The God Who Created Everything

Good morning. Shall we pray together, Great and glorious God, our Father, We thank you for the privilege of this day. We thank you for the privilege of being in your presence and among your people, gathering together on this Lord's Day to set our minds, attention and heart's affection on you, and to praise you for who you are and for what you've done. Grateful to you for the work of your son, upon which we've reflected, the presence and power of your Spirit on whom we depend. Grant by your grace that our eyes might be open, that our ears might be attentive. Grant that we might have eyes to see our need of Christ. And Grant that we might praise you and glorify you and worship you rightly. We ask all these things in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. Amen, Well, it is indeed a great privilege to be here on this morning. This morning, I will actually be starting a series I've been graciously appointed ten Sundays this year over the course of the year. Don't be afraid they are not all coming together. Some of you will be used to my accent by the end of the year. Amen. I didn't know I had an accent until I came here. But in the mornings we're going to be focusing on a series called the Way We Think, Looking at Biblical worldview, at the importance of Biblical worldview thinking and looking at Genesis one through eleven key texts in Genesis one through eleven that establish the basis for a biblical worldview. Everyone has a worldview. All of us look at the world through a particular set of lenses, and oftentimes when people see things different ways, it is a direct result of differing worldviews. If you've visited other countries or different parts of the world, you may have been struck by some of the assumptions that people make, some of the presuppositions that govern the way people live their lives. This is because of differences in worldview. There are a couple of ways to look at worldview. First, there are the elements of our worldview. And when we talk about the elements of our worldview, there are a number of ways that people break them down. But for our purposes, it is our view of God, our view of Man, our view of truth, our view of knowledge, and our view of ethics. Those five main categories. Who is God? Who is Man? How do we know what we know, what is truth, and what is right and what is wrong. We answer these questions according to our worldview. The second way that we can see and analyze a worldview is through a worldview meta narrative or overarching story, the story that explains why things are the way they are. Every culture has a meta narrative. Every culture has a story that explains why the world is the way it is. In the Christian worldview, that story is creation, fall, redemption, consummation. This is the way we see things. This is the way we understand things. This is the way we determined why things are the way they are. There are competing worldviews that don't necessarily see life the same way. But why does this matter? This matters because every one of us comes to faith in Christ not as a blank slate, but with a worldview, and most of us have never analyzed our worldview. So we've grown up our entire lives, especially those who come to faith later in life, and our entire life. Our culture has taught us who God is, who man is, How we know things, what truth is and what's right and wrong. We hear the Gospel, we come to faith in Jesus Christ and Oftentimes, our assumption is that because we're saved now, our worldview is automatically going to change. The fact is it doesn't, not immediately. We still have the same basic assumptions about life. That is why for those of us who have been walking with Christ for a longer time. If you're here today, for example, and you've been saved for twenty thirty forty years, you look back at the things that you accepted as a new Christian and you are mortified. The fact of the matter is you had another worldview. You see, Sanctification is a process that occurs over the entire course of our lifetime, and a big part of sanctification is breaking down our worldview and bringing it in line with the truth of Scripture. This is also important because we live in a world that does not see things the way we see them, and so oftentimes we find ourselves at odds with the world around us. Because as mature Christians, we develop a biblical worldview, and there are times when the world says left and the Word says right. Amen. And part of maturing in faith and maturing is in Christ is going from that person who, as a new believer always finds a way not to rock the boat, always finds a way to continue to fit in with your friends, to continue to advance on the job, to con continue to be accepted by those around you and your family and your extended family, by compromising what you know to be true. And as we mature as Christians, we understand that that compromise costs us everything and benefits us none. So a very interesting thing happens all of a sudden as we mature in faith and as we grow in grace, we can often find ourselves at odds with more and more people, and the Church becomes more and more important to you because you come to realize that because of this transformation that takes place, and the renewing of your mind that takes place because of that, there are people in the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ who are actually closer to you than blood relatives. Oftentimes we find ourselves in a situation where there are very few of our blood relatives with whom we see eye do I, and more and more of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. This is because of the transformation of our worldview, and there is no place in the Bible that this is clearer or presented more