Genesis Unveiled: New Beginnings with Divine Order

Music. Thank you for joining us at the Ninth Avenue Church in Haleyville, Alabama.

We hope that you will subscribe and will share our program with others. Now join us as we study from the Word of God. Take your Bibles and open to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. As we kind of, I guess, begun a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, talking about new beginnings. We're going to spend the month of January looking at some beginning points through Scripture. I mean, that's just for this week and two more, but we started that last week in December talking about new beginnings.

Josh spoke last week on the idea of new beginnings within yourself, and we're going to kind of continue that trend and looking at some specific beginning passages or beginning moments in scripture, but I feel like if we're going to talk about real beginnings, we have to, as Neil so appropriately said, we're going back to the beginning this morning. So let's kind of begin with the very beginning.

What is the first? It's for many of us, for many of us, one of the first Bible verses we ever learned, right? In the beginning, God created the what? The heavens and the earth. How many of you remember? That's one of your very first Bible. It's that, parts of the 23rd Psalm, John 3, 16. Those are all verses that we are taught and memorized as young children.

And really and truly, when we see this, I think it's so ingrained in many of us that maybe to a degree, the power of it maybe is lost a little bit, that it's almost. It's almost like the opening, right? It's the opening of a bigger story. Even though it says all we need to know, the next couple of chapters take this and expand on it in a great and in a powerful way. But if all we had was verse one, chapter one, or chapter one, verse one, if that's all we had, how powerful of a verse is that?

It encompasses everything. It says everything you need to know about what is described over the next handful of chapters when we talk about creation. But what I love about it is from the beginning, from the very beginning, we see that God is different than all the other gods. When you think about the names of God, and that's an interesting study. We've done a little bit of that over the time that we've been together, but the names of God are interesting throughout scripture.

And this particular name, even though it is broken up in our language as two words, God created, the way it is originally kind of structured is the God who creates. And this was an important statement. This was an important statement as it was first written, because it's first written in a time and in a place where there are so many other gods, little g, right, little g gods that people are following.

And as this first line about God to ever be written down in the context of Scripture, as it is written down, it is giving God a quality that no other God could claim. And what claim is that? What quality is that? A God who what? Creates. No other God that was followed, no other God that was created by man could actually stand up and say, I am a God who creates. Only the God gets to make that statement. Only the God has that ability to create.

Nothing that has ever been created can really take that statement and claim it for themselves. So from the very beginning, we see that we serve a God. We serve the God who is powerful, and not just powerful, but powerful enough to take something or to take nothing and turn it into something. And so that really kind of sets the tone for everything that is read or written over the next couple of chapters that we see not only does God create, but we see how awesome that creation really is.

And as we look at some of these kind of different verses and parts, of the creation story, it all starts with the idea, or with the truth, rather, that we have a God who creates, and no other God has that power. No one else can make that claim. So where do we go from there? Well, the first thing I want you to think about as we look at the story of Genesis chapters one, is that we serve a God who brings order out of chaos. We serve a God who brings order out of chaos.

Let's look at the first kind of ideas around this particular story of creation. Now, the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, we all know this, God said what? Let there be light, and there was. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and there was evening, there was morning the first day.

And God said, let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water. So God made the vault and separated the water above the vault from the water. I'm sorry, The water separated the water under the vault from the water above it, and it was so. And God called the vault sky, and there was evening, and there was morning the second day. And God said, let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let dry ground appear, and it was so.

And God called the dry ground land, and gathered the water and seas, and he called seas, and God saw that it was good. So from the very beginning, I want you to really think about the first descriptive term of the planet Earth. All right. So God comes into nothing. Right. God comes into nothing and God speaks and things are created. Things appear. Things are there that were not there just moments ago.

And the initial part of that creation, particularly of the earth that we live on, there are a couple of words that are used to describe. It says that now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep. Another translation might say it was formless and void. There was nothing there. And I think sometimes, you know, we walk outside this morning and we see God's creation. It's the fallen side of God's creation. It's not the original form in which he created it.

There is a sin effect that is attached to creation now. But nonetheless, when we walk outside just a couple of days ago, when you woke up in the morning and you looked outside and you saw the snow, you look at it and you might have the same thought as God had about creation. He looked and it is what? It is good. How many of you looked outside and thought this is absolutely beautiful? This is a wonderful thing to be able to look at.

How many of you, just at any other times, how many of you, how many times have we, let's just think about it that way. I've been driving down the road at sunset and we look up and we see this beautiful, gorgeous sunset. Okay. We look up into the sky at night and we see the stars that just scream God's presence and God's beauty and God's power.

