Sunday AM—7/3/05
SERIES: Genesis—The First Soap Opera
MESSAGE 1: Creation Vs. Evolution—You Don’t Have To Be A Monkey To Believe In A Creator
Felt Need Intro:
Good morning! I hope you are doing great this morning. We’re going to begin a message series this morning that’s a little different than we normally do on Sunday mornings. On Wednesday nights, we like to try to pick on book of the Bible and work our way through it, passage by passage. It really is the best way to study the Bible. It lends itself well to discussion and interaction as we ask questions about the verses we’re studying, figure out what it meant for them back then, what it means for us today, and what we’re going to do about it. I encourage you to come on Wednesdays if it all possible. We just finished a series on the book of Daniel. Well, we’re going to do something on Sunday mornings that I thought we might enjoy and that I think might just benefit us all. We’re going to begin a message series on the very first book of the Bible…the book of Genesis.
If you’ve never read the book of Genesis, then you really are missing out. It has some really important and some really interesting stuff in it. Genesis has 50 chapters, so we aren’t going to be able to cover every story…aren’t you grateful for that? But, we will look at some of the highlights and some of the low lights…learning from great things that happened and from some bad things that happened. If you’ve never really got into the book of Genesis before, you’ll probably be surprised at some of the stuff that’s in it. Every time I read it, I think this ought to be on prime time television. Sometimes Genesis appears more like a soap opera than it does a book of the Bible. But, all the way through we see how God is beginning to work in the lives of men and women that will turn to him.
So, this morning we begin our message series called, “Genesis: The First Soap Opera”. And with Genesis, you must start with chapter 1. The beginning of it all. So, today we are going to look at God creating the world with a message called, “Creation Vs. Evolution—You Don’t Have To Be A Monkey To Believe In A Creator.”
Would you open your Bibles with me to Genesis 1?
This morning we are going to read the first chapter, but what I’d rather us do is for all of us to read the book of Genesis together as a church. I would like for everyone in our church to read one chapter a day, starting today. How many of you would be willing to take the Genesis Challenge and do your best to read one chapter a day. If you do that it will take you seven weeks to read it and you will have read the entire book of Genesis in less time than our series will last. My plan is to also get others involved and let them share on portions of Genesis that they enjoy or that challenge them.
Before we read together, let me show you something. I was in a training session at work where they showed some of these videos. It’s some TV commercials from a business called careerbuilder.com. Strangely enough, this is ironically similar to what my job is like during the week…
Show videos:
• Careerbuilder.com Monkey videos
The whole point of these videos of course is to use humor as a way to get you to use their website to find your next job. There’s always someone at work that just monkey’s around all the time or someone you just don’t get along with. Sometimes that’s enough to make you want a new job. Well, the whole point is that we aren’t supposed to work with monkeys. And if your job makes you work with monkeys, come to us, because we can help you find a better job.
Here’s the interesting thing though…there’s a theory out there that says that maybe we should be more tolerant of those monkeys. Why is that? Because they are our ancestors. We came from monkeys right? Isn’t that what evolution says?
There are lots of views and there have been hundreds of books written about where we all came from. But, there are three major views out there about how life came into being.
1. Evolution
Evolution claims that all of life came from one simple cell that just evolved over a period of millions and millions of years. Strict believers in evolution totally deny the existence of God as a Creator. Life just evolved and cell turned into scum which turned into tadpoles which turned into fish which turned into monkeys which turned into humans. Now, it’s not quite like that but basically it is. Life came into existence on it’s own.
2. God-Directed Evolution
Basically, this says that evolution happened, but that God caused it to happen. So, everything evolved just like believers in evolution say, but it was God that caused life to evolve.
3. Creation
This is what the Bible teaches, and what I want to present to you this morning. This is the belief that God created the world and all life forms through a series of supernatural acts.
Why is this so important? Do we really need to talk about this? Well, if we are going to study Genesis we certainly need to. There are those of us that have always believed in creation. But, there are some here that hear the message of evolution and it can be confusing. Science points towards evolution and only the Bible points towards creation right? Well, I would like to tell you this morning that this is actually wrong. Science and the Bible aren’t in conflict like lots of people would have you to believe.
But, why is this such a big deal? Well, if evolution is true, then…
• God does not exist. You can stop asking for his help in your life. An article in Time Magazine said this, “Charles Darwin (the father of evolution and the author of the Origin of Species)…Charles Darwin didn’t mean to murder God, but he did.” If evolution is true, it’s not that God is dead. It’s that God never was.
• There’s no life after death.—If we just evolved then there is nothing after death. You better live it up because it’s all over after this life.