succinctly than in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, which is why there is no section of the Bible that is under more assault than the first eleven chapters of Genesis. It's been a while that this has been a battleground, but especially in the last one hundred and fifty years or so, since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in the middle of the nineteenth century, there has been a pitch battle over Genesis one through eleven, and those who see it as the word of God, as literal history, who recognize that it means they stand at odds with the accepted science of the day, and those who have tried any way they can to make their faith line up with this new ideology called Darwinian evolutionary theory. And so we read things in the Bible not in their normal literal sense, but in ways that cause us to twist and turn in an effort to be accepted by those, for example, who say that the world is billions and billions of years old, because you can't get that from the text. We twist and turn our worldview in such a way that we can somehow line up with those who say that human beings evolved from primates, even though we recognize that that would destroy Genesis one through eleven. So what many have done is they have said that, actually, Genesis one through eleven is not literal in its nature. Genesis one through eleven is story. It's myth, it's not actual history. And of course if we agree with that everything is lost. Why let me just give you a rundown. And I don't have time for all of it, but let me just give you a rundown of the doctrines that are established and fortified in Genesis one through eleven, and by the way, the majority of them are established and fortified in Genesis one through three. The doctrine of God, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of creation, or our cosmology, our anthropology, are our doctrine of man, our esthetics, our ethics, the nature and importance of work, the fall and original sin. If Genesis one through eleven is symbolic, then we're wrong about the fall and original sin. But it's worse than that. If Genesis one through eleven is symbolic, not only are we wrong about the fall, original sin. But Paul is wrong, Peter is wrong, and more importantly, Jesus is wrong because Jesus sees Adam as a literal person, not part of a symbolic story. Redemption and the atonement, marriage and family, human sexuality, the global flood or God's wrath against sin, worship the Sabbath, the origin of nations and ethnicities and ethnic groups, the origin and proliferation of human language and linguistics, and the sanctity of human life. That that's just a small sampling of things that are turned on their head. If Genesis one through eleven is anything other than literal, this is important. This is of the utmost importance. So with that in mind, let's look in the first text of this series, Genesis, chapter one and verse one. Excuse me while I put these on. Funny thing happened during my last trip to the States. I had to admit that I couldn't see, at least not close up. You're fine out there, but I was finding that everywhere I went to preach, nobody had enough light right above the pulpit. Eventually, I came to realize it wasn't people's light above the pulpit that was the problem. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's our text. Let's continue though 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. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day. In the darkness, he called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day, and God said, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters under the expanse from the waters above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning the second day, and God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so, and God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth sproughut vegetation plants yielding seed, and fruit, trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. By the way that phrase is important, each according to its kind on the earth. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning the third day, and God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years. And let there and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to give light upon the earth. And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light to the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning the fourth day, and God said, let the water swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the with which the water swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the sea, and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening, and there was morning the fifth day, and God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, live stock, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the live stock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and of the live stock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created him male and female. He created them, and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed and its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so, and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning the sixth day, the God who created the world. What do we learn from that? How is our worldview informed by this simple fact? What does Genesis chapter one and first one say to us to call us out of whatever kind of thinking we had before and set us aright? But says at least four things. Number one, it says that the world had a beginning. It says that the world had a beginning, and as an aside, it also says that the world will have an end. The world has a beginning. Why is this important because there are those who believe that the world is eternal, those who believe that the world, the universe, everything that we see has actually existed forever and ever and ever, that it in itself is eternal. But the Bible contradicts that completely. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. There was a time when the world was not, and then abruptly there was a moment where the world was. It is not eternal, It has a beginning. There are also those who believe that the world will go on forever, but we know if we continue to read in the Bible, that that is not the case. That God will bring judgment to this world and there will be new heaven and new Earth. But there was never a time when God was not. You see, there are consequences to the idea that the earth itself is eternal, because if the earth itself is eternal and God himself is eternals eternal, then you have two eternals. Then you have two coexistent absolutes, two coexistent infinities, and the world in and of itself then has equal standing with God. But if there was a time when the world was not but God has always been, then the world is not equal to God. Nothing is equal to God. Genesis, Chapter one and verse one makes it clear that the world had the beginning. And if we come out of a culture or come out of a worldview that has taught us all our life that the world has always existed, that the universe is eternal, Here's what I want you to understand. You cannot continue to hold on to that cultural belief and hold on to a biblical worldview. Those ideas are mutually exclusive, and the consequences of believing in an eternal universe are cataclysmic. You cannot believe that. And the Bible. Secondly, not only does this one verse tach just that the world had a beginning, but it teaches us that there is a God who created the world. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. There are several texts of scripture that be're mentioning at this point. Psalm ninety six, verse five. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens Psalm one O two twenty five of old You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands Psalm one fifteen fifteen. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth Psalm one twenty one, verse two. My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth Psalm one twenty four, verse verse eight. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth Psalm one thirty four, verse three. May the Lord bless you from Zion, who made heaven and earth Psalm one thirty six, verse five. To him who, by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever Psalm one forty six, verse six, Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them Psalm one forty eight, verses four and five. Praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. There is a God who created the world. Amen. The world is not eternal. The world came into existence, and it did not come into existence because it chose to. It wasn't here to choose to. It did not come into existence by accident. Accidents don't happen when God is the only thing in eternity past. The world came into existence because there is a God and he determined that he would create the world and everything in it. This tells us something about God. This tells us that God, for example, is eternal, and that God existed before the world end before time. It also tells us that because God, God exists outside of the world and outside of time, that God is not bound by time. You realize that time is a construct that we have and are limited by because we live within the world that God created. But apart from this world that God created, there is no time. God is not bound by time. God lives in eternity where there is no time, and there never was time until He decided that time would exist. God is eternal. God is omnipotent. He has all power. Why because the God who created the world is the one who established everything that we know to be powerful. How could God establish everything that we know to be powerful unless he had inherent in himself that power. There is nothing too hard for God. God is infinite. The world is finite. Listen to this from a w pink in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and that argues he is infinite and omnipotent, for no finite being possesses the power to create, and none but an omnipotent being could create the heaven and the earth. Amen. Our own confession puts it this way, Chapter two, paragraph two or paragraph one. Sorry. The Lord, our God, is but one only, living and true God, whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection, whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body parts or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty every way, infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the council of his own immutable and most righteous will. That is the God who created the world, and that is the God whom we worship. Remember, the essential parameters of a worldview are understanding of who God is. That's number one. That's the overarching and overriding principle. And regardless of who people are and where they are, all people everywhere, Everyone who has ever existed or who will ever exist, is asking the same four questions, who am I, why am I here? What's wrong with the world? And how can what is wrong be made right? And in the creation of the world, we have answers to those questions. And it all begins with the fact that the world had a beginning and there is a God who created the world. This also tells us much about the world. That the world is finite, that the world is dependent, and that it is upheld and sustained by the God who creates it. This also tells us how we should think about the world. Although we ought never to worship creation, we ought to respected because after all, God made the world. Amen, God made the world. This