Sunday worship
God proclaims His handy words. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor their words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. Let's pray. Let's pray. Love my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them is your servant warned, in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me, then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock.
And my redeemer. My rock and my redeemer. My rock and my redeemer. Did you know creation is talking to you wherever you go And whatever you do, the earth will keep giving you clue after clue, so you won't forget to remember what's true. Like every day when the sun rises high, the warmth that you feel is God's love by your side. Oh, and just like the birds who keep humming their tune, remember God sings songs of joy over you. Don't forget to remember you're never alone, no matter if you are up high or down low. And as sure as the sun will keep rising above, don't forget to remember that you're dearly alive. And when you catch the snowflakes that fall from the sky, each of them whisper you're one of a kind. Oh, and after the winter and colder all the blue, the flowers remind you God makes all things new. Don't forget to remember you're never alone, no matter if you're not alone.
Don't forget to remember that you're dearly yours. So just like the stars won't forget how to shine, don't forget to remember that all of the time, God's light will guide you wherever you go, and your love from the top of your head to your toes. Let's pray. Let's pray. You might want to turn it down just a little bit. I like to have a booming authoritarian voice, but maybe not that booming, so. Good morning. We are glad that you are here with us for worship this morning. Whether you're joining us here in the building or online or listening and watching in the parking lot, we are thankful you are here. He's leading us in worship this morning, and I'm thankful for him and his family. So I'm going to read from the 96th Psalm, and then we're going to pray, and then we'll dive right into it this morning.
It says, "Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless His name. Tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all people. Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Let's pray. Father, I thank you for allowing us to gather to worship this morning. I just ask that you will be with us as we sing, as we gather around the table, as we open your word. I just ask that you would encourage us, that you would strengthen us, that you would help us to see your power, and your might, and your love, and your grace, and that we would turn to you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
And it's really nice to be here this morning. I don't get a chance to do this a lot, so I'm really excited to be able to lead us in worship. I'm not going to tell you to stand up or sit down. I just encourage you to give your best praise to God, whether your eyes are closed, singing along, reading the words, praying, whatever the best offering you have for God is what I encourage you to do.
I count on one thing. The same God who's never failed will not fail me now. You won't fail me now in the waiting. The same God who's never late is working all things out. You're working all things out. Yes, I will lift you high in the lowest valley. Yes, I will bless your name. Yes, I will sing for joy when my heart is heavy all my days. Oh, yes, I will. I count on one thing. The same God who's never failed will not fail me now. He won't fail me now in the waiting. The same God who's never late is working all things out. You're working all things out. Yes, I will lift you high in the lowest valley. Yes, I will bless your name. Yes, I will sing for joy when my heart is heavy all my days.
Oh, yes, I will. And I choose to praise, to glorify and glorify the name of all names that nothing can stand against. And I choose to praise, to glorify and glorify the name of all names that nothing can stand against. Yes, I will. Lift you high in the lowest valley. Yes, I will. Bless your name. Yes, I will. Sing for joy when my heart is heavy all my days. Oh, yes, I will. For all my days. Oh, yes, I will. For all my days. Oh, yes, I will. Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, for all my days. Oh, yes, I will. For all my days. Oh, yes, I will. Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come. I come.
Just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot, to Thee whose love can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come. I come. Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve. Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come. I come. Just as I am, Thy love unknown has broken every barrier down. Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come. I come. Do we have any little kids in the house this morning? Hey, y'all come, come up, come up down front, because we're talking about God's creation today. Oh, I think we lost one. We just lost Luke, but that's all right. We're going to sing a song that y'all might know together, so feel free to sing along, dance. It's a good dancing song. You can come up here if you want to.
Oh, he's got the whole world in his hands? Yes, I do. I love that. Levi, you know that one? Mm-hmm. Okay. He's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the little bitty babies. In his hands, he's got the little bitty babies. In his hands, he's got the little bitty babies. In his hands, he's got the little bitty babies. In his hands, he's got the little bitty babies. In his hands, he's got the little bitty babies. In his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the tall, tall mountains. In his hands, he's got the tall, tall mountains. In his hands, he's got the tall, tall mountains. In his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the deep, deep oceans. In his hands, he's got the deep, deep oceans. In his hands, he's got the deep, deep oceans. In his hands, he's got the deep, deep oceans. In his hands, he's got the deep, deep oceans. In his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands.
