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We are going to begin our look at the six days of creation in the book of Genesis.

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You know, throughout the centuries, there have been just so many believers that hold,

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which we should, hold that the Word of God is inerrant, that it is true, that it is perfect

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and inaccurate in all ways without error, yet have differed over the interpretation

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of the six days of creation.

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But what believers in God's Word don't differ on is that the six days

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of creation is a factual, historical account.

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Now, knowing that there's some disagreement on exactly what happened,

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we should always be gracious and humble and kind before we draw battle lines, all right?

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Before we ever get into arguments and disagreements claiming that,

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that one's own interpretive view of the six days of creation is the test

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of sound theology and doctrine, okay?

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I do want to touch on a little bit as we're opening today and as we're getting into this,

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that there are, you know, quite a few major views of how to interpret the six days

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of creation in Genesis.

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There's at least six major ones.

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Some say there's as many as nine and ten different interpretations.

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But those major six ones are simply this.

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Some people read the six days of creation as what's called punctuated activity, right?

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They look at it and they go, each of the six days of creation or seven days of creation,

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they're a 24-hour period as we understand 24 hours,

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but then there was an indefinite amount of time between each day.

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That's one view people have.

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Another view of creation is the gap theory, which we touched on last week a little bit,

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you know, simply put that verse one, God created the heavens and the earth perfect.

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Then between verse one and verse two, there was some type of event commonly understood

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to be the fall of Satan and then the earth became without form and void.

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And what we have then in the six days of creation is a reforming of the earth.

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Some people look at the six days of creation with what's called the day-age view,

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where they look at the word day to mean what one of the meanings of the word is,

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what it means an age or an epoch or a span of time.

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Like we would say in the day of King Arthur, right?

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We mean in the time of King Arthur or in scripture, we read this phrase, the day of the Lord.

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And it's not referring to a 24-hour period there, it's referring to an age.

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And so some people say that the six days of creation are ages and they do that to say,

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hey, when we look at the geological ages, assuming they're accurate, they line that up.

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Other people look at the six days of creation, they go, they're not actually six days at all

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and it's not even referring to that, it's just a literary device to tell the story.

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So it's like God did this, then, God did this, then, God did this, right?

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That's how they view it.

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Some people look at it as the analogical day view, which is simply this.

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They go, the days are actual days, but they're not our 24-hour days.

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They're God's work days.

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And we'll talk a little bit more of that later, but they say, so it's similar.

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There's an analogical similarity between our days and God's days,

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but God's days are different than ours.

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And then there's the 24-hour solar view, that the days of creation were literally 24 hours,

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that creation took place over a span of what we would know as 144 hours from beginning to end.

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Now, for sure, there is only one true real way that it happened, right?

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But the problem when we're reading this and interpreting this is

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we learn the same lesson that Job learned from God.

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You see, Job once questioned God's wisdom and then God was like,

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where were you when I created the earth?

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Guess what the answer to that is?

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Not there.

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And none of us were there.

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Nobody was there when God created it, and so we're left to deduce the possibilities

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of what these six days mean by reading God's word.

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We're left to deduce it by what God has revealed in His word.

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And then when we come to interpretive times where there's,

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there's probably more than one likely possibility due to God not specifying in exact detail,

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we discuss, we study, we debate with kindness and graciousness and goodwill.

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Okay?

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So just like many believers differ over the timing of the rapture, right?

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We dealt with that when we went through Revelation,

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that there's these different views of the timing of when the rapture is going to take place.

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We can still have our differences in our creation interpretation

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and still get along without accusing one another of falsehood or heresy.

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So that's the big setup as we go through the days of creation.

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And so with that being said, today what we're going to look at in Chapter 1 of Genesis

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is Moses' intent in writing and documenting the creation story.

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What his intent was, how the Israelites who originally got this letter would have read it,

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would have interpreted it based upon their time and culture.

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And then we're going to begin looking at the actual days of creation themselves,

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discussing some possible interpretations of those days.

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But most important, we're going to focus in on and learn through application

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what this teaches for our lives today.

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How we live for God better today based upon what we learn in the story of creation.

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Amen?

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All right, let's pray.

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Father, we love you so much, God, and we're so grateful and we're so thankful to who you are, Lord.

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God, as we study your Word and we've been studying the beginning, Lord,

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we have learned so much about who you are, God, that you are outside of your creation,

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Lord, that you are timeless and eternal.

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And God, we trust in that as believers, Lord.

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We're able to just put our faith in that because, God, if we can believe what your Word says about you,

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that you existed before everything and you will always exist,

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then, Lord, when we put our faith in you and trust in the promises of your Word,

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that should bring us great comfort.

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Because if God be for us, who can be against us?

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God, if you're with us and you love us and you call us your children and you do,

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God, in the power and just the resources you have created the entire universe from nothing,

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then, Lord, we have no place to freak out when we're going through stuff.

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Because we are your kids, you hear our prayers.

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So, God, we're so grateful.

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And, Lord, encourage us today as we start to study these six days, God,

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that we would see, Lord, in this abridged account, God,

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what you want to tell us about yourself.

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Lord, your Word reveals to us exactly what you wanted to reveal to us.

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And so, Lord, let us learn, let us be encouraged, God,

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at the great power you have to form order out of chaos,

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to form restored relationships out of broken ones,

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to form saved sinners out of lost sinners.

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God, we love you and we thank you.

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We worship you now as a creator, the Almighty God,

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the one who came to this earth, born, lived, and died on the cross for our sins.

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God, we worship you, Elohim, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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All right, we are looking at the six days of creation today,

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and I felt like the Lord just wanted me to read the entire account.

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And then we will go through it piece by piece.

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But if you'll join me in Genesis chapter 1, starting in verse 2.

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It says, Now the earth was formless and empty.

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Darkness covered the surface of the watery depths,

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and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

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Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

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God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

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God called the light day, and the darkness He called night.

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There was an evening, and there was a morning, one day.

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Then God said, Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.

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So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse,

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from the water above the expanse, and it was so.

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God called the expanse sky.

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Evening came, and then morning, the second day.

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Then God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place,

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and let the dry land appear, and it was so.

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God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the water He called seas.

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And God saw that it was good.

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Then God said, Let the earth produce vegetation,

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seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth,

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bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.

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And it was so.

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The earth produced vegetation, seed-bearing plants according to their kinds,

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and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.

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And God saw that it was good.

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Evening came, and then morning, the third day.

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Then God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night.

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They will serve as signs for seasons, and for days, and for years.

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They will be lights in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth.

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And it was so.

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God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule over the day,

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and the lesser light to rule over the night, as well as the stars.

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God placed them in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth,

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to rule the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.

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And God saw that it was good.

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Evening came, and then morning, the fourth day.

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Then God said, Let the water swarm with living creatures,

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and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.

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So God created the large sea creatures,

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and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water according to their kinds.

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He also created every winged creature according to its kind,

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and God saw that it was good.

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God blessed them.

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Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas,

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and let the birds multiply on the earth.

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Evening came, and then morning, the fifth day.

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Then God said, Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds,

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livestock, creatures that crawl in the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.

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And it was so.

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So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds,

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the livestock according to their kinds,

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and all the creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds.

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And God saw that it was good.

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God saw that it was good.

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Then God said, let us make man in our image,

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according to our likeness.

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They will rule the fish of the sea,

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and the birds of the sky, the livestock,

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the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.

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So God created man in his own image.

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He created him in the image of God.

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He created them male and female.

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God blessed them, and God said to them,

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be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

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Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky,

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and every creature that crawls on the earth.

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God also said, look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant

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on the surface of the entire earth,

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and every tree whose fruit contains seed.

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This will be food for you.

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For all the wildlife on the earth,

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for every bird in the sky, and for every creature

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that crawls on the earth, everything having

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the breath of life in it, I have given

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every green plant for food, and it was so.

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God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed.

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Evening came, and then morning, the sixth day.

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So the heavens and the earth, and everything in them,

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were completed.

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Now when you're studying through this account of creation,

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you might notice a few things, and one of them is that

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these six days of creation are arranged

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in a very intentional way.

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From the details of each day, what you'll see

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is that the first three days of creation

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are the forming of the earth, and the second three days

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of creation are the filling of the earth,

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and that's a direct response to the condition

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that the earth was in that we read about in verse two,

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where it tells us that the earth was formless and empty.

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And so God's creative narrative is shown as how he made

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the formless earth with form,

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and he made the empty earth filled.

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Now there's also a beautiful order in symmetry

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between the first days and the last three days as well.

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Day one corresponds to day four.

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You see on day one, God formed day and night

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by creating light and separating it from darkness

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and called it day and night.

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And then God created the sun and moon and stars on day four

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to mark the days and the years, so he formed light,

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if you will, and then he filled the sky

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with light-producing objects.

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Day two corresponds to day five.

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You see on day two, he created the sky,

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he formed it by separating the waters above

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from the waters below, and then in day five,

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he fills the sky with birds and fills the sea with fish.

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Day three corresponds to day six.

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On day three, God forms the dry land,

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and then he forms plant life to serve as food

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for all the creatures that he then, on day six,

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fills the dry land with.

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He fills the dry land with animal life,

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and he created man to rule over all of it.

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And so there's symmetry and beauty

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in the story of God's creation.

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One of the attributes of God that we know

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that the Bible teaches is that God is perfect.

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Everything God does, everything God says

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is exactly according to how it should be.

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And in the very story of creation,

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what we see is the perfection of God,

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the perfect order of God.

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There's even a numerical harmony in this,

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and this is just kind of fun little details,

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but in the Bible, there's different numbers

238
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that refer to different things.

239
00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:07,360
We kind of see numbers referring to this or that

240
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in the Bible, and in scripture,

241
00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:13,040
the number seven often refers to the idea

242
00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:15,480
of perfection or completion, right?

243
00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:17,740
You'll see things that are in multiples of seven,

244
00:14:17,740 --> 00:14:19,640
and it's often connected to a story

245
00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:21,580
of perfection or completion.

246
00:14:21,580 --> 00:14:24,220
And so what's interesting is if you go back to verse one,

247
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in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,

248
00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:29,980
there's three main nouns in that opening verse.

249
00:14:29,980 --> 00:14:32,680
It's God, the heaven, and the earth.

250
00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:34,720
Now through the entirety of chapter one

251
00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:36,620
in the original Hebrew language,

252
00:14:36,620 --> 00:14:39,500
those nouns are used in multiples of seven.

253
00:14:39,500 --> 00:14:42,200
God, Elohim, is referenced 35 times,

254
00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:43,940
that's a multiple of seven.

255
00:14:43,940 --> 00:14:46,940
Heaven and earth are both mentioned exactly 21 times,

256
00:14:46,940 --> 00:14:48,900
that's a multiple of seven.

257
00:14:48,900 --> 00:14:51,740
In verse one, in the Hebrew language,

258
00:14:51,740 --> 00:14:54,200
it's exactly seven words long.

259
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:57,480
Verse two in the Hebrew language is exactly 14 words long,

260
00:14:57,480 --> 00:14:59,220
a multiple of seven.

261
00:14:59,220 --> 00:15:01,540
And then in chapter two, verses two and three,

262
00:15:01,540 --> 00:15:04,720
which is the seventh paragraph of the creation narrative,

263
00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:07,920
the seventh paragraph details the seventh day,

264
00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:09,720
the day that God rested.

