Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

*I’ve created a Faithlife site that you can join.

It’s at Faithlife.com,

you can search for Strawberry Mountain Christian Fellowship or If you like our Facebook page, there are links there where you can join.

I create an e-Bulletin each week there that you can get, I try to keep it up to date with the prayers for the week and events.

I also have been publishing the teachings so if you miss a week you can keep up.

*If Dewey:: we will have another kid fun time after service today, kids of all ages are welcome to hang out upstairs for some games and fellowship with Dewey Alger.

*Last week I talked about believers each having a spiritual gift if not many and so if you have prayed about that and God has put an area of service on your heart see me after service and we can get you going on something that you feel led to do.

We are instituting background checks just to make sure that our servants in this church are safe around kids.

You know having a criminal background doesn’t mean you can’t serve, but we would like to talk openly between you and I to see if serving the Lord is a safe place for you and the fellowship.

*This week I’m going to get some bids on a safe playground surface to cover the concrete out back and then we will try to move forward on getting a playset for the kiddos.

*The signup cutoff for the Valentine dinner is February 4th, the cost is $40 per couple which includes a catered dinner from the Snaffle bit and dessert.

You can pay by check in the dropbox in the back or if you pay by cash, attach a note to it so we know it’s for the dinner.

It would also be helpful to signup on our facebook page using the google form so that we know you’re coming and order enough food.

If you don’t use internet tools we also have a signup sheet on back table by the donation box.

*And speaking about the donation box in the back, you know we don’t collect a formal offering in this church and we didn’t do that at my previous church either.

I believe that giving is between you and Lord and you shouldn’t feel pressured to give, I only bring it up because I want you to know that if you have a heart to give and support this ministry, that’s one way you can do that.

If you’ve also noticed we have a new coffee vendor out of Baker city, we are now serving Sorbenots Coffee so we hope you enjoy that and we also purchased some tea if you are not into coffee

*This week we want to lift Tom and Susan Hutchison up in prayer.

Intro to Genesis

It’s been said that if you can believe the first sentence of the Bible you should have no problem with the rest of it.

I believe that to be true and because of that Genesis is really a foundational book because it explains so much about who God is, how things began.

Genesis is a book of beginnings where we see first mention of the creation of the universe.

First mentions of mankind, The original sin, The first mention of God’s plan to save mankind from sin.

The first methods of agriculture and leisure.

First mentions of music, and unfortunately the first murder.

Genesis doesn’t hold back any punches when it describes and colors the shortcoming of man.

Peoples sins are mentioned as much as their faith and good deeds.

Genesis teaches us about God’s sovereignty as well as man’s choice to be obedient and follow him.

Genesis shows us how the various people groups spread out to develop into the current people groups or nations that we know of today especially the nation of Israel which was the people group that God chose to deliver the Messiah to the people of earth.

There are many more firsts and beginnings that we will look at as we go through the book of Genesis.

Creation

Adam and Eve

Noah

Patriarchs

Does God have a beginning?

Does the Bible teach Evolution?

What does The Bible teach about the age of the universe?

Why did God create man?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

How was The Nation of Israel formed and why did God Chose them?

Genesis is a book of beginnings where we see first mention of

1st Day of Creation

In The Beginning.

The Hebrew word for Beginning comes from the root word that means first, or firstfruits.

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End

Revelation 21:6

6 And He said to me, “It is done!

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

The Preincarnate Work of Christ

3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The first 3 words in our Bible are so important because we see the eternal work of God right from the beginning.

So to answer the question, ‘Did God have a beginning?’

The answer is no.

There is nothing in scripture that would suggest that God had a beginning.

In fact scripture tells us from beginning to end that God is an eternal being.

This no doubt is very difficult to understand, our brains really can’t comprehend eternity.

Did God have a beginning?

what I appreciate about these 3 words is that the Bible gives an explanation about the beginning.

That’s not to say that everyone is going to be pleased with that answer, but it no doubt addresses that God was there in the Beginning and he created it all with the words of his mouth.

Now science has tried to explain the creation of the Universe by The Big Bang Theory.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of it, but if you don’t know the details, it’s summed up like this.

All the matter in the universe was compacted into an infinitely small point that exploded in rapid expansion sending material and energy out into the Universe.

So that’s where all matter comes from.

When I was in college at Boise State, I had a couple science classes that I challenged the professors on.

One, was this theory of the big bang.

Now at that time I wasn’t walking with the Lord but I knew that God was the cause of the creation of The universe.

He said that because this all exploded out of an infinitely small point of energy, that over billions of years, all of this energy could form planets etc.

Now what I quickly realized is that a belief like that takes a lot of faith, more so than the existence of God.

My Chemistry professor was similar but he knew that science couldn’t explain things.

I went into his office one day to get an explanation on how an electron could disappear from one area of an atom and reappear in another area.

My professor grinned and said, ah that’s a question for your philosophy class or religious studies.

I don’t intend to dog on science because science has it’s place in our learning and trying to understand our world.

The problem becomes when people believe that science can answer all the questions in life or that science itself becomes a religion.

This is my opinion but it seems like it take more faith to believe in a big bang than it does to trust in a creator.

(4th word) In The Beginning God.

The word for God here is Elohim which for you Hebrew students, you know when a Hebrew word ends in ‘im’ it denotes a plural word.

So a literal translation of the word would be gods.

It is meant to be used to speak of the one true supreme God - YHWH.

Why is God’s name used as a plural word?

First of all we have to address the other question that might come to our minds.

Are there multiple Gods?

The answer to that is no.

At least in the strict sense.

God does acknowledge that people make gods out of things such as idols, loves, passions, desires and idolizing self.

But there are no other supreme being such as God himself.

The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

You shall have no other gods before Me.

Before Me there was no God formed,

Nor shall there be after Me.

so we know there is only one supreme creator and that’s Jesus Christ.

So the plurality comes from the fact that God is triune in nature.

God is three distinct persons but one God.

So when we use the word Elohim we technically don’t mean God’s but God but we have the Hebrew root word that supports the idea of more than one person in the Godhead.

This is the doctrine of the Trinity.

We don’t see the actual word trinity used in scripture but the truth is taught all throughout scripture starting right here.