goes without saying it's a logical thing. Imagine, if you will, there are two two children who walk outside, and as they walk outside, they stumble upon some sculpture. They don't know what it is, but the one child looks at the sculpture and says that that thing is ugly, And the other says, when you talk about the sculpture like that, why my daddy made that? Well, that thing is ugly. I don't care what you think about it. My daddy made that. You won't talk about it like that. Amen. The fact that God created the world determines how we think about the world and even how we treat the world that God created. It's ironic, but you can actually come to the right conclusion from the wrong direction. There are those who respect the world because they believe that it is eternal, and so they worship the world, and they go down by the river and the river is flowing, and they bow down and they worship by the flowing river. No, we don't worship the flowing river or the things that live in the river. However, we worship the God who created the world. And because he created the world, we respect it and we care for it. You see, worldview matters. It doesn't just matter that you respect and care for the world. And hey, however you come to that decision is fine. Now, the way that you come to the decision makes a difference, because one person caring for the world is actually responding in worship to the God who made it, while the other is committing idolatry and will pay for it for all eternity. Worldview matters, not just the outcome, but why we get there. Matters. Listen to this in Romans chapter one, beginning in verse eighteen, For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppressed the truth. 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 and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became feudile in their unders, in their thinking, and in their foolishness, and the fruit sorry their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchange the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, and birds and animals and creeping things. The fact that you respect the world is not enough. Your respect for the world, if it comes from a wrong worldview, is actually idolatry. We respect the world because it was created at the hands of Almighty God himself. Thirdly, there is a distinction between the world and the Creator. In the biblical worldview, there is a distinction between the world and the Creator. The world had a beginning. There is a God who created the world, and there is a distinction between the world and the one who created it. This is important. There are those who believe that God is part of the world, and there are those who believe that the world is part of God. Pantheist. Panantheists, listen to this. This is from a song sung by the principal character in the Walt Disney film Pocahontas. How many of you have seen Pokemonas. Don't be don't be scared. Don't be scared, all right, you know the story of Pocahontas. If you know the story of Pocahontas, then you're much better off than Walt Disney was, because they got the story of Pocahontas completely wrong. Pocahontas was an American Indian woman, and she did indeed interact with settlers from the New World. However, she was converted to Christianity and married one of them and adopted a Biblical worldview. So the idea that you have in Pokehontas is actually the promotion of the concept of the noble savage. The concept of the noble savage is seen in myths like Tarzan, the idea that people who have not been touched by civilization are actually closer to nature and better off than those of us who have been touched by civilization. And so the person out there in the bush who's never had anyone mess up his mind and teach him anything, he knows more about the world and knows more about nature than you and I ever could know because we've been messed up by faulty thinking. That's the myth of the noble savage, and that's what they tried to communicate in the Walt Disney film Pocahontas, which is completely inaccurate historically. And so here's some lines from the song that she sings. You think you own whatever land you land on, the earth is just a dead thing you can claim. But I know every rock and treat and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name. The rainstorm and the river are my brother, The heron and the otter are my friend. And we are all connected to each other in a circle and a hoop that never ends. Sheer blasphemy in a movie made about a woman who eventually became a Christian. Sheer blasphemy. The idea that God is a part of the world, or the world is a part of God. This idea that refuses to distinguish the world from the one who created This is idolatry. This is idolatry. There is no spirit in that tree, there is no spirit in a rock. There is one creature in all of creation into whom God breathed his spirit, into whom God breathed the breath of life, and that is you and me, human beings. Nothing else in this world has what we have in that regard, and it is not only erroneous, but it is blasphemous to think about the creation in that way. This is what Romans one is talking about. When we have a biblical worldview, we understand that there is a distinction between the creature and the creator. We understand that there is a distinction between God and the world that God made. They are not, they never have been, and they never will be one in the same, and to fail to make this distinction is the height of idolatry and completely unacceptable. We respect the world that God created, but we do not worship it or treat it as though it is an extension of God. You can talk about mother Nature all you want to. Nature is not my mother. Amen. God did not bring forth the earth like parents bring forth