The Mix

Okay.

So this morning, we are thinking about creation. Creation is our is our big theme for this morning. And, to get us thinking, I want to show you something that I have brought with me this morning. Okay? Now, I'm gonna take the, the rag off the top of this box and show you what I brought with me this morning.

Okay? Alright. Now for those of you who've been on the church family away day, I'm afraid this is not gonna be sinky, sinky, floaty floaty. You'll have to come to the away day if you wanna see that again. But with me today in this large box, I've bought absolutely nothing at all.

And what I want us to do this morning is to have a little experiment with nothing. And to see whether over the course of this service, nothing left to itself can create something. That's the idea. Okay? So we're gonna give it about an hour or something like that, and we'll see whether nothing left to itself can create something.

Now, I know some of you who are very bright in this room we'll say, oh, that's not true, nothing. Because inside there is atoms and electrons and radio waves. There's no nothing. This isn't full of nothing. This is packed full of very small stuff, but that only helps us.

Okay? So it's actually not true nothing. It's nothing with a load of pre made stuff that's already in there. Okay? But that's the experiment.

It's nothing gonna be able to create something. Now I begin that way because if we are going to think rightly about the doctrine of creation, about the truth that god made the world and the universe, we have to understand that this story does not begin with nothing. But rather as we open up the very first pages of the Bible, we do not find nothing. We find a very great something. We find God, the living God.

Who has no beginning and has no end. The uncreated 1 who has always been. The story of creation begins not with nothing but with a very great something. Perhaps we'll be able to have a look on the screen at the very first words of the Bible. Am I going the wrong way?

I'm going the right way. There we go. In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. It's the first sentence in the Bible. God created the heavens and the earth.

So you imagine a person who is coming to the Bible for the very first time. They've never sat in a church. They don't know anything about Christian truth. They're coming to the Bible for the very first time, they open up page 1, they are not going to be able to conclude. Ah, this universe made itself.

That's what this book teaches, this universe made itself. Neither are they going to be able to conclude, Ah, this universe has always existed. It always existed, or it made it neither of those are options. They may not like the fact, but they would have to say this book teaches that in the beginning was god. And that from him and by his word, the universe was made.

So here's the first big creation truth. When we open the Bible, we find God who creates everything from nothing. Now, that is really quite a unique and important thing. Now, I'm sure in this room, most people above a certain age have had a go with chat GPT, or with AI, or with some kind of chat GPT like program. Well, this week, I asked chat GPT to be a creator for me.

To create something for me. Okay? And here's what I asked it to do. See if we can, get that going. Steve, you might have to, click that on for me, mate, if that's okay.

Create me a workout and an eating plan, which will help me to look like giant from the UK gladiators in time for my summer holiday in 20 26, but doesn't require me to give up chocolate. Okay? So that's what I asked it to do to make me a eating and workout program to turn me from this into that in time for my summer holiday. Okay? Here's what it came back with.

Steve, grab the next slide. Got it. You wanna build a physique like giant from the UK gladiators, big lean muscular, but not monk level strict. In time for summer 20 26, that gives us around 9 to 10 months, which is realistic. Mean, that's great, isn't it?

I mean, I couldn't believe the faith it has in in my abilities. If you're consistent and since you don't wanna give up chocolate, we'll work it insensibly. Okay? And from there was just pages of this most extraordinary workout and diet plan. Every single day between this week and in 10 months time, working out what I've gotta eat, what muscle groups I've gotta work, the calorie level that I need to be in taking, giving me diet plans.

It's a for not it really believes I can do it. Which is amazing, isn't it? And so, like, you know, the I mean, it's a I mean, this kind of soft it is phenomenal, really, and it is unbelievable what is able to achieve. But of course, when you think about it, chat GPT and other things are not actually from nothing creators. Even though I asked it to create me something, it does not actually have the power to create me something from nothing.

All it can actually do is in the blink of an eye, go out and gather things that god has already made and reassemble them in a different order. That's really what it does. It is not a from nothing creator. It's a very sophisticated replicator. It will just take truth and things that God has already made and put it together for me.

And very often, it's actually wrong on some quite important things. And it's not very personal. Okay? But god is a from nothing creator. He doesn't just assemble things that are already there.

