We come to the Bible hungry for a fix—something for our problems, our inner turmoil, our next step. Genesis 1 and 2 refuse to make us the point. The story opens with four words that name the main character, and it isn’t you.
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The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
Pastor Nikomas emphasizes reading the Bible through the “upper story” (God’s overarching narrative) rather than just the “lower story” (individual human narratives). How does this framework change the way you read Scripture, and can you think of a passage or story that makes more sense when viewed through this lens?
The sermon identifies five key truths about God from Genesis 1–2: sovereignty, presence and activity, goodness and righteousness, delight in holy moments, and desire to be with humanity. Which of these attributes is most meaningful or challenging to you personally right now, and why?
Pastor Nikomas warns against reading the Bible as a self-help manual, horoscope, or fortune cookie focused on personal benefit. How do you typically approach Scripture reading, and how might shifting focus from “what does this mean for me?” to “who is God in this story?” transform your experience?
The sermon suggests that when we’re confused about God’s character or actions in Scripture, we should return to the “who” question rather than getting stuck on “what,” “how,” or “why.” Can you think of a biblical story or a current life situation where this approach might help resolve confusion or doubt?
The Bible’s story begins and ends with God dwelling with humanity—first in Eden, ultimately in eternity—with a “rocky middle” caused by humans shifting focus away from God. What does this say about God’s faithfulness, and how should it shape our trust in Him during difficult seasons?
God created sacred spaces like the garden and the Sabbath for relationship and delight. What holy moments or practices help you experience God’s presence, and how can we cultivate more of them together as a community?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Where did we lose our way? Our story? Born in the light? It was perfect. But we wanted more. Separated from the light, surrounded by darkness. From a garden of intimacy to the fiery kilns of Egypt. But He remembers the promise, the voice in the fire, the nation born in chains—the plagues, the blood, the exodus—stands still and watches the sea part.
Well, if nobody’s welcomed you yet, I want to be the first to welcome you to Harvester Christian Church. Glad you are here. We are one church; we’ve got three locations. We’ve got a location in Troy, Missouri. Welcome to those of you in Troy. We’ve got a location in O’Fallon, Missouri. Welcome to those of you in O’Fallon. We’ve got a location in St. Charles. Glad you are here as well.
My name is Pastor Nikomas Perez, and I get to be one of the pastors here at Harvester. We are starting a brand new series, and you showed up on day one, and I think you should give yourself some credit for that. Glad you’re here.
Some of you are like, I didn’t know it was day one of a new series. What are we talking about? Well, we’re going to be talking about something amazing. And in fact, before I introduce you to what we’re going to be talking about, I want to introduce you to something else if that’s okay.
I want to introduce you to the latest product on the market, the hottest product on the market right now. It is selling like hotcakes, and it is not the new iPhone. It is not a new software program. It is not a new AI technology. You want to see what it is? The hottest product on the market right now is…
Anybody get one of these yet? Anybody have one of these yet? Yeah, raise your hand if you got one. In fact, better yet, raise it up in the air if you brought it with you. All right, there we go. There’s a people who are ready for church, that’s ready for church.
Yeah, the Bible is the latest and hottest product on the market. And I’m not kidding about that. The Bible is one of the best-selling books of all time, but that doesn’t mean much in an era where nobody’s buying books, does it? Right now, there are very few people buying books.
But right now, this book in book form, with actual pages, in actual ink on the page, people are buying this like crazy. In fact, in 2025 alone, there were 19 million physical Bibles purchased. 19 million. And the interesting thing with that is that that’s a 21-year high. It’s the most Bibles that have been purchased in the last 21 years. Since 2019, the number of Bible sales have doubled. There’s something really interesting happening in our country right now.
Amen, give it up for the Bible. Yes, come on. You’re killing it. Good job.
The interesting thing about that is that right now all across our country, there’s this growing interest in it because people are experiencing hardships all over the place. We know that to be true—our countries divided, people are having outer turmoil, that they’re experiencing but also this inner turmoil, and they’re grabbing this book, and they think, well, maybe the problems for modern-day society aren’t found in modern-day culture, modern-day technology; maybe it’s found in ancient wisdom.
