Building The Stage On Which God Will Be Glorified
Genesis 1:9-31

Today we are going to continue to see God building the stage on which He will be glorified. We're in Genesis chapter one.

We talked about the first two days of creation last Sunday... God created the earth as a blob of surging water and created light to shine on it. Then God separated the waters below from the waters above... and he made the atmosphere.

What God is doing is creating, step-by-step, a place that is suitable for life. Each day He adds something that makes the earth more livable... and the order in which God creates, we've noticed, is very different from the order in which evolution claims they must have happened.

For example, evolution claims that the stars came first, then the earth was formed... just a dry rock in space. Then water came from... somewhere... they are not really sure where that came from. And the first life just spontaneously came about in the water. That story, as we see, does not align with what God actually did.

God starts with the earth created as a formless, void, blob of water... no stars yet. No land yet. No life yet. Just a blob of water. But then on day three...

9 - Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.

10 - God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.

11- Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.

12 - The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

13 - There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

You know what I think? God is going about this in a very logical way...He's preparing a world for humans. Water is a good place to start... that's where He started... it is essential for life. NASA is searching for life on other planets, and what do they look for?... Water. Cause you gotta have it.

That's why NASA's motto in the hunt for extraterrestrial life is "follow the water."

Water is unique. It is known as the universal solvent. It exists in three forms ice, liquid and a vapor at temperatures we consider normal temperatures. They are temperatures we can live in. That's unusual. Water is the perfect medium for carrying substances, such as phosphates or calcium ions, into and out of a living cell... that's essential.

Water is an amazing substance, there is nothing like it, and you can't have life without water. So God started with water.

But what else do we need?. We need air. We can only live a few minutes without air. It is essential. So God makes an atmosphere on day two. Now we're at day three and God makes something else that is very important for human life... dry land. And God saw that it was good.

And then where does God make the first life? Where does the first life appear? In the evolution story, it's microbes in the water... in the ocean. In the true story about what God did... it's on the dry land. Full-grown vegetation. God creates vegetation. He doesn't just create dry land. – In the evolutionary view, the land is barren of life for millions of years... life supposedly arises in the oceans... but the land remains barren... nothing but rocks and dirt and sand and dust for millions of years.

But God makes dry land and immediately fills it with plants. All kinds of plants. Trees and flowers... i's green everywhere... plants bearing fruit and plants that bear seeds... what an explosion of color and life it must have been. The land filled with living plants everywhere.

BTW... how old were the trees on that day? Just hours old... God just made them. Right? How many rings did those trees have? Trees need rings to live. It's part of their circulation system. They can't live without rings. Essential for life. So, imagine this, if three days later here's Adam. And he cuts down a tree and he counts its rings. How many rings would he count? We don't know. It might have been 10 or 20 or maybe 30... God made trees with different amounts of rings... we don't know. But they had to have some rings. How old were those trees? Let me count... one... two... three... days old. But the trees could have 10, 20 30 rings.

So, can we tell the age of these trees by looking at their rings? No. They had to have been created with rings or they would not have lived. God did not give us tree rings as a way to count time. He gave us something else that we'll learn about shortly. Even today tree rings are not a reliable way to measure the age of a tree. For example, trees can grow more than one ring per year. Trees can grow more than one ring per year, depending on the weather.

The oldest living tree, counting the rings, is said to be 4,800 years old. Noah's Flood was about 4,500 years ago. Knowing that some years trees grow more than one ring, this tree, if dated correctly, probably started growing very soon after the flood.

As He did on the first day, God concludes the account of the third day by saying that “God saw that it was good.” But look back at verses 6 through 8... day two. Do you see anywhere in there were God calls day two good? God does not say what He did on day two was good. I wonder, why not?

Does this mean that God's work on day two was not good? No.

But... is there any reason that God might have for not calling what He did on day two good? Well, H. C. Leupold, in his commentary on Genesis, thinks there might be, and I thought this was interesting. Day two seems to be a transition day between day's one and three.

Think about this... God created light on day one, but if there was a dense layer of water vapor around the earth... remember there is no atmosphere. There would probably be water, and then a dense fog, and it would get thinner and thinner as we went up. Probably a very dense layer of water vapor around the earth, as we talked about last week, and the light wouldn't get down to the surface. So on day two God created a clear atmosphere... He creates air separating the waters below from the waters above, which are the clouds.

So we still have a blob of water... a surging, seething blob of water below... and the clouds in the sky are the waters above... and now there is an atmosphere separating them... and some light can now reach the surface of the waters below... the surface of the earth. So that completes getting light to the surface of the earth.