children, nor did God emerge from the earth like some creature emerging from the primordial ooze. God spoke the world into existence. Theologians say, ex nihilo, out of nothing. It's amazing. You know, this whole Big Bang theory, and everyone talks about this theory. And we sat down on a family in a a museum or someplace where they were showing, you know, some video and they talked about the world coming into existence, and you know, all of a sudden, here it is. I think we were on a ride actually at Disney World, and we're on this ride and they're talking about the world and high coming tran existence, and all of a sudden, we're in this room and it just goes completely dark, just complete this black darkness, and all of a sudden, this voice comes. You know, billions and billions of years ago there was nothing, and then and then there's this little tiny speck way back over here, and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger until it explodes, and then here come all the worlds. And I don't remember which one of my children it was, but one of them looked and said, what scientists ought to say, where does speck come from? I mean, if there was truly nothing, then what exploded will matter? Yeah? How do you get madd if there's nothing? Well, you know there was, I mean, you know the Big Bang and matter? Yeah, I know. But matter is not nothing. Nothing is nothing. Matter is something. If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. And this is the world that we live in with what my grandmother called educated fools who have PhDs and who will stand flat footed, square their shoulders, look you in the eye and say nothing turned into everything. Even motown knows better than that nothing from nothing leaves nothing. Amen. If you don't know that song, you're not praying right. But how do you do this? This is why have biblical worldview is completely incompatible with modern ideas of evolution. You don't get everything from nothing. You get nothing from nothing. The only way you get everything is if there is someone outside of everything with the power to create everything. And it amazes me that there are people who if you say nothing exploded and turned into everything, will give you a PhD. But if you say God spoke and the world leapt into existence, they say you're an idiot. It was in a college campus in the US. Had the privilege of offering a lecture series there, and in this lecture series, I was talking about Genesis because I love to talk about Genesis on college campuses, especially secular college campuses, because it doesn't take long for them to realize that I'm one of those people, you know, and they'll come and they'll say, I just just what you were talking about, you know, Genesis, And it almost sounded like you were one of those people who believes that, you know what, that genesis is literal. Yes, I'm one of those people. I mean, so you believe this whole you know, God created the world and a weak thing. Ah, come on, No, I do not believe that God created the world in a week? Did it in six days? Took the last day off? And I suppose you believe that the earth is not that old? Now, I believe the Earth is old, really old, like somewhere between six and ten thousand years. No, I mean really old that just you know, I mean, scientists know that the world is older than that. That's interesting because you know, there are some scientists who believe that the world is four and a half billion years old to six billion years old, and there are others who argue that it's fourteen billion years old, And you believe that all those people are intelligent scientists, right, well, of course, okay, let me ask you a question. The difference between fourteen billion years old and six billion years old is what? Eight billion years? Great? So you'll give them an eight billion year window and still say that they're brilliant scientists. The difference between the person who says six billion years and me who says six to ten thousand years is less than six billion. You'll give them an eight billion year window and say they're intelligent, but you won't even give me less than six do you see? Eight billion years is a long time. But when you start talking about huge numbers like that, who cares? You can't imagine? You can't even imagine that number billion? How many zeros as that? Anyway, most of us have to sit down and do that. I that, well, if you have this many zeros as this and may, you can't picture that number unless you write it down. So if people start talking about billions upon billions upon billions, Finally, and most importantly, not only this, Genesis one to one teach us that the world actually came into existence and it's not eternal, and that there's a God who created the world, and there's a distinction between the world and the God who created it. But ultimately, the world exists for God's glory. That's why the world is here for God's glory. Everything that God did, God saw that it was good to his glory. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth why because he felt like it. There are many myths out there and stories as to why God created the world. My least favorite, the one that just crawls all over me and makes me want to spit, is the idea that God created the world because he was lonely. We've heard this, haven't we. And there is God all by himself, and in the midst of his loneliness, he determines that he will create the world. Folks, God did not create the world because he was lonely. God created the world to expand and extend his already infinite glory. God cannot be lonely. Listen to what our Confession says, Chapter four, verse one in the beginning. It pleased God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness to create or make the world and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good. Note the pointing there to the triune God. It pleased God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You see, the God whom we serve is one God in three persons. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God. Not three gods, but one God in three persons, This one God who has existed throughout all eternity in three persons, complete in and of himself, the Father, completely satisfied in the Son and the Spirit, and the Son completely satisfied in the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit completely satisfied in the Father and the Son throughout all eternity and perfect unity, perfect harning harmony, lacking in absolutely nothing. And then God determined to create the world and to redeem the world for the glory of God. And so in eternity past God the Father decided to give a gift to God, the Son. The gift that God the Father determined to give to God the Son was and elect people to be redeemed, and God the Son, in his love for God, the Father, took on flesh and became a man in order that he might die to redeem the love gift that the Father and eternity past had bequeathed to him and the Spirit, because of his love for the Father and the Son, in time applies that redemption to the life of every one of the elect, so that the Son has redeemed what the Father has bequeathed, and the Spirit has seemed to it, that it comes to pass so that God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can stream to all of the universe that he is God, that he is good, and that he is love, and that he redeems his people for the sake of his own name. That's why God made the world. There is no other reason. He needs, no other reason. God made the world because God is God. God made the world because God is Love. God made the world because the love of the Father and the Son and the Spirit was forever expanding and spilled over in the creation of everything you know and much more than that. That's why you're here. Who am I? I am not some cosmic accident descended from apes to Primates. I know that because the Bible tells me everything, everything multiplied according to its own kind. There is no macro evolution. There is no evolution from one kind to another. It has never been observed, it has never been recorded, and it contradicts everything that we know. In Scripture, things multiply according to their own kind. We did not come from Primates. We came from Adam and Eve. Amen. That's who I am, the crowning glory of the creation of God. I am not like anything else that God has made. I don't care where you go. You go anywhere on this continent and see the majesty of the African lion, the glory of the African elephant. It pales in comparison to the glory of you and me. You don't like that, Go to Asia and look at the majesty of the Asian elephant. You don't like the lion, go and look at the majesty of the tiger. I don't care, you take your pick. It all pales in comparison to the crowning glory of the creation of Almighty God, which is you and me, made in His image, made in His likeness, and given dominion over everything. Else that was created. How dare we worship anything in this creation? No, we bring God maximum glory when we worship him for who he is and for what He's done. This matters, It changes everything. And I don't know what you came in here believing about this world, but if it was anything other than this world came in to exist. There is a God who made this world. There is a distinction between the world and the God who made it. And God made this world and everything in it, including you, for his glory. If you came in here believing anything other than that, repent, repent, turn from that, and believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If you came in here believing that you're the result of some cosmic accident, repent, repent, and believe that you exist for the glory of God, and that you were created on purpose and with a purpose. And if you came in here believing that you exist for yourself and for your own ends, repent, repent the highest end that you could ever achieve, turning from your sin by God's grace, and turning in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his redeeming work. Anything less than that is less than the glory that God deserves, and less than the glory for which God made the world. In the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth that should govern the way you think about everything, including the way you think about yourself. Let's pray God. We bow in humility, and we bow in worship. We bow in gratitude and thanksgiving. We are humbled by the fact that You, the creator of the world and everything in it, made us in your image. We are grateful for the fact that though we fell in descind you gave your son in order to redeem fallen humanity. We rejoice in the fact that you redeem us so that we might fulfill the great end to which everything was created, and that is that we might give you glory. Grant by your grace that we might do this, and that we might not allow anything to hinder us. Father, I lift up those under the sound of my voice who came into this room alienated from you and in desperate need of being redeemed, And I asked that in your kindness you would grant them repentance and faith. I lift up the one who came into this room redeemed, and yet with a faulty understanding of the world that you created. Grant by your grace that every thought might be taken captive. And as you are so kind to do these things, we ask that you might grant us grace to offer you the worship that would communicate to everyone and everything around us that we know the in for which we were made, and we rejoice in it, in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. Amen,