265
00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:12,960
Now that reference of the seventh day there,

266
00:15:12,960 --> 00:15:15,360
the story of that, it's only three sentences long.

267
00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,340
Each one of those sentences has exactly seven words

268
00:15:18,340 --> 00:15:19,900
in the original Hebrew language.

269
00:15:19,900 --> 00:15:21,800
And in those three sentences,

270
00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:23,940
right in the middle of those seven words in Hebrew

271
00:15:23,940 --> 00:15:25,640
is the phrase the seventh day.

272
00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:30,780
Now that's called Bible nerd stuff, okay?

273
00:15:30,780 --> 00:15:33,340
But it's really fun to see that type of thing

274
00:15:33,340 --> 00:15:35,880
because it shows us that the story of creation

275
00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:39,080
is marked by absolute perfection,

276
00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:43,720
absolute flawless symmetry, order, and balance.

277
00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:46,260
And it's telling us that that's who God is.

278
00:15:46,260 --> 00:15:49,660
That's who our God is, the God that we submit our lives to,

279
00:15:49,660 --> 00:15:51,700
the God that we trust, the God that we yield to,

280
00:15:51,700 --> 00:15:53,740
the God that created everything.

281
00:15:53,740 --> 00:15:57,240
And he goes, yeah, I am the God of perfection,

282
00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:58,740
balance, order,

283
00:15:58,740 --> 00:16:01,440
creative perfection in every way.

284
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:04,780
And so although the story here in the original Hebrew,

285
00:16:04,780 --> 00:16:08,320
it's very poetic, it's not just symbolic.

286
00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:11,120
In the original Hebrew, the whole story is written

287
00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:13,780
in what's called the narrative tense, right?

288
00:16:13,780 --> 00:16:15,520
The Hebrew language has different tenses,

289
00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:17,060
verb tenses that things are written.

290
00:16:17,060 --> 00:16:19,260
And the narrative tense simply means

291
00:16:19,260 --> 00:16:22,500
that it's an account of factual events.

292
00:16:22,500 --> 00:16:26,400
It's not written to be just an allegorical poem

293
00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:28,400
or a metaphorical story.

294
00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:31,040
It's written as actual history.

295
00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:33,300
And if you're a Bible student,

296
00:16:33,300 --> 00:16:36,380
you might see that in Exodus and Isaiah and Jonah

297
00:16:36,380 --> 00:16:40,140
and Hebrews and Revelation, those books in the Bible,

298
00:16:40,140 --> 00:16:45,060
they all refer to the creation story as factual history.

299
00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:48,660
And so as I've stated, this account, however,

300
00:16:48,660 --> 00:16:49,720
that we have in chapter one,

301
00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:51,620
it's not an exhaustive account, right?

302
00:16:51,620 --> 00:16:55,300
It doesn't describe every single tiny detail

303
00:16:55,300 --> 00:16:57,820
of what God did in creating everything

304
00:16:57,820 --> 00:17:00,960
from the smallest atom up to the largest galaxy

305
00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:02,900
that exists out in the universe.

306
00:17:02,900 --> 00:17:07,340
It's an abridged account of what actually happened, however,

307
00:17:07,340 --> 00:17:09,440
when God created the heavens and the earth.

308
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:14,920
Hebrew writing in the narrative tense also means

309
00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:16,840
that this narrative is intended to be read

310
00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:19,960
as a chronological reality.

311
00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:22,920
So when it says day two follows day one,

312
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:25,320
it's chronological reality, right?

313
00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:27,160
There was a day one, then a day two,

314
00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:28,660
then a day three, and so on.

315
00:17:30,300 --> 00:17:33,100
But really, one of the keys to understanding anything

316
00:17:33,100 --> 00:17:34,740
in the Bible is the context.

317
00:17:34,740 --> 00:17:36,040
You have to study context,

318
00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:38,500
you have to study historical context,

319
00:17:38,500 --> 00:17:41,040
you sometimes have to go, who was this written to?

320
00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:42,180
What were those people like?

321
00:17:42,180 --> 00:17:43,880
How would they have read this?

322
00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:46,920
And so we understand that Genesis was written

323
00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:49,680
most likely when Israel was wandering in the wilderness,

324
00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:51,720
and so it was the Israeli people,

325
00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:53,480
the Jewish people that got this letter.

326
00:17:53,480 --> 00:17:56,760
And so to understand how they would have read this,

327
00:17:56,760 --> 00:17:59,260
we kind of have to get into the Jewish mindset,

328
00:17:59,260 --> 00:18:01,060
if you will, and understand where they were at.

329
00:18:01,060 --> 00:18:02,120
And we've talked about this

330
00:18:02,120 --> 00:18:03,600
in a couple previous Bible studies

331
00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,300
that they had just got out of Egypt, right?

332
00:18:06,300 --> 00:18:08,260
They had been in Egypt for 400 years,

333
00:18:08,260 --> 00:18:13,140
they had been inundated with Egyptian, what's the word?

334
00:18:14,580 --> 00:18:18,620
Wow, I just blanked out, many gods, pantheism, there you go.

335
00:18:18,620 --> 00:18:21,780
They had been inundated with that for four years, right,

336
00:18:21,780 --> 00:18:23,780
about this God, there's a God of the sun, Ra,

337
00:18:23,780 --> 00:18:25,920
and there's Ra's enemy, this God,

338
00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:28,320
and there's a God of the moon, and God of the sand,

339
00:18:28,320 --> 00:18:30,420
and God of vegetation, and God of the Nile River, right?

340
00:18:30,420 --> 00:18:32,520
There's just a God of everything.

341
00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:36,100
And then they escaped this by being led by a guy who goes,

342
00:18:36,100 --> 00:18:41,100
hey, God, singular, told me to come get you guys out of here.

343
00:18:42,300 --> 00:18:45,900
And so they went through and were chased by the Egyptian

344
00:18:45,900 --> 00:18:47,840
pharaoh, and then they crossed the Red Sea,

345
00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:49,980
and God just, you know, one, did this miracle

346
00:18:49,980 --> 00:18:51,820
of splitting the sea and then dropped it

347
00:18:51,820 --> 00:18:54,780
right on the Egyptians, and now they're in the wilderness,

348
00:18:54,780 --> 00:18:57,680
and you know, God's splitting the rock to give them water,

349
00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,620
and God's creating manna from heaven to show up all over,

350
00:19:00,620 --> 00:19:03,420
and they're naturally likely, this is speculation,

351
00:19:03,420 --> 00:19:06,420
but asking, you know, so who is this God?

352
00:19:06,420 --> 00:19:09,060
Who is this God of our forefathers, right?

353
00:19:09,060 --> 00:19:10,460
What's he all about?

354
00:19:10,460 --> 00:19:13,300
We've heard of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,

355
00:19:13,300 --> 00:19:15,840
and you know, and our forefathers, and who are they?

356
00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:18,640
And so Moses is writing this account

357
00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,840
to tell them who God is, who their God is,

358
00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:24,440
and he's going all the way back to the beginning

359
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,720
of the story, and he's going to refute

360
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,180
all the pagan ideology that they had had.

361
00:19:30,180 --> 00:19:32,960
And so as you read through this,

362
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,860
we can pretty surely surmise that they would not

363
00:19:35,860 --> 00:19:38,460
have read this story as a myth,

364
00:19:38,460 --> 00:19:41,420
as some mythological account simply due to its theme

365
00:19:41,420 --> 00:19:42,900
and its purpose.

366
00:19:42,900 --> 00:19:44,800
This is introducing the children of Israel

367
00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:48,960
to their real God and how their real God operates.

368
00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,300
And so each day of creation, incidentally,

369
00:19:51,300 --> 00:19:54,640
we hear more and more of the pagan gods of the day.

370
00:19:54,640 --> 00:19:56,180
So it's like Moses is saying, look,

371
00:19:56,180 --> 00:19:58,680
this is what the Egyptians said about creation,

372
00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:00,340
this is what really happened.

373
00:20:00,340 --> 00:20:02,920
That's how this is being written, and so in day one,

374
00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:06,260
all the pagan gods of light and darkness are dismissed.

375
00:20:06,260 --> 00:20:10,360
Instead, he goes, no, God created light and darkness.

376
00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:12,860
Day two, the gods of the sky and the sea are dismissed,

377
00:20:12,860 --> 00:20:13,960
because why?

378
00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,700
God created the sky and the sea.

379
00:20:16,700 --> 00:20:19,200
Day three, earth gods and gods of vegetation

380
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:21,360
and harvest, all dismissed.

381
00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:22,300
Why?

382
00:20:22,300 --> 00:20:26,300
Because God created the land and the plant life.

383
00:20:26,300 --> 00:20:29,180
Day four, the sun and moon and star gods are dismissed,

384
00:20:29,180 --> 00:20:31,780
because God created those as well.

385
00:20:31,780 --> 00:20:34,880
Day five, gods of the birds and fish and ocean creatures,

386
00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:36,040
all dismissed.

387
00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:37,280
Why?

388
00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:39,520
Because God made them.

389
00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:43,080
And then day six, all the animal and land creature

390
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:46,160
and bug gods that existed in all these cultures,

391
00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:47,560
all dismissed.

392
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:48,560
Why?

393
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:51,000
Because God created all the creatures.

394
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:55,140
And then finally, very clearly, unequivocally,

395
00:20:55,140 --> 00:20:59,540
he states that humans and humanity are not divine,

396
00:20:59,540 --> 00:21:02,680
because God made them as well.

397
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:06,480
However, he does point out that man was made special.

398
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:08,520
That man is special over everything else,

399
00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,680
because mankind, both male and female,

400
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:14,320
and we're gonna get to that when we get there.

401
00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,620
Notice it's only two genders, okay?

402
00:21:17,620 --> 00:21:18,760
We'll deal with that later.

403
00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:22,920
But he made them male and female in the image of God.

404
00:21:24,460 --> 00:21:27,960
And that's the very special part of how mankind was made.

405
00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:31,040
They were made in the image of God.

406
00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:33,080
Now, when you read through this, you go,

407
00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:37,340
okay, how would the Israelites have read this?

408
00:21:37,340 --> 00:21:39,840
More specifically, when we get into the interpretations

409
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:43,220
of the days, how would the Israelites have read this?

410
00:21:43,220 --> 00:21:47,060
Would they have read it with the understanding

411
00:21:47,060 --> 00:21:50,360
that we have only understood in the last 100 years

412
00:21:50,360 --> 00:21:52,120
about geological ages and strata,

413
00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:54,720
and went, well, day must mean epochs and ages,

414
00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:57,500
because that's what the geological strata shows us?

415
00:21:57,500 --> 00:22:00,760
Is that how the Israelites would have read it?

416
00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:02,260
I don't think so.

417
00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:06,240
But we're gonna look at this right now.

418
00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:09,780
So, out of all the interpretations of what these days are,

419
00:22:09,780 --> 00:22:13,580
there are two that I personally believe are most likely.

420
00:22:13,580 --> 00:22:15,540
The 24-hour solar day interpretation,

421
00:22:15,540 --> 00:22:17,820
which is the traditional interpretation,

422
00:22:17,820 --> 00:22:19,420
and then the analogous day one.

423
00:22:19,420 --> 00:22:21,980
There's possibility that that is true.

424
00:22:21,980 --> 00:22:25,460
But the understanding and the debates and all of this

425
00:22:25,460 --> 00:22:27,420
wrap around what the word day means.

