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00:00 We ask that you help us uh this morning refocus our thoughts on why we are here
00:07 not only just in this church but in this world uh where each of us we trace our
00:13 origins and we pray oh Lord as we rediscover our roots we rediscover our love and our devotion to you for we ask
00:19 for Jesus' sake amen we're going to talk about creation it's
00:25 a long chapter Genesis chapter 31 we all know about it but we seldom think about
00:31 it. It was a very interesting award-winning movie uh starred by Woody
00:36 Allen some years ago. And I want to share the opening scene with you. Is there any sound?
00:42 All of a sudden, he can't do anything. Can we rewind? Tell doctor.
00:48 Okay. He's been depressed. All of a sudden, he
00:54 can't do anything. Why are you depressed, Alvie? Tell Dr. Flicker.
00:59 It's something he read. Something he read, huh? The universe is expanding.
01:05 The universe is expanding. Well, the universe is everything. And if it's expanding, someday it will break
01:11 apart and that will be the end of everything. What is that your business?
01:16 He stopped doing his homework. What's the point? What has the universe got to
01:21 do with it? You're here in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding. It won't be expanding for billions of years yet,
01:28 Alfie. And we've got to try and enjoy ourselves while we're here. Huh? Huh?
01:37 That's a interesting take from a young man who suddenly decides I don't have to do my homework anymore. Uh for the young
01:43 people, this is an excuse. Uh you might want to try that one day. uh what he's experiencing at this young age very
01:49 unusual because uh young people don't experience what we call an existential crisis. I had a patient um some time ago
01:57 this year uh who was a very busy business person and um he had was
02:03 sitting next to his friend who was also in the same company very difficult tense
02:09 conversation with the uh principal overseas. At the end of the negotiation he put the phone down and he dropped it
02:15 straight away. And uh this patient of mine suddenly
02:21 had a crisis. He suddenly like this young man thought what's the point? In
02:27 fact, it got him so worked up he quit his job he just zoned out and he
02:32 developed all sorts of medical symptoms and it warmed out my office. You know, this is good because many of us dig our
02:42 whole hole and put our head inside and we don't think about the meaning of life. Whether you're young, you're old,
02:47 or something's going to happen to you one day, you're going to think about why you're here. Um, how does the world deal
02:54 with it? Well, this is um Peter Whistle Zaf who's basically a psychologist in
02:60 the 1933 and he developed a way for us to deal with the existential crisis when
03:05 we feel that life is not worth living and there's no meaning. What he devised, we call it the last messiah technique.
03:12 You isolate your negative feelings, identify what they are to ignore them. You anchor yourself on something, maybe
03:19 the church, maybe your family, maybe something that will be sort more or less permanent. Then you distract yourself
03:26 for your job or your hobby and you learn uh to uh to like other things like art
03:32 or expression or singing or dancing or something. This is how the world deals with the meaning of life. It's basically
03:39 sticking your head inside the sand and ignoring the true question. But is there
03:44 meaning to life? Genesis chapter 1 is extremely important is probably the only
03:50 piece of literature in the world that gives us a starting point. So if we really want to know why we are here
03:57 every single one of us this is a very very important question that we need to answer. It is the first page which is a
04:04 charter of all human dignity liberty and value. We are here because of this first
04:10 chapter. So let's look into our books of Genesis and we'll go through this whole
04:15 chapter. Uh number one, in the beginning that was a wonderful
04:22 thing. Bible starts off with the most profound sentence. We're all arguing. Everybody in the world is arguing
04:27 there's no beginning. Actually, there is a beginning. And in the beginning was God. That's the first thing. It's really
04:34 in your face. And you think about it. The young man has a wrong starting point. The wrong starting point for this
04:41 young man is himself. And the problem is all of us we ask what is the meaning of life. We always look at ourselves. We
04:46 are the meaning of life because we have our own consciousness. Whatever happened to us matters. Whatever happens to the
04:52 rest of the world is unimportant. The Bible throws you back. You know the first thing he tells in the beginning is
04:57 God and not you. You know it's not Richard, it's not Patrick, it's not professor it's God. Actually it's all
05:04 about him. The problem is we if you approach life it's all about you. then you got a problem because the universe
05:11 expanding one day you won't be here you don't have to do your homework the issue is God
05:17 and uh if you look in ancient times it's not always so this is about the most uh
05:22 one of the oldest uh seven tablets from Babylonia called the enuma elish which talks about the beginning of the world
05:29 and in ancient cosmology the gods didn't come before the earth
05:35 the earth and the heavens come four and the earth and the heavens produced the
05:41 gods and if you look in Greek mythology chaos and earth which is called ga
05:47 combined together and you give all the Greek gods that you actually have the Bible it takes opposite tact in the
05:54 beginning it is god completely different uh they
05:59 worship uh the moon the sun the planets uh the stars this is the Sumerian god
06:06 Shamas stars as part of their gods but they all derive themselves from eternal
06:12 universe. Now for those of them who are ancients who are not religious what they
06:18 will do is that they believe like Aristotle that the universe has always been and always will be as they call an
06:24 eternal universe and this is a default mode of many many of today's modern scientists okay until the 1950s and the
06:32 1960s um we will talk about that in a minute in the beginning God created the heavens
06:39 and the earth in the 1950s and60s a big big problem They suddenly decided that there's a big bang theory and everything
06:47 winds up into a singular moment in time and a very dense moment called a
06:52 singularity when actually the world had a beginning. When the world has a beginning, you got a big big problem you
06:58 know and this is a uh a quote from the editor of the nature magazine. He says
07:06 the idea of a beginning is thoroughly unacceptable because it implies ultimate origin of our world and it gives those
07:12 who believe in the biblical doctrine of creation ample justification for their belief. So here you actually have whole
07:19 scientific community upset because there's this for for no other reason
07:24 other than the fact that they have a different worldview. Their world view universe is eternal and so therefore
07:29 this flies against even though the evidence says there's a beginning they're not willing to accept it. Okay.
