The Beginning of Creation

Monday:	The Beginning of Creation
Story Passages:	Genesis 1, Acts 17:16-33
Other Passages:	Ephesians 2:8-10, Colossians 1:15-16, Romans 1:16-21, Romans 8:18-25
Objective:	God created the world and deserves our worship.
Memory Verse:	Acts 17:24, The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
Visuals:	Available here

Introduction: Where did it come from?

Out in the back yard, there's a big tree. Was it always that big? How did it get to be that big? How long has it been there? What did it come from, before it was a big tree? It was a little tree, once, but what about before that? [A seed.] Where did the seed come from? [Another tree.] Well, where did that tree come from? Where did all the seeds, and all the trees, come from originally? [God created them.] The world hasn't always been here. There was a beginning. Let's go back to the beginning, and explore where things came from...

Story: Paul in Athens

The apostle Paul was waiting in Athens for his two friends, Timothy and Silas, to come meet him. While he was there waiting, he got into a discussion with some of the people of the city, about religion. Paul was telling them about Jesus, and how he died for them and raised from the dead, but these people didn't know Jesus. They didn't know God at all! They had a lot of idols (false gods), but they did not know the true God, the creator.

Paul said he would tell them about the God they did not know. They were interested in this, because they had an altar set up just for a god they might not know. So Paul told them about the God who created the world and everything in it, the heaven and the earth. He said that this God does not live in temples built by human hands, and is not served by human hands, because he doesn't need anything, because God is the one who gives everyone life, breath, and everything else. Then he told them that God had sent Jesus and raised him from the dead, to prove that he is the God who will judge everyone. When the men heard this, some of them laughed, but others believed, including a man named Dionysius and a woman named Damaris.

Transition: Creation

Paul told them that God created the world. How did he know that? Where did he find that out? How did God create the world?

The book of Genesis tells us all about it. Paul had studied the Old Testament (the part of the Bible that was already written back then), including Genesis, so he knew about creation. The Bible says that in the beginning, when nothing was around, not even light or darkness, God created the heavens and the earth. They were pretty plain at first, but in six days God created all the details: light and darkness, the water and the sky, plants, the sun, moon, and stars, birds and fish, animals, and finally people. Then God rested on the seventh day, because his work of creation was done. When the world was first made, all the land was in one place. There weren't different continents like now, and the water was in two places: up above the sky, and down below in one big ocean. There were four rivers that flowed out of a special Garden, called Eden, where God put the man and the woman he had created. All the animals that have ever lived were born from animals that God created in those first six days, and all the people are from Adam and Eve, the first man and woman.

Some people haven't read the Bible, and they try to decide how the world got here, and they come up with all kinds of ideas about that, some sillier than others. Aren't you glad that we know what God says? And God is the only one who was there, so he's the only one who really knows. Everybody else is just guessing, or making stuff up.

Application: Worship the Creator

Since God made the whole world, don't you think that he deserves your respect? We honor God and worship him, because he's God, and because he made us, and made the world, and gave us everything. The Bible tells us, in Ephesians 2, that he made us so that we could worship him, by doing the things he has planned for us to do. Isn't it great to have such a great God we can worship?

Invitation: Commitment to God

Wouldn't you like to promise God that you will worship him, and do the things the he has planned for you to do? [Invite the children to stay after the lesson and discuss it further.]

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.