Elohim: The All Powerful Creator

You're trying to see a solution. God does not need something that's seen to do something with it. Dr. Tony Evans talks about what it takes to see God's power at work in our lives. See, that's why you need to know His name, because He transcends the need for raw material. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, president of the Urban Alternative.

When you find an incredibly resourceful person on earth, you might say they can do something with anything, but what kind of power would it take to do anything with nothing? Dr. Evans has the answer today. Let's join him. Today I want to introduce to you again for the first time the first name of God given to us in Scripture. It is in the book of the beginnings, the book of Genesis, and we're introduced to it in the first verse. In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth. That is our introduction to God. The problem is that the word God is used for many of His names, and without the Hebrew language, the Old Testament language, you wouldn't know it. You just may see God or you may see Lord, but the particular word in a particular case is not the same, although it's referring to the same person. God will vary which Hebrew word He uses to define Himself in light of what He wants you to learn about His name. We're introduced in chapter 1, verse 1, to God's name, Elohim. We can learn a whole bunch about God in verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

What does God want us to know about Him in verse 1 about the name Elohim? First thing you need to know from verse 1 is that God, Elohim, is distinct in time, because it says in the beginning, God created the beginning. That is, God created time. Not only is God, Elohim, this particular name, transcended in time, He is transcended in space, because it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

In other words, He predated His creation. So space God sits outside of. All you and I know are the heavens and the earth. We don't know anything beyond the heavens and the earth, because that's space. God existed when space did not exist. So God predated time, God predated space, and therefore God also predated matter. You see, everything that we know about is tied to matter.

That is the substance of all things that we have. In 1997, the Hubble telescope looked out and through this powerful lens discovered that there are a staggering amount of other galaxies. Now, poor earth is just in this one galaxy, the Milky Way. This little disc-shaped spiral that you see of light, that's our galaxy. A little of earth and the sun and the moon. We got our little spot, you know, and the nine planets and all, they threw out Pluto.

But, you know, we got this little thing. And they discovered we're just one little tiny galaxy. And there are other arrangements out there of planets and suns. Then they said, and each of these galaxies have up to a hundred billion stars in them.

Remember, He created the worlds plural. So you got a whole bunch of other, they said millions of galaxies, and each galaxy could have up to a hundred million stars in it. One of the close galaxies that the Hubble satellite could see was Andromeda. That's a galaxy near us. Andromeda is 2.2 million light-years from us, and that's a close one. Andromeda is 2.2 million light-years. Light travels at 186,000 miles a second. Andromeda is 2.2 million light-years from here, and light travels 186,000 miles a second. That means if you had a homeboy or girl living on Andromeda, and you sent them a message at the speed of a radio wave, and radio waves travel around the Earth seven times a second, you can send a radio wave and it'll flip the Earth seven times in one second. So that much speed, covering 2.2 million light-years, for your homeboy or homegirl to reply to your message would take four million, four hundred thousand years for you to get the word back from the message you sent. And that's a nearby galaxy.

And guess what? All God did was say something. Because all he did was say a little something something, and it came into existence.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. It is staggering in its implication. God once threw the word, and the name Elohim is for you to understand its creative power.

But not only his creative power. Look at verse 2. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the surface of the deep.

Something's not right here. The Hebrew word for formless and void is pronounced tohu wa bohu. And tohu wa bohu basically means a waste or garbage dump. It was uninhabitable. It was without form, and it was void of life. Life couldn't live here.

Now the question is why? Because Isaiah 45 verse 18 says, God who creates does not create waste. Isaiah 45 18 says God can't create a waste.

When He does it, He does it right, in other words. Yet in verse 2, we have a wasteland. No life can live here. It's void of existence.

It's empty. That's what we see in verse 2. But God doesn't create that kind of thing. Like we would say, God doesn't create any mess. So why do we have a wasteland in verse 2? Because somewhere between Genesis 1-1 and Genesis 1-2, Satan falls. Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 says Satan rebelled against God, and he was kicked to planet earth. So the reason why you've got this emptiness and garbage dump on planet earth is because garbage lives here. Satan and his demons were cast down to the planet, and so the planet became a wasteland. And of course, that's what Satan does through sin.

What he does is turn our lives into a wasteland. But guess what the Bible says? God, the Holy Spirit, Elohim, in His plurality, the Holy Spirit began to brood over, hover over this wasteland. And life popped up. Guess what God did? Elohim. It says, God said, let there be light.

