Skip to content Our Unshakable God: The Unshakable Majesty of God's Creation Apr 2 · 32 min ...more
Our Unshakable God: The Unshakable Majesty of God's Creation
April 2, 2025 · 32 min
Continuing the study of Isaiah 40, John Mark encourages believers to share their faith and the truth of God's creation with others, as many seek answers in today's society.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton April 2, 2025 · 32 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Continuing the study of Isaiah 40, John Mark encourages believers to share their faith and the truth of God's creation with others, as many seek answers in today's society. ...more Show the full description Show less Continuing the study of Isaiah 40, John Mark encourages believers to share their faith and the truth of God's creation with others, as many seek answers in today's society.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Support this leader
Liking this video? Support this ministry.
Give
Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
101K followers
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
Comments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
Our Unshakeable God and the Evidence of Creation 0:01 Man, that is a blessing. Good to welcome you in the service, those of you who are joining us online. A couple of weeks ago, we started a series from Isaiah chapter 40 entitled Our Unshakeable God. And when I0:13 say our, that means our. Mine, yours, ours as God's children. We are going to look through this whole series, 1 chapter. Isaiah chapter 40, which is a turning point0:24 chapter where the children of Israel had been, disobedient to God for 39 chapters. They had rejected, the prophet's warnings and others' prophet's warnings. God removes his hand of protection and blessings,0:36 allows the Babylonians to come in, overthrow them, and God immediately, after 39 chapters of warning, in chapter 40 verse 1, God immediately starts to offer the children of Israel comfort0:48 and love and hope. So our first week, we talked about our unshakable God is a comforting God. Last week, we said our unshakable God delivers his word to us. And his word came both in1:00 creation and in God's word, but ultimately through Jesus Christ. Today, we're gonna look at 1 verse. Everybody say 1 verse. 1 verse. Now, don't get your hopes up. Don't say it's gonna be a1:12 shorter sermon. It's just 1 verse, the sermon's the same length, alright? Today we're gonna look at this idea that man, our unshakable God delivered creation and he sustains it for us. So when you and I look at the1:24 stars of the sky, we look at the people around us, God created all. You know, when it comes to creation, there are a couple of questions that people have asked over the years. First of all, when people begin to reject1:36 the idea that there was a God a couple of centuries ago, they said, well, we don't need God because the universe is eternal. Bad news.1:48 The universe is not eternal. We now know it had a beginning, that something created it, something started it, something made it happen.2:00 And then when people thought that the universe was eternal, they shifted to a naturalistic, evolutionary Darwinism. They said, well listen, here's all you need. If you've got all eternity, you have unlimited chances.2:11 Eventually, somehow, someway, 2 molecules are gonna bump into each other and they're gonna become what we refer to as life and then that life is gonna be a 1 cell, a 2 cell, a 3 cell, and then beyond that. Ultimately,2:22 it's gonna be a pterodactyl. The pterodactyl's become a human and this. And here's the big problem with that. There's no evidence. Just go look at it. There is 02:34 evidence for macro evolution. From something becoming something else. Now, there is evidence for microevolution that2:45 sometimes organisms can change. There are different things that happen. Take bacteria. What is microevolution? How many of you ever heard that bacteria, if you take too many antibiotics, your bacteria2:57 will develop a bacterial resistance? How many of you know that? See, that's a microevolution. They just learn to fight off what kills them. But what you will never see is a bacteria3:09 becoming a virus or a virus becoming a bacteria. You will never see a dog becoming a cat or a cat becoming a dog. You can see a dog become something poodle3:23 as they mess everything up, but they're still what? Dogs, right? There's a lot of my if you took me, I've shared this before, if you took me and all of a sudden moved me out into a desert, didn't give me a3:35 house over my head, if you saw me after about 10 years, you would notice that my body has gone through some changes, my skin is a lot darker to protect myself. That's what would happen. That's micro Those are changes3:45 within an organism, but changes within an organism don't make the organism something different. And I think when we think back about what are people longing for when they come up3:57 with all of these answers, I think it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. That when we go back to the Garden of Eden, there's still within everyone, whether you're in church or out of church, whether you're an4:07 