You know, it's hard for us to imagine that our earth was at one point empty and formless and dark, and it's hard to wrap our mind around it because we don't see our world as that way. But I want you to step away from earth for just a moment because I believe that those type of things are obviously still there. There was something about our planet that God says, I'm going to make it different. I'm going to set it apart. I'm going to do different things with it.

But when you just step within our solar system and you look at the different planets, you could look at each of those planets and you could use these words. They are formless, they are empty, and to some degree, they are dark. You look at the pictures that come in from the Mars rover from time to time. And as interesting as it is to see the surface of Mars and see, you know, maybe some mountain ranges, when you look at the surface of Mars, what is on the surface of Mars?

Nothing. It's formless. It's empty. We have these beautiful giant gas planets within our solar system. And as you look at them and see pictures of them, they are beautiful. They speak to how God can create so many different things. But at the end of the day, what are they? They are formless and empty. And as you read the first few descriptions of our planet, you see from the beginning that our planet looked like all these other planets.

They were empty. It was empty. It was formless. And it was maybe a little bit different. It was a planet of water. It was specifically a water planet. And God comes in, God comes in, and he takes nothing and he creates everything. Now, we're not going to read all of creation, but one of the things that I do want to point out about creation is that creation was not random. There was an order to what God did. There was a beauty to what God did.

God spent three days creating a place, and then he spent three days filling that place. He took it from emptiness to something and then put something into what he had created. Day one, God creates life and separates it from darkness. And then you fast forward to day four, and he actually creates the things that will provide the light for us, the sun, the moon, the stars. Day two, God separates the waters and creates the sky and the sea.

On day five, God fills the sea and the sky with fish and birds. On day three, God causes land to appear and fills it with vegetation, preparing it for life. Then on day six, God creates land animals and humans that will then live in that creation that he made on day three. God takes nothing. God takes the chaos of this new creation, this emptiness, this void, and he creates it in order and in a beautiful way. But now I can't help but think that many times in our life, we feel the same way.

We sometimes live in a life of chaos, a time where maybe we struggle with relationships. A time where we struggle with job situations, maybe even times where we struggle with spiritual doubt. And we have this great ability to serve a God, to live with a God who can bring the same order into the chaos of our own life. As Christians, when we are baptized, we are told that not only do we receive the forgiveness of our sins, but we receive the dwelling.

We receive the spirit of God that comes and lives in us. The same spirit from this story that hovers over the water, almost as if he's taking an assessment of everything and getting things in order, getting things ready so that when God speaks, those things can take place. That same spirit lives inside of every Christian today.

And he has the ability that in those struggle relationships to bring love and forgiveness to brokenness in job challenging situations, he has the ability to help you plan and navigate and overcome. And in spiritual doubt, he is there to walk with you until you find that trust in him once again. We have to understand that the God that created something from nothing is the same God who can help us create order in our chaos. God doesn't just create new beginnings.

He brings order out of the chaos of our lives and fills them with purpose, which really takes us to the next idea. Verses 11 through 25, we're not going to read all of it. We will look at some of it that God creates with intention and purpose. God doesn't just, as we kind of mentioned, God had an order. God had a plan. He doesn't just throw it out there and see what works. He has a purpose for each of us.

This is what he says in verse 11 and 12. Then God said, let the land produce vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees, and the land that bear fruit with seed in it according to their various kinds. And it was so. The land produce vegetation, plants bearing seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. One of the phrases that's used over and over in this couple of verses is the idea of according to their kind.

That God has a purpose. God says, I am specific in this area, in this area, in this area. God had a plan for all of his creation. And God has the same plan for us in our life as well.

One of my favorite verses about that kind of idea comes from Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10, where Paul writes, for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do. I love this verse for a couple of reasons. Number one, it reminds me that as a child of God, as a creation of God, that I'm not just a second fault. That I am given a purpose from God from the very beginning of my life, that I am God's masterpiece. I am God's handiwork.

God took time in creating me. And when he created me, he created me with gifts and talents and abilities to use in my life, to use in my life, to use in his kingdom. I am here for a reason and I have a purpose. God put things in my life in front of me for me to accomplish and me to do. Now, it doesn't mean I always follow that, does it? It doesn't mean that I always walk in the way that he wants me to walk. Sometimes I go to the left. Sometimes I go to the right. And I always try to come back.

