Translated as God the Creator in any passage we look to it Elohim. All right, that's E-L-O-H-I-M. Elohim, that's how it's pronounced. All right, if you want to turn with me to Colossians chapter one, that's where we're going to begin at today. Says, we're to understand the awesomeness of God for he is the creator of all things. You guys know awesome doesn't mean cool, right? That means it's like lack of words to describe the all of God, right? Awesomeness is like, man, God, he's awesome. Colossians chapter one. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. to know God the Creator and Elohim, E-L-O-H-I-M. Colossians chapter one, verse number 14, says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Amen? So this is Elohim. This is God, the creator. This is the essence of who God is, is anything and everything. Amen? Amen. Everything creation remains in its place by God's power. Says Jesus, the Messiah, the Redeemer made. the invisible God visible through his manifestation in the flesh, right? God on earth, amen. Although God was in heaven, he was also on earth when he came in the form of Jesus, amen, when he sent his son to live this perfect sinless life for us and said his power was great enough to pay the price for redemption, even though the great cost was a shedding of his own blood and his sacrificial substitutionary death on the cross. His power is sufficient to forgive sins. He has the power to save. The power of Jesus is the strength of Almighty God. Amen. Jesus is also the creator. His perfect, inhabitable creation is recorded in Genesis 1-1. Isaiah 45 18 says for thus saith the Lord that created the heavens God himself that formed the earth and made it He hath established it. He created it and not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited I am the Lord and there is none else. I I love when God does that and just kind of like lays it out pretty simply for us because we're simple folks, right? So he created the angels. He existed before them in the ancient ages of eternity past. Jesus' power in creation was so great that it was an instant reality, right? You didn't see God out here with a hammer trying to build things and make it work, right? He wasn't turning wrenches. pouring vials of different chemicals together. He just said it is, and so it was. Amen. Right, yeah, he didn't have no artificial intelligence. Amen, he is all intelligence. So Jesus' power is creation was so great that it was instant reality. Isaiah 48, three says, I have declared the former things from the beginning and they went forth out of my mouth and I showed them, I did them suddenly and they came to pass. right Jesus creative power is unlimited as the creator Jesus maintains his creation by his own power at 1725 says he give it to all life and breath and all things his sustaining power upholds all things at 1728 says for in him we live and move and have our being the sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, oceans, rivers, mountains, and all of God's beautiful creation are preserved in their rightful place by the power of God. God has given ample evidence of his existence and his supreme power as the creator of all. Each person's life on earth is continued or discontinued by the power of God. All creation should praise God for his mighty power. Amen. And I would definitely say, I mean, not only us and the fact that we have life and like the ability to see, hear, think, smell, like a soul, a spirit, I mean we actually were us, but creation in general has got to be like the ultimate display of God, right? Like you can't explain where stuff came from, you can't explain how things are made, you can't explain how the world is just like floating in outer space, you can't explain the depths and different levels of the earth that make it self-sustaining and what it is, and I mean you can't just say that this is accidental, like stuff like that just blows my mind. That's just saying, I don't want to believe God. So here's my answer. You know, it's just what you got, brother. Right. Wait, I mean, yeah, and that's just a dog. I mean, I'm talking about the mountains and how the ocean moves and how that's like orchestrated by the sun and the moon and the wind and how it's it's man, God's good. Praise God. Yes, like they don't do our world don't just fall into the sun. The sun don't fall on the world. I mean, good stuff. Deuteronomy 1017 go over there. Or we just Yes, Deuteronomy 1017. says, for the Lord our God is God of gods. Amen. Notice that that's a capital G, for he is God of gods, lowercase g, right? And the Lord, capital L, of lords, lowercase l, a great God, a mighty and terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. Says, God the creator, or Elohim, is the most common name of God in the Old Testament. Sorry, I gotta skim through a lot of this, because it says like, the Complete Word Study Dictionary Old Testament, page 54, defines it as, and so I'm like trying to skip all this stuff. Says, a masculine plural, defines it as a masculine plural noun, meaning God, right? We know plural is what? More than one, right? But this is a plural noun meaning God, right? It's a plural noun meaning one thing, right? But that one thing is described as more than one, which is God. It's cool stuff. Occurring more than 2,600 times in the Old Testament, this word commonly designates the one true God. It conveys the the scripture that god is the creator and there's other verses for all this too If you guys want them afterwards, let me know the king the judge the lord And the savior his character is compassionate gracious and faithful to his covenant the new strong's complete dictionary states elohim refers to the supreme god Genesis or Jisenius Hebrew called the lexicon reveals it refers to God as a plural of majesty. In Hebrew, the plural is three or more. Amen? Like us, our plural is more than one, but theirs is three or more, apparently. So, God is three, right? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Said, clearly Elohim refers to the one true God who expresses himself in three persons. Even in the most common name of God in the Old Testament, the doctrine of the Trinity appears. Amen. Just by the word Elohim, that doesn't mean one God. That means three in one God. Amen. It says, God is great. The names of God reveals. He is awesome in power and in presence. As the supreme one, no idol, image, or person can approach his greatness. He stands alone in power, wisdom, and glory. He is great in salvation. His name is great. His goodness is great. His righteousness is great. Amen. His mercy is great. His deeds are great. Says Psalm 104 one says bless the Lord. Oh my soul. Oh Lord my God thou art very great thou art clothed with honor and majesty The evidence of the scripture gives much proof that God is great God is mighty the mighty God refers to the all-powerful creator Psalm 50 verse 1 says the mighty God even the Lord has spoken and called the earth for the rising of the Sun unto the going down thereof and The mighty God is a God of justice, judgment, and mercy, truth. God used his mighty power to preserve the power of Israel from their enemies by making it possible for them to cross the Red Sea on dry land. Isaiah 124 says, therefore, saith the Lord, the Lord our host, the mighty one of Israel, I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies. God's mighty power remains greater than all. God is terrible. All right, so we have, let me see, go back up real quick. God reveals his awesome power and presence, God is mighty, God is terrible, is where we're at now. It says the complete word, we're breaking down Deuteronomy 1017, if you're missing the points there in 1017 there. Lord of Lord, it says for the Lord of God is God of God, Lord of Lords. He is a great God, a mighty God, and now we are at a terrible. It says God is terrible. The Complete Word Study Dictionary Old Testament defines terrible as a verb meaning to fear, to respect, to reverence, to be afraid, to be awesome, to be feared, to make afraid. God should be feared above all. God is more to be feared than people, nations, or any other. The fear of the Lord is a beginning step in the pathway of knowledge. Proverbs 117 or one seven. That's sorry. Says, uh, that's that's not the scripture best related to the scripture says, uh, those who truly fear God seek to respect him, obey him, worship him in truth, become faithful to him, be more morally upright and make a choice of faith in all decisions. The terrible God speaks of healthy fear. Amen. Fear God, right? He's the creator. He's the one that holds your life in his hands. He's the one that gives life. He's the one that takes life. He's the one that makes new. I mean, he's God, right? We are to fear him. If any of us stood before him, that's the type of fear that we should have, is the thought of standing before God, right? This reverence, this respect, this actual fear of who God is, right? It's like, well, I'm not gonna get into my message yet. We'll wait for that for this afternoon or whenever. But We are to fear God, right? Yeah, God's loving, but at the same time, we need to fear God. It's just like, I don't know about you guys, but my dad growing up, like, I feared my dad. Like, I was afraid of my dad. Like, I knew that he would whoop my butt, he would yell at me, he would raise his voice, and I didn't like any of that, you know what I mean? Like, I loved my dad kind of from afar because I knew that he was real disciplinary, you know what I mean? And God the same way. Like, God is, he's real disciplinary, right? But the thing is that God, being the invisible God, we don't see him with our eyes, right? We have to see him with our spirit. And the thing is, is that we feel him in our spirit. We feel his chastisement, we feel his correction, but a lot of times we'd like to put that off as, oh, well, that just happened, or that wasn't God, or God didn't really mean that, or God is to be feared, right? He is to be respected. His commandments are to be obeyed. Amen? Amen. Says God is no respect of persons. The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the Old Testament defines regarded as a verb meaning to lift, to carry, to take away. God makes no difference between people in judgment, in grace, in mercy, in vengeance, or in punishment for sin. Therefore, God provides for all, the only Savior, Jesus Christ, and saves whosoever will. God will forgive anyone, save anyone, or destroy anyone. He is fair to all. Amen? That's good stuff. Because we think about God will save anyone, He'll forgive anyone, but God will also destroy