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00:02 Right. So, uh good to see everybody here despite the corona virus pandemic. We
00:09 are all risking our lives coming to church. Uh we are now going into a
00:14 period where we'll this year we'll be focusing on missions and I think uh the
00:20 most important aspect of missions is to go back to right the beginning. What is
00:25 the purpose of man? What did who is God? What does he want? So therefore we're going to do the first 12 chapters of
00:32 Genesis and many of us will be taking I'll be taking three weeks in a row and
00:37 Arnold will take three weeks in a row. So we'll just go through that. Uh let's have a word of prayer first. Lord, we
00:42 ask oh Lord as we go through back to the beginning, back to Genesis, back to the
00:47 basis, uh that you will speak to us, guide us, show us what life is really
00:55 all about and how we can participate in your mission, in your purposes. For you
01:01 ask for Jesus sake, amen. And we're talking about missions.
01:06 Missions and me. I don't know what your response is. Every time you have the word missions uh crop up, we all get a
01:14 little bit uncomfortable. They beam pictures of a whole mess of hundreds and
01:19 millions of people who do not know Christ and it says, "What are you doing about it?" And you feel a bit guilty.
01:26 You know, you got a neighbor, so you don't bother to talk to him. And and is that the basis of missions?
01:31 the fact that there are millions of people who do not know God and who are going to be perishing or perhaps mission
01:38 is cast as something for which you build God's church uh the early church they'll tell you how it grew and how you can be
01:45 part of the kingdom growth correct or missions is your duty everybody has to
01:52 share the gospel I remember being a young Christian and the one who mentored me said you know you should get share
01:57 the gospel one person a day a week every every day must have end of the week, w not even seven, you know, and then you
02:04 get guilty. Um, do we do missions out of those um motives? I would like to
02:13 propose to you based on Romans chapter one that you don't missions start with
02:18 the glory of a good God. And if you look in Genesis chapter one, you can and bit of chapter 2, you will see the basis of
02:25 missions is actually God's glory in creation in us and in the Sabbath. So
02:32 unless we have a vision of what this universe and world is about, then it's
02:37 very hard for us to participate because we don't understand. All right. So let's start up with God's glory in creation.
02:43 First of all, in the beginning, God created heavens and earth. The earth was
02:48 without form and void and darkness was over the face of the earth deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Here straight away as you
02:56 can see in the beginning God immediately you are confronted with a startling fact
03:02 which is actually not quite apparent to a lot of you here because if you look back in uh ancient times the ancient
03:08 near east they believe that there is some sort of meta divine realm some something hazy up in the sky and that
03:17 spawn all sorts of gods and then the gods produce all sorts of people and people
03:23 used to worship these gods. gods simply because they want to get something from them and so they will give offering and
03:30 all that. Sometimes the gods are quite nasty, never play along. So what you do is bypass them. How magic because they
03:36 can tap into the meta divine realm with incantations uh and magic and then you can get what
03:43 you want as well. That's the situation where Moses wrote at that time. Of
03:49 course today we have different influences in our society. We we have people who believe that God is part of
03:55 the entire universe or there are people on the opposite side who say there's no God at all. All right? They tear us a
04:00 different place. But the important thing of Genesis comes out first is there is a beginning. You know why is very important? If there is a beginning,
04:08 there must be a cause. Everything that begins is experience in
04:13 our lives. Every single thing that happens in your life in the world today, there's nothing that has uh you know
04:20 beginning without a cause. Everything has a cause. So therefore, if you extrapolate logically, if there is a
04:27 beginning, there must be a cause. If the universe has a beginning, the universe has a cause. If there's a cause, it will
04:35 be an uncaused cause. And we call that uncaused cause God. And if you look at science and cleverest people in the
04:42 world today, they've they they tell you that there is a beginning. They call it the big bang. Quite established theory
04:50 that that around about 13 to 15 billion years ago, there was a big bang and
04:55 that's how the whole universe started. In fact, after this theory, people who
05:02 notice that the stars moving away from Earth as we look into the telescope,
05:08 they look a bit more redder. It's called the red shift because as you move further away, there's a shift in the wavelength as it appears to us. It's
05:15 called the red shift. using this red shift uh people like Edwin Hubble who who was responsible for that uh
05:21 telescope up in the sky showed us that there is a expanding universe that's getting bigger and bigger which then
05:28 therefore means that there was a actual beginning of course there are other
05:33 scientists like Sir John Maddox famous scientist this idea of beginning is thoroughly unacceptable because it
05:39 implies the ultimate origin of our world and it gives those who believe in the biblical doctrine of creation ample
05:44 justification for their belief He doesn't believe because we believe. Very odd. No scientific basis. He just
05:51 says, you know, gives ammunition. Stephen Hawkings, he declares there's no
05:56 God because there's a law such as gravity. The universe can and create and
06:01 will create itself from nothing. He writes spontaneous creation is a reason why there is something rather than
06:07 nothing. Why the universe exists, why we exist. He says this in the face of the fact that in the known universe is
06:13 nothing exists without a cause. And yet he says that in fact GK
06:19 Chester writes it's absurd to complain that is unthinkable for an unthinkable
06:24 God to make everything out of nothing and then to pretend that is more unthinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything which is actually
06:32 a contradiction of logic isn't it to say some nothing can turn itself into
06:37 something. All right. So Bible says there a fool says in his heart there's no God. They're corrupt doing abominable
06:45 iniquity. There's none who does good. So God created the heavens and the earth.