Guess what happened? There was light. God said, let there be an expanse in the water, verse 6, and let it separate the waters from the waters. So now you have seas and oceans being separated from land. Because when land and water is mixed, that's a swamp.

That's a marsh. But now God made earth livable. Watch this. God came into something Satan had messed up and restores it. So what do we learn about Elohim? Not only can Elohim create out of nothing, he can take something the devil has junked up and fix it up.

So he can make it right the first time. Then when the devil gets in and messes it up and makes it death rather than life, God's Holy Spirit can come and turn that which Satan has killed and make it alive again. And that should be hope for somebody who needs to know a God who can turn a mess into a miracle. By the way, his name is Elohim. So God creates. Watch this now.

It's getting gooder. He turns darkness into light. He makes the desolate inhabitable. And then he creates his main attraction. Verse 26, let us make man in our image.

Now watch this. An image is a mirror. A mirror. You go to the mirror in the morning and you see your image flash back at you from the mirror.

It is an image. The flowers weren't asked to do this, weren't created this way. The beasts weren't created this way.

The fish weren't created this way. Only man was created with the capacity to mirror God. Everything else is a validation of God, but only man, male and female, were created to mirror God. So powerful is this principle that the Bible calls God saints, little Elohims. The scriptures refer to you and me as Elohims with a small e because we're supposed to mirror.

We Elohim, Jr.? That's why he made you a tripod being, body, soul and spirit. You're supposed to, I'm supposed to mirror the divine in history. We're not God, the big E. That's to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. No, but for the little e, we're supposed to mirror the divine as part of his born again new creation. We're supposed to mirror him because we have his image stamped on us. We have the capacity as part of the new creation to mirror him. So how does this image change the way we live from day to day?

Dr. Evans will tell us when he continues our message in just a moment. So you can dig even deeper into today's subject and put the principles to work with the help of Tony's popular devotional, Experiencing the Power of God's Names. It'll take you on a day-by-day exploration of what the biblical titles for God tell us about his nature and character and help us understand how he wants to relate with us. And to help you connect what you read with Tony's teaching, we offer the devotional to you along with all 14 messages on CD and digital download from volumes 1 and 2 of our current series, Knowing God's Names. All we ask in return is that you make a contribution to help us keep the alternative coming your way each day. You can get the details and make the arrangements instantly at TonyEvans.org or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Well, Dr. Evans is back now with more of today's message. Now, you might be asking, okay, that's nice. Now I know a Hebrew word. I can go to work and tell me I learned about Elohim.

Okay, I know his name. So what? Look at chapter 2. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their host. By the seventh day God completed, Elohim completed his work, which he had done. Then Elohim, God, blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work, which God had created and made. Day one, God created, let there be, and it was so. Day two, let there be, and it was so. Day three, day four, day five, day six, God created, and it was so. And every day he said, that's good. On day number six, he makes man in his own image, because he spent the first five days getting the creation ready for his masterpiece. The reason why man wasn't created the first day is because then he would have had to live in darkness for six more days, because everything was created for man. On the seventh day, he looks out and he sees all that he has done, and he says, this is very good.

Now up until that time, it was good. But until he created man and it finished the masterpiece and looked back over the whole painting, he said, now, this is very good. And then he did something. He rested. He rested doesn't mean he was tired and quit.

It means he was finished and there was nothing left to do. It says, and the seventh day he sanctified it. To sanctify means to set apart as unique or special. He said, Saturday is not like Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That is a unique day and it's a unique day because it's my rest day. He didn't sanctify the day when he was doing all this stuff and getting everything ready and making it and talking the stuff and bringing it into existence. He said, the day I'm gonna make special is the day I'm finished.

That's my day off. He worked this thing through all the Old Testament. Not only did he say, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, he said, every seventh year will be a sabbatical year.

Every seventh year, you tell the land to chill because I'm gonna give you enough in year six to cover year seven. Then in the 49th year, he said, on that one, I want you to chill and I want to bring society and restore it and bring it back in order again because I want to operate by a Sabbath principle. Turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 4. God lays out the Sabbath principle, links it to creation or the work of Elohim.

And here's what he says. Let's start with verse 4. For he has said, somewhere concerning the seventh day, that takes us back to creation, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works.

We just saw, that's what Elohim did on the seventh day. And again in this passage, they shall not enter his rest. Therefore, says it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience. Verse 9, for there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. So whatever this means, if you're a Christian, it applies to you because you're part of this new creation. Verse 10, for the one who had entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his.

