WEBVTT 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:03.840 I'm going to invite you to turn to the book of Genesis and our 10 11 year olds. 00:00:03.900 --> 00:00:05.480 You are dismissed for class. 00:00:05.980 --> 00:00:13.340 As you get to the book of Genesis, we're going to be in chapters one to three and I've been wanting to hit this particular passage of scripture for 00:00:13.340 --> 00:00:14.460 some time. 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:21.900 This is an important piece of literature within the text of the Bible for us and it is significant to where this takes place in the history 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:29.120 of Christianity and how it lays the framework for a biblical understanding throughout the rest 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:30.000 of the Bible. 00:00:30.040 --> 00:00:37.100 Within the first three chapters of the Bible, you really have the pillars of Christianity communicated and it helps us to 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:40.940 lay the framework for the way the rest of scripture is going to unfold itself for us. 00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:48.560 And so today we're going to start a series on the topic of belief and I'm glad you're here as we start this journey together because today we're going to lay the foundation of 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:54.140 the understanding of God and then we're going to build from that as it's communicated itself through the rest of scriptures. 00:00:54.360 --> 00:01:00.570 And I want to tell you in the old Testament, my favorite passage of the Bible is the first three chapters of the book of Genesis. 00:01:00.820 --> 00:01:08.080 It may be my favorite chapters in all of the Bible because of the way it lays, the framework of understanding for 00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:15.560 Christianity throughout the text of scripture, and it identifies major questions that we would ask about life and 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:21.130 I wanted to, I want to, I want you to know that if you're approaching this text of scripture, maybe this is the first time in a church context. 00:01:21.520 --> 00:01:28.860 You've gone through these passages together with someone that when you approach this, the major questions that are answered are not only important 00:01:28.860 --> 00:01:35.700 for you, but this is written in a poetic, a story for us that we can communicate this story to others as well. 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:37.920 Moses is the author of this book. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:41.260 This book gets us named Genesis as a book of beginnings. 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:45.540 In fact, the story starts like this in the beginning, right? 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:48.210 And this phrase in the beginning literally means Genesis. 00:01:48.580 --> 00:01:50.860 It's where the book derives its name. 00:01:51.180 --> 00:01:58.400 And so when Moses is writing this book, he wrote not only Genesis but the next four books following, and he is helping a people group 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:00.780 find identity in who they are. 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:08.350 You think when Moses was writing this book, he has just led the children of Israel out of Egypt as slaves. 00:02:08.539 --> 00:02:11.070 They at this point, their identity was in slavery. 00:02:11.640 --> 00:02:17.040 And so Moses is helping them shape the idea of who they are in light of who God is. 00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:25.420 And so these first three chapters are so important because what you find within the context of Genesis as you read it, is that history goes rapidly 00:02:25.420 --> 00:02:29.540 through the first few chapters of the Bible from the time of Adam to the time of Abraham. 00:02:29.700 --> 00:02:33.490 I spent a thousands of years just covered in just a few chapters of scripture. 00:02:34.540 --> 00:02:37.700 Moses has getting to the children of Israel so they can find their identity. 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:43.000 And he lays the particulars out to the rest of the Genesis on an Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, and Deuteronomy. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:46.860 But the first few chapters just say to them, this is who we are. 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:49.660 It answers the question of where did I come from? 00:02:49.660 --> 00:02:50.500 Why do I exist? 00:02:50.700 --> 00:02:51.980 Where am I going? 00:02:52.060 --> 00:02:53.340 What is the problem of evil? 00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:54.210 How did it get here? 00:02:54.500 --> 00:02:55.940 Do snakes actually talk? 00:02:56.260 --> 00:02:56.720 Who knows? 00:02:56.740 --> 00:02:57.640 We'll talk about that. 00:02:57.660 --> 00:02:57.760 Right? 00:02:57.980 --> 00:03:00.120 Did Adam and Eve eat an Apple? 00:03:01.160 --> 00:03:01.770 I don't know. 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:03.140 We'll find out. 00:03:03.140 --> 00:03:05.000 Right? 00:03:05.420 --> 00:03:07.280 The important questions of life. 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:16.320 Moses lays out for Israel, not just Israel, but also 00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:23.000 for us and he shares it in a beautiful story on that. 00:03:23.140 --> 00:03:28.260 I've even found as I've encountered people in this world that don't claim to know God or worship Christ. 00:03:28.460 --> 00:03:35.460 As I've shared the story of Genesis with them, people are enthralled with the way God demonstrates himself in 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:36.620 the first three chapters. 00:03:36.620 --> 00:03:44.260 I mean literally I went through the story of Genesis recently with someone on an airplane flying back from North Carolina to here and these 00:03:44.260 --> 00:03:44.840 individuals. 