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Hi, this is Pastor Tom Holliday, and I want to welcome you to the beginning of
our study of the book of Genesis and daily drive time devotions. I'm very
excited about this study we're going to be doing together over the next several
weeks. The book of Genesis is the book of foundations of everything, of our
faith, of God's creation of us, of the way that God works in our daily lives.

It's an incredibly important book for daily life, and as we walk through this
book, as you have been in daily drive time devotions, many of you, you know that
we go through usually a chapter a week of a book. Well, Genesis is 50 chapters.
As an Old Testament book, we're going to go through it a little bit differently.

Like we did the book of Proverbs, for instance, we're going to go through this
book a chapter a day. Now, I know that may seem like a quick look through the
book of Genesis, but the truth of the matter is this book is written so that it
goes back and reinforces and reinforces and reinforces the truths. So as we look
through a chapter a day of the book of Genesis, we're going to see how God is at
the center of everything.

The story of Genesis is a story that's really the story of families. In Genesis
1, 1 to 2, 3, you get the story of creation. In chapter 2 through chapter 5, you
get the story of the family of Adam and Eve.

In chapter 6 through chapter 10, you get the story of Noah. Beginning in chapter
12 through chapter 25, you get the story of Abraham. 25 to 28 is the story of
Isaac and his family.

28 to 36 is the story of Jacob and his family. And 37 to 50 is the story of
Joseph and his family. It's the story of families and how God works in
incredible, amazing ways in families.

And what you see in the first generation is multiplied in the succeeding
generations in empowering, powerful ways. The book of Genesis, Genesis is the
Greek word for beginning. So let's start at the beginning, these powerful words.

In the beginning, Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface
of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, let there be
light. And there was light.

God saw the light was good and He separated the light from the darkness. God
called the light day and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and
there was morning, the first day.

Now in all these chapters of Genesis as we walk through, we're not going to read
all of the verses. I'm going to leave that to you to go back and read through
each chapter, each day as we do this study. The second day as you continue to
read through Genesis, God creates sky.

The third day, land and plants. The fourth day, sun, moon and stars. The fifth
day, animals and sea and sky.

The sixth day, animals on land and man. As you look at this incredible first
chapter of the book of Genesis, it's all about how God wants to be at work in
our lives. There are five foundational, powerful, purposeful truths in this
chapter.

And then a sixth one in the next chapter we're going to get to tomorrow. The
first foundational, powerfully personal truth is in Genesis 1, 1. And it's God
in the beginning.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Ten English words,
seven words in the Hebrew language that this was first written in. Ten words
that answer four fundamental questions every person faces.

What is all this that I see around me? How did it all begin? When did it begin?

And who is behind it all? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. It's God in the beginning.

And when you get a hold of that every single day of your life, you've got
strength to live every single day of your life. God is in the beginning of
creation, but he's also to be in the beginning of my life, my day, my decisions,
my everything. It's God in the beginning.

And then Genesis 1, 1 also tells us a second, foundationally personal truth.
It's God's word to start the day. As you read through Genesis 1, it's God said
and it happened.

God said and it happened. God said and it happened. It's one of the most
striking things in this chapter.

God said sky. There was sky. God said birds.

There were birds. Is this a poetic way of stating the natural processes that God
used? No.

He said it and it happened. To miss that is to miss the most essential truth
about creation. To miss that is to miss what people are discussing.

God created everything out of nothing. God did it. What materials did he use to
create?

Nothing. Just his word. Now, I know that's very difficult for us to grasp.

For us, because for us creativity is rearranging the things that God has made.
We take some materials that God has made, some wood or some stone, we rearrange
it and we say that we have created something. Well, not really.

We've rearranged things that were already created. We put them together in a
different way. For God, creation is making it all out of nothing.

You know what that means? That means that everything, everything in creation is
an expression of the creative mind of God. It means that everything in creation
is an example of the supernatural power of God.

God created it with just a word. That's scientifically impossible, you might
say. Well, of course it is.

Science studies how creation works. It does not always follow that a study of
how things work will tell you how it began. God said it and something
supernatural happened.

We live in a scientific age and I think that's good. I happen to love science.
But don't let our scientific age steal away from you the wonder of what God has
done.

Don't let anyone or anything steal from you a sense of awe. It is sad when we
become so sophisticated that we can't say wow. And if you can't say wow to what
God did here, you are missing God's word to start the day.

Not only missing what happened at the beginning, you're also missing the sense
of wow, the sense of wonder, the sense of awe that you and I need to walk
through each day of life. God's word starting each of our days, the supernatural
power of God is still involved in our lives today. Genesis 1, 1, God in the
beginning, God's word to start the day.

