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Well, good morning everybody.

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I wanna take the opportunity to welcome anybody

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that's here in our sanctuary for the first time this Sunday,

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or if you're watching us online for the first time, welcome.

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We're so glad you're here to worship with us.

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I am Pastor Nathan and we will be celebrating communion today.

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So everybody here in our sanctuary,

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you should have gotten one of the communion cups

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as you came in.

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If you did not, when we get to communion later today,

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I'll have the elders come through

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and make sure you get one of the communion cups.

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If you're watching online, this would be a good time

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to get your communion emblems ready for us

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to celebrate together at the tail end of the study.

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But today we are going to be continuing our look

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at the six days of creation found in Genesis chapter one

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as we focus in on days four, five, and six.

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Now just to kind of bring context and preface this again,

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you guys might remember back in Genesis chapter one,

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verse two, we were given a description of the earth

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right after God created the heavens in the earth

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or as a part of his initial creation.

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And 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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This was the account of creation

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that the Holy Spirit gave to Moses,

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that Moses then wrote down

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under the inspiration of the Spirit.

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And what he's giving us here all the way through chapter one

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is God's remedy to that original condition of the earth.

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God's remedy to the original condition of the earth

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being formless and empty.

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And as we've been reading through,

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we studied in the first three days

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that God had a very methodical,

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a very precise process as he formed the earth.

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And you might notice in Genesis chapter one,

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the earth seems to be the primary focus

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of the creation account,

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at least in the context of physical matter.

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What I mean by that is you have this entire universe

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that we're situated in,

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and we talked about some of that last week, right?

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We're in a galaxy that's 100,000 light years across,

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and it is only one of some 100 trillion billion galaxies

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that exist in the universe.

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And all of those stars and all of that,

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all God has to say about the creation

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of everything out in the universe,

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is in verse one he said, God created the heavens.

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And then in verse 17,

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after we get the account of God creating the sun and moon,

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almost as an afterthought, it'll say,

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as well as the stars.

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And that's it.

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That's all God has to say about the entire cosmos.

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The rest of it is about earth.

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Earth is the focus.

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And I believe it's the focus

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because earth is the place that God had prepared

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for the pinnacle of his creation.

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That pinnacle being mankind made in the image of God.

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And so those first three days of creation

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that we looked at last week described the forming of the earth

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as God was remedying the formlessness of it.

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Again, verse two, the earth was without form or formless.

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And so we read there how God formed the light and the dark.

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God formed the sky between the waters above

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and the waters below.

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And then God formed the land and the seas

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and the food that was gonna be in the form of vegetation

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throughout the earth,

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all in preparation of his filling of the earth.

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And he said it was good.

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God's creation was good.

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That word good there means it exists exactly as it should.

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Able to function and perform its function

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exactly as it should.

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Very precise language that really rails against the concept

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that everything in the universe

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accidentally evolved from nothing.

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Instead, what we read in the creation account

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is that nothing existed and then God created it all.

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Speaking it all into existence.

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And so we learn there that God forms.

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God brings form to the formless.

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And it is something that he does in our lives

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of sin-ridden brokenness.

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That he could bring form and function and purpose

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into broken lives.

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But today, we're gonna learn that God

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doesn't just stop it forming, but that he fills.

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That he fills after he forms.

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It happened at creation.

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It happens every single time a soul is saved,

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a lost sinner is saved.

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He takes emptiness and he fills that emptiness with purpose.

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With joy, with peace, and with the Holy Spirit of God.

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And that's what we're gonna be looking at today.

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But first, we're gonna spend some time worshiping him

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because he is almighty, amen?

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He is God Almighty.

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He is God Almighty, he is the God who created everything

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out of nothing.

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He is the God that has saved our souls.

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He is the God that assures us eternity in heaven with him.

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What a wonderful and beautiful thing.

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Let's pray.

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Father, we love you so much.

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And we thank you God for who you are

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and what you've done and what you're doing.

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God, as we've been studying creation here

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in chapter one of Genesis, Lord.

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We've been so encouraged as we're reminded at who you are.

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That you are God who has always been,

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always is and always will be.

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Lord, that you existed into eternity past

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and you will exist into eternity future, Lord.

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And that this creation, this universe, this earth, and us,

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Lord, we are a creation that took place from your mind,

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Lord, as you spoke everything into existence.

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But God, there was a pinnacle of your creation

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and that was us.

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Lord, as you formed us uniquely,

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differently than everything else, Lord,

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you formed us in your image.

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And so God, may we be encouraged today

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about the point of that, the purpose of that.

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Lord, that we would understand that as broken people,

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as people who are empty, devoid of any goodness, Lord,

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because we are sinful from birth, Lord,

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that we would learn that God, as you created us

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with a purpose, you can refill us with the purpose.

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That God, when we trust in you for our salvation,

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trust in you for everything, God,

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you literally fill us with the perfect intention

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of the goodness you created us with.

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And that God, you give us the hope of heaven

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at the end of all things, Lord, we love you so much.

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We thank you and we wanna worship your name

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because you are God, we love you.

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It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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Let's worship church.

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All right, we are in Genesis chapter one.

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We will be actually finishing the chapter this week.

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I know you're surprised.

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And we're gonna be going through verse 14

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to chapter two, verse one.

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And we're looking at the fourth, fifth,

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and sixth day of creation here.

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This is where we see God filling the earth

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that he had formed on days one, two, and three.

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And so read with me starting in verse 14.

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Then God said, let there be lights in the expanse

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of the sky to separate the day from the night.

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They will serve as signs for seasons

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and for days and years.

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They will be lights in the expanse of the sky

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to provide light on the earth.

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And it was so.

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God made the two great lights,

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the greater light to rule over the day

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and the lesser light to rule over the night

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as well as the stars.

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God placed them in the expanse of the sky

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to provide light on the earth to rule the day

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and the night 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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And so in the very precise yet poetic

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yet factual structure of the creation account here,

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we touched on it last week where there was this

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very neat parallelism in the account

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where day one corresponded with day four

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and day two corresponded with day five

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and day three corresponded with day six.

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And that's what we're seeing here.

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On day one, if you remember, God formed light.

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God said, let there be light.

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And there was light.

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Or in the original language, God said, light exists.

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And it did.

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He spoke it into existence.

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And we know that that was the place there

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where he formed that and he separated the light

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from the darkness.

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Here on day four, we're now seeing God

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fill space with the luminaries.

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The luminaries being the sun and the moon and the stars.

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Now some people, as I'd mentioned before,

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have a problem with the fact that light existed

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on day one, yet the sun and the moon

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didn't exist until day four.

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And they go, see, that just shows how the creation account

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in the Bible is not real.

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It can't possibly be real.

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But really the only problem, the only reason

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to have a problem with those details in the creation account

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is because you don't believe God's word.

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That's how you have a problem with that.

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Because Revelation chapter 22 verse five,

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at the very end of creation, when we're in the new heaven

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and the new earth, it tells us that there's no sun

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and that there's no moon.

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It says because the Lord God will give them light.

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The Bible tells us that God is light

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and in him is no darkness at all.

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So if you believe the word of God,

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it shouldn't be difficult to believe that the God

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who created everything out of nothing

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doesn't need the sun and the moon and the stars

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to have light exist.

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He doesn't need it.

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He's God, right?

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So the whole point of this creation account

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is that God created the heavens and the earth

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out of nothing, right?

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That's the big underlying point.

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That's the big miracle.

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That's the thing where we go wow, how powerful is God?

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How impressive is God?

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How almighty is God that he created everything

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out of nothing?

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That is something we as humanity cannot do.

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That is something in fact that the laws,

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the physical laws of this universe we live in,

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as we understand them, is impossible for us.

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We can't create matter nor destroy matter.

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It can only be changed from one form to the other.

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But God is under no such limitations.

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God can create matter and that's what it tells us here

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in this creation.

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And so thus he created light.

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Light existed and then on day four he goes on

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to create the luminaries.

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And so we have to be very careful in our faith

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not to limit God by our own cause and effect understandings.

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We can't limit God by those things.

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See sometimes we get caught up in that.

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As we understand well this can't happen

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unless this happens, we can tend to put God

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in that same box, right?

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Well this person, God I know you want me to pray for them

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but they can't ever get saved because they've done this.

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God's like why are you limiting what I can do

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in a person's heart?

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God you can't possibly answer this prayer.

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Like one of the things that I'm highly

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encouraged to do in my own heart

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and I encourage you as a body is to pray.

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To pray for our country.

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To pray for our nation.

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I mean look at what's happening on our college campuses

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around the country right now.

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We gotta pray.

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And sometimes we go God can't fix that.

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Yes he can.

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Yes he can.

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Now the answers to God working aren't who's in the

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White House, who's in Congress, right?

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God can work through the hearts of anybody.

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He used Pharaoh to get the Israelites out of Egypt.

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So we gotta pray.

265
00:12:07,780 --> 00:12:09,100
But we can't limit God.

266
00:12:09,100 --> 00:12:12,000
We can't go oh God can't fix that

267
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:14,340
and cause ourselves to stop praying.

268
00:12:14,340 --> 00:12:19,340
We pray saying God you created everything out of nothing.

269
00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:22,800
Surely you can fix this problem.

270
00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,320
Surely you can minister into the hearts of these students

271
00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:27,800
who are just confused and deceived.

272
00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:30,860
Surely you can work in this government and that government.

273
00:12:30,860 --> 00:12:31,700
Surely.

274
00:12:32,860 --> 00:12:36,240
Because you created light just by speaking.

275
00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:38,840
And that's the encouragement we get here.

276
00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:41,840
Now 2 Corinthians 4, 6 we see a little bit here that

277
00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:44,760
the fact that God created light on day one

278
00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:46,800
and then created the sun, moon, and stars on day four.

279
00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:51,080
It also shows us that light is not just a physical thing.

280
00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:53,760
It's not just a physical creation.

281
00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:57,920
But there's also a supernatural aspect to the ideas

282
00:12:57,920 --> 00:12:58,920
of light and dark.

283
00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:02,560
In 2 Corinthians 4, 6 it says for God who said

284
00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:05,360
let the light shine out of the darkness

285
00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:09,120
has shown in our hearts to give the light of knowledge

286
00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,880
of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

287
00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:16,880
And so light existing is both real, both metaphorical,

288
00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:21,480
both natural, both for supernatural.

289
00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:25,520
You know in fact in Exodus chapter nine

290
00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:27,040
we see the opposite of this.

291
00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,100
Exodus, not Exodus chapter nine.

292
00:13:29,100 --> 00:13:32,600
In Exodus when God was laying down the 10 plagues

293
00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:34,680
the ninth plague was the plague of darkness.

294
00:13:34,680 --> 00:13:35,920
If you guys remember that.

295
00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:39,600
And it says there specifically that this darkness

296
00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:42,000
fell upon the land and it was a darkness

297
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:43,440
that could be felt.

298
00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:45,880
Right?

299
00:13:45,880 --> 00:13:49,280
And the word there means physically felt.

300
00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:50,120
Right?

301
00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:51,800
We might understand the metaphorical application

302
00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:53,960
like when it's dark it's like ooh it's spooky.

303
00:13:53,960 --> 00:13:54,800
Right?

304
00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:58,440
How many of you were kids and you would like okay time

305
00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:00,540
like how fast you were able to run to your bed

306
00:14:00,540 --> 00:14:02,080
when you flipped the light off.

307
00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:02,920
Right?

308
00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:04,080
Because the darkness, as soon as the darkness is there

309
00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:05,240
the boogeyman's gonna get me.

310
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:10,240
Well this darkness in the ninth plague was physically felt.