06:51 All right? So he materially functionally created that. He's separate. He's transcendent. He's the one God. He's
06:58 sovereign. You look up in the sky at any one time you will see only about 2,500
07:05 stars. And this is a tiny fraction of our Milky
07:10 Way, which is basically our galaxy. All right. This 2,500 is about a tiny
07:17 fraction of the 200 to 400 billion stars and 50 billion planets in our Milky Way
07:25 itself. Guess how many galaxies there are in the entire universe which is
07:30 observable. Anyone has it a guess? Couple of billion. You're wrong. It's
07:38 two trillion. There's more stars in the universe than the grains of sand in the in our world
07:47 today. It is huge. They estimate that the the the the size of the observable
07:52 universe is now 96 billion lightweight light years. And there still stars
07:59 outside that which is traveling at a speed of light that the light cannot reach us in time. So it is so huge and
08:05 God made all of this. And how did he create it? He said God said that there'd
08:11 be light. There was light. God saw the light was good and the light God separated the light from the darkness.
08:16 God called the light day and the darkness night and there was evening and morning in the first day. People always
08:22 argue about the day. So let's talk about the day. There are various ways in which you can take the word day. All right?
08:29 You can call God called the light day and the darkness he called night. So
08:34 this basically a qualitative description of the light and darkness the day. And
08:40 the way we can look at it is that there was evening and the morning and then there was the first day but that's really 12 hours isn't it evening morning
08:48 then one day actually not one day right it's how the Jewish reckons the day and then on the seventh day God finished the
08:54 work that he had done he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done and basically if the seventh
08:60 day is the the day and then that day is basically never ending and what about Genesis chapter 2 these are the
09:06 generations of heaven and earth when they were created on the day God made the earth and the heavens that mean the
09:14 whole six seven days all squished into one day. So basically Bible uses the
09:19 word day in an analogical way. So it could be a period of time um for which
09:24 the day denotes because it is cannot be a real day because you created he
09:30 created light on the first day. When is the sun and moon created? On the fourth day. How can you have a
09:37 day without the sun and the moon? Right? So people point this out. Oh, your
09:42 Bible, you know, not accurate, not scientifically true. You all are believing in rubbish. But they don't
09:48 understand that it is actually a Hebrew poetry or song. Okay? It's a literary
09:53 structure. Genesis 1 is a song and uh Genesis 2:50 is a historical narrative.
10:01 And the evidence of the song there is the repetition of phrases like and God said let there be. God saw there was
10:07 good there was evening and then there was morning and then the whatever day. This is ev literary evidence that this
10:14 is a song and it's not very much different from another part of Bible which is judges. You got a historical
10:20 narrative and you got a song of the same event. Uh if you look here about a woman
10:25 killing a man, Jel, this is like the new straight times and this is the song book. J the wife of Hera took the tent
10:33 peg and took the hammer on her hand and she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into
10:39 the ground while he was lying fast asleep from bearing this and then he mati correct very simple it's like news
10:45 times the next chapter he describes the same event and she sent the hand to the
10:51 ten peg her right hand to the workman's mallet she struck Cura she crushed his head she shattered and pierced his
10:58 temple between her feet he sank he fell he lay still between her feet. He sank, he fell. Where he sank, there he fell,
11:05 dead. Wow. Died many times. Up and down, up and down, up and down. But it's it's
11:10 a poetic way of doing it. So you never say, "Oh, how many times did he fall and how many times did he die?" You would
11:16 you wouldn't say that because the New Straight Times is here, but the song book is there. So it's a you must
11:21 understand how it is basically written. And you find you find Moses writes in such a way he never mentions the sun god
11:28 or or the moon god. You know the the ancients uh worship the sun uh called
11:34 the Shamas and moon god is called sin. He never mentions how he just mentions
11:40 the lesser light and the greater light because Genesis 1 is a polemic or a
11:45 defense against the pagan beliefs at that time. There is purpose and design as you can see how he arranges the
11:52 creation. On one hand, day one, two, three is a location where there's light, sky, and water. Uh, earth and
11:59 vegetation. Four, five, and six talks about the inhabitants of these locations which were prior created. Okay? And then
12:07 the apex of creation is animals and man. And then there's the rest on the seventh day. You know, Hawkins describes
12:15 science. Okay? He says that one can't prove that God doesn't exist. Yes, but
12:21 science make God unnecessary. I don't think that's true. I've been to
12:27 university, studied science. I don't think science makes God unnecessary. In
12:32 fact, science actually expands on the glory of God. Creation shows us
12:39 how God expresses himself. How does he express himself? He shares his glory.
