The Beginning Of Life As We Know It.

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• A boy was asking his father how women came into being, so the father picked up the bible and it said, “: “God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and he pulled out his brains and made the woman.” Oh, wait son, this is your mothers bible!

• I want to welcome you to FCC today as begin our journey through The Story!

• I hope you have read chapter 1, if you do not have a copy of The Story, we will get you one after the service free of charge!

• As we go through The Story together, I pray that for some of us for the first time we will understand how we fit into God’s Story and that we will understand the important part we play.

• Today we are going to embark on a 31-week journey together as we seek to find out how we fit into God’s Story!

• SLIDE #2

• The beginning of our story begins between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Garden of Eden.

• Inside the front cover of your copy of The Story, you will find this map and you can draw a tree to represent this beginning.

• Later in our message when we talk about Noah, you can draw a boat a bit North of Assyria to represent Noah.

• We begin with the Beginning, the beginning of life as we know it.

• The beginning of our journey through the story of the Bible is important; it is like the beginning of an action-packed movie.

• If you miss the opening minutes of a movie with its fast-paced scenes, you will not understand the rest of the story. It is the same with the Bible’s grand Story.

• The Story opens with a “big bang.” Not the “big bang” of evolutionary theory, but the “big bang” of the revelation of God Who is the main character of the Grand Story.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

I. The Bible Story opens with the “big bang” of creation.

• Look at the opening words of the Bible. There was a “Big Bang”, but not the Big Bang some espouse.

• SLIDE #4

• Genesis 1:1 (NIV) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

• The opening verse of the Bible introduces us to the Story’s main character: God.

• The “Big Bang” is not an impersonal accidental explosion, but rather the creative nature and purpose of a personal God!

• The “Big Bang” of creation is presented poetically and artistically!

• I just want to show you Genesis 1:3 as an example.

• SLIDE #5

• Genesis 1:3 (NIV) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

• This is how creation happened, God spoke it out of nothing and then something appeared! It was not accidental explosion in which order came out of chaos.

o Days 1, 2, and 3 are places created by God.

 Day 1—Light and Dark

 Day 2—Sky and Water

 Day 3—Land

o Days 4, 5, and 6 those places are filled with the things the places were created for.

 Day 4—Sun and Moon/stars

 Day 5—Birds and Sea creatures

 Day 6—Animals and human beings

• Then we see the BIG BANG of creation concludes with God’s core passion: human beings!

• God’s core passion is people made in God’s image.

• SLIDE #6

• Genesis 1:26–27 (NIV) 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind 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, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

• When God created everything else, there is no mention of Him creating it in His image; that privilege was saved for mankind. YOU are created in the image of God.

• Can you fathom how much you mean to God? Our children as special to us because they are made in our image, we can see ourselves in them. Even children you adopt even if the physical attributes are not shared, they have you in them.

• All the beauties of creation are secondary to YOU! This truth us a self-esteem builder. This is what gives real self-esteem to a person, knowing that God loves and values them!

• God’s supreme passion is to be with us at ALL costs, even at the cost of His Son Jesus!

• SLIDE #7

• Next we see…

II. The Bible Story continues with the “big bang” of the Fall.