426
00:22:27,420 --> 00:22:30,360
There was one day, and then day two, and day three.

427
00:22:30,360 --> 00:22:33,160
And the debates come up because the word day

428
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:35,640
in the Hebrew is this word yom, right?

429
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:37,440
Not yum, yom, right?

430
00:22:37,440 --> 00:22:39,240
Y-O-M, okay?

431
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:43,080
And this word can mean three different things

432
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:44,540
in the Hebrew language.

433
00:22:44,540 --> 00:22:48,540
It can refer to the part of a 24-hour day

434
00:22:48,540 --> 00:22:50,480
where there's light.

435
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,980
We would call that daytime, right?

436
00:22:52,980 --> 00:22:54,460
As opposed to nighttime.

437
00:22:54,460 --> 00:22:55,660
And that's what we see in verse one,

438
00:22:55,660 --> 00:22:59,320
where he goes, he called the light of the day day,

439
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,500
and then he called the darkness night, right?

440
00:23:01,500 --> 00:23:03,660
We see that separation there.

441
00:23:03,660 --> 00:23:06,500
This word yom can also mean an age,

442
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:09,140
an epoch, as we were talking about.

443
00:23:09,140 --> 00:23:11,140
Like I said, the day of the Lord,

444
00:23:11,140 --> 00:23:14,280
in King Arthur's day kind of idea.

445
00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:15,840
And then the word can also refer to

446
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:17,680
one full rotation of the earth.

447
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:21,240
We call that a 24-hour solar day.

448
00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,520
And so people go, well, if day means epoch,

449
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:26,760
then this is how the story reads.

450
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:28,380
If day means 24-hour day,

451
00:23:28,380 --> 00:23:30,560
then this is how the story reads, right?

452
00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:33,760
And again, I will point out none of us were there.

453
00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:36,460
All right, so let's pull some clues from scripture

454
00:23:36,460 --> 00:23:37,700
and see what it teaches us.

455
00:23:37,700 --> 00:23:41,040
Now, the analogous day view, there are those that go,

456
00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:43,640
well, when it says day, it's referring to a day

457
00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:44,840
that has a beginning and the end,

458
00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:47,940
because scripture very clearly lists that here, right?

459
00:23:47,940 --> 00:23:51,180
Every single day, God felt it important to tell us

460
00:23:51,180 --> 00:23:53,780
that there was an evening and then a morning, a day.

461
00:23:54,740 --> 00:23:56,880
But they go, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean

462
00:23:56,880 --> 00:24:01,880
a 24-hour day, it just means a day to God.

463
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:04,220
They'll use scriptures like 2 Peter 3, 8

464
00:24:04,220 --> 00:24:07,460
that says with the Lord, a day is like 1,000 years,

465
00:24:07,460 --> 00:24:10,000
and 1,000 years is like a day.

466
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,860
And they'll go, so these days of creation,

467
00:24:12,860 --> 00:24:16,840
they're analogous, they're similar to our 24-hour day

468
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:19,140
in the idea that there was a beginning

469
00:24:19,140 --> 00:24:20,500
and there was an end to each day,

470
00:24:20,500 --> 00:24:25,480
but it's not necessarily 24 hours as we understand 24 hours.

471
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:28,780
And the reason people that hold this view get there,

472
00:24:28,780 --> 00:24:32,480
and it's that way in the scripture,

473
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:35,680
is they'll say the six days all have a beginning and the end.

474
00:24:36,860 --> 00:24:39,020
But when you get to the seventh day,

475
00:24:39,020 --> 00:24:41,000
the scripture doesn't record that the seventh day

476
00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,120
has an end.

477
00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:45,060
So what they'll say is that means God,

478
00:24:45,060 --> 00:24:49,400
as he rested on the seventh day, is still resting

479
00:24:50,940 --> 00:24:53,600
as human history passes, and then in the end,

480
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:55,240
he's gonna kinda get back to work

481
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:56,680
with the end of all things.

482
00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,440
And so they'll use Hebrews chapter four,

483
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:01,380
if you read verses three through 11,

484
00:25:01,380 --> 00:25:03,320
it basically has this entire teaching

485
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:08,280
that God's people enter into his rest

486
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,320
by faith in him, and it says,

487
00:25:10,320 --> 00:25:12,080
so what day is at rest?

488
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,460
Paul says, or I believe it's Paul, today.

489
00:25:15,460 --> 00:25:17,060
He says the day of rest is today.

490
00:25:17,060 --> 00:25:19,260
So the idea is that God started resting

491
00:25:19,260 --> 00:25:21,500
at the end of his creation, and he's still chilling.

492
00:25:21,500 --> 00:25:22,700
Right?

493
00:25:22,700 --> 00:25:24,600
And he's working in our lives and everything,

494
00:25:24,600 --> 00:25:27,440
but as far as his creative work, he's like, I'm done.

495
00:25:28,900 --> 00:25:31,680
And so when we pass from this life today,

496
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:35,080
we're instantly in his rest and so on and so forth.

497
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:38,780
Plus, people go, you know, on days one, two, and three,

498
00:25:38,780 --> 00:25:41,480
or one and two, there was no,

499
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:44,360
one, two, and three, there was no sun and moon.

500
00:25:44,360 --> 00:25:47,160
So there was no solar day, right?

501
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:49,700
We track a solar day because there's a solar entity

502
00:25:49,700 --> 00:25:51,960
out there called the sun, and if you read through

503
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:53,800
the creation, there was no sun and no moon,

504
00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:56,240
therefore, Genesis 1 cannot be referring

505
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,940
to 24-hour solar days, all right?

506
00:25:58,940 --> 00:26:00,980
Then you got the 24-hour view.

507
00:26:00,980 --> 00:26:03,140
Each day was a literal 24-hour day.

508
00:26:03,140 --> 00:26:08,160
Creation took place over the span of 144 hours.

509
00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:11,620
Those that hold this view go, yeah, there was no sun

510
00:26:11,620 --> 00:26:14,600
and moon in the first three days, but so what?

511
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,300
God is light.

512
00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,800
So the light that existed, the light created,

513
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,980
God doesn't need the sun and moon to produce light.

514
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:30,680
He was the light that existed for those first three days.

515
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:33,040
God created a separation.

516
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:34,980
It says there in the first day of light and dark,

517
00:26:34,980 --> 00:26:37,620
and he says he called the light in the day day,

518
00:26:37,620 --> 00:26:39,720
and he called the darkness night.

519
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,560
That's an indication that the earth

520
00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:43,860
was rotating at that point, right?

521
00:26:46,300 --> 00:26:49,560
But just because the seventh day doesn't expressly say

522
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,640
there was an evening and there was a morning

523
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,200
doesn't automatically mean there wasn't, right?

524
00:26:56,540 --> 00:26:59,700
And then the biggest evidence for 24-hour solar days

525
00:26:59,700 --> 00:27:02,500
in almost every case throughout the entirety of scripture

526
00:27:02,500 --> 00:27:06,920
when this Hebrew word yom is preceded by a number, right?

527
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,480
One day, second day.

528
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:12,720
Almost every single case in scripture

529
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,760
it's referring to a 24-hour solar day, right?

530
00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:18,860
And then the other thing is any time in scripture

531
00:27:18,860 --> 00:27:22,120
you see the phrase evening and morning together,

532
00:27:22,120 --> 00:27:25,060
which it happens multiple places in scripture.

533
00:27:25,060 --> 00:27:27,160
In almost every single case it is referencing

534
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:29,200
an ordinary 24-hour solar day.

535
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,440
So that's kind of the support for that.

536
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:34,340
And then in Exodus chapter 20 verses nine through 11,

537
00:27:34,340 --> 00:27:36,740
this is what God said to the children of Israel.

538
00:27:37,780 --> 00:27:40,680
You were to labor six days and do all your work,

539
00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:44,620
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

540
00:27:44,620 --> 00:27:47,420
You must not do any work, you, your son or daughter,

541
00:27:47,420 --> 00:27:49,980
your male or female servants, your livestock,

542
00:27:49,980 --> 00:27:52,860
or the resident alien who is within your city gates.

543
00:27:52,860 --> 00:27:54,160
Why?

544
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:55,760
For the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea

545
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,000
and everything in them in six days.

546
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,100
Then he rested on the seventh day.

547
00:28:02,100 --> 00:28:04,200
Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day

548
00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:05,540
and declared it holy.

549
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:08,240
Well, God's not telling Israel,

550
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:10,580
so I want you to work for seven epochs

551
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:12,780
because that's what I did.

552
00:28:12,780 --> 00:28:14,680
And then rest for the seventh

553
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,080
indeterminate epoch of time, right?

554
00:28:18,120 --> 00:28:20,580
But he's telling them work six solar days,

555
00:28:20,580 --> 00:28:24,020
rest on the seventh solar days after the example of God

556
00:28:24,020 --> 00:28:26,860
creating the heavens and the earth for six days.

557
00:28:26,860 --> 00:28:30,060
Now again, this one could be six God's work days, whatever.

558
00:28:30,060 --> 00:28:31,200
There's some support for that.

559
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:35,060
But all that to say that me, your pastor here,

560
00:28:35,060 --> 00:28:38,200
I hold to the 24-hour solar day view, right?

561
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:42,300
I just think God did it in 24 hours or 24-hour days

562
00:28:42,300 --> 00:28:43,340
because he's God.

563
00:28:44,380 --> 00:28:47,280
You know, a lot of the other interpretations,

564
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:48,680
well, it has to be ages and stuff.

565
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,280
It's because they start with what mankind

566
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:54,160
has discovered in science.

567
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:56,520
And they go, well, this is how we understand science,

568
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:57,960
so therefore we have to make the Bible

569
00:28:57,960 --> 00:28:59,960
fit our understanding of science.

570
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:04,860
And the problem with that is science keeps changing.

571
00:29:06,260 --> 00:29:07,840
They keep going, this is how it is,

572
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:08,900
and then they describe something new,

573
00:29:08,900 --> 00:29:10,540
and they go, well, this is how it is.

574
00:29:10,540 --> 00:29:14,600
And well, whereas the 24-hour solar day,

575
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:17,840
I start with in the beginning, God.

576
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:22,680
All of science has to make sense

577
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:24,780
under the umbrella of in the beginning, God.

578
00:29:24,780 --> 00:29:28,460
And when science and God don't seem to make sense,

579
00:29:29,860 --> 00:29:33,220
God is right, our understanding of science isn't full yet.

580
00:29:33,220 --> 00:29:35,500
That's how I approach it, okay?

581
00:29:35,500 --> 00:29:38,060
Some people are like, well, that's just ignorant.

582
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:43,380
Well, God hasn't let me down yet,

583
00:29:43,380 --> 00:29:45,580
but science has over and over, so.

584
00:29:45,580 --> 00:29:48,540
Anyways, okay, let's start with the first day.

585
00:29:50,020 --> 00:29:52,340
Verse three, then God said, let there be light.

586
00:29:52,340 --> 00:29:53,820
And there was light.

587
00:29:53,820 --> 00:29:56,020
God saw that the light was good,

588
00:29:56,020 --> 00:29:58,520
and God separated the light from the darkness.

589
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:01,160
God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.

590
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:04,500
There was an evening, and there was a morning, one day.

591
00:30:04,500 --> 00:30:06,800
So as I said in the opening here,

592
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:08,960
the first three days of creation here

593
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:13,600
are God addressing the formless, empty,

594
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:15,940
covered by darkness earth, right?

