Back to the Beginning: Genesis 1:1 and the God Who Creates

You came to church on a great day. I'll tell you why it's a great day. Even if you're watching this message in the future, it's a great day. Because this is the beginning of a brand new series in the book of Genesis, which means you haven't missed anything yet. God has a great plan for you. He wants you to get into his word that his word would get deep into you. I mean, this book of Genesis, this is an incredible book. This is one of the best books of all time. I mean, in all history. It's one of 66 books that make up the Bible. It's probably the easiest book to find in all the Bible. It's the first book. So, if you brought your Bible, you can turn to it and find it. You see, the book of Genesis, it has outlasted empires.

People argue over this book. They try to critique and criticize this book. But God has a great plan. This book is profound in that it includes poetry, theology, history, archaeology has supported the people and the places that you find in this book. It is so spectacular if we would just take time to get to know God through this great book. The very word Genesis means beginning or origins. We have a God of beginnings. He is the God of new beginnings. He does new things in our lives. And if we would just turn to him, we would see that he will not leave us the same. He's the creator. He brings about something new in our hearts, in our lives. He He wants you to know who he is.

Mo Moses is the author. He writes the first five books of the Bible. Often known as the Pentatuk. Penta meaning five and tuk meaning books. The pentatuk. The first five books. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Not only are they known as Penetuk, they're known as the Torah. Torah means teachings or guidance, law. God gave this word to his people. At a time in history where they were enslaved for so many years, God would give Moses this revelation to remind them, you're not intended to be a slave. You're intended to be set free. You're not intended to be held back. You're you're meant to know the truth.

And so God wants us to know the truth of who he is. Now, Moses did not come up with this on his own. God gave him this truth through revelation. I love how in Exodus 33:11, we get to see this relationship Moses had with God. Says, "Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face." as a man speaks to God. A as as man speaks to his friend. Do do you see this? Moses used to speak to God face to face as a man speaks to his friend. He was a friend with God. And when Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. Moses intentionally spent a great deal of time with God. Now, who you spend time with is who you become like.

Now, Joshua got to watch this and witness this. He was a young apprentice of Moses. When Moses died, Joshua then led the Israelites. He knew what to do because he watched Moses do this. He knew that how important it was to spend time with the Lord. And Moses spent time with God. He got this revelation from God. And he he he gets to write this down for all of the readers to better understand who God is. When the Lord met with Moses through a burning bush in Exodus chapter 3, Moses was captivated, but he was also concerned. It was an ordinary day in an ordinary place when God revealed himself. And this is what God does. He takes something normal, something that seems

normal, but when God shows up, it's sacred. This can happen in your home, in your workplace. It can happen at church. It can happen on a mountain side. Never question who God is cuz he can show up anywhere, any place, at any time. Moses gets to speak to God through a burning bush. And this same Moses starts to question God, saying, "I'm not the right guy. You got the wrong person." I don't know if you've ever looked at your past or even at your present and you've told God, "I'm not sure that I'm the person that can be used." Over and over, he he gave God excuses why he can't be the one to confront Pharaoh. He can't be the one

to deliver the Israelites from Egypt to a promised land. One by one, he came up with excuses. And you can do one of two things in life. Make excuses or progress. But you can't do both. And God wants you to make progress. He wants to take you from where you are to where he wants you to be because he can do absolutely anything. On one occasion in Genesis 3:13, Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they asked me, "What is his name? What shall I say to them?" We've got to put this in context. The the Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for hundreds of years. The Egyptians have hundreds of gods with different names.

They can call on the name that of the god that makes it rain. They can call on the god of of fertility that causes people to have babies. They can they can call on the the god of prosperity of the rich. They can call on all these different gods. And Moses is supposed to come and say there's only one true god. Those are just false gods. I don't even know what to call you. I'm not even sure. They all have cool names. What do I say about you? That's why I can't go. I don't know exactly what to call you. And verse 14, God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Amen.

And so we see an allencompassing God, the I am who I am. I am able. I am. I am the creator. I am the sustainer. I am the great deliverer. I am able. You say, I am sent me to you. And so we have the name of God in Hebrew, Yahweh, later known as Jehovah, translated into English, Lord, which means I am the allencompassing, all powerful, all knowing, eternal God is going to deliver his people. So when Moses writes the book of Genesis, he brings us back to the beginning so that

we would rightfully understand that everything in life comes back to this truth to who God is. Who you are will be determined by who God is. So the greater you get to know God, the better you understand who you are. And so we see in the opening line of all of the Bible, in the first book, in the first chapter, in the first verse, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's the whole Bible in one verse. There is nothing God can't do.