anyone. Amen? and have no separate feeling about it. And I mean, he's not willing that any should perish, but they all should come to repentance. But at the same time, if you're not willing to repent, if you're not willing to accept the love that he showed by sending his only begotten son to die on the cross, and you disrespect that, and you throw that back in his face, then I don't understand what else you could expect from him. Amen? Yeah, terror of the Lord. God cannot be bribed. He does not take reward. His justice, love, and compassion is the same for the rich and for the poor. Amen? God don't care about your money. He don't care about your lack of money. He don't care about money, right? It has no heavenly value. It has no effect on eternity. God does not care about your standing. Amen? Brother? No, definitely not. I mean, man is, it's temporal, right? We're not to be alarmed or afraid or moved by anything of this world. I mean, because, right, fear God, it's just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whenever they set up this idol, and they wanted them to worship this idol, and he's like, God, or King Nebuchadnezzar, we want to be careful what we say about this because we're not going to bow down and worship that image, right? It don't really matter what you say or what you do to us. God's going to deliver us one way or another. And it's the same way. I mean, yeah, man can hurt us, they can kill us, but God's going to deliver us one way or the other. Amen? No reason to fear him. And but we have to have our mindset that this isn't all. Because if we're worried about this and losing this life and this is all that we are hanging on to, then of course we're going to be scared. Of course we're going to be afraid because we're about to lose it all, right? But if we have more to look forward to, if we know that this life is not it, then what's the reason to fear? Amen. Going to heaven. I'm not scared to go to heaven. Send me to heaven. Like, I mean, it's going to be a lot better than it is here. I mean, it can't get no better. Amen. It's heaven. All right, back to this. God cannot be bribed. He does not take a reward. His justice, love and compassion is the same for the rich and the poor. Deuteronomy 1018 says he doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and the widow and love of the stranger and giving him food and raiment. Since God is great, mighty, terrible, no respecter of persons, and cannot be bribed, he deserves our worship and praise. Verse 20 and 21 says, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name, he is thy praise, he is thy God, that hath done for these that hath done for thee these great and terrible things which thine eyes have seen. Truly there is none like our God. Amen. All right, some related scriptures. Let's go to Psalm 33. Psalm 33. Songs are so hard to flip through. Some of them are 500 verses. Some of them are six verses. You can pass them up quick. Psalm 33, verse six. It says, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth. Amen. This is Elohim, the creator. So the creation sprang into existence by the word of the Lord. The writer of Hebrews states, through faith we understand that the words or the worlds were framed by the word of God. So the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Amen? Like I said earlier, God didn't find some building materials laying around to build something. He made things out of things that did not appear, right? He spoke them into existence. Everything he made was created. It says, as the work of the perfect God, his creation was perfect. In the exact instant, he commanded it to appear. So cool. He just commanded it to appear. There it is. God's creation includes the heaven and earth. The heaven includes the first heaven where birds fly, the second heaven where stars abide, and the third heaven where the throne of God is. Psalm 139. Psalm 139. Sorry, 139. You might think I'm saying chapter one, verse 39, but Psalm 139, verse 13. Says, for thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. Amen. God's almighty power as a creator includes being the giver of life. A child in the womb was given life at the point of conception. Amen. God continues the growth and development of babies in the womb. The psalmist stood in awe of God's great power and wisdom in making the human body. He said, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. He did not regard his origin to be anything other than Almighty God. God, the Creator, should be praised and worshipped in truth. As the doer of great and mighty works, God placed his knowledge in every person's awareness of him." Whether they want to accept it or not, amen? They all have a knowledge that God is there, that God exists, that this nonsense that they choose to force themselves to believe is not true. Amen? They all have that knowledge. Isaiah 42. Verse number five. Says thus saith God the Lord the created the heaven and stretched him out and he is spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it He had given breath unto the people upon it, and the spirit to them that walk therein. Man, it's life itself. That's Isaiah 42, verse five. Says, God is one single act, or God in one single act created the heavens, stretched them out, and spread forth the earth. Amen. He didn't do