But God has created me specifically to do specific things in specific ways. And when I do those things, God brings even more beauty out of those because they are with the things that he has given me in my life. So here's what I want you to think about. And remember, nothing in creation was accidental and nothing in your life is either. The God who formed the world with intention is forming your story with the same care and purpose.

It's a great thing to remember. The last thing that I want you to think about this morning is that we are God's crowning creation. I want to tell you what, there are a lot of things that I think is beautiful. There are a lot of things that I look at in the world around the sunsets, you know, the stars, all these different things, the different, I mean, you just drive across our country.

Drive across America and look at the difference from one coast to the other of creation and how unique it is from one coast to the other. And you can see God's personality just stretched all across our country. if you go on a road trip. But of all of those things, we are God's greatest point of creation. We are the pinnacle. We are the jewel of creation. And why is that? Look at what he says in verse 26. Then God said, let us make mankind. Now he doesn't stop right there.

How does he finish that? let us make mankind how? In our image. In whose image? In the image of the Trinity, in the image of God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. He says, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground. Then God God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them.

Male and female, he created them. So God looks at everything that is created and he says, I'm going to create one more thing. I'm going to create man and he's going to be like me. He's going to be like us, he said. And a lot of people have discussed a lot of things of what that could mean. I truly believe that it means that we are threefold in nature. God is threefold, right? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

God created us that way. He created us with flesh. He created us with a soul, and he created us with a spirit. We are of all of creation. We are the only threefold beings that God created, and that mirrors him in every single way. But then he goes on, he says, you're not just part of creation. You're not just a special part of creation. He says, you are the stewards of my creation. He says, I have created all of this so that I can give this gift to you.

And in chapter one, verse 28, he says, now take this, be fruitful and multiply. And it emphasizes the idea that we are also to be in some way co-creators with him, participating in the shaping and the nurturing of the world around us. And in that, we need to know that we can find our identity. As we face new things in life, new challenges, we can know that we are God's masterpiece. We can know that we were created with a purpose. We were created with value and we were created intentionally.

And we can also know that through Christ, that we are not only created, but we are redeemed and restored and called into fellowship with him. And as you look at new beginnings, you have to realize that it doesn't start with self-effort.

It always starts with knowing the one that created you and the one that you can trust. So as we wrap up this particular thought and move in to the next couple of weeks, I want you to think about this question. Where might God be calling you to trust him in a new beginning? What is something new in your life this year that you believe that with God and through God and for God, you can accomplish?

You know, a lot of people get to a certain point in their life and they just kind of put it on cruise control and they just roll and they move on through. And the only time that they really get worked up or excited is when something challenging comes, when something gets in the way of cruise control and they have to do some manual driving on their own. But what if we looked at it different this year? What if we looked at it and said, I'm going to do something new for the kingdom.

I'm going to do something that has never, or maybe that I've never done before. I'm going to serve in a way that I've never served. It may be uncomfortable, it may be different, but I'm going to be greater than I was last year. I'm going to be newer than I was last year. And I can do that. Why? Because I am God's greatest masterpiece.

It's not the mountains or the stars. It is us. And the same power that he used to create the world is the power he uses to transform our lives and is the power that he will use and give us to begin new great things for him in his kingdom today. So in the beginning, in the beginning, God demonstrated his unmatched power and purpose through creation. He took chaos and brought order and took emptiness and filled it the same that he can do in your life as well.

So this week, I challenge you and encourage you to embrace your identity. Remember that you were God's masterpiece and surrender the broken and empty areas of your life to him and let him restore you in the greatest ways. Let's close with a word of prayer. God, we thank you so much for the chance to be in your presence this morning.

We thank you for the opportunity to just take a moment and step back and think about the greatness of your creation, about how wonderful that creation is, how majestic that creation is, God, how awesome it is that you really did take nothing and create the beauty that is around us. And you did that for us, God. And we want to be thankful and grateful for that. We thank you for the relationship that we have with you and the co-creators that we are with you in this story.

And we pray that we always live that relationship in a way that brings honor and glory to you. God, we thank you so much for your love and mercy that is shown to us every day. May we live in it and walk in it, God. It's in your son's name we pray, amen. Thank you again for joining us And please consider subscribing to our YouTube channel Or our podcast.

We can be found on Apple Podcasts Or any other podcast provider Also, leave us a 5-star review Which will greatly assist in getting the message of God's love and salvation to others You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram X TikTok, and Snapchat Be sure to join us again and until then remember to love like Jesus.