311
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:14,780
We know darkness doesn't do that but it did.

312
00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:17,800
And then later on in that same thing it says

313
00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:19,540
there was darkness over this whole land

314
00:14:19,540 --> 00:14:21,460
but Israel had light.

315
00:14:23,020 --> 00:14:25,560
God can do whatever he wants.

316
00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:27,360
And so there's this supernatural element

317
00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:28,780
as well as physical element.

318
00:14:28,780 --> 00:14:30,960
But here in Genesis in verse 14 it says

319
00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,760
let there be lights in the expanse of the sky.

320
00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,840
And that word lights simply means light bearers.

321
00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:37,680
Right?

322
00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:41,200
Things that will produce light or emit light

323
00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:42,960
or reflect light.

324
00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:43,800
Right?

325
00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:45,720
But these are objects that God created

326
00:14:45,720 --> 00:14:47,520
that are interacting with the light

327
00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:50,560
that already existed in some way.

328
00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:52,560
And you might think well how does that make sense?

329
00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:56,100
Well I have a very kind of good metaphor here

330
00:14:56,100 --> 00:14:58,120
but think of a flashlight.

331
00:14:58,120 --> 00:14:58,960
Right?

332
00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:00,140
If you were standing outside in the middle of the day

333
00:15:00,140 --> 00:15:02,800
would you say light is all around you?

334
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:04,120
And then you turn on your flashlight

335
00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:06,720
and that object emits light as well?

336
00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:08,280
That's kind of like the idea here.

337
00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:10,880
Light existed but then God created objects

338
00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:14,080
that also produce light and emit light.

339
00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:17,960
And so he said let there's lights be in the expanse

340
00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:19,600
of the sky.

341
00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:21,080
The expanse of the sky there.

342
00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:24,600
Now when I was reading that I thought wait a second.

343
00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:28,960
Didn't God already create the expanse in day two?

344
00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:30,760
You guys remember there it said there was

345
00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:33,040
God created an expanse and he separated

346
00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:34,360
the waters from the waters.

347
00:15:34,360 --> 00:15:38,240
And then it says God called the expanse sky.

348
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:41,260
So expanse equals sky.

349
00:15:41,260 --> 00:15:42,640
But here you get to day four

350
00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:45,760
and now it's the expanse of the sky.

351
00:15:46,740 --> 00:15:49,760
You're like well is the expanse sky?

352
00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:51,520
According to day one?

353
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:53,440
And if that's true is he saying that he created

354
00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:56,340
the sun, moon, and stars in our atmosphere?

355
00:15:56,340 --> 00:15:58,180
Well that would be difficult right?

356
00:15:58,180 --> 00:16:01,540
We get a tan real fast but it would be a tough time.

357
00:16:01,540 --> 00:16:03,840
No it's a different thing and it's rendered differently

358
00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:05,120
and I just want to point that out to you

359
00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:08,040
because in the Bible, in the Hebrew language,

360
00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:10,400
and in the Greek language in the New Testament,

361
00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:12,660
there was this Jewish understanding

362
00:16:12,660 --> 00:16:14,480
that really helps you understand

363
00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:17,060
what they mean when they use this word.

364
00:16:17,060 --> 00:16:20,520
Now this word in the Hebrew is this word samayim.

365
00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:22,680
That's the word that's translated sky.

366
00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:24,500
But if you have like a New King James version

367
00:16:24,500 --> 00:16:26,820
you'll see it translated heaven.

368
00:16:26,820 --> 00:16:29,160
Like God created the expanse and he created,

369
00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:30,520
separated the waters from the waters

370
00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:32,520
and God called it heaven.

371
00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:34,200
You're like wait, that seems to be talking

372
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:36,200
about our atmosphere, that's heaven?

373
00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:39,400
And then here he seems to be saying expanse of the,

374
00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:41,520
in a New King James version is translated heaven.

375
00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:43,440
So what is he talking about?

376
00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:46,420
Again the Jewish mind understood heaven

377
00:16:46,420 --> 00:16:49,000
to be three different things.

378
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,040
In the Jewish mind, in this word samayim in the Hebrew,

379
00:16:52,040 --> 00:16:55,600
it would refer to the first heaven which was the atmosphere.

380
00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:58,760
That was called the first heaven or the terrestrial heaven.

381
00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,680
It was the place where the birds flew, all right?

382
00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:03,840
We know birds don't fly in outer space.

383
00:17:05,100 --> 00:17:06,440
You should know that.

384
00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:08,080
If you don't, that's an indictment

385
00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:09,120
of our public school system.

386
00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:14,120
Okay, birds fly in the sky not in outer space.

387
00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:16,760
And that was what was created in day two.

388
00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,180
That's why the CSB translation that I'm teaching from

389
00:17:19,180 --> 00:17:21,520
renders it sky, right?

390
00:17:21,520 --> 00:17:25,320
But when we get to the second idea here

391
00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:27,520
is in the Hebrew mind or in the Jewish mind,

392
00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:30,800
what you could see beyond the atmosphere, right?

393
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,000
If you were on earth looking up, you see stars

394
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:35,040
and you could see the moon and you see all this stuff.

395
00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:38,520
What was up there where the celestial bodies existed

396
00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:43,320
was considered the second heaven or the celestial heaven.

397
00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:45,000
And then there was a third heaven

398
00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:46,780
which is where God lives, right?

399
00:17:46,780 --> 00:17:48,140
God's house.

400
00:17:48,140 --> 00:17:50,800
That was the third heaven, the spiritual realm.

401
00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:55,020
And we actually see this like in verse one of Genesis,

402
00:17:55,020 --> 00:17:57,600
it says in the beginning God created the heavens.

403
00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:00,680
It's referring to the cosmos, the second heaven.

404
00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:02,920
But in 2 Corinthians 12, two, Paul writing,

405
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:04,960
he says I know a man in Christ who is caught up

406
00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:07,520
to the third heaven.

407
00:18:08,360 --> 00:18:09,700
And then two verses later,

408
00:18:09,700 --> 00:18:13,400
Paul says he was caught up into paradise.

409
00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:16,480
That's heaven in the traditional understanding, right?

410
00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:18,660
When we think of heaven, we think of the place

411
00:18:18,660 --> 00:18:20,220
where the angels are and where God's at.

412
00:18:20,220 --> 00:18:22,260
That would be the third heaven

413
00:18:22,260 --> 00:18:25,080
in the idea of the Jewish mind.

414
00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:27,000
And so on day two of creation,

415
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,320
it says God called the expanse between the waters

416
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:32,460
samayim, sky.

417
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,200
Then on day four, he says let there be lights

418
00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:39,280
in the expanse of the samayim.

419
00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:41,520
And they translate it sky here again.

420
00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,120
Now the context of day two clearly tells us

421
00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:45,680
that it's the atmosphere, right?

422
00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:48,020
It's the atmosphere around earth.

423
00:18:48,020 --> 00:18:50,120
Day four, the context is clearly talking

424
00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:51,980
about celestial bodies, right?

425
00:18:51,980 --> 00:18:54,520
The sun and the moon, stuff that's out in space

426
00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:55,520
as we understand it.

427
00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:58,880
And that would be the second definition of samayim,

428
00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:00,680
the region above the earth from beyond

429
00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,300
where the birds fly to the farthest star.

430
00:19:03,300 --> 00:19:05,200
So I'm pointing all that out to say that people

431
00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:06,560
who would look at this and go ah,

432
00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:08,720
he said sky in both places and stuff.

433
00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:10,040
And when you get into the original language,

434
00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:12,240
there's nuances of difference here, all right?

435
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:17,240
And so the sky in day four is not the same sky in day two.

436
00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:20,500
Now how they rendered it in English,

437
00:19:20,500 --> 00:19:22,400
they rendered it a little bit differently.

438
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:25,320
Day two he said call the expanse sky.

439
00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:29,920
Here in day four, it's the expanse of the sky.

440
00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:31,440
So it's rendered that way to let us know

441
00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:33,720
that there's a difference between these two things.

442
00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:36,480
Now, so God created these lights

443
00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:38,200
up in the expanse of the sky.

444
00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:41,160
In verses 14 and 15, we see the purpose of these lights.

445
00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,280
They will serve as signs for seasons

446
00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:45,680
and for days and for years.

447
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,680
And then they were also there to provide light on the earth.

448
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:50,840
And guess what?

449
00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:55,840
We still use these lights in the sky for the same purpose.

450
00:19:57,360 --> 00:20:01,360
Right, in fact, our calendar is based upon all this.

451
00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:04,880
The ancient calendars back in the Babylonian times

452
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:07,280
of before, the calendar was based on the lunar cycle.

453
00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:09,360
It was called a lunar calendar, right?

454
00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:12,920
And so it was based upon the moon going around the earth

455
00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,280
and that's how they tracked all the days and years.

456
00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:17,360
But then at some time we switched over

457
00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:19,320
to a different calendar system.

458
00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,440
Today, just around the world,

459
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:23,400
we use what's called the Gregorian calendar

460
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,520
that came from the Julian calendar.

461
00:20:25,520 --> 00:20:26,880
And that's a calendar that's based

462
00:20:26,880 --> 00:20:29,720
on the movement of the sun, right?

463
00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:32,500
So instead of going from the lunar cycle,

464
00:20:32,500 --> 00:20:35,820
which was when the sun went down,

465
00:20:35,820 --> 00:20:37,760
back to when the sun went down again,

466
00:20:37,760 --> 00:20:39,720
the calendar now is from midnight

467
00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:41,560
all the way through to midnight, right?

468
00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:44,560
So, but these purposes, the purpose of these lights

469
00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:46,860
is so that we can track seasons and days and years.

470
00:20:46,860 --> 00:20:48,440
We've been doing that since the very beginning

471
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:49,700
and we still do it today.

472
00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:53,720
Now verse 16, he starts to zoom in, right?

473
00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:56,560
Verse 14 and 15 were kind of like a broad overview

474
00:20:56,560 --> 00:20:57,840
of what he did on this day.

475
00:20:57,840 --> 00:21:01,360
And then verse 16, we zoom in to our local solar system

476
00:21:01,360 --> 00:21:04,640
and he's restating the work of day four in greater detail.

477
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:06,900
And he says that he created the greater light

478
00:21:06,900 --> 00:21:10,180
to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.

479
00:21:10,180 --> 00:21:12,100
Now when he says rule the day and rule the night,

480
00:21:12,100 --> 00:21:13,800
the idea there is that this greater light

481
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:15,420
and this lesser light would be the largest,

482
00:21:15,420 --> 00:21:18,640
most dominant light source in the sky.

483
00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:19,680
Very easy to understand.

484
00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:21,880
It's referring to the sun and then the moon.

485
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,920
Now again, some of you might be going, aha!

486
00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:29,920
The moon doesn't emit light, it reflects it.

487
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:33,780
Well, that's exactly what the language is already intimated.

488
00:21:33,780 --> 00:21:36,680
That these are objects that either produce or reflect

489
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:38,680
or emit or something of that nature.

490
00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:42,160
And so, now the question for me when I read

491
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:43,940
he created the greater light and the lesser light,

492
00:21:43,940 --> 00:21:46,440
why didn't he just say he created the sun and the moon?

493
00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:49,040
Like why wouldn't he use those words

494
00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:51,080
instead of greater light and lesser light?

495
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:53,200
We have to remember the context.

496
00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:55,960
Israel's in the wilderness, Moses is writing

497
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,440
the account of creation to Israel who's been going,

498
00:21:58,440 --> 00:21:59,760
hey, where did we come from?