And people are buying this like crazy, and they’re reading it like crazy. Now, the problem with that is, while Bible sales are at an all-time high, so is Bible confusion. Anybody confused on what they read in the Bible? Anybody want to admit to that? Yeah, there’s some confusing stuff in this book.
And the problem with that, though, is people have this hunger and desire, but they don’t know how to read and how to process what they’re reading.
I was talking to someone recently, a young adult, and we just went out for coffee, and he was saying, like, you know, I’m new to the faith. I am new to reading the Bible, and I just started reading it not long ago, and I immediately want to pause them and be like, hold on, before you start reading the Bible. I got some things I need to tell you about the Bible. Don’t start at Genesis. That’s usually what I say. Don’t start at Genesis. Start in the New Testament with Jesus in the book of John. That will give you some context of who Jesus is, context on the Old and New Testament.
And before I could get that out, though, he’s like, I just started reading it and I’m already to the book of Isaiah. And if you know anything about the Bible, Isaiah is like, like halfway into the, like more than halfway into the book. And so I was just like, keep going. Go for it. But he hadn’t read the gospels yet. He hadn’t got to the Jesus part yet. And there was a lot of confusing stuff in there, and there is a lot of confusing stuff in there that requires context.
This book that we are reading is an important book. And so what I want to do over the next 20 weeks is I want to introduce you to the story of this book. But here’s what I want you to know first. I want you to know what this book is not.
This book, this Bible, is not basic instructions before leaving the Earth. Anybody learn that growing up? Like B-I-B-L-E, basic instructions before leaving Earth. That’s what I was taught in Sunday school, but it’s so much more than basic instructions. This is not just a manual on how to get out of this world that God has created.
That’s a wrong view of this book.
This book is not a good luck charm. This book is not a horoscope. So many people will open it up and be like, what’s today’s passage and what does it mean for me? God gave me that verse, and that’s what I needed for today. They read it like the horoscope in a newspaper, which is another old thing that used to be, never mind. You know, you don’t know a newspaper.
This book is not even just stories of wars, stories of kings and kingdoms. It’s not about laws and genealogies, even though we read that when we get stuck in there as well. This book is not about Moses. This book is not about David. It’s not about Peter, Paul, and Mary. I’m just testing ages today. That’s all I’m doing. This book is not a fortune cookie. It’s not a lucky charm. It’s not a peek into your future. It’s also not a quick self-help book.
And I think that’s probably why sales are at an all-time high, to be honest with you. Because the thought is, if I get this book and read it, my life will immediately become better. It’ll give me the thing that I need to do today to fix all the problems in my life.
This book is not about you and your problems. Ultimately, this book is about one thing: one person. It’s about God. This book is the story of God. He is the main character. You are not.
God is the main character of this book. And when you read it, you can’t read it through the filter of you, your life, your burdens, your problems, your successes, and your blessings. You have to read it through the filter of the main character.
If I were to sum up the story of the Bible in one sentence, I would do so like this: The Bible is the revelation of a God who refuses to give up on a wounded humanity, coming close to us through Jesus to make all things new.
That’s the story of the Bible.
The Bible is a revelation of the person, the character, the heart, the deeds, the stories of God. It’s Him. His story. He’s the main character. And in His story, He does create humans, so we are part of that story, but we are secondary characters in it. And our character is the wounded character. We are the extras who He is coming close to, through the person of Jesus, to make all of that new, to heal all of that, to bring everything back to the way it was meant to be.
From Genesis to Revelation, this is the story of God. From the first creation to the new creation, this is the story of God.
And we are going to take 20 weeks to look at that story. So welcome to week number one.
Let me explain to you how this series is going to be broken up. Twenty weeks is a long time, so we want to give it to you in bite-sized chunks. So we’re going to format this series into what we’re going to call five seasons.