But also now, looking forward, that atmosphere is going to be needed by the plants that the ground will bring forth. They need CO2 to breath. So it is important that there is an atmosphere existing when the land is created. So day two is a preparation for what is coming on day three. You could say that God's work on day two completes His work from day one, the light can now shine on the earth... and it provides something that is needed on day three... an atmosphere. But there is more separation work that needs to be done before the first life is created.

God has separated the waters below from the waters above, but what still needs to be separated? God needs to separate the waters below from the dry land.

So part of day two seems to go with day one, and part of day two seems to go with day three as He completes His separation work. Why did God do it this way?

God has His reasons... He doesn't explain them to us. It's not something we need to know. So we're guessing... and maybe the reason God does not specifically declare day two as good... is because the work on day two was tied to both days one and day three... so declaring God's work on those days as being good, covers day two also. We don't know. That's Leopold's thought on what is going on.

So what comes next? We now have a world with water, with an atmosphere and dry land. There is vegetation. Plants just growing all over the place. These are all the things humanity needs to survive. Next, on day four what does God do? He creates the sun, moon and stars.

People accuse God of doing these things in the wrong sequence. He creates plants before He creates the sun. “The plants are going to die!” They yell, “Doesn't God know they need sunlight? God's not doing a good job here.” I've heard that so many times. And it is an absurd, absurd accusation. Can plants go a day without sunlight? Can you take a plant and put it in a closet, and then you take it out the next day? It'll be fine. It will be less than 24 hours from when God created plants until He creates the sun.

But... in any case... is there light shining on the plants? Yes. God has already created light back on day one. So anyone making this accusation does not know what they are talking about. They are just throwing out accusations. By the way, this approach is very common... they are throwing out accusations, hoping something will stick. Hoping they'll catch you on something you don't know about the Bible, as they try to show the Bible has errors. They've been doing this for thousands of years... and nothing ever sticks.

So let's read about day four... this is verse 14:

14 - Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;

15 - and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.

16 - God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.

17 - God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,

18 - and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

19 - There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

There already was light. God created light on the first day. So why did God create the sun, moon and stars, if there is already had light?

Well, the sun moon and stars, they do more than just give light... they serve as a clock and a calendar. The sun separates the day from the night. The stars show the seasons and the years. Sunlight reflected off the moon provides light at night.

But, what's this about “signs?” It's in verse 14? The lights in the expanse of the heavens are to be for signs. Some say they can reveal our future. Warn us about disasters... the stars are one of the ways God communicates with us.

That doesn't seem right. God communicates through His word, not the stars. So what is scripture saying here? The sun, moon and stars are for signs that... indicate time periods. That is the whole context of what He is saying. Signs that indicate seasons and years. The stars do not predict the future, nor are they a means through which God reveals new things to us. God speaks through scripture. God reveals through scripture, not through the stars. But the stars do more than just mark time...

They all... the heavens... declare the glory of God – that is how they speak, Psalm 19 – when we see the vastness, the complexity, the design, and the beauty of the universe... God is glorified. Let's go to Psalm 8:

O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!

From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength, because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?

Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!

You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Yes, the heavens do reveal the glory of God. They show us the power and the divine nature of God. But, they are not signs revealing new messages that are coming from God. They are there to mark days and nights, seasons and years, and to give light on the earth... and both reveal the power of God and to glorify God.

But why did God create such a vast universe? Wouldn't something half the size have worked just as well? There are a billion stars in our galaxy... and our galaxy is typical. And there are over a billion galaxies. Why so big? We're curious aren't we. At least I am. There are a lot of things about creation we'd like to know. God has made us a curious people... we investigate... we want to learn more about ourselves and the universe we live in. And you know what is interesting? We live in a universe that is designed to be investigated. It is simply amazing. I'll give you one example.

How many here have seen an eclipse? We just had a big one here. Everybody! 100% It's amazing that the moon perfectly covers the disk of the sun, so that we can then see things about the sun that we could not see without an eclipse. And we think, “Oh, that just happened.” But the things that had to come together for that to happen are incredible. The moon has to be exactly, physically the right size. A little bit bigger, a little bit smaller... it wouldn't work. The moon has to be exactly the right distance from the earth. A little bit further or a littler bit closer, and it wouldn't work. Everything. God put everything together just right so that we could learn about the sun though eclipses. It's amazing. Amazing.

And we can use, because of the universe we live in, we can use scientific methods to investigate the universe. And when we do this we get a very interesting picture. What we see is a universe that is finely tuned for life on earth. Just incredible. From the smallest particles... to the largest galactic clusters. On the small side... let's take the proton, for example... we can only look at a few examples... but let's take a proton.