He creates. Or if you're a little bit younger and you're not quite into chat GPT yet, You might have seen this range of Lego, Steve. Let's have that up, please. This is a range of Lego called the creator range. I don't know if you've seen this.

Basically, this is quite a popular kit in Lego, where you buy a set and there is 1 kind of main build, and then there are all kinds of sub builds that you can do. And so the idea is that you would sort of take these blocks and you can be the creator. Right? You can build the main build, or you can build a different build, you can build whatever you like. You're the creator.

But again, that is not a act of true creation. That is only assembling blocks that god has already made and putting them together in a different order. Yeah? Do you see the difference there? Assemblying what god has made versus being a from nothing creator?

Well, that's what we're seeing in Genesis. Only god is the from nothing creator. Let me show you this verse from the Bible. Here's Hebrews 11 verse 3. By faith, we understand that the entire universe was formed at god's command that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

Did you get what he's saying there? He's saying it's not as if in the beginning, we had 2 things. We had god and we had stuff. And god looked at the stuff and said, with that stuff, I'm gonna make the universe. That is not how it was done, but rather the writer to the Hebrew says that god formed everything at his command that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

In other words, it all came from nothing by the power of God's word. And then when you come to Genesis chapter 1, that is exactly what you see. Genesis 1 verse 3 god said, let there be light, and there was light. It's not that light already existed, and he kind of decided to, oh, I think I could use that in my project. No, he created it, and he spoke it into being.

God said, let the water under the sky be gathered to 1 place. He creates water and then he gathers it and brings it together and all the way through Genesis, you see this, that god is the only from nothing creator. Now what does that mean for us? What's the big what what what what do we need to take away? Well, from that, we understand that there is a big difference between us and our creator.

A really big difference. You see, you and I could sit down at a desk and we could try to speak things into existence from nothing for the rest of our lives and be unable to do it. We could say, create me a McDonald's, McDonald's, cheeseburger, create me a cheese make me, give me a lego, give me we we do not have the power. To create from nothing something because we're not God. All we can do is to reassemble and remix those things which he has already made.

There there is a big difference between you and I and god. But secondly, This from nothing creation tells us that nothing is impossible for god. See, there are all kinds of situations that you and I face that might be really, really tricky. We might have difficulties at school with some of the people in our class. We might have difficulties at school with some of our teachers.

We might have difficulties in our family life, difficulties in our health, difficulties in our work life. But this truth reminds us that for god, nothing is too hard, nothing is impossible. There is nothing we can't talk to him about. He made the universe from nothing. There was nothing and he spoke and there was everything.

We serve a god who can do impossibly wonderful things by the power of his word and I think that's a great encouragement to you and I. Nothing we face is beyond his powerful creating word and help. Okay? So there's 2 things. But thirdly, and then we'll have another song.

There's 1 extra thing we see here in the book of Genesis. We see that god when he made the world made it for a reason and a purpose. Now on the screen, Steve, if you'd be happy to put it up, is a picture of a brand new theme park which universal studios are planning to build in Bedford of all places. And then if you've seen this in the news, 20 31, so it's quite a long way off, I'm afraid. But this is going to be 1 of the biggest and most beautiful theme parks in all of Europe.

It's gonna have a lord of the ring zone. I think it's gonna have a Indiana Jones zone. I mean, it has it promises to have some of Europe's best and wildest coasters. Okay? Now, I hear that the plans for the building are already underway, and it's an obvious thing to say really, but with a project like that, you know as construction begins and all the diggers arrive, and the bricks are getting assembled and the roller coasters are being built, that this thing is being made for a purpose.

And that purpose is for the enjoyment of guests and life. It would be a very strange thing. Would it not? If we decided to spend millions and millions of pounds on a project like this to keep the gates locked forevermore and to not allow anyone in, we we just know instinctively that things like this are made for a purpose, and that purpose is life and the enjoyment of the thing. Or something similar is true when we come to the book of Genesis.