07:35 Okay. So there is a big bang but the question is not they don't fear the big bang. You know what they fear? They fear
07:40 what comes before the big bang. Before the big bang is either nothing or god. You choose her. I mean is this is
07:48 scientifically logical. It's either nothing or is there god. So Hawkins arguably supposed to be the cleverest
07:54 man in the world. Uh he says there's no god because there's a law such as
07:59 gravity. This universe can and will create itself from nothing. He writes spontaneous creation is the reason there
08:06 is something rather than nothing why the universe exists and why we exist. in his book called Grand Design the year 2000
08:13 he wrote this uh let me give you an example what is let's examine his logic okay we'll ask uh Masimo can you stand
08:20 up yeah tell me 2 plus two is what
08:26 right you check your pocket do you have $4 there probably not
08:32 pay him enough all right so what what what Hawings is saying there's only physics Physics
08:40 creates the universe. So you have a law 2 plus 2 is four. That that doesn't put $4 in your pocket. You know that the sun
08:48 rises in the east and sets in the west. That's a law. But that doesn't create
08:54 the sun, does it? It's absolutely ridiculous. He says spontaneous
08:59 creation is the reason that something rather than nothing. That's why the universe exists. It's creative. This is
09:05 like creative accounting. Uh it just comes out of nothing. Uh here's another very famous uh scientist which you
09:12 actually see on Discovery Channel. Let's redefine nothing. Okay,
09:18 theoretical physicist from Arizona State University, Lawrence Krauss. Surely nothing is every bit as physical as
09:24 something especially if it is to be defined as the absence of something.
09:29 Do you understand that? That means if I go down the road and I met nothing, that means I've met something.
09:36 You know, so they who can't understand, they don't want this idea that before the big bang is God. So they must put
09:42 nothing and nothing is actually something. All right? And a very famous Christian GK Chesterton actually
09:48 summarized it very well. It is absurd to complain that it's unthinkable for an unthinkable God to make everything out
09:54 of nothing and then pretend that is more thinkable than nothing should turn itself into everything.
09:59 That is absolutely absurd. And the reason why this is so is because Romans
10:05 Paul writes, "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became
10:11 futile in their thinking and the foolish hearts were darkened claiming to be wise. They became fools. Wisdom doesn't
10:18 rotate around the your your your HSC scores or your or your IQ. It rotate
10:25 rotates around the starting point which is God. And here in the beginning, God
10:30 created the heavens and the earth. Very clear. No, the Bible very clear. It
10:35 states this in your face. This is the world view. This is the beginning point. If you get this point wrong, it'll all
10:41 be wrong. So God is the one created all of it, not parts of it. Um 70 or 80% of
10:48 college students is there statistics in the US uh leave their faith at the end of the university. They come in the
10:54 university, they're all Christians, but by the time they leave, 70% leave because they don't have enough faith in the confidence of God. And and there's a
11:01 conflict between science and religion as it were. And some of them believe God is
11:06 a God of the gap. If you can find science and there are parts of science that cannot explain, then you say God is
11:12 there. It's like writing a formula. You write formula 1 plus 1 is two blah blah blah. You kind of part that you can't
11:17 write and you oh that's the miracle part and that's God. The problem with this approach by some Christians is that if
11:24 you do this, as science grows bigger and bigger, God shrinks, you know, smaller and smaller until you because so much
11:30 science you don't really need God at all. All right? So, Hawkings says one can't prove that God doesn't exist, but
11:36 science makes God unnecessary. All right? Uh but it's actually different. Um there shouldn't be a
11:44 conflict between science and God. Actually, what science does, it tells us about God. If you think about it, let me
11:51 give you an example here. Put your hands up. Like Apple
11:57 products. Put your hands up now. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Oh, yeah. Very good. All right. You all like
12:02 Apple products. So, for people who like Apple products, you need to answer this question. The rest of you who are uh
12:08 Microsoft turn codes, you you don't answer. All right. If you like Apple products so much, I love Apple products.