We’re going to go through five seasons of the story. Think of it like a Netflix series, okay? There are five seasons, and each of those seasons is going to cover a section of the story of God, and each season is going to have four episodes, okay? Five seasons, four episodes equals how many total episodes? Twenty. Math majors. Yes, that’s what we’re gonna do.
And in this, what my hope is, is that we are not going to cover every single passage, every single book, every single question you have. What I want to do is give you God’s story and the bigger context that’s happening behind all of those passages, behind every single one of those books.
We’re going to be in a lot of them. We’re not going to be able to cover all of them, but what we are going to cover is the one story that matters most in every story. And that’s God’s story.
Think of it like this: an upper story and a lower story. This is how we’re gonna plow through this entire book.
In the Bible, there are two stories that are happening simultaneously. There’s the upper story that’s happening, which is what God is doing across time. This is the reason the Bible exists: to show you who God is and what He’s doing throughout all of time. This is the main story arc of the Bible.
But there’s also the lower story that is happening bit by bit, chapter by chapter, book by book. This is what is happening in our lives today, in the experience of humans.
And so this is where you’re going to see the story of Adam and Eve. You’re going to see the story of Abraham and Sarah. You’re going to see the story of Noah. You’re going to see the story of Jeremiah and David and Isaiah. And you’re going to see the Peter, Paul, and Mary, and John, and all of those other stories as well.
Those individual stories are the lower stories, but don’t miss that God is doing something through all of them.
And so the way I visualize it, maybe this is helpful, is like a timeline like this, that each of those books of the Bible serve a specific role in the story of the Bible.
But God is doing something throughout all of them.
The reason a lot of us get confused when we’re reading the Bible is because we jump back and forth. We grab a passage here, we grab a story there. We hear about Noah, then we hear about the day of Pentecost, and we hear about an individual story, and we’re confused. Well, what does this story mean for me today? I’m confused on this story. How does this make sense? And then we shut our Bibles and never read it again.
What we’re missing is the upper story that connects everything together: that oh, there is a creation that happens in this story. In this story, there’s a new creation that happens. How does all of this tie together? Oh, there is a people who are going through the waters of slavery at Exodus in this story, and then Jesus calls us through the waters, out of slavery, into baptism, into His name in this story. How does it all, what is God up to in the story? And that is the key question.
That will bring so much clarity to everything you read in the Bible. What is God up to in this story? Not what just happened in this story, but what is God doing behind the scenes?
The upper story and the lower story are important.
Now, one of the resources that is going to be helpful to you is this companion guide. And all three of our campuses out in the lobby, we have a companion guide that’s going to go through this series for the next 20 weeks. You could get this for $4 out there. There’s also a free PDF version of it if you want to print out 70-some pages on your own to bring with you. You can do that. That’s on our website as well.
But what this companion guide is going to give you is going to give you a place where you can take notes for each sermon series, and hopefully you guys will be taking notes on all of these. And then it’ll also give you some small group questions. It’ll point you to some of the classes and courses that we have coming up that’ll supplement this conversation, a lot of good stuff in there.
If you already have it, you can open up to page 12. That’s where today’s message is going to be in that companion guide. You ready to jump in? Are you ready to jump in?
Let me pray, and then we’re going to jump into season one, episode one.
Lord, thank you so much for this book. Thank you for what is happening in our country right now. God, I pray that as people begin to open this book and read through its pages that they get a good picture of who You are. And God, my prayer is that this series is something that brings You glory, brings honor to Your name, and makes Your story famous. God, I pray that You fill our churches with people who are desperate for You, hungry for You. And then God, fill our hearts and our minds with You. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Everybody say it with me. Amen. Amen.
Season one, episode one: A beautiful beginning.
This first season, what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be going from Eden to Exodus, Eden to Exodus. So grab your Bibles if you got them. And I hope you will bring your Bible every single week.
If you got your Bible with you, open it up to page one. That’s where we’re going to begin today. Page one. It should be the same page on all of your Bibles. Page number one.