He's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the brothers and the sisters. In his hands, he's got our brothers and our sisters. In his hands, he's got the brothers and our sisters. In his hands, he's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the whole world in his hands. I love the improvised dancing and hand motions and stuff, too. That's great. Okay, and we've got one more song of praise to give before we do communion. O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe display. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. How great thou art. How great thou art.
When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and see the brook and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on a cross, my burdens gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and there proclaim, "My God, how great Thou art!" Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Thank you.
Good morning. We live in a divided, polarized society which disturbs many of us, and it should. But I'm not sure that we realize the situation, this situation is not new. It's happened before, even in God's church. For example, 1809, the divisions and competing factions in the church were so damaging and pervasive that a Presbyterian minister, Thomas Campbell, called them a sword in the body of Christ, rending and mangling it into pieces. That's pretty severe language. And he and others went on to found a movement for unity that eventually came to Christian churches. He made that statement in a document that became a guiding force in our churches called the Declaration and Address. And I had to look this up to even know that it was valid, but there it was, and that's when I decided to use it as this is exactly what it's called if you want to look for it.
And in that Declaration and Address, it challenged the sectarians of the church to unite, and he had many propositions. The first two tells us who we should be. Proposition one, that the church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one, consisting of all those who in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience in Him in all things according to the Scriptures. Proposition two, that although the church must necessarily exist in particular and distinct congregations, locally separate from one another, yet these ought to be no, there ought to be no uncharitable divisions among them. They ought to receive each other as Christ has also received them to the glory of God. And in this saying, He simply wanted to implement what Jesus prayed for 2,000 years ago. Jesus saw the danger of division among His followers and prayed on the night before He was crucified. "Father, I pray for those who will believe
in me, that all of them may be one, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." A few years later, the Apostle Paul saw division threatening the church at Corinth. And that, furthermore, that there was sin, full divisiveness, that went totally against an essential aspect of the Lord's Supper. He said in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ, the bread for which we break? Is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread. And that one bread of life is Christ himself. We have one bread, we have one body,
and we have one table that's big enough for all mankind. But in this time of polarization and divisiveness, we lift up the vision of unity, we hope to, as we partake in this communion this morning. In the past, churches have used just one cup and one loaf of bread to do it. I've been in churches where you drink from basically a cup and you eat from pulling off a piece of bread, and everybody has the same. Well, coronavirus stopped all that, I'm sure, but we didn't do it that way. But for most, such as us, it is enough to let the individual wafers and the cup symbolize that unity and to imagine a table that is big enough to include all who, as Campbell said, profess their faith in Christ and obedience to Him in all things according to the Scriptures.
No matter how, no matter the how of communion, we are here to remember the who. That's Jesus. The what. To save mankind. The when. That's right now. And the where. Wherever we might be right now. Jesus died so we might live with Him and the Father forever. That's eternity. Time without end. This simple act of obedience helps us all to stay on that narrow path that shows that Jesus did not die in vain. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you again this morning at this time of our service. That Father, we come here with the full knowledge that Jesus died in our place. Whatever is going on in our lives this morning, erase them for the time being. Allow us to see the cross. Our Savior hanging between heaven and earth. And dying there, knowing that it was for us that He died there in that horrible fashion.
Father, these emblems we're about to take are the emblems of His body and blood. He gave us what we should do. He has asked us to continue what we know we ought to do. And Father, we thank You that for as horrible as it was that You did send Your Son, and He loved us to the point where He died for us. Guide us in all that we think, do, and say here this morning. May it be to Your glory. We ask this and give thanks in Jesus' name. As we begin shortly to partake, I want to read from Luke chapter 22, verse 19. And He took bread, and He gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." If you will partake with me, please.
In the same way, after the supper, He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you. Please partake of the cup." Father, we again humbly come before You. We ask that these emblems strengthen our souls, strengthen us to the task that's before us this week, and in the days to come, as we will be tempted away from You, things will occur that we have no control over. And Father, it is our thought and our prayer that these emblems that we have just partaken of will be the source of strength that we need to get through this next few days. That Father, we will remember, as we are told to, to come around this table to take these emblems. And Father, these emblems will remind us of what You would have us do and have us be. Guide us in this. Strengthen us to our tasks. In Jesus' name, we do ask and give thanks. Amen.