12:45 How does he do that? Look at the more science looks at our universe, we stand
12:50 back and we're astounded. Look at the there's a weak atomic force that holds everything together, all the uh uh atoms
12:58 together. Okay? And basically it is so precise that if there's any variation of
13:04 the strength that holds these atoms together one 10 out of 100 then the
13:10 earth as we know it today will not exist. We will not exist. If the force
13:15 of the the constant that drives the acceleration of universe is changed by one part out of 10 the^ of 120 the
13:23 universe as we know it today will not exist. If you look here there are about six dimensionless constant entire
13:30 universe right of which you cannot change one little bit. If it changes the
13:37 universe as we know it cannot exist. And that already tells you in breathtaking detail of what the glory of God is
13:45 finely tuned for life on earth as it were. This is Alexander Oparin the Russian uh scientist who said that you
13:53 know life began because you've got this atmosphere where you've got methane you've got ammonia water and carbon
13:60 dioxide you you mix together and suddenly lightning come boom you got amino acids. That's what he thought. And
14:06 then uh they did an experiment University of Chicago called the very famous Miller ureay experiment where
14:12 they put these chemicals in a bottle and then they sent a spark and it actually
14:17 produced some minino acids to be fair. But this atmosphere is not what the
14:24 earth is made of. So it's an artificial atmosphere. So it doesn't really prove it until 1953
14:29 they discovered this DNA. And DNA is the biggest marvel of of
14:39 human discovery ever. Watson and Creek deciphered what it was like. And basically it's made every single
14:45 multisellular organism has DNA. DNA has three billion base pairs. Okay. Arranged
14:53 with two amino uh two two chemicals on each side. Edin, thymine, cytosin and
14:58 guanine. And basically it's arranged as a code. All right. three billion base pairs alternating and in different
15:06 codes. And when you have a code, information always comes from intelligence. It's not a mindless process. When you have a code, you can't
15:12 throw it all together and have three billion base pairs accidentally come together and form one red. It's
15:18 impossible. It tells you when you've got code means you got intelligence. It's not a mindless process. So therefore, it
15:25 is the more we look at it, the more we see the glory of God. We look at a
15:31 monkey, not very much different from us, right? They only differ from the monkey with a DNA of only 2%.
15:38 All right? Imagine that we were nearly monkeys. Just 2% difference in the DNA and we would have been climbing trees.
15:45 How do we respond to this? Well, Revelation says, "Worthy are you, our
15:50 Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were
15:57 created." The natural response of a human being and a creature is to worship. Which is why the converse if
16:05 you don't worship is a what Romans Paul writes for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power divine nature
16:12 has been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and things have been made. So they are without
16:17 excuse for though they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. It is fundamental to the human
16:24 nature to be able to envisage, take in beauty and actually respond
16:31 appropriately and worship. John Piper writes this which is quite
16:37 interesting. The mind corresponds to the truth of God's perfections. Love
16:42 corresponds to the delight in the worth and beauty of those perfections. God is glorified by being both understood and
16:50 delighted in. So as science shows us more and more of the perfections and
16:57 beauty of God's creation, our love, our emotion arises from our appreciation of
17:03 God's perfections. That is why God gave us the beauty of creation. In fact, if
17:09 you there was a seminar in Edinburgh some years ago, 2015 where a group of scientists gathered together. They are
17:16 neurobiologists and they actually concluded that we seek we all seek
17:21 beauty almost 24 hours a day whether it's in our homes, in our pastimes or in
17:29 our work. We we seek to ask the ladies here. You seek to your house make your house more beautiful. Isn't it? Who
17:35 likes to go home and live in the dumpster? Who goes from rubbish dump to rubbish dump looking for stuff. Some of
17:41 us do but not most of us. We look for beauty whether it is in a a formula.
17:47 They say this is the most beautiful formula in the world. Well, if you are a mathematician, you will. If you are like me, I have no idea why it's the most
17:53 beautiful formula in the world. Or some of you think that the bento bish is absolutely beautiful. It makes you have
17:59 a better appetite. If you have and in fact look at the way you configure words
18:06 which paragraph is more beautiful makes it easier to read the top one or the bottom one. All those of you say the top
18:12 one. Put your hands up. The bottom one.
18:18 Ah the clever people is the bottom one. There's a certain proportion that we would perceive as beautiful because it's
18:26 programmed for us to appreciate beauty. Even animals. This is a bower bird and
18:31 he's trying to uh to impress the girlfriend. You see that? And he's laying all these
18:39 you know matching mala isn't it? Right. In fact some of them are so extravagant
18:44 that they will lay all these sort of things right. The best bow birds are one
18:49 like humans money-minded. This one takes a $10 $10 Australian bill and he puts it there and he thinks the
18:56 girlfriend will come running. How do birds do this? All right, there must be an appreciation on bird beauty. So
19:02 therefore, are we to say what a wonderful accident? Can you go and try to go ask your latest 80s friend to go
19:09 outside there and see the wonderful things? What a wonderful accident. It is counterintuitive.
19:15 It is intuitive for us to express joy and gratitude and thanksgiving. Something got you things are so
19:21 beautiful, you got to have somebody to thank, isn't it? and as a creator for you to thank and be accountable to. This
19:29 is a handmade Fioa piano, one of a kind. The other day, a young lady who owned it
19:35 was very devastated. Angela Huitt, who is a Canadian virtuoso, she'd be using this C piano for years. And then they
19:42 were delivering it, moving one place to another, and then they dropped it. They
19:47 dropped it the 194,000 piano kaput. It's unique. It's the only
19:54 piano with four pedals. I didn't really know you have three pedals and now you got four pedals. And this is what she
20:00 writes. I adored the piano. This was my best friend, best companion. I loved how it
20:08 felt when I was recording, giving me the possibility of doing anything I wanted. So the piano's value is not in the wood
20:16 that's there or even in the outward beauty for which you can appreciate if you like pianos. For me, I like the
20:22 piece of wood. You know what the beauty is? The beauty is the music in which it produces. The beauty points to something
20:29 deeper. And for her, it was almost spiritual. Imagine for young people uh
20:35 you know taipe if somebody came up to you tomorrow and gave you this.