499
00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:02,420
Right, we were in Egypt for 400 years

500
00:22:02,420 --> 00:22:04,240
and we've heard stories about our predecessors,

501
00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:05,800
Abraham and Isaac and Joseph.

502
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:07,320
Like, can you tell us all about this?

503
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:09,040
And Moses is like, cool, I'll do that.

504
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:10,520
And so under the inspiration of the spirit,

505
00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,480
he writes the account of where Israel came from

506
00:22:13,480 --> 00:22:16,360
and he goes all the way back to creation.

507
00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:18,120
So as he's writing this account,

508
00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:20,920
he's consciously staying away from the word,

509
00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,480
even in the Hebrew language sun, and the word moon

510
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:29,480
because in Egypt, the word sun was a god.

511
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,740
And the word moon was a god.

512
00:22:32,740 --> 00:22:36,680
If you're familiar with Egypt, a pantheism,

513
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,160
the sun god was named what?

514
00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:40,400
Ra.

515
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:41,640
Ra was the sun god.

516
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:45,520
Ra is simply the word sun in ancient Egyptian.

517
00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:48,400
The word for moon was this word ayah or whatever

518
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,960
and it was the moon god and can be known as konsu

519
00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:51,800
and all this stuff.

520
00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,920
But Moses by saying lights, a greater light

521
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:59,920
and a lesser light, he's intentionally staying away from,

522
00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:01,860
he created the sun and he created the moon

523
00:23:01,860 --> 00:23:03,840
so that the people in Israel wouldn't be like,

524
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,220
oh, God created the God that's the sun?

525
00:23:07,220 --> 00:23:10,540
No, no, no, they're just lights.

526
00:23:10,540 --> 00:23:13,120
They're not gods, they're objects created by God.

527
00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:15,160
And then, as I mentioned in the intro,

528
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,000
almost like an afterthought, it's like, oh yeah,

529
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,900
and he created all the stars too.

530
00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:23,020
So then verse 17, we come back to earth

531
00:23:23,020 --> 00:23:24,520
and I want you guys to notice that phrase there

532
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:29,020
where it says God placed these objects.

533
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:32,760
You know, when you consider our solar system

534
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:34,080
and you consider the cosmos

535
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:36,960
and everything God has made, right?

536
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:38,920
I mentioned that already, our galaxy,

537
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:42,560
the Milky Way, be in 100 light years across.

538
00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:46,080
That's 588 quadrillion miles.

539
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:47,100
That's big.

540
00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,440
And our Milky Way is only one of 100,000 billion galaxies

541
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:52,400
that exist in the universe.

542
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:53,960
You think of all of that, it's so huge,

543
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,360
it's so majestic.

544
00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,080
And you think God placed everything

545
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:03,700
exactly where it needed to be.

546
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,680
What scientists have discovered about where the sun

547
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:09,680
and moon are in relation to the earth

548
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:11,880
is another one of those, well, it just so happens

549
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,400
to be exactly perfect to allow life on earth as we know it.

550
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:16,640
Exactly perfect.

551
00:24:17,500 --> 00:24:19,280
Right, the sun is the exact right distance

552
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,640
away from the earth, 93 million miles.

553
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:24,180
93 million miles.

554
00:24:24,180 --> 00:24:26,480
If the sun was a bit closer to the earth

555
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:30,060
or the sun was a little bit farther away from the earth,

556
00:24:30,060 --> 00:24:31,760
the earth would either be too hot or too cold

557
00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:33,620
to support life, it's perfect.

558
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:35,500
Then when you think of the moon,

559
00:24:35,500 --> 00:24:38,400
the moon is the exact right distance from the earth.

560
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,920
Like if the moon was much closer,

561
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,600
the tides, every continent would be completely flooded

562
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:45,160
every single time the moon came around

563
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,520
and pulled at the tides.

564
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,000
If the moon was just a little bit farther away,

565
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:51,700
the tides wouldn't work right.

566
00:24:51,700 --> 00:24:54,400
And then our evaporation and rain cycles wouldn't work right

567
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:56,920
and thus you would have no life on earth.

568
00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,840
And there's so many other things, right?

569
00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:04,280
The earth makes exactly 365 revolutions

570
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,040
as it travels around the sun.

571
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:08,080
It spins 365 times, right?

572
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:10,460
That's the days on our calendar.

573
00:25:10,460 --> 00:25:11,640
Why is that important?

574
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,160
Well if it spun slower, each side would be exposed

575
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:17,200
to the sun too long and it would get scorched

576
00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:19,040
and then the other side would be not exposed

577
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,640
to the sun too long and would freeze over.

578
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:23,800
If it spun too fast, same thing.

579
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:26,120
So it spins at the exact amount right time

580
00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:28,120
to give us warmth during the day,

581
00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:30,160
to give us coolness, to allow for scenes,

582
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,160
all this type of stuff, it's just amazing.

583
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:35,980
And people go, well it just happened.

584
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,120
It was just random chance.

585
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,920
Random chance, you know throw down a bucket of bolts

586
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,480
and see if you come out with a Rolex.

587
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,720
It's never gonna happen, never going to happen.

588
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:51,400
No, it was an intentional design

589
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,940
by the supreme intelligence of the universe, God.

590
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:56,280
And it was good.

591
00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:58,200
It was good, he says.

592
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:01,520
Everything in the universe, the sun, the earth,

593
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:04,280
our solar system, the moon, everything out there

594
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,720
exists exactly precisely as it should,

595
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:10,680
thus being able to perform its designed function

596
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:12,540
exactly as it should.

597
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:15,480
What was the function of the sun and the moon

598
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:16,920
and the stars and all this stuff?

599
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,080
It was all to function in a way that would allow

600
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,080
the life that God was about to create on the earth.

601
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:24,840
Look at verse 20.

602
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:28,980
Then God said, let the water swarm with living creatures

603
00:26:28,980 --> 00:26:30,560
and let the birds fly above the earth

604
00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:33,320
and across the expanse of the sky.

605
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,160
So God created the large sea creatures

606
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:37,000
and every living creature that moves and swarms

607
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,080
in the water according to their kinds.

608
00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:43,860
He also created every winged creature according to its kind.

609
00:26:43,860 --> 00:26:46,160
Do you see a repetition again?

610
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,360
And God saw that it was good.

611
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:51,200
And then God blessed them.

612
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:53,760
Be fruitful, multiply and fill the waters of the seas

613
00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:55,800
and let the birds multiply on the earth.

614
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,640
Evening came and then morning, the fifth day.

615
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:02,520
And so again, in the symmetry and correlation between days,

616
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:06,240
on day two, we read that God divided the waters

617
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,320
into the waters above and the waters below.

618
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:10,340
The waters below became the ocean,

619
00:27:10,340 --> 00:27:11,800
the water that surrounded the earth.

620
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:14,600
And then he called that expanse sky.

621
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:16,920
And it was that first usage of that word.

622
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,600
It's our atmosphere where the birds can fly.

623
00:27:19,600 --> 00:27:22,400
And then now on day five, he fills, right?

624
00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,520
We're seeing this theme where God forms and then God fills.

625
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,200
He fills the sky with birds and he fills the ocean

626
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:33,040
with swarming creatures and sea life.

627
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:35,000
And it's really kind of the same structure

628
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:36,240
as the previous day, right?

629
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:40,640
We get one verse to give you the grand bird's eye view.

630
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:44,980
Pun intended, come on guys, you're gonna work with me here.

631
00:27:44,980 --> 00:27:46,360
He's creating birds this day, right?

632
00:27:46,360 --> 00:27:47,180
I gotta explain it?

633
00:27:47,180 --> 00:27:48,020
Okay, anyways.

634
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:51,660
One verse, boom, this is what God does.

635
00:27:51,660 --> 00:27:54,500
And then right after that, he starts to get into the details.

636
00:27:54,500 --> 00:27:56,160
He zooms in for closer detail.

637
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,100
And so, but there's a few words here

638
00:27:58,100 --> 00:28:00,020
that just kind of give us the idea of what he did.

639
00:28:00,020 --> 00:28:02,800
When he says let the water swarm with living creatures,

640
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,520
that means just let it be full of, right?

641
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:08,860
It's teeming with life, it's full of life.

642
00:28:08,860 --> 00:28:12,640
When he says, so God created the large sea creatures, right?

643
00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,980
That's specifically pointing something out that's unique.

644
00:28:15,980 --> 00:28:19,400
The word sea creature in the original Hebrew,

645
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:21,240
it actually is the word dragon.

646
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:23,160
It's interesting.

647
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,480
He created the large sea dragons.

648
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,100
Or another rendition of the word is monster.

649
00:28:29,100 --> 00:28:31,360
Sea monster, right?

650
00:28:31,360 --> 00:28:34,000
And so people go, well, what is that?

651
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,000
If you read in the book of Job,

652
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:37,920
you might remember a reference to this sea creature

653
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:39,560
called the Leviathan.

654
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:41,820
And nobody quite knows what it is.

655
00:28:41,820 --> 00:28:45,120
But God says, hey, nobody can tame the Leviathan.

656
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:48,280
It's a giant, like Leviathan,

657
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:50,160
it just means huge and scary.

658
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,640
And some people go, well, what could that be?

659
00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:56,040
I'm like, it could be one of those sea dinosaurs

660
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:57,880
that we know existed.

661
00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,820
Was it a plesiosaur, big flipper dinosaur, you know?

662
00:29:01,820 --> 00:29:03,760
I mean, there was these creatures that existed,

663
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,580
some are extinct now, but God created all of it.

664
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:09,020
Then he says winged creatures.

665
00:29:09,020 --> 00:29:10,240
That's an interesting phrase too,

666
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:12,800
because it doesn't just refer to birds as we understand it.

667
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:15,120
It's everything with a wing.

668
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:16,960
This includes bats.

669
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:19,760
This includes flying insects.

670
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,020
Guess what else it includes, a pterodactyl.

671
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:27,400
According to their kinds.

672
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,160
You remember, just like the seed-bearing plants

673
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,100
and the seed-bearing trees and the fruit trees,

674
00:29:34,100 --> 00:29:37,920
they can have, well, the plants don't have offspring

675
00:29:37,920 --> 00:29:40,440
in that sense, but the seed from an apple tree

676
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:41,680
grows what kind of tree?

677
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:44,320
An apple tree.

678
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,360
It doesn't grow a banana tree.

679
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:50,200
I don't even know if there is a banana tree, right?

680
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:51,220
It grows an apple tree.

681
00:29:51,220 --> 00:29:54,160
It's of its kind, and so these creatures here,

682
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,080
again, God created them, and then they're gonna multiply,

683
00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:00,160
and they're gonna multiply according to their kind.

684
00:30:01,120 --> 00:30:05,760
So that dogs are dogs, cats are cats,

685
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:08,160
birds are birds, dolphins are dolphins.

686
00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,160
Now, there are micro changes within the species, right?

687
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,200
Some people call that micro evolution, right?

688
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:16,400
You got different types of dogs,

689
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,680
different types of sea life, different types of cats,

690
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:20,760
but even though they're different,

691
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,120
they're still the species that they are.

692
00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:27,520
But the idea of macro evolution, macro changes,

693
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,720
where one species becomes another, zero evidence.

694
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:34,240
You go look at the fossil record.

695
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,040
If all of the life that exists on the earth evolved

696
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:39,500
from form to form, there should be some evidence

697
00:30:39,500 --> 00:30:41,160
of the transitionary forms.

698
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,680
Zero, none.

699
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:47,580
Evolution is just a false idea.