And I really wanted to share with y'all, before the lesson this morning, this is a fairly new song, I think, and it's become one of my favorites very recently. And just the eloquence that they speak these truths with in the poetry of the song is, I think, beautiful and very powerful, so I'm just going to try to do it justice. And if you know the song, obviously, feel free to sing along. If not, I want to at least encourage you to read the words and speak them out loud. If you don't feel like singing, don't know the song, that's my encouragement to you, at least to speak them out loud. To get the full meaning and the power. God of creation, there at the start, before the beginning of time.
With no point of reference, you spoke to the dark and fleshed out the wonder of light. And as you speak, a hundred billion galaxies are born. In the vapor of your breath, the planets form. If the stars were made to worship, so will I. I can see your heart in everything you've made. Every burning star, a signal fire of grace. If creation sings your praises, so will I. God of your promise, you don't speak in vain, no syllable empty or void.
For once you have spoken, all nature and science follow the sound of your voice. And as you speak, a hundred billion creatures catch your breath, living in pursuit of what you said. If it all reveals your nature, so will I. I can see your heart in everything you say. Every painted sky, a canvas of your grace. If creation still obeys you, so will I.
If the stars were made to worship, so will I. If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. If the oceans roar your greatness, so will I. For if everything exists and lift you high, so will I. When the wind goes where you send it, so will I. If the rocks cry out in silence, so will I. If the sum of all your praises still falls shy, then we'll sing again a hundred billion times. God of salvation, you chase down my heart through all of my failure and pride. On a hill you created, the light of the world abandoned in darkness to hide. And as you speak, a hundred billion failures disappear. Where you lost your life so I could find it here. If you left the grave behind you, so will I. I can see your heart in everything you've done.
Every part designed in a work of art called love. If you gladly chose surrender, so will I. I can see your heart eight billion different ways. Every precious one, a child you died to save. If you gave your life to love them, so will I. Like you would again a hundred billion times. But what measure could amount to your desire? You're the one who never leaves the one behind. Like you would again a hundred billion times. But what measure could amount to your desire? You're the one who never leaves the one behind.
This morning's Scripture reading is from Genesis, Psalms, and Romans. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to all the end of the world. In them He has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like the bridegroom leaving his chambers. And like a strong man runs its course with joy, its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that He has made. So, they are without excuse. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. Thank you for your church. I thank you that we can gather together and sing and to worship and to gather together as one family around your table. And we thank you this morning so much for Jesus. We thank you for this world that you have made, that you have created so wonderfully and so powerfully. And that as we look at your word this morning, as we begin in the book of Genesis, that you would help us to see your glory. Help us to see your power, your strength, that you have created this world with joy.
And that ultimately we would see your authority and that we would submit our lives to you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now, I don't know if this has ever happened to you, but there are occasions where I will miss the obvious. Rachel will probably say those are very numerous. For example, the other day, she said, "Hand me the creamer out of the fridge." And I said, "Well, there's no creamer in the fridge." And she said, "It's right there." And I said, "No, it's not." And she says, "If I have to come up and get it myself." And then sure enough, there it was. She was able to somehow find it. I doubt that it was in the fridge. I think it was some sort of slight of hand on Rachel's part. We often miss the obvious. And maybe you've probably, well, not maybe, you've probably heard this story.
A prockerful, I'm sure, of Sherlock Holmes and Watson on the camping trip. And in the middle of the night, Sherlock Holmes turns to Watson, and he says, "Watson, what do you see?" And Watson begins to enumerate the wonders of the celestial heavens, the moon and the stars, and how they display design, and how they display the time, and how late it is, and all of these different things. And as he's expounding on this, Sherlock Holmes looks at Watson and goes, "No, you idiot. Somebody stole the tent." Right? Sometimes we miss the obvious. In fact, just by chance this week, I was watching a YouTube video. And what it was, there were people in black shirts and people in white shirts. And each group, the black shirts and the white shirts, all had a basketball. And they were kind of intermixing back and forth, passing each other the basketball back and forth.
