You're tuned into Everyday Theology in Plain English, making sense of God's truth for your everyday life. Here's your host, the man who's got a junk drawer that defies explanation, but is about to explain why the universe exists. Charlie Miller. Hey there, and welcome to season three of Everyday Theology in Plain English. I'm so glad you're here. And if this is your very first episode, an extra warm welcome to you. You picked a good one to start with. Quick word on where we're headed this season because it's a big one. So in season one, we figured out what theology even is and why you can trust the Bible. That was a good foundation. In season two, we got to know God Himself, what He's like deep down. Now, this season, we're going to turn the camera around and look at two things: the world God made and you. Why God made the universe, why bad things happen, whether miracles still happen, how prayer actually works, what it means that you're made in God's image, all of it. Think of it as God's world and God's people. Okay, housekeeping's done. Let's start at the very beginning. And I mean the very beginning. Why is there a universe at all? And why did God bother to make it? Here's a question that trips people up more than you'd think. Was God lonely? Was he bored? Did he need someone to talk to so he whipped up a universe to fill the quiet space? If that thought's ever crossed your mind, you're not weird for asking it. And it matters more than it looks, because the answer changes how you see yourself. If God made you because he needed something, then you're here to fill a gap in him. You're useful, you're a fix for his problem. But if he made you for something completely different, like that changes everything about what your life is actually worth. So let's just say the scary version out loud. Are you filler background noise in somebody else's story? Well, here's what I want you to know right up front. God didn't make you because he was missing something. He made you because he was overflowing with something. And today we're going to dig into why God made the universe at all, what that tells us about him, and what it means for you the next time you wonder whether you matter. Let's start with the definition because creation gets tossed around really loosely. When theologians say God created, they mean he made everything, the whole universe, everything that isn't God, out of nothing. Not out of some material he found lying around, out of nothing. There's an old Latin phrase for it, creation, ex nihilo, which means out of nothing, creation out of nothing. Now you've got something to impress somebody with in your coffee hour, ex nihilo. What does that little detail matter? Because if God had made the universe out of some stuff that was already sitting there, then that stuff would be as old as God. And God would be just a really talented builder working with leftover materials. But Genesis 1, verse 1 isn't describing a remodel, it's describing a start from scratch in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. Nothing was there. God spoke, and then everything was there. So if he didn't need materials, and as we're about to see, he didn't need company either. Why do it? This is where I want to slow down because the wrong answer here quietly messes with how you see yourself. The wrong answer goes like this: God was lonely or incomplete, and making a world filled the whole. But that's not the God that the Bible describes. Before there was anything else, there was still God, Father, Son, and Spirit, already loving each other, already completely happy, needing exactly nothing. Acts 17, verse 25 says it flat out. God isn't served by human hands as though he needed anything. He's the one handing out life and breath to everybody else. He's not running low on anything. So here's the difference to hang with. God didn't create because he was running on empty. That's the whole ballgame. The difference between filling a need and giving a gift. Let me put a picture to it. Think of somebody whose life is genuinely full. They have a good marriage, work they love, they've got close friends, and they decide to throw a party. Not because they're desperate for people to show up and make them feel okay about themselves. They throw it because they've got so much good going on in their lives that they just want to share it. That's a lot closer to what's happening here. God wasn't throwing a party because the house felt empty. So what was the reason? The Bible keeps pointing to God's glory, his name, his worth, his character put on display and enjoyed. Isaiah 43, 7 talks about people God created for my glory. Colossians 1:16 says of Jesus that all things were created through him and for him. Creation is a display case. It shows off how great, how generous, how wise, and how beautiful God is. And it invites us to enjoy Him. Now, when I say glory, I bet that little alarm goes off for some of you because wanting glory sounds like an ego thing, right? Well, hang with me, because that's a fair worry. When a person demands to be praised, it's usually because they're insecure. They're grabbing for something they don't actually have. God isn't doing that. When God shows his glory, it's not insecurity, it is generosity. A sunset doesn't turn the sky orange because it's fishing for compliments. It's just being what it is. God showing you his glory isn't him topping off an empty tank. It's him being exactly himself and saying, Come enjoy this with me. And here's where it gets personal. Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 and 27 says, God made human beings in his own image. So you're not an afterthought that he tacked on at the end. You're not a happy accident that just fell out of some bigger machine. Out of everything he made, you're the part that can actually reflect his character, know him and enjoy him back. The rest of creation shows off God the way a sunset does. Beautifully, but the sunset has no idea it's doing it. You were built to show him off and know the one you're showing off. And that's a big difference. So here's the picture the Bible paints. Creation isn't God fixing a problem, it's God sharing a joy that was already full and pulling you into it. Now, one more thing that's worth taking a minute on how God did it, because it tells you something about his power. Genesis 1 shows God just speaking the world into being. Let there be light, and there was light. Sit with that for a second. God didn't sweat and strain to force stuff into a shape like a sculptor wrestling with a block of stone. He said a word and reality just showed up. And that tells you something about the kind of power holding your life together. It's not stressed, it's not stretched, it's not too thin. It's the same easy, in-charge word that lit up the stars. It also tells you how God relates to the world he made. He's not blended into it. Some folks picture God as a kind of energy humming through the trees and the rivers and people like it's all one big divine soup. And the Bible doesn't teach that at all. God is separate from what he made. But here's the good part: unlike a potter who finishes a bowl and walks off, God stays. Colossians 1:17 says that in Christ all things hold together. Creation isn't a wind-up toy clacking along on its own. It's being held up tight now, this very second, by the same God who spoke it into being. We'll spend a whole episode on that soon. Theologians call it providence. But for today, catch this. The God who made you out of overflow is also the God holding your world together while you listen to this. Let me pause right here. If something's clicking, or if you've got a question poking at you, drop it in the comments. I read them, and honestly, your questions tell me what to explain better next time. Hey, we're figuring this stuff all out together. Okay, so what does all this actually do for your regular ordinary life? Let's get specific. Four ways this changes things. First, it settles the question of your worth at the root, not just the surface. Now I'll be honest with you, this one's not abstract for me. There have been long stretches where I've caught myself basically grading my own worth by how useful I'd been that week. Got a lot done? Good week, right? I must be worth something. Slow week? Quiet little panic. If that's you, I get it. Picture someone who spent years performing for approval at work, with friends, maybe even at church. Because way down underneath sits the fear that they're only here to be useful. And the day they stop being useful is the day they stop mattering. And that fear makes total sense if you think God made you to fill a gap. But it falls apart the moment you actually see why He made you. You weren't brought into existence to solve a problem that God had. You were brought in as an overflow from a God who already had everything he needed. Which means your worth was never up for renegotiation based on your performance. It was settled before you did a single thing. Second, it swaps your purpose from be useful to reflect him. If creation exists to show off God and you were made in his image to show him off in a way nothing else can, then your purpose isn't mainly about how productive you are. It's about how well your life reflects what he's like, his kindness, his honesty, his creativity, his fairness. That changes how you see an ordinary Tuesday, doesn't it? A season of rest, a quiet, honest choice nobody claps for, keeping your cool with a difficult person. None of that is wasted because it didn't produce anything you can measure. That is the reflecting. That's the actual point. Third, it changes how you handle the stretches when you feel unnecessary. Maybe you're in one of those seasons right now where you feel replaceable, right? At work, maybe at home, maybe in a group of friends that just seems to be humming along just fine without you. That hurts. And it's worth being honest about instead of powering right past it. But it's also worth holding up against what's actually true. God didn't make you because the universe had one open slot only you could fill. And that doesn't disappear the day your role changes or your usefulness gets less obvious to the people around you. Fourth, it gives you a healthier way to be generous. If God's move is to give out of overflow instead of need, that's worth copying. Instead of handing out your time or your money only when you're nervous about what you'll get back, you can give the way God gives, freely out of what you've already got, because