700
00:30:48,500 --> 00:30:51,140
It is a godless idea, and there's no evidence,

701
00:30:51,140 --> 00:30:54,900
and duh, of course, there never will be,

702
00:30:54,900 --> 00:30:56,440
because that's not the truth.

703
00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:00,100
God created the heavens and the earth.

704
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:03,480
Not nothing randomly evolved.

705
00:31:04,420 --> 00:31:06,460
I mean, when you think about it, it's just,

706
00:31:06,460 --> 00:31:08,620
it's this picture of this wonderful, beautiful,

707
00:31:08,620 --> 00:31:10,340
creative God.

708
00:31:10,340 --> 00:31:11,400
You look in the oceans, right?

709
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:13,940
I was like, well, how many ocean species are there?

710
00:31:13,940 --> 00:31:15,340
Just kind of curious, right?

711
00:31:16,740 --> 00:31:20,020
Well, they currently say that of fish, just fish.

712
00:31:20,020 --> 00:31:22,460
We're not talking about dolphins and whales, just fish.

713
00:31:22,460 --> 00:31:23,900
The things that are classified as fish,

714
00:31:23,900 --> 00:31:27,620
there's over 36,000 individual species of fish

715
00:31:27,620 --> 00:31:29,000
in the oceans.

716
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:30,620
And then get this.

717
00:31:30,620 --> 00:31:33,800
There's 36,000 that they have identified.

718
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:37,980
According to a 2023 study in the, it's from NOAA,

719
00:31:37,980 --> 00:31:41,140
I forget what it means, it's some big national oceanic thing.

720
00:31:41,140 --> 00:31:43,700
They said 91%, this is of 2023,

721
00:31:43,700 --> 00:31:47,140
91% of ocean species have yet to be classified.

722
00:31:48,380 --> 00:31:50,340
It's 2023, people.

723
00:31:51,500 --> 00:31:53,820
Mankind thinks it's so amazing and awesome.

724
00:31:53,820 --> 00:31:55,180
We have conquered everything,

725
00:31:55,180 --> 00:31:58,440
and we haven't discovered 91% of the fish.

726
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:00,940
The ocean's huge.

727
00:32:02,300 --> 00:32:05,840
So 36,000 species of just fish,

728
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:08,300
and that's just within 8% of what we discovered.

729
00:32:08,300 --> 00:32:10,700
God is awesome.

730
00:32:12,260 --> 00:32:14,100
Birds, I was like, how many birds are there?

731
00:32:14,100 --> 00:32:17,960
Well, there's about 10,906 individual species of birds.

732
00:32:19,100 --> 00:32:20,340
That's not including insects.

733
00:32:20,340 --> 00:32:22,620
It's just, it's amazing.

734
00:32:23,780 --> 00:32:26,420
And they beget of their kind, right?

735
00:32:26,420 --> 00:32:28,220
God blessed them with all,

736
00:32:28,220 --> 00:32:30,340
blessed them all with the ability to reproduce

737
00:32:30,340 --> 00:32:32,300
according to their kind.

738
00:32:32,300 --> 00:32:34,220
And it has been that way since the very beginning,

739
00:32:34,220 --> 00:32:35,940
and it's that way today.

740
00:32:35,940 --> 00:32:38,460
And yet science keeps trying to say, no, no, no,

741
00:32:38,460 --> 00:32:40,100
there's no God, there's no creator.

742
00:32:40,100 --> 00:32:42,460
And then you're like, show me the proof.

743
00:32:43,460 --> 00:32:45,980
And they can't because it doesn't exist.

744
00:32:47,060 --> 00:32:51,020
So now verse 24, we get to day six.

745
00:32:51,020 --> 00:32:53,660
Then God said, let the earth produce living creatures

746
00:32:53,660 --> 00:32:55,740
according to their kinds.

747
00:32:55,740 --> 00:32:57,900
Livestock, creatures that crawl

748
00:32:57,900 --> 00:33:01,300
and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.

749
00:33:01,300 --> 00:33:02,260
And it was so.

750
00:33:02,260 --> 00:33:04,780
It was so.

751
00:33:04,780 --> 00:33:07,220
You see, I want you all to, if you have your own Bible

752
00:33:07,220 --> 00:33:09,340
or you're able to highlight in your app or whatever,

753
00:33:09,340 --> 00:33:11,060
go back through all the days here

754
00:33:11,060 --> 00:33:13,620
and look at where God said,

755
00:33:13,620 --> 00:33:17,140
or it tells us that God said this,

756
00:33:17,140 --> 00:33:18,620
and it was so.

757
00:33:23,060 --> 00:33:26,300
Sometimes people wrestle with the idea,

758
00:33:26,300 --> 00:33:27,600
am I really saved?

759
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,760
You know, I've confessed Christ.

760
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:34,560
I'm filled with the Holy Spirit.

761
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,640
I believe, you know, well, I read the word

762
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:40,720
and I see these promises.

763
00:33:40,720 --> 00:33:44,760
And I read things like if you confess Jesus with your mouth,

764
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:46,880
believe in your heart, you shall be saved.

765
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,000
I read things like God so loved the world

766
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,840
that whosoever would believe on him

767
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:55,200
shall be saved and not die, not perish.

768
00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:58,600
And then we go, am I really saved?

769
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:02,440
God says, I hear your prayers, and we pray and go,

770
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:04,200
does God really hear my prayers?

771
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:10,000
God said and it was so.

772
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:14,920
That is what I want you to remind yourself of

773
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,200
every time the devil tries to say, did God really say?

774
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,880
Right, that's what Adam Meve should have done.

775
00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:25,320
Serpent came, did God really say you would die?

776
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:27,840
And they should have just been like, God said don't,

777
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:29,920
and it was so, we're not.

778
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:31,280
But they didn't, did they?

779
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:36,120
Remind yourself that God's promises are true.

780
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,240
God's word is true, God's word is true.

781
00:34:39,240 --> 00:34:42,840
If God has spoken, it is so.

782
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:48,680
And so, God saw that it was good.

783
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:50,360
God saw that it was good.

784
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,680
He made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds,

785
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:54,000
the livestock according to their kinds,

786
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:55,720
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground

787
00:34:55,720 --> 00:34:58,040
according to their kinds.

788
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:02,200
So day three, when God was forming the earth,

789
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,360
we saw there, read there that he formed the dry land.

790
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,320
Apparently the entire globe was covered in water

791
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,000
at the very beginning, and then it says God caused

792
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:13,920
the dry land to appear, and then he covered that dry land

793
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:17,000
with vegetation that was to be food for day six,

794
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,480
the creatures, the creatures that he built.

795
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:20,880
So he formed it, formed the land,

796
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:24,440
and then he fills the land with life, land creatures.

797
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:26,320
Now, these categories are very broad,

798
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:30,480
very generic categories, like he says sea creatures,

799
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:33,920
and he says winged creatures, and then now he's going

800
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:36,080
livestock and things that crawl on the ground,

801
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,040
and wildlife, they're just the broad categories, right?

802
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:43,040
Livestock is referring to everything domesticated, cows,

803
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:48,280
sheep, crawling things is referring to small animals,

804
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,800
things that are really low to the ground or very small.

805
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:53,800
It could be rabbits, it could be reptiles,

806
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,000
it could be insects even, crawling insects,

807
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,400
and then the word wildlife is kind of the opposite

808
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:02,920
of the word livestock, this is all non-domesticated creatures.

809
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:07,680
Lions and tigers and bears, right?

810
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,080
But really, it should be oh my here,

811
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:16,080
because it's lions and tigers and bears and dinosaurs.

812
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:18,920
Oh my, right?

813
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:22,120
We can't say that dinosaurs didn't exist,

814
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:25,600
there's evidence, ample evidence that dinosaurs existed,

815
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:28,480
these creatures, ample evidence,

816
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,440
but you're reading here and it's going,

817
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:35,440
okay, God created all of the creatures, land creatures,

818
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,680
he created them all here on day six.

819
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:43,040
And you go, but wait, the natural history museums

820
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:48,040
tell me that dinosaurs reigned for 140 million years

821
00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:51,720
and then they all died out 60 million years

822
00:36:51,720 --> 00:36:54,120
before man even appeared on the earth.

823
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:56,840
Well, there's a problem with that.

824
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,560
The Bible disagrees with that,

825
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,040
because what else was created on the same day

826
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,560
as all the land creatures?

827
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:05,420
Man.

828
00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:08,240
Man was created and we're gonna look at that

829
00:37:08,240 --> 00:37:09,880
in the next verse, but before we get to that,

830
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:13,280
I just wanna encourage us, we can't forget.

831
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:16,400
We look at the beauty of the land

832
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,560
and the beauty of the sea and the beauty of the cosmos

833
00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:21,000
and the perfection of ecosystems

834
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,720
and the perfection of all of it.

835
00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:26,920
The mind of God created all of this.

836
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:29,160
It was just from his mind.

837
00:37:29,160 --> 00:37:31,280
He spoke it into reality.

838
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:32,320
It's just, it's awesome.

839
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:35,060
When we contemplate the heavens,

840
00:37:35,060 --> 00:37:37,800
we learn something of God.

841
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:42,680
When we contemplate our planet, our solar system,

842
00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:44,440
like I said, the ecosystems that exist,

843
00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:46,760
how this is dependent on this is dependent on this.

844
00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:49,000
When we contemplate the diverse plant life

845
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,500
and the bug life and the animal kingdom

846
00:37:52,500 --> 00:37:57,500
and all of that stuff, we learn something of God.

847
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:01,680
In fact, Paul said in Romans chapter one, verse 20,

848
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:04,760
for his invisible attributes,

849
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:07,960
that is his eternal power and divine nature,

850
00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:11,680
have been clearly seen since the creation of the world,

851
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:15,400
being understood through what he has made.

852
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:20,440
And as a result, people are without excuse.

853
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:26,520
All you gotta look, all you gotta do

854
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:28,600
is look at the complexity of life.

855
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:30,440
You look at all that stuff we've been talking about,

856
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:33,920
of even Stephen Hawking said, there's 40 things

857
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:37,280
that have to be exactly precise for creation to exist.

858
00:38:37,280 --> 00:38:39,600
And he will see that, he will identify that

859
00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:42,280
and then still go, but it just came from nothing.

860
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:47,520
God has been clearly seen

861
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,520
through the things he has made from the very beginning.

862
00:38:54,080 --> 00:38:58,800
And every other theory and idea has been about one purpose,

863
00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:02,120
to say there is no God,

864
00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:04,480
and therefore there is nobody I'm accountable to.

865
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:06,760
I could live how I want, I could do what I want,

866
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:09,160
I could think what I want, there is no morality.

867
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:13,660
Everything to explain the way God created

868
00:39:13,660 --> 00:39:16,080
the heavens and the earth is all about mankind

869
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:19,360
elevating himself, saying, well, we are gods.

870
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:21,960
We're in control of our own destiny.

871
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:23,480
And then we look around the world today and we say,

872
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:25,560
well, how are we doing?

873
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:27,000
Not so good.

874
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:28,960
But God's creativity is limitless.

875
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,680
It's limitless.

876
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:34,360
When he had made all of this, he said it was good.

877
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:37,920
And again, it's not like it was so good.

878
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,960
I was like, so worship nature, worship Mother Earth,

879
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:45,640
worship Gaia, no, it's so that we would worship

880
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:49,800
the one who created it all and give him the glory.

881
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:53,000
And so here we see that God had formed the world

882
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:56,800
in three days and now he filled it in three parallel days

883
00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:01,800
with light, the light of the sun, moon and stars,

884
00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:04,920
with trees and plants and vegetation,

885
00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,960
with creatures of the deep and winged creatures

886
00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:11,560
of the sky and just a zoo of incredibly,

887
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:15,360
beautifully, wonderful, wonderfully complex land beasts

888
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:18,640
and crawling things and you know, it's like,

889
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:20,920
I've always been like, hey God, could you not

890
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:22,680
create spiders?