it in separate steps. He didn't have to do this first, and then that first, and then when that was done, he was now able to do this. He's able to do all things at the same time, and by the word of God, amen, by his word. Says, he began with the habitable creation, not with the chaos origin, God's creation provides air for the breath necessary for life God gave man his own spirit when he placed him on the earth in Genesis 2 7 says and the Lord God for man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Man became a living soul. I mean think about that for a second. All right this dirt God took and he breathed into it and and he made man or he gave man life, right? He gave him the breath of life. That same breath has continued to populate the entire world. Amen. God didn't go to each individual person and breathe into this person and breathe into this person and breathe into this person. Amen. He breathed into one person and that one person has been able to give life to everybody who has ever existed. That's amazing. Right. Right. Did it one time. Man. It's awesomeness. I never even thought about that thought before. That's cool. But that's how God reveals things to us, right? We read the same thing a thousand times and all of a sudden it's different. God is great and powerful enough to make man different from the animals. God created man in his own image. Genesis 127. John chapter 1. John chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Amen. Notice that the Word is capitalized and the God is capitalized. Amen. The same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. Amen. Sounds like Elohim. Amen. God the creator. Amen. Yes, because Jesus is the word. So that's why the word there is capitalized. In the beginning was the word has Jesus who is God and the word was with God who is God. and the word was God, amen? So the word being Jesus is God, amen? And God being Elohim in this sense is the creator. It says, John referred to Jesus Christ, the eternal God, as the word. He declared Christ was preexistent with the Father prior to creation, amen? Jesus wasn't just born when he was born here on Earth, amen? He existed with the Father and always has, amen? Even before the beginning of time, Jesus has always been. At the time of creation, Jesus made all things. As an eyewitness of the creator, God manifest in the flesh, John wrote, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Amen. And we beheld his glory and the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. John believed in Jesus Christ as the Savior, the Son of God, and the Creator. Revelation chapter 4, the last one here. Every time I look at the clock it's 70 degrees. It never tells me what time it is. yeah but it was consistent at one time like it said only the time at one time no i'm saying that it it has said it has been only a clock before but now it's a clock and a date and a temperature and all right revelation chapter 4 verse 11 sorry i'm not even there yet Revelation chapter 4 verse 11 says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things for Thy pleasure they were created. John summed up the complete thought concerning the knowing God the Creator. He related to us that God is the creator. He stated what God has done, created all things. He explained why God created all things. All creation exists for thy pleasure. God's pleasure is found in the praise of his creation. This earth is cursed by sin. Mankind are sinners. God gets no pleasure out of sin. When God achieves his goal in his works among men, including salvation, the preservation of Israel, and the ultimate exaltation of Christ as the King of Kings, God will create a new creation untouched by sin. God will receive pleasure from his communion with his redeemed forever in the new creation. Amen. What a day that will be. I said, uh, mankind was created for God's will and pleasure. Every person is responsible for his own soul concerning some important questions about life in eternity. From whence did I come? Why am I here? Where am I going? Every person has a life as a gift from God, as a created being, amen? As a created being, each person should give praise to the creator of God through true worship. God is pleased when any person responds to the Holy Spirit's conviction in drawing a repentance with faith in Christ for salvation. That person is instantly and eternally saved by the grace of God. Only children of God may find the correct answer to the question, why am I here? Believers are to serve and to worship the Lord. Amen? That's why you're here, in case you didn't know. God did not place mankind on earth to indulge himself in fleshly lusts, to worship at the altar of materialism, or to be his own God. Amen. In case there is any doubt or thought of doing so. Amen. This life is not about you. It says this life is only a short opportunity to know God and to serve him. Worship and service to God at this age must be through the New Testament Church. So, Ephesians 321 is a reference there. It says, When one considers where he will be after this life, the fact is there is only two eternal destinies. God has made heaven a dwelling place for his redeemed people. Hell is the eternal abode for those who die without Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. We must conclude that we