12:15 What would you do? Would you learn to code in Apple Mac language or would you watch the movie about Steve Jobs? Who
12:21 would watch the movie about Steve Jobs? Put your hands up. One, two, three, four. Who want to learn coding? Nobody
12:28 wants to learn coding. I mean, if Apple product is so wonderful, why don't you want to learn
12:33 coding? And that's the problem is in the world what science is, science is actually coding. If you think science is
12:39 so wonderful, you study more and more science, the the theory of thermal combustion, but you don't talk about the
12:45 one who actually invented Apple products and the clever ones among us will watch the movie because we want to know how
12:52 Steve Jobes came about the code how he designed such wonderful product because
12:57 at the end he's the Apple product only point you towards the creator and that's
13:03 what science does. signs point us towards the creator. Who runs faster?
13:08 Usain bolt or the cheetah? Huh? How many say Usain Bolt? How many
13:14 say? Yeah. 5.58 seconds. The cheetah can cover 100 meters. Hussein Bolt is a bit
13:20 slow. About 9.58. All right. And there's a difference. You know why? There are two things that
13:26 cause the difference between Hussein bolt and the cheetah. One, the cheetah has more fast fibers, muscle fibers,
13:33 fast twitch. They twitch very fast. Okay, he's got more of those. Man has got more slow twitch because man can run
13:39 further than the cheetah, but man can run slow have to run slower. The other is the arch back. So when we look at all
13:46 this magnificent design and you know as a Christian because we start off with the worldview that there is a God, we
13:53 actually use signs in order to glorify God. It brings glory to him. And Genesis
13:58 1 is like a story of someone giving you a present. So I'm going to ask Patrick,
14:06 what questions would you like to ask me? Three questions. If I showed you a
14:12 present and I gave you this
14:20 first three questions will pop your mind. What is this? What else?
14:27 What are you supposed to do with it? Right? Or who gave it? Why did he give me because you if Peter gives is okay,
14:34 right? If Osama bin Dalin gave it to you, right? Right. Would you worry? Yeah. Your Osama
14:41 bin gave you, you would worry. These are the questions you should ask. Are you going to ask the question of where was
14:48 it made? How was it made? When was it made? It's actually irrelevant. And the
14:53 problem when you come to Genesis, instead of asking who made it, why did he make it, you're asking how was it
14:59 made, it's a wrong question. And so therefore, Genesis is not a uh is a a is
15:05 genre of of of biblical literature that tells us about the origin. And here God
15:11 in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, which means he create and the word used is bar, which
15:18 is basically create out of nothing. absolutely nothing. Nobody creates out
15:24 of nothing. This is a word only used by God. It's not by chance or random
15:29 collocation of molecules. It's actually a creative act. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The
15:35 earth was without form and void. Darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over
15:40 the w face of the waters. Some people like to put a gap between verse one and
15:47 verse two because when God created heavens, earth, then the earth and heaven became disorganized and then it
15:53 became chaotic and Satan's in between. But you really don't have to do that because literally uh this this deals
15:60 make sense. In the beginning, God created heavens and earth. The earth was without form, darkness over the face of
16:06 the deep. The spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And here immediately we have the second person,
16:12 the third person, the of God, the spirit immediately hovering. The word hovering in Hebrew applies not to a force but
16:20 applies to uh like a bird hovering over protectively over its young. So here God
16:27 described as as someone was hovering over the earth and then God says that there be light and there was light and
16:35 here God creates. Every time God creates, he just says and it's done. If
16:41 I ask Adriel, next slide. So Adriel actually has to go and press next slide.
16:47 Correct? Yeah. God doesn't have to do that. God's word has agency. He says
16:52 it's actually done. Okay. It's a bit different from us. So it's creative agency is authority. And and interesting
16:58 thing about everything comes out of nothing. What's the difference between nothing and something?
17:05 The word of God. Did you think about it? The only difference that stands the only
17:10 thing that stands between you and nothing is the word of God. The word of God is
17:16 everything. We are nothing and we became something. Why? Because of the word of God. Because God said it so. It's an
17:22 expression of his will. And his word brings us into being. And John chapter 1 capsulate uh captures
17:29 this nicely. It goes back to the time. John writes it in this in the style of Genesis. In the beginning was the word.
17:36 Word was with God. Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And all things were made through him. Without
17:41 him was not anything that was made. And so Bible tells us very clear right in the beginning. This is how God made the
17:47 earth. It is true. The word and the word is Jesus. Jesus was with him. Now God
17:53 saw that the light was good. God separated the light from the darkness. God called the day light day and the
17:59 darkness he called night and there was evening and there was morning and the first day. Now we have a big problem.
18:07 Christians all over the world have been fighting and actually this fight is actually totally unnecessary. All right.
18:13 So it really doesn't matter whether you're young earth, old earth or no earth. Uh
18:18 is not an essential doctrine to fight over. uh bishop Archbishop Arma, Bishop Asher wrote many years ago uh to the
18:26 principal of Cambridge University and these are the words he wrote. Adam was born at 9:30 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, October
18:33 5th, 4,000 BC. Uh more than that, I'm sorry I cannot
18:38 give more details. And how all how did he get all this from the Bible? How did
18:44 he get this from the Bible? Because of the understanding of the word they.