891
00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:24,600
That would have been awesome.

892
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:26,360
But no, he created spiders, you know.

893
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:29,600
And some people really like spiders and they still

894
00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:30,720
freak me out to this day.

895
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:34,920
But it's beautiful, it was all good.

896
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:38,800
It was all good and so now creation is full

897
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:42,360
and creation is ready for its ultimate fullness

898
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:44,400
with the creation of man.

899
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:47,400
And so here in verse 26, we see that the pace

900
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:50,280
of the creation narrative slows down a little bit, right?

901
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:52,840
We've been just kind of running through these days.

902
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:55,360
But the pace kind of slows down because this is

903
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:57,200
the pinnacle of the narrative.

904
00:40:57,200 --> 00:40:58,600
So read with me in verse 26.

905
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:02,720
Then God said, let us make man in our image

906
00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:04,600
according to our likeness.

907
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,280
They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky,

908
00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:10,000
the livestock, the whole earth and the creatures

909
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:11,560
that crawl on the earth.

910
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:13,400
So God created man in his own image,

911
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:15,080
he created him in the image of God,

912
00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:17,520
he created them male and female.

913
00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:24,160
The special nature of this section is apparent

914
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:27,480
in the fact that the narrative goes from the third person

915
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:29,720
to the first person, right?

916
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:32,720
The narrative so far has been third person,

917
00:41:32,720 --> 00:41:34,720
God said this and God did this and God did this.

918
00:41:34,720 --> 00:41:37,040
But here it switches to the first person

919
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:41,760
where we see God saying, let us make man in our image

920
00:41:41,760 --> 00:41:44,120
according to our likeness.

921
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:47,600
And you should immediately notice there the plural, right?

922
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:51,040
Us, our image, our likeness.

923
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:55,720
And some people go, well, it's God talking to the angels.

924
00:41:57,920 --> 00:41:59,080
That's not possible.

925
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,040
Because angels aren't made in the image of God.

926
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:05,240
Nor do angels create.

927
00:42:05,240 --> 00:42:06,640
So he would not be talking to the angels,

928
00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:09,080
he says, hey angels, let's make man in our image.

929
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:15,240
And then in verse 27, we see that he goes from this us,

930
00:42:15,240 --> 00:42:18,080
our, this plural concepts.

931
00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:21,360
And then verse 27 says, then says,

932
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:26,120
so God created man in his own image.

933
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,200
That word God there is that word Elohim.

934
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:32,760
It's a plural word to refer to a singular entity, right?

935
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:35,720
But then when he says created man in his own image,

936
00:42:35,720 --> 00:42:37,480
that's a singular word.

937
00:42:38,720 --> 00:42:43,240
It doesn't say so, God then created man in their own image.

938
00:42:44,080 --> 00:42:47,760
Right, see God is not wrestling with what his pronouns are.

939
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:50,080
God knows what his pronouns are.

940
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,240
His, singular, one God.

941
00:42:56,320 --> 00:42:59,640
Yet the language here tells us that there's also a plurality.

942
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:03,480
And again, we're seeing the glimpses of the Trinity here.

943
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:05,920
This is a picture of divine discussion

944
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:07,480
within the Godhead of the Trinity,

945
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:09,360
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

946
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:11,600
God here is addressing himself.

947
00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:14,760
And he could do that because although he is one God,

948
00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:17,640
there's also a Spirit that is with the Father and the Son.

949
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:19,880
We saw that in verse two as the Spirit was hovering

950
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:21,160
over the waters of the earth.

951
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:23,800
And this Spirit is both one with him

952
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:26,720
and distinct from him at the same time.

953
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:29,400
And then the New Testament goes on to tell us

954
00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:30,520
that not only is there a Father,

955
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:33,080
not only is there a Spirit, but there's the Son

956
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:37,040
who is also one with him and distinct from him

957
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:38,840
at the same time.

958
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:40,880
Again, we read that in John chapter one, verse one.

959
00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:42,800
In the beginning was the Word,

960
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:46,400
and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

961
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:48,520
He was with God in the beginning.

962
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:51,480
And all things were created through him, the Word.

963
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:53,480
And apart from him, not one thing was created

964
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:54,760
that has been created.

965
00:43:55,880 --> 00:43:59,200
And so here in verse 27, you're gonna see this repetition.

966
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:01,840
Verse 27 is in the Hebrew language, it's poetry.

967
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:05,120
It's written like a little three-line poem.

968
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:08,000
And it's repeating the word created.

969
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:09,640
So God created them.

970
00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:11,480
In his image, he created them.

971
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:13,160
He created them, male and female.

972
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:15,840
So the idea of this repetition is that

973
00:44:15,840 --> 00:44:18,480
this is the pinnacle of what started in verse one.

974
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:20,440
God created the heavens and the earth.

975
00:44:20,440 --> 00:44:22,200
Then he created and he created and he created and created.

976
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:23,960
And now it's like, boom, this is it.

977
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:25,840
This is the masterpiece.

978
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:28,200
You consider, you could,

979
00:44:29,920 --> 00:44:31,680
if you could leave the earth and travel

980
00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:33,200
a hundred times the speed of light

981
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:37,400
and fly past trillions and trillions of magnificent stars

982
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:39,840
of various kinds, dwarfs and red giants

983
00:44:39,840 --> 00:44:41,880
and all this stuff, and you could get to the edge

984
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:43,960
of the Milky Way galaxy and look across

985
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,720
and then zoom through whatever's in between the galaxies

986
00:44:46,720 --> 00:44:48,680
and get to the next galaxy and zoom past

987
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:50,600
trillions and trillions and trillions of stars.

988
00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:53,560
And you could see just all the wonders of the cosmos,

989
00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:57,240
nebulas and quasars and everything.

990
00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:00,840
Witnessing the birth of stars and the death of stars

991
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:05,040
and the majesty of it all, nothing would ever compare.

992
00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:08,960
You would never witness anything equal

993
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:11,440
to the birth and wonder of a human being.

994
00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:16,440
In all of creation, mankind is the pinnacle

995
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:17,800
of what God made.

996
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:22,840
Every single little baby boy and baby girl

997
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:24,920
is the apex, the culmination,

998
00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:26,920
the masterpiece of God's creation.

999
00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:28,680
That's you and me.

1000
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:31,160
Kind of humbling, isn't it?

1001
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:34,520
My God, you know what goes through my mind.

1002
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:36,120
And he goes, you're my masterpiece.

1003
00:45:37,160 --> 00:45:39,120
But God, I did this, I said this.

1004
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:42,040
I said this, and he goes, you're the pinnacle of my creation.

1005
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:45,360
It's humbling.

1006
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:46,200
And why?

1007
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:48,960
Why is it such an amazing thing?

1008
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:50,680
Why are we the masterpiece of God's creation?

1009
00:45:50,680 --> 00:45:54,040
Because we are made in the image of God.

1010
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:56,240
The image of God.

1011
00:45:57,240 --> 00:45:59,760
That is something wholly unique to us as humanity.

1012
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:02,320
You know, every child is an eternal living soul

1013
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:04,560
that at one time did not exist.

1014
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:07,640
And then they did.

1015
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:10,240
And then the Bible tells us God gave that soul

1016
00:46:10,240 --> 00:46:12,600
a physical body that was knitted together by God

1017
00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:14,000
in the womb of its mother.

1018
00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:18,920
The whole beauty of man and woman

1019
00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:20,680
and the miracle of life.

1020
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:22,840
And then he gives that body and that soul,

1021
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:24,560
they come together and then it has sentience,

1022
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:26,880
it has awareness, it has life.

1023
00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:30,720
When you ponder this, you can begin to understand

1024
00:46:30,720 --> 00:46:32,320
why abortion is so abhorrent.

1025
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:35,640
That this is God's masterpiece.

1026
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,720
And mankind wants to rip it apart and throw it in the trash

1027
00:46:40,720 --> 00:46:44,520
because, eh, it's inconvenient for me

1028
00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:46,360
to be a parent right now.

1029
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:48,760
It's terrible.

1030
00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:50,680
It is terrible.

1031
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,880
So when everything that exists in our universe

1032
00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,880
fades away, everything that exists in our universe

1033
00:46:59,880 --> 00:47:03,400
fades away, every human soul will still live on eternally.

1034
00:47:04,840 --> 00:47:06,880
That is a wholly unique expression of existence

1035
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:09,280
that only humans get to experience.

1036
00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:11,120
Being in this creation in the image of God.

1037
00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:13,560
So what does being made in the image of God mean?

1038
00:47:13,560 --> 00:47:16,280
You know, one, it means we're different from the animals.

1039
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:19,560
We're different from the animals, we're not the same,

1040
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:21,200
we're not descendants of.

1041
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:23,600
We're wholly different.

1042
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:26,160
Sure, there's similarities.

1043
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:29,080
Well, yeah, because the same thing happens

1044
00:47:29,080 --> 00:47:30,240
and we're not the same.

1045
00:47:30,240 --> 00:47:32,400
Well, yeah, because the same dude made it all.

1046
00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:36,160
But we're not evolved from monkeys.

1047
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:39,920
We're wholly different.

1048
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:43,120
Image of God also means that we're created

1049
00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:44,920
as a trinity as well.

1050
00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:47,040
Right, Father, Son, and the Spirit is the trinity,

1051
00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:49,760
the Godhead, we are made body, soul, and spirit.

1052
00:47:49,760 --> 00:47:51,680
1 Thessalonians 5.23 tells us,

1053
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:55,560
may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

1054
00:47:55,560 --> 00:47:58,440
And may your whole spirit, soul, and body

1055
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:01,480
and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1056
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:04,000
We're made in the image of God.

1057
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:06,480
That phrase image, it means after the pattern

1058
00:48:06,480 --> 00:48:08,960
or after the likeness or in the likeness of God

1059
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:10,480
who is himself a trinity.

1060
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:15,240
And so in the beginning, man and woman were pure,

1061
00:48:15,240 --> 00:48:17,920
perfect, righteous.

1062
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:22,320
We were everything, every potential of eternal goodness.

1063
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:27,320
That is how God created mankind to be, like him.

1064
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:31,400
Every potential of goodness in his likeness,

1065
00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:33,800
in total fellowship with our creator,

1066
00:48:33,800 --> 00:48:36,840
permanently, always fully in his presence,

1067
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:38,640
eternal living forever.

1068
00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:40,080
That's how he created us.

1069
00:48:41,400 --> 00:48:42,920
And so yeah, I wanna point out real quick,

1070
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:46,280
he said he created them male and female.

1071
00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:50,640
Genetics supports this.

1072
00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:52,600
Biology supports this.

1073
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:55,840
And yet today in our culture, it's like, nah.

1074
00:48:57,360 --> 00:49:00,240
You know, it's the only place

1075
00:49:00,240 --> 00:49:03,160
multiple genders beyond male and female exists

1076
00:49:03,160 --> 00:49:06,280
is in the fabrication of mental illness.

1077
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:08,600
Now I don't say that to make light of those

1078
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:11,040
suffering from such mental illness.

1079
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:13,640
Those in our culture today that are suffering

1080
00:49:13,640 --> 00:49:15,640
from this mental illness, they need help.

1081
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:16,920
They need prayer.

1082
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:17,960
They need care.

1083
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:19,200
They need support.

1084
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:22,440
Not in continuing the delusion,

1085
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:25,560
but in learning that it's not true.