00:03:44.900 --> 00:03:47.840 The story started as we took off in the air in North Carolina. 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:55.720 Four hours later we're landing in salt Lake and these people are following me down the terminal to the luggage claim for getting, they have another flight to catch 00:03:55.940 --> 00:04:01.250 just right behind me as I'm heading out the airport because of what God communicates in scripture. 00:04:01.600 --> 00:04:05.120 And most people try to identify themselves and you ask the question, why do you exist in life? 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:12.600 They feel like the answer is to do the best you can, but God's got such a bigger picture than just do for who we 00:04:12.600 --> 00:04:14.240 are and our identity in him. 00:04:15.020 --> 00:04:21.640 I think when we see it laid out within Genesis, there's attraction to the, to the beauty of who God is as he communicates that to us within these first few chapters. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:29.660 And so when this context of this passage starts, Genesis chapter one this morning, all I want to do is set the framework for where we're going 00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:32.800 together and all of this as established in the idea of who God is. 00:04:33.300 --> 00:04:39.900 And so we're going to look at just the first couple of verses within this context and you're going to have to click cause I don't have power. 00:04:40.760 --> 00:04:45.270 In Genesis chapter one and verse one, this is all it says in the beginning. 00:04:46.640 --> 00:04:54.400 God, in this polytheistic society in which Israel comes from where 00:04:54.400 --> 00:05:01.480 Egypt would have more ship, multiple gods, Moses now shaping the identity of Israel in the singularity of thought, 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.550 not not in polytheism, but in monotheism. 00:05:05.060 --> 00:05:12.340 He says it one God in the beginning, God, well, this word 00:05:12.340 --> 00:05:15.310 for God in which he's using in this passage is the word Elohim. 00:05:15.760 --> 00:05:17.300 It's a generic name for God. 00:05:18.640 --> 00:05:18.990 Fact. 00:05:19.460 --> 00:05:22.780 This name is so generic that it can, it can mean less than God. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:30.980 It can simply mean judges or rulers of this world that phrase is used even in reference to people of authority. 00:05:31.700 --> 00:05:37.560 And so he's using this phrase, God in the beginning, God, and he begins to describe all that God's created. 00:05:37.880 --> 00:05:45.060 But as Genesis, the narrative unfolds in this first three chapters, he then begins to explain beyond this 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:49.920 thought of just this Elohim he takes Israel to a new identity in God. 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:53.180 When he's talking about God, he's not relating it to the polytheistic gods. 00:05:53.820 --> 00:06:00.920 He's referencing the singularity of who God is and so Moses uses this one thought for who God is, 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:03.050 that he continues throughout the rest of the chapters. 00:06:03.260 --> 00:06:09.720 And so in Genesis chapter two in verse four he starts to use this compound word and reference to God. 00:06:10.080 --> 00:06:17.100 He uses this word 20 times between Genesis chapter one to Genesis chapter three to help Israel 00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:22.100 identify the specific God in which he is referencing the one and only God. 00:06:23.340 --> 00:06:31.180 He says in Genesis chapter two in verse four the Lord God made heaven and 00:06:31.180 --> 00:06:32.560 earth. 00:06:33.780 --> 00:06:41.400 This combination of these terms are important in the identity of Israel because the next one is chapter three 00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:48.600 when Moses encounters God, he asks God before he goes back to Egypt and leads the children of Israel out 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:49.440 of Egypt as slaves. 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:56.880 He says, the God, who do I say to the people that you are, who do I tell them sent me into Egypt to set these people free and he says in 00:06:56.880 --> 00:07:04.380 Genesis, Exodus chapter three in verse 14 says, tell them I am that I am has sent you or as we say today your 00:07:04.380 --> 00:07:11.460 way, I am that I am or yacht way has sent you the name that God gives 00:07:11.620 --> 00:07:15.230 to Moses is this phrase for the self existent one. 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:17.260 I am that I am. 00:07:18.940 --> 00:07:26.080 It's saying to us that out of everything created in this world, God himself is the only one who finds purpose and definition for existing 00:07:26.080 --> 00:07:27.100 within himself. 00:07:27.740 --> 00:07:34.780 Everything else is created and finds purpose outside of himself, but God is sustaining within his own creation because he is the 00:07:34.780 --> 00:07:40.340 one who created all things and so the name he gives to Moses, it's Yahweh. 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:45.900 I am and I am. 00:07:47.820 --> 00:07:50.910 It's Yahweh and the word God, Elohim combined. 00:07:52.980 --> 00:08:00.040 I've seen some teachings try to decipher between, these are distinguished between these as if there's, these are two individuals, but the context of scripture, what it 00:08:00.140 --> 00:08:05.720 says to us repeatedly throughout the Bible is that Hawaii is Elohim or Yahweh. 00:08:05.740 --> 00:08:07.260 Yehovah is Elohim. 00:08:07.260 --> 00:08:11.620 This word for Yahweh, it's also translated. 00:08:11.840 --> 00:08:17.300 Sometimes we say today is Yehovah and in some languages there is no why. 00:08:17.300 --> 00:08:23.000 There is no w and so they've replaced the Y with the J and the w with the V. 00:08:23.020 --> 00:08:26.310 and so they pronounce the same name that we would say y'all play as Yehovah. 00:08:26.460 --> 00:08:29.840 It's the same person being communicated y'all way. 