In the beginning, God, if you just start there, if you just stop there, if you would just meditate here for just a moment, everything comes back to this truth. In the beginning, God in the beginning, God, eternal God, who has no beginning, he has no end. is the creator of all beginnings. The everlasting to everlasting, the ancient of days, the almighty, mysterious, majestic God who has no beginning and no end, decided to have a beginning. And so we see the God that stands outside of time creates time and matter. If we were to look at a pie chart, which I was never great with mathematics or fractions or any of those things, but if you were to look at a pie

chart, and that pie chart shows you eternity and time, the sliver for time would be so small you can't even see it compared to eternity. If we were to have a rope that explained time and the concept of eternity and you were just to put a marker there with with with time, eternity would ex would keep going forever. This rope would just keep going and time would be so small. And God creates time and he creates matter. And so we see it all begins with him. If you struggle with this, keep coming back to this. If you can't grasp this and you want to come to a different conclusion, keep coming back to this one truth. In the

beginning, God, nothing will make sense in the rest of the Bible unless you believe this, unless you trust this, unless you see God for who he is, that all beginnings come back to God. You can't have a beginning in your life without God. If you're trying to grapple with who you are and you're wrestling, who am I? Do I have a purpose? It comes back to this truth. In the beginning, God, he is the architect of all life. He's the builder of life. He's the sustainer of life. Mighty, majestic God in the beginning.

God. It all comes back to who he is. He created the heavens and the earth. He created all beginnings. This one verse explains the origins of the universe. What schools try to teach kids today can be taught in just one verse. Amen. God created it. The origins of life come back to who he is. It affirms that God alone is eternal and he was there in the beginning. That all existence actually comes back to who he is. What's fascinating about this first verse of the Bible is it tells us about Jesus.

Jesus was there in the beginning. For John, one of Jesus disciples decides to write the biography of Jesus life. And in the opening line, John decides to use this phrase in the beginning talking about Jesus. In the beginning was the word in Greek that is logos. In the Greek philosophy they can identify at the time of Jesus birth it was a Greco Roman society. It was an intelligent world and they looked at the order of nature and they could see there was some order. They can see the sun came up in the same direction and it went down in the same place. They could see seeds had had a particular order and a structure.

And they looked at it and they said it's logos. It's the word. There's a there's a structure to this. And and John says actually if you want to know this word, it's Jesus. In the beginning was the word. You could just replace that with Jesus. In the beginning was Jesus and the the word Jesus was with God and the word Jesus was God. And so John tells us he was in the beginning with God. Meaning before anything was Jesus was all things were made through him and without him was not anything that was made. Jesus was active in the creating with the father and with the Holy Spirit. So we see in Genesis 1:2, the earth was without form and void and the darkness was over the face of the deep and the

spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The spirit of God, we watch the spirit woven throughout the scriptures. We see in Exodus when the spirit meets in the tabernacle eventually in the temple that we have one God and three persons, the father, the son, and the holy spirit uniquely perfectly united as one. And so we see the spirit in Hebrew, the ruach, that is the the the wind, the breath, the very thing that makes humanity different because we have the ruach. We have the spirit, the breath of God inside of us. And this spirit was hovering where it seemed like there was chaos. So it is not true with God. He controls all things. When we see chaos, he's completely in control and he knows what he's doing. The spirit is working.

And in the very next verse, verse three, so creation begins. And God said he didn't have to work. It didn't take him time. He He didn't have to figure out how to do this. God said it. Let there be light. And there was what? Light. He said it and it happens. God speaks and he creates. The first thing he does is he brings light. This is a message for someone today. We have a God of illumination. We have a God that reveals. We have a God of light. John says in chapter one, the light came into this world. the light stepped into the darkness and his name is Jesus Christ. We have a God that's not afraid of the darkness. We have a God that actually releases light into the darkness. We have a God that's able to do all things.