1086
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:28,920
That just because they feel that way

1087
00:49:28,920 --> 00:49:32,240
doesn't then mean reality is bent to that way.

1088
00:49:32,240 --> 00:49:35,880
But it is wrong and cruel to encourage gender dysphoria.

1089
00:49:37,240 --> 00:49:39,240
It is wrong and cruel to say,

1090
00:49:39,240 --> 00:49:40,640
you have this mental health issue,

1091
00:49:40,640 --> 00:49:42,080
but we're not gonna treat it.

1092
00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:43,240
We're just gonna lean into it and say,

1093
00:49:43,240 --> 00:49:45,640
oh yeah, no, it's totally fine and totally okay.

1094
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:48,120
And then to go from that to talking children

1095
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:51,240
into irreversible surgeries

1096
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:54,840
based on their confusion and the fact that they're kids,

1097
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:57,040
they're growing up, they're figuring out life.

1098
00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:58,160
They're figuring out who they are.

1099
00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:00,360
And we say, no, no, no, that delusion is true.

1100
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:02,560
Let's forever mutilate you.

1101
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:03,400
It's disgusting.

1102
00:50:05,480 --> 00:50:07,080
But it was the fall, right?

1103
00:50:07,080 --> 00:50:08,920
We're created in the image of God,

1104
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:11,280
and then the fall is what diminished and marred

1105
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:13,280
and diluted and then it's gone.

1106
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:15,480
And then the fall is what diminished and marred

1107
00:50:15,480 --> 00:50:17,760
and dimmed that image.

1108
00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:19,680
The fall is what messed up that image.

1109
00:50:19,680 --> 00:50:23,480
It destroyed that likeness in that sense, right?

1110
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,480
Sin brought death to the physical world

1111
00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:27,840
and it brought death to our physical bodies.

1112
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:29,480
We were supposed to live forever.

1113
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:33,240
But sin came in and corrupted all of creation.

1114
00:50:33,240 --> 00:50:35,640
Sin, according to Romans chapter one,

1115
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:38,280
made our thinking worthless,

1116
00:50:38,280 --> 00:50:41,320
darkened our hearts and made us fools.

1117
00:50:41,320 --> 00:50:42,560
That's what sin did.

1118
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:47,560
Sin is what makes us think feelings alter reality.

1119
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:52,280
Sin is what makes us think a good Supreme Court justice

1120
00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:54,920
shouldn't be able to define what a woman is.

1121
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:59,240
And yet they should be deciding what law interpretation

1122
00:50:59,240 --> 00:51:00,360
is for the entire nation.

1123
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:02,680
Sin makes us think that makes sense.

1124
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:07,880
Sin destroyed the original righteousness that we had

1125
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:09,960
and it killed our fellowship with God.

1126
00:51:09,960 --> 00:51:11,560
But again, even in that,

1127
00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:13,360
our souls are created to be eternal.

1128
00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:16,240
Our souls are created to be eternal,

1129
00:51:16,240 --> 00:51:17,920
so thus without Christ,

1130
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:19,120
death in our physical bodies

1131
00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:21,720
leads to eternal separation from God.

1132
00:51:21,720 --> 00:51:24,320
Hell, darkness, forever.

1133
00:51:26,160 --> 00:51:28,560
And so the Bible tells us that Adam,

1134
00:51:28,560 --> 00:51:30,440
he failed in the garden.

1135
00:51:30,440 --> 00:51:32,200
He failed.

1136
00:51:32,200 --> 00:51:34,760
But Jesus, who the Bible calls the second Adam,

1137
00:51:34,760 --> 00:51:35,640
he did not.

1138
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:38,720
You wanna see what God fully intended for us

1139
00:51:38,720 --> 00:51:39,760
as his creation?

1140
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:41,720
Look at Jesus.

1141
00:51:41,720 --> 00:51:43,960
Study his life, his behavior,

1142
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:45,880
what he did, how he acted.

1143
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:49,040
That is what God intended for us as his creation.

1144
00:51:49,040 --> 00:51:52,120
Perfect, flawless, sinless.

1145
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,800
And the ultimate restoration to that state,

1146
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:57,840
well that's what faith in Christ grants us.

1147
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:01,680
When we come to him and,

1148
00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:02,920
God I believe in you.

1149
00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:06,560
Forgive me of my sins, come into my life.

1150
00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:08,960
It tells us that his perfect righteousness

1151
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:10,360
is what died for our sin.

1152
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:11,600
And then when we put our faith in that,

1153
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:13,880
we're granted his perfect righteousness.

1154
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:15,480
That's not a fair deal.

1155
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:18,840
But he loves us and he does it.

1156
00:52:21,560 --> 00:52:24,640
And then with that perfect righteousness comes the promise.

1157
00:52:24,640 --> 00:52:27,440
That one day, when this body of sin and death

1158
00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:29,640
passes away because it is corrupt,

1159
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:32,280
if you've been saved and forgiven,

1160
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:34,720
God's gonna give you a brand new glorified body.

1161
00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:37,320
Probably one like the original one

1162
00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:39,280
that was meant to be in the direct presence of God

1163
00:52:39,280 --> 00:52:40,840
dwelling forever in eternity.

1164
00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:44,840
And that is what we look forward to as the church.

1165
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:50,720
So verse 28, and we'll try and get through this quick here.

1166
00:52:50,720 --> 00:52:52,400
God blessed them and God said to them,

1167
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:55,520
be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

1168
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:57,720
Rule the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky

1169
00:52:57,720 --> 00:52:59,920
and every creature that crawls on the earth.

1170
00:52:59,920 --> 00:53:02,960
God also said, look, I have given you every seed bearing

1171
00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:04,760
plant on the surface of the entire earth

1172
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:07,160
and every tree whose fruit contains seed.

1173
00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:08,680
This will be food for you.

1174
00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:10,120
For all the wildlife on the earth,

1175
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:11,320
for every bird of the sky,

1176
00:53:11,320 --> 00:53:13,400
and for every creature that crawls on the earth,

1177
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:16,800
everything having the breath of life in it,

1178
00:53:16,800 --> 00:53:19,320
I have given every green plant for food.

1179
00:53:19,320 --> 00:53:20,640
And it was so.

1180
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:23,600
God saw all that he had made and it was very good indeed.

1181
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:27,140
Evening came and the morning, the sixth day.

1182
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:31,240
You notice a transition here where it says God said to them.

1183
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:33,640
It wasn't just God said.

1184
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:36,680
Right, we, mankind, we are the image bearers of God

1185
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:39,720
and that means that we are uniquely built, designed,

1186
00:53:39,720 --> 00:53:43,440
equipped to hear God's word and to receive God's word.

1187
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:46,400
We have that unique ability.

1188
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:49,560
No other creature can do that.

1189
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:51,040
It's unique to humans.

1190
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:54,680
But it also means that we're responsible to what we hear.

1191
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:57,080
We're responsible to the morality of God.

1192
00:53:57,080 --> 00:53:58,520
We're responsible as spiritual beings.

1193
00:53:58,520 --> 00:54:00,160
We're accountable.

1194
00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:01,400
But God speaks to us.

1195
00:54:01,400 --> 00:54:03,920
And so part of the image of God includes dominion

1196
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:04,760
over everything, right?

1197
00:54:04,760 --> 00:54:07,640
It said man was created to rule over everything.

1198
00:54:08,520 --> 00:54:11,440
The intent was supposed to be God, us, creation.

1199
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:13,840
Right, God's in charge.

1200
00:54:14,920 --> 00:54:16,760
He appoints us to be in charge.

1201
00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:18,640
And we rule over all of creation.

1202
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:20,640
That was the intent.

1203
00:54:20,640 --> 00:54:23,840
But then again, Romans one tells us that the foolishness

1204
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:28,120
of sin is that we worship the creation instead of the creator.

1205
00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:29,520
Instead of the creator.

1206
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:34,000
So as image bearers of God, we were meant to rule

1207
00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:37,240
over everything as his appointed stewards.

1208
00:54:37,240 --> 00:54:40,280
That also means that we have permission to study creation

1209
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:42,480
and to learn about creation and to harness

1210
00:54:42,480 --> 00:54:44,000
the potential of creation.

1211
00:54:44,000 --> 00:54:45,760
I believe that's a gift of God.

1212
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:47,920
The fact that we could study and learn.

1213
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:49,360
The fact that we could look up in space

1214
00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,200
and see everything and the fact that we could,

1215
00:54:52,200 --> 00:54:54,720
I mean it's just beautiful that God gave us this ability

1216
00:54:54,720 --> 00:54:56,320
to study it and learn it and harness it.

1217
00:54:56,320 --> 00:54:59,560
He says to subdue it and to rule it.

1218
00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:01,880
That means to study it and to use it

1219
00:55:01,880 --> 00:55:03,800
for our benefit and our joy.

1220
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:08,040
And then it seems to be here, some of you are gonna groan

1221
00:55:08,040 --> 00:55:09,840
that the original intent was that everything,

1222
00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:12,800
including man, were created to be on a vegetable diet only.

1223
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:21,160
But praise the Lord, after the flood in Genesis nine,

1224
00:55:21,160 --> 00:55:24,600
God said to man, eat the flesh of the beast of the field.

1225
00:55:24,600 --> 00:55:27,240
So before anybody cancels their Memorial Day barbecues,

1226
00:55:27,240 --> 00:55:28,200
we're good for steak.

1227
00:55:28,200 --> 00:55:29,040
Okay.

1228
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:33,320
So we see man as the pinnacle now of a fully formed

1229
00:55:33,320 --> 00:55:37,440
and fully filled creation made by God for God.

1230
00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:40,560
We see this wonderful picture that before the fall,

1231
00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:42,680
man and woman created the image of God,

1232
00:55:42,680 --> 00:55:46,840
stood under God as appointed rulers of all creation

1233
00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:50,120
in a state of perfect spiritual and social

1234
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:54,680
and ecological perfection, right?

1235
00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:59,080
They had food, more food than God provided at all.

1236
00:55:59,080 --> 00:56:00,520
They were at peace with God.

1237
00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:02,400
They were at peace with nature.

1238
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:05,280
Right, what does it tell us that's gonna happen

1239
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:07,080
in the new heavens and the new earth?

1240
00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:10,200
It tells us that the lion and the lamb

1241
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:11,600
are gonna lay down together.

1242
00:56:11,600 --> 00:56:13,560
It tells us that children are gonna be able to go up

1243
00:56:13,560 --> 00:56:15,400
and pet the lions, right?

1244
00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:20,400
Back in the beginning, you had a T-Rex and you could pet them.

1245
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:25,160
That's the picture.

1246
00:56:26,240 --> 00:56:27,720
And then as we get forward into Genesis,

1247
00:56:27,720 --> 00:56:29,240
we'll see after the flood, well,

1248
00:56:29,240 --> 00:56:31,800
that's really after the fall, things change, right?

1249
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:32,960
Things changed.

1250
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:39,280
Chapter two, verse one, it says,

1251
00:56:39,280 --> 00:56:41,240
so the heavens and the earth and everything in them

1252
00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:42,120
were completed.

1253
00:56:42,120 --> 00:56:43,760
That's the story of creation.

1254
00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:47,200
Beautiful, perfect.

1255
00:56:47,200 --> 00:56:49,640
But unfortunately, the fall did come.

1256
00:56:49,640 --> 00:56:51,320
Mankind sinned.

1257
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:52,400
Our nature was altered.

1258
00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:56,400
We're still in the image of God, but it's a marred image.

1259
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:58,440
It's a broken, diminished image,

1260
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:00,720
and we're separated from our creator.