18:49 huge problem with the word day. Actually, day is not a bad word. Uh look
18:55 at the way the Bible uses day. It's very unique. If you look here, there are four uses to the word day. First of all, God
19:02 called the light day and the darkness night. It's a qualitative definition,
19:07 right? When you see light, there is called daytime. When you see dark, there is nighttime. So, it's a qualitative
19:14 definition. It is not quantitative in terms of number of hours. That's number
19:19 one. Number two, evening, morning, first day. How many hours? Evening, morning,
19:25 first day. 12 hours. 12 hours in a day. Is it? No, it's 24. All right. So, the
19:30 the word day is a bit odd there, too. Third one. On the seventh day, God finished work that he had done. He
19:37 rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. Do you know the seventh day has no ending? Every day
19:44 there's evening morning, sixth day, evening, morning, fifth day. On seventh day there's no evening morning that
19:50 doesn't end. Which means the seventh day is actually continuing until now. It is when God rests. And when we come to
19:56 salvation, Jesus Christ, God invites us to enter upon and inside his rest. So
20:01 the seventh day is like forever and ever and ever and all the other days is 12 hours. Wow. Let's look at the last use
20:08 of day. This is in Genesis chapter 2. These are the generations of heaven and earth when they were created in the day
20:16 the Lord made the earth and the heavens. This is one day six seven day and there's another eight days. It this day
20:22 refers to a period of time on the occasion God made the heaven and earth.
20:28 So if you got four uses of the word day, how can you calculate this 24 hours and calculate back to 4,000 BC? It's
20:35 impossible. It is a failure of understanding of uh biblical genre.
20:41 Genesis 1 and two. Some people say there's a contradiction. You Genesis one all created and number two there's
20:47 another account of creation where man comes first and then uh or the plants come later on. Is there a contradiction?
20:53 There's there's no contradiction because you have to look at the literary structure. The Genesis 1 is actually a
20:60 song. Genesis 2 to 50 is historical narrative like a newspaper reporting. And you can
21:06 see this sequence in other bits of literature. If you look at Exodus, Exodus 14 is a historical narrative.
21:15 Exodus 15 is a song. A song reads different from a historical narrative.
21:21 We whenever read the Bible, it's no different reading poetry or science. I mean, you don't read a poetry book to
21:27 learn how to cook chicken soup, do you? You have to read it a different way. Uh
21:33 even newspapers you learn how to read it. Different newspaper learn different way
21:38 different look at all these three they're all games involving the ball in one of them you kick it's okay one of
21:44 them you touch you you you you get foul same ball but different way of playing
21:49 it this is uh judges 4 let me read to you at Barak's advance the Lord routed
21:55 Cisora and all his chariots and army by the sword and Cicur got down from his chariot and fled on foot Barak pursued
22:02 the chariots and army as far as Harro Rochet Haguyim and all of Cicora's
22:07 troops fell by the sword. Not a man was left behind. Describes the great battle where Cicora was defeated. Correct.
22:14 Right. This is the historical narrative. You look at the song chapter 5. From the
22:19 heavens the stars fought. From their courses they fought Cisa. Wow. Heavens the star wars. Is is that mean which is
22:27 correct? The they were defeated or were they fighting stars? Right. So the song is a
22:34 stylistic way of recasting a actual physical battle. Correct. Now let's look
22:40 at Judges 4. Um but Jael Heb's wife picked up a tent peg and a hammer and
22:48 quietly went to Cicero. Right. While he lay fast asleep, fast asleep, exhausted, she drove the
22:54 peg through his temple into the ground. And that'll do you, right? You'll die. So be careful when you sleep.
23:03 That that's actually a historical narrative. Correct. It describes you step back exactly what's happened. He
23:08 was asleep and you got a nice big tent peg and you put it right at his temple the correct place. Very clever woman
23:14 because this is where the you got a middle manage archery. You hit this you surely die. All right. So she puts it
23:20 there and let's let's look at the song. Her hand reached the tent peg. Her right
23:26 hand for the workman's hammer. She struck Cicero. She crushed his head. She shattered and pierced his temple. At her
23:32 feet, he sank. He fell. Where he lay. At her feet, he sank. He fell. Where he
23:37 sank, he fell, he dead. How How many times you going to fall down?
23:44 I mean, this description of a poetic uh you know interpretation of a narrative
23:50 event is completely different word, isn't it? So, so we have to understand when we read the Bible what the
23:57 different literature is. So Hebrew poetry is reflected in Genesis chapter 1. What evidence is there? Well, there's
24:04 evidence of the scheme of creation. Look, the first to six days. And every
24:10 day we have the evening, morning, and the first day, second, third, third, fourth day. When was the sun and moon
24:15 created? On the fourth day, al God doesn't know his signs.