And so you were supposed to count how many times the people in the white shirts passed the basketball. And so I'm sitting there trying to count, trying not to miss out, because I was like, "I've got this. I'm observant." And then it gets to the end, and it said, "Did you see the gorilla?" And you're like, "Gorilla?" And not only was there a gorilla halfway through, the guy in a gorilla suit just walks through. He stops right in the middle of the basketball passing and does a little bit of a dance and then walks off the screen. And it says something like, "50% of people are so focused on trying to count the basketball passes, they miss a giant six-foot guy in a gorilla suit walking right through the middle of everything." And I don't want to spoil the surprise, but there's a second video, so you'll be looking for the gorilla.
And then there's some other things that happen that should be obvious, but because we're focused on the wrong thing or not. And so what happens is when you and I focus on one thing, we tend to miss some other things. And I think this is true of the beginning chapters of Genesis. Our tendency, especially with the creation account, is to focus on the how of God created. How did all of this happen? Now that is not a bad question, and that is not a bad subject to dive into, but so often times we focus so much on the how that we miss the who. The God who is responsible. We've looked so closely at the how of creation, we've missed the wonder of the Creator. And so as we begin to spend the summer just looking at small parts of the book of Genesis, we want to start here.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The emphasis in Genesis 1:1 is on the God who creates. And what's interesting about these simple words, they simply seem for many of us like just the way the Bible starts, but the reality is this truth underlies so much of the rest of the Bible. In these words, we see God's glory and His greatness and His power and His authority. But as you move through Scripture, you find that this truth that God created the heavens and the earth is foundational to what we believe. So, for example, in Deuteronomy chapter 4 is God is bringing the law. He says, "Look back to the beginning of creation when I created the heavens and earth and see if this has ever happened before." In Job, and we'll look at this in a little bit, as Job is struggling, God will say to him, "Dress for action like a man.
I'm going to give you some questions." And then he begins to ask Job questions about the created world. Were you there when I made the mountains? Were you there when I opened the doors to the sea? Are you able to control the Leviathan or the behemoth? And he begins to humble Job by asking him questions about the creation. In the psalm that Brent read, we see that the heavens declare the glories of God. And in Isaiah, which we'll look at in just a little while, God frequently speaks about creation, and how it points to his power and his authority, oftentimes using the picture of a potter with some clay, where God is the potter, and creation is the clay that he shapes. When you come to the New Testament, John's Gospel in John 1:1 echoes Genesis. But instead of, "In the beginning God created,"
it says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And then it goes on to talk about, just like Genesis 1, how things were created. In Romans, we find that creation brings a universally understood message about God, and we could go through the rest of the New Testament, and you find that this first verse of the Bible, that God created the heavens and the earth, is not just an interesting fact or a way to start the story, but rather a foundational truth of Scripture and our belief in God. And I want us to think a little bit this morning about what does it mean that God creates? Who is this God who creates? And I think, first of all, it means that you and I can see something and know something
about who God is from what He has made. So our kids, they love to draw pictures. You may have noticed that this morning with all of the paper and all of the crayons. They just love to draw. And so the other day Evelyn and I were sitting and we were watching, there's a British TV show called Big Dreams, Small Spaces. And in it, people with tiny little backyards, or I guess British would call them gardens, will take it and seek to transform them in amazing ways. So as we're sitting and watching this, Evelyn is over there in the corner, and she's coloring and coloring and coloring. And when we get done with the episode, I said, "What did you think?" And, you know, thinking that she didn't listen because she was coloring. She's like, "Oh, I just drew a map of our yard and where we should put everything.