Steve, if you could put this next line up. Now, what we're wanting to do with the mix is not only to have some big truths here on the Sunday morning, but over the course of the month to encourage you to go through these truths at home with a new question and answer catechism. So last year, we were working through the new city catechism, which did have its strengths, but it was rather complicated at times. This catechism, which is called the altogether catechism, and we'll send out details during the week, is much much simpler. There is not a single answer that is longer than 16 words.

So it's very, very simple, and it's going to follow along with these truths that we're learning in the mix. Okay? So the first question and you'll have a opportunity to look at it over the month. Who is the 1 true god? God is the maker and the ruler of everyone and everything, and the next 1, please, Steve.

Question 2, why did god make everyone and everything? Answer god made all things for his glory. Now, that's quite important because what it tells us is that god didn't make everything for no 1 to enjoy his creation. But rather god made the universe and then filled it with it was an act of preparation for life which would then glorify him for the project. Yeah?

A bit like the theme park. It's made so that people can come and say, this is magnificent. This is the best roller coaster I've seen. Look at the ice cream stands, they've got this place is amazing. It's built for glory, yeah?

Similar with creation God makes it so that he can fill it with life that will then praise him and glorify him for what he's made. Let's see that in the Bible. Here's a verse from Isaiah 45. For this is what the Lord says, he who created the heavens, he is god, He who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it. He is the key verse.

He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited. He says, I am the lord, and there is no other. He formed it not to remain empty, but to be full of life which brings glory to his name. And then as you go through Genesis again, we won't look at it all, but Genesis chapter 1 You see this is what god is doing. He creates the world, and then he orders the world, and then he fills it with life.

Those are the 3 things he does, creates orders and fills with life. So he makes the waters and then he divides the waters so that there can be land and then he fills the waters with life and the land with life and the air with life creates it, orders it prepares it and fills it, like the building and designing of a home for life. To come in and praise him. So the whole of creation really is 1 big act of preparation. It is not made just as a museum piece, but as a place where we can glorify god.

And that becomes very clear at the end of the chapter. So Steve, if you'd like to put these verses up from Genesis 1, here's the kind of climax of the creation story in Genesis 1. God says, let us make mankind in our image in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So god created mankind in his own image, in the image of god he created them, male and female, he created them. And so as you read Genesis 1, there's this great sense of anticipation building that god has made the universe.

He's ordered the universe. He's filled it with life, but he's not ready to rest yet. And the reason he's not gonna rest yet is because there is some greater life form that needs to come and take its home and give glory to his name. And that is you and I, male and female image of god in their home to praise and give glory to him. And so we can't really talk about the doctrine of creation without this from nothing ordering, preparing, ultimately for us.

Should we have a look how nothing's doing? It's not doing very well, is it? We've given it a fair few minutes there and it hasn't seemed to have created everything. Should we give it a little bit of help? Yeah.

So I thought that what we would do over the course of the service, if nothing is failing to produce anything, we would try and fill it with some things to give it some help. Okay? And so what I need is somebody, and I'm just gonna go for Joseph, he's getting baptized tonight, and he sat right there, is to come up and to add something to nothing to give it some help. Okay? And what I thought would do is a is a big sort of bowl of green slime.

Alright? So that's the first thing we're gonna add to nothing to see if that will kick start a bit of creation life. Okay? So Joseph, why don't you come up? And I want you to get your hands right in that slime.

Okay? I won't tell you what's in there. And I want you to add that slime to nothing and see if it will help. Okay? Gonna get that in there.

There you are, lad. Don't be shy. You can wash it all off tonight. Here we go. Just stick that in there.

Alright. Come on. Let me shine that again. Alright. Alright.

Laura has told me that this cannot be broken in this bottle. So I I really do not wanna drop this Alright? That'll do. That'll do. Alright.

There you are. Okay. Yeah. That's gonna be hard work for you. Here you are.

There you go. I thought I'd give me this. Alright. There you go. Round applause for Joseph, everybody.

Have I done Joseph? Okay. So we've now added a load of slime to nothing, and we'll see if that can sort of help nothing along a bit, and we'll come back to it a bit later on to see if it's been able to create. You're gonna wash your hand. Yeah.

That's very sensible. Yeah. Okay. So, Steve, end of chapter 1, we had this phrase created in the image of God. But what does that mean?