20:41 Isn't that wonderful? And you take the ring. No, don't don't give it to her. She takes the ring and then she runs
20:48 away and oh, I got the ring. I got the ring. I got the ring. There's something wrong with the girl, right? The the ring's beauty does not
20:56 lie primarily in the size of the diamond. Some girls will argue about
21:01 that, but and the size of the heart that has accompanied the diamond. So you thought
21:08 the more he loves me, the bigger the diamond, right? But that see beauty
21:13 points to something. And as God creates, his glory is shown. But the glory is a
21:20 pointer. It's a signpost. What is a signpost? A signpost to the love that comes behind that. There is a God.
21:26 There's glory in the God. So God creates a beauty uh and extravagance in nature
21:33 so that we can see it and we it is a signpost of what a wonderful marvelous
21:38 all-encompassing God that we have. Second point is that God's glory is in
21:43 us. Of all people is in us. And here we read God created man in his own image.
21:49 Image of God. He created him. Male and female. He created them. He blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful and
21:54 multiply. Fill the earth. Subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over
21:60 every living thing that moves on the earth. This is our mandate. And the
22:06 image of God can basically defined as three aspects. One, we are supposed to be representative of God. We're supposed
22:13 to be relating to him. And we also supposed to reflect who he is. The representative function is quite easily
22:19 discerned. If you look at the uh ancient near east, you will find the rulers will
22:25 set up images and statues of themselves in places where they exercise dominion
22:30 or control. So you touch the image, you're touching the ruler himself. So
22:35 this is a way in which they representative function. In fact uh if you look here
22:42 it says let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish. Let God said
22:49 they be fruitful multiply and have dominion over the fish of the sea etc. So there this word dominion means they
22:55 rule. So therefore there is a representative function where God in partnership with the people who he
23:01 creates they are supposed to have dominion. So therefore there's a representative function. So we see in
23:06 our the same thing happens in our offices isn't it? All right. Every government office you see, you will see
23:12 the picture of all the prime ministers. Okay? And if there's a particular prime minister you don't like, you cut off his
23:18 nose. In those days, they did that. Uh you can see that in all these Egyptian
23:24 paintings, right? Carvings you can find that the nose is cut off. Anybody know
23:30 why? You go to British Museum, you see, always got nose always cut off. You see
23:36 the statue is a representation of the god. The king is a representation of god. Right? So therefore the statue is
23:44 where the the gods and and the statues coales. This is where the supernatural
23:49 meets the material. Right? So if you cut off his nose can he breathe
23:55 mater. So the statue loses its power. That's why you go to antiquities you go
24:01 to all the museum. You don't know why they cut off his nose. All right. So that is a symbolic. So they understand
24:07 that being made in the image has some semblance where the supernatural will uh
24:12 coales with the natural. We are made to by God in order to relate. Ever found a
24:18 bunch of dogs sitting together howling and worshiping God at a prayer meeting? Never see that. But everywhere you go,
24:27 you will see people gathering and finding some sort of supernatural power.
24:34 I remember just speaking to a lady outside this church the first service who for years had no inkling of who God
24:41 is. And then uh uh but when trouble came, she started to look further than
24:48 herself. And maybe there's a God. Maybe I did something bad. Maybe I do something good. and things were starting to come together or coming apart because
24:55 of what she had done. So we all are created with the ability to relate. And here Paul uses this when he talks to the
25:03 uh people in Athens where they found a whole group of people had altars and the altars were made to the unknown god. And
25:11 he used this as he preached to them. He said to them, "God who made the world and everything in it, being the Lord of
25:17 heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as they needed any, as
25:23 though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from
25:28 one man every nation of mankind to live in all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that
25:35 they should seek God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him. Yet he is not actually too far from each of
25:41 us. For in him we live and move and have our being. We are made to relate to God.
25:49 Here we have a triune God. God is father, son, and holy spirit for which
25:54 there is love. Love is a primary attribute of God. It's not a quiet attribute. He's love from the beginning.
26:01 And from this love within the triune God comes out creation. Right? A third one
26:08 is basically made an image is a reflective function. we reflect God. Uh
26:13 some people used to think that the uh image god is a rational capacity. We can think just like God can think. Well,
26:20 that's the thoughts of Greek philosoph philosophers like Plato or Aristotle and influence early church fathers like
26:26 Augustine, Aquinas and other philosophers Dear Libnitz, Hegel they
26:31 all we image God means we are able to think. But if you actually look at scripture, you can find uh God created
26:39 man in his own image in the image of God he created him. And then Genesis 5:3 when Adam lived 130 years, he fathered a
26:47 son in his own likeness after his own image. Rational, is it? Doesn't make
26:53 sense of his rationality, right? This is Adam and the son, you know, not God and you. All right? And then you look at
26:60 Corinthians, a man ought not to cover his head because he's the image and glory of God. What has that got to do
27:06 with rationality as it were? Romans 1, when they sinned, although they knew
27:11 God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. And they became futile in their thinking, did they
27:16 become rational? They became irrational. They think there's no God. So rationality cannot be
27:23 it. Uh because there are some chimpanzees more rational than human beings. They've shown uh in experiments
27:29 human animals can be rational, angels are rational, Satan is very rational. He know how to pick the right spots. All
27:36 right? As well as people who don't believe in God, we have rationality as
27:42 well. So we the image God is reflective function. We are made it refers to our
27:48 design and our destiny to basically reflect God. We talk about glory of God.