595
00:30:15,940 --> 00:30:18,580
It's this picture, if you will,

596
00:30:18,580 --> 00:30:22,540
of what was floating in space

597
00:30:22,540 --> 00:30:25,820
was this lump of clay that was ready

598
00:30:25,820 --> 00:30:28,520
on the potter's wheel to be formed.

599
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:30,720
That's kind of the picture, right?

600
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:32,920
It was formless, all right?

601
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:34,420
That could mean a whole bunch of things,

602
00:30:34,420 --> 00:30:36,720
but it just means it was desolate, all right?

603
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,100
It was unready for habitation.

604
00:30:40,100 --> 00:30:41,740
And so we read that the Spirit of God

605
00:30:41,740 --> 00:30:45,900
was fluttering over that formless and empty earth there

606
00:30:45,900 --> 00:30:50,200
like a mama bird fluttering over her nest,

607
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,640
getting ready to do the work of creation.

608
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,620
Now what I want you to notice too is the tool

609
00:30:56,620 --> 00:30:59,080
that God used in his work of creation.

610
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:02,180
What tool did God use to create everything?

611
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,860
His word, His word.

612
00:31:06,860 --> 00:31:09,400
God spoke everything.

613
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,700
It says over and over, God said, and it was so.

614
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:15,100
That is your God.

615
00:31:15,100 --> 00:31:19,040
God said, and it was so.

616
00:31:20,500 --> 00:31:23,440
But God, I don't like what your Bible is telling me to do.

617
00:31:24,340 --> 00:31:27,820
God said, and it was so.

618
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,880
When our life, our decisions, our behavior

619
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,480
disagree with God's word, who's wrong?

620
00:31:36,860 --> 00:31:37,680
We are.

621
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:40,720
God's never wrong, He's perfect.

622
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:44,400
So it says, God said, it's God's word.

623
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:48,360
When God speaks, it's the revelation of His will, right?

624
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:50,940
So many people go, I don't know what God wants me to do,

625
00:31:50,940 --> 00:31:52,540
and they don't read the Bible.

626
00:31:53,580 --> 00:31:55,180
Like, well, how are you gonna know what God wants you to do

627
00:31:55,180 --> 00:31:57,580
if you're not reading His love letter to you, right?

628
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:01,140
He doesn't just give you the warm and fuzzy stuff,

629
00:32:01,140 --> 00:32:04,480
He kinda, you know, deals with us and disciplines, right?

630
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,260
Everything is there in His word.

631
00:32:07,260 --> 00:32:08,660
Well, what does God want me to do?

632
00:32:08,660 --> 00:32:11,020
Get in the Bible, get in the Bible regularly,

633
00:32:11,020 --> 00:32:12,620
study it, memorize it.

634
00:32:12,620 --> 00:32:15,520
You're gonna then discern what God wants you.

635
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:19,460
Now, it says, by His will alone, light was.

636
00:32:19,460 --> 00:32:21,260
That's pretty powerful, right?

637
00:32:21,260 --> 00:32:22,700
When it says, God said, let there be light

638
00:32:22,700 --> 00:32:24,780
and there was light, in the original Hebrew,

639
00:32:24,780 --> 00:32:26,500
it literally reads this way.

640
00:32:26,500 --> 00:32:30,380
God said, light exists and light was.

641
00:32:31,540 --> 00:32:32,740
God just willed it.

642
00:32:34,020 --> 00:32:36,980
Let there be light, and it happened.

643
00:32:36,980 --> 00:32:40,160
It's just by His mere thought and will,

644
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:44,120
by the expression of His breath, everything shaped itself,

645
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:48,160
exactly and perfectly, down to the smallest subatomic

646
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,400
particle, all the way up to, like I said,

647
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:51,740
the largest galaxy in the universe,

648
00:32:51,740 --> 00:32:54,340
every cell, every black hole, all of it.

649
00:32:54,340 --> 00:32:55,180
God formed it.

650
00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:00,140
Now, people will argue, well, was the Earth formed

651
00:33:00,140 --> 00:33:01,140
in one second?

652
00:33:01,140 --> 00:33:02,540
Well, no, it's formless and empty,

653
00:33:02,540 --> 00:33:05,340
and we see a process of Him putting everything together

654
00:33:05,340 --> 00:33:09,220
here, and we see a process of Him putting it together here.

655
00:33:09,220 --> 00:33:10,980
But the point is, is everything that happened

656
00:33:10,980 --> 00:33:12,860
happened by His will and His word.

657
00:33:12,860 --> 00:33:15,620
Now, this first day presents a challenge for some.

658
00:33:15,620 --> 00:33:17,300
We touched on this a little bit, because they go,

659
00:33:17,300 --> 00:33:19,420
well, how was there day and night and evening and morning

660
00:33:19,420 --> 00:33:20,900
if there was no sun and no moon?

661
00:33:22,060 --> 00:33:23,860
So, I wanna fill that idea in a little bit.

662
00:33:23,860 --> 00:33:27,900
One, God is not limited by naturalistic limitations.

663
00:33:27,900 --> 00:33:30,980
If your God is limited by naturalistic limitations,

664
00:33:30,980 --> 00:33:32,580
you have a real puny God.

665
00:33:32,580 --> 00:33:35,020
God is not limited by our understanding of physics.

666
00:33:35,020 --> 00:33:38,380
He's not limited by how our universe works

667
00:33:38,380 --> 00:33:39,820
with the laws of this and the laws of that,

668
00:33:39,820 --> 00:33:41,060
because God's outside of it.

669
00:33:41,060 --> 00:33:42,420
He created it.

670
00:33:43,620 --> 00:33:44,820
So, He's not limited.

671
00:33:47,620 --> 00:33:50,100
God doesn't need the sun or the moon to provide light.

672
00:33:50,100 --> 00:33:52,300
In fact, in 1 John 1, 5, it says this.

673
00:33:52,300 --> 00:33:53,740
This is the message we have heard from Him

674
00:33:53,740 --> 00:33:55,460
and declare to you.

675
00:33:55,460 --> 00:33:59,580
God is light, and in Him is absolutely no darkness.

676
00:33:59,580 --> 00:34:01,380
So, for the first three days of creation,

677
00:34:01,380 --> 00:34:04,420
there was light with no sun and no moon.

678
00:34:05,700 --> 00:34:07,700
Now, for those of you that paid attention in Revelation,

679
00:34:07,700 --> 00:34:09,300
you might have went, wait a second.

680
00:34:10,460 --> 00:34:12,940
Are you telling me that the beginning of the universe

681
00:34:12,940 --> 00:34:16,660
started the same exact way everything ends?

682
00:34:16,660 --> 00:34:19,620
Because in Revelation chapter 22, 5, this is what it says.

683
00:34:19,620 --> 00:34:21,820
Night will be no more.

684
00:34:21,820 --> 00:34:24,260
People will not need the light of the lamp

685
00:34:24,260 --> 00:34:25,820
nor the light of the sun,

686
00:34:25,820 --> 00:34:27,380
because the Lord God will give them light

687
00:34:27,380 --> 00:34:29,260
and no more darkness.

688
00:34:29,260 --> 00:34:32,060
God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever.

689
00:34:35,180 --> 00:34:36,540
Beautiful.

690
00:34:36,540 --> 00:34:38,220
God is light.

691
00:34:38,220 --> 00:34:40,420
Now, He separates the day from the night.

692
00:34:40,420 --> 00:34:42,900
As I said, that seems to indicate a rotation of the earth

693
00:34:42,900 --> 00:34:45,340
where and then God said, hey, the illuminated part of it,

694
00:34:45,340 --> 00:34:46,420
we're gonna call it day,

695
00:34:46,420 --> 00:34:49,380
and the not illuminated part, we're gonna call night.

696
00:34:49,380 --> 00:34:50,700
And then He says this phrase,

697
00:34:50,700 --> 00:34:53,700
evening followed by morning, right?

698
00:34:53,700 --> 00:34:56,220
And people go, well, that doesn't make sense.

699
00:34:56,220 --> 00:34:59,180
Our days start at midnight and then go around to midnight.

700
00:35:00,460 --> 00:35:03,260
But we have to understand that the beginning of creation

701
00:35:03,260 --> 00:35:04,780
was marked by darkness, right?

702
00:35:04,780 --> 00:35:08,140
It was darkness, then light, right?

703
00:35:08,140 --> 00:35:10,380
God spoke light into existence in the darkness.

704
00:35:10,380 --> 00:35:14,100
And so what we see there is it's dark, then light,

705
00:35:14,100 --> 00:35:15,980
given the marker of a full day.

706
00:35:15,980 --> 00:35:19,460
Now, this is actually followed in Jewish tradition, right?

707
00:35:19,460 --> 00:35:22,500
Even today, devout Jews,

708
00:35:22,500 --> 00:35:26,020
they'll start their day at sunset

709
00:35:26,020 --> 00:35:26,980
and then a whole day,

710
00:35:26,980 --> 00:35:29,060
beginning when the sun goes down,

711
00:35:29,060 --> 00:35:31,140
then there's morning, then there's the whole day,

712
00:35:31,140 --> 00:35:32,540
and then when sunset hits again,

713
00:35:32,540 --> 00:35:35,420
that's the marker of the next day, right?

714
00:35:35,420 --> 00:35:40,420
We understand that, that was how they observed the Sabbath,

715
00:35:40,540 --> 00:35:41,380
right?

716
00:35:41,380 --> 00:35:44,620
Sabbath starts Friday night at sunset

717
00:35:44,620 --> 00:35:46,860
because that's Saturday for them.

718
00:35:46,860 --> 00:35:48,860
That's the new day.

719
00:35:48,860 --> 00:35:50,260
Now, you know, at some point in time,

720
00:35:50,260 --> 00:35:52,020
the general practice of the calendar

721
00:35:52,020 --> 00:35:55,820
and keeping time switched to starting a day at midnight,

722
00:35:55,820 --> 00:35:58,260
there's some reasons for all of that.

723
00:35:58,260 --> 00:36:00,900
But in the beginning and through Jewish tradition,

724
00:36:00,900 --> 00:36:04,780
a day started at sunset, from dark to light.

725
00:36:04,780 --> 00:36:05,620
Now, you might be going,

726
00:36:05,620 --> 00:36:07,660
well, gosh, do we have to go back to that?

727
00:36:08,820 --> 00:36:12,660
No, no, that's not the point.

728
00:36:12,660 --> 00:36:15,020
But that explains why it's evening followed by morning.

729
00:36:15,020 --> 00:36:16,220
And then verse four, it says,

730
00:36:16,220 --> 00:36:18,460
God saw that the light was good.

731
00:36:18,460 --> 00:36:21,220
This is the first of seven pronouncements

732
00:36:21,220 --> 00:36:24,580
where God looks at what he created and says it was good,

733
00:36:24,580 --> 00:36:25,420
right?

734
00:36:25,420 --> 00:36:29,460
A master artist stepping back and admiring his work, right?

735
00:36:29,460 --> 00:36:30,300
It is good.

736
00:36:30,300 --> 00:36:31,820
And this is what that word good means.

737
00:36:31,820 --> 00:36:32,820
This is interesting.

738
00:36:33,900 --> 00:36:35,300
When he says it is good,

739
00:36:35,300 --> 00:36:39,180
he's saying it exists exactly as it should,

740
00:36:39,180 --> 00:36:42,860
able to perform its function exactly as it should.

