Sermon Notes | 8.20.23

Genesis 1:1–2

[1] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (ESV)

The Author of the Story

v. 1

I had always felt life a story, and if there is a story there is a storyteller. – G.K. Chesterton

In the beginning, God…

God is PERSONAL

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. – Colossians 1:17

These are the options: either we live in a universe in which everything personal eventually reduces to the impersonal, or we live in a universe in which everything impersonal can be traced back to the personal God.  Those are two very different universes to live in. Which one do you find more satisfying? Which provides a basis for a fairer, more compassionate society: a universe where everything personal reduces to the impersonal, or a universe where everything impersonal is transfigured by the reality and the will of the personal God?  – Christopher Watkins

God is ABSOLUTE

But what makes the biblical God stand out from other deities is that he is not merely one personal god among a pantheon of personalities like Zeus, Athena, or Poseidon, but his personalness is absolute, where absolute means (1) self-sufficient, not relying on anything outside himself for his existence, and (2) fundamental or “simple,” not able to be broken down into more basic parts. This compound of personalness and absoluteness, or what John Frame has called “absolute personality” theism, is distinctive of the biblical God. – Christopher Watkins 

God is RELATIONAL

God is LOVE

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. – 1 John 4:16

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, – Exodus 34:6

[1] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 

Ex Nihilo

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

The Void of the Story

v. 2a

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

Tohu Wabohu

What are you doing with the void?

We watch a commercial advertising a new Volvo, and suddenly we feel our life isn’t as content as it once was. Our life doesn’t have the new Volvo in it. And the commercial convinces us we will only be content if we have a car with forty-seven airbags. And so we begin our story of buying a Volvo, only to repeat the story with a new weed eater and then a new home stereo. And this can go on for a lifetime. When the credits roll, we wonder what we did with our lives, and what was the meaning. – Donald Miller

The Hope for Your Story

v. 2b

…And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Are you ready?

[18] All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. [20] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. [21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

A Prayer for Salvation

“Heavenly Father, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but through your Son Jesus I can be more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you that he lived the life I should have lived and paid the debt and punishment I owed. Receive me now for his sake. I turn from my sins and receive him as Savior. Amen.”