And I believe today God is telling someone, "Let there be light. You've had darkness in your mind too long. God is going to speak light into your head." You've had darkness in your soul too long. God is speaking to someone today. Let there be light. You've had darkness in your life surrounding you for too long. And God says, "Let there be light." We have a God that wants to illuminate your life. Oh, the enemy has been trying to trap you for too long. Oh, he tried to not just get our nation, he tried to get the world over the pandemic. Let us not forget all that we just went through. We went through some dark times. Don't you forget it. You let God speak into it. Let there be light. And there was light. God's not finished with you yet.

You feel like you're in a dark season right now. Don't worry. He's able to bring light. All you got to do is hear his word, believe his word, and you're going to see he's going to bring light. You say, "This is impossible." You say, "I haven't seen it before." Don't worry. He's the God of impossible. In the beginning, God, don't you try to figure this out. You can't fathom the eternal God. You have a beginning and you have an end. It's the eternal God that brings forth the light. He's going to bring light into your family. He's going to bring light into your workplace. He's going to bring light to this city. He's going to bring light to this church. He's the creator. He's the lightbringer. And that's what he does. Jesus says in John chapter 8, "I'm the light of the world. Anyone who follows Jesus will not

walk in darkness. You'll have the light of life. In the Psalms, Psalm 119, we read, "The word of God is like a lamp for our feet. It's a it's a light for our path." You You want to follow God, you get into his word. He speaks it and it happens. This God has made himself known as the lightgiver. The very first thing he does is give us light. Jesus before he went to the cross he prayed such an intimate powerful prayer to the father and it's like he remembered that day in John 17:5 Jesus is praying he said and now father glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

You see, it's it's hard to fathom before anything was. God was so great, so glorious. He didn't need anything. He was glorious, great God. And Jesus said, "I want the world to know this glorious God. Before anything was, I was almighty. This God revealed himself, made himself known." And Jesus wants us to be one with him just as he was one with the father before anything began. The writer of Hebrews says of Jesus, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his

power. After making purification for sins, this is what Jesus has done. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. The light came into the darkness. Lived a sinless life. Went to the cross. He gave his life for us. He paid the price for every single one of your sins. He died. He was buried. And on the third day, rose from the grave by the power of the Holy Spirit. that that same Holy Spirit that is in you is the same Holy Spirit that hovered. This is what we have in Jesus who ascended into heaven is now at the right hand of God. Paul tries to put it into words when he says to the Colossians, "For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or

dominions or rulers or authority, all things were created through him and for him. and he is before all things and in him all things hold together. When you believe in Jesus, you're believing in almighty God. Don't ever think small of Jesus. Don't let the the world try to deceive you that you can somehow have Jesus figured out. He holds all things together. It starts here by believing who God is. The writer of Hebrews says this is what faith really is. Faith in Hebrews 11:3, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God. So that what is seen is not made out of things that are visible.

We cannot come up with a different conclusion other than in the beginning God in the beginning God he did this work. He finalized this work. God is so good in whatever he does over and over in chapter one. When God creates, he says it's good for God is good. We see it with the light in Genesis 1:4. And God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness. So many times all we see is the darkness. God sees the potential. Amen. and he says that it is good. God looks at your life and he sees the potential and he sees what he's doing

and he says it is good. Genesis reminds us that God can do absolutely anything. How often do we limit who God is because we don't see it right now? If we would only see what God has done and say, "This is good." If we would only look back at this one verse and say, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, we would understand he can do anything." In that opening line in Genesis 1:1, in the original language, the Hebrew, it's made up of seven words. The number seven in the Hebrew culture is incredibly important. It's the number of perfection, the number of completion, wholeness.

These first seven words in Hebrew of the Bible in Genesis 1:1 are known as the sacred seven. For in these seven words, we see all of creation in just seven words. We see the potential of what God's able to do in seven words. We see who God is in just seven words. This chapter is set apart in all the book of Genesis. It's it will not read the same as we go through this book. It's really a prologue. It's a poetic picture of who God is and what he's able to do. In fact, we see each day corresponds with the start and another day completes. For example, in in in day one, we see that God creates light and that's day. But in day four, it's completed when the Lord finishes with the sun, the moon, and the stars.

We see the sky and the waters are made in day two, but they're completed with day five with the fish and the birds. We see the land and the vegetation is created in day three, but it's completed with day six with the abundance of animals and finally the culmination that is human beings, the highest of all creation. Whenever God speaks, it happens. He speaks to the air and birds begin to soar. He speaks to the sea and the fish starts swimming. He speaks to the land and all of a sudden there are animals everywhere. When he speaks, it happens. And he doesn't stop there. He sustains.