• There’s no absolute right or wrong.—It’s up to you to decide what’s right and wrong. If we just evolved, then who says murder, rape, and abuse is wrong? If no there is no Creator, then there is no Creator to model life after.
• There’s no ultimate meaning for life.—Do whatever you want. It’s all really a waste. Life has no meaning. You’re just going to live for a little bit and then die.
Here’s the good news. We believe that evolution is not true. And there is more to life than just living and dying. So, here is “Creation Vs. Evolution—You Don’t Have To Be A Monkey To Believe In A Creator”…
Let’s Read Genesis 1.
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
If you think about it, the Bible really has a pretty exciting beginning. From the very beginning the Bible clearly answers a question that our world has always been trying to find an answer for, “Where did we all come from?” The Bible says we came from God. But, what’s really true? People try to make us believe that science points towards Darwin’s theory of evolution. Here’s the problem with evolution…
• Evolution Isn’t Telling The Truth
It turns out that most modern findings of contemporary science have established that science and faith are not at war – but that science, when done right, points powerfully toward the existence of a God who happens to match the description of the God of the Bible.
It was a stunning affirmation of what the Bible says about God in Colossians 1:16: “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible... everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” [The Message paraphrase]
Sir Fred Hoyle, professor of astronomy at Cambridge University—“The chance that higher life forms might have emerged by chance is comparable to the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 airplane from the materials therein. The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one out of 10 with 40,000 zeros after it. It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution.”
• Evolution Leaves No Room For A Conscious
If I were to bring a cat up here and beat it to death, how would you feel? Where did you get that feeling from? We all have a mind, we have thoughts, feelings, emotions, beliefs. We have the ability to choose what we do with our lives, good or bad. You can think and have faith. There is something inside all of us that says certain things are wrong. Whether it’s harming animals or cheating on our spouse or murdering someone or taking advantage of the needy or whatever else we think is inhumane and wrong…where did we get that from? You can’t get something from nothing. It just can’t happen. If the universe began with dead matter having no conscious, how did we get to what we have today in our human mind? But, if we believe everything started with God, then we have no problem explaining that do we?
• Evolution Claims To Be The Most Rational Theory, When In Fact It Is Totally Irrational
We are told that if we deny evolution and claim that God made everything, that we are the most uneducated, backwoods, ignorant people in the world. Evolutionists believe it is totally irrational to have faith in God. You’ve probably heard this before, but in order to not have faith in God, you have to have faith in evolution. It takes more faith to believe we all just came from nothing than it does to believe that there’s a loving Creator out there that made us.
Examples:
• Coke
• Building—Creation demands a creator. A building demands a builder. I could try to convince you that this building just fell together, but no matter how hard I try the argument falls apart.
• Cow
• Chicken
It’s clear that you don’t have to be a monkey to believe in a creator.
What Does Creation Teach Us About God?
• We learn that God can create something out of nothing.
• We learn that when God says it, that settles it.
• We learn that God created us with a purpose. There is meaning to life. The purpose of creation is to know the creator.
• We learn that God can do anything.
• We learn that you don’t have to be a monkey to believe in creation. Smart, intelligent, rational people can be Christians and believers in creation. Science continually points towards a creator not against one.
• We learn once again that we can trust God’s Word.
Closing:
Mike and Chere, would you guys come back for me?
• Evolution says Life is Chance. Creation says God created with intelligence and design
• Evolution says you’re just an overgrown ape. Creation says you were made in the image of God.
• Evolution can’t place any value on love. Creation says God loves beauty, and love is meaningful.
• Evolution-survival of the fittest. Creation and scripture reveal that God looks out for the weak, the beaten up, the hurting.
• Evolution says Jesus is a fraud. The bible says he created us and wants to recreate us.
Albert Einstein—“We either see nothing in life as a miracle, or everything as a miracle.”
I couldn’t ask for better scientific proof that a Creator exists than to have creation in front of me. To be totally honest, you don’t need much faith to believe in a Creator—all I need is eyes that can see and a brain that works. If however, I want the creator to do something for me, then I need to have faith in him. This is where faith enters…
Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarded of those who diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6)
If God did create the world, here’s what that means… (the reverse of what we said earlier)
• God does exist.
• There is life after death.
• There is a set of standards to show us right and wrong.
• There is an ultimate meaning for life.
Altar Call:
1. Salvation—God made me to know him. I know that if he made me, I should be serving him.
2. There are times that I struggle with doubt, but I am encouraged this morning because if God could create the world around me he can do something inside of me.
3. There’s something I need to give to God this morning and I’m encouraged because I know that he can help me.
