It All Begins with God: Genesis 1 and the Creator Who Sustains You

Why did you start?

That’s the question I asked a room full of professional baseball players early Sunday morning. I had the privilege of leading chapel for the Miami Marlins and the LA Dodgers before I came to preach. Both teams are deep into a long season. And you could see it. The game these guys loved as little boys has turned into a job. Some days it feels more like a burden than a blessing.

So I asked them to go back. Back to being a kid with your mom and dad cheering in the stands. Back to the day you realized you were good at this and you could help your team win.

Because something happens when you go back to the beginning. You start to see everything else a little more clearly.

Go back to the beginning

Heidi and I see the same thing in marriage. We get to travel all across the country speaking to hundreds of couples at Weekend to Remember marriage conferences. And couples come in wrestling. Men and women are different by design. Opposites may attract, but they’ll also drive you crazy.

So before the weekend even kicks off, session one, lesson one, we ask every couple the same question. Why did you get married in the first place?

We have them go back to the beginning. What brought you together? The companionship. The adventure. The whole journey of it. And that simple exercise of going back to the beginning helps sustain the relationship moving forward.

The same is true for your life and mine.

That’s why we’re starting our new series, Foundations, right where Scripture starts. Genesis chapter 1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

And here’s what I want all of us to hold onto. If we can recognize that God is God and we’re not, that He’s not only the Creator but the Sustainer of all things, then no matter where we find ourselves in life, we’ll see things as they really are. He’s with us. He’s for us. And we can keep pressing on.

God is God, and we’re not. Let me say that again so we don’t miss it. God is God, and we’re not.

A cathedral, not a court case

Look at verse 1 again. Notice what it doesn’t do.

It doesn’t argue for God. It doesn’t build a scientific case. It just assumes He’s there and gets on with it. Genesis 1 isn’t a court case trying to prove God exists. It’s a cathedral built for His glory. And the rest of the Bible looks back to this very chapter over 200 times.

In those first few words you’ve got everything. In the beginning, that’s time. God, that’s the One behind it all. Created, that’s the action. The heavens and the earth, that’s space and matter. It’s all right there in one sentence.

Now, we all have a choice to make, don’t we? Either God is eternal, or matter is eternal.

And if matter is eternal, how does that explain a world full of order instead of chaos? How does it explain why you long for meaning? Why you know right from wrong? Why you actually love people?

I’d argue it takes far more faith to believe that. And that’s why I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist.

The truth is, none of us were there. So all of us are people of faith when it comes to how everything began. I choose to believe that God’s Word is true. There is a God, and He spoke everything into existence out of nothing. Theologians call that ex nihilo, which is just a fancy way of saying “out of nothing.”

And science isn’t the enemy here. You see, science depends on an orderly universe. It depends on laws that hold steady. A rational God made a rational world, and He made us in His image so we could actually understand it.

He didn’t wind it up and walk away

Now, there’s more. We don’t just have a Creator in Genesis 1. We have a Sustainer.

God could have spoken the world into existence, given it a spin, and let it go its own way. There’s a name for that idea. It’s called deism, and it’s foreign to the Scriptures.

Look at verse 2. The Spirit of God is hovering over the waters. God is right there, intimately involved in every single day of creation. And if He was there then, why would you think He’s not here now?

The whole Bible keeps saying it. Colossians 1 tells us all things were created through Christ and for Him, and “he is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). John 1 tells us that in the beginning was the Word, and all things were made through Him (John 1:1).

He didn’t just make you. He sustains you.

We work because God works

Look at how creation is laid out. It isn’t random. There’s intention and order behind every single day.

Day one, light and dark. Day four, the sun and moon to fill them. Day two, the skies and the waters. Day five, the birds and the fish to fill them. Day three, the dry land. Day six, the animals and people to live on it. God builds the room, and then He fills the room.

And on the seventh day, He rests.

That’s where our seven-day week comes from. During the French Revolution, they tried a ten-day week instead. When Napoleon took power, he changed it right back, because it just didn’t work. People were getting sick. The economy was struggling. God built a rhythm into creation, and we can’t improve on it.