When we read the first two chapters of Genesis, this is not to prove creation. Some want to break this up. And I I want to just recognize I I'm not going to answer all of your questions today. I don't have the time to spend days and days and days trying to convince you of who God is and what he's done. I want to be faithful to what God shared with me that I would share with you and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work. So, if you're expecting me to say a particular thing, more than likely I'm not going to say that thing. But what I do want to point out is we're not here to prove that God created everything or even prove God's existence.

He does that himself. When we begin to look at this book, the Bible explains that it starts with God. He is the founder of all things and he holds all things together. And Moses writes this at the beginning at He writes this at a time in history when people were floundering. That's a polite way of saying they were just doing the dumbest things. You see what someone else is doing and it looks like they're prosperous, so I'm going to do that as well. Or a large group of people are doing it, so if the masses are doing it, it must be right. So God had to give them a word to say, don't do what everyone else is doing. Just come back to the basics. I am God. There is no other God. I am there in the beginning. And some of us have to come back to that basics. We have to come back to the beginning. No matter what's

happening in your life, don't seek another way. Come back to the beginning. It's about God. In the beginning, God just start there. Stop there. Keep coming back to this place. God reminds us that we cannot create our own image of God. If we project what we think God should be like, that's no God at all. You're made in God's image. And he does not make mistakes. Everything God made was good. And what we see at the culmination of creation, what was so spectacular was not the wonderful animals like the giraffe or the elephant, both of which are amazing.

It wasn't the whale or the dolphin, which is my favorite. It certainly wasn't the cute little creatures that roam to and fro. You It wasn't the little puppy dogs. It wasn't the kitty. It was in Genesis 1:26 and 27 when God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." And here's how humankind will be different. Let them have dominion over the fish and the sea and over the birds of the heavens. Now, heavens can be described as as a place or can be described as the sky. Here it's described as the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on

the earth. So this is what God does. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. Moses wanted to point out that God is the creator of man and woman. Male and female. Amen. This was God's idea from the very beginning. This is what God does. He created the man. He created the woman. It was his idea. It was not nature's idea. It was not man's idea. We need to learn this and learn it well. In the beginning, God, he created the heavens and the earth. It was God that created the male and the female. Equal in his eyes, entirely different. The male and the female.

Learn this. and learn this well. Teach this to your children. Don't allow the world to teach your children about gender. Allow God [Applause] listen. I mean no offense by this. None. I realize I will say things and I will say it with a conviction and it will come across as hatred or anger. I mean no offense by this because today there are dozens of different genders that one can choose. And when you sign up for college, when you sign up for a passport, when you when you're filling out your job application, it will ask you your genders, male, female, or you can choose a third box option. There's only two options with God. There's no agender, there's no non-binary, there's no transgender, there's no gender fluid.

And I've got to explain this because this is a reality that's happening in our culture. And it's not some, it's many. At some point, it will be your family member, a friend, a co-orker that will identify with a different gender. You're not to argue this into them. It's the revelation of who God is. If you don't believe who God is, we can't argue about gender. God created male and he created female. He loves both. And the problem is when we don't find our identity in him, we find our identity in this world. And this is what the devil does. He starts in the womb. If your parents question whether you should exist, the devil starts going after you even in the very womb. We get confused about the way things are. We start to listen to what people have said about us. Maybe it was a parent, maybe it was a coach, maybe it

was a teacher, maybe it was a neighbor, maybe it was a family member, maybe it was a friend. Somewhere someone plants a negative seed in our mind who we are. And if you don't come back to the reality of whose you are, then you'll come up with your own conclusion. God loves you. Even in your confusion, even in your frustration, even if you wonder, "Why am I in this body?" And you're not happy with the body that God gave you. This body is temporary. This is just a tent. We're on a journey to a heavenly home. So don't get focused on this world. Let's get focused on something greater that is God. [Applause]