What I want to do is, I want to look at Genesis chapters one and two today, and we’re going to pull out a few of these verses here. But if you’ve read Genesis chapter one and two, and most people have because they’ve tried to start at the beginning of the Bible, this is going to be familiar to you—that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That’s how the story begins.
And then in Genesis one, God begins to unfold how He creates those heavens and earth. And He breaks it down by a week. He starts with day one, goes to day two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven days. And that’s where we get our seven days in a week is right from the scriptures in God’s creation.
Now, the interesting thing about what God does is on each of these days, He creates something different. Now, He could have just spoken it all into existence at one time. But God doesn’t do that. He breaks it down day by day, and the very first thing that He does is He creates light. Says, God said, let there be light. And there was light. And He saw the light, and He called it good. And there was evening and morning, the first day.
It goes on to the second day and said, God created the skies and the sea. He took the atmosphere and He separated it from the waters. He saw what He did. He called it good. And there was evening and morning on the second day.
On the third day, God creates land. He moves some of the water aside. There is dry land now. And now all of a sudden we’ve got three contexts that exist. We’ve got this light that exists, but nothing in the light. We’ve got this sky and sea that exists but nothing in the sky and nothing in the sea. We’ve got this land that exists, but nothing on the land yet.
And so essentially what God does is, He creates context the first three days. The next three days, He fills the context. So day four, He fills the light in the sky with the planets, the moons, and the stars.
Day five, He fills the land, the sky, and the seas with the birds and the fish.
And then day… Oh, where am I? Six.
He fills the land with animals and man.
And so you see this parallel that’s happening.
And essentially, what it’s formatted in is this beautiful poetry of what God is doing in His creation.
And then we get to day seven and it says that God rested.
Now, I know what many of you are thinking right now. Nakomis, will you now tell us, did God create these in 24-hour days or over billions of years? What does the Bible say about that?
That’s immediately where the Western mind goes to.
We begin to see what God has done, and we begin to ask questions of it. God, is this 24-hour days? Was it really a week period or was it millions of years, millions of years, millions of years? Or God, how in the world can You create light, but there’s no sun yet? The sun’s not created until down here. How does that happen? God, why would You do it this way? What happened? Tell me all the science behind this.
And can I tell you, that is an unfortunate way to read Genesis chapters one and two.
But it’s how all of us read it—and I will tell you, this is how we read the Bible, and this is why we’re confused on it.
Because we get so consumed with what happened, how it happened in the story, why did it happen in the way that it happened, that we missed the most important question of the story.
The most important question of Genesis chapter one is not what, how, or why.
It’s who.
The who behind it all.
The beauty of this passage is not in what was created.
The beauty of the passage is in the creator himself.
Don’t miss the creator.
It’s making everything happening.
You know, when you’re reading the Bible, always start with God’s story, not your story.
Always start with who God is, not who you are and what you know or what information you lack.
Remembering the who of every single passage that you read, every single book that you read, that’s what makes the what, how, and why more manageable.
You’re going to read some stuff in the Bible that you’re so confused on.
And your confusion comes from why would that happen? Or what is going on? Or like when did this exactly happen?
You’re gonna have those questions.
Natural questions, good questions, but don’t forget the main question.
The main question is, who was behind all of this?
Who is in this?
When you can’t figure out the what, the how, or the why of a passage of scripture, go back to the who.
It’s the who that brings clarity to the entire scripture.
So today, here’s what I want to do.
I want to look at a few of these passages in Genesis chapters one and two, looking for the coup in the passage, not merely the what, or the how, or the why.
And when we look at the who, what we’re going to discover is this God who reveals Himself through not just this story, but every single passage, every single story, every single book from Eden all the way to eternity.
And that’s where your clarity is going to come from.
So, what?
Genesis chapters one and two reveals is fundamental to the way that you read the rest of the scriptures.
So the question is, what does it say about God?
And Genesis chapter one and two: what does it say about God?