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:31.400 And Yehovah are the same word. 00:08:31.400 --> 00:08:32.159 It is in his Lord. 00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:39.780 And so when you look at it in the context of your scripture, the way it writes out in the Bible is this, L O R D is always in capital 00:08:39.780 --> 00:08:40.340 letters. 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:44.100 And when it's connected to the word God, if it's referring to way. 00:08:45.400 --> 00:08:52.520 And so in Genesis chapter two and verse four, when Moses is saying to Israel, this is the God who created all things, 00:08:52.520 --> 00:08:55.160 it is, it is Yahweh Elohim. 00:08:57.740 --> 00:08:59.850 I am who I am. 00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:04.280 This word for y'all way. 00:09:04.520 --> 00:09:11.540 When I began to understand, as God has communicated himself in scripture, when I first started to study this myself, it used to 00:09:11.640 --> 00:09:12.340 drive me crazy. 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:16.200 In fact, sometimes I would just get irritated by it. 00:09:16.260 --> 00:09:23.320 And this is the reason why, we really honestly don't know how to correctly pronounce the name of 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:23.900 God. 00:09:26.180 --> 00:09:31.700 And Exodus chapter three in verse 14, when Moses asks God, who do you say that I am? 00:09:31.700 --> 00:09:34.370 And God tells Moses, your name is Yahweh. 00:09:34.940 --> 00:09:41.800 Well, when the Hebrews would write the name, Yahoo [inaudible] they didn't have, at the time they didn't have valves in their alphabet. 00:09:42.180 --> 00:09:42.860 It was just consonants. 00:09:43.380 --> 00:09:50.390 And so they put this what's called a Tetra Gramaton, these four letters to write out the name Yahoo boy. 00:09:51.540 --> 00:09:58.960 And the only way you would know how the Val sounds or the pronunciation would go into this phrase is you would have to utter it, right? 00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:07.100 Y'all but Israel, because they revered the name of God so much, okay? 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:11.360 They refuse to utter this name because they considered it sacred and Holy. 00:10:11.460 --> 00:10:19.180 In fact, they would replace the name Yahweh with adenai out of reverence for God. 00:10:19.300 --> 00:10:26.500 And so what happens in their reverence over time is we the connect, correct pronunciation of [inaudible] is lost. 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:29.000 We don't exactly know how it's pronounced. 00:10:29.140 --> 00:10:36.240 We have a general idea that it's some somewhere in the form of Yahweh or Jehovah, but the specifics of it, 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:37.490 it's no one can say for certain. 00:10:37.540 --> 00:10:38.960 That's how you pronounce the name of God. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:44.640 And that used to drive me crazy like God, God gave us his name and we don't even pronounce it. 00:10:47.230 --> 00:10:55.240 But then I began to recognize as I approached texts for Lord God were combined exactly 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:56.640 what would be going on in the Hebrew. 00:10:56.880 --> 00:11:03.980 Mine is they would read these words, they didn't want to pronounce it because 00:11:03.980 --> 00:11:05.210 it was sacred and Holy. 00:11:07.180 --> 00:11:14.580 They met a moment when they saw these letters on a page that they used that opportunity for reverence within their lives. 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:17.100 Right? 00:11:17.100 --> 00:11:24.200 Got a sacred, got us to be revered and this add an 00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:31.460 I this y'all way to read these words to utter his name as something 00:11:31.520 --> 00:11:36.700 beyond what man really deserves apart from the grace of God. 00:11:38.260 --> 00:11:45.400 And so for them it was a moment of reverence and for us this morning and understanding this creator God who has made 00:11:45.400 --> 00:11:52.520 all things, this monotheistic God and a polytheistic system of which Moses is proclaiming it is 00:11:52.640 --> 00:12:01.340 this God who has made it all in your 00:12:01.340 --> 00:12:02.560 own personal reading. 00:12:02.560 --> 00:12:05.880 Every time you see this word Lord capitalized with God. 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:08.050 It's in the Jewish mind. 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:15.360 One, a moment of reverence, a moment of reflection, a moment of sacredness, a moment of holiness, a moment when in our lives we recognize 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:22.480 that there is something far greater than us who has organized, put design, created everything that exists in 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:25.380 this world around us and he is to be revered. 00:12:26.560 --> 00:12:33.600 In fact, the rest of scriptures you read in Deuteronomy chapter six 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:34.360 give me a click. 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:35.140 Shalom. 00:12:35.140 --> 00:12:37.320 Deuteronomy six the Lord is our God. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:38.540 The Lord is one. 00:12:38.540 --> 00:12:40.320 It tells us this is, this is the great Shamal. 00:12:40.760 --> 00:12:41.640 The Lord is our God. 00:12:41.700 --> 00:12:42.410 It's saying y'all. 00:12:43.220 --> 00:12:44.040 Why is our Elohim? 00:12:44.700 --> 00:12:51.860 Yahweh is one and Isaiah chapter 43 in verse 10 and the singularity of goddess scripture continues to expound 00:12:51.860 --> 00:12:52.340 upon it. 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:54.200 It says this, the Lord is talking here. 00:12:54.200 --> 00:13:01.280 He says, you are my witnesses, declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am 00:13:01.380 --> 00:13:02.700 he before me. 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:05.580 There was no God formed, neither will there be after me. 00:13:07.420 --> 00:13:10.380 This monotheism continues throughout the rest of scripture. 