Before we get into our message I'm gonna make one comment about one kind of cultural thing.
I did not know until after it happened that the Grammys were this past week.
How many of us knew that the Grammys happened? Not very many. We had one.
In case you didn't watch it and it turns out that fewer and fewer people are actually watching the Grammys, the ratings keep going down.
I actually think in large part because they can't seem to get out of their own way with some of their performances.
Case in point, a performer by the name of Sam Smith during the Grammys this past week put on a performance that really for a secular society like the one that we live in,
still kind of shocked a lot of people with just how openly and overtly satanic and grossly perverse it was.
They didn't even hide the imagery, they didn't hide the colors, they didn't hide all of the various elements to a more satanic type of performance.
That used to be found more on the fringe of the hardest kind of metal rock and roll or really a little bit more underground kinds of things.
This was very mainstream. He's a very mainstream performer. It was on a mainstream network and it was the awards ceremony and it was very open and it was applauded.
On Twitter when Sam Smith tweeted about how he was getting ready for his performance, I think it was NBC. NBC hosted the Grammys this year.
NBC replied and said something to the effect of looking forward to it, now it's the time to worship.
So they were even using very worship-like language for a performance that they would have known was going to be the type that it was.
Really we shouldn't be too shocked that the ruler of this world is going to have performances that honor him.
We really shouldn't be too shocked that the ruler of this world is going to have followers that are going to want to, whether ironically or openly or in symbolism of the self or whatever the various reasons they claim,
we really shouldn't be surprised by it, that it exists. It's a little surprising of just how quickly it's become mainstream and that these are the same networks, the same performers, the same kind of influencers that in other arenas are directly targeting really young kids.
So if they get introduced to one, they get into the other. I want to bring this to your attention not because we want to highlight the darkness of this world, but a reminder that we do have a great controversy raging around us.
As Christians, as Seventh-day Adventist Christians, we believe that the ruler of this world usurped that title, that the ruler of this world, the Prince of Darkness, is a liar, a murderer, a thief, is prideful and self-seeking.
He desires nothing good for us and that Christ himself has already declared him a defeated foe. I say praise God for that.
I also share this with you because I continue to feel impressed that we need to not lose sleep over it, but be aware of what's going on so we can appropriately shield ourselves and our young ones from such influences.
If they happen to make their own choices, that's one thing, but I believe as Christians we should denounce evil, we should denounce darkness, we should say that it's not good for society to worship satanic imagery and messaging.
That's not good. It ends in an eroding of society, it ends in an eroding of humanity, it ends with more immorals and more unethical behaviors. It just breaks apart all things that are good.
And because our Heavenly Father only desires that which is good, then we should encourage people to reject the one and seek the other. And I pray that that would be more of our emphasis, not to highlight the bad, but say don't look there, highlight the good.
Seek righteousness, seek Jesus and what our Heavenly Father desires of us. So with that being said, that's just my little PSA. That's probably good that very few of us actually knew the Grammys happened.
You're really not missing much. Certainly not missing anything wholesome. We're now going to turn our attention to our message for today. We'll say one more brief word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for the inspiration throughout the ages on men and women to have penned words from heaven. And we pray that today as we open up this bread of life, I pray that you would drive home an uplifting message and you would dispel any confusion that we might have.
We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. In the 1960s, weather statisticians were trying to do something that I think they're still trying to do today. How many of us find the weather to be consistent around here?
Certainly not this time of year. I just looked, I think it was only three days ago and there was supposed to be a wintry mix today. It was supposed to be a high in like the mid-30s or something. It's going to be much warmer than that. It's going to be kind of gloomy and what it is outside right now.
How often have the meteorologist put something on the local news or you've gone to the weather channel or you've opened up your app on your phone and you've made plans based on the forecast only to be greatly disappointed?
I think so. In this area of the country, I think in particular, businesses and schools during the wintertime close down or alter plans based on the possibility of frozen precipitation. Around here we're not really prepared for it.