24:21 And and actually Muslims have actually argued that God doesn't know his signs. Christians don't know their signs because they created the sun and the
24:27 moon on the fourth day and but there was day one in the beginning. It is because it is Hebrew poetry. Um so here
24:36 we have purpose and design. Uh you look at the whole scheme on the first three days God creates a location and then he
24:44 inhabits these locations in first uh uh verse four uh days four to six and then
24:50 seven they rest. So it tells us a very logical sequence indicating God has purpose and design when he created us.
24:57 Uh and on the fourth day if you look let there be lights in the expanse of the earth to give light on earth. It was so
25:04 God made two great lights. The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. What is the
25:09 greater light? Everybody know sun. Why is the later what is a lesser night? The moon. Why doesn't he use the
25:17 word sun and moon? You cannot spell. The reason why he doesn't use the word sun and moon is because the people used to
25:22 worship the sun god and the moon god and he didn't want to use a name that would give them honor. He wanted to put them
25:28 way below god and so he called them a lesser light and the and the greater light. You see that how Moses writes and
25:35 number two you can see a rule ruling is a authoritative function. So creation is
25:40 a reflection of authoritative God. It reflects his authority. So the goal of
25:45 creation what is the goal? Why did God create in the first place? This is taken from the New Testament. He's the image
25:50 of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were
25:56 created, heaven and earth, visible and invisible. There, whether thrones or dominions or authorities or rulers, all
26:02 things were created through him and for him. So creation is done for whom? For
26:08 Jesus. It's not for you and me. You know, it's actually for Jesus. The way
26:13 we walk around, we're thinking where the whole world was created for me. If things didn't go well, then I'm upset with God because hey, the plan is it's
26:21 for me. Actually, the goal of creation is to Jesus. And what is the response of
26:28 creation? This Psalm 19. What must creation do? The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims
26:35 his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech. Night to night reveals
26:40 knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the
26:45 earth and their words to the ends of the world. There is a song that all of
26:51 creation sings. If you are a cow, it sounds like this moo. If you say you're
26:56 a lion, it's raw. Every bit of creation functions and it actually dare to
27:03 declare the glory of God. And what does God say when you move? It was good. And
27:11 it tells me it was a Friday, you know, it's exactly a watching master chef. You know, how many of you like to cook?
27:19 One, two. I'm not talking about cleaning bit, a cleaning week. Somebody else does. How many like to cook? And I know
27:24 people like to cook and and and they watch Master Chef and My Kitchen Rules and all that simply because it's a it's
27:31 it's creative, isn't it? You take formless dough and lap chong or whatever
27:38 you know all these people and then they to make into something so beautiful that everybody else comes and grabs your
27:44 piece of bread and eats and say it is so good and and I think creation is cast in
27:51 such a way that God creates and whatever he creates from formlessness, right? And
27:58 he's he puts it apart, he sets off the the the bird to fly off to the sun. It says that is good. So God is actually
28:05 enjoying it. It's it's a time of great enjoyment for God to create and so this affects the way we live. If you are uh
28:14 um believing eastern mythology that the world is all of us are created from uh
28:20 uh uh the gods and the humans are actually like enuma alish comes from the
28:25 blood of Kingu. That means the world is an illusion. We look forward to escaping
28:30 it. You don't bother about science because we're going to leave this world anyway. There's no bother about social
28:35 justice. You resign. You avoid pleasure. And there are some religions like that.
28:41 Okay? If you believe that the world is all there is, then you must have maximum pleasure. You must live for matter. You
28:48 must live for the world. And when the time is finished, bye-bye. But in the doctrine of creation, we see
28:54 that the world is good. It is separate from God. We don't live
29:00 for matter. We live for God. We we enjoy creation because it's good. Nothing
29:05 wrong in enjoying. We praise the creator. We preserve it. We fight injustice. We end slavery. We we heal
29:12 the body. Why? Because what God created is good. You see, I mean, some people
29:18 cast themselves so super spiritual. Uh they don't have to do anything with the world here. We are in this world. We're
29:24 not part of this world, but we're in this world. And this world is good. And we should all as Christians endeavor to
29:30 make this world a better place. That's why from from Christianity we've come so
29:36 many good things happen in the world. Universities were started by Christians. Hospitals were started by Christians. Orphanages are started by Christians all
29:43 over the world because we see the world as good and we're part of it. We need to
29:48 fight for it. And finally, when the new heavens and earth comes, it is not in
29:54 heaven or we don't escape and take a spaceship up to Andromeda. We actually come down. The new heaven to earth is
30:00 actually here. This is Andromeda, the closest galaxy to us. You recognize
30:08 how beautiful it is. You know how many stars it is? They've got one trillion stars. One day you might not want to
30:15 visit if you are old enough because it'll take you 125 million light years to get there. How beautiful it is
30:23 doesn't compare because this is made in this is made to glorify God, right? God
30:29 says this is good but you can't compare to the next one. The climax of cremation is let us make man in our image after
30:38 our likeness. And guess what? as beautiful as Andromeda is let's make man
30:44 in our image and after he makes man he says what it was very good
30:50 you know everything else is bahan goodh then you come to like Susan's Keith's
30:55 cooking very good like you you know last week you go to all this uh carnival you
31:01 know this one good good and suddenly go very good this the climax of creation is
31:07 very very very good so this is uh god really being excited. And this is a
31:13 scene taken from from the inside track if you knew what what was God doing when
31:19 he was creating. And here you actually see in Proverbs the personification of wisdom. And this is what God was feeling
31:26 when he was creating. When he made the firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
31:32 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the
31:38 foundation of the earth, so then I was I, which is wisdom, was beside him like a master workman. I was daily his
31:44 delight, rejoicing before him, always rejoicing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the children of man.
