Saturday, October 27, 2018

2018.10.27 Hopewell @Home ▫ Genesis 1:20-23

Questions for Littles: What is God doing at the beginning of v20? What does He say? What does He command to fly above the earth? Did they exist yet? Before the face of what do they fly? From what did God create the great sea creatures (v21)? What else did He create from nothing? What did the waters do with them? According to what were they created? According to what were the winged birds created? What did God do them in v22? And what did He command them to do? Then what came (v23)? And then what came? And what did that conclude?
In the Scripture for tomorrow’s sermon, we’ll be hearing about God “bara”-ing again: creating from nothing. Whether it’s ancient near-eastern religions or “modern” science, so many have tried to explain the great variety and abundance of life as coming from the sea.

But Scripture tells us the reason that there is such an abundance and variety—NOT because the sea has such power to produce life, but because God commanded that abundance to exist there, then created it out of nothing to exist there.

Have you ever seen a school of fish on a nature show or a giant flock of birds during migration? There can be no doubt that the sea and the sky are FULL of thriving life. But rather than being an indication that the sea is very “fertile,” it is a display of our Lord’s delight in abundant life.

In fact, the Lord commands these new creatures to be fruitful and to multiply. When we hear the same thing to man on Day 6, we will understand that the Lord wants this world to be FULL of image-bearing, God-glorifying, in-God-delighting people.

There’s a how-much-more argument here. God is already displaying His delight in multiplying abundance on day four. Now, if that was true of birds and fish, how-much-more is it true of man on day six?

Why emphasize this point? Because we live in a world where anti-theists—and, sadly, even many professing Christians—speak and act as if there are already too many people in the world. Christians should be a people who choose people over rare insect ecosystems, children over possessions and vacations, who fight abortion and euthanasia with all that they are—who love life.
What kind of people are you most likely to despise? How should that change?
Suggested Songs: ARP8 “Lord, Our Lord” or TPH8B “Lord, Our Lord, in All the Earth”

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