atheist, whether you're an agnostic, there is a longing, deep longing for something different than what we see. Because if you go all the way back to creation, God created us in his image.4:19 Think about the garden. There were essentially 3 major things back in the garden. There was God, the creator. There was the universe of the4:30 earth, the Garden of Eden, the creation. And then there were people, the created. And in the garden, guess what? They were completely together. It says4:42 God would come down and he'd walk with Adam and Eve through the garden, through creation in the evening, then all of a sudden sin broke that up, separated humanity from God.4:55 And I think everybody's trying to figure out, well what what explains the brokenness that we see and the hurt and the heartache that we see and it's sin, but I also think at the same point, it is this longing5:07 within each and every 1 of us that something's got to get better. Don't you think that? You look around, you see the sin, you see the brokenness, see a hurt, you go there's got to be something better, and here's the5:18 beauty of it. God's word tells us how it all got here, what broke it up, the person Jesus is the answer, and we're heading back to a garden experience.5:31 So that's the beauty of Christianity, that's the beauty of this faith, and I will tell you, Christianity only speaks in those terms. I love as we jump down, you know that we're moving through this chapter 40, we're5:43 moving down to this last verse in chapter 40. We're just picking up some ingredients to get us to verse 31. Here it is, look Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31 says those, now here's what this5:55 says, those who hope in the Lord. Now, just stop right there. Those, that means there are also some who will choose not to hope in the Lord. There will there will be some that will that will resist hoping in the Lord.6:06 There will be some that even though there's evidence that says, man, if you want, if you if you want to make it to what you truly desire, which is, all things good and seeing what God's plan is, You have to6:17 hope in God. So it says those who choose to hope in the Lord, not everybody will, I will renew their strength, he says. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run6:29 and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Man, what an incredible testimony that that if someone chooses to hope in the Lord, it doesn't make the sin in the world go away. Someone chooses to hope in the6:41 Lord, it it it doesn't mean brokenness, is gonna disappear. What it does mean is that God will lift you up, now and ultimately through eternity, and set you at a place that you know you desire.6:54 1 of the things that I've noticed over the last couple of years, and it's a great thing from a pastor's perspective, there has been a renewed interest in Christianity. Have you noticed that? You say, why? Why? I shared7:06 with you last week that Bible sales are through the roof, particularly in the younger generation, Gen Z, because they've come to the end of the answers that the world has given, an atheistic world has given, and they7:16 realize those are the wrong answers. They're not helping. And so, you're seeing this renewed interest in Christianity among a lot of people. Why? Because Christianity7:28 has an explanation for why things are the way they are and answers to where we're headed, but beyond that, even non Christians notice that Christianity flat out7:40 works. It just works. It works in families, works in homes, works in communities, works in cities, works in7:52 countries. It's kind of been interesting over the years that, some of the people that I used to see as great opponents of the faith, of Christianity, have all of a8:04 sudden began to come around and say now maybe some of this Christianity stuff is kind of true. Probably the most world renowned and world known recently atheist8:16 who's constantly attacking Christianity was a guy named Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins wrote a book, 31 years ago or 34 years ago. It was called The God Delusion. Basically8:27 saying, you Christians are a bunch of fools. You've made up this God in your head that doesn't exist. But now, after all of the research,8:39 Dawkins has changed his mind. Now, he's not willing to say yet I am a Christian, but he says the evidence sure points to some God and so he refers to8:51 himself and he just outright said, I am now a cultural Christian. Why? Because it has the answers and he will also tell you it works more than anything else in the9:03 world. Atheism doesn't work, gnosticism doesn't work. He'd say other world religions don't work, but he says here's what I've noticed as the research has happened, I'm willing to say at the very least, I'm not9:14 willing to say I'm a Christian, I am a cultural Christian. Why? I believe there's a divine being that created it all. Wait, for years you told us we were deluding ourselves. Now because of research and evidence, you're9:26 gonna be a coming and I say come on. And my invitation to him is I love that first step and I love your second step, but let's go ahead and continue to make our journey all the way to the faith. Now9:38 he's gone so far as not only am I a cultural Christian, he defines it, I am because of where he lives, I am an Anglican Christian. He's even now identifying with a denomination to say, alright,9:50 you'll see me in church. Why? Because even though I wrote thousands of books and I made millions of dollars attacking Christianity, I'm kind of getting to the end of my life and realizing, getting to the end of my life10:00 and realizing this kind of works. You've seen it also with some other people. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of this guy. He's not much in the news at all. A guy named Elon Musk. Anybody heard of10:12 that guy? We're bringing him in here to begin to look through our books to see how things are going, told Scott. But I don't know, did you see Elon Musk? A couple years ago, a guy10:24 named Jordan Peterson, how many of you know Jordan Peterson? Man, Jordan Peterson, as a non Christian, by the way, began to speak out about some of the ridiculous teachings on10:36 truth that psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociologists were talking, and he was not even a Christian. And over the last couple of years, he began to say, well what really works? And he started10:48 saying, look what works, just like I shared with you last week on the science of happiness. He says, you know what really works? It kind of seems to be right here in the Bible. So he started reading the Bible. You can10:56 actually go online and see this guy teaching through God's word. Now, you would not say that that he is as conservative as we are because, man, he had years of saying, you know, that Christianity's kinda11:08 okay. But then last year on his podcast, April the sixth, you can go pick this up, he had Elon Musk on his podcast. And he began to talk to Elon about his faith and Elon11:20 says, man, the more I've seen there is a God. There is clearly some sort of God. And Elon Musk used those same phrase words, at least now I would consider myself a cultural11:32 Christian. And so here's the key. I love this. Sadly, sometimes the world has to move11:44 towards incredible brokenness for people to look up and say there's got to be a better answer. You see, and that's what the children of Israel did for the first 39 chapters. They11:56 pursued the world's answers. God removed his hands of blessing. He said here's what real brokenness looks like. Then they begin to repent. He immediately offers hope. So let's look at this 1 verse. Everybody say 1 verse.12:07 Here it is, let's look at this amazing verse. He says this, he says do you not know and have you not heard? Now let's just stop right there. There are some people in your life, in my life, in our, that they just don't12:18 know. And what does that mean? They just haven't heard or they haven't chosen to listen. So I want you to know part of our call is to make sure that other people know and other people will12:30 listen. Now, they can still say no, they can still reject us, but it's our job to communicate the truth and not be afraid to take our faith into our communities, into the marketplace, into the school.12:42 Why? Because it works and it's true. So let's read on. He says, do you not know and have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God, he is the creator of the ends of the earth, he will not12:54 grow tired or weary, and his understanding no 1 can fathom. Man, when you think about those words, do you not know and have you not heard, let me just tell you something. When you are born,13:07 you resemble your parents. When you die, you resemble your choices. When you're born, you look like your parents. You ever had someone walk up you13:19 and, look at look at the dads, he looks just like you or she looks My greatest fear is that someone come up and look at my daughters and say they look like me. I'm like, that is not a good thing. But13:31 here's the deal, as we journey through life, when we are born, we look like our parents, when we die, it's our choices that matter. Do you not know? Have you not heard?13:43 You know, as you think about views of God, they're pretty simple. The first 1 that we see, it's the idea of theism, that there is a God. We are all theists in the room, some of you may not13:55 be or online. And and there's a second category, is agnosticism. You're saying you know, I just don't know. You know, I don't know if there's a God, I'm not gonna be an14:07 atheist, I'm not gonna say there's not a God, and and if there is a God, I'm not sure what God is like. I'm not sure if he's the God of this Christianity stuff. I just don't know. I love God's word because if you look14:18 in Acts chapter 17 and several other places in God's word, that there were agnostics in the Bible. In Acts chapter 17, Paul is walking through a marketplace, a place of philosophy and worship where the philosophers, were14:30 there and they were talking about all the different religions and they had all of these idols built all over the place. And Paul walks through it and he notices and begins to engage them in a conversation. He notices 114:40 idol built to an unknown God. Paul didn't come in and kick over the idol to the unknown God. He says, hey I see you have an idol