The Apostolic Connection with Evangelist Robert Tisdale by Robert Tisdale Kind: sermon Scripture: Genesis 1, Genesis 1:1, Genesis 1:2 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/robert-tisdale--the-apostolic-connection-with Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ I have come to preach to those today who are waiting with promises yet unfulfilled. For those of you who believe the best is yet to come. I've come to preach to those who will embrace the simple truth, your life is not over. God is not finished. God's design will unfold in your life. If that's you, shout Yes! Genesis, the Book of beginnings It is a prerequisite for study. If you are serious about the Word of God. For it is in that Book of beginnings that you learn the distinctiveness of the God we serve. You discover His power A glimpse of His personality and His divine purpose. It is within Genesis that we see the concepts and principals of the Word of God that are established for most of our theological issues have their beginnings in Genesis. Adoption, election, foreknowledge, substitution, tribulations, second coming, blood atonement, virgin birth. They have their beginnings in that Book of beginnings, Genesis. And from those principals and concepts, spring forth out of the Old Testament and they are revealed in the New Testament. For the Word begins in verse one. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Establishing a principal you can live by. God will move over your life prior to a creative word that is spoken. That's why it's imperative you surrender yourself in worship to the moving of God's Spirit so the Word can have creative impact upon your void. When he designer of the universe gives His account of creation, it does so in a mere ten words. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And it stands in all of its naked force the opening salvo of scripture. No attempt is made to water it down. To apologize to a skeptical age or even to prove that God is. For the Holy Spirit deems certain truths to be self evident. First and foremost, God is. In the beginning, God. In one sublime statement, the Word sweeps aside atheism by asserting God's existence. In the beginning, God. It denies polytheism. Separating himself from a committee or multiplicity of gods. For in the beginning, God. And the Word rejects pantheism, for God is more than matter. In the beginning, God created. He needed no ingredients. He needed nothing outside of himself to create all that there is. For there is none like your God. There has never been an obstacle he could not overcome. There is not a disease that He cannot cure. A devil He cannot cast out. A curse He cannot reverse. A question He can't answer. A devil He can't evict. There is nothing that your God cannot handle. It begins in the Book of Genesis. The planet, according to the Word, And let me preface this remark. Genesis is not meant to be a science textbook. It is not even meant to prove the existence of God. It is simply a statement of fact of God, His greatness, and His grandeur. The planet without form, void, and darkness conceals the face of the deep. And yet the planet is about to become the platform on which God will stage a demonstration that not only is He great, He is good. So first God deals with darkness. Light be, and instantly light was. Now the skeptic would say, impossible for the sun does not appear until the fourth day. And yet the creative accounts as the sun or the light came on the first day. So you cannot have light without a sun. My rebuttal to that fact is this, you can when you're God. It is a principal established in the beginning of the creative process. God will always give you a word and give you an explanation of that word at a later date. God will always speak a word to your spirit, and the proof, the validation, and the affirmation of that word comes at a later date in your walk with God. You've experienced God called you healed. And yet the validation of that word of healing did not show up until a later place in your walk with God. God called you blessed. Right now you can't pay your bills. But can you believe the Word when there's no proof of the Word? Can you stand on God's divine ability when there is no validation of what's happening? I for one choose to believe the Word. Do you know what I'm talking about? God calls you free, but today you're bound in addiction. But if you can believe the Word, the proof will arrive. Don't doubt. Don't fear. Don't allow skepticism to steal your future. When God speaks a word, it will happen. The light The light revealed a chaos of tossing water and a shoreless sea. No land raised its head above the smothering mist and the heaping waves. It's not different than we are, is it? He moves over us. Speaks a word over our spirit, and the light reveals chaos. But God's not finished. It's good, but God's not finished. So God speaks, and an atmosphere is instantly formed. At once, two oceans appear with a far flung firmament between the two. A place for clouds to congregate. A playground for weather to have its way. And God said it's good. Still the rolling seas held restless empire over all the world, but in an instance God silenced the restlessness. Continents arose. Towering peaks appeared. The land threw off the mantle of the sea, and it was good. In the vast and emptiness, the void of space, stars appear with nothing but the command of His word. Orbits spin up. Planets arrive suspended on nothing but the sovereignty of His spoken voice. In fact, what we spend billions of dollars upon, it catches our imaginations. We stay up late at night to watch the eclipse and the meteor showers. God encapsulates it all with six words And He made the stars also. They mesmerize us. But God says no big deal. And He made the stars also. For quite frankly, God's more interested in souls than He is stars. People than He is planets. Six words about the stars. 50 chapters about the tabernacle and how to have the sins of Israel remitted. God is concerned about you. Not planets. Not orbits. Not gravity. Those obey the power of His word, but God is intimately interested in each individual. And it's good. Vegetation throws a garment of green over vast segments of the earth. Forests spring up everywhere, and it's good. Creatures great and small graze the glens and the vast pristine forests of this perfect world, and it's good. Then God made man, and He created him in His own image after His own likeness and instilled within him the desire for connection for companionship, for relationship with Him. Man, a creature apart, able to think, to feel, to decide, to speak, to sing, to appreciate beauty, to control his environment, to rule the world, to walk in communion with his creator and it was good. In fact, the words that God paused and said It's very good. You know I think we would do well to take a cue from the creator and step back and appreciate the unfinished portions of our lives rather than fixating on what isn't finished. I think perhaps we should take a survey over