are all here to bring glory to God our creator. Witnessing of Jesus Christ and his saving power gives God glory. Amen. Look what God done. This is what God did. Amen. Although he created you and you acted crazy and you refused him that created you, he sent his son to die for you. Amen. If you accept that, God can be glorified. Amen. If he don't, then God's going to be glorified. Amen. Amen. We'll touch on that later. It says, when the child of God prays and studies the word of God, it gives God pleasure. Amen. Could you care about God's things, right? God wants us to care about him. He wants us to care about the life he's given us. He wants us to care about the life he's given other people. He wants us to care about the souls of others. Amen. He wants us to care enough to tell other people about what he did for us. It says, when one repents, God rejoices. Exalting Jesus Christ in the word, deed, and life gives God pleasure. Philippians 2, 9 through 11. says wherefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that the name of Jesus every knee should bow and the things of heaven and things of earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord amen that goes from the lowest spot of creation here to the highest level of creation angels in heaven right there to exalt Jesus amen there to confess that he is Lord Right God's plan is for mankind to give him glory making excuses for not serving the Lord with one's God-given abilities insults God Exodus 4 10 11 says a Moses said unto the Lord. Oh my lord. I am NOT eloquent neither hither to Here to for yes, that's the word here the word to in the word for I All in one. Neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow in speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? And who hath maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Right? Like, I know what your problem is. But I need you to do this for me, right? I'm going to help you with it. I'm going to be there for you through the whole thing. I wouldn't tell you to do it if you couldn't do it. Amen? I wouldn't tell you to do it if I wasn't going to help you do it, because I know you're not going to do it on your own. Amen? What do you got, brother? I was just saying that the power of the psalmist, I want us to test it and receive it as it comes. And once it comes, you praise God, and love God, and sing God's praises for others. In other words, it would be saying, look, after this, before the end of time, Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're all going to give account for every word and every deed we've ever done. So God is not interested in our excuses. Amen. We serve all powerful God, almighty God, the creator. There is no excuse, right? If you had this magic genie that could grant every single one of your wishes and make it possible for you to do anything you ever wanted to do. How would you feel? Right. You would have control, right? You would have power. You would have authority. Amen. But we literally serve the genie. Amen. He's not a genie, but he's God. Amen. He's creator. He's not going to lead us and guide us and tell us to do something that he's not going to empower us to do. So God did not call Moses to be eloquent, amen? Moses didn't all of a sudden not have a stuttering problem. He didn't all of a sudden not slur his R's, right? He all of a sudden was willing to serve God, amen? So he did not expect Moses to be a silver tongue orator. God was ready to help Moses fulfill his role by blessing him with all that is needed to do God's will. How many of us respond to our God creator with excuses rather than obedience? Those who truly understand God is a creator of the universe, the one who upholds all things by his word and his power and the judge of all men. Have one priority in life, give God the glory. Jesus said, it is in these words, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. To know God is to live for him and to bring him glory. Amen? Because the fact is, if you know God, you're going to be excited about God. Amen? It's not just something to do on Sundays. It's not just something to, I mean, he's not just something. Amen? He's everything. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for today, God. We thank you for being able to look at you as the creator of all things, Lord, and we praise your holy name, God. We praise you for your creation. We praise you for giving us a breath of life, Lord. We praise you for allowing us to exist still, Lord, to be able to glorify your name, Lord, and glorify you have sent your son to die on the cross for all, Lord, and you have paid the You have paid the atonement for all of our sins, Lord. If we just believe in that and trust in your word, we can be saved. God, Lord, thank you so much for you making salvation so simple. And it wasn't something that we had to do, Lord, but trust in the finished work that you have done, God. Lord, we thank you for being God Almighty and all powerful and how we can turn to you for all things. And you empower us to do all things, Lord. And what you have called us to is not short for you to do, God. And Lord, I just pray that you may just help us understand these truths and help us to apply you to our lives and pray that you may be glorified. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.