Atoms are made from electrons, protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons make up the center of an atom, and the electrons are kind of whirling around them in a cloud. Protons are 1,836 times larger than electrons. It turns out that, if they were just slightly bigger or a touch smaller, life would not exist... in fact no matter at all could exist, because molecules would not be able to form. That ratio is incredibly important, we've discovered.

On a larger scale... for example, the earth... it has a magnetic field. If that magnetic field were just a little bit weaker, our planet would be devastated by cosmic radiation. There could be no life at all. If it were a little bit stronger, we would be devastated by severe electromagnetic storms coming from our sun. Our magnetic field is just perfect.

And not only is the magnetic field just right, but the earth’s gravity, it's tilt, it's rotation period, the oceans and the amount of water we have, the thickness of the earth's crust, the oxygen/nitrogen ratio in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide – yes, we need carbon dioxide... and water vapor... the ratios are just right for life to exist. And you know what is incredibly amazing? This system is designed to stay in balance. When it gets out of wack it naturally comes back into balance. It is an amazing creation our God has made. In fact, our planet is known as the Goldilocks planet, because everything is just right.

Let's look at things on a bigger scale even... the earth’s place in the solar system is just perfect. If we were just a litter bit farther out, all the water would freeze. We'd be living on an ice planet. If we were a little bit closer, the oceans would boil away, and we'd be living on a rock. And with their strong gravitational fields, the large outer planets are like vacuum cleaners as they orbit the sun, sucking up all the space debris and things that come into the solar system that could harm the earth. Instead these larger planets capture them.

Our planet's place in the galaxy is the perfect place. The only place really where God could put us. If our solar system were closer to the center of the galaxy, or closer to any of the spiral arms of our galaxy, we're actually between the spiral arms... if we used earth type words to describe where the earth is located, we're way out in the country. We are way away from everything. And that's good. Because if we were any closer the cosmic radiation would kill all life... life would be impossible. We have to be exactly where we are.

God has created a universe that is amazingly perfect for life, here on earth. For human life, created in His image, to exist here on earth. And when you look at all this, and understand all this, God is glorified. What a great and incredible God we have.

So let's look at day five now...

20 - Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”

21 - God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

22- God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

23- There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

God has filled the water with living creatures such that the waters teem with swarms of living creatures. He has stuffed the waters full of all sorts of creatures. And he has filled the skies with birds and other creatures with wings, such as bats.

Have you noticed that God classifies things differently than we do? For example, God groups all winged creatures together... in fact, here in Genesis one verse 20 instead of the word bird, a better translation here would be winged creatures. How do we know that? Go to Leviticus chapter 11... we're to look at verses 13 through 19... it's going to tell us what things God classifies together as a group... it says...

These, moreover, you shall detest among the birds – “birds” … that's the English translation of the same Hebrew word used in Genesis. Leviticus then goes on to give a list of the “birds” you should detest and are not to be eaten. So, here's that list:

"...the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, and the kite and the falcon in its kind, every raven in its kind, and the ostrich and the owl and the sea gull and the hawk in its kind, and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, and the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture, and the stork, the heron in its kinds, and the hoopoe," – notice all of these listed here in Leviticus we also classify as birds. But then comes the last one on the list – "the bat."

Leviticus puts bats in the same category as things we normally call birds. Why? Because bats have wings. The Hebrew word translated as “birds” in Genesis 1:20, maybe should be translated as winged creature, that's the category, that's how God categorizes them. And that would include all of the creatures listed in Leviticus.

So on day five God filled the seas with living creatures... He actually stuffed them full of living creatures. And He also created winged creatures. So now the oceans are full of sea life, and there are flying creatures in the sky... and God saw that it was good.

Then God gives them one command. What is it that He commands them?

“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” and There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

The earth has been prepared. It is nearly ready. Nearly everything has been perfectly set into place. As Dale read this morning. It is perfect. Everything is exactly as it should be. There is one final day of creation left. The stage is almost set...

And as He does this God is revealing who He is... and revealing what the universe and the earth is.. it's a place for humanity to live. And in the next section He is going to reveal who we are. What has God told us about Himself in the 23 verses we have looked at so far? One of the important things is that He is the uncreated creator. He was there at the beginning and He created everything there is.... everything.

Sun worship, for example, has been very popular in the past. I did some research and it seems as though every major culture in history, except those that are Jewish or Christian, had a sun god at one time or another. I counted nearly 100 sun Gods, probably could have found more. We get the name for our sun from the Romans, Sol... that's the Roman sun god who rode in a horse-drawn chariot. Some of the more famous sun gods were the Egyptian gods Ra and Horus; and the Greek gods Apollo and Helios; and the Persian god Mithra.

