Text: Genesis 1:1 | Listen to Message
The Bible begins with these words: “In the beginning, God.”
We probably never pause to let the significance of those four words sink in. But here it is: In the beginning, before anything else existed, there was God – Father, Son, and Spirit – eternally existing in himself.
Eternal: God never had a beginning and will never have an end.
Key Verses: Genesis 1:1; Psalm 90:2; Jude 25; Revelation 22:13
Though scientists, philosophers, and theologians continually debate the origins of life, the Bible is unequivocal in its assertion that God doesn’t have an origin. He has always been. He’s Aristotle’s “unmoved Mover” – the uncreated Creator. While everything else in the Universe is derived and dependent, God is eternally self-existent. He is uniquely, categorically, qualitatively different from everyone and everything else.
Generations after Genesis 1:1, God finally revealed his covenant name to Moses in the wilderness, saying, “I AM WHO I AM.” In other words, “My name is ‘Eternal, Self-existent One.’” Every time you see the name LORD in the Old Testament [when it’s in all caps], it’s the name “Yahweh,” which simply means “I AM.”
Okay, so God is eternal. He goes on and on forever. With all due respect, so what? How do we respond to an unfathomable truth like that?
1. Give him the preeminent place in your life.
If God is eternal, and nothing else is, there is no one like our God. And it’s not even close. Everything else in the Universe has a source, an author, a beginning. God doesn’t. He’s chronologically and in all other ways first. Does he have the first place in your affections and priorities?
2. Give him today everything he’s worthy of forever.
Believers will be trusting, worshiping, and serving God 100 billion years from now. And another 100 billion years after that. Any God who’s worthy of that stuff forever is worthy of that stuff now. So trust, worship, and serve him today.
3. Hope deeply in his promises.
All of human history is just a blip on the radar of eternity. Even though our trials and pains drag on for years sometimes (and it can feel like God has forgotten us), God is working outside all constraints of time to fulfill every word of his promises to us who believe. Don’t give up because it’s been 2 weeks, 9 months, or 40 years. The everlasting God is working out his perfect plan – and nothing threatens, hinders, or annuls a single speck of what he purposed to do.
Sermon Notes & Application Questions