741
00:36:44,540 --> 00:36:46,580
That's what he means by good.

742
00:36:46,580 --> 00:36:48,020
He doesn't mean necessarily like,

743
00:36:48,020 --> 00:36:50,020
oh, pleasing, it makes me happy.

744
00:36:50,020 --> 00:36:53,820
He means it exists exactly as it should,

745
00:36:53,820 --> 00:36:55,980
performing exactly as it should.

746
00:36:56,860 --> 00:36:59,740
And so as Genesis is the beginning of everything,

747
00:36:59,740 --> 00:37:01,660
we have day one serving as the beginning

748
00:37:01,660 --> 00:37:04,620
of this reoccurring theme of darkness and light

749
00:37:04,620 --> 00:37:07,060
that carries through the entire Bible,

750
00:37:07,060 --> 00:37:08,700
mainly the theme that darkness and light

751
00:37:08,700 --> 00:37:10,660
are mutually exclusive realms, right?

752
00:37:10,660 --> 00:37:11,980
We see that throughout scripture.

753
00:37:11,980 --> 00:37:14,140
And then this whole theme ultimately wraps up

754
00:37:14,140 --> 00:37:17,180
where Jesus will bring eternal light to his people

755
00:37:17,180 --> 00:37:18,500
at the end of creation.

756
00:37:20,780 --> 00:37:22,540
But at the time, as Moses is writing this,

757
00:37:22,540 --> 00:37:24,540
I think it was a direct attack on, like I said,

758
00:37:24,540 --> 00:37:27,140
the gods of light and dark of the time.

759
00:37:27,140 --> 00:37:28,940
So day two.

760
00:37:28,940 --> 00:37:31,420
Then God said, let there be an expanse between the waters,

761
00:37:31,420 --> 00:37:33,500
separating water from water.

762
00:37:33,500 --> 00:37:35,660
So God made the expanse and separated the water

763
00:37:35,660 --> 00:37:38,100
under the expanse from the water above the expanse.

764
00:37:38,100 --> 00:37:39,580
And it was so.

765
00:37:39,580 --> 00:37:41,980
God called the expanse sky and evening came,

766
00:37:41,980 --> 00:37:43,860
and then morning, the second day.

767
00:37:45,220 --> 00:37:48,580
So with light glistening on the deep

768
00:37:48,580 --> 00:37:51,380
of this unworked, unordered earth,

769
00:37:51,380 --> 00:37:55,060
light now exists and God spoke again.

770
00:37:55,060 --> 00:37:57,820
And it says he created this expanse, all right?

771
00:37:57,820 --> 00:38:00,740
In other translations, you might have the word firmament.

772
00:38:00,740 --> 00:38:02,940
He created the firmament.

773
00:38:02,940 --> 00:38:04,740
He calls it sky.

774
00:38:04,740 --> 00:38:08,060
And there's a little bit of a difficulty here,

775
00:38:08,060 --> 00:38:10,780
because when you see that he creates the sun and moon,

776
00:38:10,780 --> 00:38:14,060
it says he creates the sun and moon in the expanse, right?

777
00:38:14,060 --> 00:38:15,740
And you're like, obviously the sun

778
00:38:15,740 --> 00:38:17,460
isn't in our atmosphere, right?

779
00:38:17,460 --> 00:38:19,580
So we have to understand what they meant by that.

780
00:38:19,580 --> 00:38:23,380
We understand sky as empty space, right?

781
00:38:23,380 --> 00:38:25,340
Birds fly in the empty space of the sky.

782
00:38:25,340 --> 00:38:27,620
We understand there's air currents and stuff.

783
00:38:27,620 --> 00:38:32,260
But in ancient times, the ancient mind perceived the sky

784
00:38:32,260 --> 00:38:34,580
as a solid thing.

785
00:38:34,580 --> 00:38:35,980
So there's like water below,

786
00:38:35,980 --> 00:38:37,780
and then there's this solid thing

787
00:38:37,780 --> 00:38:39,580
that's holding up everything above it.

788
00:38:39,580 --> 00:38:40,860
And you got water above it.

789
00:38:40,860 --> 00:38:42,900
And then the expanse would even include

790
00:38:42,900 --> 00:38:45,100
what you could see through the sky.

791
00:38:45,100 --> 00:38:47,940
So that's the sun and the moon and the stars.

792
00:38:47,940 --> 00:38:50,980
Now here, when he says it separates water from water,

793
00:38:50,980 --> 00:38:53,060
it's creating two layers of water.

794
00:38:53,060 --> 00:38:56,060
Underneath it is what you have as the seas,

795
00:38:56,060 --> 00:38:58,700
and then the water above is the clouds.

796
00:38:58,700 --> 00:39:01,300
And we know that water resides in clouds in a certain form,

797
00:39:01,300 --> 00:39:04,260
and then it falls, and it created this cycle, right?

798
00:39:04,260 --> 00:39:07,100
That also lends credence to what's called the canopy theory.

799
00:39:07,100 --> 00:39:09,220
And we'll get to that when we talk about the flood,

800
00:39:09,220 --> 00:39:10,380
that there was this canopy,

801
00:39:10,380 --> 00:39:12,260
this thick canopy of clouds and water

802
00:39:12,260 --> 00:39:14,300
that surrounded the earth from creation.

803
00:39:14,300 --> 00:39:16,140
And that's where a lot of the water came from

804
00:39:16,140 --> 00:39:17,900
that fell to the earth during the flood,

805
00:39:17,900 --> 00:39:19,620
and flooded the entire planet.

806
00:39:19,620 --> 00:39:21,660
So, but we'll deal with that later.

807
00:39:21,660 --> 00:39:25,060
But what we see here again is that God is naming

808
00:39:25,060 --> 00:39:26,260
elements of his creation.

809
00:39:26,260 --> 00:39:28,820
He's calling the light day, he's calling the dark night,

810
00:39:28,820 --> 00:39:31,300
and now he's calling the expanse sky.

811
00:39:32,180 --> 00:39:33,980
What that is teaching us about God,

812
00:39:33,980 --> 00:39:36,020
what that was teaching Israel about God,

813
00:39:36,020 --> 00:39:39,180
is that he has sovereign dominion over everything.

814
00:39:39,180 --> 00:39:44,180
He made it, he gets to call it what he wants to, right?

815
00:39:44,300 --> 00:39:46,900
He gets to tell it what to do.

816
00:39:46,900 --> 00:39:49,740
He gets to tell the birds where to fly.

817
00:39:49,740 --> 00:39:52,580
He gets to tell the atoms how to form.

818
00:39:52,580 --> 00:39:56,100
He's God, he has sovereign dominion over it.

819
00:39:56,100 --> 00:39:59,900
Now this rulership, it also means like authority.

820
00:39:59,900 --> 00:40:03,460
Later we're gonna see that God entrusts mankind

821
00:40:03,460 --> 00:40:05,300
with an element of dominion when he says,

822
00:40:05,300 --> 00:40:07,540
hey, you name the animals.

823
00:40:07,540 --> 00:40:09,660
And that was a part of the picture of mankind

824
00:40:09,660 --> 00:40:12,220
having rulership over the animals.

825
00:40:12,220 --> 00:40:14,060
This flies in the face of modern things

826
00:40:14,060 --> 00:40:16,420
where it's like, oh, we're just one of the animals.

827
00:40:16,420 --> 00:40:18,380
We're just a part of the animal kingdom.

828
00:40:18,380 --> 00:40:19,300
No, we're not.

829
00:40:20,300 --> 00:40:22,900
We're created in the image of God.

830
00:40:22,900 --> 00:40:25,620
We have dominion over the animal kingdom.

831
00:40:27,740 --> 00:40:30,060
And then again, at the time of God naming these things,

832
00:40:30,060 --> 00:40:31,820
he's teaching the Jewish people,

833
00:40:31,820 --> 00:40:33,520
there are no gods of the sky and sea,

834
00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:37,300
there is only God who created the sky and the sea.

835
00:40:37,300 --> 00:40:39,380
So verse nine, then God said,

836
00:40:39,380 --> 00:40:41,820
let the water under the sky be gathered into one place

837
00:40:41,820 --> 00:40:44,780
and let the dry land appear, and it was so.

838
00:40:44,780 --> 00:40:47,380
God called the dry land earth and the gathering of water

839
00:40:47,380 --> 00:40:51,020
he called seas, and God saw that it was good.

840
00:40:51,020 --> 00:40:53,500
Then God said, let the earth produce vegetation,

841
00:40:53,500 --> 00:40:56,660
seed-bearing plants and fruit on the earth bearing,

842
00:40:56,660 --> 00:40:58,660
fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit

843
00:40:58,660 --> 00:41:01,740
with seed in it according to their kinds, and it was so.

844
00:41:01,740 --> 00:41:03,300
The earth produced vegetation,

845
00:41:03,300 --> 00:41:05,300
seed-bearing plants according to their kinds,

846
00:41:05,300 --> 00:41:06,980
and trees bearing fruit with seed in it

847
00:41:06,980 --> 00:41:08,820
according to their kinds.

848
00:41:08,820 --> 00:41:11,300
God saw that it was good, evening came,

849
00:41:11,300 --> 00:41:12,860
and then morning the third day.

850
00:41:12,860 --> 00:41:16,500
So over the course of the first two days of creation,

851
00:41:16,500 --> 00:41:20,220
we see God bringing increasing form to the earth, right?

852
00:41:20,220 --> 00:41:23,120
He's bringing form and order to creation,

853
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:25,420
he's bringing light, he's creating oceans,

854
00:41:25,420 --> 00:41:26,980
he's creating an atmosphere,

855
00:41:26,980 --> 00:41:29,580
he's creating the sky and the clouds and all of that.

856
00:41:29,580 --> 00:41:33,300
And so now, you have this picture of earth,

857
00:41:33,300 --> 00:41:35,740
warmed by the light,

858
00:41:35,740 --> 00:41:39,480
having this beautiful robe of blue sky around it now,

859
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:43,100
dappled with clouds floating over sparkling oceans, right?

860
00:41:43,100 --> 00:41:44,860
It's creating this beautiful picture

861
00:41:44,860 --> 00:41:49,380
of an increasingly inviting, pleasant place.

862
00:41:49,380 --> 00:41:54,380
One might call it a paradise because it's so perfect.

863
00:41:55,100 --> 00:41:56,380
And then here in day three,

864
00:41:56,380 --> 00:41:59,360
we see God speaks two more times.

865
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:00,580
Now the first time he speaks

866
00:42:00,580 --> 00:42:02,380
is the forming of the dry land, right?

867
00:42:02,380 --> 00:42:05,480
He's completing the forming of the earth.

868
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:07,260
Everything is being finalized here,

869
00:42:07,260 --> 00:42:09,860
and again, it's just him exercising sovereign dominion

870
00:42:09,860 --> 00:42:13,820
by naming the land earth and naming the waters seas.

871
00:42:13,820 --> 00:42:16,140
And so it's interesting in the language here,

872
00:42:16,140 --> 00:42:18,480
there's no new creation.

873
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:21,000
There's just a picture of him ordering

874
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:22,400
what he'd already created, right?

875
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:24,220
So he's bringing shape and order

876
00:42:24,220 --> 00:42:25,420
to what he had already created.