And then a third thing that you and I see is God's joy to end the day. God
rejoices at the end of the day in what he has made. He gets to the end of each
of these days of creation and he looks at it all and God says, that's good.

That's good. The sixth day he looks at it all and says, that is very good. God
rejoices in what he has made.

I've met some believers who act as if we can't enjoy anything until we get to
heaven. Well, God created this world too. I know we're going to get to this in
chapter 3.

This world is marred by sin. There's no doubt about that, but that does not take
away the truth of the creator. It is still a world that is created by God.

Do not wait until you get to heaven to enjoy what God's made. Start practicing
now. God's joy to end each day is an indication that I need to experience God's
joy of creation in each day of my life.

Then there's a fourth thing as you walk through this chapter. God's joy to end
each day, but there's also steps in the process throughout each day. As you read
through Genesis chapter 1, you see that God didn't bring the world and the
universe into being with just a snap of his fingers and it was all here.

Or even one sentence from his lips. There are six ordered days. God could have
done it any way that he wanted to.

He decided to do it in an ordered way. He chose to do it in stages. These are
clearly evident throughout this passage.

Water and then land and then sun, birds and then fish and then man. There are
ordered stages to what God has done in creation, how he created. Even within
those ordered stages of creation, you see the ordered mind of God.

There are plants created according to their kinds, Genesis 1 says. Their order,
their family. They're created in families.

There are seasons and days and years created by God. Animals again created
according to their kinds. So all those things you had to learn in biology, all
those things you had to learn about the different types of plants, different
types of animals, God created that all from the very beginning.

In fact, creation is really an orderly unfolding of the mind and the purposes of
God. That's what creation is. It's an orderly unfolding of the mind and the
purposes of God.

The order in God's creation literally shouts, "There is a plan here. " Watch the
planets. There's a plan here.

Look at a salmon as it has the instinct to make its way back to the place of its
birth. There's a plan here. Study a beehive and the intricacy of what happens in
the communication there.

There is a plan here. Look at how cells divide, delve into the properties of
light. There is a plan here.

And that plan is an expression of the creative mind of God. There's a fifth
thing I want to remind you of. I know we could spend years studying Genesis 1,
and we're just walking through it quickly.

But a fifth thing I want to remind you of in Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, we also
find mankind at the center. Let me read for you verses 26 to 31.

And then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them
rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over
all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground. " So God
created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them. God blessed them, and he said to them, "Be
fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it.

Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living
creature that moves on the ground. " And then God said, "I give you every
seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit
with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

And all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the
creatures that move on the ground, everything that has the breath of life in it,
I give every green plant for food. " And it was so. And God saw all that he had
made, and it was very good.

And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. As you and I look
at these verses, there are two keys here to understanding our place in the
creation of God. We were created to reflect God's image, and we were created to
be responsible over God's creation.

We're to reflect God's image. It's the first thing that God says about us. I'm
going to make man, men and women, I'm going to make man in my image, in my
likeness.

Image is the impression made upon us by God. Likeness is the impression seen by
everyone else. God has made us in his image.

That doesn't mean that we look physically like God, but spiritually, we can
decide like God decides. We can love like God loves. We can hope as God
encourages us to hope.

We are made in his image, expressing who he is to the world, if only we'll
follow him. We're made to reflect God's image. We're going to talk about that
these next few days.

We're also created to be responsible, to even rule, he says, over God's
creation. This responsibility that God gave us is the right reason to desire to
care for creation. It's not because I'm afraid of what might happen in the
future to creation that God has made.

There are concerns, no doubt about that, about creation. But the positive
motivation, whether I'm afraid or not, whether I can see danger signs in
creation or not, is I'm to care for this creation because God said, "I want you
to care for it. I've given this responsibility to you.

" As you and I look through Genesis 1, our values are never going to be right
until you and I learn to put the right value on ourselves. God made you. He
created you to be in his image.

And there are, in this chapter, five ultimate foundations for purpose that give
us five personal foundations for purpose-driven lives every day. God at the
beginning of everything, God's word to start each day, God's joy to end each
day, God working through the process of my life, and God has created me in his
image. Let's take a moment to thank our Father.

Father, thank you for creating us. Thank you for your loving creation. And I
pray, we pray together, that you would help us to see your creative heart
towards us today, a heart of love, a heart of compassion, a heart of purpose.

Help us to see what you want to do still in our lives today. We ask this, Jesus,
in your name, amen. And we'll see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter 2 and more on
God's creation of mankind.