48.559 It would be better to have one or two who each morning they came just to set up chairs. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:51.200 And as they're setting up chairs, they're praying, God, this isn't about me. 00:28:51.359 --> 00:29:02.319 I'm here to glorify you, that someone might sit in this chair and hear your word, that their life might be proclaimed, as opposed to the person who's over here and is setting up chairs and saying, Oh, this church better be so thankful for me. 00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:05.279 I'm so amazing coming here early. 00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:11.839 God's looking for us not to be self-sufficient, but to be God-sufficient. 00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:14.240 He's the cause of our story. 00:29:14.480 --> 00:29:16.160 He's self-sufficient, not us. 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:22.160 The second thing I want you to see about your story, as God is the origin of our story, is that God is the center of your story. 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:26.000 God's the cause of your story, but God is also the center of your story. 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:28.319 And so notice what the fourth word there says. 00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:30.480 It says, in the beginning, God. 00:29:32.160 --> 00:29:33.680 In the beginning, God. 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:38.480 The Bible sets up God as the only God that matters. 00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:47.039 In fact, Genesis is really an argument for God over all the other gods of the ancient Near East. 00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:56.000 Now, this is really important for us to hear because I can guarantee you that you are going to be incredibly disappointed as I walk through Genesis because we're doing an exposition of Genesis. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:29:57.599 And so we're going verse by verse. 00:29:57.759 --> 00:29:59.279 We're asking, what does Genesis say? 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:04.480 And I need to be honest with you, Genesis never addresses the evolutionary argument. 00:30:05.039 --> 00:30:10.319 Genesis never really talks about creationism versus evolution versus naturalism. 00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:15.359 And sometimes we look at Genesis trying to find those answers, and they're just not there. 00:30:15.920 --> 00:30:18.559 We ask questions like, well, where were the dinosaurs? 00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:22.880 And other scientific questions. 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:29.200 And the reality is that the writer of Genesis doesn't address these questions because they weren't questions of the ancient Near East. 00:30:29.279 --> 00:30:35.279 But what the writer of Genesis does do is provide an argument for God over all the other gods of the nations. 00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:42.400 You gotta think, at the time that Genesis was written, Genesis chapter 1, the people of God were in Egypt. 00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:48.079 And Egypt had their own creation stories. 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:51.759 They believed in a plurality of gods. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:55.440 And the people of God had come from Babylon. 00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:06.400 And were around Babylon and they had heard the stories of Babylon about the God Marduk, who in a battle with all the other gods won, and out of that battle came the creation of the world. 00:31:06.559 --> 00:31:14.400 See, they had creation stories, but what happens in Genesis is God asserts himself as the creator over all other gods. 00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:16.079 There is nobody like this God. 00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:18.000 He's the center of the universe. 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:21.119 Therefore, he's the center of our story. 00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:25.519 We are created by God. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:31.759 In the original language, this word God is not the name for God, which was typically Yahweh. 00:31:31.839 --> 00:31:34.160 In English, many times we'll say Jehovah. 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:37.039 It wasn't the name for God, it was just the word for God. 00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:40.480 It was the way that you could speak of the gods of the other nations. 00:31:40.720 --> 00:31:54.640 And it's significant that Moses doesn't use the name Yahweh and instead uses the word Elohim, which just means God and doesn't specify God in who He is. 00:31:55.279 --> 00:32:05.039 The significance of this is that if other nations were to look at Israel and see that their God in Genesis 1-1 had a name, they might just think that, oh, that's Israel's God, Yahweh. 00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:09.599 See, the reality was that in that day there was a belief in pluralism. 00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:13.680 It wasn't monotheism like the Christian worldview, that there's only one God. 00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:15.119 It was a pluralism view. 00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:15.920 And so it was fine. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:17.599 However many gods there were, it's fine. 00:32:18.079 --> 00:32:19.359 Israel, you have your God. 00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:22.640 Babylon, you have your God, Egypt, we have our gods. 00:32:24.880 --> 00:32:29.519 Moses wants the nations to understand something: that God is the God of gods. 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:30.640 He's the Lord of Lords. 00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:31.599 He's the King of kings. 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:33.680 He's the creator of creators. 00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:38.000 And so in Genesis 1, we see that God creates the heavens and the earth. 00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:43.279 That is to say, God creates everything, even the gods of this world. 00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:47.759 He's sovereign not just over Israel. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:49.839 He's sovereign not just over our lives. 00:32:49.920 --> 00:32:51.839 He's sovereign over the whole world. 00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:59.759 And this is so important for us to hear this morning because God is setting himself in our lives as the center of our story. 00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:01.680 He's the center of it. 00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:05.920 He's the force around which all the things in our life rotate. 00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:12.400 He's the gravitational pole that keeps our life in balance. 00:33:12.799 --> 00:33:18.160 This is why throughout the scriptures, idolatry is laughable to the prophets. 00:33:18.319 --> 00:33:23.519 They look at the idolatry of other nations and it's like, that's ridiculous that you wouldn't serve the creator. 00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:25.279 Why are you serving created things? 00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:29.359 Like anything other than God, anything other than Yahweh is a created thing. 00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:39.519 And yet, people, instead of bowing down to the God, the creator, the highest glory, the highest love, instead they're bowing down to things that are created. 00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:41.279 And it's laughable. 00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:48.400 I love what Isaiah says in chapter 44, and I'm going to read for a while here because I think if you really understand what Isaiah's getting at, it's pretty humorous. 00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:55.279 And many times in scripture, the scriptures share humor, and I think this is one of them in the prophets as he looks at the other nations. 00:33:56.319 --> 00:33:57.920 And Isaiah 44. 00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:02.079