We see the purpose of this creation between male and female in Genesis 2:18. Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him." Why did God just not stop with man? God knew that we were never intended to be alone because we have one God and three persons. God knew that there's that the the perfect uh unity of who he is should be expressed in who we are. In fact, you are never intended to be alone. It is the greatest tool of the enemy that is isolation. That if you're going through any problem, any pain, if you would just keep it to yourself, the devil will keep working on that. You are not intended to do life alone. I am not saying that you have to be married because we see many examples in the scriptures. It doesn't mean that you

have to be married. It means you have to be in community. It's one of our core values here at Journey Church that we want to be community creators. That's why Pastor Brad was up here earlier saying we have spent a great deal of time and emphasis to say we're trying to create small groups so that you would get in one. Now, you don't have to wait for us to be in a small group. You're made for this. What's a small group? It's three or more people. Why do I say three? Because if it's two people, it's a date. Don't make it awkward. You got to at least have three. At Journey Church, we try to say, "Listen, you don't just meet just to meet. We use an ESPN model, not the sports model, but we we we want to encourage one another. We want you to use scripture. We want you to pray, and we want you to take next steps to grow in your faith." ESPN. We want you to take the steps of of where God wants you

to be. So, you should get in a small group. You can get in a group with people who are in the same season of life you. You can get in a group of people with people older than you so you can learn from them. You can get in group with people younger than you so you could actually God can use you to to help other people. The point is that you would just be in community. It's not good that we would be alone. God had a great idea when he made male and female. A helper does not mean that the man is weak. It just is to identify that we need each other. Calling the woman a helper or a helpmate does not mean that she's any lesser than. It means that she's capable. It means that we need each other in this world. That God had a plan. It doesn't mean that these roles are equal. It means we're equal in God's eyes. It

means we're different. Now, if we just look at this physiologically, we can see that God had an idea. We try to recreate God's idea. Today, we try to have an idea that a male and a male can have a family with children, or a female and a female can have family with children, or something in between. But if we were to look just physiologically how this happens and you were to look at a naked male and a naked female, you'd say, "Oh, that works. They fit together." Sort of like a puzzle piece, if you will. You don't have to force it. When the male and the female get married, as was the case when my wife and I got married, it doesn't take long.

Less than a year later, the female's body shapes and changes, and next thing you know, there's no longer two, but there's three. It's truly a miracle of God. It never seems to amaze me when a woman is carrying a child. Like, I just still freak out. Like, there's a human being inside of you. That's wild. Now, we've had three human beings in our family. And I know what it does to a woman. It sucks the life out of her. Literally, that child is like sucking all the nutrients and the life from from the woman. Now, I I'm not highly academic or anything, but what I have grown to understand is the male absolutely cannot carry a child.

Now, this doesn't mean we don't try to identify or call uh a female a male, but it just works. The anatomy, the parts of the body, it it works. And the reason it works is it was it was God's idea. But the devil does not want you to focus on God's idea. The devil is so slick. So what he wants to do is say, well, if you're a man and you can't have a child, you should want what she has. And if you're a woman and you can carry a child, you should want what he has. And all of a sudden, we start going after what the other person has. And it's not just male and female. This this will happen our entire lives. And it will, by the way, ruin your life.

Instagram has only encouraged this. What begins to happen is you say, "I'm not satisfied with my skin color. I'm too dark. I'm too light. I'm not satisfied with my skin in general. I have too many freckles. I don't have enough freckles. One of my kids loves to put freckles on her face with makeup. I wish I had more freckles. Why couldn't you guys give me more freckles? We don't like our skin color. We don't like our hair color. We don't like our hair texture. It's too curly. It's too straight. It's too thick. It's too thin. It seems to always be the opposite of whatever you have. My body's too wide. It's too narrow. I'm too tall. I'm too short. I have too much hair on my toes.

Is that just me? It's all over the place. It's amazing what will begin to happen if you don't like what God created. You will want something different and it will literally ruin your life and you'll begin to project it on other people. You'll project it on your parents. You'll project it on on a person you marry. You'll even project it on your kids. you'll project it on yourself and you will not believe that you're made in God's image. And if you don't come back to the beginning, in the beginning, God, what begins to happen is we come up with our own conclusion. And Isaiah, he paints the picture perfectly. He says, "Shall the potter," and he's talking about God being the potter, "be regarded as the clay," he's talking about us being the clay. Shall the potter be regarded as the clay that the thing made