Well, the third question of the catechism gives us some help. Question 3, who are we? We are made body and soul male and female in god's image. A huge part of this creation story is that you and I are made body and soul in the image of god. Now, that means a whole host of things, and we don't have time to exhaust every 1 of them this morning.

But I wanna tell you just a few things that this certainly means for you and I as those made in the image of God. Firstly, if we can get this 1 up Steve, please. Firstly, this means that we are different from the animals. It means that the image of god is unique to us. In other words, you and I are like god in a way that no other creature is or as ever has been.

I mean, in the animal kingdom and the sea kingdom and the bird kingdom, there is all kinds of incredible life and complex beautiful life, but none of it can reason or think or plan or love or live the way that you and I do. There is something unique about us that is not shared by anything else in the life kingdom. Okay? The catechism says that we have a soul. We have a soul.

Not something we talk about very much today. But we have to remember that we are not just physical. We have a soul, and that is part of what it is to be made in the image of God. Now what is the soul? Well, that soul is that part of ourselves that we can't see or touch but we know it's like our true self.

It's like the self living inside the body. The physical and the spiritual. But the soul is that bit of us which is able to know and love and talk to the lord. That's what the soul is. And so we are not like the other animals.

We're so different because we're made in god's image with body and soul. Secondly, we also see that the image of god is both male and female. In other words, to reflect god properly and to image god properly, we needed both male and female. It's quite important that, isn't it? That if god had made a world that was only full of men or only full of women, there would be a number of problems with that, but not least would be that we could not image god properly.

We actually requires men and women to reflect the likeness of god in the world. Now within that category of male and female, There is all kinds of amazing varieties, huge variety. Just as there is all types of sea creatures and all types of fruit bearing plants, and all types of land animals. There are all types of men and there are all types of women. There is great diversity within the kinds, but those are the fixed categories that god has made.

We we are made in god's image, male or female. And so just as you don't find, the birds becoming trees and the trees turning into livestock and the livestock turning into sea creatures. You find huge variety within the kinds, but you don't find them changing kinds. Well, in the same way, we are made with huge varieties. I mean, just look around you.

Look at the people in this room. The men and women are very diverse and varied, and yet those are the categories that God has set and they are not crossed. He has made us male. And female. And in that way, in those kinds, we together with all our diversity, we bear the image of God.

That's what Genesis 1 says. It's very interesting, isn't it? God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. So god created mankind in his own image. In the image of god, he created them.

And then what's the very next thing we're told? Made in god's image, in the image of god, he creates them male and female. He creates, it's the first thing we learn about ourselves, really, that we're made by god, under god, as male and female in those kinds to bear his image. That's the second thing. Thirdly, To be in the image of god tells us that every male and female and boy and girl is valuable and precious.

Steve, if you could put that third 1 up for us, please. To be made in the image of god tells us that no matter what our skin color or where we're from or how rich or poor we are, or whether we're lovely people, or whether we're really annoying people, and there are some really annoying people, particularly at school, aren't there written really annoying people at school? No matter what type of person we are or where we're from, we bear the image of god. Steve, if you could put up this quote, I found from 1 Christian charity, I think it puts it really helpfully. When god added humankind to the whole of creation, he looked at it and called it very good.

His fingerprints are stamped within each person and people group's unique makeup, not only in image and likeness, but in tongue tribe nation and being. This It's the key sentence, really. This is the foundation for our understanding of culture, value, and identity. When speaking about others made in the image of god should be our starting place. When speaking about others, made in the image of God should be our starting place.

And it seems to me that that has some very important applications. Not only in terms of how we think about those in our lives, but in terms of how we think about those who come to our country, you know? It's sad sometimes, isn't it? Where you hear people refer to others who are coming to this country just purely as a dinghy person or a boat person. Now I know that there are adult, grown up discussions to be had about immigration and refugees and all these sorts of things.

But we must not be driven by political, like we're Christian people. And therefore, we're driven by theological language. We're driven by theological language. And so to refer to someone just as a dinghy person, may say something very, very small about the way in which they arrived here, but it is not god's final assessment of who they actually are. God says they are image bearer.

