Video Sermon 10 Minute Highlights

FULL WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT

THE STORY~ Chapter One: The Beginning

[Why we remember 9/11 video]

·         INTRODUCTION

 As we begin our journey through THE STORY, we couldn’t be starting at a more appropriate time.  In fact, I do not think it’s a coincidence that we are starting on the tenth anniversary of  9/11.  …A decade later and we are still mystified at the level of hatred and cruelty that went into such a deliberate act of terrorism; especially in the name of God.  It was one of those events that left us asking: How did things get this way?  How did we, as the human race develop such darkness? 

God’s Story doesn’t leave us wondering.  All we have to do is go back to chapter 1, the beginning of it all.

·         THE STAGE IS SET

In the beginning…

Genesis 1

 1.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

3.  Then God said, "Let there be light''; and there was light.

 4.  And God saw the light, that it was good;

In 1996, astronomers focused the Hubble Telescope on a small, black patch of sky near Big Dipper.  For centuries we thought there was nothing out there, but what we found was three thousand galaxies we didn’t know existed; each with hundreds of billions of stars and planets.  Again in 2004, this time they pointed the telescope at a small patch of sky near the constellation, Orion.  They found another 10 thousand galaxies!  We now calculate over one hundred billion galaxies in the universe, each with billions of stars.

The universe is a perfect equation of matter and energy.  We live in a universe with there can be gravitational forces so strong that even light can’t escape.  The universe has burned at temperatures so hot, that even atoms couldn’t form.  Try to imagine the total power of the universe.  Now try to imagine the even greater power that created it; and sustains its existence!

·         HERE IS WHERE: THE OBJECT OF GOD’S DESIRE ENTERS THE SCENE

But for all the majesty and power, God’s Story says the creation of the universe was only the setting for His real desire.  God’s desire was to create a living being who was scientiant, morally and spiritually aware; with whom He could experience friendship, love, and perfect community.

Genesis 1

27.  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

 28.  Then God blessed them…

 31.  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.

It is unbelievable that a God of such power would create a corporeal race; create us for such a high purpose.  That’s the big story.  Here’s the personal story: God, who knows all, did not simply create a race for that purpose, He created each individual within that race for that purpose.  Here’s what that means: God created the universe so He could have a loving relationship with you, and for each person in who comes your way.  Before time, He knew you.

So God placed humanity in a perfect ecosystem called “Eden” which means in Hebrew, “delight.”  Some scholars place Eden at the meeting of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern-day Iraq.  Wherever it was; it was perfect.  But for the love relationship to be real, God had to give humanity something else; freedom.

To have free choice, there must be the option to choose.  So God gave to the first of us, Adam and Eve, the responsibility of choice.

Genesis 2

16.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;

 17.  "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.''

Humanity had an understanding of good, because creation had been good.  Their relationship with God was good.  God Himself, is good.  We lived in the experience of good.  What our race did not know, was evil, because we had not experienced it.  But what exactly, is evil? 

·         HERE’S WHERE: SOMETHING GOES TERRIBLY WRONG

One who has experienced evil enters the scene.  Satan, in the form of a serpent speaks to us, and he’s been speaking ever since:

Genesis 3

5.  "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.''

 6.  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

At the core of evil, no matter what the form, are two things:

1.       A departure from the will and plan of God, the One who designed and sustains it all

2.       Selfishness; that is, the interest of self above everything else.  Lust, envy, hatred, jealousy, violence, and greed; at the root of all our dark side, is a focus on self above everything and everyone else.

Was it a literal tree with literal fruit?  It really doesn’t matter because the knowledge of evil came in the act.  Humanity chose self-indulgence over relationship to God and we knew evil by experiencing evil.  Evil became part of our DNA.  Were we still made in the image of God?  Yes, but now the image was distorted.  Would we surely die?  Yes, we surely would, and in horrible ways of disease and violence that Adam and Eve in that perfect garden, couldn’t have imagined.

…

17.  Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, `You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

It wasn’t just us; even our world became polluted.  The perfect relationship with God was broken.  Everything changed, inside and out.  Curse, the Hebrew “arar” means to become an object of loathing.  The curse God speaks of is not so much His retribution as it is the consequence of our action.  We had made things loathsome. 

After our exit from paradise, it is not long before the first murder.  And of course, at the root of it is selfishness.  Cain kills his brother Abel out of self-centered focus.  And he does it with God in mind; how little things have changed!    

As the generations go by, evil takes over more and more of the nature and the culture of man.  (Kind of like the way the internet has gone.)  And we go from:

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”

To

Genesis 6:

6.  And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

 7.  So the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.''

·         BUT IN ALL THE TRAGEDY: THERE’S A SECOND CHANCE

God was not finished with us yet.  He would take the best of us and purge the rest. 

Genesis 6

8.  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

If you were pruning a garden, isn’t that what you would do.  It sounds like a good plan; but within a generation, we are in trouble again:

Genesis 9

21.  Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent.

 22.  And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

…

24.  So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him.

 25.  Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.''

Ham didn’t simply see his father.  He turned him into a joke, he showed no respect.  In effect, he looked with contempt on what God had looked on with grace.  And another curse comes to humanity.  The people of Ham, the Canaanites would one day become corrupt beyond redemption. 

Even the best of us couldn’t turn the human race around.  Evil had become part of our nature; part of our DNA.  Wherever we would go, evil would go with us.  No matter what utopian dreams we might envision, evil would be infused like a virus.  , and it would always be wherever we would be. 

If we would ever be free of evil, it would have to come from something greater than our own efforts.  There would have to be another way.

·         LET’S GO BACK TO THE PRESENT

When we look at horrific events like 9/11 and wonder how people could carry out such acts, it is a profound thing for sure, but it is no mystery; it is part of our nature.  It is something we introduced into ourselves. 

Some say, this is what religion brings; this is what a blind faith in God produces.  But they really have it backwards.

It is walking away from God that has brought all this evil. 

This is what happens when self becomes its own God.  And at the root of any militant religion or belief system is the mentality of “self”   …” You’d believe what I believe; you’d better follow my way or I will kill you.”

It is by the very definition of evil.   

We can improve ourselves, we can reform ourselves, but we cannot save ourselves.  And that is the message of THE STORY: Chapter One.  …But thank God it is not the end of the Story, just the beginning.

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