that's just who you're becoming. That's a whole different feeling than giving out of fear or out of obligation. Now, I can almost hear some of you say, okay, Charlie, that's a nice thought. But if God didn't need to create and everything was already fine inside the Trinity, then isn't creating kind of pointless? I mean, why bother? That's a fair question. And the answer isn't God was bored, right? The answer is that love that's genuinely full tends to spill over, not lock up. Think about the healthiest relationships you know, the really loving ones that don't wall themselves off. They open themselves up. They pull people in. Not because they're incomplete, but because that's just what grown-up love does. God deciding to create wasn't him filling a hole, it was him being himself, the same generous love that's always flowed between Father, Son, and Spirit, now spilling outward to include people like you and me who could know him too. So there's a second objection hiding right under that first one. So let me name it. If this is all ultimately about God's glory, doesn't that make God kind of full of himself? I mean, we get taught that being self-centered is a bad look, right? So a God who creates to show off his own glory can sound at first like the biggest ego in the room. But think about why being self-centered is a problem for us. It's a problem because we're not the most important, most beautiful thing in existence. So when we build our whole lives around ourselves, we're building it around something that can't hold the weight. We were wired to find our deepest joy in something bigger than us. And God's not in that spot. He really is the most beautiful, most valuable reality there is. So him loving his own glory and inviting you to love it too, it isn't selfishness blown up to God's size. It's just God being honest about what's actually the best thing in the universe. And notice what it looks like. It's not him demanding you grovel to make him feel better. It's him inviting you to enjoy the one thing that'll actually fill you up. Let me make it concrete. Think about the last time you saw something that knocked the wind out of you. Maybe a crazy sunset, the view from the top of a mountain. Maybe your kid nailing their moment on stage. What's the very first thing you do? You grab whoever's next to you. Are you seeing this? Right? You're not flattering the sunset. You're not doing it some favor. Telling somebody is just the joy finishing itself off. The enjoyment isn't all the way complete until it comes out of your mouth. That's what God is doing when He says, Come praise me. He's not begging for compliments. He's handing you the best part of enjoying Him, getting to say it out loud. As we wrap up, here's the one thing I want you to carry out the door. You were not created because God was lonely or bored or short one thing only you could hand him. You were created as the overflow of a God who is already, always completely full. And who decided, just out of generosity, to share with people who could know him. That includes you, specifically, right now. That's the truth to come back to. On the days your usefulness feels shaky and your worth starts feeling kind of thin, you didn't earn your way into existence by being needed. And you don't have to earn your way into being worth something by staying useful. The same generosity that spoke the stars into the sky is the generosity that gave you your life. Not because the universe had a slot to fill, but because a full to the brim God chose freely to share what he already had. So here's your assignment for this week. Sometime in the next few days, grab 15 minutes and honestly finish this sentence. I've been living like my worth depends on being useful when it comes to blank. Don't answer the way you think you're supposed to, but just be honest. Then read Colossians 1:16 slowly. All things were created through him and for him. And let it push back just gently on whatever you wrote down. Now here's our community question. Where in your life have you felt most like you're only here to fill a gap or meet somebody's need? And how might it change things to start seeing yourself instead as someone God freely chose, not someone he needed? I'd love to hear about it. Why don't you drop it in the comments? And if you want to go a little deeper after this one, keep your eyes open. The series three companion guide is on the way. It'll be here soon. Next time, we're waiting into a question that keeps a lot of thoughtful Christians up at night. Can you believe in God and evolution? Or do you have to pick a side? We're going to look at how science and the Bible actually fit together without asking you to park your brain at the door and without asking you to ditch what the Bible says about itself. A lot of people dodge this one because they're scared of where it leads. Well, we're not going to dodge it. Until then, remember, you were not an afterthought. You were the overflow of a joy that was already full. And that changes everything about how you walk through the rest of your week. Thanks for joining me on Everyday Theology in Plain English. I'm Charlie Miller, and I am grateful that you're here as we kick off this new season together. Can't wait to keep going with you next time.