We don't really put down all the salt. We don't really have all of the scrapers. It just kind of brings things to a standstill and we really wish they could be a little bit more accurate, don't we?
Well in the 1960s, weather statisticians were trying to do just that and what they were doing is they were developing and proposing various models for predicting the weather and what they were doing is this.
They were looking throughout history and looking at all of the data that they had available for various weather conditions and what happened in history.
They were then trying to say that's going to happen now. If the humidity was a certain percentage, the heat was a certain percentage, etc.
That will happen today and so they were developing models along these lines. One meteorology professor by the name of Edward Lorenz was also trying to do the same thing.
He was studying weather patterns but he noticed something. What he noticed led him to develop a model that demonstrated something a little different.
What he noticed was that other statisticians seemed to only be working with constants.
If it was always this constant data set, then it was going to be this and he goes, well weather's not constant.
So he worked with a model that altered minor fractions of fractions of decimal points but everything else was kind of the same.
His weather model would have a weather system starting two models in the exact same location with everything else the same except he would change one of those factors by a fraction of a fraction of a decimal.
Then he would let the model go to work. All this computer model would do all of its various calculations and what he learned is that by the end of it you could have floods and tornado activity in the southeast.
Or you could have a high pressure beautiful blue sky with sun and heat and everyone is out and about.
Just by changing the tiniest of the tiniest of things and what he was suggesting is that because weather forecasting is extremely complex.
His suggestion was that it's virtually impossible to actually predict something so complex.
He called this theory sensitive dependence on initial conditions when he introduced this work to the public in 1963 sensitive dependence on initial conditions is very scientific ease for something you and I might better know it as which is the butterfly effect.
The butterfly effect fleshed out a little bit further suggests that one minor change here can down the road have a nonlinear effect in a in a great and significant way by the time it comes to fruition are we following me.
So it was something like this in the most extreme case someone says if a butterfly flaps its wings in India rather than sitting on a flower you'll cause a tornado in Kansas.
That's a rather extreme way of looking at this but the suggestion is the tiniest of things have nonlinear effects on other elements in nature.
To us they don't seem to be connected but he proposed that they were the butterfly effect.
Kind of took hold now what professor Lorenz was really trying to say is not that we're getting predictions wrong he's saying we actually have no idea how it would go because we can't fathom the effect tiny changes have.
That's the butterfly effect.
They turned it into some kind of a mediocre movie starring Ashton Kutcher but that really doesn't matter for us today.
When we're looking at the rest of nature. Can we think of another theory that has suggested minor changes over a broad nonlinear period of time has resulted in significant changes inside of nature.
Minor alterations here carried out in a nonlinear ish way and in major changes at the end.
Evolution exactly it's something like this if it's if it's one Celsius little different here than that means that that puddle of slime develops protozoa which then develops the ability to split which then develops into and then it develops into and then you get legs and frogs amphibians.
Birds are reptiles birds and so on and so on you have to forgive me I'm not up on my evolutionary process. I didn't study that in depth.
But that's kind of the idea that is prevalent at that that is the most widely accepted theory behind how all that we know came into being a small change here carried out and it in a significant change down there and a nonlinear kind of way.
Now that means I think I heard this just recently there there is a new suggestion now that if you look at the genes of humans the genes of chimps and the genes of mushrooms that genetically we're closer to mushrooms than we are to chimps.
I mean you might like a portobello sandwich.
But I don't think that we want to you know consider that portobello sandwich the same thing as cannibalism of our farthest distant cousins I don't think that's where we need to go.
I don't like the idea really it's always been a little unsettling to me when I when I look at the rest of nature and I see the gaps that we see we don't really have any kind of evidences of the macro evolutions that are proposed from one species into an entirely different species.