877
00:42:25,420 --> 00:42:27,720
Now, some people think,

878
00:42:27,720 --> 00:42:31,540
since it says the water was all gathered into one place,

879
00:42:31,540 --> 00:42:33,460
that that would then mean that the dry land

880
00:42:33,460 --> 00:42:35,900
was all in one place, right?

881
00:42:35,900 --> 00:42:40,900
Because if the water was separated by lands,

882
00:42:41,060 --> 00:42:42,300
he wouldn't have said one place.

883
00:42:42,300 --> 00:42:45,460
And so some people look at that and they go, aha!

884
00:42:45,460 --> 00:42:48,900
That's where we get the concept of one large continent

885
00:42:48,900 --> 00:42:50,080
that originally existed,

886
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:52,980
the ideas of Pangea and all that stuff, right?

887
00:42:52,980 --> 00:42:55,320
That's where these ideas come from,

888
00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:57,900
that there was once one big land mass

889
00:42:57,900 --> 00:43:00,160
because what it says here is God gathered the waters

890
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,340
into one place and the dry land was in also one place,

891
00:43:03,340 --> 00:43:05,540
or at least that's the inference.

892
00:43:05,540 --> 00:43:08,020
Some people also look at Genesis 10.25

893
00:43:08,020 --> 00:43:09,900
when it's talking some genealogies and it says,

894
00:43:09,900 --> 00:43:13,000
Eber had two sons, one was named Peleg,

895
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:15,960
for during his days the earth was divided.

896
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:19,540
So some people look at that verse there

897
00:43:19,540 --> 00:43:21,100
and they said the word earth there

898
00:43:21,100 --> 00:43:23,060
is literally referring to the globe, right?

899
00:43:23,060 --> 00:43:26,580
It's not a word referring to the peoples per se

900
00:43:26,580 --> 00:43:29,900
and so they go, at some point the earth was divided.

901
00:43:29,900 --> 00:43:32,420
And so they go, that's when the land mass is separated

902
00:43:32,420 --> 00:43:33,720
and all that kind of stuff.

903
00:43:33,720 --> 00:43:37,800
But that could also be referring to what happens

904
00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:41,000
in the Tower of Babel, right, in the very next chapter

905
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:43,280
where it's like, hey, in his days the earth was divided

906
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:45,120
and in the very next chapter he tells us a story

907
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:47,360
about how God divided the peoples of the earth.

908
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:50,080
And so we'll deal with that in more detail when we get there

909
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:51,720
but I just wanted to address it.

910
00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:56,280
But back to Genesis, we now have the world given shape.

911
00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:59,320
The chaos that existed is gone.

912
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,440
The darkness is limited, if you will, right?

913
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:05,200
As the earth is rotating and there's night and day

914
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:06,440
and so on and so forth.

915
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:10,640
And so next God begins to shift into the idea of fullness.

916
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:12,760
He goes from forming to fullness,

917
00:44:12,760 --> 00:44:15,200
to the filling of the earth as he wills,

918
00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:18,560
as he causes the earth to produce vegetation.

919
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:20,680
That word vegetation means any living organism

920
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:23,680
which does not have mobility, right?

921
00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:24,980
This isn't Lord of the Rings.

922
00:44:24,980 --> 00:44:27,420
There's no tree ants and ants and trees walking around,

923
00:44:27,420 --> 00:44:30,040
right, plants don't do that.

924
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:32,520
These are the immobile things that he created

925
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:34,640
and he says very specifically later

926
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:37,040
that the plants were created to be food

927
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:40,000
for the animals and for mankind.

928
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:42,720
And so he repeats something here

929
00:44:42,720 --> 00:44:44,040
over and over and over again.

930
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:45,480
And I've mentioned this before

931
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:47,960
but a good biblical habit to have in biblical study

932
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:51,080
is when things are repeated over and over and over,

933
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:53,560
that's like God saying pay attention.

934
00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:54,880
This is gonna matter.

935
00:44:54,880 --> 00:44:56,720
And what he says over and over and over

936
00:44:56,720 --> 00:44:59,720
is that this was created according to its kind.

937
00:44:59,720 --> 00:45:01,680
And it has seeds so that it would bear

938
00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:04,280
according to its kind and according to its kind

939
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:05,240
and according to its kind.

940
00:45:05,240 --> 00:45:08,400
And it says that over and over and over, why?

941
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:11,080
Well that word kind means species.

942
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:14,340
So what he's telling us is that the seed

943
00:45:14,340 --> 00:45:15,960
from these plants and fruit trees

944
00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:20,960
resulted in the same or very similar organism

945
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:22,780
as what the seed came from.

946
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:26,640
The idea is that the seed from an apple

947
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:30,500
won't grow a cucumber tree

948
00:45:32,580 --> 00:45:34,180
according to its kind.

949
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:37,820
It's very important because what evolution

950
00:45:37,820 --> 00:45:42,300
tries to teach us is that unrelated species

951
00:45:42,300 --> 00:45:44,780
became one another through a period

952
00:45:44,780 --> 00:45:46,620
of billions and billions of years.

953
00:45:47,540 --> 00:45:49,500
That yeah, an apple seed did one day

954
00:45:49,500 --> 00:45:51,680
start producing cucumber trees.

955
00:45:53,260 --> 00:45:54,460
Doesn't that sound silly?

956
00:45:54,460 --> 00:45:57,360
But that's the prevalent theory of the secular world.

957
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:01,320
That a cat became a dog, a fish became a bird.

958
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:03,800
And God knew we were gonna come up

959
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:05,200
with this silly thing at some point.

960
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:06,720
And so right here in the beginning,

961
00:46:06,720 --> 00:46:09,000
he says according to its kind,

962
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,520
don't get this confused, dogs beget dogs.

963
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,800
Now there's variations within them and hallelujah, right?

964
00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:18,800
I like that there's different types of dogs.

965
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:20,200
You got some with floppy ears,

966
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:24,680
some with ears that stick up, big dogs, little dogs,

967
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:26,640
colorful dogs, right?

968
00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:28,280
I like dogs.

969
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:29,620
Cats, not so much.

970
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:36,280
If you're a cat lover, we're still friends.

971
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:41,720
But there's variation within the species,

972
00:46:41,720 --> 00:46:43,520
but one species doesn't become another.

973
00:46:43,520 --> 00:46:44,960
That's what God's telling us starting here

974
00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:47,680
with the plant life and the vegetation.

975
00:46:47,680 --> 00:46:49,280
The seed from plants and fruit trees,

976
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:51,840
it just results in the similar thing,

977
00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:52,840
in the natural process.

978
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:56,640
So Moses, he's documenting here very powerfully

979
00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:00,240
just an ongoing refutation of all the false gods

980
00:47:00,240 --> 00:47:02,240
of their time, the gods of the earth

981
00:47:02,240 --> 00:47:04,280
and the gods of vegetation and the gods of the harvest,

982
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:06,840
right, because in Egypt, they would go pray to their gods

983
00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:08,520
and make sacrifices, do all the stuff

984
00:47:08,520 --> 00:47:09,680
that the crop would grow.

985
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:12,320
And Moses is like, that's silly.

986
00:47:13,240 --> 00:47:17,960
There's only God, not a thousand different ones.

987
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:21,160
There's only one God, Elohim.

988
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:23,200
And we talked about that word a couple studies ago.

989
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:28,200
It is a word, a plural word that refers to a singular entity.

990
00:47:28,720 --> 00:47:30,920
And we see that at the end of the creation narrative

991
00:47:30,920 --> 00:47:35,920
where then God says, let us make man in our image, one God.

992
00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:41,000
But as we learn to the rest of scripture,

993
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:45,080
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, separate persons

994
00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:46,880
with their own personalities and their own will,

995
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:48,480
yet they are one God.

996
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:51,720
And again, when people go, I don't understand that,

997
00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:53,320
therefore it must not be true.

998
00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:55,320
I'm like, how little is your God?

999
00:47:57,720 --> 00:48:01,200
You think you're gonna understand the mind of God?

1000
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:03,080
Job tried and what did God say?

1001
00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:04,920
Sit down, Job.

1002
00:48:07,040 --> 00:48:09,880
Still loved him, but you know, we've all been slapped around

1003
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:11,720
a little bit sometimes when we're being dumb.

1004
00:48:11,720 --> 00:48:16,720
Okay, so we made it through three.

1005
00:48:16,720 --> 00:48:19,320
So we're gonna end it there.

1006
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:21,400
And we'll pick up the next three next week.

1007
00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:23,800
But because the Bible begins and ends

1008
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:26,240
with this beautiful description of light, right?

1009
00:48:26,240 --> 00:48:30,520
It begins with an untainted world filled with light,

1010
00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:32,080
but no sun.

1011
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:32,920
Why?

1012
00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:35,360
Because God was the source of light.

1013
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:37,120
That's how the world began.

1014
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:40,280
That's how it's gonna end when we're in heaven with him

1015
00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:43,000
in a new heavens and a new earth for eternity.

1016
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:46,680
Because that's what we get at the book ends of the Bible.

1017
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:49,280
It makes sense that Jesus would say in John chapter eight,

1018
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:52,960
verse 12, I am the light of the world.

1019
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:55,320
Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness,

1020
00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:57,600
but will have the light of life.

1021
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,200
Jesus made that declaration in the gospels

1022
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:05,160
while he was standing in the temple treasury.

1023
00:49:05,160 --> 00:49:07,200
He was standing in the temple treasury

1024
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:09,040
after they had done a ceremony there

1025
00:49:09,040 --> 00:49:11,960
called the illumination of the temple.

1026
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:14,240
This ceremony that they would do in the temple

1027
00:49:14,240 --> 00:49:16,520
was they would put these really massive torches

1028
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:17,640
and they would light them on fire

1029
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:19,440
and it would illuminate the temple.

1030
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:22,480
And they did this ceremony in Jesus's day

1031
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:26,200
because they were celebrating the Shekinah glory of God

1032
00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:28,440
that led them through the wilderness, right?

1033
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:31,320
But the ceremony was over at this point,

1034
00:49:31,320 --> 00:49:33,920
the torches were extinguished and now Jesus stands there

1035
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:36,920
and he says, I am the light of the world.

1036
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:39,000
What was he saying there?

1037
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:44,000
He was declaring that he is the Shekinah glory of God.

1038
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:48,680
Now the Shekinah glory of God,

1039
00:49:48,680 --> 00:49:52,400
you get into the Old Testament, you understand it was God.

1040
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:55,400
It was God leading them in the wilderness, right?

1041
00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:57,320
You had the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud

1042
00:49:57,320 --> 00:50:01,440
and God was there leading them, his presence,

1043
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:03,680
which of course then was existing also

1044
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:05,840
in the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle.

1045
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:10,840
But Jesus here, centuries later, I'm that light.

1046
00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:13,960
I'm that light.

1047
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:19,400
Yeah, the God who led you in the wilderness, I'm God.

1048
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:24,720
The God that spoke light into existence

1049
00:50:24,720 --> 00:50:28,620
in Genesis chapter one, Jesus is saying, that's me.

1050
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:32,960
Again, in Revelation 21, 23,

1051
00:50:32,960 --> 00:50:35,640
speaking of the New Jerusalem at the end of time,

1052
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:37,040
it says the city, New Jerusalem,

1053
00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:38,960
does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it

1054
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:40,800
because the glory of God illuminates it

1055
00:50:40,800 --> 00:50:43,100
and its lamp is the lamb.