should say of its maker, he did not make me or the thing formed. Say to of him who formed it, you have no understanding. Meaning, I don't like what you've done. I don't like what you've said. So, I'm going to come up with a different conclusion. I get to be my own potter. I get to choose what this clay will look like. And Isaiah warns us of this. You're just the clay. The potter has full full authority to just smash the clay. But what the potter would like to do is to form the clay because you're beautiful and and the potter wants to take you and mold you and make you who he wants you to be. And sometimes we just don't understand this. And life can be miserable. Life can be hard. And sometimes we see such a limited

perspective because we stand in time, not outside of time. Like Job who just had a very difficult life. And he begins to question God. And God responds to Job in chapter 38:4. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Do do you really understand what it's like to be eternal and to have a great idea and create the universe? Oh, you don't? Then you don't question me about it. You see, when it starts with God, it continues with God. And when you get this, like Job, you can just so powerfully praise God by saying, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." I don't understand it, but I'm going to praise him anyways.

So, if I have something, God gave it to me. If I don't have something, God allows me not to have something. But what I do know is I came into this world with nothing. What I also know is when you die, you take nothing with you. So you might as well live for something much greater. That is the blessed name of the Lord, which is eternal. I speak this over you today. God made you. He loves you. And he does not make mistakes. There might need to be some tremendous healing in your life. Every one of us has trauma that we have to deal with. We have a great healer. The one that created you wants to heal you so that you understand who you are. You don't need to try to be someone else. And if somewhere in there you want to be someone that God didn't make, just keep coming back to who God is

cuz what he makes is always good. I love the last line of chapter 1 says, "And God saw everything that he had made and behold it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning on the sixth day." Moses seems to step in and say is it's not just good in the sense of being good because some of us know that sometimes good is not good. You know, if you do an art piece and you ask someone, "Hey, what do you think of my art piece?" And they say, "Good. We know that uh I've seen better. So Moses speaks into this. If you would just step back and look what God did in six days, it was very good.

He he he uses a a phrase that we would step back and say, "How do you know it's very good?" Well, the very next thing God does is he shows us the rhythm that we need to do in our life. He steps back and on the seventh day he reflects on all that he did. He reflects and he teaches this rhythm and we see this from this point forward. I still believe this today. It's it's why our family went on a sabbatical recently. You need to take a rhythm of reflection because when you reflect, you get to see God more accurate accurately for who he is. This is what Genesis 2 1 2 and 3 says. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. We have a God that finishes and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God

rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Some of us need to pause and rest. You know, God did not rest because he was tired. God did not rest because he was exhausted. God did not rest because he was burned out. God rested to reflect on the reality of the way things are. He was present. Some of us get so busy in this world that when it comes to a Sabbath day, we can't even rest. Y'all tried to rest at your home and then you realize how much of a mess there is. So, you got to work at home on the day you're supposed to rest. Come on, preach to yourself. Come on. You You don't have to clean that toilet on your day off. It's time for you to rest. It's time for you to reflect. It's time for you to stand back because some

of you think God's not even working, but you're too busy to see where God's working. He said, "Let there be light." Just sit back, reflect, and look at where there's light right now. He said it. You could believe it. Come on. But if you don't put this into practice, you will miss it. And if you make it legalistic, you'll become like the Pharisees. And Jesus said, "Listen, Sabbath was never intended to be a religious rule. We were not created for the Sabbath day. The Sabbath was created for us." And Jesus says, "He is the Lord of the Sabbath." But Satan wants to destroy what God has done and what he says. And so we see in Genesis chapter 3 chapter 3:1, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, did God actually say, "You

shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" You see, Moses when he writes about God, he says, "In the beginning, God, he introduces God as the creator." There's no introduction to Satan here. He just slithers into the human's life. Do you notice they don't even question him? Hey, who are you by the way? Why are you questioning my almighty God? Instead, he slips into their life and he begins to question and challenge, did God really say? Now, when we continue to read the story, the woman said to the serpent, and by the way, when Satan slips into your life, you should be able to identify him and don't even talk to him. And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden." Because Satan was trying to say, "You can't eat of any of this." And

she says, "No, no, no. We can eat of all of it." But God said, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." Now, it's interesting here because if you read the whole thing in context, God never said, "Don't touch it." He just said, "Don't eat it." She added to the word of God. We've got to be careful when we don't fully understand God's word. But the serpent said to the woman, "You shall not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit of its tree, and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. and they sewed fig leaves together and made