Just think about that. That they, as much as you or I, bear the image of God, and that means stamped all over them is dignity and value and worth and honor as a created image bearer of God. Friends, we must talk about these things, of course, we must, but let our language always be first theological in that we talk about people as it says that. When speaking about others, made in the image of god should be our starting place. Every person, no matter what their skin color or wealth status or whether they were born here or not is an image bearer of the living God.

That's the third thing. 1 other thing. 1 other implication of being made in god's image is that we are made for relationship. Steve, if you can put that fourth 1 up for us please, to be made for relationship. Now in Genesis 1, and we had it on the screen earlier, we find this strange phrase towards the end.

God says verse 26, let us make mankind in our image. Let us make mankind in our image. Now who is the us and who is the hour? Well, the us and the hour are not accidental. Those are very important little words.

And they tell us that the god of creation is not an all on his own 1, but rather a 1 within community that our god is both a father, son, and holy spirit 1. 1 god but in a loving community. And that means if you and I are made in his image, we are made in the image of 1 who has been into relationships for all the days that he has existed. In in our DNA is the DNA of relationship, both with god and with other people. And you know what?

It's just worth saying, I think, that this really is a unique thing to Christianity. You see in other religions, what you tend to find is either 1 god all on his own or many, many, many millions of strange gods who are at war with each other and having sex with each other and giving birth to 1 another. And it's all a very strange world, either 1 or many. But to be created in an image of a god like that is only really to be a slave. You are made by this 1 just to obey this 1.

But if we are made in the image of 1 who is a father son and spirit community 1, it means we are made yes to obey but not as slaves but as sons and daughters to to enjoy him. In relationship. K? So this is something you see very, very clearly in Genesis. After god finished creating the world, he looked down at all that he had made including Adam and everything was very very good except 1 thing.

You know what that 1 thing is? He looked and he said it's all very good. And then he spots something that's not good. And he says it is not good for man to be alone. It is not good for man to be up yet but he had the animals.

No. No. He was alone. And so in order to complete this relationship work, God created Eve and through Eve would be marriage, and through the safety of marriage, the gates to children would open up. And it is all about relationship and community.

And then you follow the bible story along and you see that actually we are made to belong to church. We are made for church relationships among the people of God. And so that is true of every single 1 of us here. See, I know some of us by temperament will be introverts and prefer our own company. Some of us will be extroverts.

There will be people here who genuinely really like other people, and there will be people here who know they ought to like other people, but find it a bit difficult. We're all kinds of different personalities, but we are made every 1 of us. For relationship with God and for with our neighbors because that is part of what it means to bear his image. Okay? So there's just 4 things.

Alright? Different from the animals, male and female, uniquely precious made for relationship. That's what it is to be made in the image of god. So it's not going so well in here. We've added a load of slime to nothing, and nothing has happened.

I mean, it does actually look like the first beginnings of something. Might be happening, but no, not really. Look, it's just that horrible old slime full of nothing. So should we help it a bit more? What do you think?

Okay. So now we're not just gonna add slime. We're gonna add a very big bang. Okay? Into the slime.

Okay. So what I'm gonna need is Isaac and Rory up here, please. And we're gonna add a big bang to the slime to see if that's gonna make any difference. Okay? Are you ready for this?

Alright? Here you are. Here's your big banger, and here's your big banger. And what you've gotta do is on the count of 3, I want you to direct it into nothing. Okay?

So the whole idea is we're seeing if nothing plus slime in a big bank can create something. Alright? You ready? You according to the arrows. There we go.

So you gotta do not point it do not point it like that. And do not point it like that. And do not point it like that. You gotta point it down. Okay?

Alright. So here we go. Right. Ready? Are you ready?

You might need to get a bit more inroads. I don't know. Ready? Okay. Alright.

Should we count down together? 3, 2, 1. See you all gone? Oh, no. Wait.

There we go. Thank you guys for having applause. Alright. These were too expensive to have a practice run. Okay?

So we had to just go for it live. So we're gonna see how that goes. Alright? We've added a big bang and a load of confetti and some slime. And we're gonna see if we can give nothing a chance with a bit of help to create something.

