Summary: This sermon deals with God’s power and with His desire to create us in His image.

The Ellipses of God

Text: Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the Heaven’s and the earth.

In the English language there is a device called an ellipses. This grammatical tool is used when the author has layed out all the facts and feels that the reader can make the conclusion without being told. In other words instead of telling the aftermath the scenario is played out in the imagination of the reader. The most masterful use of the ellipses is to allow the reader to have to facts, draw the conclusion, and then find out they have been tricked. To have the author come in and say, "That’s not what really happened."

I sat the other day and was thinking about what God has done in the past and what He is able to do in the present. The thought came to me that God is the master of the ellipses. We have everything layed out and He is allowing us to see the conclusion of His handiwork.

I. "In the beginning..."

To truely understand God’s ability to do all we need to do is look at the beginning. It is possible, based upon our knowledge of God, to read the first three words of Genesis 1:1 and come to the conclusion that God IS, CAN and WILL.

What God did in creation speaks of the mighty ability He possesses. It proclaims His omnipotence. That God’s power is unleashed, unlimited can not be denied. There is nothing that compares to the declared power of God than the creation account.

II. "...God..."

The most powerful concept in the human intellect is God. In all of man’s knowledge it is still impossible for him to comprehend the infiniteness of God.

God:

Who made all things

Who controls all things

Who Preceded all things

Who Will Supercede all things and Who has been to the End and Back

Think about that for a moment. A God who created the beginning of time, and yet has been to the end of time. That is a powerful ellipses.

III. "...Jesus..." - The Same God

The most powerful name ever uttered. When you say Jesus you have said all that needs to be said. One eight years old girl said it best when asked about Jesus. She simply said, "Because Jesus was all God wanted to say to us." God manifest in flesh, dwelling among men, coming to seek and to save. God walking with His creation, touching His workmanship and suffering the fatality of death to redeem a fallen soul.

WHY...?!?!: To give us hope beyond the ellipses

When we read the story of man we read the stories of sin, shame and hopelessness. Stories that after the ellipses comes destruction and death. That is because we read the story from OUR viewpoint, not the author’s viewpoint.

Where we see conclusion, God sees beginning. After the ellipses, after the end, after the last hurrah, He steps in and says, "THIS is the beginning..." As Paul Harvey would say, "And Now...The Rest of the Story."

What follows... your ellipses!!!