leading to an unknown God. He says, I see it, I sense that14:52 you are searching for God you do not know. Do you not know? Have you not heard? And I love this, so he begins to share the gospel. It says some of15:04 them believed, some of them rejected, some of them say, I would love to talk to you about this a little later. And I want you to know, when we share the15:16 gospel, when we talk about God, our creator and Jesus Christ, we're gonna receive the same responses. Some people are gonna say I'm in. Some people are gonna say I'd love to talk a little more. Some people are15:27 gonna reject. Some people are gonna wanna talk a little more because they have doubts. Can I tell you this, as believers, as faith, in person, online, it is okay for people to have doubts15:39 about the faith and doubts about their faith? And I will tell you this about this church and this place, if you have a doubt about your faith, keep coming. I and Graham and15:51 Chase are gonna stand up here every week and we're gonna address those doubts and give you God's word, and so many times we get to see people move through their doubts. Why? Because what they're longing for are answers.16:01 Do you not know or just have you not heard that there is a God? So agnostics, man, we talked about them in the Bible, they're atheists. Some people just reject God.16:14 Let me tell you what, this, you have theism, agnosticism, and atheism. This is a totally untenable position these days. There is absolutely no 116:26 who's honest now who believes when you look at the design of the universe, you look at the DNA patterns, you look at everything that we're seeing, that there was some sort of amazing mind,16:38 amazing God that put it all together. That's why the psalmist said, long before any telescopes or any scientific microscopes were, the psalmist said the fool16:50 has said in his heart there is no God. So if you're just outright rejecting a God, or that there is a god, the bible says you're a fool, but so does modern science. Now, if you want to17:02 say, man, I'm just not sure, well, God's word embraces that. Paul told us how to do it. Man, then come searching for answers. It is okay to not be sure. But a fool said in his heart, there is no God. Guess17:13 what, not only did the psalmist say it in the old testament, Paul said it in the new testament. Look at Romans chapter 1 verse 20. He says for since the creation of the world, God's invisible attributes,17:25 his eternal power, and his divine nature have been clearly seen. Woah, how's that? How can we see God's eternal attributes, his divine power, and17:37 his invisible qualities through nature? Being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. In other17:49 words, there's no excuse. That's why I say, theism, tons of evidence. Agnosticism, just need answers. Atheism, got18:01 nothing on your side. A fool has said in his heart there is no God. You are without excuse if you're an atheist, because that just says you're not even looking and you're certainly not18:13 even listening. I mentioned Richard Dawkins a few minutes ago. When I first joined the ministry, 1 of the things that they did in seminary is they would they would introduce you to all the writings of the18:24 atheists that were out there, who were attacking the faith. And 1 of the guys that I got exposed to very early was the most world famous atheist of his time, a guy named Antony Flew.18:37 He was just a prolific writer, he was a debater, we would watch his debates, we would listen to his, let me tell you what, when this guy stepped on the stage with a Christian, it scared me to death. I'm just sitting18:48 there, come on Christian, have a good answer. Alright? And he would write books and essays and literature just destroying Christianity. You you go all19:00 the way back, you go all the way back a number of years to 19 76. He wrote a book called The Presumption of Atheism. He says, listen. There is no doubt, atheism is the right. He goes, we don't even have to19:11 defend it. It is the right thing. You should just presume it's true. That was not the only book. Fast forward to as they begin to learn more about the universe,19:24 they begin to look into the DNA, they begin to look into everything. The last book he ever wrote before he died as an 81 year old man was that book There19:36 is No God, Crossed Through the No, and There is a God. So here you have a guy that's spent his entire life, his entire career attacking19:48 Christianity, and all of a sudden, he says I think I've got to change my mind. He says I've got to change my mind based on the evidence. What an incredible20:00 thought. I love what the subtitle of that is, There is a God, How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. And he goes in and tells you his spiritual20:12 transformational experience. And 1 of the quotes from that bio, from that book, we'll put it up on the screen for you. Here's here's the quote. He says, this is his quote from that book, there is a20:24 God. He says biologist investigation. He rejected over the years the whole idea of creation and that it had a beginning. Well, that could have happened anyway, anyhow. He never had an20:35 explanation for that, but when