So the palm trees go here, and the greenhouse goes here, and the bananas are going to go here, and then we're going to have a trap door in the top of the greenhouse to go up to where the flowers are, and there'll be a weeping willow in the middle of the apple orchard." And you learn something from her art. First of all, she was listening, she was paying attention, she doesn't miss much, and she has very grandiose dreams about what our half gravel backyard really should look like, right? You learn something about the artist from their art. The same is true of God's creation. Creation itself is not a God to be worshiped, but rather it points, like a big flashing sign to the one who made it. In Romans 1, it says, "So what can be known about God
is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power, His divine nature, have been clearly perceived since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse." And in the 19th Psalm, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day it pours out speech, and night to night it reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit
to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. And I want you to notice, just briefly, in the 19th Psalm, how creation speaks of the Creator. It declares, first of all, the heavens declare the glory of God. Creation is not wishy-washy about pointing to its Creator. So for example, with the kids, we get asked a lot of questions all the time. Can we get a horse? Can we get a flock of goats? Can I get a motorcycle? All those kind of things. And so a lot of our answers to those questions are, well, maybe, right? And what does that mean? Probably not. We're kind of wishy-washy on the answers. Creation, when it points to its Creator, is not wishy-washy. It's not a maybe, or I'll think about it, or there might be something here,
but it says, "The heavens declare the glory of God." It says, "The sky above proclaims His handiwork." Have you ever said something really quiet, you didn't want somebody to hear? My sister was supposed to be here this morning. She's not, so I can talk about her. When we were kids, I may have, at one point, called her stupid. And unfortunately, Mom heard me say this, and said, "Apologize to your sister." And so, kind of under my breath, I said, "Well, I'm sorry, you're stupid." My mom was like, "Well, what was that?" And all of a sudden, Mom has hearing like a bat, and it was like, "Oh, I'm sorry that I called you stupid." So, we've all probably said stuff under our breath at one point or another. That's not what creation is doing. Notice it's not whispering about the glory of God.
It's not quiet. What does it say? It declares and it proclaims. It's not quiet. It says that day to day, it pours out knowledge. It's not just like when we fill a water glass, right? Have you ever seen them take the end off a fire hydrant, and that water just blasting out of there? That's the picture. That the message that creation brings to us about the Creator is not simply a trickle or a little drip, but rather it pours out. That it reveals knowledge. And notice how He makes sure to point out that this is all the earth. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. And so what does creation say about God? We've seen that God is the one who creates. Romans says that we are without excuse because we can see clearly about Him from what He has made.
The creation declares and proclaims. First of all, I think we can see that God designs. You ever had that moment where you've done something really dumb, and you hope nobody's watching, and you turn around and everybody's watching, and then what do you say? "Well, I meant to do that," right? You know, you're walking up the stairs and you trip, and you kind of do this thing, and you look around and go, "Oh, you know, I meant to do that." That's not the picture of creation. Romans 1, it's interesting, the word that Paul uses. He talks about all the things that have been made. And in Greek, poiema is the word. It's the word that we get the English word for poem. And when we talk about poetry, we're talking about somebody who takes words, doesn't just throw them out, but what do they do?
They craft them. And I don't know if you've ever sat and looked at the clouds. Our girls like to try to see shapes in the clouds. Like, "Well, that one looks like a lion. That one looks like a walrus. That one looks like dad." And so you're laying there looking at the clouds, and you see one that looks like the letter L. That could happen by chance. But if you look up and you see one of Shakespeare's sonnets written out in the clouds, there's probably a guy in an airplane writing in the sky, right? The picture that you have in Romans chapter 1, when it says poiema, means put together that he made it. That it didn't just happen, but rather that it was created. That we look at the trees and the mountains and the birds and the turtles and the fish,
and we see that God intentionally created. That He intentionally created us. That He intentionally created this world. And one of the things that we see so clearly through creation is the greatness and the glory of God. The heavens, as Psalm 19 says, declare the glory of God. And I love, we mentioned this earlier, Job 38, 39, 40. As Job has been feeling sorry for himself, and why has all of this happened? It says this in Job 38, "And the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man, I will question you, and you will make it known to me." If we were going to put this in modern-day terms, God's saying to Job, "Put on your helmet, because I'm about to hit you."
And that's exactly what God does with Job. "Tell me where you were, sins of the earth. Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurement? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid the cornerstone? When the morning star sang together, "Sons of God shouted with joy." And he looks at Job and he says, "Where were you when I made all of this?" And this goes on for a couple of chapters. And then Job goes, "I'm going to put my hand on my mouth, and I'm not going to talk anymore." And God says, "Oh, no, no. You can't tap out. We're not done." And he goes, "Dress for action like a man. Put on your helmet." And then God does it all again. God is pointing to Job through all of this creation.
