05 Jun 6/8/25 Genesis 1-2:3 “The Perfect Sundae!”
6/8/25 Genesis 1-2:3 “The Perfect Sundae!”
One part of my job description as a pastor that we don’t think about that often is that I’m supposed to read and think. Most of you should know by now that is a dangerous combination for me. Here is what I mean. As I was preparing to write this sermon, I got to thinking about our beginnings. We like to think of our start in life as when we were born. We even have birthdays to celebrate this. However, our beginnings go back farther than that. We spent about 9 months in our mother’s womb. I would think that we could trace back even farther to the cells of our mothers and fathers. We could go even farther back to the time when God first thought of us. Now I don’t know how we would ever trace this but with God anything is possible. Today, we are going to look at the beginnings of the world. Now you may not agree with me because I have faith in God that He made the world just the way the Bible tells us. You may have other thoughts on this but just remember that I’m right and you may not be. Anyway, today, we are going to look at the creation story in Genesis and I want to look at it in a little different light. Let’s see if we can see the tremendous love that God has for you right from the beginning.
According to evolution, we are the product of the chance collisions of molecules. We came into existence because of a mindless and unplanned accident of nature. If this were so, you folks are the best looking accidents I have ever seen. Anyway, Pastor Jeff Strite likes to call this type of thinking, ‘From Goo to You by Way of the Zoo.’ According to this type of erroneous thinking you and I are not much different than birds or fish or even a slug in the garden or an amoeba in the water. These things and we were all formed by the same purposeless interaction of atoms. Someday a pulpit may become human. Humans have no more intrinsic value than our friend the mosquito. There are times when we might agree with this especially when we are having a bad day and we don’t feel we are worth much. There might be times we mess up so badly that we wonder if anyone would even miss us if we were gone. According to evolution we might wonder if it even matters that we exist.
But the Bible totally disagrees with any of this type of stinkin thinkin. The Bible tells us that you were not a freak accident of nature. You were planned from the very beginning. Every person in the world has a purpose set out by God. You also have more value than all the gold and jewels of the world because God tells us so. I don’t care who you are or what you think you are, God made you and God doesn’t make junk. You are valuable in the eyes of the Lord and that is all that really matters.
As we take a look at our reading today, we begin in the beginning. Notice that God created the heavens and the earth. They didn’t come about by any other way. They were created. Also notice that the earth was a formless, empty and dark place. Is there anyone here today that can imagine a formless earth? I know I can’t. But it doesn’t matter what I can imagine or not because God was there. The Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters. So what we have in the beginning is a whole lot of nothing, dark nothing. So God begins by saying ‘Let there be light.’ Then He called the light ‘day’ and the dark ‘night.’ And all was good.
Have you ever wondered why God chose to begin creation by making light? If I was a comedian I might say something like, ‘God needed light so He could see what He was doing.’ But I’m not a comedian so I won’t say that. I think that God begins with light because light is the very basic building block of all things. We like to talk about how important other things like water and nutrition are but there would be no life without light.
We have to remember that God knows everything. He knew that light was that important to us so He made that first. God is in the midst of creating the world and the only thing on His mind is us. He wants this to be a perfect place for us so this is how He begins.
On the second day, we have to let our imaginations run wild again because God separates the water from above from the water down below. Notice we still have this formless mass called earth. The only thing we have is light and dark and sky. I would almost guess that the earth at this time would be something akin to one of the foreign planets from Star Trek or Star Wars.
This is what happened even if I can’t imagine it. There must have been water everywhere. Along with light, water is the second most important thing for life. And still I cannot fathom this world where there is light and dark and water above and water below. So far I just have to trust God that He knows what He is doing and that isn’t a bad idea no matter who you are or what you are doing. And the second day was good.
Let’s move to the third day. God moved the water to one place and dry land began to appear. Finally we are getting to a place that we just might recognize. I suppose this was kind of like the science experiment with oil and water. You can gather them in separate places because they don’t mix. Well in this case land and water might have been mixed but now they are separate.
Then on the third day God creates plants and seeds and fruits and all the wonderful things of what we call vegetation. Any farmer or gardener has to really appreciate Day 3 of creation. Finally we are getting to the point where we might recognize the world.
God is building a dynasty. He is creating a show place for the universe. He is setting in place the necessities of life. We have light and dark. We have air which I would assume came about with the separation of the heavens and the earth or of the water above and water below. We have plants of all kinds. God loves us so much that He is setting everything in order so that we may have good lives that give glory to God. Even in the creation, God does this so we can give Him the glory because there is no way we can do anything close to what He is doing. When God created the world, He was performing the granddaddy of all miracles. And the great part of this is that He had each one of us in mind when He did this. He had you in mind! Praise the Lord!