they started digging into the DNA, and they started mapping out the human genome, here's what he said. He says biologist investigation20:48 of the DNA has shown by almost an, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements to produce life that intelligence must have been20:59 involved. He says the only satisfying explanation for the origin of such end directed, self replicating life as we see it on earth is an infinitely21:12 intelligent mind. He will also tell you, and he writes in that book, he says my transition from believing there was no God to believing there is a God, he21:24 goes I didn't do it by faith. He says my faith came along kicking and screaming. He says my journey happened by reason, and the reason happened21:36 because of the evidence. And so folks, when we talk about today God's creation, man, the evidence is on our side. Plus it works. So what21:48 does God's creation teach us? Just from this 1 verse, everybody say 1 verse. Let's just walk it through. Number 1, God's creation reminds us that we are to worship the creator and never the creation.22:00 Alright? That when we think about, when we look at creation, it should drive us to look upward, not downward. That we should be willing to say, listen, I'm gonna worship the God who put it together, not what22:12 was put together. Alright? Here it is, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 28. Do you not know, have you not heard, the Lord our God, the Lord is everlasting. The presupposition of atheists for22:24 years was that the, the universe was eternal. And then a problem happened. We figured out it wasn't eternal. And it had a beginning. And then they said, well that's called the22:35 big bang. Well, who created the big bang? There must have been a big banger, right? There's someone who said, let there be all of this. There had to be some bang. And that's a start. And so as we think about it,22:47 man, God is telling us, worship me, not creation, not what I put together. There there's a religion out there, a way of thinking about God, it's called pantheism. K? We believe in theism,22:59 there is a God who created it all. Judaism, Islam, Christianity, all believe there is a God who created it all. Pantheism just kinda says God is in everything. There's just this kind of divine23:11 stuff, alright? So you walk up to a tree and man, it's divine. And you see a bird and it's divine. You see a cow and it's divine. You've got divinity in you. I've got divinity in me. The water, the fish, everything.23:23 They would say God is in everything. You kind of lean on Hinduism or Buddhism or new age philosophy that say, you know, God's just kind of in everything. We all kind of have a God spark. That's23:35 why you don't want to cut down a tree. Or just watch any Disney movie, right? It's kind of what it's all about. But here's what God's word says, man. God created it23:47 all and he sustains it all. I love what Paul said in Colossians chapter 1. He said this. He says, for in him all things Everybody say all things. All things23:59 were created. Everything. He says, things in heaven, things on earth, things that we can see, things that we can't yet see. And that's the beauty of as we journey forward and you24:11 got all of this scientific research and people begin to look at different things, all of a sudden God has been holding back things saying, listen, when you start rejecting me the most, I'm gonna show you more. And so I24:22 love it. God says, yeah, what you can easily see, general revelation, walk out see the stars, see the clouds, last night see the lightning. I put all that together. But he says, there's also some stuff that I created24:33 that you haven't seen yet. And so as we think about it, he goes on. He says, and all things have been created through him and for him, and I love verse 17, and it says he holds it all together. So thought24:45 number 1, when you and I look at creation, we have to be reminded we worship the creator, never the creation. Number 2, God creation declares God's unlimited power. Look at verse 28 again. Says do you not know,24:57 have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God. He is the creator of the ends of the earth. He did it. When we come to the25:09 idea of what started it all, there is a cosmological argument for the existence of God. It says, listen, something caused all this. Something put it together. Something made it happen. And why25:21 do we say that? It's because everything we see is contingent upon someone else. My children were contingent upon me, right? They're contingent beings. And then I'm contingent on25:33 someone else. The earth is contingent on something else happening. Well then, the question becomes, if everything that you and I see is a contingent, there has to be a non contingent being that calls it all and started25:45 it all, right? It's kinda like if you go into a gym, if you've ever seen this on video, someone will sit there and set up all the dominoes all around a gym or something like that. And then all of a sudden, after all of25:54 that work, someone will push the first domino over and they're just flowing. See, the pushing over was called the first cause. Who put it all here and