Creation

To Know—God created light/darkness, sky/sea, land/vegetation, and then filled it with sun/moon/stars, birds/fish, and people, after which he declared it very good and rested on the seventh day.

To Realize— Everything was created by God to reflect His divine nature and harmoniously work under His authority.

To Respond by—bowing to God’s authority over His Creation.

Setting up the Story:

A few months ago I was talking with a woman who is about 10 years younger than I am and we got on the topic of how she had put her faith in Jesus. She grew up on the West Coast and had no religious upbringing at all. And she had all sorts of ideas about the falseness of the Bible and why she couldn’t trust it. Her senior year of high school she was supposed to be an exchange student to Australia and through a last minute change of plans she was sent to a Christian school in Japan. The family she was staying with lived 3 hours ONE way from the school, so she had 6 hours on the train every day to get to the school. NO ONE spoke English so she was immersed in Japanese. The school only had ONE book in English—a King James Bible, and that seemed old and difficult to understand. BUT…since it was in English and since she had six hours on a train every day—she started reading it. And she got so mad when she started—the Bible was filled with inaccuracies. So she decided she was going to find all the contradictions and inaccuracies to prove to herself how unreliable the Bible was. She started making a list. And the reason I bring this story up, because if someone wanted to write a lot of questions down very quickly, all they would have to do is go to …the section of the Bible we are studying. There is SO MUCH that we are not given an explanation for! There are SO MANY questions either we have or people have raised. And in high school, I was interested in all these questions and read both sides of the issues. If you need to go through that process, then there’s nothing wrong with writing out all your questions—and I’ve given you this piece of paper to do that. But today we aren’t going to try to understand the information we aren’t given, but gain an understanding of what we ARE given. Where does the Bible history start? In the beginning… in fact, that’s what the Greek word Genesis means: the birth of something or the beginning of something. So what are some of the very first things we learn about GOD? He is eternal. He is self-existent.

Outline:

Day One: Light/Dark

A. God said

Genesis 1:1–5 NASB95

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

.1-5

Read Gen 1:1-5

God says—what? “let there be light.” What is the result?

LIGHT! God calls it into existence and it exists.

B. LIGHT!

God says—what? “let there be light.” What is the result?

LIGHT! God calls it into existence and it exists.

(Turn off the lights in the room.)

Watch—what happens when we say, “LIGHT!”? Nothing! Things don’t happen because we SAY for them to happen. But when God gives His WORD for something to happen—the light obeys His voice. Day/Night

C. It was so.

D. It was good.

So what do we see about GOD? Well, God is light—but now His Creation is separate from Himself, but REFLECTS something about Him. Everything He makes is going to show something about His character. This is not pantheistic—that God is a part of all nature. Nature is distinct from God, but reflects Him.

Day Two: Sky/Waters

A. God said

Write DAY 2 on the board.

“Then God said…” What?

Describe expanse…sky going between waters above and below. (Not sure what this looks like; except later during the Flood the “waters above” break open.”)

WHO said for this to happen? GOD.

Imagine just sky and water. (little containers with water)

Listen. Is there any wind or just stillness? How many have been on a boat where you can’t see any land—just sky and water? What words would you use to describe that?

VAST. GREAT. Power.

B. SKY!/waters

C. It was so.

D. It was good.

Day Three: Land/Vegetation

Write DAY 3 on the board.

A. God said

B. Land!/Sprout Vegetation!

“Then God said…” What is next? We actually have 2 times God says something.

First—land. He is molding and giving shape to the waters below the expanse. That’s why they are called seas—because now they have shape as defined by the land.

We are going to add land into our worlds.

Take playdoh and put some land into it!

C. It was so.

D. It was good.

Blue Ridge Parkway, Rocky Mountains, Cascades!

First—land. He is molding and giving shape to the waters below the expanse. That’s why they are called seas—because now they have shape as defined by the land.

We are going to add land into our worlds.

Take playdoh and put some land into it!

Blue Ridge Parkway, Rocky Mountains, Cascades!

What words would you use to describe standing on a mountain? GRANDEUR, MAGNIFICENCE!

Sky. Waters. Land. And then all the vegetation coming up out of the ground. Things grow, and change and mature and reproduce. These are all characteristics that are NOT true of God, only His creation.

Variety, Creativity, Beauty, Changing colors

Day Four: Sun, Moon, Stars

A. God said

The living canvas has the background all drawn in—and everything that has been painted and brought into existence so far has the artists trademarks in it: shows off something about HIM. And it’s good!

Now these next three days are going to become very specific. Now comes the details.

Write Day 4 on the board.

What does God say on the fourth day?

Draw an arrow from Day 1 over to Day 4—Day one was Light/Dark.

Now we have the details—the Light Containers. Formed into Two great lights: not to be worshipped but to be servants of God Most High—the Creator. Stars. Billions of stars and a billion galaxies.