27:54 God cav is weightiness, outward luminosity, fame, the need to
28:02 matter to be significant. So in that sense, we all glory deficient because we
28:07 don't have glory intrinsic to us. We're made to reflect the glory of God. You
28:14 either reflect the glory of God, but if you don't want to reflect the glory of God, who do you reflect?
28:20 Man. There's no other way. It's either God or man. Unless you're the reflect animal. Oh, that's some people do. Uh,
28:26 so therefore, we've got this dilemma. Now, this is Alex Smith. You know, he said these words, I never felt so alive.
28:32 You know, this guy, he's got muscular distrophe. And for the first time in his life, you know what he do? He can actually get up to the slopes with the
28:38 help of his friends and actually ski down the slopes. For him being like other human beings and skiing is the
28:45 best thing in his life because he's comparing his glory based on other people. And we do that, don't we? All of
28:52 us, whether it's Simon Cowell, whether whether we can sing or don't sing, it's up to whether he says we can or whether
28:59 we're aiming for the spelling prize of a medal. And some of us seek for glory in the most funny ways. You have taking
29:05 Wi-Fi or selfie everywhere. We're taking selfie. Why? Because we want to be seen as brave. Uh even the bull is chasing
29:13 us, we're taking a selfie, right? Everywhere we're going. Uh, and if we can't do that, uh, you can't be Brad
29:19 Pit. At least you can buy his watch. You can't be Maria Shahov. You can buy her shoe. Isn't that true?
29:27 We're so glory deficient that we need all these things. So, we're filling our glory with activity, emotion, purpose,
29:34 goals, values, motivations, right? It's right at our center. We need
29:42 that. Let me illustrate that to you. Susanna, do me a favor. Come up here.
29:48 Susanna's a good friend, brilliant young lawyer. All right, she's going to come up here and I want you to
29:56 turn and look at them. Just look at them and you look at her.
30:09 That's right. Why is it awkward? You go back. Thank you.
30:15 You're lucky she doesn't start to break into song or dance or do something.
30:21 Yeah. Yeah. She send me a bill for that because when you stand up here and
30:26 you're staring at you, you're staring at her, you want to do something, isn't it to justify your existence, right?
30:32 Because people are judging you and looking at you and we're so affected by what people see or think or do and I
30:38 make you see stand here 5 minutes and you look at her five minutes then people start to look away and when you look away she'll feel so disappointed they
30:45 all hate me. That's right. And then some people fall asleep. Now you know what preachers feel like right? You see your
30:52 your value is diminished because your value determined by what people think or say or do. And so we are hopelessly
30:58 trapped by this feeling that we are glory deficient because we are created to reflect God's glory and we take other
31:06 people's glory. It's not going to cut it. It's you're going to die a death of
31:11 a thousand cuts. Uh look at me strip fantastic actress.
31:17 And she says I said to myself I don't know how to act and why does anybody
31:22 want to look at me on screen anymore? Lots of actors feel that way. What gives you strength is your also your weakness,
31:28 your raging insecurity. The one of the best actresses in the world will tell you she's got raging insecurity.
31:36 Why? Because however well people think of you, how many Oscars they give you, you'll still feel inadequate. Megan Fox,
31:44 I'm very confident in how I project my personality, but in terms of how I look, I'm completely hysterically insecure.
31:52 I'm self-loathing, introverted, and neurotic. Most of us don't even look half like
31:58 her. If she's neurotic, we are finished. Isn't that And what about singers? One
32:05 of the best singers in the world, Taylor Swift, right? How many of you like Taylor Swift? All old people here. Only
32:13 joy, maybe a little bit. There's so much pressure going into getting new music out. If I don't beat
32:20 everything I've done before, it will be deemed as a colossal failure. She's reached the top. Nobody to compete with.
32:26 Who's she competing with? Herself. Deadly trap, isn't it? And the converse
32:32 is that they're so glory deficient and glory hungry even at the top of the game. And the converse of this is that
32:38 do you know the strongest human emotion is not shame or anger or hatred. It's
32:45 humiliation. They recently did a study where they put EEG rods onto a person to
32:50 measure the brain's response to different situations and they showed that the humiliation is a potent
32:57 emotional experience which is more negative and demands more cortical activation than other negative emotions
33:02 of similar availance in this case anger and shame. It is the most powerful
33:08 emotion which is why when they go to school and they actually bully you with
33:14 cyber bullying or bullying at all. You can see the ones who actually h are suicidal they're thinking are the ones
33:21 bullied all the time because humiliation is part of the fact that it's like Susanna standing up here and being
33:27 humiliated by this horrible fellow. Right? That is a very powerful emotion. She's going to be scarred forever. I
33:33 think I'm sorry. had to go for counseling with the family life ministry. Let me refer to Arnold.
33:40 Uh this is a young boy, Quaidon Bale, 9 years old.