31:53 So God is having a great time. He's like a master chef in the kitchen cooking. What? The more he cooks, the more
31:59 wonderful it is. And the best dish is the rose pork. All right. The children of man mustn't miss out the
32:06 rose pork. Uh if you were a singular god from all eternity, you are single god,
32:12 not married. Okay. Singular god. Who do you speak to from all eternity? Anybody
32:18 speak to? Nobody. There's no god. Number two. So you're alone. He speaks to
32:24 nobody. He interacts with nobody. Then he has to create. When he creates, he creates in order to interact. So love is
32:32 not primary. Love is secondary. And this kind of God is dependent. You know why? Without creation, he cannot love. He's
32:38 all alone. Can you think about it? If you think you have a singular God, we actually worship a triune God. A triune
32:46 God is a community. Okay? He is the father, son, and holy
32:52 spirit. who knew each other, who love each other. They're, you know, every day they're delighting in each other.
32:58 They're enjoying in each other's presence. They're praising each other's glory, enjoying each other's beauty,
33:03 pouring love into each other's bosom, doing all that. Because love is what? Love is not self-gratification. Love is
33:10 giving. And the nature of the of our God, a triune God is father loving the
33:16 son, son loving the father, and and the holy spirit loving both of them. It is a
33:21 giving community and they're having so much fun delighting. They say let's expand the circle. Pum creates the whole
33:29 universe. Let's expand the circle even more. And they create human beings. And
33:35 that's why human beings are created in the image of God. If everything in
33:41 creation is a reflection of the giving supernatural powerful nature of God, the
33:47 most wonderful part of that is God shares the most intimate part of his nature
33:53 with us. That's why we're different from dogs and
33:58 cats and everything else. That's why the animal activists are absolutely wrong.
34:04 We are different. We are not special because of ourselves. We're special because of God. Look here, even as he
34:12 chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He
34:17 predestined us for adoption as sons. So right in the beginning, father, son, and
34:22 holy spirit. And he wants us as what? Sons. Right inside the circle. Father,
34:28 son, holy spirit. Sons. Adopted the sons. Part of that circle. Part of the
34:34 inner circle. If everything else is outside, we're part of that inner circle. For
34:39 those who he forneew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn
34:44 among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he uh called, he also justified,
34:50 those he justified, he also glorified. You're going to be glorified and part of that circle experiencing God's love. And
34:56 so therefore, if creation is singing a song, the worship leader is the human
35:03 being. You can't have a choir here and you know all the guitarist but there's no worship leader. There's got to be the
35:09 final person who sings the climax of the song. However, this is Simone Wei uh a
35:16 philosopher 19 uh uh um 30s or 40s. He
35:22 writes, "The love we feel for the splendor the heavens, the plains, the seas, the
35:29 mountains, for the silence of nature which is born in on us in its thousands, thousands of tiny sounds. The love we
35:36 feel from the breath of the wind or the warmth of the sun. This love of which every human being has some inkling is
35:43 incomplete and painful. It calls us in but we can't get in. We we look at
35:51 nature a beautiful scene like this don't you see and and immediately in your
35:57 heart you feel like matafair coming up right I got to get
36:03 there right I don't know where this is but I got to get there I got to be part of it matafair however much the ringot is come down I got to get there or or a
36:09 picture like this it's breathtaking you know why and when you go there what do you do you take a selfie
36:16 why do you take a selfie because nature is so Beautiful. As you look at it, it's
36:22 calling out. It's singing and it and and you want to go and join in. Isn't that right? Every single one of us will want
36:29 to join in. Uh because we're part of this nature. The trouble. Look at even if with animals, you want to join in,
36:35 but you don't get to the wrong one. Uh the wrong one like this uh this man died actually. He was in uh uh near
36:42 Disneyland. Uh he self free and and the shark came. The but the problem is although we want to join in and and go
36:48 in, we can't because they will bite us. The the the birds will scream at us and
36:55 fly away. The lions will roar. There's something wrong. We can't go in. You know why? Because all of creation is
37:02 singing one song. Our maker delights in us. Our maker loves us. Our maker enjoys
37:08 us. And the all of nature lives under the benediction of God. Right? We can't join in. You know why?
37:15 Because we're singing a different song. We're singing Fang Sinatra song. I did it my way.