But what does Genesis tell us? The sun was created... created by the God of the Bible. It is a created thing, not a god. And what is the God of the Bible like? He speaks and whatever it is He desires comes into existence... including every planet, star, galaxy, and galactic cluster in this incredibly vast universe. And everything was good. And everything was perfect.

So what does Genesis tell us about God? He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent... He has to have these characteristics, He needs to have these characteristics in order to do what is described in Genesis. And this brings us to a section of scripture we go to quite frequently recently... Romans 1:18

18 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven – before we go any further... let's stop right there for a moment...

A correct understanding of Genesis gives us the foundation for understanding Romans one. Heaven reveals the wrath of God in two ways. One is through His personal intervention, which we'll see when we get to Genesis chapter three... and secondly through His moral order. What does that mean?

As God describes Himself making everything, we can see that He has created order. He starts with formless and void... meaning chaotic... and He has built order into His creation, God is not a God of confusion. He is a God of order, and it is both a physical and a moral order. This is an orderly creation... and it is a creation. God made it... He made it all from nothing by speaking it into existence. What does that mean?

That means He owns it... we have trouble accepting that... He owns all of creation. He can do whatever He desires with His creation. And what He does is good... it is always good. That's something we should never forget. God made it. He owns it. He owns us. We are part of His creation.

So you see we are getting a picture of God from this first chapter of Genesis. We see what creation is... we see what God did... we see His power, His omnipresence... His omniscience... but people still don't understand who God is... God is not at the center of our thinking... and this is even true of many Christians.

We can look out the windows here, on either side of the auditorium, and see shrubs. How did those shrubs come about? They grew. Right? There were seeds, they sprouted, and the shrubs grew.

Yes... but... when you look at them do you see God? God created those shrubs. He created the life that is in those shrubs. He used seeds, God uses a means to accomplish, we talked about that in Sunday school today. He uses a means to accomplish His goals. He used seeds, which He created, as the means of creating more shrubs. But, it's all God. He made them... He owns them. And when we look at shrubs, or trees, or flowers... or the ocean... or the stars... we should see God there. That's what Genesis is about. He made, He owns it, God is in charge... So when we read in Romans 1...

18 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

19 - because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

Here, in the next verse, is what God is revealing...

20 - For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

God's purpose in Genesis is not to give us the scientific details of creation. He is not even giving us a history... although Genesis is a historical narrative. And there are both scientific and historical information here.

God is showing us that what has been made and put into order... and that means EVERYTHING, there is no exception. God is showing us that He made everything. God is revealing Himself... and in Genesis 1 making it plain and simple... His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, are clearly seen, so we are without excuse. – and we can see that today, simply by looking at creation... So now we come to day six...

24 - Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so.

25 - God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

In two simple sentences God has told us where all the land animals came from. Cattle represent livestock domesticated types of animals. Cows, sheep, everything that can be domesticated.

Creeping things... that is a category in which it is difficult to translate the Hebrew. We don't really have a good word in English. But, what it is referring to are creatures that have short legs or that slither. In other words, things that are close to the ground. That includes reptiles, mice, squirrels... animals like that.

The third category are the beasts of the earth. These are the larger animals that cannot be domesticated.

So we have these three types of animals... what about my favorite animal, dinosaurs? Did they come later ,aybe? Did the reptiles God created gradually evolve into dinosaurs? No. First, dinosaurs are not reptiles. Dinosaurs did not evolve from reptiles and they are very different from reptiles in many ways.

Dinosaurs were created by God... just as cats, elephants and wolves were created by God. Dinosaur are land animals. God created all of the land animals on day six... probably most of the dinosaurs would be in the category of beasts of the earth, but there might have been a few in the category of cattle... dinosaurs that could be domesticated. Marco Polo reports about the dragon masters. Reports that dragons were pulling carts. So that would be dinosaurs pulling carets in China. But the important thing we see here is that dinosaurs were created on the same day as humans.

There is something else I'd like you to notice... notice that God creates these animals in groups... The words “after their kind” keep repeating. If we go back to day three, verses 11 and 12, we see God creates plants that reproduce “after their kind.” In other words, each kind of tree only reproduces more of the same kind of tree.

Then on day five, verse 21, God creates the sea creatures and winged creatures after their kind. Again they are divided into kinds.

And the same thing on day six, God creates the land animals after their kind. Everything is grouped into kinds, and each kind can only reproduce more of that same kind.

