Wednesday, April 7, 2010

By Faith . . . Believing God Created, Part 3 of 12

TEXT: "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" (Hebrews 11:2).

IDEA: We need to know about the beginnings in order to know who and what we are.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate what it means to believe that God created both them and the universe.

Have you met people that you can't quite figure out?  What do you do?

• You ask them some questions.
• What kind of questions?
• What do you want to know about that person?

I. We get to know people when we have some insight about where they came from.

Suppose you learn that the person grew up in a small town in Mississippi in a dirt-poor family with five children. The father deserted the family after the last child was born. The mother struggled to rear them.  The person you're talking to had to drop out of school to help earn money for the family.  Would that help you know the person?  How?

Suppose the person you want to know grew up in New England in a wealthy upper-class family. Both father and mother inherited fortunes and the father served three terms in the United States Senate. The person attended private schools, then an Ivy-league university.  While at the university he was a member of the rowing team for three years.  Would that help you?

Jesus came from "Nazareth." What did people assume about him?

II. Why are we interested in where all of us came from?

"Where did people come from" is a fundamental question of life. Why?

Is that the same question as "How did we get here?"

III. When we believe that the universe was formed at God's command, what are we saying about us, the people he made?

We are not the product of chance, but of design.

We are not the result of impersonal forces, but of a creator greater than the forces at work in the universe.

Does that make any difference in how we see ourselves?