What I want to do is I just want to pound through in this chapter five things that it says about God.
So you got to keep up with me. Are you ready?
Number one: write this down.
The very first thing we’re going to learn is that God is sovereign in all realms.
God is sovereign in all realms.
We see that in the very first few words.
“In the beginning, God…”
Not you, not planets, not earth, not problems, not darkness.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
What we see is that God is sovereign, in that sense, God has all-encompassing authority and rule over everything.
There is nothing that existed before Him.
It says, “In the beginning, God created”—not, “In the beginning, God was created,” not, “In the beginning, God began to exist.”
It was in the beginning. God was already there.
Nothing else was there.
Nobody else was there, which means God reigns above everything because He is the eternal God of everything.
There is no beginning, no end.
He has all-encompassing authority and rule.
And so we see that He is sovereign, but then it shows what He’s sovereign over.
He’s sovereign over His realms, which is heaven and earth.
In the beginning, He didn’t just create the physical world, He created the spiritual world.
Which means God is God and sovereign over all things spiritual.
But all things physical, God is sovereign over all things visible and invisible.
He is sovereign over all powers, all rulers, all authorities of all time, everywhere.
God is sovereign in all realms.
Nothing existed before Him.
Nothing is above Him.
Nothing is equal to Him. Nothing overwhelms Him.
And nothing can overthrow Him.
God cannot be outvoted.
And His purposes cannot be defeated.
God, no matter what it looks like in any of these stories of the Bible.
And God, no matter what it feels like in any of your stories of your life, God is always winning.
Church, God is always winning because God is always sovereign over all things in all realms.
He’s never losing.
God is never worried.
When you read some of these stories you’re going to be very worried.
The people are going to be very worried.
God sits in peace, not being worried at all, because His will will be accomplished.
His will on heaven and on earth will be accomplished according to His will.
And there’s going to be times that you read this and you’re like, ah, but I don’t know.
How could that be God?
Like, if I were God, I would do things a little bit different.
Have you ever read the Bible and thought that?
Like, oh, I’m not sure I would do it that way, God.
God, I feel like, if I were over everything, and You answer to me, God, here’s how this story would unfold.
Or here’s how my story would unfold.
Here’s what You need to know.
Right off the bat, what we’re taught: God is sovereign over everything, including you.
Jay Vernon McGee once put it this way, and I love this quote of his. He says, “This is God’s universe. And God does things His way. You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe.”
And so if you’re living under God’s sovereignty, on heaven or in earth, on our heaven or earth, and you are under His reign, which you are, it doesn’t matter because this is His universe and He rules it.
Very first thing we learn: God is sovereign in all realms.
Number two.
We see this in the next few verses.
We see that God is present and active in all circumstances.
God is present and active in all circumstances.
It says it this way in Genesis one, verses 2 and 3.
It says, “The earth was formless 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.”
Now, get this image of these two verses.
We got this God who reigns over everything, but He doesn’t just reign over it.
He reigns in it.
Notice it says that He’s creating the heavens and the earth and it starts out in this utter darkness.
It’s without form, it’s void, and darkness was everywhere. But what was in the darkness? What was hovering over the darkness? The Spirit of God.
Was there even in the darkness?
And then it goes on to say that in the middle of the darkness, God wasn’t just present, but He was active. He speaks into the darkness, let there be light, and the light switch was turned on.
God isn’t just merely watching what He creates.
God isn’t distant and uninvolved in what He creates.
God is actively speaking.
He’s creating and He’s turning darkness into light.
Now, this is important to grab as you read the scriptures because there’s going to be some dark things you read in here.
There’s going to be some dark times of history in here, and the assumption is going to be, “God, where are You?”
In fact, you get into the Psalms, and that comes up over and over again.
The Psalms—the human heart crying out in the darkness, “God, where are You? When will this burden be lifted from me? When will You show up and do something good? God, where are You?”
What we’re told right off the bat is God is there.
He’s present in the darkness of the scriptures.
He’s present in the darkest times of your life.