1261
00:57:00,720 --> 00:57:03,280
And we went from being perfect and full and everything

1262
00:57:03,280 --> 00:57:05,440
to formless and empty.

1263
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:09,400
The idea is that our spirit died.

1264
00:57:09,400 --> 00:57:12,720
And our spirit is dead until we come to know Jesus Christ

1265
00:57:12,720 --> 00:57:13,560
as our Lord and Savior,

1266
00:57:13,560 --> 00:57:15,760
and then the Bible tells you you are born again.

1267
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:19,320
Your spirit comes back to life.

1268
00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:22,000
That part of us that was connected to God

1269
00:57:22,000 --> 00:57:23,400
and His perfection, His creation,

1270
00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:26,760
that part of us that was just able to be in His presence,

1271
00:57:26,760 --> 00:57:28,560
the part that died when we sinned,

1272
00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:30,560
God brings it back to life.

1273
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:34,240
So what awaits the Christian believer?

1274
00:57:34,240 --> 00:57:37,840
It's the very likeness of Christ. That's our hope, right?

1275
00:57:37,840 --> 00:57:41,120
Colossians 1 says Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

1276
00:57:41,120 --> 00:57:44,480
Hebrews 1.3 says the Son is the radiance of God's glory

1277
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:46,560
and the exact expression of His nature.

1278
00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:49,680
Jesus, the second Adam, He succeeded

1279
00:57:49,680 --> 00:57:52,440
where the first Adam failed, and because of that,

1280
00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:55,240
He has the right, if you will,

1281
00:57:55,240 --> 00:57:59,520
to grant all those who believe in Him forgiveness.

1282
00:57:59,520 --> 00:58:01,800
And so, we're in the image of God.

1283
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:06,720
All those who believe in Him, forgiveness, life, restoration.

1284
00:58:08,200 --> 00:58:10,560
Now, 1 Corinthians 15.49 says,

1285
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:12,920
just as we have borne the image of the man of dust,

1286
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:15,680
we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

1287
00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:17,600
That's the destiny for every Christian.

1288
00:58:18,560 --> 00:58:21,600
Those who put their faith in Jesus, to be in His image,

1289
00:58:22,440 --> 00:58:26,000
in the image of God as God originally intended it to be,

1290
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:27,120
ruling with Jesus.

1291
00:58:27,120 --> 00:58:29,080
Why? Because Jesus is the perfect bearer

1292
00:58:29,080 --> 00:58:30,120
of the image of God.

1293
00:58:30,120 --> 00:58:32,760
And then look what it says after Colossians 1.15

1294
00:58:32,760 --> 00:58:35,920
where it says Jesus is the picture, right?

1295
00:58:35,920 --> 00:58:37,320
He is the image of God.

1296
00:58:37,320 --> 00:58:40,040
It goes on to say, for everything was created by Him,

1297
00:58:40,040 --> 00:58:44,280
in heaven and on earth, the invisible and the invisible,

1298
00:58:44,280 --> 00:58:47,160
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,

1299
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:49,800
all things have been created through Him and for Him.

1300
00:58:49,800 --> 00:58:53,400
He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.

1301
00:58:53,400 --> 00:58:56,600
He is also the head of the body, the church.

1302
00:58:56,600 --> 00:58:57,440
That's us.

1303
00:58:57,440 --> 00:58:58,280
That's us.

1304
00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:03,200
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,

1305
00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:06,200
so that He might come to have first place in everything.

1306
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:08,680
For God was pleased to have all His fullness

1307
00:59:08,680 --> 00:59:10,560
dwell in Jesus.

1308
00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:13,880
And through Jesus, to reconcile everything to Himself,

1309
00:59:13,880 --> 00:59:16,000
whether things on the earth or things in heaven,

1310
00:59:16,000 --> 00:59:19,880
by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.

1311
00:59:21,680 --> 00:59:25,880
The one who filled the earth with light,

1312
00:59:25,880 --> 00:59:28,520
the one who filled the sea with fish

1313
00:59:28,520 --> 00:59:31,840
and the air with birds and the land with creatures,

1314
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:36,840
He specializes in filling hopeless, empty, sinful

1315
00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:39,800
men and women with His righteousness,

1316
00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:43,080
with His peace and His joy

1317
00:59:43,080 --> 00:59:45,120
if you simply call out to Him in faith.

1318
00:59:46,520 --> 00:59:48,400
He does that and He did that.

1319
00:59:48,400 --> 00:59:50,000
It told us there by making peace

1320
00:59:50,000 --> 00:59:51,960
through His blood shed on the cross.

1321
00:59:52,880 --> 00:59:54,800
And so in closing this morning, I just wanna ask you,

1322
00:59:54,800 --> 00:59:56,760
anybody here, are you watching online?

1323
00:59:58,120 --> 01:00:00,160
Is there emptiness within you?

1324
01:00:02,000 --> 01:00:06,200
Do you feel that dark emptiness, that sense, that void,

1325
01:00:06,200 --> 01:00:08,360
that whatever you wanna call it, that,

1326
01:00:10,280 --> 01:00:12,200
I was made for more than this.

1327
01:00:14,360 --> 01:00:16,600
That the life I'm living just seems pointless

1328
01:00:16,600 --> 01:00:18,760
and dark and evil.

1329
01:00:18,760 --> 01:00:21,360
If you're sensing that emptiness,

1330
01:00:21,360 --> 01:00:24,600
will you bring that emptiness to Christ this morning?

1331
01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:26,360
Will you bring it to Him and give it to Him

1332
01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:27,800
and set it down at His feet?

1333
01:00:29,360 --> 01:00:34,360
Do you sense your need for forgiveness and righteousness?

1334
01:00:34,520 --> 01:00:37,920
If you do this morning, then come to Jesus.

1335
01:00:38,880 --> 01:00:42,480
Come to Him and His fullness will become your fullness.

1336
01:00:43,680 --> 01:00:45,160
Lay down your life at His feet and say,

1337
01:00:45,160 --> 01:00:46,920
God, I believe in you and I believe who you are

1338
01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:48,120
and I believe what you said about sin

1339
01:00:48,120 --> 01:00:49,640
and I believe I am a sinner.

1340
01:00:50,960 --> 01:00:52,680
And if God is speaking to you this morning

1341
01:00:52,680 --> 01:00:54,400
and you wanna be filled with peace

1342
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:57,360
instead of guilt, you wanna be filled with joy

1343
01:00:57,360 --> 01:00:59,040
instead of sadness.

1344
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:02,680
We're not even gonna heads bowed and eyes closed.

1345
01:01:02,680 --> 01:01:04,360
If you wanna receive Jesus this morning,

1346
01:01:04,360 --> 01:01:06,560
I want you to raise your hand right now where you're seated

1347
01:01:06,560 --> 01:01:09,600
and say, I need to be saved, I need to be forgiven.

1348
01:01:09,600 --> 01:01:12,840
If you're watching online and you know

1349
01:01:12,840 --> 01:01:15,280
that God is speaking to you and you need to receive

1350
01:01:15,280 --> 01:01:18,320
forgiveness, just in the chat on whatever platform

1351
01:01:18,320 --> 01:01:21,040
you're viewing on, say, I wanna receive Jesus.

1352
01:01:21,040 --> 01:01:24,600
Anybody in this room, God is speaking this morning.

1353
01:01:24,600 --> 01:01:28,320
If you're not right with Him, you need to get right with Him.

1354
01:01:28,320 --> 01:01:30,160
You have to get right with Him because the end

1355
01:01:30,160 --> 01:01:32,080
is going to come for all of us.

1356
01:01:33,160 --> 01:01:35,040
And there's only God who can make something

1357
01:01:35,040 --> 01:01:36,160
out of our lives.

1358
01:01:37,040 --> 01:01:38,520
Anybody else?

1359
01:01:38,520 --> 01:01:40,320
God is speaking to you this morning.

1360
01:01:44,640 --> 01:01:46,840
Well, I said earlier that we're gonna end

1361
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:48,840
today's service in communion.

1362
01:01:48,840 --> 01:01:52,040
You know, communion is the time where those

1363
01:01:52,040 --> 01:01:54,400
who have been filled with forgiveness

1364
01:01:54,400 --> 01:01:57,480
and filled with grace and mercy in the Holy Spirit,

1365
01:01:57,480 --> 01:02:00,320
it's the time where we collectively together remember

1366
01:02:00,320 --> 01:02:02,520
the shedding of that blood on the cross.

1367
01:02:03,800 --> 01:02:06,120
And so, here in the room, you should have all gotten

1368
01:02:06,120 --> 01:02:08,440
a communion cup, okay?

1369
01:02:08,440 --> 01:02:10,000
If you're online or watching online,

1370
01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:11,840
please get your emblems ready.

1371
01:02:11,840 --> 01:02:13,520
If you did not receive one of these cups

1372
01:02:13,520 --> 01:02:14,920
as you came into the sanctuary today,

1373
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:16,880
please raise your hand nice and tall

1374
01:02:16,880 --> 01:02:18,920
and our elders will get some to you over here,

1375
01:02:18,920 --> 01:02:21,480
right here in the front, right here in the middle.

1376
01:02:21,480 --> 01:02:23,880
Okay, keep your hands up so they could find you.

1377
01:02:25,400 --> 01:02:27,640
But for the rest of us here, just quick instructions.

1378
01:02:27,640 --> 01:02:29,680
There's two little tabs on the front of these cups,

1379
01:02:29,680 --> 01:02:33,040
a very tiny little plastic tab and a thicker tab.

1380
01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:36,480
If you would all pull the tiny thin tab back right now

1381
01:02:36,480 --> 01:02:39,280
and it'll reveal the cracker that's in the top of the cup.

1382
01:02:41,680 --> 01:02:43,080
You know, in the gospels it tells us

1383
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:48,080
when Jesus took the bread, it tells us that he gave thanks

1384
01:02:49,120 --> 01:02:51,880
and then he broke the bread and as he gave it

1385
01:02:51,880 --> 01:02:56,760
to his disciples, he said, this, this is my body.

1386
01:02:56,760 --> 01:02:59,300
This is my body which is for you.

1387
01:03:01,480 --> 01:03:03,800
He said, do this in remembrance of me.

1388
01:03:03,800 --> 01:03:04,840
And that's what we do today.

1389
01:03:04,840 --> 01:03:09,360
You see, as we learn today, our bodies, our physical bodies,

1390
01:03:09,360 --> 01:03:11,160
they were corrupted by the fall.

1391
01:03:11,160 --> 01:03:12,920
They were corrupted.

1392
01:03:12,920 --> 01:03:16,760
Perfect righteousness was lost when mankind sinned

1393
01:03:16,760 --> 01:03:21,760
and to regain that glory, to regain that righteousness,

1394
01:03:22,040 --> 01:03:26,760
to regain that perfect state that God created you and me in,

1395
01:03:26,760 --> 01:03:30,220
only a perfect atonement could pay the price for our sin.

1396
01:03:32,240 --> 01:03:35,400
And that perfect atonement was Jesus Christ.

1397
01:03:35,400 --> 01:03:38,760
The only man who ever existed, he was both fully God

1398
01:03:38,760 --> 01:03:40,920
and fully man at the same time, but in his humanity,

1399
01:03:40,920 --> 01:03:42,760
he never sinned.

1400
01:03:42,760 --> 01:03:44,960
He never thought a sinful thing, said a sinful thing.

1401
01:03:44,960 --> 01:03:47,520
He never did anything wrong.

1402
01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:49,120
He was perfect.