themselves loin cloths. Here we have the origin of sin. No other religion brings us back to the reality that sin started as a rebellion against God and his word. We have the origins of why things are so messed up right here. It begins with God. Some would say, "Well, why would God do this? Why would he Why would he cause one tree not to be eaten of? Why Why would he allow such a thing? God gives us a a free will and a free choice. He did not create us to be robotic or just a He didn't create us to force us to follow him. He wants us to do it because he's good. This leaves much to the imagination. I've got to wonder like a good parent, would it have

been at just the right time when they matured, when they understood, when they trusted him? At the right time, would God have said, "Now it's time to eat of this tree." Sometimes God sets rules so that we would have boundaries and grow in the understanding that he's God and we're not. God gives them so much, but the enemy wants to come and say, "Well, what you don't have is what you should go after." Do you know God has given you so much as well? And so many times we look at what we don't have and we start to lust after it. And the longer you look at it, the more you're going to want it. So if you're not happy in your marriage, you be very careful not to look at someone else. Because if you look at it too long, you're going to lust after it. You're going to say, "They'd be a better spouse than mine. That would be a better house than mine. I need more money than I You You'll start to long for it.

You'll start to look for it. It's like a bug. Can I just compare you to a bug for just a moment? Why not? Isn't it amazing with bug zappers? You ever seen these bug zappers that go on porches? You got a bug that has the entire world to fly and occupy. The entire world. You could go everywhere. Anywhere you want to go, bug. Anywhere. Where does a bug want to go? Blue light. Ah. Ah, it's so beautiful. Don't do it, George. Frank did it yesterday and he's not around anymore.

[Music] Come on. You got the whole garden. You got everything God made you. and you want to touch the one tree you're not supposed to touch. Don't pretend that you haven't gone to the bug zapper. It starts as a baby. It goes into our adolescence, into our adulthood. If you're not careful, you're going to constantly want what you don't have. That's what Satan does. You know, the word devil just means deceiver. He's a liar. Jesus says it's his native tongue. He's so good at lying. It's why he got kicked out of heaven. He didn't want to worship God. He wanted to be worshiped. He could not follow the one thing that God is God is worthy. Instead, he wanted to make himself worthy. And so, we see

sin entered the world. And Satan got cursed. The world got cursed. We as humanity got cursed. But I'll tell you this about our God. This was not a surprise to him. There is nothing in this world that is a surprise to God. I know it's a surprise to us and it still messes us up. Why, God? Why? If you knew that, why? Why? Why? You can ask God why until you're blue in the face. But the problem is he's sovereign. He's perfect. He knows what he's doing. He had a solution for sin from the beginning. In Genesis 3:15, God is speaking to the devil. He says, "I will put an enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." We see the image of Jesus, the solution for sin, that Jesus

is going to defeat the devil. We see that all of a sudden in God's plan that even if we mess it up, he has a plan. Isaiah prophesied. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel. God did it. Born of a woman. What he said in Genesis chapter 3, he has fulfilled. Jesus did it. He did not give into sin. Satan tried to tempt him just like he tempts us. But instead, Jesus whipped out the word of God and he won every single time. And you could do the same thing in your life. Know the word of God. Believe the word of God. Use the word of God. Don't allow the devil to twist it, to pervert it, to to come up with a different conclusion than what God has said. He loves you.

The promise and the authority of Jesus is the God of peace. That's who God is. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. See, the book of Genesis reminds us that God is God and you are not. The book of Genesis reminds us that in the beginning, God. It reminds us it's not about me. It's all about God. When I make this world about me, I get confused. And we see this. We'll see this in this book. It's absolutely fantastic. I don't know about you, but sometimes I say this world couldn't get any more messed up than it is. There's some weird, gross, perverted, dirty, awful, evil things in this world. Would you all agree with that? Okay, go read the book of Genesis and you'll be like, "Oh, this has been happening for a long time." You'll read some of this, be like, "This

is this is weird." Yeah. Just like the world we're living in because sin is sin is sin. The devil's tricks are not new. God is constantly wanting you to see himself through his eyes, not your eyes. See, this changes everything. When you do, you'll see like in man's eyes, you're too old to have a kid, in God's eyes, he can do anything. Just just ask Abraham and Sarah. See, in our eyes, if you've been abused, you're counted out. You've been used and abused by people. You think, why would God allow this? You just go ask Joseph that what man intended for evil, God will use for good. He still loves you.

