In the Beginning
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Children’s Message
How long has this been around?
So it hasn’t been around forever?
How do you know?
Daddy’s and Mommies will be learning about how God is self-sufficient. Do you know what that means?
If God is self-sufficient, all things we have in this world have come to us from God. This means we can trust God with everything in our lives.
We want to develop a strong world view. To develop a strong worldview, we must learn about the one who created the world, and what He has revealed about Himself through scripture.
Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1
What a fascinating point. The origin & beginning of it all. The beginning of the universe.
What do we learn about this time of the beginning?
God was present.
Not created, but already existing.
Why is this important?
To understand our origins.
To understand more about the God we worship.
The Greek philosopher Parmenides, who had huge influence on Plate made the statement,
“Out of nothing, nothing comes.”
“Out of nothing, nothing comes.”
Do you understand the implication of that statement?
If there is anything, then there had to be something.
There were to school boys, one asked who made the rocks? God made the rocks......who made God? God made himself.
That is a nonsensical statement, for self creation is an absurdity.
Evolutionists may believe in self creation.
We as Christians do not.
We believe in Self-existence.
God has always been. There never is a time when He didn’t exist.
In the beginning. When time first came into existence, God already was.
Aseity
Aseity
The Theological term for this is Aseity.
Aseity means that He has life in Himself and draws unending energy from Himself.
Because God is the creator of life and every aspect of life, there is nothing for Him to learn about life. He knows it all.
Because God is the source of all energy, He will never get depleted of energy or grow faint.
J.I. Packer- “In theology, endless mistakes result from supposing that the conditions, bounds, and limits of our own finite existence apply to God. The doctrine of his Aseity stands as a bulwark against such mistakes.”
What Packer is saying is that we will often project our limitations onto God, assuming that He is like us. This is incorrect.
You will see this in Mythology.
The Greek gods, Norse gods, Egyptian gods.
They all have a time of creation. They all have weaknesses. They even make mistakes like us.
Because their God’s were creations of mere men, men attributed their traits onto God.
The Aseity of God separates Yahweh, the one true God from the false ones.
It stands “as a bulwark” against us making a god in our own image.
It sets our God as the omnipotent, the all powerful one.
To often, we remove God from His throne.
We attribute wrong doing to God.
We limit His power.
We believe that He needs us, or needs our worship.
God didn’t create us out of a necessity of our worship.
He didn’t create us out of loneliness.
God created us out of love.
We are going to look at three different aspects of the Aseity of God.
God is eternal
God gives life
God isn’t in need
God is Eternal
God is Eternal
He has no beginning or end.
Psalm 93:2
2 Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
The rule of God isn’t something knew.
The order in the universe demonstrates that there is and has been a God, ruling over it.
For how long?
The Psalmist says from everlasting.
Before a time itself was created, God has been.
Revelation 4:8
8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
A magnificent picture in heaven.
These creatures making the statement:
Who was
Indicating past. From eternity old.
Who is
God exists now. He is on the throne now. Mankind is commanded to come under His rule, now!
Is to come
His rule will not end, it will continue on.
Psalm 102:25-28
Psalm 102:25-28
v.1-2
The Psalmist is in a time of distress, desiring to be delivered by God.
v.25-28
He finds hope knowing that God is the all powerful, everlasting God.
Though his circumstances seem bleak, they are only for a moment.
God has always been around. He is the one who laid the foundation of the earth.
If He laid the foundation. It’s because God had a plan.
For the world, and also for individuals.
If God has a plan, it will be carried out.
After this world is gone, God will remain.
His knowledge of God, knowing God was in control, not to just focus on the temporal, and that there was hope for the future.
This gave him hope to persevere.
God Gives Life
God Gives Life
Not only is God alive, but He is the one who distributes life to all.
From Him, all life comes.
Psalm 36:9
9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.
Life flows from God!
In the revelation of who God is, do we see everything else for what it is.
Everything else is revealed by the light of God.
Acts 17:22-28
Acts 17:22-28
v.24
The Power of God
He is the creator of all.
The greatness of God
He cannot be contained by a temple.
v.25
The Aseity of God
He doesn’t need anything.
He has everything needed contained within Himself.
He has the power of the very life we possess.
v.26-27
Why were you born in this time period, why do you live in Montana.
God ordained it, this is what is being said.
He gives us ways to come to know Him.
Not far
Though God is great and beyond our comprehension, the creator of all. God is also imminent. Near us and with us.
v.28
In Him we have our very being, our very life is because of the sustaining power of God.
John 14:6
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus stating that He is the one who has the power of life.
Jesus in this statement is claiming divinity, that is, He is claiming to be God by stating life is in Him.
He is the one who truth is derived from.
He is the only way to God.
God Isn’t In Need
God Isn’t In Need
We wrongly believe that God needs our worship.
That God survives on sacrifices.
This is due to the idea’s from pagan worship.
We see movies where the human’s offer the gods advice, or that the gods are learning.
This isn’t so with the one true God.
Romans 11:34-36
Romans 11:34-36
No one can know the mind of the Lord.
No one can offer Him counsel.
No one has ever done something so great that God is now in their debt.
All things are from God, through God.
He is the one deserving adoration and praise.
Colossians 1:17
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Through Christ, all things are being held together.
We think that He needs us, but He is the sustaining power that keeps all things together.
When we consider our God. Let us remember who He is. How great, and how marvelous He is.
Benediction:
Go with the Lord. And may our eternal God who holds all things, continue to preserve you with His perfect power.