00:13:10.400 --> 00:13:17.540 Psalm 96 and five it tells us that all other gods are merely idols, that there is only one God and Isaiah 44 in verse six 00:13:17.540 --> 00:13:21.780 and eight he says, there was no God before form before me and there was no God formed after me. 00:13:21.780 --> 00:13:28.820 He knows of no other God and Isaiah 45 verse five and six in verse 22 the same thing, the singularity of 00:13:28.820 --> 00:13:30.300 God, there is God. 00:13:30.300 --> 00:13:37.680 There is one God and Moses makes that declaration in the first four words in our English Bible which has really two in Hebrew, 00:13:37.680 --> 00:13:45.000 but in the beginning, God, we talk about 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:53.300 this God in scripture, it's Moses writes this word, the 00:13:53.500 --> 00:13:59.480 declaration is made to Israel and to the world that this God and creating all things desires to be made. 00:13:59.620 --> 00:14:06.920 No, the very fact that we have scripture to even declare his identity for us, a saying to us that God in 00:14:06.920 --> 00:14:13.060 the magnitude of who he is also personal and desires to be made known and theologians have referenced. 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:20.860 There's two ways in which God has revealed himself to us that we may know him because God has created us for the purpose of knowing him and 00:14:20.860 --> 00:14:28.240 those two concepts are referred to as general revelation or natural revelation and special revelation 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:31.420 which we can come to know this God. 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:38.860 General revelation refers to the knowledge about God and spiritual matters discovered through natural means or observation of nature, 00:14:39.460 --> 00:14:45.480 this physical universe, this philosophical thinking and reasoning points to the identity of God. 00:14:45.780 --> 00:14:52.900 In fact in Psalms 19 one it says this, the heavens are telling the glory of God and their expanse is 00:14:53.100 --> 00:14:54.350 declaring the work of his hands. 00:14:55.880 --> 00:15:02.960 In Romans one 20th Paul lays out the reason that we have no excuse to claim a lack of understanding of the existence of a God who says 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:03.410 this. 00:15:03.740 --> 00:15:11.040 For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen 00:15:11.040 --> 00:15:18.420 being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse what 00:15:18.420 --> 00:15:19.340 Paul is saying. 00:15:19.340 --> 00:15:26.540 If you want to understand the nature of God, you could just simply look at creation and see that the omniscience of God, the omnipotence 00:15:26.540 --> 00:15:33.900 of God, the all knowing and all powerful God, this Holy God, this creative God is 00:15:34.020 --> 00:15:38.040 demonstrated by his hand of design of this world. 00:15:40.410 --> 00:15:46.760 When you read the book of Genesis, it assumes the existence of God. 00:15:47.300 --> 00:15:50.780 There's not even an explanation as to this is how you know there is a God. 00:15:50.980 --> 00:15:58.000 It simply States to us, as Romans is saying here, that if we just look at the divine design of all things, that 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:00.680 the evidence of God is made known. 00:16:00.680 --> 00:16:05.520 And so Genesis starts under the assumption of God and the singularity of who he is. 00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:09.760 But let me just ask the question for us this morning so that we don't get ahead of the curb. 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:12.060 How do you know God exists? 00:16:14.780 --> 00:16:22.740 How do we 00:16:22.760 --> 00:16:31.620 know that God exists and consider the alternative to 00:16:31.620 --> 00:16:37.340 believe in a life that there is no gun and the God doesn't exist? 00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:45.880 The thoughts that one would have to wrestle with when I consider the alternative to the existence of God and the thought 00:16:45.880 --> 00:16:53.980 of general revelation, not just special revelation we'll get to in a minute, but then the terms of general revelation through natural philosophy, natural 00:16:53.980 --> 00:16:55.840 existence, philosophy and reasoning. 00:16:56.200 --> 00:17:03.360 When I consider that alternative, apart from God, I find it takes more faith to believe this, that something could come 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:04.660 from absolutely nothing. 00:17:08.700 --> 00:17:10.359 Nothing creates nothing. 00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:17.599 And so to embrace that something would come from nothing is difficult for the mind to even begin to 00:17:17.599 --> 00:17:21.200 fathom that something could come into existence from nothing. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:28.420 And in Genesis one verse one, when he chooses the very next word, he says this in the beginning, God created and 00:17:28.420 --> 00:17:35.160 we use the term X and the Heela, which literally means out of nothing, but what it's identifying for us in that nothing. 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:41.660 There is a causation for which things come from that nothing creates nothing. 00:17:41.660 --> 00:17:44.350 But when something has to exist, it's got to come from somewhere. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:51.870 And so what Moses is saying is the causation for all things in the origin of who God is excellent. 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:56.940 A Hilo out of nothing, something came into existence because the cause of all things is God. 00:17:57.520 --> 00:18:04.760 But if you believe that something came from nothing, then you must also begin to believe that chaos creates order. 00:18:07.780 --> 00:18:15.300 When you think about what chaos is the thought that chaos could create order and design and live consistently 00:18:15.300 --> 00:18:22.380 in that becomes too much, too much for me to grasp in terms of faith other than believing that God himself would 00:18:22.380 --> 00:18:25.620 have designed things in order and with structure. 