The Story Begins: "In the Beginning God"

The Story Begins: “In the Beginning God”

Genesis 1:1-25

 Francis Shaffer - “What is the least that Genesis 1 and 2 are saying in order that the rest of the Bible makes sense?”  

~The Story

Creation - Explains the actual events of how everything began.

Fall - Explains how everything went wrong.

Rescue - Explains how people and the world can be reconciled to God through Christ.

Restoration - Explains what our lives will look like now in Christ and one day in eternity with God.

 ~ God created everything, it was good, as was through the Son.

 I. The Creator is.  

Declaration of Independence – “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Hebrews 11:6 – “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.”

 II. The Creator is God, everything else is the creation.

Hebrews 11:3 - “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”

Romans 1:24-25 - “…God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to all impurity... For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”

III.   The Creator God of the Bible is the only true God and source of Life.      

Psalm 33:6-9 - “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made... Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him…” 

IV. The Creator’s word starts each day. 

V. The Creator’s joy is expressed each day.   

Timothy Keller - “For joy to be the grasped to its fullest it must be expressed.”    

 VI. The Creator created everything after its own kind.

Charles Darwin - "I am determined to escape from design and a personal God at all costs."   

George Gaylord Simpson - “Man is the result of a purposeless and natural process that did not have him in mind.”

Marvin Lubenow - “I have no ethical right to use my superiority, achieved purely by chance, to violate the rights of other animals, who through no fault of their own didn't evolve the same abilities." 

2 Peter 3:3 - “… in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, to follow after their own lusts…”  

Francis Crick (one of the discoverers of the genetic code) - “…an honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle.”

John Sanford - “I was totally sold on evolution. It was my religion; it defined how I saw everything, it was my value system and my reason for being. Later, I came to believe in ‘God’, but this still did not significantly change my intellectual outlook regarding origins…. I could not get over the fact that the more the mutations, the less the information. This is fundamental to the mutation process.”

Roger Penrose (a British mathematician and close friend of Stephen Hawking) - “This now  tells how precise the Creator's aim must have been, namely to an accuracy of one part in 10 to the 10^123rd power…. One could not possibly even write the number down in full in the ordinary…notation…. Even if we were to write a 0 on each separate proton and on each separate neutron in the entire universe-and we could throw in all the other particles for good measure-we would fall far short of writing down the figure needed”. 

Colossians 1:16 - “For by Him [Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth… All things were created through Him and for Him.”

 Faith Sheet

Series Memory Verse - Genesis 1:26-27   Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”      

 Reviewing This Past Sunday

The Story Begins: “In the Beginning God”

Genesis 1:1-25

 1. Read Genesis 1:1-25. What stands out to you as you read about our beginnings?

2. What does an author of a book hope to accomplish through the beginning of a story?

3. What does creation reveal about God?

4. In what ways lately have you experienced the goodness of God’s creation?

5. What do these experiences tell you about God?

6. In what ways should knowing that God created everything affect our thoughts and our emotions regarding God?

7. Read 1 Corinthians 8:5-6. In what ways should knowing that God created everything through His Son affect our thoughts, emotions and actions regarding the Lord Jesus?

Quote from The Gospel Project - “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Imagine all the different ways God could’ve opened the first book of the Bible. Out of anything and everything that He could’ve written, the first and foremost thing He wanted His people to know was that He created everything. And so it’s no wonder that this is one of the truths most debated and attacked in our world today. If you can attack and disprove the first line of the Bible, you can discount the whole thing…”   

Preparing for Next Sunday

The Story Begins: “Created in God’s Image”

Genesis 1:26-2:25

1. Read the passage and ask the Lord to reveal Himself and His truth to you. (Genesis 1:26-2:25)

2. HIGHLIGHT a verse or truth that stands out to you and write it out.

3, EXPLAIN the text in your own words to make sure you see the big picture of God’s Story.  (Who wrote it & why was it written? To whom it was written? What is the context? How does the text point to the Father, Son or Spirit? What is the text telling us about our new identity as believers in Christ or what we are to be doing?”)

4. APPLY a truth from the text to your own life.  (Focus on what God is saying to You and what is Your act of obedience, confession, praise, going forward, giving thanks, etc.)

5. RESPOND in prayer and go live out what God reveals to You from the Scriptures