33:45 Video came out a couple of days ago and he was crying to his mother. Why? Every day he goes to school, they ridicule
33:52 him. They shout at him. They call him short and ugly, which he is short and
33:58 ugly because he's born a dwarf, a a quondroplasia where the where the cartilage and the hands and and the legs
34:05 don't grow. And because he's different from other people, he's considered ugly
34:12 and horri. Everybody gives him a hard time. In fact, this went viral and people responded. And in fact, just two
34:20 days ago, I think today, the National Rugby League had a big match, Australia versus uh uh New Zealand. And you know
34:27 what they did? These huge fellows took him on a stage
34:34 and he got to kick the ball off. Isn't that wonderful?
34:39 All right. And that is a perfect picture. You know what that picture is? That's a picture of God and us.
34:48 And we are Quaidon Gills. We are that. Because you read in Psalm
34:54 19, I'll read to you Psalm 19. Oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the
34:60 earth. Oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Out of the mouth, you have set your glory above the
35:07 heavens. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, the stars, it expresses how great God is.
35:13 And yet out of the mouth of babes and infants, you establish strength because of your foes still the enemy, the
35:21 avenger. So basically, he's talking about how God takes weakness, mouth of babies and infants. And you look down,
35:28 what is man that you are mindful him, the son of man that you care for him, yet you have made him a little lower
35:34 than the heavenly beings, crowned him with glory and honor. You've given them dominion over the works of your hands.
35:40 You have put all things under his feet. The sheep, the oxen, you know, the beasts of the field, and the birds of
35:46 the heaven, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the path of the sea, this picture is exactly
35:54 like this picture. If you see this picture and the picture touches your heart where big tall men lend their
36:02 glory to small, runish, horrible, ugly chap. That's how God deals with us. That
36:08 he deems how ugly we are, how insignificant we are, and how majestic he is.
36:15 He loves us. He created us in expression of his glory.
36:23 Lastly, God's glory is in the Sabbath. Chapter two, the heavens and earth were
36:28 finished and all the host of them. And the seventh day, God finished his work. We had done and rested on the seventh
36:34 day from all his work they had done. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because in it God rested from all his work that he had done uh in
36:41 creation. Now, this idea of God resting, I mean, God's finished working doing the whole thing. It's been very tiring. I'm
36:47 going to take a break. And it takes a rest. It's it's metaphorical. It describes a time where he has set apart
36:55 time as a memorial where he could celebrate with his creation because he's
37:00 always working. If you look at John, John uh Jesus answered, "My father is working until now and I am working." Job
37:09 the spirit of God has made me and the breath of God gives me life. every
37:14 breath that you take that constantly God is breathing that into you and you've
37:19 got Colossians before all things and in him all things hold together. He holds
37:25 everything together. So basically God is always working. So what does it mean uh that where God is at rest, it's a temple
37:32 scene. Okay. Uh and what is happening is that what does God do in his resting place? I will abundantly bless her
37:39 provisions. I will satisfy her with the poor with bread. I will her priests will clothe with salvation and her saints
37:45 will shout for joy. There I will make a horn for to sprout for David. I prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I
37:52 will clothe with shame but on him his crown will shine. What it means the rest
37:58 is basically it is where God rules. He creates the entire universe. He creates
38:03 the world and he enters this world and he rules with all his creatures there.
38:11 It's the climax of creation where we become part of God's universe as it
38:17 were. And this is what we're working towards. The challenge for us today in
38:22 Genesis chapter 1 is the choices of the kind of world we want to be driven by.
38:28 Oz Guinness uh Christian philosopher first said this words faith is not a thing which one loses. We are merely
38:36 ceased to be shaped our lives by it. There's something subtle in our lives. We can profess to be Christian. We come
38:42 here on Sunday, but it's actually what shapes our lives that actually determine what our faith is. Bottom line, who are
38:51 we? If we think like atheists, we're just an advanced breed of monkeys on a
38:56 minor planet of an average star. Then we can understand the universe that makes us very special. Or you understand
39:02 universe, you're very special. Isn't that sad? or three rules to live by.
39:09 One, remember to look up at the stars, not look down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning,
39:15 purpose, and life is empty without it. Three, if you're lucky enough to find love, remember it is there. Don't throw
39:22 it away. And he got divorced. Ah, hello. Is that how you live? Well,
39:29 if that's the case, the greatest football player in the world, Pelle, three World Cups, right? three World
39:35 Cups, arguably the best ever. He's better than Cristiano Ronaldo or whatever you got.
39:41 And recently, he's become depressed, reclusive. He doesn't want to get out of
39:47 the house. Why? Because he had hip surgery. The complication of hip surgery made him unable to walk. He's he needs a
39:54 wheelchair or a walker. And he doesn't want the world to see what has happened
39:59 to the greatest player the planet has ever seen because that's his glory. And if you
40:06 live all your life and that's what you live for and that's the end result,
40:11 isn't that going to be a shame? You know, when Israelites were in the
40:16 desert, they left Egypt and and Moses had gone up to the
40:23 mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. And while he was away, they started to worship idolatry again.
40:31 According to Aaron, we all took our rings, our jewelry, we throw in the fire and and and the golden calf came out.
40:38 That's exact words. Exact words. You think you buy it? I don't buy it. And they started to worship and God punished
40:46 them. People died. There were plagues and all that. And the end got a bit God got a bit fed up with them. You know
40:51 what God said? Okay. You you you want the land, you want the glory, you want
40:56 the prosperity, you want the makan, right? You want I give you. And this is what he said. I will send an angel
41:03 before you. And I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parizzite, Hivites, Zobites.