Alright? So we've looked at god creating something from nothing, everything from nothing. We've looked at what it means to be made in his image. But now we're gonna see that this doctrine of creation then goes a bit bad for us. Okay?

Steve, if you could put the next picture up. Last week, I I watched an episode of a a new ish series on the BBC. I don't know if anyone's seen this. It's a series called humans. And basically, the idea of this new series is to tell the story of how we became human.

To tell the story of how we became human. Now I've only watched the first episode, but I wanted to watch it to see whether in a program about our origins and our story and where we came from, whether god would be mentioned at all in that conversation. Well, the episode is 59 minutes long, and the word god was mentioned in the 50 fourth minute. And here's what happened. The host looked down at a fossil necklace.

So this was something that our ancestors wore this fossil necklace and she said, oh my god, isn't it beautiful? And that was the only mention of god in the entire of that first episode. And I would guess the rest of the season. It's interesting, isn't it? That when it comes to the story of our origins and who we are and why we are here, we really do want to write God completely out of the picture.

And out of the story. Steve, if you could put the next quote up for us please. This is the quote in the kind of intro to the episode. Thanks to groundbreaking new science. We are rewriting the story of our origins.

Thanks to groundbreaking new science, we are rewriting the story of our origins. In Romans chapter 1, which is a book in the Bible, Paul describes the way we try to rewrite the story of our origins. And here's what he says in Romans chapter 1. The people knew god, but they didn't honor him as god. They didn't thank him.

Their thinking became worthless. Their foolish hearts became dark. They claimed to be wise. But they made fools of themselves. So here we are made in god's world bearing god's image.

And from all of creation, we can tell that there is a god. We can. There's a mighty powerful eternal God. We know that. We just know that from what god has made.

But instead of listening to that story, we put our fingers in our ears. Instead of turning to him the light, we turn in on ourselves and become dark. Instead of living a part of his story, we choose to be fools and to write our own story. In other translations of that verse, Paul uses the word suppress. We suppress the knowledge of God.

And the best way to think about that is the old beach ball in the swimming pool illustration. Steve, if you can show that, I don't know if any of you had summer holidays that were lucky enough to have looked like that. But if you imagine being in a swimming pool and trying to push a beach ball down beneath the surface. What is required to keep it from popping out? It requires you to constantly be leaning upon it and holding it down and to stop it rising.

That is how you and I treat the knowledge of God that we have in creation. Instead of worship, keeping him and listening to him and saying, I wanna be part of your story, we hold it down. We don't wanna listen to our creator. We wanna push it down and go our own way. And the question is, why do we do that?

The reason is because when we do that with the truth about creation, it allows us to write our own story without god. That's why we do it. That's why we will believe anything, even that everything came from nothing. We will believe that everything came from nothing, even though it makes no sense to us. Why will we believe it because it allows me to write god out of the story?

And it allows me to live my own story because I don't need god. So I can believe something ludicrous because it allows me to live as I wanna live. Steve, if you could put that catechism question up please for me. Here's question 4 on the screen. What does it mean to be made in god's image?

We are made to worship god and rule creation rightly. That is what we were made for, but we have tried to rewrite the story. And friends, boys and girls, we we still do, don't we? Every time we tell a lie instead of telling the truth, we're trying to rewrite our own story with God not in it. Every time we don't listen to mom and dad and wanna do our own thing, We're rewriting god's creation story and trying to live our own.

Every time we indulge in a bit of gossip, we're trying to rewrite our own story with god out of it and us in control. This is the heart of our problem. God made us all to bear his image, but we said that is not the story for me. I'll believe anything instead of that because it allows me to write my own story. And so what we discover as we think about the doctrine of creation, is that although we were gloriously made to know god and enjoy god as his image bearers, we have chosen to rewrite our own story, and that is why we desperately desperately need god's help.

Steve, if you could put our big need help picture up, that is what we we are a creation, a people made by god, but now because of our choices, we need god's help. Now earlier on, you might remember, in the mix, we talked a bit about that phrase, let us an hour, and we were learning there about the trinity that there is 1 god, just 1 god, but father, son, and holy spirit. And what we find when we turn to the new testament is that all of god, father, son, and holy spirit were involved in this creation work. You see it in the old testament, but it becomes even clearer in the new testament. And so, we mustn't think that, okay, here's God, the father, and he only cares about creating.