That God knows what he's doing, that he is great, that he is powerful, that he is in control. In Isaiah 40:12, one of my favorite verses in Isaiah about creation, it says, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, and enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance, and a balance." And I love that picture. Because it shows the greatness of God in terms of our universe. Because if we look up at the night sky, we begin to feel very, very small. Think about the amount of effort that it takes for us just to get to the International Space Station. And the amount of effort that it takes to get to the moon. And that's as far as we have gone when we look up at the night sky.
And here is God who sees the stars that aren't just hundreds or hundreds of thousands of miles apart, but are hundreds of light years. And He measures them with a span. That word span means from your thumb to your finger. That when God sees the stars in the night sky in relation to His power and glory, it's a span. For us, it's infinitely big, but for God, He can measure it with His hand. You see, creation cries out to us that God is great. Creation, I think when viewed properly, helps us to put life into perspective because we see that we are small, and the God who created it is big. And one of the things that creation shows us is we're not even in control of this natural world. How many times have our plans got changed because of the weather, because it snowed, or it rained, or it stormed,
and we can't control it, but yet Jesus in the midst of the storm says what? "Peace be still," and it stops. You see, creation points us to the glory and the power of God. One of the things I love about the 19th Psalm is that it points to the fact that God is joyful. That in creation, you can see the joy of God in what He has made. Look at what it says. It talks about the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy. And I like doing weddings because every wedding I've done, the people have been joyful. Now, for some of them, it didn't stay that way very long, but it always starts that way. And especially at the very end, most people, when they choose their song to exit to, exit to something upbeat,
and sort of the more recent habit is everybody kind of skips or jumps or kind of runs out the back door in joy. And the picture here that points to the joy of God is the sun as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. He's happy. He's excited to be ready to be married, and he's ready to go. And you see the joy of God in the sunrise. And then it says, "Like a strong man runs its course with joy." I personally don't relate to running with joy, but my dog Dodger does. And so when you go up to Dad's house, Dodger now has figured out where we're going, and so he'll be laying down in the car until we get on Dad's road. Next thing, his nose is just pressed up against the door.
And you open that door when you get there, and he just takes off running. And he's just so happy to run. And you tell the kids, "Stand still," because if that dog hits you at like 35 miles an hour, you're going to be like a bowling pin across the yard. And he runs with joy. And the picture here is that as God creates, He does so not out of duty or obligation. "Oh, I guess I've got to make the sun." But rather that God does it with joy. The picture is that creation is infused with the joy of God. And that it points to the fact that we have a God who is joyful. We have a God who is powerful. A God who is glorious and who is mighty. Who designed this world, and He does so with joy.
But I think for us this morning, we need to see the authority of God. We oftentimes struggle with authority. Somebody tells us what to do and what's our response. "Well, why should I?" Or, "You and what army?" We don't like to be told what to do. In Isaiah 29, in fact, twice in Isaiah, this picture is used of God's authority. In Isaiah 29, it says this, "You turn things upside down. Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? The thing that made should say of its maker, he did not make me. Or the thing that is formed, say of him who formed it. He has no understanding." In Isaiah 40, "Woe to him who strives with him who formed him. A pot among earthen pots, this forms it. What are you making?" Or, "Your work has no handles."
And what the picture there is, we would say it's ridiculous for the pottery on the potter's wheel to talk back to the one who's creating it, but yet we do it all the time. It would be like this week, I was getting ready, I had a pork shoulder and was getting ready to cook it for some barbecue. And imagine I'm taking that pork shoulder and salt and pepper it, and put it, season it up, and I get it in the pot, and the pork shoulder looks at me and goes, "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" And I'm like, "Talking pork shoulder, we're turning that oven up to 500," right? It's like, "We're not going to let this thing out alive." The picture here is that our food doesn't talk back to us, right?