41:10 You go up to the land flowing in milk and honey. Beautiful place, right? But I
41:15 will not go with among you lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff necked people. And when the people
41:21 heard this disastrous word, they mourn. No one put on his ornaments. It's like
41:29 your parents say, "You want? Okay, you go. I lend you my car. Take the BMW.
41:34 Take the $20,000. Go." But I'm not going to go with you. Most of us say, "I better go. I take the BMW, I take the
41:41 money, enjoy. But the Israelites are smarter than us.
41:46 They said, "We could go up there and beat all those guys up. We could take the land of milk and honey. We could
41:52 live rich in ease in the lap of luxury.
41:57 But if you don't go with us, it's going to be not worth it." Right? Even they idoltors realize there's
42:05 something deeper in their souls that they actually need. Isn't it? Isn't it shocking?
42:11 And Moses went to intervene. You know what, Moses? I mean,
42:16 which one of you think which car brings more joy when you drive?
42:22 Ask Joy. Uh, would you like to drive this one or this one? The yellow or blue?
42:27 Huh? Yellow. Smart girl. That's why Brandon's girlfriend,
42:33 he's even smarter. All right, smart people would choose this, right? This
42:38 fell zero to 100 in two hours. This fellow zero to 100 in two seconds. All
42:43 right, because each thing in the universe provides a level of joy and satisfaction is bound up in his
42:50 essential nature. Essential nature of this is beauty and speed. It's wonderful
42:55 until you crash. Okay, this is nice and slow and very safe.
43:01 Each thing has it essential nature and said and and the Israelites recognized that yeah, you could go to the land of
43:06 milk and honey and all that, you know, but but the essential nature of God is so deep and so great. That's what I
43:13 want. And then Moses, he stood up there, you know, he said to God, show me your
43:18 glory. He understood. He understood. He understood it's not
43:23 the engagement ring. It's the love behind the engagement. We wanted the the glory and God said to him, I will make
43:29 all my goodness pass before you and proclaim before you my name. The Lord I will be gracious to whom I will be
43:34 gracious and show mercy to whom I will show mercy. Moses understood
43:40 and and you know what we need the glory of God. And the New Testament, you know where is the glory of God? The New
43:47 Testament says the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. We have seen his
43:53 glory. Glory as the only son from the father full of grace and truth. The law
43:59 given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. If no one's ever seen God the only father who's at
44:05 God who is at the father's side, he has made him known. The very thing which Moses thirsted to see God's glory came
44:14 in a shape of a man, the son of God. And if you look at the same in in Genesis
44:22 chapter one, every time God creates, you know what he says? And God said, in
44:28 fact, God said is a creative word. God doesn't say, uh, you know, switch on the
44:34 lights and Susanna run and switch on the lights. No, that's a derivative action. When he says, let there be light, the
44:41 light magically appears. It's a creative powerful word. He says this nine times.
44:46 And every time we said it was good because it always comes to pass. And
44:52 God's word now comes in the New Testament. And and John specifically tells us in the beginning was the word.
44:57 The word was with God and the word was God. All things were made through him.
45:03 The glory of God is in the power of his son, the word.
45:09 And and you look at him writing Moses writing Genesis chapter 1. Where were they? They were in the desert. What do
45:17 they have to go all the way to Canaan? Any uh uh you know when you drive in
45:22 North Plank Valley Expressway, you got some rest stops, right? Rest got 71, got
45:27 got what? Police station got all sorts of things, right? Would you know what they have?
45:33 Nothing. Not a blade of grass. Walking through two million people
45:40 towards hundreds of miles away. Not a blade of grass, no water, the sun shining on you
45:47 relentless. You know what they have? The only thing they have with them is and God said.
45:53 And God said and so it tells us that when life is tough, when you see nothing
46:00 in front of you, there doesn't seem to be any avenues in life. The only thing you hang on to is what? And God said,
46:10 you know, his son Jesus Christ after he was baptized, where did he go? In the
46:16 wilderness. A wilderness where's no one blade of grass. And when Satan tempted
46:22 him, what did he say? And God said, you know, brothers and sisters, the glory of
46:27 God is said is affected by what God says. That's all that matters. It's not
46:33 what you see or feel or touch. It's what God says. And what God says has come in
46:39 the person of his son. Moses came down. His face was shining as he received the word of God.
46:46 And Paul picks this up and he says, "And we all with unveiled face." Moses face
46:52 was so bright, you know, a real nuisance if he could put on a veil so people won't get their eyes blinded.
46:59 But we don't need a veil because our our glory of God is not exactly luminosity,
47:05 not light. It's something else. It's character. It says be when we with unveiled faces are beholding, looking at
47:12 the glory of God, being transformed into the same image of one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord.
47:19 What is the glory of the Lord? The glory of God is grace, forgiveness, and truth
47:26 and mercy. The glory of God is in his attributes. It's not necessarily in his illuminosity. Although that can be, but
47:33 here he is. Let me give you a better a nicer translation by Eugene Peterson in
47:38 message. I love this one. Translate the same verse. All of us nothing between us
47:44 and God. Our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are
47:50 transfigured much like the Messiah. our lives gradually becoming more brighter
47:56 and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. Isn't that
48:02 great? The glory that we so hunger and desire and covered that we're
48:08 desperately in need of comes into our lives through our Messiah. Our lives
48:14 becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters the lives. Let me ask you
48:20 young people, who is the greatest tennis player who ever lived? Any names? Ian
48:26 Ping. Huh? Roger Federra. I knew you say that.