I certainly don't see a really clear relationship between a chicken or a mushroom and myself and I would propose to you that not only should that be relegated purely to the dumpster bin of theories that have never really borne out and been proven but we should look instead to the
word of God because if we are Bible believing people and I pray that you and I are and the evidence that you're here today suggests you're at least a dabbling with that idea then we get more from the word of God than just what is popular with regards to our
beginnings. We will go we're going to go to Genesis chapter one in case you are a guest and a visitor with us this is number three in an ongoing series titled from the beginning to the end and we've really dug kind of deep into Genesis chapter one first
verse one then verse two we're going to do something a little different today and we're going to cover several verses together we're going to cover days one of creation to the first portion of day six but John chapter one is our springboard into that
because John chapter one talks about the beginning of the world in a way deeply profound and John uses a word in fact he uses logos the word for word in Greek and he applies it to Christ in the beginning was the word the word was with God the word was God he was in the
beginning with God again like our first sermon John like Moses doesn't bother trying to explain how we know that God was in the beginning predates the beginning pre exists everything else he just says in the beginning word capital W and in the beginning
that word is who we know as Jesus and that word was not only with God but was God and then in verse three our springboard all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in the first part of verse four in him was life
Jesus Christ was the embodiment of the word of God the divine logic of the universe the the starting point to all that you and I know and love and experience and feel and can alter and change and be creative with Jesus was that active agent in the beginning
and so rather than looking at the butterfly effect and how it plays out in nature we're going to consider the logos effect and how the logos effect bore out in nature and what that means for you and I today we're going to start or we're going to kind of along the way this is going to be a pop quiz of sorts let's see how well we do this is I don't always ask for for responses but this is this is one of those moments where I'm going to be
this is one of those moments where I'm going to I'm going to ask you questions along the way please feel free shout it out okay we'll have a little bit of fun with this a pop quiz what was created according to the scripture on day one light the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter one in verse three and God said let there be light and there was light God saw the light was good God separated the light from the darkness you see in the beginning of the beginnings everything was darkness and water and
kind of chaotic and so forth the first thing that God does is he says let there be light God inserts a light into what is just darkness by the word of God by the logos effect light comes into our world we take away from the first day of creation the fact that Jesus speaks light into your life it is very
often confusing and chaotic and we stumble along maybe we put our hands out like this trying to feel our way through this mess that we call life and we would love to have clarity the word of God brings that clarity into your life so when you start each day when you look at each week when you are considering where you're going to go according to his
will and not yours are you asking for that light the clarity the brightness that that shines on the path are you asking for what God's word what that logos effect can bring into your life God said let there be light and there was light pop quiz question number two what was
created on day two air anybody else have a more nuanced answer firmament what did the firmament do separates the waters in the beginning there was only just waters then we had light next God said let there be waters above and let there be waters below
firmament in between God's putting boundaries between those waters they have now different purposes it's believed we can kind of hypothesize some of this it's believed that before the flood there was more water in the atmosphere than we currently know than we currently
experience additional water in the atmosphere changes the composition of this of the atmosphere of the firmament it's believed that we had a higher concentrations of some gases than we presently do that the extra water in the upper portions of the firmament also made it a little bit more like a greenhouse effect
which then it makes sense that animals plants humans would have grown larger than we currently are if you've got a higher concentration of oxygen a little bit more heat and atmospheric pressure you get all those things a little different than we know today actually is really good
for growth and health that's why we can find fossils of long lost living things and they're huge we don't really have anything today that comes close but God said in verse six of chapter one let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters
let's separate waters from waters he made the expanse he separated them so that there was one above and that that was one under he called the one heaven called the expanse heaven now God speaks into your life that log off
and the expanse of the water in fact brings appropriate boundaries and purposes to what otherwise might just be a jumbled mess if you're kind of going through life and you're not sure about your purpose and everything is like confusing and maybe it's a little bit fluid and you're just kind of
going here and kind of go in there turn to God's Word because he can bring a separation to some of the confusion and he can give you boundaries and borders and standards and purpose God's Word can do all of that for you and it's good that we have that