That means that dogs only make more dogs. Cats make cats. Apes make apes. And people make people.

Evolution requires that they don't reproduce after their kind. But one kind becomes a different kind. And scientists have been trying to prove this in the laboratory for a long, long time. There's even one lab experiment, it's the most famous one, Dr. Richard Lenski, he has been culturing e-coli bacteria for decades. Sixty thousand generations. Started with e-coli bacteria, 60,000 generations what does he have? E-coli.

Yes, they have mutated in all kinds of weird ways... but they're still e-coli. They reproduce after their kind.

And life has been designed to adapt to a changing environment... but one kind of life never becomes another kind. We were created after our kind... we always remain that kind. That we can adapt is another marvelous way we see God's hand at work in designing His creation. But we never become a different kind.

So now let's talk about humans now... verse 26...

26 - Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 - God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28 - God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29 - Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

30 - and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.

31 - God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

There's a lot there and we can't cover it all today... but there are some things I'd like to highlight. What is different here? What's different here? God has made plant life, fish, flying creatures, and land animals. Now He has created mankind. What is different about mankind? What separates us from all these others?

God created man in His image. Both male and female... men and women are created in the image of God. What does that mean?

The image of God is personhood, is one way to describe it. It is only something that can function only in the context of a relationship.

God was the pattern for the personhood of man. What does that mean? What does it mean to be a person? To be a human?

This brings up a big question we face today... is a baby in the womb a person? Some of those who support abortion say, no a baby is not a person until they are born.

That seems a little strange to me. The baby is not a person, then it moves a distance of less than about a foot, and now it is a person. That sounds magical. The baby physically moved from here to here... and traveling that distance makes it a person.

And sometimes now, with the recent laws, the baby has actually gone further than that. Some recent state laws say that if a baby survives an abortion attempt... so now it is alive and living separately from it's mother, outside of the mother... that baby may still be killed... for example, if the mother does not want it. So... apparently a baby is not a person if the mother does not want it. In other words, a baby is only a person, if its mother wants it.

We seem to be having a problem with understanding what makes someone a person. But Genesis answers that question. We are created in God's image... that's what makes us a person... that's what differentiates us from animals... apes were not created in the image of God... they are simply animals. What defines us as humans is that we... all of mankind... from conception... are created in the image of God.

As God's image bearers, we are unique. For example, killing an animal, that's not murder. An individual killing another human, killing one of God's image bearers, IS a murderer.

And an animal killing a person is not a murder. Animals cannot murder. We track down and kill that animal not as a punishment, but to protect people. It's a pragmatic move to protect people, because it's a danger to other humans.

And think about this, animals do not have courts, and judges, and trials. When one animal kills other animal, they do not face a trial for murder, it is simply what they do. A major difference between other life and humans is that of morality. That's part of being the image of God. As God's image bearers we are moral creatures. Animals do not set up courts. They have instincts, but they have no morality.

But humans are different. We are not animals. All through school, all of the way through high school; through college; I was taught: we're animals. We're not animals. We bear the image of God and that means we have responsibilities to properly represent God... and we are held accountable when we misrepresent God's character. That's why sin, Genesis explains this, why sin is so serious?

For example, stealing a paper clip from your employer is not considered a serious offense at all. Your employer probably doesn't even care. But... and I know this is impossible... but, if the only sin you ever commit is stealing a paper clip... that one sin condemns you to eternal punishment in hell for eternity.

Why? Because as God's image bearer you have misrepresented the eternal, holy and perfect God as a thief. Your crime in human terms is insignificant. Your crime against the infinite God, justly deserves an infinite punishment.

That's why we need Jesus. Only Jesus Christ taking on God's full punishment for your sins, frees you from the penalty resulting from disobeying God. That leaves you with a choice... accept this free gift from Jesus... or reject it and spend eternity in hell paying the just penalty you've earned for misrepresenting the character of God.

What have we covered today? A lot. It\s been a full day. Three full days, and part of another day of creation.

We saw God separate the waters below to create dry land, and then He caused that land to bring forth every kind of living plant. The earth was covered in green. And it was good.

Then God spoke entire rest of the entire universe into existence... the sun, the planets, stars, the galaxies... everything we see in the sky. The sun during the day... the moon and stars at night. And He put them there to serve mankind to help us tell time and to serve as a calendar... to shine light on the earth... and to glorify Himself.

Next God spoke sea creatures and flying creatures into existence. The waters were suddenly teeming with life. And there were flying creatures in the air. And God saw that it was good.

Then on the sixth day God spoke all of the land animals into existence. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. In His image...

Let's us pray...