1403
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:54,660
But he willingly gave his perfect body

1404
01:03:56,280 --> 01:03:58,560
to suffer the full wrath of God for our sin.

1405
01:04:00,940 --> 01:04:02,600
We're the ones who've disobeyed God.

1406
01:04:02,600 --> 01:04:04,200
We're the ones who broke his law.

1407
01:04:06,560 --> 01:04:07,880
And yet as we're remembering today,

1408
01:04:07,880 --> 01:04:10,760
those of us that are saved have been filled with the grace

1409
01:04:10,760 --> 01:04:12,400
and mercy of God, we remember.

1410
01:04:14,280 --> 01:04:15,540
We deserve death.

1411
01:04:16,680 --> 01:04:19,000
We deserve the consequences of sin.

1412
01:04:21,500 --> 01:04:25,120
But he loved us so much, he took the price.

1413
01:04:25,120 --> 01:04:27,020
He paid the price for you.

1414
01:04:27,020 --> 01:04:29,920
It was his body given for us that paid the price

1415
01:04:29,920 --> 01:04:31,080
for our eternal future.

1416
01:04:32,400 --> 01:04:36,200
And so when we by faith trust in him and his death,

1417
01:04:36,200 --> 01:04:39,180
and that's what we've done if we call ourselves Christians,

1418
01:04:39,180 --> 01:04:43,240
we've trusted in him, although this body of sin and death

1419
01:04:43,240 --> 01:04:47,560
will one day die, we know, we celebrate that the salvation

1420
01:04:47,560 --> 01:04:51,520
of our soul is secure, that we will one day have a new body,

1421
01:04:53,040 --> 01:04:54,920
the one we were intended to have.

1422
01:04:56,040 --> 01:04:59,080
Some of you are like, can I change my eye color or my hair?

1423
01:04:59,080 --> 01:05:00,200
Right, I don't know.

1424
01:05:01,380 --> 01:05:02,220
Ask God.

1425
01:05:05,000 --> 01:05:07,040
But the point is, is it will be a glorious body

1426
01:05:07,040 --> 01:05:09,800
able to stand in the presence of God Almighty forever?

1427
01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:13,820
And it was because he went to the cross for us.

1428
01:05:15,120 --> 01:05:16,920
Father, we thank you so much.

1429
01:05:18,380 --> 01:05:22,600
Lord, we are so grateful that you came and lived

1430
01:05:22,600 --> 01:05:25,920
in this body, this flesh that we're in,

1431
01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:29,080
but God, you lived in it perfectly,

1432
01:05:30,520 --> 01:05:33,900
without sin, without error, without wrongdoing

1433
01:05:33,900 --> 01:05:36,520
in any way, God, you lived the life

1434
01:05:36,520 --> 01:05:39,720
that we were created to live in that sense, Lord.

1435
01:05:41,320 --> 01:05:43,440
But because sin entered the world, Lord,

1436
01:05:43,440 --> 01:05:48,440
we became corrupted, and our bodies now die.

1437
01:05:52,400 --> 01:05:54,600
And Lord, the only reason your body died

1438
01:05:55,920 --> 01:05:57,820
is because it was nailed to a cross.

1439
01:05:57,820 --> 01:06:04,820
God, that you died in this body of flesh, to pay the price,

1440
01:06:07,380 --> 01:06:09,500
first, and to pay the penalty, and then after you

1441
01:06:09,500 --> 01:06:12,540
were resurrected to show us the body of glory

1442
01:06:13,820 --> 01:06:15,360
that you have prepared for us.

1443
01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:18,140
Lord, we know we don't deserve that,

1444
01:06:18,140 --> 01:06:20,860
and yet we say thank you, we're so grateful, God,

1445
01:06:20,860 --> 01:06:23,180
that you took the full wrath of God

1446
01:06:23,180 --> 01:06:27,940
onto your perfect body to pay the price for the sin

1447
01:06:27,940 --> 01:06:30,900
that we do and we commit in this body.

1448
01:06:30,900 --> 01:06:32,280
We love you so much.

1449
01:06:32,280 --> 01:06:34,500
We thank you, God.

1450
01:06:34,500 --> 01:06:35,660
Let's partake together.

1451
01:06:43,940 --> 01:06:47,460
And so if you very carefully pull back that thicker tab,

1452
01:06:47,460 --> 01:06:53,460
be very careful, it'll review the juice underneath it here.

1453
01:06:54,820 --> 01:06:58,340
And this part is in memory of what Jesus did.

1454
01:06:58,340 --> 01:07:01,100
He took that cup that had the wine in it,

1455
01:07:01,100 --> 01:07:02,780
and he said, this is the new covenant,

1456
01:07:02,780 --> 01:07:04,180
new covenant in my blood.

1457
01:07:05,300 --> 01:07:08,340
And he said to them, do this in remembrance for me, right?

1458
01:07:08,340 --> 01:07:11,260
Remember what I did for you, and we remember

1459
01:07:11,260 --> 01:07:14,420
that when he shed his blood on the cross

1460
01:07:14,420 --> 01:07:17,420
to make peace for us, it was a permanent

1461
01:07:17,420 --> 01:07:19,020
solution.

1462
01:07:19,020 --> 01:07:22,380
It was a once for all time solution.

1463
01:07:22,380 --> 01:07:25,040
The wrath of God is permanently satisfied.

1464
01:07:26,060 --> 01:07:30,380
The wrath that is against our sin was permanently satisfied

1465
01:07:30,380 --> 01:07:34,980
because Jesus shed his blood as the atoning sacrifice.

1466
01:07:34,980 --> 01:07:35,900
Hallelujah.

1467
01:07:36,880 --> 01:07:38,580
It's not a temporary covering.

1468
01:07:39,860 --> 01:07:41,860
It's not a you're good until you do something bad again.

1469
01:07:41,860 --> 01:07:43,020
It's forever.

1470
01:07:43,020 --> 01:07:46,660
Jesus said it is finished on the cross.

1471
01:07:48,740 --> 01:07:53,740
You and me, we are the pinnacle of God's creation.

1472
01:07:55,260 --> 01:07:57,060
That's not meant to puff us up,

1473
01:07:59,060 --> 01:08:01,900
but we are the masterpiece of God's creation,

1474
01:08:01,900 --> 01:08:06,900
marred by sin, and God said, I love you so much

1475
01:08:06,900 --> 01:08:11,900
that I will shed my blood to wash you clean

1476
01:08:12,300 --> 01:08:16,260
of all the mar, all the darkness, all the blemish.

1477
01:08:18,100 --> 01:08:20,180
And that's what his shed blood meant,

1478
01:08:20,180 --> 01:08:22,540
that all the darkness was washed away.

1479
01:08:22,540 --> 01:08:24,120
All the stain of sin was washed away

1480
01:08:24,120 --> 01:08:26,740
so that we could then be filled with hope

1481
01:08:26,740 --> 01:08:29,940
and filled with righteousness and filled with joy.

1482
01:08:31,300 --> 01:08:36,300
You, his greatest creation, us, his greatest creation,

1483
01:08:36,300 --> 01:08:40,380
the Bible says we were the joy set before him.

1484
01:08:40,380 --> 01:08:44,100
We were the thing that led him to the cross,

1485
01:08:44,100 --> 01:08:46,340
that caused him to go there willingly,

1486
01:08:46,340 --> 01:08:47,540
knowing what was gonna happen,

1487
01:08:47,540 --> 01:08:50,540
but he said, you are so important to me.

1488
01:08:50,540 --> 01:08:53,820
I love you so much that I will shed my blood for you,

1489
01:08:53,820 --> 01:08:56,340
and it's in him we experience the fullness of God.

1490
01:08:58,260 --> 01:09:00,880
Everything that he intended for us in the very beginning

1491
01:09:00,880 --> 01:09:02,300
when he created mankind.

1492
01:09:02,300 --> 01:09:06,620
And sure, we've seen a glimpse of it in this life,

1493
01:09:06,620 --> 01:09:10,300
but we look forward to the fullness of that in heaven.

1494
01:09:10,300 --> 01:09:13,980
Father, we're so grateful that you sent your son

1495
01:09:13,980 --> 01:09:16,060
to die for us.

1496
01:09:16,060 --> 01:09:19,300
Lord, we see in your word that you're clearly one God

1497
01:09:20,940 --> 01:09:23,980
that simultaneously exists in three distinct persons, Lord,

1498
01:09:23,980 --> 01:09:26,140
and even though our minds might not be able

1499
01:09:26,140 --> 01:09:29,020
to comprehend what that means, Lord,

1500
01:09:29,020 --> 01:09:32,360
you said it in your word, and so it is so.

1501
01:09:34,820 --> 01:09:36,340
But you also said in your word

1502
01:09:37,260 --> 01:09:39,020
that the wages of sin is death.

1503
01:09:40,900 --> 01:09:42,900
You said in your word that there is none righteous,

1504
01:09:42,900 --> 01:09:43,740
no, not one.

1505
01:09:45,580 --> 01:09:47,900
And that's why you came to this earth 2000 years ago,

1506
01:09:47,900 --> 01:09:52,460
to live a perfect life, to die as the perfect atonement,

1507
01:09:53,500 --> 01:09:57,460
that Lord, we would be able to be made righteous in you,

1508
01:09:57,460 --> 01:10:01,980
to experience the fullness of that restored relationship

1509
01:10:01,980 --> 01:10:04,580
with you, our creator, that we had in the beginning.

1510
01:10:06,860 --> 01:10:10,140
So God, we who are made in the image of God, Lord,

1511
01:10:10,140 --> 01:10:12,820
when we come to know you, our spirit is born again,

1512
01:10:12,820 --> 01:10:16,620
made alive, and we are then back into that place

1513
01:10:16,620 --> 01:10:20,260
of that image of God that we enjoyed in the beginning.

1514
01:10:22,180 --> 01:10:23,860
And we know, Lord, that here on this earth,

1515
01:10:23,860 --> 01:10:25,660
we still have this messed up body,

1516
01:10:25,660 --> 01:10:28,020
we still have this sin nature that wrestles against us.

1517
01:10:28,020 --> 01:10:31,040
And so, Lord, we strive through reading your word

1518
01:10:31,040 --> 01:10:33,500
and trusting in you to be the people you've called us to be

1519
01:10:33,500 --> 01:10:35,820
while we look forward to the perfection that is ahead of us,

1520
01:10:35,820 --> 01:10:38,500
the glory of being with you forever in heaven.

1521
01:10:40,300 --> 01:10:42,500
But God, we know it was all because of what you did

1522
01:10:42,500 --> 01:10:43,720
for us on the cross.

1523
01:10:45,140 --> 01:10:48,220
And we thank you, we love you so much.

1524
01:10:48,220 --> 01:10:57,740
Let's partake together.

1525
01:10:57,740 --> 01:10:59,820
I pray God would richly bless your life,

1526
01:11:02,180 --> 01:11:05,780
that as you walk with him, you never forget

1527
01:11:05,780 --> 01:11:08,640
that God created everything out of nothing.

1528
01:11:08,640 --> 01:11:10,640
There's nothing you can't do in your life.

1529
01:11:12,600 --> 01:11:14,500
That as he fills you with his spirit,

1530
01:11:14,500 --> 01:11:18,860
he wants to fill you with all the fruits of that.

1531
01:11:18,860 --> 01:11:21,420
And he'll do it as you trust and rely on him.

1532
01:11:21,420 --> 01:11:22,380
Why?

1533
01:11:22,380 --> 01:11:25,300
Because he said it, and it is so.

1534
01:11:25,300 --> 01:11:26,380
Amen?

1535
01:11:26,380 --> 01:11:45,380
Let's worship the Lord.