question number three what was created on day three do we see there's a pattern to these questions what was created on day three grass plants what else dry land I think I did I hear someone say dry land very good dry land and plants in other words God
has said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place let dry land appear and he saw that it was very good and after that let the earth sprout vegetation plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed each
according to its kind on the earth you see God is not just arbitrarily nonlinearly placing things where they need to be there is a reason behind each one of this one you need light you can't just live in darkness to you can't just swim around and I don't have gills
you and I can't couldn't have only survived in a planet of water you and I also need to be able to walk on something solid and firm under us God called into existence he said let there be lakes and ponds and oceans and all of this other stuff
let the waters go here let dry land come up and then beautify it because in the end and this is where I know that God had a intentional linear direction with all of this he's preparing a home for his ultimate creation mankind and by that I mean ultimate creation here on earth
the crowning jewel for earth's creation mankind I believe he already had it in his mind the needs of man and he knew that we would need land we would need earth soil beneath our feet and not just soil but he wanted it beautiful for us he wanted food provided
he wanted vegetation and vines and flowers and trees he wanted there to be not a wasteland but he wanted a beautiful home for humans God is a God of creation God is a God of of imagination and beauty and splendor and he knew that we would need something firm to walk on
the word of God tells us that that Jesus is the rock capital R you and I can think maybe we can if you read through you know where he's talking to Peter and he says Peter you are the rock you are your name means rock but on this rock I'll build my kingdom there's two different words there
little pebble and mighty stone Peter is that little pebble you and I are little pebbles we might have some stability for ourselves or for someone else but really if we're not grounded on the capital R Jesus rock and underneath our feet is always going to be shaky underneath our feet is always going to be a little loose a little shifting
a little cracked a little not solid if you want stability in your life if you want if you want beauty in your life if you want food in your life then the Logos effect needs to affect you the word of God brings all of those things stability and beauty and food that's day three
what's day four sun moon and stars let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night let them be for signs and for seasons days and years and so on two great lights we call that the sun and the moon and then we know the stars it's generally believed that what we're talking about is like our corner of the universe so maybe like the Milky Way that's probably a just a simple way of thinking about it the Milky Way so the sun and the moon and the stars and the stars are
in addition to providing light there is there is one other maybe two other really significant purposes that they provide one is they give us time calculation they give us the seasons they give us the days they give us the nights they give us our time cycles and humans from the from way thousands of years ago have calculated that down pretty specifically
but it also gives us direction before we had GPS is on our phone and everyone had one of those in their back pocket how did the sailors or the navigators know where to go the stars in our hemisphere we've got Polaris the North Star that's a that's a fixed point tends to not shift like some of the other constellations and then we also have the sun and the moon we know that the sun rises in the east and it sets in the west and so if it's morning time and it's over here you know
that direction is north and that direction is south and you know that at nighttime if you're traveling by the constellations you can find north you can find where Orion has shifted over here and because it's a little colder you know that's a little slightly different angle you can find direction because of what God brought into existence by his word
Do we see where I'm going? Do you need direction in your life? Do you need fixed points that will guide you along the way and let you know if you're a little off track a degree here or a degree there one degree by the time you get all the way to the end of your journey can take you way off the path. God's word when it speaks into your life will give you direction. It will give you those fixed points that help you guide your seasons help you guide your seasons to the right path.
It will help you guide those eras in your life. It will help take you from one transitioning point to the other and it will get you to your destination. The word of God does that as the logos effect affecting you. Day five. What's day five?
Fish and birds. Very good. Not all animals. Just the fish and the birds. Let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures. Let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the water swarm according to their kinds. Every winged bird according to its kind. And God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply. Fill the waters and the seas and let birds multiply on the earth and so on. God's word
when he spoke into existence he says I've got space up here and waters down there and I don't want it to only be empty. I want to put something there and I don't only want to put something there but I want them to be specific and unique and I want them to have the ability of continuing their lineages on their own.