00:18:25.660 --> 00:18:31.360 It's like saying this, trying to convince people that the thing that built your house was a tornado, right? 00:18:33.220 --> 00:18:40.420 That in the chaos that is a tornado, that it happens to rip through an area of woods, pick it up and design intelligently a home 00:18:40.420 --> 00:18:41.380 for you to live in. 00:18:44.320 --> 00:18:49.740 So I can't believe that something came from nothing and in that chaos created order. 00:18:49.740 --> 00:18:56.760 But even beyond this, if I believe that something came from nothing and chaos, create an order, I then must believe that although the world 00:18:56.760 --> 00:19:02.800 resembles logical, intelligent design, I have no ultimate absolute purpose for which to exist. 00:19:03.540 --> 00:19:09.960 Though all things seem to exist logically and consistently. 00:19:11.180 --> 00:19:13.220 I can't live consistent with that worldview. 00:19:15.960 --> 00:19:22.700 Meaning when I wake up tomorrow, I'm going to live as if tomorrow was consistent with today. 00:19:24.740 --> 00:19:31.520 Not that things are chaotically progressing, but that things were designed intelligently with order. 00:19:35.760 --> 00:19:44.000 One of the things that I've personally wrestled with, and I haven't, I haven't read much on this myself, but Oh, in 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:49.100 a, in a, in a personal way, just talking about my faith as I've approached the idea of God not existing. 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:56.760 Here's one area of my life that, I would think without the existence of God, I would have to acknowledge and feel free 00:19:56.760 --> 00:20:03.900 to correct me if anyone has any thought on this after today, but in order to think that things would just 00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:10.920 continue to evolve apart from a God and I consider humanity without the 00:20:11.120 --> 00:20:15.420 creation of a, of a designer that has put together humanity. 00:20:17.820 --> 00:20:24.980 I can't figure out how I couldn't be a racist if I just thought all of this 00:20:25.120 --> 00:20:28.200 happened to evolve into what it is today. 00:20:29.860 --> 00:20:36.920 I mean by design of evolution, things start in assessed pool of goo and eventually become what humans 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:37.400 are. 00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:41.400 And if I continue on that ladder, humanity would continue to progress. 00:20:41.740 --> 00:20:49.300 And so within civilizations of humanity, there would be races of people that would be superior to others, right? 00:20:50.440 --> 00:20:58.880 I mean, that's the kind of thing that breeds Hitler [inaudible] thinking, but 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:00.780 with the divine design of a creator. 00:21:00.780 --> 00:21:07.980 When I look at the beauty of what humanity is, people of tribes, tongues, languages, [inaudible] in God's 00:21:07.980 --> 00:21:15.600 design, according to revelation, it tells us that people of every tribe and language and in revelation chapter five are worshiping 00:21:15.600 --> 00:21:16.680 the lamb. 00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:22.320 That God has created us wonderfully and beautifully in his image and intentionally and in his design. 00:21:22.900 --> 00:21:25.060 And so I can't embrace those thoughts. 00:21:25.300 --> 00:21:33.080 But what we've seen in history is that philosophers, theological thinkers, have really come, come through several arguments 00:21:33.080 --> 00:21:37.300 as to why the existence of God is the most rational way of thinking. 00:21:37.300 --> 00:21:44.640 When you think about general revelation, two of those ways of thoughts are called the cosmological argument and the Telia logical 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:45.640 argument. 00:21:45.760 --> 00:21:47.740 Those that have really propagated those in history. 00:21:47.740 --> 00:21:54.760 If you're a history buff, Thomas Aquinas, William Paley, the man who walked along a sidewalk one day, he 00:21:54.760 --> 00:22:01.840 saw a watch and he said, and when I see a watch, I automatically assume that there is an intelligent designer behind the creation of this watch. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:03.290 That it didn't just happen together. 00:22:03.460 --> 00:22:08.770 But when you look at the parts that exists within it points to the intelligent design. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:14.250 And so when we talk about the cosmological argument, it's this thought of cosmetics. 00:22:14.900 --> 00:22:17.260 This, it's the same word for where cosmetics come from. 00:22:17.700 --> 00:22:19.800 It's order and beauty. 00:22:20.040 --> 00:22:25.600 And so when you look at the world, what you see within it is his order and beauty. 00:22:28.260 --> 00:22:35.300 I think about the beauty of what God has created as I experienced it 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:36.230 within this world. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:43.520 There are places in my life that as I experienced the beauty of what God has created that just captivate me in something deeper than just 00:22:43.520 --> 00:22:44.170 myself. 00:22:45.760 --> 00:22:52.800 And what I mean is I recognize in those moments I'm, I'm a person that's really created for Warsh because when I stand on 00:22:52.800 --> 00:22:59.840 the edges of the beaches or I visit the grand Canyon or I see the Buffalo roaming Plains, I, I don't just come to 00:22:59.840 --> 00:23:02.120 those moments and say, man, I am awesome. 00:23:05.080 --> 00:23:11.340 Rather those are moments that captivate our attention and take our breath away. 00:23:12.400 --> 00:23:18.040 Recognizing that we're a part of something bigger than ourselves and outside of ourselves. 00:23:18.340 --> 00:23:22.060 We see these moments as opportunity of worship in our lives. 