We work because God works. And we rest because He’s in control.

Notice something else. Genesis 1 never even names the sun and the moon. It just calls them the greater light and the lesser light. In the ancient world people worshiped the sun and the moon, but the point of this chapter isn’t what He made. It’s who made it.

So we don’t worship creation. But we don’t neglect it either. We steward whatever God has given us, as best we can, in a broken world, for His glory and the good of others. Because one day He’s coming back to take what’s broken and restore what ought to be. And He’ll say it again: “Behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

We’re not polishing the brass on a sinking ship. Your life has immense dignity, value, and purpose.

Let me lay my cards on the table

There are a lot of ways people interpret the days of Genesis 1, and I want to be honest with you about where I land.

I believe God’s Word is true, and I want to read it for what it says. When I read “there was evening and there was morning,” day after day, I’m just not flexible enough to squeeze millions or billions of years in between those verses. And Exodus uses that same word for day when it says that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh (Exodus 20:11).

I also know there are a lot of good Christians in our church, doctors and scientists and teachers who love the Lord and love His Word, who see this differently than I do. I’m not trying to win an argument. I’m asking you not to read God’s Word through a filter. Not a prosperity filter. Not a chauvinist filter. Not even the American dream filter, as much as I love our country. Just read it for what it says.

Because ideas have consequences. When people decided we’re nothing more than evolved matter, some of the worst ideas in history followed, including the lie that some people are less human than others. Scripture says the opposite. There’s one race. It’s the human race. Men and women both bear the image of God, and that means every person has inherent dignity, value, and purpose. More about that next week.

Your purpose is received, not achieved

After chapel that morning, one of the Dodgers pulled me aside. I’ll be honest, it made me a little nervous, because I was cutting it close to get to church. But I’m glad he did.

He said, “You told us it’s good to remember why we started playing baseball. I get that. But why? Why did God create everything? Why us?”

Here’s what I told him, as simply as I could. We were created by a good and loving God to bring Him glory. And you’ll never find satisfaction or purpose in helping your team win a World Series. Or raising your family. Or providing for your family. Or endless humanitarian projects. Those are good things. They’re not the ultimate thing. You were created for the glory of God. And until your life reflects that, it’ll never make sense.

Maybe you’ve been looking for your purpose in your career. Maybe you’ve been looking for it in your kids. Maybe it’s what other people think about you. You don’t have to live that way. You don’t have to find your purpose in what you do, what you have, or what people think of you.

It’s received. It’s received.

Now, here’s the twist

God didn’t need us. Before anything existed, there was perfect love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And He invites us into that love. Not because He needs us, but because He loves us.

And look where the rest of Scripture takes this chapter. From creation, to Christ, to the cross.

You see, the same hands that put the stars in the sky are the same hands that hung on that cross. The same King of kings who created all things wore a crown of thorns to redeem the people He came to love. The same God who said, “Let there be light,” is the same Jesus who said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).

That’s why heaven sings “holy, holy, holy” to the One who “created all things” (Revelation 4:11).

He didn’t just create this world and leave you to find your purpose in it on your own. He came for you.

So what do we do with this?

If you’re a follower of Jesus, we do the humble thing. We remember that God is God, and we’re not. And we tell Him, “Lord, it’s not about me. It’s all about You.”

And if you wouldn’t call yourself a follower of Christ yet, but you sense God calling you home, hear this. The Creator of the universe is the same One who gave His life on the cross for you. Your purpose is received when you come to Him and let Him bear the weight of your sin, which only He can do.

Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, it’s not about me. It’s all about You. I want to glorify You in all I do. Help me. Do for me what I cannot do for myself. Save me and sustain me. I don’t want to find my identity in creation. I want to find my identity in You, and my forgiveness in You. I’m Yours. In Jesus’ name, amen.

If you prayed that for the first time, we’d love to know. Find us this Sunday.

Next week we’re in Genesis 2, looking at the pinnacle of all creation: humankind, made in the image of God. Come back.

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