And put into them the natural instinct of continuing their generations. That's kind of their own way of creating the next generation. And I think we know what I mean by that. God doesn't just look at the space and the arenas in our life and desire them to be empty.
And we see the same thing in the first part of day six. What does he create in the first part of day six? Animals, the land animals, the creeping things, that's the bugs. The elephants, the platypuses or platypi, I don't know which one it is.
The ostriches, the giraffes, the birds of paradise that we know from South America. There are beautiful unbelievably complex and wonderful creatures that fill the air, the sea and the land and they all speak of a God who has purpose and intent and logic behind all that he does.
Maybe you could argue the logic on the platypus or the octopus. I don't know.
Seems like the first one was just kind of like well there's some leftover parts, a little bit of duck, a little bit of koala bear, a little bit of beaver and we'll call it a platypus. I don't know. That one still confuses me.
But each animal is very unique and each animal in its uniqueness sticks with its kind and its kind then can keep having babies to then further the line.
God doesn't just want our world empty. He doesn't want your existence, your experience empty.
I want you to please note that God did not say, let there be an android to fill all of the shelves so that when man comes around he'll have circuit boards for him.
Please note that when God was looking to fill the space and fill the time and fill what he had created, he didn't speak into existence screens and electricity and some of these other things that we have today.
I'm not saying they're bad. I'm just talking about God's purpose. Talking about that in the beginning, God did not see fit to fill our world with anything other than beautiful created nature.
And I would propose to you that if you're wanting to draw closer to God, spend more time in nature than on a circuit board.
If you want to draw closer to God, let the Word of God speak into your life. Let the Word of God affect you wherever you go.
Let the Word of God fill your life with light and appropriate borders and solid ground and beauty and his own fingerprint wherever you look.
Rather than only seeing what man can manipulate and put together out of those things. It doesn't compare.
It really doesn't. And this is not a knock on anyone who loves beautiful cityscapes. My wife will kind of like cityscapes and some of that.
It's not a knock on that. I think some of it's really kind of cool. I like good buildings and so on.
Give me a high peak and a 360 degree view of valleys and trees and rock formations with birds soaring and an elk bellowing in the distance.
Give me that and I will feel so much closer to God. That's what we see.
Now if you're wanting, if you're just kind of looking at something really neat, we're going to move into our second and final point.
God follows a pattern here where in the first three days he does this. Light, separating of waters with air, land and plants.
Then he gives physical bodies that match the light. So we have day one and then we have day four.
We have light and then we actually have the heavenly bodies that give us light.
Then we have air and waters and he fills the air and the waters. Then he gives us dry land, dry land and he fills the dry land.
You cannot read the creation account and come away with accident or happen chance or whim.
This is so clearly purposeful that when God speaks things happen and they are moving in a very steady linear direction, not the butterfly effect.
The Logos effect. Because unlike what the butterfly effect or evolution would propose, God did not operate with a tiny spark and then just kind of letting it ride.
Seeing what happens. There are some people who believe that. They actually believe in a divine creator that started and then stood back completely separate from his creation.
And everything else just kind of happened and did this and did that.
I am so glad that what we read about from the creation account in the Bible is a God who speaks and it was.
He says and it does. There is purpose. There is logic. There is a linear direction.
It cannot be evolution and it cannot be the butterfly effect. It can only be the Logos effect.
It can only be. Speaking of the butterfly effect, our professor friend that theory that he had developed finally took root in academia
and it really kind of inspired many other things. It set the groundwork for an area in mathematics known as chaos theory.
Chaos theory is the attempt at predicting the seemingly unpredictable. That's chaos theory in a nutshell.
I am not a mathematician. Not my strong suit. The last class I took was in 1999. A little while ago.
Chaos theory that you can predict the seemingly unpredictable.
We've already covered the fact that when God speaks, it's not it. When God speaks, it is a linear action.
We also can determine from the creation account that when God speaks, it's not an attempt at predicting the unpredictable.