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:29.540 We plan vacations to experience those opportunities to be captivated by this cosmological 00:23:29.540 --> 00:23:32.380 way of thinking of order and beauty. 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:41.220 I mean even in scientific discovery, the Hubble telescope has told us that the universe is actually expanding, that 00:23:41.220 --> 00:23:48.620 this divine design continues to go outward and that as space continues to expand that you can actually retract space 00:23:48.620 --> 00:23:53.680 too to just one singular point of beginning of which science has dubbed the big bang. 00:23:53.700 --> 00:23:56.580 And I say that I like the term the big bang. 00:23:56.580 --> 00:23:57.800 It's called God spoke. 00:23:57.800 --> 00:24:00.560 Life existed and from that everything comes forth. 00:24:07.080 --> 00:24:10.360 In Genesis it says it like this. 00:24:10.620 --> 00:24:16.880 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and void. 00:24:16.940 --> 00:24:25.040 Then God said, let there be light and there was a light God, 00:24:25.180 --> 00:24:25.360 eczema. 00:24:25.360 --> 00:24:32.620 Hilo creates all things and what Moses takes us through as he begins to describe this creation is that God 00:24:32.620 --> 00:24:39.800 is intentional in the way that he has designed things that is not, it's not randomness of existence, but rather this earth 00:24:40.040 --> 00:24:42.300 being formless and void as God is designing. 00:24:42.560 --> 00:24:49.560 He begins to intentionally create it with purpose and meaning and as he goes through the six days of creation, saying to 00:24:49.560 --> 00:24:56.880 us as it's described in Genesis through these days that God, God is intentional in the way that he's designing the things that he is designing as 00:24:56.880 --> 00:25:00.560 he seeks to create them and God speaks. 00:25:00.760 --> 00:25:07.780 It tells us repeatedly throughout Genesis one that God speaks and things come into existence and as 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:17.900 God speaks creates things orderly, very specific in the way that he designed 00:25:17.900 --> 00:25:18.350 beautifully. 00:25:19.660 --> 00:25:20.120 Cosmologically. 00:25:22.660 --> 00:25:27.740 I'm telling you logically, which means those things in which he created it has purpose. 00:25:30.320 --> 00:25:34.280 They have an end or reason for which they exist. 00:25:36.380 --> 00:25:43.680 You can see within the design of life that multiple things created at one time or in interdependent of one another, that their existence depends on 00:25:43.700 --> 00:25:44.140 one another. 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:51.420 For example, if you think within her own earth, the idea of the moon and the ocean at the moon, the gravitational pull 00:25:51.420 --> 00:25:54.300 around the earth creates the waves on the ocean. 00:25:54.380 --> 00:25:55.420 The waves are what? 00:25:55.440 --> 00:25:56.920 RA the sea. 00:25:56.940 --> 00:26:03.980 The aeration of the sea gives the life to the plankton which begins the chain of life within the ocean 00:26:03.980 --> 00:26:08.480 that supplies everything for feeding within the sea. 00:26:08.480 --> 00:26:15.620 That if the moon didn't exist, that would stop the waves of the ocean from going back and forth, which would 00:26:15.760 --> 00:26:18.680 kill life on the ocean and ultimately would kill life on earth. 00:26:20.980 --> 00:26:24.460 That these things that are created seem to intertwine with one another. 00:26:24.460 --> 00:26:25.940 They create balance within a lie. 00:26:25.960 --> 00:26:33.160 If they have purpose in their existence, even within the animal kingdom, the way that it's structured from the highest 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:38.080 animal to the lowest animal, they serve as a in purpose and harmony to one another. 00:26:38.120 --> 00:26:45.580 That if you disrupt that within a, within a an area of the world, that the entire kingdom suffer by just removing one species 00:26:45.580 --> 00:26:47.360 from existence in an area. 00:26:49.080 --> 00:26:56.500 Even quantum physics has demonstrated the, at a level of subatomic particles, there is an irresistible urge of electrons towards 00:26:56.500 --> 00:27:02.890 symmetry depending upon one another. 00:27:05.280 --> 00:27:07.380 Everything has purpose and meaning. 00:27:09.930 --> 00:27:17.050 And when you consider the Telia logical argument from just a spiritual perspective, I think it's the reason why deep 00:27:17.050 --> 00:27:19.160 within our souls we grieve at death. 00:27:21.050 --> 00:27:28.150 I hate death and it's the moments of experiencing death, whether it be the 00:27:28.150 --> 00:27:36.470 beloved pet or someone that you care about, that something within your soul just says to you, this is not right that 00:27:36.470 --> 00:27:38.970 were created for more than this. 00:27:39.150 --> 00:27:44.110 And scriptures tell us when it relates to Jesus that Jesus triumphs over death. 00:27:44.370 --> 00:27:46.650 Because he affirms that, yes, indeed. 00:27:46.650 --> 00:27:48.330 We are created for life. 00:27:48.410 --> 00:27:55.570 In Ecclesiastes three 11 it says this, he has made everything beautiful in its time and he has also set eternity in the 00:27:55.570 --> 00:27:56.130 human heart. 00:27:58.950 --> 00:28:03.290 God has created for a purpose. 00:28:08.510 --> 00:28:15.570 It's important I think this talk about just the existence of God when we began the book of Genesis, because in our society, in 00:28:15.570 --> 00:28:22.750 American culture today, there are certain teachings within the scientific community that once Christians, 00:28:22.850 --> 00:28:30.050 especially thinking in terms of theology, that the superiority of science will disprove the existence 00:28:30.050 --> 00:28:31.510 of God. 00:28:31.570 --> 00:28:38.790 And the temptation is to tout the scholarly figures over you to make you feel less, 00:28:39.110 --> 00:28:44.030 less of an intellectual individuals in them and they are more qualified to declare it to you, that God does not exist. 