who made it happen? You and I are in the middle of the dominoes26:05 falling. We have to say hey, back before the first domino fell, someone had to put them up, someone had to start the process. And so here we are and I love this, it talks about God's power.26:19 I love as a pastor to talk about the omnis of God. Boy, God's omnipresence that He's everywhere all the time, or He's omnipotence.26:32 He's all powerful, or is omniscience, that He knows it all. And what's taking place today in your life, in my life, is not a surprise to26:44 God. So we look at creation, 1, it reminds us we should always worship the creator and never creation. Number 2, it reminds us of God's amazing and unlimited power. Look at Psalm 1926:56 verse 1. It says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the works of his hands. I love this quote from Robert Griffiths.27:09 He's a, American physicist. Man, you just go read his words, read his books. First of all, you start reading, you're like, oh God, I believe he's smart because I can't read it. He was asked27:21 about how he became a Christian, and he did. He became a Christian because of scientific research. They begin to look at the order of the universe and of design and someone asked him,27:33 about atheism. And I love this quote. He says, you know, if I'm gonna have a debate, if I need an atheist, I go to the philosophy department, because there aren't any in the physics department anymore.27:46 I love that. He says if my students say, hey let's have a debate between a Christian and an atheist, he goes, well I roll over to the philosophy department because all they do is talk for a living. He goes over in the27:58 physics department, there's no, there's no atheist over here anymore. Why, because of the uniqueness of God's grace and the design that he put together. Here's number 3, you ready as we just continue to walk through28:09 it. It shows God's deep care for everything, a deep and lasting care for everything. Here it is, it says he will not grow tired or weary.28:21 Do you not know, have you not heard, that our God is creator? He is powerful and he doesn't wind down. He doesn't get exhausted. He doesn't get tired.28:33 Everything else does. You say, what do you mean, pastor? Anybody ever read or studied the second law of thermodynamics? Second law of thermodynamics says, and this is part of the28:45 reason, along with, now the images that we see, that we know that the universe is not eternal. Because all energy moves eventually from usable to28:56 unusable. That had the universe been eternal, we would have run out of steam by now. So there had to be a beginning, there had to have been a creation, And, we also know not only does all energy29:08 move from usable to unusable, everything created are things that we see, everything moves from order to disorder. Anybody have a house? Does29:20 it get better as it ages? Does your car get better as you drive it more? No. All energy moves from usable to unusable. All order moves from order to disorder.29:32 It just has. And so as you think about it, that's what the second law of thermodynamics tells us is that, man, everything's decaying. And the third idea is, listen, everything that is designed and29:44 built will decay. And I love what this says. It says, God, there's never a time when God moves from usable to unusable,29:57 from designed to undesigned, from not being willing to have power in your life and my life to not being able to. Here's the fourth thing it says.30:09 This world will close before we have these baptisms. When we look at creation, it shows us God's wisdom. He says do you not know, have you not heard? His30:20 understanding, that Hebrew word could be genius, His intelligence, His design, His understanding no 1 can fathom. As30:32 people look at the end the universe, they see all the design, they see all the uniqueness, they say listen, this could not have happened by chance. So I was doing some research this week just on30:45 the human eye. Let me just tell you something, and evolution has no answer for this. The human eye has over 2000000 working parts.30:58 20000000 rods that that that pull light into your eyes and help you with night vision. 6000000 cones that absorb the color that you and I see. Our lenses focus for near and31:09 far, some better than others. The iris, shrinks and expands within a fraction of a second because of changes in light. The31:21 optic nerve, listen to this, carries information to the brain at over 200 miles an hour. Now it's a short trip, but let me tell31:33 you what, evolution has no answer for life, and it has no answer for complexity, and it has no answer for design, but Christianity31:45 does. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for this day. God, thank you for the opportunity just to think about your creation and how it bolsters our faith. God, thank you for people who are devoutly atheist over the31:57 years, who as they see the truth, begin to journey our way. If there's someone here in person or online, let them do the same thing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.In this video 0:00 Our Unshakeable God and the Evidence of Creation
Comments
Keep it kind. Comments are public.