He’s not just present, but He’s active. He’s never a distant observer.
When you’re unsure of God’s presence or activity in the Bible or in your story, remember that being in the dark doesn’t mean that God is absent.
He’s always present, always active.
And one of the things that you’re going to see is that God does some of His best work in the dark.
That’s when God shows up and does some of His best work, and He turns on the light.
He’s present and active in all circumstances.
Bar none.
Third thing we see in Genesis chapter one is this.
God is good and right in all He does.
God is good and right in all He does.
As you read those lower story stories, as you get through the books of the Bible, one of the things that you’re going to have to come back to is, even though I don’t understand what’s happening right now, even though I’m confused by what’s happening in this story, even though I would do things different than what God would do it, here’s what I need to remember: God is good and active. He’s displaying His goodness, His action but also that He is right and righteous in everything that He does.
It says it this way in verse 31 of chapter one: after He’s created everything, He’s gone through all the days of creation. It says that God saw everything that He had made.
And behold, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
God saw everything that He made in heaven and on earth.
And what did He say about it?
It was very good.
You know why He says it’s very good?
Because everything that God does is very good.
If God does it, it’s good.
Not just some of it.
Not just a portion of it.
Not just at times it’s good.
Everything God does is good, and it’s right.
God sees everything that He’s created.
He declares it good.
And everything that God creates, commands, and provides, it’s consistently good because God himself is consistently good.
What you’re going to see in the scriptures is a good God, a just God, a righteous God.
And when something about God seems bad or something about God seems wrong, the deficiency is not in God, and it’s not in God’s character.
Typically, where the deficiency is, it’s in our understanding of what God is doing in the story. It’s in our understanding of who God is in the story.
It’s in our deficiency of what God is up to throughout the entire story of the scriptures.
The deficiency is in us, in our limited understanding, our limited perspective.
I think we would all agree that we tend to overestimate our goodness. You tend to overestimate your goodness. You believe that if you were God of every one of these stories, things would be a lot better.
We overestimate who we are, and we underestimate the goodness of God.
God is always good.
God is always right every single time.
Fourth thing that we see is this: God delights in holy moments.
In Genesis chapter two, we get to the seventh day, and we see this God who is delighting in what He’s created.
When it says this, on the seventh day, God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.
So God blessed the seventh day.
And He made it holy.
Because on it, God rested from all of His work that He had done in creation.
He gets to the seventh day.
He looks at all that He’s created, and He’s like, this is awesome.
I love what I’ve just done.
I bless this.
I bless the light.
I bless the stars and the moon and the land and the creation and the animals and the plants and the fish and the mankind.
I bless it all.
It is so good.
He says, this is sacred.
What I’ve just created is holy.
It’s a holy place, a holy thing.
And on it, God rests.
Now, what I love about this is that, from the beginning, God has been a God of delight.
God has created these moments in these places where He can delight in what He’s done, but also that humans can delight in what He’s done as well.
And so what you’re going to see throughout scripture, as we go through these stories, is that God calls us to meet Him in sacred moments, in these holy spaces so that we can find delight in Him.
And that’s what the seventh day is.
On the sixth day, man was created.
On the seventh day, man didn’t go to work.
What did he do?
He rests with God to delight in being with God in this holy moment.
And so throughout the rest of scripture, God takes these places and calls mankind into Him.
That’s why you’re going to see God’s holy moments happen.
These sacred places happen in gardens and deserts.
Both holy moments, holy spaces.
You’re going to see holy moments happen in temples, but also in houses and in homes.
You’re going to see holy moments in song.
And you’re going to see holy moments in sacraments, of people gathering together, calling it holy, and focusing not on ourselves, but focusing on God.
In fact, this week, we’re going to have one of those holy moments.
At all three of our campuses, we’re going to be having encounter nights where we’re going to come together in Troy, O’Fallon, and at St. Charles, and just call it holy. That this will be a holy moment.
Wednesday at 7 p.m., where all we do is create space to be with God—not to work with God, not to do something for God, but just to be with God in a holy moment because God delights in holy moments.