When God speaks, it's becoming very predictable. Very predictable. God said let there be and there was.
God says God speaks. Logos goes into effect and things happen. Is that predictable or is that unpredictable?
That's predictable. That's very predictable. In fact, if you will turn with me to the book of Psalms, we will see this born out in a beautiful psalm.
Psalm 33.
Psalm 33 speaks of the steadfast love of the Lord. The chesit of God.
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the liar.
Make melody to him with the harp of ten strings. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.
Why? Verse 3 of Psalm 33. For the word of the Lord is upright.
And all his work is done in faithfulness. That is very typical Hebrew parallelism, drawing a combination or a connection between God's word and his works.
When God speaks, things happen. When God says things, it occurs.
He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
And in verse 6 of Psalm 33, here we go. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap and he puts the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood fast.
That is certainly not attempting to predict the unpredictable.
That is certainly not a nonlinear effect. That is very purposeful and it is very direct and it's very predictable.
For he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm.
What does that mean for you and I today? I love the creation account.
I even like reading about the other varieties of creation accounts, if you will, from other cultures and so on, other records that we have.
Some of them are rather fascinating. Some of them are rather grotesque.
What does it mean for you and I?
Aside from what we've already covered, this predictable effect of the Logos effect means that when you come before a God who is described as upright and faithful, righteous and just,
and he declares you forgiven, based on what we've learned, are you forgiven? Absolutely.
Are you forgiven in a roundabout way? No. When God says you are forgiven, does that mean that you need to still carry the burden and try to work it off?
No. When God's word goes into effect and he says, my son, my daughter, are you still a stranger and an enemy to him?
No. When God declares those titles over you and on you and in you, linearly it's going to happen and it's very predictable.
You are his son and daughter when he says so, and you are forgiven when he says so, and when his word says, I will come again and take you home.
Amen. It's predictable.
We can discuss and we can have differing opinions and differing conclusions on so many things if we would like.
I would propose to you that all of God's people should be very settled in this idea.
You are purposefully and wonderfully made by the word of God, and that word of God continues to have an effect in your life in powerful, meaningful, creative ways.
And the word of God is not only for now, but will carry you through all the way to the end.
I would encourage you as sons and daughters of God, as saints of Christ, as his beautiful family and creation,
let the word of God shape you and form you and bring light into your life and give you that foundation and those borders.
Let the word of God speak into your heart and then be.
And then by faith, like we learned with our children, by faith claim the power of that word.
By faith, even when you don't feel it, by faith know that he says and it is.
He speaks and you are. You are forgiven. You are saved and you are a wonderful child of God.
By faith, we claim that even when we don't feel like it, when the world tells us otherwise, when the enemy beats us down,
we can maybe with tears in our eyes and a choked up voice, maybe it takes just just saying it while we're still hurting.
I might feel this way, but God has declared me so. And so I am.
I am his son and I am his daughter and I am forgiven and I am going home.
God's word has said so, not the butterfly effect, but the log off effect.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you that your word is not merely ink on paper preserved throughout the millennia, though we are grateful for that.
Lord, we praise your name and we express our thanksgiving that the word is completely embodied and personified in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
As we look to him, as we learn of him, your word has a significant and profound effect in our lives and in the lives of those we contact.
I pray today that as your children, where we have stumbled and fallen, that you would proclaim forgiveness upon us.
Lord, I pray today that where we might have a temptation that you would speak encouragement into our lives and may it be realized.
Lord, I pray that when you have called us your sons and your daughters that we, I pray that by faith we wouldn't question what you have spoken.
That we would claim it for ourselves, grasp hold of it firmly and never let go until Jesus comes to take us home.
Or we pray that that day would be soon. We pray that you would declare your people righteous.
We pray that you would declare the time has come. We pray that you would speak eternity into the lives of your saved people.
Or we pray all of these things, always seeking after you, in Christ's name, Amen.