So even though things seem like they are coming together after day 3, we still need day 4 for the creation of sun, moon, stars, seasons, days, and years. So before this, we had light and dark but we might not have had day and night like we know it or much of anything else that we take for granted. Before this God had provided light by however God can create light. Now we have order to our lightness and darkness. Even though the text doesn’t come out and say this explicitly, this would be the beginning of time. We can’t have time without days and months and years.
For those people who believe in creation but think that the days might have been longer during this time, think of this. The same term for day is used throughout the narrative, a 24 hour day. Now at Day 4, God puts in place days and nights like what we have today. Therefore, the last 4 days of creation are actual 24 hour days because God made 24 hour days on Day 4. They will be with us until the earth is no more. I therefore think that the first 3 days were also 24 hour days because the narrative tells us that.
God is putting order into the world. He knows that we will need order. Ever since the 15 or 1600’s we have been obsessed with order. It was the beginning of the scientific age. It was the beginning of placing humans at the center of the universe. Today we have brought this idea to the point where we had better not have God involved in anything because man is so much more powerful and superior to God. People often tell me that because I’m a pastor, I have to believe in creation. That is not true because we have many so called pastors who don’t believe in creation. I believe in creation because of subtle proof like the creation of actual days and years in Day 4. I believe in creation because God tells us that this is what happened and I happen to know that God is far more powerful and superior than us humans. God is the greatest and best thing that has ever happened to this world because He made it. And Day 4 was good.
God was thinking of us when He made everything so far and Day 5 is no different. This is the day that He populates the waters with fish and marine life and He fills the air with birds.
Now things are starting to percolate. This is a big day for me because it is the glorious day that
God made fish and I love fishing.
I think that all the days of creation are mind boggling. Gathering things together and making earth could not have been an easy task. That is why so many people don’t believe it happened this way. Follow that with the making of the heavens and rotations of the earth and all that stuff. More people fall away. Then God made plants. Every plant in the world was made by God. The amount of species is mind numbing. Now God is making all marine life and bird life. Can anyone here today imagine how many birds there are or how many fish? These are big time miracles. God is putting all this together because He has a purpose. Then God looked around and found that all was good with Day 5.
Finally we get to Day 6. God starts out in the morning by making all the animals of the earth. He makes hippos, He makes snakes, He makes cattle and He makes spiders. I want to stop here just for a moment and look at some of these animals. We know more about animals of dry ground than any other living beings because we share the dry ground with them. Think about how intricate snakes must be in order to slither along the ground. This is not something that just happened by chance. There is no way this slithering mechanism came about by evolution. Think about spiders or other bugs with 6 or 8 legs that all work perfectly well and in unison. All these differences in the various animals came about because we have a God who loves us and He isn’t done yet. So far all is good.
Then God decides to make man in their image, in their likeness. There has been a lot of speculation about who ‘they’ were. Books have been written on this and some are quite convincing. Just remember that they are all speculation. Some might think that I’m speculating here but I think it is just the facts. I think that we were made in the image of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and we should acknowledge this on Trinity Sunday, which is next week. That is all there was that we know about for sure. And besides God tells us we were made in His image and that is good enough for me.
Then God made us to have dominion over all things of the world. In other words, hey, we are in charge! God made us male and female. Then He blessed us. He told us to be fruitful and multiply. At this point God gave us all plants and fruit and seeds for food. He gave the animals green plants to eat. Notice that we are not given meat for food yet. This will be an adjustment that comes later.
We like to take this part of Day 6 and distort it. Some will say that this is where the Bible tells us to be vegetarians. I don’t go along with that. Some say that man is in charge of everything. Men are not. Humans are only caretakers in the sense that what we do agrees with God and gives Him the glory. Then of course we have the whole male and female thing and propagating the world. We have really taken some wrong turns. However what God made in the beginning was perfect in all ways. It tells us so right here in Chapter 1 of the Bible. Not only that, but God says it was all good.
Then we come to Day 7. There is a little phrase here that we often miss. The Bible tells us that God finished His work and rested on Day 7. You can decipher that any way you want as long as it is for the glory of God. Does God need rest? Of course not! He is God! But this is the pattern that we will see again in the 10 Commandments. We need rest. We need a day off from work every week. We need time with God in worship every week. God loves us so much that He built in rest for us in the very beginning. He is so good to us. And all was good.
This has been a very famous part of the Bible and I wanted to preach it a little differently today. How many of you like ice cream? I would guess most of us. Think about your favorite ice cream sundae. One of my favorite final touches on a sundae is the cherry. After I put all the toppings on top, I love to top it all off with a cherry. You might like something different for the final topping. Whatever it is, picture it in your mind. Now think of creation as a great big sundae. It is a deliciously layered sundae and you are the cherry on top. You are the perfect finish for the perfect sundae.
God loves you so much that He trusts you to be in charge of His creation. He loves you so much that He built all of this for you. All He asks in return is that you trust Him. He has thought of everything. He has done everything. He has created everything. When you team up with Jesus, you will be perfectly capable of anything. Trust God, trust Jesus and trust the Holy Spirit. All is good! And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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