37:20 You know, oh, nature is singing to glorify God and they exist to glorify God. But we're saying, "No, we are the
37:26 gods. I want to live my way." And so therefore, we can't join in the song however uh much we want to. Uh we're
37:34 we're built to live under the benediction of God. We're we're built to live such a way that God will pat us on
37:40 the back and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." That is what we're built to do. And if you don't do that,
37:45 there will be emptiness in your soul of which you cannot fill. You can fill with all sorts of matter and all sorts of
37:50 adventures, but it will never be filled until we sing this song. Uh that is a problem with creation.
37:57 So here we are in the garden of Eden and you look later on where where the woman
38:03 loves God and the and loves the man. The man loves the woman and the man loves
38:09 God and you know it looks like a trinity. that you're made in the image of God. We're designed for that. And
38:16 what is sin? Sin is when you start loving this way.
38:22 You love yourself. The moment you love yourself, it is
38:27 become sin because you break that triangle where sin is self. Instead of self-giving,
38:34 giving yourself to someone else, you're giving yourself to yourself. All sin comes from self-desire.
38:41 and is the greatest abomination because we are created with such a great vision for us as human beings that we should
38:47 love each other. That's why there only two great commandments in it. Love God and love each other, right? It's a
38:55 perfect triangle. It's this triangle. That's the triangle. We're designed to do this. If you do this, that's why we
39:02 must have birthday. That's why on the 16th November, red
39:07 color fells will come out there and they'll march around too because their interests are obvious. This is the exact
39:12 destruction the entire world out of this beautiful creation which God has given to us.
39:20 2,000 years ago, Jesus came in the world and you know
39:26 this is a Jesus whose word creates the entire world. Isn't it? He
39:32 said it was so. When they nailed on the cross, he screamed out, "My God, my God,
39:40 why have you forsaken me his word?"
39:46 They keep hammering, hammering, hammering. My God, my God, why have you hammering, hammering, hammering, my God,
39:51 my God? They say, "Hang him up there." For the first time in the history of the universe, the son of God, word has no
39:58 power. Can you imagine that? The one whose word holds the universe together. They hang
40:05 him up there and whatever he said, any protestation is screaming, he had no power. Why?
40:11 He was deconstructed so that we can be recreated in the image of God. We lost that when
40:19 we started loving ourselves and the in the supreme act of selfgiving, giving
40:25 himself away. He hangs on the cross. Imagine a God who feels no uh who creates everything else, subjects
40:31 himself to puny human beings and who screams in pain hanging on the cross so
40:36 that we could join the choir that we could sing like the rest of creation.
40:42 And he sings with us. This is uh Hebrews chapter 2 very little known verse by
40:48 many of you but if you look at this verse carefully for he who sanctifies
40:53 and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he's not ashamed to call them brothers, saying,"I will
40:60 tell of your name to my brothers Jesus in the midst of the congregation." I will sing your praise. We are now able
41:08 to join the rest of creation and sing God's praise and sing the song of
41:13 creation simply. You know why? Because Jesus sings the song with us. And that's
41:18 why we're here. Let me end with a challenge. You can either go home this
41:24 morning either listening to the cleverest man in the world
41:29 or listening to what God has to say. The cleverest man and says world says this.
41:37 We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average
41:42 star. But we can understand the universe and that makes us special.
41:49 Wow. I'm so comforted. And this and this man has got three
41:54 rules to live. All right? He is the one who believes you're monkeys, right? And he's got three rules to live. One,
42:02 remember to look up at the stars and not to look at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you
42:08 meaning and and purpose, and life is empty without it. Three, if you're lucky enough to find love, remember it's there
42:14 and don't throw it away. the man who's like married two, three times. When's the last time you saw a
42:20 bunch of baboons looking at the stars, you don't see a bunch of baboons looking up in the stars. You don't see a bunch
42:27 of baboons going to work. You don't see a a bunch of baboons loving and caring and giving. They'll snile and eat each
42:34 other up. A total contradiction of what he believes we are and how we are to
42:40 live, isn't it? On one hand, he denies the creator, but he accepts the beauty of creation. He
42:47 accepts the beauty of work. He accepts love which comes from the trinity. It's a total contradiction.
42:54 That's why you have an existential crisis. That's why you sit down like this little young boy and I don't want
42:60 to do my homework anymore. So therefore, we need this morning to realize our calling. Whether you're young or old,
43:08 this is a cactus flower. You know how long this flower lasts for?
43:13 One day. This is a mayfly.
43:19 You know how long they last for? One day. Can you imagine? And they're so
43:24 beautiful. God creates you for one day or 10 days or 70 years or 100 years. He
43:32 creates you to sing that song. that song to and you will never be happy until you
43:38 sing that song to glorify his name. And you know, aside from crucifixion,
43:45 there's one home take-home message. God's word always achieves his will. Whenever he said, "Let there be," it was
43:53 so. Let there be, it was so. You think God's word doesn't work today? You look across the span of our nation and we see
44:00 the pain and we see the suffering and we see the confusion. We see the threats and we're wondering, "What are you
44:06 doing, God?" But God is telling you this morning, "My word always fulfills my will." And
44:16 he says, "Let there be." And he has said, "You know what? Let there be light in the hearts, not on the world." He's
44:22 already done that, but the hearts of men and women all over Malaysia. He has said, "There will let there be light."