48:36 You recognize her? Who is it? Your grandmother.
48:44 Yeah. Australian. No. At least they're quite close. Her name is Margaret Cot
48:49 and and she actually why is she famous? She's famous because she's got 24 grand
48:54 slams which is you know grand slam is only four times a year and one more than
48:59 Serena Williams right and on top of that they don't realize that she's got grand
49:05 slams in mixed doubles and ladies doubles. You know how many grand slams she's got? 64.
49:12 Roger Fedra cannot touch her. This is what she is. She is for two years after
49:18 she got married, she didn't even touch a tennis racket. In between, she popped out four children.
49:26 Four children. A pastor of a church in Perth for which one of our members Rita attends in Perth
49:33 and a woman who speaks her mind. This article came out. Margaret Cot, astounding champion who found God and
49:39 lost the respect of a nation. the the nation named the a stadium after her,
49:46 Margaret Court. And recently in the last Australian Open, that stupid American
49:51 fellow called Mackenrorow and Serena Williams rubbished her and they said,
49:56 "You should change the name of the Sto Stadium." Why? Because she spoke out
50:02 against gay marriage. She sacrificed. She she actually look
50:08 for the glory of God rather than the respect of a nation
50:14 because that's what her life is about. If her life is all about the medals,
50:21 then they take the the stadium name away. I think she'll be devastated and hide the house of depression for 5 years. Just like Pelle, isn't it? But
50:28 she didn't. She stood tall. And you know, these are the words that she once wrote.
50:34 I believe implicitly in what the Bible tells me. I don't cherrypick to be
50:40 popular. God has made my his feelings clear. They are my feelings too. You see
50:48 brothers and sisters, we need to so hunger for the right kind of glory that
50:53 we will be unshakable that we could lose the respect of a nation and yet stand tall
50:59 as we are designed to be to reflect the glory of our glorious God. You know this
51:06 is a prophecy given by Habac. This is going to come true. Habac writes that
51:12 the glor will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as
51:17 the waters cover the sea. You know you look at the tsunami in Japan, the waters
51:24 just came and covered the land. One day the waters is going to cover the entire
51:30 earth. That's a metaphor. The glory of God is going to roll over every nation.
51:36 There will be not a single nation left standing without the glory of God so
51:42 that everybody can see. In fact, in Philippians, Paul says that one day every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That
51:49 is God's mission. That is what is happening. And we can be like Margaret C
51:58 with 64 grand slams or we could be the blind man who live his whole life in
52:04 John chapter nine. His only call to fame was he was healed by God and he went and
52:09 tell his friends about Jesus. That's all. Maybe he died after that. Or we could be like another Australian Nick
52:16 born without legs and hands. I don't know who you are and where you are, what how you've spent your life,
52:23 but I know that every single one of us has a part to play because the glory of
52:29 God is going to come anyway with or without you. And the challenge for missions is right at the heart of
52:36 missions is that we are so totally immersed in God's glory and so
52:42 convicted of it that we can't help but tell our friends. Look at the Samaritan woman John chapter 4. After one
52:50 interaction by the water and well he she wanted living water. She received it and
52:56 straight away what she do she went to a friend's house. She went a whole town. Everybody know why did God tell her to,
53:02 "Hey, you better go and evangelize one gospel a day. Otherwise, I'm going to come and audit you." No audit, right? By
53:10 herself, she went and told everybody the biggest gospel gospeler in the world.
53:16 And that's what we're supposed to be. We're so enthralled with the glory of God that we can't help ourselves. We're
53:22 going to get out from this church and oh, we tell the world. That's what mission is about. If that is not what
53:27 you've experienced life, don't do missions because you go out and say I tell you about God Jesus Christ. Oh
53:34 yeah, he died on the sin and for your sin and all that I have to do at your number two today and you chalk him up.
53:41 I hope to God that you never see a reluctant missionary. God doesn't want that. God wants people
53:47 who are filled, enthused with the power of God. They lives have been
53:53 transformed, shining brighter and brighter. What do you see? the bright not the light it's grace it's mercy it's
53:60 love is being transformed and these are the people whom God wants to join him
54:09 his word always achieves this whenever God said let there be and it was so
54:17 the knowledge of the goal of God will fill the earth will we join him
54:23 or will we not let's Pray. Father Lord, we thank you for your word.
54:32 We're astounded by the beauty and the enormity
54:37 of your perfection. And Father Lord, we we crave
54:43 and yearn for your glory. We repent because in the past, we've only be
54:50 concerned with our own glory. We're so easily humiliated. We are so easily discouraged. We look to each other for
54:59 glory. Father Lord, we're drinking from the wrong porn. We're drinking from
55:04 broken systems. Oh Lord, we repent. We ask each day as we wake up in the morning, we look
55:11 forward to seeing your glory in creation, in the lives of our friends and our church. We pray, oh Lord, you so
55:17 fill us with your word so that our lives become bigger and brighter each day.
55:23 that the world may see and catch a glimpse of your glory.
55:30 We ask this what you say. Amen.