B. Sun, Moon, Stars!

But there is something else: TIME. Things are going to be laid out sequentially and nothing is going to be outside of it’s time and space. We were brought into this world at a particular time and we will exit at a particular time. We get to share this segment of history and this hour today being in the same place at the same time. We have seasons—“seasons of life”. Breaks up tediousness of one day after another: holidays come around. Look forward to something just ahead.

C. It was so.

D. It was good.

Day Five: Sea Creatures/Birds

A. God said

Write Day 5 on the board.

Draw an arrow from Day 2 over to Day 5—

What goes into the waters?

What goes into the skies?

Do you see what is happening?

Show book with North American birds.

B. Living Creature filling the waters!/ Birds filling the sky!

The earth is the Lord’s and EVERYTHING in it!

Show book with North American birds.

C. It was so.

D. It was good.

Pause after this day.

Draw an arrow from Day 2 over to Day 5—

What goes into the waters?

What goes into the skies?

Do you see what is happening?

Listen to the world now! What do we hear?

The earth is the Lord’s and EVERYTHING in it!

Show book with North American birds.

Pause after this day. Listen to the world now! What do we hear?

What is NOT under God’s control? What is OUTSIDE of His attention and care?

How did it ALL get there? By WHOSE will? By WHOSE planning? By WHOSE thought? …and it’s all good. But the best is yet to come!

Day Six: Animals/Mankind

A. Then God Said:

Write Day 6 on the board.

Draw an arrow from Day 3 over to Day 6—

What goes onto the land?

He FILLS it!

B. living creatures on land.

· Cattle

· Creeping

· Beasts

C. Man

1. in our image

2. Rule over fish, birds, cattle, and all earth.

C. It was so

D. It was good.

And then he says something else—

Draw an arrow from Day 3 over to Day 6—

What goes onto the land?

He FILLS it!

And then he says something else—

Let’s make (hu)MAN(kind) in Our Image. Male and Female—how many humans? ONE. What percentage human is male? 100% what percentage human is female? 100% Two persons but ONE human!

Why does a King set up an image of himself? “This is what I’m like. When you look at the image, you see ME.” I am holy, and good, and righteous, and pure and caring and creative and joyful. What can man do that the animals can’t? Think, reason, create, rule, worship, sing, praise.

And God gives man UNDERSTANDING—that when man sees the sunset, it registers: “That’s beautiful.” When man sees the mountains or stars: “That’s magnificent!” Dogs and cats don’t think that.

But the best is yet to come!

Genesis 2:1–2 NASB95

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

The word “rest” has the idea of Completed. The work part is done. And now there is time to enjoy it. This is when everything stops to be amazed by all that God has done and His great wisdom and His character! It’s a day for man and God to relate with each other!

Day Seven: Rest

Genesis 2:1–2 NASB95

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

A. Everything was GOOD!!

B. Everything was DONE!

C. Set apart

Concluding the Story:

David wrote a song about Creation.

Psalm 8 NIV84

For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

When I consider the heavens—what is man? How majestic is YOUR Name in all the earth!

So what is our response to be? Let’s fill in the box at the bottom of the page:

There is nothing in this world that is not under God’s domain. He is the Authority over EVERYTHING. What He says is.

Read

Psalm 24:1 NASB95

The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.

“The earth is…” whose? “the Lord’s.”

Why is it the Lord’s? Because He called it into existence. “And everything in it.”

“The earth is…” whose? “the Lord’s.” Why is it the Lord’s? Because He called it into existence. “And everything in it.”

What is OUTSIDE of God’s DOMAIN? And He is not distant. He is involved and very present.

Psalm 95:6 NASB95

Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Remember that woman I was telling you about at the beginning?

Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

She read through the Bible and made her list. Then she had nothing else to read in English, so she read it through again. And again. And again. And she started understanding—and started crossing off her questions and her objections and what she thought were contradictions, she saw them unravel. Over six months, she read the Bible five times. And finally she realized. The problem wasn’t with the Bible. Even though all of her questions weren’t answered, the bottom line was going to be the same:

Remember that woman I was telling you about at the beginning? She read through the Bible and made her list. Then she had nothing else to read in English, so she read it through again. And again. And again. And she started understanding—and started crossing off her questions and her objections and what she thought were contradictions, she saw them unravel. Over six months, she read the Bible five times. And finally she realized. The problem wasn’t with the Bible. Even though all of her questions weren’t answered, the bottom line was going to be the same: would she bow before the Lord, God—Maker of heaven and earth? And that is when she put her trust in Jesus.

would she bow before the Lord, God—Maker of heaven and earth? And that is when she put her trust in Jesus.

As we start God’s Word the first thing we realize is this is HIS World. HE is the Creator, and there is nothing outside of His domain. And our response is to bow to Him.