44:28 And the light is the light of Jesus. And no matter how dark it gets, these men
44:34 and women will come to know him and we will glorify him. Whether you live one day or you live a thousand years, we
44:39 will glorify him. Let me end with a story of a man. If you feel that this
44:47 morning I'm too small and I always feel I'm too small. I'm too fragile and made
44:53 too many mistakes in life and I can't start over again. This is a man who was
44:58 born blind. You read about him in John chapter nine.
45:04 Made no mistakes in life. People were some people were telling him that you must have done something evil. That's
45:09 why you're born blind. Your parents have done something evil. Let's curse them and and let them die. And Jesus said to
45:15 this man, it's not that he was born blind because of the sin of the parents.
45:20 He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. And so
45:26 Jesus came to a man not wearing glasses, you know, a man who was born without
45:33 sight, a man without eyes or an optic nerve. And you cannot heal people like that. God touched him and he was healed
45:41 and God's glory was displayed in him. Uh question to you, which is a bigger impact? To be born with all two eyes and
45:49 live the rest of your life or to be born blind and glorify God in the pages of
45:54 the Bible for the next 2,000 years. And God did that. God used a blind man,
46:01 useless, small, born blind, totally dependent on everybody else. And he used
46:08 him because he glorified used him to glorify his name. and we read about him.
46:14 And so therefore, when we look, sin cannot overcome the word of God. However
46:19 bad sin is in our lives and in this world, it cannot stop God. When God says, "Let there be light. Sin actually
46:28 can only accentuate the glory of God." It actually does. When the devil thought
46:33 he would would bring man down, he thought he would thwart God's purp God's purposes still go on. The only thing a
46:39 sin does it makes his glory even greater. You know this is a portrait of Nick
46:45 Vuchek. He was born. If anybody talk about
46:52 being born no arms, no leg, one foot. And the
46:57 reason why you draw this picture of Nick Vuchek in an anguish expression in his face is that when he
47:04 was 9 years old, he questioned why he was a burden to his mother and father and he draw threw himself inside the
47:11 bathtub and he tried to drown himself because he was useless. He was a burden
47:17 and you don't know why he was created like this. Create me. Create me properly. Why do halfway? Forgot the
47:23 arms and forgot the legs and you only have one foot. But you know what? That's a result of
47:29 sin that we got genetic abnormalities in the world and we live in place where DNA
47:35 gets worn down. But God has taken this man and used him
47:40 to preach all over the world. There's one place in in in India where he gone here preach to 300,000 people. When's
47:45 the last time you preached to 300,000 people? And how many thousands have come to know Jesus Christ through him? Why?
47:53 Because he got no arm and no legs. If you and me, you probably preach to like 500 people. If you got no arm, no
48:01 leg, and one foot and you still glorify God, people are going to notice, right? People are going to ask you why. People
48:08 are going to be astounded. The jaw is going to drop. And so for many of us here today, I know
48:13 some of you are struggling. may have come and lady was telling me of uh uh recently of tra born in a
48:21 Christian family and yet you know wandered off for 41 years of her life. It seems as if the life is lost and now
48:28 she's come back to God. But that's not too late. We are created
48:33 small. We're created ugly. We're created mean. But God can take that what sin has done
48:40 into our lives. acknowledge sin has done in our lives and can get accentuate it
48:46 and make it even greater and overcome it because God says there
48:51 would be light one day when we go to heaven. We will sing this final song in
48:58 Revelations chapter 4. Worthy are you our Lord and God to receive glory and
49:04 honor and power for you created all things. By your will they existed and
49:10 were created. And the most beautiful thing about this song is that every single one of us sitting here today.
49:17 By your will, they are created. We're not here by accident. Every single one
49:25 of you has a role to play. And however ravaged by sin we are, it can only
49:32 accentuate our glory to God if you respond in the correct way. Isn't God magnificent?
49:38 Um, let's pray. Father Lord, we just thank you for your word.
49:44 We just are aed at the magnificent beauty of all of creation and all the
49:52 little bits that you've put in the trillion stars inromeda.
49:58 When we look at the beauty of nature, we look at even spiders that can live underneath the water with only a bubble
50:05 around them. We look at beetles that have flames shooting from the themselves. I mean, so much beauty and
50:12 we thank you and we praise you for all of creation. Most of all, we we're so
50:17 awed. You know why? Because because when you made us, it was very good. It was
50:23 very good because we reflect the image of God. We pray as we go home that we have not an existential crisis that
50:30 instead we will be the ones ministering to our friends who do not know why they
50:35 are here where they've come from. Help us use our time, our gifts, our talent
50:42 that we may reflect the image of God and bring glory to you and join the rest of creation in this wonderful song that
50:49 glorifies you. Our maker loves us. Our maker made us good. Let us praise our
50:56 maker. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen.
