Creation - One Of God's Great Missionaries

INTRODUCTION

Opening Statement: I would like to share with you some things that I learned while on my recent trip to Colorado for a Pastor’s Family Conference at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. These are things that I didn’t know or hadn’t thought much about before.

1. There is nothing to see or eat in Western Kansas. When the sign says, “No Services for the next 70 miles,” believe it.

2. Never stop and get a cactus and put it in your van. When someone in your family suggests such a thing, quote something like “Get thee behind me Satan” and keep on going.

3. I never knew that Donnette could drive 90 miles per hour.

4. Just because there’s a sign that says “Little Horse Creek” doesn’t mean that there’s water up ahead.

5. Do not sit on the same end of the pool where Levi is planning on doing a “canon-ball.” I have never seen a 6 year old do a “canon-ball” into the pool like Levi.

6. Do not drive 19 miles up a 14,000-foot mountain on a gravel road with no guard rails if you are afraid of heights.

7. When you eat barbecue brisket and French fries at 9,000 feet, drink lots of water.

8. I am now an expert on loading and unloading a van for 5 people and 1 dog.

Now, some things that I “really” learned:

1. The Focus on the Family facility and campus is wonderfully state-of-the-art. And the people they have working for them are just exceptional. There are a number of Pastors, 200 or 300 of them, which are doing a wonderful job all over the nation. And they have wonderful families too. Imagine 400 pastor’s kids all together. One lady who was an expert at basketball handling and who shared her testimony in conjunction with that said that she has performed all over the nation and never found a young group more respectful than they were when she performed.

2. I heard some great speakers who love and cherish the family. You can’t come away from that place without a new dedication to your family.

3. We were lead in worship by a man who was delivered from homosexuality. He now has a large family and is one of the finest worship leaders I’ve ever heard.

4. I got to see a man who has given over 1.5 million to make things like pastor’s conferences possible. What I find is that if you create a vision, God seems to bring in those who can make it happen.

5. The live drama by a husband and wife team “Acts of Renewal” was so refreshing. They would sneak truth in through the back-door on you.

6. A Christian comedian made us laugh at ourselves.

7. (I have saved this last point until last because it’s a great segue into my message for today.) Colorado Springs is a beautiful city of 450,000 people with Pikes Peak overlooking it. The view from there has inspired thousands. I have a new appreciation for what happened there several years ago. When Katharine Bates was brought in to do some adjunct instructing for the local college in Colorado Springs, she went up Pikes Peak. We did the same and I can tell you that the view from there at 14,100 feet and 19 miles of road behind you, the view is simply magnificent! While on top on this great mountain, Katharine Bates wrote the verses for “America, the Beautiful.” (It’s on page 799 in our hymnal and I would like to read some of the verses).

Illustration: I was talking to a 15 year old Pastors kid who was swimming in the pool. He was telling me about how awesome Pikes Peak was the day before I went up. He said, “Man, God is awesome.” I already knew that, but to hear him say it meant a lot. He knows where he has come from.

Key Verse: All of this reminds me of what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 148:5: “For He [God] commanded and they were created.”

Exposition: He spoke our creation into existence. He was that First Cause that set our world into motion. The creation now speaks to us of the Creator. In fact, the Creation is one of God’s great missionaries; it sings His praises and so should we.

SERMON

Explanation: One author states that there are three questions that we can ask ourselves when we see views like we see from Pikes Peak. Does a law explain it? Does Chance explain it? Does design explain it? A bullet firing when a gun’s trigger is pulled or getting at least one head when a fair coin is tossed a hundred times are both high probability events due to natural law. Natural law explains it. Rolling snake eyes with a pair of fair dice, or even winning a million dollar lottery when considering how many tickets are sold, constitute events of intermediate probability that are justly relegated to chance. Chance explains it. But let’s say the same person wins that lottery three times in a row. Suddenly we suspect that something more than chance is involved. There’s a design, a pattern to what it happening. Somebody knows the numbers and is tipping the person off (Ray Bohlin).