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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jed Lee - Creation

Jed Daniel Lee

Creator: Why Did Jehovah Create?

To hear you folks sing with such passion and power from up here, wow that was incredible.

And the dynamics of this room just add to that.

Well, it was a good thing I wasn't here when Paul introduced me because I have no idea what he said about me.

But I do want to throw out a little caveat, a warning, a disclaimer, so to speak, before I begin, and that's typically when I do a presentation or a sermon, I will provide a scriptural reference.

I will typically, usually repeat the scriptural reference 2 or 3 times.

However, with respect to our time constraints, and due to the brevity of time allotted versus the 30 or 40 texts that we'll be covering this morning, I will not be able to repeat the references multiple times.

And therefore, I urge you to find a writing utensil, something to write upon, use your neighbor's hand if necessary, and write ferociously.

But friends, I ask that you not only write, go home and read them and see for yourselves.

Also, I understand I'm being recorded, so if you want, I'm assuming you could obtain an audio copy afterwards and leisurely listen to it at home, pause it whenever you need to.

Having said that, before we get into the message proper, I would like to entreat the throne of God once more.

Our Father in heaven, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.

May the Holy Spirit bless us with His intelligence, His wisdom, For we want to be more like Jesus.

Father, reveal Jesus Christ to us, for we ask and pray in Jesus' name.

Today as we become better acquainted with the Creator, we will seek to answer the question, why did Jehovah create?

However, in order to properly answer this, we need to take in perspective the significance of names and titles.

Now, I'm certain everyone here has a name, yes?

If you do not know who I am, raise your hands.

For those of you with your hands still up, how many of you know either my sister Sue or my adopted sister Melody?

Just to be clear, what I'm trying to say is if You do not know who I am, but you do know my sister Sue or my sister Melody.

What this means is you know me by my title, which is Sue's brother or Melody's brother.

Have you ever referred to somebody by their titles?

And you call your female parent mom and you call your male parent dad.

But interestingly enough, you later learn that mom and dad actually have names.

Now I know some of you in the Western American culture actually refer to your parents by their names.

But for the most part, we refer to them by their titles, did we not?

A person's title defines that person's relationship to you.

Said it in a different way, titles tell others what you are, Names tell others who you are.

Now, both names and titles are very important in defining or identifying a person.

However, names are more specific, they're more definitive, they're more descriptive.

Now, don't get me wrong, titles are important, right?

I mean, in fact, probably the most coveted title in America, maybe in the whole world, is the title, President of the United States, right?

But imagine with me for a moment that you somehow were at Copenhagen this last December and you were able to secure yourself that little orange name tag.

And you were able to meet with all the other, actually it was pink, And you were able to meet with all the other, actually it was pink, and you were able to meet with all the other pink badge holders and you entered into the room where they're having their meeting and you cried out, Mr.

Well, there are over 130 heads of states there, including our own president.

Yeah, well see, this is the problem with just titles.

Titles are important for defining roles in relationship.

However, it's the name that provides definition and identity.

There's a story that took place in Korea just a couple of years ago.

There was a two-year-old who decided to walk outside when his parents decided to have their last and final fight.

And while this kid was wandering outside getting lost, the mother packed her bags and left.

She thought, oh, the father will take care of the boy.

The father thought, oh, the mother's going to take the boy with her.

11 Years passed by for their divorce to finally convene at court.

And it wasn't until then that they realized neither of them had the child.

Through various ways and means, they were able to locate this boy in an orphanage.

In the orphanage, they changed his last name to Suh because they didn't know that his last name was Lee.

Now It's a sad story, but think about it.

If you know your title, and this boy had a title, right?

Was that enough for him to know his identity?

He had to know his name to understand his identity.

You could say, if you don't know your parents, you don't know your identity.

And the Bible tells us Seth was the son of Adam, was the son of God.

So why are we talking about titles and names?

How is this relevant in our discussion about the Creator?

Well, when we are asked the question, do you believe in God?

Most of us would, nearly all of us here, would answer in the affirmative.

But have you ever thought that the person asking you the question might be referring to a god different from your own?

I mean, imagine if it was a Hindu who was asking you this question.

His word, God, could be referring to Krishna, Rama, Shiva, Kali, or any of the number of avatars that represent the supreme Bhagavan?

What if that person was Baha'i or sheikh?

Her God would be different from your God, and I know this because I've dated both.

Friends, We live in a time and age when we cannot simply answer yes to the question, do you believe in God?

We need to specify which God we believe in.

Creation: How Did Jehovah Create?

Our Father in heaven, you are our creator God.

We realize that we've come from the dust of the ground, and in fact, without you sustaining our lives, we'd be nothing but dust.

So Father, we ask for a humiliation today.

Humble us and help us to recognize that even the act of creation, the week of creation, is something we have to accept by faith.

Father, help us to see the order and the perfection in the way you created.

Bless us now with the presence of the Holy Spirit, for we ask and pray in Jesus' name, amen.

I almost wish I could clone myself and put myself over there and me here at the same time.

I apologize, I'm gonna probably be focusing a lot more attention over here, but I will try to look at you every so often, okay?

I guess we could, but since the monitor's not working.

If you will turn in your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 22 verse 5.

This is the story of Abraham going to Mount Moriah with his son, a donkey, 2 male servants, some wood, and a bowl of fire.

In Genesis chapter 22 verse 5, the Bible says, and Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey.

I and the boy will go over there and, what's the next word?

Now Abraham is a very interesting person.

In fact, the whole book of Genesis, in the Genesis narrative, there is more space devoted to talk about Abraham than any other Bible character in the book of Genesis.

Abraham is referred to in the New Testament as the friend of God.

Also, you will find Abraham's name twice in Hebrews, the faith chapter.

