Emirates

In the Beginning by Victor  Yap

Genesis 1:1-2:3

IN THE BEGINNING

INTRODUCTION

The 21st century has arrived. The Y2K bug threat fizzled out. On New Year’s day, the Los Angeles Times called the Y2K threat a “no-show, an anticlimax.?At its peak, even my wife had Y2k dreams! The world did not end, but the tiresome millenium party had started, and Armageddon-style cults, self-proclaimed apostles, and publicly-acclaimed added to the lunacy.

This year, my pastor friend Michael wants to communicate a sense of urgency to his congregation about reaching the world with the Gospel because the Kingdom is near, so he is preaching from the book of John and his theme is "The Kingdom is Near". Another friend, Ray, for his first sermon in the new millenium, is preaching on the Signs of the End of the Age, an exposition of Matthew 24.

Unlike Chicken Little, I am one of those who believe the sky isn’t thundering, unfolding, or falling. The new is as old as the Bible, the more things change the more they remain the same, whatever will be has been, and there is nothing new under the sun. People repeat themselves tediously, predictably, and laughably.

So I have decided to go against the grain and preach a series of seven messages from Genesis, and not Revelation. Genesis is a universal, historical, and theological account of God, his creation and man. Chapters 1-11 talks about who God is, what He did, and why he did it.

Let us begin with Genesis 1.

THE GOOD EARTH

One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come along way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him.

The scientist walked up to God and said “God, we’ve decided that we no longer need you; We’re to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don’t You just go and get lost.?

God listened very patiently and kindly to the man. After the scientist was done talking, God said, “Very...