1056
00:50:45,460 --> 00:50:50,200
Jesus, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.

1057
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:52,000
John one tells us that Jesus Christ,

1058
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:55,600
the light was present when creation

1059
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:57,440
was spoken into existence.

1060
00:50:57,440 --> 00:51:01,400
In John one, it tells us that nothing was made without him

1061
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:05,600
and so the point, the application I wanna bring

1062
00:51:05,600 --> 00:51:10,400
back to us today is that Christ the light,

1063
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:15,400
Christ the creator is the same one who brings order

1064
00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:21,040
out of the dark chaos of our lives.

1065
00:51:23,200 --> 00:51:25,240
When our lives are falling apart

1066
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:30,160
and things aren't going right and everything is troubled,

1067
00:51:30,160 --> 00:51:33,720
Jesus Christ is the one who brings form

1068
00:51:33,720 --> 00:51:35,500
and order to our lives.

1069
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,240
And as we put John one together with Genesis

1070
00:51:40,240 --> 00:51:42,880
and all these other things, what we're meant to see here

1071
00:51:43,880 --> 00:51:46,760
is that the God who revealed himself to you

1072
00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:49,560
in the bodily form of Jesus Christ,

1073
00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:52,240
who lived and died on the cross

1074
00:51:52,240 --> 00:51:54,240
to pay the price for your sin and my sin,

1075
00:51:54,240 --> 00:51:56,440
who rose from the dead on the third day,

1076
00:51:56,440 --> 00:52:04,440
that God who spoke creation into existence out of nothing

1077
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:07,720
and then formed it perfectly

1078
00:52:10,720 --> 00:52:12,560
wants to do that work in your life.

1079
00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:16,480
And if he could do it with creation,

1080
00:52:17,800 --> 00:52:20,860
if he could do it with the earth and the universe,

1081
00:52:23,240 --> 00:52:25,680
you think he could do it with you?

1082
00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:28,840
Absolutely, absolutely.

1083
00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:32,760
You know, if your life is dark as the earth was,

1084
00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:35,000
desolate, formless and empty, you feel,

1085
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:37,560
it's just out of control.

1086
00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:41,760
If you feel like there's no hope in your life

1087
00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:45,320
but only darkness, I've been there.

1088
00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:50,460
I have been there and please hear me, there is hope.

1089
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:53,800
The lie is that there's no hope.

1090
00:52:53,800 --> 00:52:55,920
There is always hope.

1091
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:57,840
Hope exists for you.

1092
00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:01,200
The very same power that flung the stars out

1093
00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:03,680
into the expanse of an expanding universe

1094
00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:07,880
while creating life with the irreducible complexity

1095
00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:09,720
of a trillion cells in your body,

1096
00:53:09,720 --> 00:53:14,520
that God, he will act and work on your behalf

1097
00:53:14,520 --> 00:53:15,520
if you come to him.

1098
00:53:17,560 --> 00:53:19,160
If you come to that place of saying,

1099
00:53:19,160 --> 00:53:20,520
I believe you are a God.

1100
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:22,960
I believe in your word.

1101
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:24,360
I believe you came to this earth.

1102
00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:26,560
I believe you died on the cross.

1103
00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:28,320
I believe you rose from the dead

1104
00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:32,160
and I believe you can fix my broken heart.

1105
00:53:32,160 --> 00:53:35,080
I believe you can fix my broken life.

1106
00:53:35,080 --> 00:53:37,800
I believe you can bring order to the chaos

1107
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:39,680
of the sin that I live in.

1108
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:45,920
And when you do that, when you say, come into my life,

1109
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:48,440
he says, okay.

1110
00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:50,720
He says, okay.

1111
00:53:52,600 --> 00:53:54,840
It tells us that when we accept Christ,

1112
00:53:54,840 --> 00:53:58,040
we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

1113
00:53:58,040 --> 00:54:01,120
the same spirit that was fluttering over a formless earth.

1114
00:54:02,680 --> 00:54:04,960
And when we, in the darkness of our sin

1115
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:09,520
and just the horrible existence of our brokenness,

1116
00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:11,720
when we accept God into our life,

1117
00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:16,280
the first thing he says is, let there be light.

1118
00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:19,360
He brings the light of the gospel, the light of truth,

1119
00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:21,040
the light of salvation to our hearts.

1120
00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:24,520
You see, he turned the night into day with a word.

1121
00:54:24,520 --> 00:54:29,520
He turned chaos into order with a word.

1122
00:54:30,720 --> 00:54:33,880
He turned just everything that was nothing

1123
00:54:33,880 --> 00:54:36,160
into something with a word.

1124
00:54:39,360 --> 00:54:40,960
And because he isn't just the light,

1125
00:54:40,960 --> 00:54:44,320
he's not just the creator, he's just not just the son of God.

1126
00:54:44,320 --> 00:54:47,640
It says he is the savior of the world, he can save you.

1127
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:51,560
He can bring a genesis to your life,

1128
00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:54,400
a new beginning to your life.

1129
00:54:54,400 --> 00:54:56,440
And if you've never understood that before,

1130
00:54:56,440 --> 00:54:59,280
please understand there is hope for you.

1131
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:03,800
If you're here and you don't know Jesus,

1132
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:05,880
he's speaking to you right now.

1133
00:55:08,080 --> 00:55:10,920
The sense that there is a God Almighty who,

1134
00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:12,440
although he's invisible in this room,

1135
00:55:12,440 --> 00:55:14,960
although he's invisible in this room, is looking at you

1136
00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:16,560
right now where you're seated,

1137
00:55:18,920 --> 00:55:21,960
is telling you that there's a God out there.

1138
00:55:21,960 --> 00:55:22,920
He sees you.

1139
00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:26,840
He knows what your life is, he loves you.

1140
00:55:28,880 --> 00:55:30,240
And he says, let me fix it.

1141
00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:35,080
Let me save you from the penalty of your sin.

1142
00:55:36,120 --> 00:55:37,800
Let me come and live inside your heart

1143
00:55:37,800 --> 00:55:40,800
and I'll start the process of reordering everything.

1144
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:45,800
Just trust me, yield to me, let me, and he will do it.

1145
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:47,120
This is our God.

1146
00:55:48,320 --> 00:55:50,600
This is the God who gives form and order

1147
00:55:50,600 --> 00:55:52,520
and he could do it in your life.

1148
00:55:52,520 --> 00:55:53,360
Let's pray.

1149
00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:57,120
Father, we thank you so much, God,

1150
00:55:57,120 --> 00:55:59,440
that you sent your Son to die for our sins.

1151
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:03,440
Jesus, we're so thankful that you came

1152
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:07,120
and although you faced something horrific and terrible,

1153
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:09,200
you still went to the cross for us.

1154
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:11,680
Jesus, we thank you that when you left,

1155
00:56:11,680 --> 00:56:14,800
you sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us,

1156
00:56:14,800 --> 00:56:17,800
to be our counselor and to guide us and to teach us, Lord.

1157
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:22,080
And God, you, singular, one God,

1158
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:25,040
existing in three persons simultaneously,

1159
00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:29,240
you spoke creation into existence.

1160
00:56:29,240 --> 00:56:31,800
You said light exists and light existed.

1161
00:56:33,240 --> 00:56:36,040
You said sky exists and sky existed.

1162
00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:39,360
You said water exists and water existed.

1163
00:56:41,040 --> 00:56:46,040
Lord, it's by your mere will that creation came to be.

1164
00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:49,720
And Lord, what we learn from this,

1165
00:56:49,720 --> 00:56:53,720
as you're a God who brings order out of chaos,

1166
00:56:56,200 --> 00:56:58,680
that God, there is creation power in you

1167
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:01,320
that can recreate our life.

1168
00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:05,000
And that God, you wanna bring light into our life.

1169
00:57:06,600 --> 00:57:08,120
You wanna create an expanse,

1170
00:57:08,120 --> 00:57:10,840
so instead of the pressure of life, we can breathe.

1171
00:57:14,840 --> 00:57:16,960
Instead of floating in an ocean

1172
00:57:16,960 --> 00:57:18,400
thinking we're gonna drown, Lord,

1173
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:21,240
you wanna create dry land that we could stand on,

1174
00:57:21,240 --> 00:57:22,840
you, the rock.

1175
00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:27,920
You wanna create dry land that we can stand on,

1176
00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:32,320
you, the rock.

1177
00:57:32,320 --> 00:57:34,520
And so Lord, we pray, God, that those of us that know you

1178
00:57:34,520 --> 00:57:36,400
would appropriate these truths, Lord,

1179
00:57:36,400 --> 00:57:38,520
live these truths, trust in these truths.

1180
00:57:39,920 --> 00:57:42,680
God, that since you did what you did in creation

1181
00:57:42,680 --> 00:57:43,680
and are revealing it to us,

1182
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:46,680
there is nothing you can't do in our lives.

1183
00:57:46,680 --> 00:57:48,200
There's no problem you can't solve.

1184
00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:49,640
There's no peace you can't give.

1185
00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:51,560
There's no joy you can't give.

1186
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:54,560
Lord, we're just called to trust you in all things

1187
00:57:54,560 --> 00:57:56,800
and help us, Lord, to do that.

1188
00:57:56,800 --> 00:57:59,920
Increase our faith, Lord, as Peter prayed.

1189
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:04,200
But Lord, God, I know that you're always speaking

1190
00:58:04,200 --> 00:58:06,040
to those that don't know you, Lord.

1191
00:58:06,040 --> 00:58:08,080
Those that haven't really trusted in you, Lord.

1192
00:58:08,080 --> 00:58:11,000
Even maybe they've gone forward at an altar call before,

1193
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:12,320
but they know in their heart, God,

1194
00:58:12,320 --> 00:58:14,800
that they've never really fully yielded to you.

1195
00:58:14,800 --> 00:58:16,680
Or maybe, Lord, there's someone here today

1196
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:19,440
or listening that just simply has never come

1197
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:20,800
to put their trust in you.

1198
00:58:21,840 --> 00:58:23,360
Lord, I pray for them right now, God,

1199
00:58:23,360 --> 00:58:25,400
that as your Spirit speaks to their heart,

1200
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:30,400
God, your Spirit doing the work of conviction,

1201
00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:34,880
of their sin, conviction of the reality

1202
00:58:34,880 --> 00:58:36,760
that you lived a perfect righteous life

1203
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:38,760
that you want to attribute to them

1204
00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:41,080
in faith and repentance.

1205
00:58:42,040 --> 00:58:44,520
And Lord, conviction of righteousness,

1206
00:58:44,520 --> 00:58:46,440
that they haven't been living a good life,

1207
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:48,040
that they haven't been the good person

1208
00:58:48,040 --> 00:58:49,240
that they think they are.

1209
00:58:50,720 --> 00:58:52,640
Sure, compared to another person,

1210
00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:53,720
they might feel pretty good,

1211
00:58:53,720 --> 00:58:55,560
but compared to the holiness of God,

1212
00:58:55,560 --> 00:58:57,640
they just recognize that they have sinned.

1213
00:58:59,800 --> 00:59:02,280
And I pray, Lord, as a Spirit is speaking to them right now

1214
00:59:02,280 --> 00:59:04,360
that they would realize that you, God,

1215
00:59:04,360 --> 00:59:07,200
want to do a work of forgiving them, saving them,

1216
00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:11,000
imparting righteousness into their life.