We might have to start all over and have prayer all over again.

The projector says it can display it in a very high resolution, but in fact it probably can't, which is why it's doing that.

You know what, maybe for the next 1, we'll try the longer 1 again except with the 800 by 600 resolution.

This morning we talked about God the Creator, and we realized and we understood that, again, I'm cutting in and out, aren't I?

We realize that the name of this creator God is?

It's telling us that our life has to come out, come from outside of us.

It's the same thing with the water we drink and it's the same thing with the air that we breathe.

Those are constant reminders that we consist, all things consist in Christ.

Ellen White, I believe, and I'm paraphrasing here, so if I'm wrong, you know, don't blame her, blame me.

I believe there is a place where she talks about how every single crumb of food is only possible because of what took place on the cross for you and me.

Now, we were talking about Abraham in Genesis chapter 22, verse 5, and there we see a picture of Abraham with his son, Isaac, and the 2 male servants, and the donkey, and the wood, and the fire, and they're going to Mount Moriah to do what?

Wait, the 10 Commandments says, thou shalt not kill.

Sister Weitz tells us in Patriarchs and Prophets that he knew it was the voice of God, but he was questioning whether, he was questioning the logic behind God's command.

In other words, Abraham was so in tune with God's voice, he could recognize it.

In fact, the incidences that take place here in Genesis 22, about 15 years have passed, 15 to 17 years have passed, since the last time there was any direct communication from God to Abraham and yet Abraham when he heard the voice of God he still recognized it.

The question I have for you today is are you so in tune with the shepherds voice?

Are you listening to the voice of Jesus every day?

He says, stay here with the donkey to the young male servants and then in the English it says, I and the boy will go over there, worship, come again to you, right?

It seems simple, it seems innocuous enough.

It almost seems like a misrepresentation, doesn't it?

You know what it actually says in the Hebrew construction?

I and the boy will go over, I and the boy will go over there, I and the boy will worship, and I and the boy will come again to you.

Abraham would not have started out on the road to Mount Moriah unless he believed that God was not only the creator, but also the recreator or the resurrector.

His statement here is evidencing that he does believe that God can restore life to the dead.

You know and I don't normally fish for amens, folks, but seriously, if the resurrection of the dead is not true, we might as well all go home today, right now, Because Paul says your faith is in, it's in vain.

Created: What Did Jehovah Create?

Our Father in heaven, how wondrous are your creations, how marvelous your works.

And Father, we're so grateful for the blessings of the Sabbath day wherein we could find time apart, set aside, sanctified while we're being with you.

And Father as we conclude this Sabbath and we look at the things which you have made, help us to reaffirm our faith in the creator Jehovah and help us to see how the things that have been created are strong evidence that in fact you exist.

But not only that you exist, but that you want to be an integral part of our personal lives.

Father, descend upon us, send your Holy Spirit, May he educate us and illuminate our minds.

I mean, I think it kind of shows a little bit for me, but you know, 1 of my favorite foods is pasta.

And my wife will tell you that I introduced to her this pesto sauce.

Incidentally, I'm vegan, so it's very hard to make a good tasting pesto sauce without the Romano cheese.

It's not that secret anymore, but this is something that I can make.

Oh boy, I better let you out of here soon.

Now how many have eaten something like this before?

How many of you would like to eat it tonight?

I even had someone ask me, do you wanna sing a solo?

Well, no, and no, I don't wanna cook for you either.

So, but how many of you wanna eat this not only tonight, but tomorrow morning?

What about eating this for the rest of your life?

Think about your favorite food, your favorite food.

I'm sure you have some, maybe pizza, I don't know.

Think about eating your absolute favorite food for every single meal for the rest of your life.

Some of us might, but most of us, we would not.

Well, imagine if there was only 1 form of life on this planet.

Now obviously that's not the case because when you look out there, the surface of the earth is teeming with living organisms ranging from the size of a bacteria that looks like this, which is the diameter of 1 2 thousandth of a millimeter.

All the way from something this microscopic to the giant redwoods which reach heights of 300 feet or more.

Now how many of you have seen these trees in person?

Oh man, it feels like you're on a different planet.

But just to give you a perspective of the size and the immensity of these trees, here are my parents-in-law standing in front of them.

Did you know there was the chandler tree that you could actually drive through, but now you can't anymore?

So in terms of volume or mass, these trees would be the largest living organism on this planet.

But in the animal kingdom, does anyone know what the largest animal is?

The great blue whale can have lengths of 110 feet, and they may be the heaviest animals to have ever lived on this planet.

You know, they can actually swim 20 miles an hour, and they can dive to depths of 2 miles in the sea.

These whales are impressive, and we're actually gonna talk about these awesome whales here later on in our presentation but here's another shot of an up close blue whale.

What is the largest land animal though that you know of?

Can you imagine how this elephant used to be a single microscopic cell in its mother?

Isn't that just, Yeah, it just boggles your mind.

But do you know what is the largest living organism on this planet?

The roots go out and they have all the...

However, they found something in August 1, 2000.

It was found in the Mahler National Forest.

It's in Eastern Oregon, and it was found in underground caverns.

It's a giant fungus, and here's a scientific word.

And researchers determined that this particular mushroom covered 2, 200 acres.

And they tested from this side and this side, and it was the same mushroom.

And they estimated to be over 2, 400 years old.

Now, obviously, life on planet Earth is full of variety, yes?

There is a competing viewpoint in this world today, different from probably the viewpoint that you and I have all adhered to and we've talked about for the last 2 sessions.

Do you know how evolution teaches how we arrived at all this variety of life?

Well, it says, how many are familiar with the National Association of Biology Teacher?

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Jed Lee - Creation

Creation: How Did Jehovah Create?

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