Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
We can learn a lot of stuff about God just in the very first verse of the Bible.
First of all, we need to know what the word “create” means? To make out of nothing.
Humans can not create things. We can take something and form it into something else. We can build things, compose things, assemble things, shape things – but we cannot create things.
But God creates stuff. Out of nothing. It’s not even hard for Him. He just says the word and BAM it’s there.
Look at this salt. One little grain of salt has about 12(+17 zeros) atoms in it. God made all those atoms out of nothing. If there are that many atoms in one grain of salt imagine how many atoms are in this salt shaker…. In this church building…. In the entire earth. That’s a lot of atoms that God just made out of nothing.
But God didn’t just make the earth – he made the heavens and the earth. Scientist have found a star that is so huge that you could fit 7 quadrillion earths inside it. If earth was the size of a golf ball, this star would be the height of Mt. Everest – about six miles high. And that’s just one star out of trillions. And God just created all that out of nothing.
That kinda puts things in perspective, doesn’t it. God’s amazingly powerful. Do you think a God like that is capable of taking care of you? Do you think a God like that can handle your problems?
Genesis 18:14 – “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
Our toughest problems are a cinch to God. A God that creates planets out of nothing is not intimidated by any obstacle.
So can I make a little suggestion? Let God handle your problems. Now, He might not do things the way you want them done, but you can be assured – God can take care of problems. You can give any situation to God and He is well capable of handling it.
Now you might think, “Well, if God is really that powerful and awesome, what makes you think He would ever care about my problems?”
That’s got to be the most amazing thing about God. Even though He can create monster stars out of nothing like that [snap], He cares about you even more than you care about yourself.
He made you. He made all those stars for you. He died on a cross so that you could be with Him. He loves you like crazy – more than you can ever imagine! He doesn’t care how bad you’ve messed up, he doesn’t care what lousy things you’ve done – He is just waiting for you to trust Him with your life so that He can show you what life is really all about.
To me, that is far more mind-boggling than the fact that God can create stars out of nothing. God loves me. He loves you. He doesn’t just tolerate us. He loves us like crazy! That’s amazing!
Now there are some other lessons we can pull from this verse, but for the sake of time, I want to just focus on one more – but before I do, I just have to share this mini-lesson with you. It will only take a minute.
The word create is the root word for creative. Is God creative?!? Think about how He made elephants and giraffes, and beluga whales and ducks and monkeys. Think about how He came up with the idea of taste and then made lemons and peaches and strawberries. Think about how He made those majestic mountains and waterfalls, and beautiful sunsets and flowers and autumn leaves. That’s creativity!
I have to shake my head at people who think heaven will be boring. Some people thing heaven is just a bunch of people sitting on clouds playing harps? The Bible doesn’t say that. In fact, from what I know about God and his creativity, He’s going be blowing my mind with awesomeness every moment of eternity! Every moment will be the most exciting day of our lives. But that’s just a mini-lesson that I had to share with you.
There is just one more lesson from this verse that I want to share with you. That is, it’s all about God. Who created the Heavens and the Earth? God did. Look at the rest of chapter one of Genesis. How often do you see the word “GOD”? It’s in just about every verse – 30 times in 31 verses. Why is that? It’s all about God. Genesis isn’t the story of creation – it’s the story of God.
In fact, the entire Bible is all about God. It’s not about Moses or Elijah or even the Isrealites. It’s the story about God and what He’s done and who He is and how He wants to be with us. That’s why the Bible starts off with “In the beginning God” – and I could add “In the middle God” and “In the end God”.
And it’s not just the stories in the Bible that are all about God – all of history is about God. Even the story of your life is ultimately about God. Now what do I mean by that? How is the story of your life ultimately about God?
Let me ask you a few questions:
- Who create you to the the unique person that you are? – God
- Who has sovereignly controlled every event of your life? – God
- And one day when you die, who will you stand before and give account to? – God
You see, life is not about getting a good job with a steady paycheck.
It’s not about having a big house and long vacations in exotic places.
It’s not about being someone important like a movie star or big time CEO.
Because at the end of your life here on earth – none of that will matter. The only thing that matters then is your relationship with….. GOD! It’s all about God.
I think of a few prestigious people like Princess Diana or Michael Jackson. They had wealth and fame – all the things the world seems to value. But when they died – none of that mattered. All that matters for them now is their relationship with God.
Now I don’t know where each of you stand today. I don’t know what your relationship with God is like, or if you even have one. But I can tell you this – there is a God who created the heavens and the earth. And He loves you like crazy and wants nothing more than to be with you for eternity.
If you have never trusted in Jesus to forgive your sins and you’ve never entered into that relationship with God, can I encourage you to do that today? You don’t need to be perfect – God’ll help you with that later, but for now He just wants you to take the first step.
And for those of you who already have a relationship with Christ, I have this question for you: What have you been doing with your life?
It’s easy to forget that life is all about God. Life is distracting and we lose focus on God and we work to gain that which has no eternal value. My father-in-law has a saying that I’ve come to appreciate. “It won’t matter in a thousand years.” When tractors break or the crops get hailed out – It won’t matter in a thousand years. Think about that – what have you done this week that will matter in a thousand years?
Think about how you’ve spent your money… How much of your money goes towards nice things for you that are here today – gone tomorrow? How much of your money goes towards things that will have eternal impact?
Or how about your time? What percent of your time is spend getting to know God or helping others get to know God? And what percent of your time is just lost?
Maybe think about your skills, talents, and abilities. How do you use them? Do you put your skills and abilities to use for God? Or are they really just wasted?
Don’t think that I’m preaching against buying nice things or going golfing or anything like that – those things are all fine and good. But just keep in mind that you only get one life to live – and only the things that you do for God will last. I can’t speak for you, but I don’t want to waste my life. I want to live my life to the fullest and have the maximum eternal impact that I can. I want to do lots of things that will matter in a thousand years. I want God to use my time, my money, my talents and abilities however He sees fit so that somehow God’s purposes will be accomplished through me.
So I want to leave you with this question: How will you live your life? Will you live it for yourself – filling your life with stuff that simply won’t matter in a thousand years? Or will you live it for your Creator – the God who creates monster stars out of nothing, and who loves you like crazy? The choice is up to you.