Therefore, let us be diligent to enter the rest so that no one will fall through following the same example of disobedience. All right, watch this now. He says there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God. That's you. When God finished everything he needed to do and was supposed to do, he could chill.

Why? Now let me tell you why. When he created in Genesis chapter 1 the flowers, it says he created them with seeds so that they would be self-perpetuating. It says when he created the beasts of the field, he blessed them so that they could multiply. Then when he created man and woman, he said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Why am I telling you that? Because God only had to create once. He didn't create and recreate and recreate and recreate. When he created the one time, he put into the one time creation the solution for millions of years later. He's not creating new kids except through an old process. He's not creating new flowers except through the seeds that come from the old flowers.

He's not creating new fish except as fish procreate. In other words, when he created, he built into the creation the self-perpetuating power to keep the thing going that he got started a long time ago. In Hebrews 4, he told Israel, I have a rest for you. That's the promised land. He said, in the promised land, they've already built the wells, they've already built the buildings, they've already taken care of the land, they've already farmed the property, I have already set it up for you even though you're still in Egypt. But if you will follow me through the wilderness and you will keep doing what I say do, I have the rest already for you because I've already taken care of it in advance.

It's already been covered by my creative plan and program. There is a rest for the people of God. If you belong to Jesus Christ today, you're part of the people of God, which means God has a Sabbath rest for you.

And it's a sanctified rest, which means it's already been finished. You're not trying to make God do something. You should be resting in what God has already done because whatever he's done is already self-perpetuating and it's already designed to work things out.

That's why Ephesians 2, 10 says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which he hath already prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Whatever God's going to do for you, he's already done. Whatever God has planned for you has already been planned. Whatever God has purposed for you has already been purposed. Your job is not to try to make God do something. What can I do to get God to do something, get God to do something?

No, no, no. He says I've already done whatever I'm going to do and it's self-perpetuating. What I need you to do is fulfill your obedience to me so that you can enter the rest that I've already pre-planned for you when I created you. You don't have to create it.

You have to walk in it so that you fall into the rest because the rest has already been sanctified. It's already been set apart with your name on it. Your purpose has your name on it. Your peace has your name on it. Your provision has your name on it.

Your well-being has your name on it. God has already written your name on his purposes but Israel did not enter his rest because they wanted to quit on day three rather than finish on day six. They wanted to go their own way and not do God's thing.

So they never wind up in the rest that God had prepared. Don't miss what Elohim has already created a long time ago for you to walk in because you won't go through all six days and complete the obedience that he has called you to so that you can enter the rest that has already been sanctified and already been prepared for you and all you got to do is walk in it. I love the scripture says that he gives to his beloved even while they're sleeping. You're working on your rest day, you're working on your day off trying to make overtime, make something happen and God said if you would just do what I said do the way I said do it you could go to sleep at night because I'm going to be up working while you snoring. I'm going to be up taking care of business while you sleeping because Elohim can take a nothing and bring up something and when he gets something let it perpetuate itself even when it looks like nothing is happening.

This name Elohim will blow your mind. We hope that all 14 messages in this powerful two-volume series is our gift including some lessons we won't have time to present on the air. And as an added bonus we'll also include that companion daily devotional I mentioned earlier, Experiencing the Power of God's Names. Just visit us at TonyEvans.org, make a contribution to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station and we'll send you both of these powerful resources as our way of saying thanks. So depend completely on your support to continue this important ministry work. Again you'll find us at TonyEvans.org or reach out to our resource center by calling 1-800-800-3222. Team members are standing by around the clock to help with your resource request.

Again dial 1-800-800-3222. Well if you've been listening to this broadcast for any length of time or if you've heard we're in the midst of celebrating 40 years of God's faithfulness to this ministry. We're blessed by your well wishes and want to quickly share just one of the comments we've recently received. Hi Pastor Skip Heitzig here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I want to say congratulations to Dr. Tony Evans. He is one of the most remarkable and respected leaders in the ministry in this generation.

Not only is he a remarkable pastor and teacher and author but he stayed at the task and is celebrating 40 years in the ministry this year. A whole hearted congratulations from me and from our fellowship. We consider you a hero in our common faith Tony and thank you for upholding the standard of biblical expository preaching and exalting the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your years of service to the Lord and to His people.

Congratulations. Well on behalf of Dr. Evans and all of us here at The Urban Alternative we thank each of you for your continued support and encouragement. You know God could have spent all of history hiding out in heaven never even giving us a glimpse of who He is. But tomorrow Dr. Evans will talk about how God chooses to openly reveal Himself in unmistakable ways. I hope you'll be with us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.