00:28:46.630 --> 00:28:53.630 But what's happening in the scientific community today I feel like is a time of a turning of the tide and the identification 00:28:53.670 --> 00:28:55.010 of God. 00:28:55.070 --> 00:28:56.510 In fact, Dr. 00:28:56.510 --> 00:29:03.690 James Kennedy in his book, why I believe States on page 30 that in the scientific community, over 90% of astronomers 00:29:03.690 --> 00:29:05.790 believe in God today. 00:29:07.170 --> 00:29:14.350 And what he concludes from this, and he says this, those who have examined God's handiwork most thoroughly believe 00:29:14.550 --> 00:29:14.910 in him. 00:29:16.930 --> 00:29:23.970 In fact, his argument is this, that astronomers and any other field of study in this world, maybe apart from 00:29:24.070 --> 00:29:31.230 pastoral pastors or something that astronomers have some of the highest percentage of believers in God 00:29:31.230 --> 00:29:32.780 within that community. 00:29:34.010 --> 00:29:41.310 Robert, dr Robert Jastrow won one of the world's leading astronomers himself as founder and director of the Goddard of 00:29:41.310 --> 00:29:49.310 space studies at NASA, and he wrote what they call a blockbuster book, and he said this, it's 00:29:49.350 --> 00:29:53.970 called God and the astronomers, and he says this strange developments are going on in astronomy. 00:29:54.950 --> 00:30:01.290 One of these was the discovery that the universe had a beginning, and that means that there had to be a beginner. 00:30:02.690 --> 00:30:09.750 Jastrow went on to say the scientists have scaled the mountains of ignorance and the scientist is 00:30:09.750 --> 00:30:17.010 about to conquer the highest peak and as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted 00:30:17.010 --> 00:30:21.430 by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. 00:30:23.700 --> 00:30:29.870 Within the last couple of decades, 60 notable notable scientists wrote a book. 00:30:30.010 --> 00:30:32.270 24 of them were Nobel prize winners. 00:30:33.250 --> 00:30:41.390 The book was called the cosmos, the bios and the theos, which in English means the universe, life and God, and 00:30:41.390 --> 00:30:46.550 the co-editor of the book is a yell physicist, Nobel Laureate professor. 00:30:48.890 --> 00:30:53.090 His name is Henry Margenau and this is what he concludes in the book. 00:30:54.610 --> 00:31:02.850 There is only one convincing answer for the intricate laws that exist in nature creation 00:31:04.270 --> 00:31:09.830 by an omnipotent, omniscient God. 00:31:09.990 --> 00:31:19.130 When you consider sharing the narrative of Genesis with someone considering 00:31:19.210 --> 00:31:26.270 the way the world's created and the omnipotent on mission God that designed it, that the alternatives to that are 00:31:26.270 --> 00:31:33.350 important to share that something coming from nothing or to believe that in this 00:31:33.350 --> 00:31:40.450 something, if something does come from nothing, that chaos could create order is 00:31:40.510 --> 00:31:41.830 by far more. 00:31:42.350 --> 00:31:49.510 It takes more faith to believe in general in the concept of general revelation and is simply someone of great omniscience. 00:31:50.110 --> 00:31:57.790 Omnipotence could create this universe by divine design and in order, but 00:31:57.810 --> 00:31:59.410 more than just general revelation. 00:32:02.610 --> 00:32:04.660 God has also given us special revelation. 00:32:07.630 --> 00:32:11.010 Moses is declaring for us that God desires to be made known. 00:32:11.230 --> 00:32:18.250 That's why he's writing his books, this transcendent God who has created all of 00:32:18.250 --> 00:32:21.380 these things, who is beyond us, who is Holy, who is sacred. 00:32:23.850 --> 00:32:28.770 There's also imminent, personal and real. 00:32:29.170 --> 00:32:36.190 In fact, in Genesis, when Moses begins to describe the garden of Eden, he pictures a God who walks the earth with Adam and 00:32:36.190 --> 00:32:37.710 Eve. 00:32:39.890 --> 00:32:47.550 God reveals himself in a special way, which means he is unique and specific in his identification to us as people. 00:32:47.610 --> 00:32:54.650 That's why Moses is able to say his name is Lord God and the 00:32:54.650 --> 00:32:59.870 way that we understand God and his special revelation to us is by two means Jesus. 00:32:59.870 --> 00:33:00.900 When he walks the earth. 00:33:00.950 --> 00:33:08.010 And John in the book of John, he declares for us two platforms to identify God truthfully as we desire to know him as he 00:33:08.010 --> 00:33:08.980 has made himself known. 00:33:09.250 --> 00:33:16.590 And Jesus prays a prayer and he gives a statement in John 14 and verse six and in John 17 and verse 17 in 00:33:16.590 --> 00:33:21.170 John 17, Jesus says this, sanctify them through truth. 00:33:21.170 --> 00:33:24.140 Thy word or your word God is truth. 00:33:28.110 --> 00:33:29.900 Jesus points to scripture. 00:33:30.730 --> 00:33:31.510 That's the special revelation. 00:33:33.110 --> 00:33:40.190 No, this guy, Jesus also says in John 14, I am 00:33:40.190 --> 00:33:43.570 the way, the truth and the life, okay. 00:33:43.570 --> 00:33:50.670 When you consider scripture as God has identified himself, the Bible says now are, or what we learned from scriptures that the 00:33:50.670 --> 00:33:57.990 Bible gives us a prophetic statements in the, in the old Testament, identifying, how God would appear 00:33:57.990 --> 00:34:01.730 as a man and the way God would die and where God would live. 00:34:01.790 --> 00:34:08.070 These prophetic statements of scripture point to the truthfulness of the claims of the old Testament. 00:34:11.750 --> 00:34:18.750 In fact, knowing that the dead sea scrolls exists, which are hundreds of years older than Jesus, further validate the prophetic statements 00:34:18.750 --> 00:34:25.929 that are found there and the importance of scripture itself prophetically, not just prophetically archeologically and historically 00:34:25.929 --> 00:34:31.270 how you can go back throughout scripture and identify locations and events that have taken place. 00:34:34.810 --> 00:34:42.909 But I'll also point to this, Oh, it's congruency when 00:34:42.909 --> 00:34:44.810 you consider not just the books of Moses. 