And He calls us into those moments so that we can delight in Him in those moments as well.
The fifth thing that we learn in Genesis chapters one and two is this: not only does God delight in those holy moments, but God desires to be with humanity.
God desires to be with humanity, and not just in holy moments, but in the hard moments as well.
God’s heart is to be with humanity.
In Genesis chapter two, we get this picture of God creating this beautiful beginning, this garden of Eden.
And it says, “The Lord planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed.”
And out of the ground, the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
Now, don’t miss how He’s explaining this.
He’s saying, I’m creating this beautiful garden that is beautiful visually and beautiful to the senses.
I want it to be a delight to you.
I want it to be a romantic place where we can come together in this place and commune together.
And He says, the tree of life was in the midst of the garden.
It’s this tree that gives life, but also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Foreshadow to next week—you want to stay away from that one, okay?
But what we see here is this God who creates this context for mankind.
Now, if you remember days one, two, and three, there were these spaces and context that He filled.
On days four, five, and six, there was a context that was filled.
Same thing happens here.
God creates a context, the garden of Eden, and then He creates mankind and puts mankind in there.
But when He creates mankind, it says that He created mankind differently.
He created them in His image.
In the image of God, He created them.
Male and female, He created them.
And the emphasis of this passage is that God puts Himself onto this part of creation.
He puts His image, His likeness onto this part of creation.
And it’s almost like this father-son, father-daughter moment where He looks at them and He says, in you I see me.
You ever looked at a father-son couple, a pairing, and you’re like, man, he looks just like his father.
That child looks just like his dad.
That’s what God is going for here.
He’s like, when creation looks at you, what I want them to see is a reflection of me.
When they hear your voice, I want them to hear my voice.
When all of creation that I’ve made, sees you in the way that you act, they should see a reflection of me, in my heart and how I would act.
He creates this garden.
He puts mankind into it.
And He invites mankind to join Him there in relationship.
And this is the beautiful beginning of creation.
The story of God begins with God dwelling with us in the garden.
The story of God ends with God dwelling with us for eternity.
Now, if you know the rest of the story, all the in-between stuff, it gets a little rocky. It gets a little rocky.
But I’ll tell you this: it’s not because God walks away.
It’s because man takes their eyes off of the main character of the story.
All of a sudden, Adam and Eve believe that they’re the main characters, that the other things that God created were more desirous than actually being with God Himself.
God’s heart is to be with mankind, and to be with them for eternity.
You know, as we read Genesis chapters one and two, the question that we should be asking is, who is God?
So, who is God?
If someone were to ask you that question, maybe a friend who doesn’t believe in God.
They came up to you and said, who do you say that God is? What would you tell them? What would you tell them about God?
When a friend says, “Well, I read this story in the Bible, and there’s all these people who die, and so God must be X, Y, Z.” Who would you tell them that God is? Who do you believe that God is?
Right off the bat, what we’re told is that God is sovereign. He rules above all things. There’s no king who rules above Him.
He’s king of kings and lord of lords.
He’s over them all.
I would say God is present.
He’s here, He’s active.
He didn’t just wind up the clock and let it go and walk away.
He’s present and active in your life.
God is good.
And God is right in all that He does.
And God delights in moments: moments like this, where we’re set apart from the world, and we just focus completely on Him and His story.
He delights in moments like this.
And He wants to be in moments like this.
But He also wants to be in the hardships as well.
And He wants to be present and active in those hardships, and He wants to be sovereign over all things in those hardships.
He wants to display His goodness, in His rightness, in the middle of all of those hardships.
This is the story of the Bible.
This is the God that we see in the Bible.
You know, I’m a pastor, and so I know this is nerdy, but hopefully it’s understandable because I’m a pastor.
One of my favorite things to do is read the Bible.
I don’t just read it for my morning five minutes.
There’s a little part of me that’s addicted to reading this thing.
I love reading it.
I love taking notes in it.
