Day 4

Genesis 1:14, John 15:16

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Hi, guys, I’m Pastor Pittenger, and today we’re going to talk about day four of God’s creation. So we read about this in Genesis 1. I’m going to read verse 14.

God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night, and let them serve as markers to indicate seasons, days, and years.” (Genesis 1:14)

That’s Genesis 1, verse 14. Do you guys know the names of any planets in our solar system? If you start from the sun and work your way out, we have Mercury and Venus and Earth and Mars. And then there’s Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. So that’s eight in all. When I was a kid, we counted a planet named Pluto as nine, but we’ll say eight in all.

So when I was a kid, there were only eight planets that we knew of. And so our planet Earth was one out of eight. But nowadays we have much more powerful telescopes that can look farther and farther into space. And so nowadays, scientists believe or think that there might be as many planets up there in space as there are stars. Think of that. The next time you go outside at night and you look up, there might be that many planets, trillions and trillions of planets.

What do all these planets do? I mean, why did God create them? Well, we don’t know what they all do, but we do know some things. For example, do you guys know what a soccer goalie does? A soccer goalie or a goalie is supposed to stop the ball from getting into the net, right? The planet Jupiter works like a goalie for planet Earth, the planet Jupiter is so big, which means its gravity is so strong that stray rocks that are floating around, drifting around in space, they get pulled into Jupiter where they crash harmlessly without hurting anything. But if Jupiter wasn’t there, those rocks might get in and they might hit our planet. And if they did, they could do a lot of damage. Some of them would be big enough to even destroy all the life that God created.

And so one of the things that Jupiter does that God created Jupiter to do is to protect our planet and keep us safe. So as planets go, though, planet Earth is very, very special. Again, when I was a kid, planet Earth was one out of eight. Now, if there are billions or trillions of planets, we still see that we are very, very special. The only one where life exists, the only one that life can live on. And the only one that’s protected by Jupiter and by so many other things that God created to keep planet Earth safe.

Listen to this Bible verse. All this reminds me of something Jesus said, John, chapter 15, verse 16. Jesus said this.

You did not choose me, but I chose you. (John 15:16)

In that second Bible verse, Jesus assures us, he promises us that we are his people because he chose us. He chose you before you were even born, he had already decided to suffer and die for your sins and rise again. In fact, he had already done it before any of us were even born. He promised that he would save us.

Jesus has done everything that you would need to do to be in heaven. He paid all the punishments that you and I deserve. And he rose, Jesus is alive, and he’s promised that he’s going to have a place better than our planet, a place ready for us with him in heaven. Because as one of my favorite songs goes, because little ones to him belong.

All right, we’ll see you guys later.