You get into this book and you'll start to understand that where you are, you're never too young to serve God. You're never too old to serve God. Wherever you are, you don't have to have the right credentials. You don't have to be smart enough or talented enough. If you're willing to be used by God, he will use you. He will use whomever is willing to surrender their life to God. Listen, he will use a drunk. You could be defined by the whole world as a drunk, but that's not how God sees you. It It's time to not try to be sober. It's time for you to surrender your whole life to God. There's a big difference. If you're trying to be sober for everyone else, you're doing it for the wrong reasons. God made you. He loves you. He has a purpose and a plan. And the moment you surrender your life to the Lord, you're no longer a drunk. You're a child of God.

He could use a prostitute who gave her life to so many different men who is defined by the entire world. This is who you are. But God doesn't see you as a prostitute. He sees you with the potential. You're my child. You're my daughter. You're my son. This is who you are in my eyes. I love you. I made you. I formed you. I knit you together in your mother's womb. I did that. Your parents didn't do it. So if you thought you were an accident, God says, "Uh-uh. I made you. And whatever I make, it's so very good. God loves you so much." Some of you say, "But I don't feel it. I don't feel it." It's what Pastor David was saying earlier when we talk about the goodness

of God. And you come here and say, "But I don't feel the goodness of God." I just I have to tell you just the same thing about genders. It's not about feelings. It's about faith. God is greater than your feelings. Feelings will come and go like the tides of the ocean. Be careful not to make decisions based on your feelings. Do it based on the fact of your faith. So whether you have feelings or not towards God, God loves you. He made you and God is God. Sometimes you got to keep coming back to Genesis 1:1. If you don't have that memorized, go back and memorize that one verse. Memorize it and memorize it. So much so that no matter what happens in your life, you can keep coming back. In the beginning, God. Cuz the Bible starts with God and it ends with God. It starts in a garden and ends with a garden. You long for a garden. You may not know it, but God made you for more.

And what I'm talking about is eternal life. A garden with no weeds, no thorns. It will never die. You forever get to enjoy the pleasure of God. But you got to keep coming back to God. Maybe like David, this will be the last verse I share with you today. David who he messed up, but he comes back to God and says, "Creat in me a clean heart, oh God." You know what David got? I know the creator. I may be messed up now, but he's the God of new beginnings. He won't leave me where I am. Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Renew a right spirit within me. And if you want to do that today, you can have that right now. He will give you a new heart. He will give you a new spirit. He will give you a fresh new eyes of perspective. If you've never done that today, today's

the day. Do it right now. Don't wait for another day. Some of you need to come back to that reality that God wants to do something new. So, I want to ask you just close your eyes right where you are. I'm going to ask you if you've never believed in Jesus, right now is your time. It's really simple. Jesus said you got to believe it like a child that he is who he said he is. If you want to receive the gift of salvation today, the gift of forgiveness of your sins, that you can have it. You just need to believe it and start following Jesus. If that's you, would you just throw up your hand? I want to pray with you. I want to thank God for that decision today. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Praise God. Praise God. Changes everything. He loves you so much. Anyone else? Just raise your hand right where you are. You can put your hand down. I want to pray with you. Just pray these words in your heart. You don't even need to say them out loud. God, here's your heart. Lord, I believe in you. I trust you today. Forgive me of my sins. I need you, Lord. You are God. I need you. Help me to see you more clearly. Help me to follow you. I receive salvation. I receive the gift of eternal life in my heart. I receive the Holy Spirit, God himself, the one that spoke all things into existence. Can be in me. Although I may not have it figured out, I believe. I believe.

Lord, I just pray for your church that we would just come back to the basics. Lord, through your Holy Spirit, may we bear much fruit. May you give us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. That we wouldn't argue with the world. We would just try to be like you, Jesus. It would keep coming back to who you are and what you've done. Jesus, you said this was your idea that what God has put together, let not man separate. So, I just I pray that prayer today for the marriages that look like they're on the brink. For the for the divorces and the healing that's happening, you're the great healer, the great physician. You can do anything. You're in the redemption business.

That's who you are. You restore. You even resurrect that which looks dead. May we not forget you're the resurrection, the life, the light of the world. We receive you today, your church. We we allow you to be the head in Jesus name. Amen. And amen.