He does his creating, and then he goes off. You've got God, the son Jesus, he comes to save, he only cares about saving, then he's gone. God, the Holy Spirit, he only cares about coming to live with us, before that, he's been doing absolutely nothing at all. But rather that 1 god, father, son, and holy spirit have been all involved in this creating, saving act of the great god. And when we look to some new testament passages, we see that Jesus Christ is the 1.

God, the son, is the 1 through whom everything was made. Let's have a look at those verses. Here's John 1 verse 1 to 3. In the beginning was the words. That's Jesus.

And the word was with god and the word was god. He was with god in the beginning, and then John tells us, through him, all things were made. Hebrews 1 verse 2. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son. Jesus whom he appointed air of all things and through whom he also made the universe.

And so do you see as the story of the Bible builds Who is this from nothing creator? Who is this 1 who prepared all of the universe for life? And who is this 1 who even now gives life to everything he has made? It is none other than the lord Jesus Christ. And you know, really, this is a big part of what it means to be a Christian.

A Christian is not just someone who believed that once upon a time god created the universe, but rather that they are surrounded in every moment of their lives by the creating sustaining lord Jesus Christ who every single day, all around us, is engaged in a trillion acts of creation. He is the ongoing living creator who creates life and sustains like not just once upon a time, but all time. So boys and girls, when you go out into the park and when you go out into the garden, you mustn't just think, oh, once upon a time God made this, but rather right now you're surrounded by the the life person, Jesus Christ, who makes everything and gives life to everything, even in the moment you're in the park. Not just once upon a time, but always. And so you turn to the new testament, and this is what you find, the god of Genesis, the lord Jesus Christ, through him the world was made and it is only by him that we can be restored and forgiven of our sin.

Steve, if you could put the picture of those baptism's up, I I I would love to encourage you to come along this evening. If you can come along this evening and celebrate these baptisms with us. Because what what what are we gonna see tonight? That's the question. What are we gonna see?

We're gonna see 6 people who are gonna stand up And in their own way, they're gonna say, I was created by god. God made me in his image, but I did something terrible. I chose to try to rewrite the story. I didn't wanna live as an image bearer. I wanted to live my own way, and actually I've made a mess of my life.

But now I have discovered that the god who created me has come to rescue me. In the person of his son. And I am now, because of him, a brand new creation. The old is gone, and the new has come. Because the god who made me has made me new in the person of Jesus.

Isn't that worth celebrating? You see AI is really sophisticated, but all it can do is gather and remix what's already out there. The Lego creator range is unbelievably clever. But all it allows you to do is put back together what god has already made. Only our god and his son, the lord Jesus Christ, can look at nothing and make something.

Can look at chaos and bring order, darkness, and bring light. And that is what we're going to be celebrating tonight. God's creating a new creating act. And I know that those 6 would love to see as many faces as possible who have come to celebrate the new creation work of Jesus Christ. Let's finish with this verse.

This is act 17. It's a wonderful invitation for all of us. The god who made the world and everything in it is the lord of heaven and earth and he does not live in temples built by human hands and he's not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Rather he himself gives life. To everyone and breath to everything else.

God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any 1 of us. For in him, we live and move and have our being. The god who made us is not far from any 1 of us and it might be that you're here this morning whether young or old and for too long you've been trying to write your own story without your creator. Or those verses are an invitation. You know, the god who made you is not far from you.

He is not far from you. He is all around you. And if we will turn to him, then we can begin to worship and know this 1 who made us. And so throughout this morning we've been having a little experiment with nothing. We've added slime to it and we've added a big bang to it but it hasn't helped very much has it because friends what can nothing create?

Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing comes from nothing but everything. Everything comes from the lord Jesus Christ, our creation and our new creation. Praise the lord. Praise the Lord.

Father, we thank you that you are the 1 who made all things in the beginning who can make sinners like us new through faith in the lord Jesus and who will 1 day come to bring about a brand new creation, how we eagerly await our true home with you, our maker, and our saviour. Oh, man.