00:34:47.310 --> 00:34:55.310 When you consider all 66 manuscripts are writings that make up your Bible in 00:34:55.310 --> 00:35:02.610 these 66 books you find people that are doctors, people that are shepherds, people 00:35:02.650 --> 00:35:09.910 that are Kings, writing about God, over 40 authors right within the Bible on three 00:35:09.910 --> 00:35:15.410 different continents, in three different languages, over a span of 1500 years. 00:35:17.390 --> 00:35:24.430 There is no book that even compares to that, and yet when you read these pages of what Moses 00:35:24.430 --> 00:35:32.340 begins to lay out for us in Genesis throughout the rest of scripture, what you find is one congruent theme in all of it. 00:35:34.290 --> 00:35:41.390 God's pursuit, the redemption of mankind in Jesus Christ, that you may know him 00:35:41.470 --> 00:35:42.810 for all of eternity. 00:35:46.630 --> 00:35:50.290 God is the great hound of heaven who was after you. 00:35:52.470 --> 00:35:59.470 He created you to know him and to enjoy him for all of eternity, and 00:35:59.470 --> 00:36:06.490 so when Moses writes this phrase, Lord God, this word of intimacy that we really don't even know how to 00:36:06.590 --> 00:36:13.790 pronounce it specifically, he's saying to us that there is sacredness in this moment and 00:36:14.250 --> 00:36:21.330 recognizing that this God desires for you to know him, that he has written these pages within scripture, that you may 00:36:21.690 --> 00:36:26.370 identify him and recognize that you were created for more than just yourself. 00:36:26.470 --> 00:36:33.190 That those moments in life where things just captivate you take your breath away and you realize that you're a part of something bigger than you. 00:36:33.430 --> 00:36:40.750 All of that is intended in this design of this world to point you to this creator who has designed things with purpose in order 00:36:40.750 --> 00:36:42.530 that you may know him. 00:36:45.010 --> 00:36:48.530 His name is Jesus. 00:36:50.310 --> 00:36:57.530 I am the way, the truth and the life that Jesus 00:36:57.530 --> 00:37:04.950 is the direction that Jesus is the foundation of our existence and truth and Jesus is 00:37:05.010 --> 00:37:06.220 the one who gives life. 00:37:12.330 --> 00:37:12.370 Got it. 00:37:12.370 --> 00:37:15.670 When it comes to the balance of believing in God or not believing in God. 00:37:15.790 --> 00:37:17.970 Matt Chandler often says this with people who struggle. 00:37:18.250 --> 00:37:25.030 He's, he finds that within, within the idea of atheism and the rejection of God, that there really are two pillars that atheism rests upon. 00:37:26.210 --> 00:37:33.360 He says that the pillar number one is that people claim that God does not exist and pillar number two is that, and they also hate him. 00:37:37.050 --> 00:37:39.210 H M Morris sums it up this way. 00:37:39.290 --> 00:37:46.450 Therefore, men who reject or ignore God do so not because science or reason requires them to, purely and 00:37:46.570 --> 00:37:49.620 simply because they want to. 00:37:52.970 --> 00:38:00.190 When you're reading the book of James and chapter two and verse 19, James is talking about those who are living out their faith and 00:38:00.190 --> 00:38:01.610 those who aren't living out their face. 00:38:01.650 --> 00:38:03.830 And he says this, you believe that God is one. 00:38:05.230 --> 00:38:08.030 You do well, keep this in mind. 00:38:09.350 --> 00:38:11.020 The demons also believe in shutter. 00:38:14.150 --> 00:38:19.150 What James is saying is the identification of God is more than intellectual knowledge for us. 00:38:20.990 --> 00:38:28.050 That this thought of God's existence is more than just to build up our brain and understanding that there is a God, but before 00:38:28.050 --> 00:38:38.310 you are an intellectual thinker, God's created you to be a worshiper in 00:38:38.310 --> 00:38:38.800 your worship. 00:38:40.270 --> 00:38:47.590 What Jesus says in the book of Mark in chapter 12 verses 29 and when he gives the greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all 00:38:47.590 --> 00:38:50.300 your soul, with all your mind and all your strings. 00:38:51.950 --> 00:38:55.110 This idea of loving God is the same thought for worship. 00:38:57.170 --> 00:38:58.730 Worship God with all your mind. 00:39:00.350 --> 00:39:07.370 Follow your heart if all your strength before you even 00:39:07.370 --> 00:39:11.970 are a thinker, God's created you to be a worshiper. 00:39:15.030 --> 00:39:22.410 What James is saying in James chapter two is just that simply have an intellectual knowledge of God so far 00:39:22.410 --> 00:39:24.940 short from the reasons which God's created you. 00:39:28.030 --> 00:39:32.770 Moses lays out Genesis chapter one through three that we're going to see as we dive into this further together. 00:39:34.910 --> 00:39:43.730 His pursuit for Israel is that they find identity, identity and the one who has created them for warship identity 00:39:43.730 --> 00:39:47.110 and who they are by his divine design more than intellectual thinking. 00:39:49.410 --> 00:39:56.590 He wants them connected to their creator, that he could direct their steps as we consider the way that God 00:39:56.590 --> 00:40:04.890 has made this world didn't create life for you to be separate from him, but 00:40:04.890 --> 00:40:07.250 he created life for you to be connected to him. 00:40:10.210 --> 00:40:17.510 A special revelation just to simply say that you believe in a God and an intellectual 00:40:17.510 --> 00:40:25.090 understanding saying in this passage in James chapter two even the damned demons 00:40:25.090 --> 00:40:32.290 believe that God, this 00:40:32.350 --> 00:40:39.450 idea of even being able to honor these words yo way, and this 00:40:39.450 --> 00:40:43.110 is sacred, and this is to be revered. 00:40:44.910 --> 00:40:52.630 And when you look at the beauty of creation and you stay on the prep precipice of the grand Canyon, it's to empower the 00:40:52.630 --> 00:40:59.670 heart and the magnitude of God's glory to recognize outside of yourself that this is divine design, that you are created 00:40:59.670 --> 00:41:06.830 for purpose and you get to honor such sacred words before a Holy God that y'all way has made 00:41:06.830 --> 00:41:10.920 you for his purpose, that you could connect with him.