the creative process of God's divine purpose and say it's good. I'm not what I will become, but so far so good. I'm not all I can be, but so far so good. I think it would do us well just to step back and say God you're not finished in my family, in my marriage, in my children, in my church, in my city, but it's been good. Adam is the monarch of all he surveys. Everything is under his feet. He is loved by God. He communes in daily fellowship with his creator. It's good. And yet one particular day God declares, it's not good. For Adam ruled this vast empire alone. The birds of the air had their companions to share their nests. The foxes had their mates to share their dens. The neutrons had protons. But Adam ruled the world and walked the path solitary. And it was not good. And it's still not good today. For Adam possessed relationship without fellowship. Adam walked with God by himself. And relationship with God alone is not enough. I didn't say that. God said that. God said what I can provide for you Adam is not enough. God recognized Adam needed more. You're not meant to be alone. Some things are meant to be shared. Adam's poverty is this He is rich in relationship with God, but he has no prospect of fellowship with man. Don't say you can worship God alone and that's enough. For God himself said worship alone doesn't cut it. You need to be with others. No wonder the writer said, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. No wonder the Word declared that God dwelleth in the praises of His people. So to work, to work goes God again. And Adam falls into a deep slumber initiated by the creator himself. And when Adam awakens from that deep sleep, it's a dream in front of him. Perfection in the female form. He's star struck. It's evidenced by what he calls her. Wo, wo, wo, woman. Wasn't even very creative. He just put a wo in front of the word man. For there she stood, his counterpart. His opposite made especially for him and suddenly everything was good. Really good. Exceedingly good. He had fellowship with God and relationship with Eve. It can't get better than that. He lives in Eden. But sin comes, and shatters the goodness. And Adam loses his relationship with God and not his fellowship with Eve. Now suddenly, because of sin, we have fellowship with people but no relationship with God. And fellowship with people is not enough. We don't come to the House of God for social interaction. We don't come to the House of God simply to be around people of faith. We don't come to the House of God to be connected to a mission bigger than us. We come to God's sanctuary to connect with His divinity. To rub shoulders with His deity. To restore a relationship with the creator. It's not simply about connections and fellowship and activities. We're here because we've come to connect with God himself. We are not complete without fellowship with others and relationship with God. The beginning of God's plan. Adam and Eve. They're much more than a love story or a saga of positive events gone wrong. For we realize within the first family, things begin well but things can quickly go array. And within the first family's failure, we understand something about our God. Why is it when we sin we run from God rather than to God? Adam, Adam. Where art thou Adam? God is still in the garden, in the cool of the day, calling the name of His fallen son. Adam, where art thou? Adam. That should speak volumes to your spirit. When we fail, God still searches for us. When we are filled with mistakes and inconsistency, God still calls our name. Adam Where are you Adam? Why is God calling Adam's name? Is Adam somewhere God does not know? Is God asking a question because He does not understand the failure of His creation? If you believe that, then you've undermined a basic tenet of the Word of God that God knows all things. That God understands all things. So why then would the God who knows all and understands all, ask a question? Adam, where are you? Adam? The answer is simple. God is calling Adam's name so that Adam can find himself in relation to his God. For Adam has deviated from the course. Shame and guilt have fallen like an anvil upon his human psyche. For the first time in his existence, he has tasted of what God had no intention of him ever tasting of. And now Adam hears the voice of God, so he can reorient himself in relation to where his God is. God isn't lost. God knows where Adam is. Adam has to run back. So God calls his name so Adam can part the fig leaves, move through the jungle, and say God, I'm coming home. I wish someone would hear the voice of God today and make a choice to come home. Say I'm on my way, God. For the simple fact is this, God hasn't moved. But Adam quickly points at Eve and says it's the woman. And by the way, you gave her to me. Human nature hasn't changed much, has it. But I refuse to leave my destiny in the hands of someone else. God feels the accusation of Adam. For Adam is simply blaming God by giving him Eve. It's Eve, and she was your idea. And Eve quickly points the finger at the serpent. And said it was him, not me. How can I do any better? It's Eve's fault. How can I perform higher? It's the serpent's fault. So God judges the serpent, and God judges Eve. God judges Adam. And all we endure is the result of the dysfunction of the first family. Within the first family, there is terrible chaos, guilt, and shame. And yet in the midst of the judgment, God gives the woman a prophecy. In the middle of the turmoil, God speaks a word of hope. In the middle of the trial, God says this tragedy is not all there is. Have you ever had God give you a promise in the middle of chaos? Have you ever felt a word of hope in the middle of a storm? That it won't always be this way. That this isn't the end. But there's a better day coming. That the best can still be yours. It may be a mistake of your own creation, but the best is still available. A prophecy to a woman in shame. Things will get better. It's not over. And I've come to tell a listener in this house, it's not over. God's not finished. Don't fold your heart in despondency today. God's not done. Something will come through the woman that will make it better. For she will conceive something within herself that will bruise the head of the serpent. Can you imagine the excitement at that prophetic utterance that first messianic prophecy? There's never been a baby. How do you believe when there's never been a natural birth? Sometimes your faith has to find a fight when there's no point of reference. You've ruined my home. You've messed up my family. You've ruined the peace in the garden. My relationship is a wreck. But serpent, I'm going to win. It's not over. I'll have the last laugh. It's not over in your business. It's not over in your marriage. It's not over with your children. It's not over with your siblings. It's not over. I've come to tell someone, your ministry is not finished. The enemy is manipulating your future. I've heard a word in the storm. I've heard a prophetic word. It's not over.