1217
00:59:12,040 --> 00:59:13,760
And so while we're praying,

1218
00:59:13,760 --> 00:59:15,280
just with heads bowed and eyes closed,

1219
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:17,640
if you wanna give your life to Jesus Christ this morning,

1220
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:20,980
if he has spoken to you about your need for salvation,

1221
00:59:20,980 --> 00:59:24,540
if your mind has begun to entertain the reality

1222
00:59:24,540 --> 00:59:28,740
that God Almighty spoke creation into existence,

1223
00:59:28,740 --> 00:59:31,940
and that same God is watching you right now,

1224
00:59:31,940 --> 00:59:36,940
looking at you right now, saying, please come to me.

1225
00:59:37,660 --> 00:59:39,620
I wanna save you, I wanna forgive you

1226
00:59:39,620 --> 00:59:40,780
for everything you've ever done

1227
00:59:40,780 --> 00:59:42,380
and everything you ever will do.

1228
00:59:43,980 --> 00:59:46,180
And if you wanna receive that this morning,

1229
00:59:47,460 --> 00:59:48,780
I just want you where you're seated.

1230
00:59:48,780 --> 00:59:50,180
You don't have to get up or down.

1231
00:59:50,180 --> 00:59:51,460
You don't have to get up or do anything,

1232
00:59:51,460 --> 00:59:52,700
but I just want you to raise your hand

1233
00:59:52,700 --> 00:59:54,540
and say, pastor, please pray for me.

1234
00:59:54,540 --> 00:59:57,940
I need to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

1235
00:59:57,940 --> 00:59:58,860
I see you in the back.

1236
00:59:58,860 --> 00:59:59,700
God bless you.

1237
00:59:59,700 --> 01:00:00,580
Anybody else?

1238
01:00:01,500 --> 01:00:03,020
God is speaking to you this morning,

1239
01:00:03,020 --> 01:00:05,040
and you know you need salvation.

1240
01:00:06,080 --> 01:00:07,700
Just raise your hand where I could see it

1241
01:00:07,700 --> 01:00:09,060
and let me pray with you today.

1242
01:00:09,060 --> 01:00:10,240
I see you in the back as well.

1243
01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:11,280
Anybody else?

1244
01:00:13,100 --> 01:00:14,360
God is knocking on your heart.

1245
01:00:14,360 --> 01:00:15,340
I see you on the side.

1246
01:00:15,340 --> 01:00:16,500
God bless you as well.

1247
01:00:16,500 --> 01:00:17,700
Anybody else?

1248
01:00:17,700 --> 01:00:22,700
If you're watching us online, obviously I can't see you,

1249
01:00:22,940 --> 01:00:25,820
but if God has knocked on your heart

1250
01:00:25,820 --> 01:00:27,940
and you realize you need to repent of your sin

1251
01:00:27,940 --> 01:00:30,340
and receive him, just in the chat there,

1252
01:00:30,340 --> 01:00:32,340
whether you're on YouTube or other platforms,

1253
01:00:32,340 --> 01:00:35,140
just in the chat, say I wanna receive Jesus this morning.

1254
01:00:36,740 --> 01:00:38,220
And for those of you that know you need him

1255
01:00:38,220 --> 01:00:39,220
and are receiving him today,

1256
01:00:39,220 --> 01:00:40,540
I want you to pray this prayer with me.

1257
01:00:40,540 --> 01:00:44,000
Say, Lord God, I believe in you.

1258
01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:46,000
I believe in who you are.

1259
01:00:47,360 --> 01:00:49,800
I believe you created the universe.

1260
01:00:50,800 --> 01:00:52,600
I believe you created this earth.

1261
01:00:54,520 --> 01:00:55,960
I believe you created me.

1262
01:00:58,200 --> 01:00:59,600
And God, I have sinned.

1263
01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:01,760
I'm sorry.

1264
01:01:03,120 --> 01:01:04,480
Please forgive me.

1265
01:01:06,640 --> 01:01:08,160
Please come into my life.

1266
01:01:08,160 --> 01:01:12,760
Please come into my life, bring order

1267
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:15,560
to the chaos of my life.

1268
01:01:16,880 --> 01:01:20,520
Bring light to the darkness of my life.

1269
01:01:22,560 --> 01:01:27,560
Bring clear skies to the pressure of my life.

1270
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:34,120
Bring stability to the rocky ocean of my life.

1271
01:01:34,120 --> 01:01:37,240
I receive that Lord.

1272
01:01:38,360 --> 01:01:39,640
Save my soul.

1273
01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:43,920
Be my God, be my savior.

1274
01:01:45,320 --> 01:01:47,880
And thank you for loving me so much

1275
01:01:47,880 --> 01:01:49,380
that you would do this for me.

1276
01:01:50,560 --> 01:01:52,480
Teach me how to live for you.

1277
01:01:54,200 --> 01:01:57,960
Show me how to be the person you've created me to be.

1278
01:01:57,960 --> 01:02:02,960
Help me, Lord, to be a person with form

1279
01:02:05,520 --> 01:02:07,080
filled with the Holy Spirit.

1280
01:02:08,240 --> 01:02:09,880
I trust you, God.

1281
01:02:09,880 --> 01:02:12,240
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

1282
01:02:13,800 --> 01:02:16,560
All right, for those of you that raised your hand today,

1283
01:02:16,560 --> 01:02:17,800
congratulations.

1284
01:02:19,980 --> 01:02:22,520
If you're online and you gave your life to the Lord today,

1285
01:02:22,520 --> 01:02:24,640
you know, for all of you, the Bible says

1286
01:02:24,640 --> 01:02:27,560
that when one person gives their life to the Lord,

1287
01:02:27,560 --> 01:02:30,200
the entire host of heaven celebrates.

1288
01:02:30,200 --> 01:02:32,500
Pretty huge party going on in heaven right now.

1289
01:02:33,520 --> 01:02:35,480
And so we just wanna encourage you guys, you know,

1290
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:37,920
if you've just begun your walk with the Lord,

1291
01:02:37,920 --> 01:02:39,560
you may have questions, right?

1292
01:02:39,560 --> 01:02:41,300
And that's totally valid.

1293
01:02:41,300 --> 01:02:42,280
What do I do now?

1294
01:02:42,280 --> 01:02:43,300
You know, what do I do next?

1295
01:02:43,300 --> 01:02:46,860
And so before you leave today, if you're here in the room,

1296
01:02:46,860 --> 01:02:49,180
either come forward after we're done

1297
01:02:49,180 --> 01:02:51,920
or go out into the foyer as you leave today

1298
01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:54,260
and ask for a new believer's packet, okay?

1299
01:02:54,260 --> 01:02:56,640
That just has some information to help you

1300
01:02:56,640 --> 01:02:58,440
begin this journey with God.

1301
01:02:58,440 --> 01:02:59,920
It's gonna tell you things like,

1302
01:02:59,920 --> 01:03:01,320
hey, read your Bible every day.

1303
01:03:01,320 --> 01:03:02,240
It's God's word.

1304
01:03:02,240 --> 01:03:04,160
He wants to talk to you.

1305
01:03:04,160 --> 01:03:06,000
It's gonna encourage you to pray every day

1306
01:03:06,000 --> 01:03:07,680
and you might be like, what's that?

1307
01:03:07,680 --> 01:03:09,840
Just talk to God.

1308
01:03:09,840 --> 01:03:11,840
You don't have to kumbaya and all that.

1309
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:13,740
Just talk to God, all right?

1310
01:03:15,120 --> 01:03:17,200
There's information in there to help you worship God.

1311
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:20,360
One of the beautiful things we get to do is in songs,

1312
01:03:20,360 --> 01:03:21,520
hey God, we love you so much.

1313
01:03:21,520 --> 01:03:23,840
Thank you for what you've done.

1314
01:03:23,840 --> 01:03:25,860
And then plug into a body of believers,

1315
01:03:25,860 --> 01:03:28,260
whether it's here at Hosanna or another church,

1316
01:03:29,300 --> 01:03:31,320
a church that is teaching the word of God,

1317
01:03:31,320 --> 01:03:33,920
plug in to other believers.

1318
01:03:33,920 --> 01:03:37,720
You're a part of a family now, the family of God.

1319
01:03:37,720 --> 01:03:40,080
And we're here to pray for you and to encourage you

1320
01:03:40,080 --> 01:03:41,120
and to help you.

1321
01:03:41,120 --> 01:03:43,960
That's what the family of God does.

1322
01:03:44,920 --> 01:03:49,840
And for the rest of us, yeah, let's go out.

1323
01:03:51,020 --> 01:03:53,160
We're called to take the light

1324
01:03:53,160 --> 01:03:55,800
that God is shining through us out into a dark world.

1325
01:03:57,040 --> 01:03:58,480
And the world is dark.

1326
01:03:58,480 --> 01:04:00,240
It's getting darker spiritually.

1327
01:04:01,160 --> 01:04:02,600
And the time is limited for us

1328
01:04:02,600 --> 01:04:04,580
to share the gospel with people.

1329
01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:07,380
And so share the gospel.

1330
01:04:08,600 --> 01:04:10,600
We provide gospel tracts for you.

1331
01:04:10,600 --> 01:04:13,940
We encourage you to grab as many as you want, right?

1332
01:04:13,940 --> 01:04:16,160
Don't be like, oh no, I can only take two or three.

1333
01:04:16,160 --> 01:04:17,860
No, if we run out, we'll get more.

1334
01:04:19,440 --> 01:04:21,520
If gospel tracts aren't your thing,

1335
01:04:21,520 --> 01:04:24,960
figure out what your thing is, right?

1336
01:04:24,960 --> 01:04:27,880
Figure out how God is having you share the hope

1337
01:04:27,880 --> 01:04:29,760
that is within you with people that need it.

1338
01:04:29,760 --> 01:04:30,680
And do that.

1339
01:04:31,600 --> 01:04:33,520
Because I guarantee every single one of us in this room

1340
01:04:33,520 --> 01:04:36,240
knows somebody who isn't saved yet.

1341
01:04:38,200 --> 01:04:41,080
And God has built a relationship between you and them

1342
01:04:41,080 --> 01:04:43,560
that you would be a light into their darkness.

1343
01:04:43,560 --> 01:04:46,300
Pray for opportunity to share the hope

1344
01:04:46,300 --> 01:04:48,280
that is within you with them, amen?

1345
01:04:48,280 --> 01:04:50,120
I just pray God blesses you.

1346
01:04:50,120 --> 01:04:53,520
Pray that God blesses his church here in the world today.

1347
01:04:53,520 --> 01:04:56,320
That the light that God is, that God created,

1348
01:04:56,320 --> 01:05:00,040
that God's spoken to existence would shine so brightly

1349
01:05:00,040 --> 01:05:01,520
that the darkness would flee.

1350
01:05:02,840 --> 01:05:04,520
And regardless of the end times,

1351
01:05:04,520 --> 01:05:06,680
and we know that things are gonna get worse,

1352
01:05:07,800 --> 01:05:09,760
God is never defeated.

1353
01:05:09,760 --> 01:05:13,360
Revelation taught us that in the end, God wins.

1354
01:05:13,360 --> 01:05:15,520
In the beginning, God wins.

1355
01:05:15,520 --> 01:05:19,440
God wins, and everywhere in between, God wins, amen?

1356
01:05:19,440 --> 01:05:45,720
God bless you guys.