We are the master of it, because we create it. In the same way, pottery doesn't talk back to the potter, because the potter is the maker. But the tendency of you and I, when we look at this world, is to say, "I've got it in control. I know what I'm doing." And God, very specifically, in fact, twice in Isaiah says, "You're the pottery on the wheel. You don't know better than I do." God knows because He created. You see, we look at the world, and we see brokenness, and we see struggle, and we look for an explanation, and we look for answers, and I think so many times, we look in exactly the wrong place. It would be like if my car doesn't start, and I need help, and so I go to Luke, and I say,
"Luke, will you help me start the car?" And he goes, "Sword!" because that's his new favorite thing. Everything's a sword, right? That's not going to help me start the car. I've gone to the wrong place for help. So how many times do you and I, when we're in the midst of struggle, and we're in the midst of hurt, and in the midst of difficulty, turn to exactly the wrong place? I know I do. I know people I've talked to take advice from the worst people. One of the things creation tells us is to go to the Creator. Go to the One who made this world. If you're struggling with the brokenness, and the hurt, and the despair of the world in which we live, stop trying to do it by yourself. Stop looking for advice from people who don't know.
Go to the Creator. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And it's hopeful, because I realize the earth isn't all on my shoulders. It's on the shoulders of Almighty God. And while it's hopeful, it is also humbling. We like to think that we're the center of the universe. That I'm the most important. The Scripture doesn't start within the beginning. Brandon, although sometimes we act like it should. Insert your name. It starts with, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." This morning, as we begin to think about the book of Genesis, I want us to look to the God who made it all. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's through creation that we can see His mighty power. It's the heavens that declare His glory,
not our glory. And so, two things this should do in our life. First of all, it should make us hopeful. Because all the problems in the world are not on our shoulders. But they are in the hands of the God who created the heavens and the earth and the seas and the mountains and the sun and the moon and the stars. And it is in His hands. Just like the kid saying this morning, He's got the whole world in His hands. But it also should humble us. Because we are not at the center. That we are not the authority. That we do not march to the beat of our own drum, but that we listen to what our Creator has said. And we'll see that as we move through Genesis. That we struggle to listen to God.
But in the midst of that, God plans for our redemption. He promises hope. He takes care of His people. And He keeps His promises. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word and for Your church. As we consider, help us to see that it points to You. To see Your glory, Your goodness, and Your design. Most of all, may we see that You are in control. That You are the authority. That it's not about us, but it's about You. So help us to feel hopeful. Help us to be humbled. And help us to turn our eyes to You. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.
I want to thank you for joining us this morning. Just a couple of announcements. We will not be having Wednesday evening Bible study this week. We're going out of town to meet up with some family. We'll be back next week. I would encourage you to read through the first chapter of 2 Peter. That's what we'll be discussing the following Wednesday. We'll be continuing on in 2 Peter. Also, on the 26th of June, I think that's a Friday, we'll be doing an outdoor movie, The Riot in the Dance Water. I would encourage you to make plans to join us for that. I'm looking forward to that and to sharing this with you. It's one of our, the series is kind of one of our kids' favorite. They have Riot in the Dance Earth, so if you have Amazon Prime,
if you're into that, and so I would encourage you to make plans to join us. Luke's favorite song, you know, Baby Shark, so he's right there with all of that. So, I'm going to go ahead and have a word of prayer, and we'll be standing, and then we'll sing one more song to help us on our way. Linda. Oh, yes. So, in a really late Bible study, you called me the next Thursday, but they came to me, and I knew that it was probably still. Yes. So, Ladies Bible Study, if you're following along at home, the 20th, Thursday, the 25th, not this Thursday. So, who's your next person? Potiphar's wife. Okay. Potiphar's wife. That should be interesting. All right. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer, and then we'll be standing for our last song.
Father in heaven, we thank you for allowing us to gather. Thank you for your church and your people. We thank you that we can gather together and sing, and read your word, and to spend time encouraging one another. Thank you for all the good that you have done for us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's go ahead and be standing. There is beyond the azure blue A God concealed from human sight He tinted skies with heavenly hue And framed the worlds with his great might There is a God, he is alive In him we live and we survive From death our God created man He is our God, the great I am Secure is life from mortal mind God holds the germ within his hand Though men may search, they cannot find For God alone does understand
There is a God, he is alive In him we live and we survive From death our God created man He is our God, the great I am Our God, whose son upon a tree A life was willing there to give That he, from sin, might set man free And evermore with him could live There is a God, he is alive In him we live and we survive From death our God created man He is our God, the great