I love circling and highlighting and tying things back and referencing from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
It’s just so fascinating of a book to me.
I’ve been reading it for many decades now and I can’t get enough of it. I can’t get enough of it.
And I’ll tell you the reason why is not because I like to read.
I do not like to read.
I’m a typical guy.
I’d rather be doing something with my hands than sitting and reading.
But I’m addicted to this.
And it’s not because I love information.
I do enjoy information.
I enjoy the trivial facts of the scripture.
I enjoy explaining it, but that’s not why I’m addicted to it.
The reason I’m addicted to it and the reason I keep coming back to it, and the reason I miss it when I go through seasons of not reading, is because when I open these pages and read these stories, I’m not just reading about Stephen and Moses and David.
I read these stories and I sense the God of all creation present in every single story.
That He’s there.
And when I read it, it’s as if I’m communing with Him, in a holy moment.
Where I can hear His voice.
I can see His face, I see the worry of the people in the story, and I just want to jump into the story and say, but don’t you know that God is present? And don’t you know that God is so stinking good?
And I want to jump into the book of Jeremiah where He’s just crying out for the Lord to come and save and rescue them.
And I want to say, don’t you know that Jesus, He’s coming?
And He’s going to be present and He’s so stinking good.
The reason this book is so powerful is not because of the ink on the page, it is because of the God that it talks about.
And so I don’t know who you think this God is.
But man, He’s sovereign over all things.
He’s present and He’s active.
He’s good and He’s just.
He delights in these, He delights in being with us.
And He calls us to read this word, to commune with Him.
I think one of the dangers of scripture is reading it through a filter of who we are instead of who God is.
I think it’s so easy to read these stories of the Bible and project ourselves onto them.
And so we read a story and we say, well God, You are angry.
Maybe He’s not angry.
Maybe I’m angry.
And I’m projecting that onto God.
I think that’s typically what’s happening.
Or I go through this world and I feel isolated and I feel alone.
And so then I read this and I project that onto God.
Well, if I feel isolated alone, it must mean that You’re far away.
Or that You’re apathetic, that You don’t even care.
Or I read these stories, and I get confused, and I don’t understand how it all works.
And so I project that onto God.
If I can’t understand it, then You don’t know what You’re doing.
You must be wrong, You must not know how to work things out for the good.
We project ourselves onto Him, but I’ll tell you this.
God is not us.
He is so much better than us.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
When someone asks you, who is God, who would you say He is?
Dallas Willard, He says this about God.
He says, “Undoubtedly, God is the most joyous being in the universe.”
Great tidal waves of joy must constantly wash through His being.
Juliana of Norwich says this about God.
God’s completely relaxed and courteous, radiating measureless love like a marvelous symphony.
Do you know this God?
Do you know the God of Genesis one and two?
Augustine?
St. Augustine of Hippo, He was this fabulous theologian.
He came to Christ later on in life, and He fell in love with Christ later in life, and just reflecting back on God and reflecting back on his life, He says this:
“Late have I loved You, O beauty ever ancient, ever new.
Late have I loved You.”
Friends, it’s not too late to know this God.
It’s not too late to know Him today.
Today could be your beautiful beginning.
Amen?
Amen.
Would you stand with me? Let’s pray.
Lord, I’m incredibly aware of Your presence in this space right now.
Incredibly aware that You are here, that Your voice is spoken through the reading of Your word.
God, we’ve just gotten a glimpse of who You are and Your creation.
And God, my prayer is that we grab a hold of that.
And we take that into whatever comes next today.
That You’re sovereign over today, that You’re present and active in today, that You are good and just today, that You delight in being with us today.
God, let us take that into today and tomorrow.
Let us take that into our prayer times.
Let us take that into our scripture reading times.
God, let us take that into our relationships and our connections with the people around us, and our families, and our home in this church.
God be God.
Be You.
And God, when we see You, I pray that that just brings us to our knees in submission to You, Your sovereignty, and Your goodness.
It’s in Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
Amen.
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