Sermon Detail

Message Transcript

Let me give you a little timeline of the last half of my life.

21 years ago I hated being outside. [image: college] I didn’t like to sweat. I didn’t like to hike. I didn’t like to garden.

Give me a comfy couch, some pre-packaged food, some air conditioning, and video games, and I was happy guy.

16 years ago, I followed God’s call to start a non-profit which had me traveling all over the world. And that’s how I found myself hiking through the mountains of Panama, [image: Panama] shaking from exhaustion, vomiting from dehydration, and realizing that backpacking is kind of my thing.

11 years ago, after discovering my joy and passion for the outdoors, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro [image: Kilimanjaro]. Who would have thought?

9 years ago, my wife, Olivia, and I decided to become vegetarians together (we still are).

7 years ago, we adopted our first creature, Humphrey the rabbit. [image: Humphrey]

6 years ago, we bought a run down 10-acre farm, adopted our first chickens, and I began growing my first fruit trees.

Since that time, [images: animals 1-5] we have adopted, fostered, or sheltered dogs, rabbits, chickens, horses, and potbelly pigs.

1 year ago, we finally made it official and started our own non-profit animal rescue sanctuary called Haven Farm.

I share all this with you, because if you’ve only known me for the last several years, it would be easy to think, “Oh that’s Barry. He’s a crazy tree hugger. Of course he cares about the planet.”

But I want you to understand that for the first half of my life, I couldn’t have cared less. I’ve been on a major journey of change in this area over the last 21 years, and large part of why has to do with what the Bible says about this topic.

SETUP

Which is what we’re talking about today. This is week 5 of “Hope Month,” exploring the six broken places of our world.

Today we’re talking about what we call the broken place of decay. The decay of our planet. Or to flip that around, our call to join God in caring for creation.

We get the word “decay” from the book of Romans, where Paul says,

Romans 8:21-22

The creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

When we look around today and see environmental catastrophes and species extinction and wildfires and climate change we know what it means for creation to groan. And we know this isn’t the way it’s meant to be.

Now, I recognize that in the American Evangelical Church there are some who think this topic is absolutely ridiculous. That’s it’s a waste of time when we should be talking about saving souls.

But today I want to show you that in fact caring for creation is baked in to the biblical story and it is absolutely a part of the overall healing mission of God’s kingdom.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Let’s dive in. We’ll start with the most obvious question. Why should we care about creation?

Well, I’ll give you the answer right now. The answer is because God cares. God cares about his creation. Let me show you what I mean. Please turn with me to Psalm 104:10, Page _____.

Now, we’re only going to touch on this psalm today. If you want to go a lot deeper, I put a link in the app notes to a 20-minute video that I made digging into all the specifics.

But very briefly, Psalm 104 is all about God as the Creator. It starts at a really cosmic level - God creating the universe and the stars and the earth itself, and then we read this.

Psalm 104:10-18

You make springs pour water into the ravines,

so streams gush down from the mountains.

They provide water for all the animals,

and the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

The birds nest beside the streams

and sing among the branches of the trees.

You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home,

and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor.

You cause grass to grow for the livestock

and plants for people to use.

You allow them to produce food from the earth—

wine to make them glad,

olive oil to soothe their skin,

and bread to give them strength.

The trees of the LORD are well cared for—

the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

There the birds make their nests,

and the storks make their homes in the cypresses.

High in the mountains live the wild goats,

and the rocks form a refuge for the hyraxes.

I love the imagery of this psalm. It’s as if the writer is starting on a mountaintop, descending into a fertile valley, and then back up the other side, observing what he sees along the way.

And what does he see? He sees life and provision. He sees, as it says in verse 13, the “fruit of God’s labor.”

Here’s what’s interesting. Yes, in the middle of this passage (v.14) God’s providing food and wine for humans to enjoy, but he’s also everywhere else, providing places for birds to nest and water for donkeys to drink.

Trees are not just part of the scenery here. Verse 16. They’re the “trees of the Lord.” God plants them himself. God cares for them.

He’s like the ultimate gardener of Creation, nurturing every part of this world to flourish. Let’s keep reading.

Psalm 104:24-30

O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all.

The earth is full of your creatures.

Here is the ocean, vast and wide,

teeming with life of every kind, both large and small.

See the ships sailing along,

and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.

They all depend on you

to give them food as they need it.

When you supply it, they gather it.

You open your hand to feed them,

and they are richly satisfied.

But if you turn away from them, they panic.

When you take away their breath,

they die and turn again to dust.

When you give them your breath, life is created,

and you renew the face of the earth.

Are you seeing the theme here? “The earth is full of your creatures… they all depend on you… You supply their food. You give them your breath.”

In this whole psalm God is active. It’s all in the present tense. God is doing all of this as we speak. Whether we see it or not.

In other words, creation is not just some historical event, where God created everything and let nature run its course.

No. According to Scripture - and believe me, Psalm 104 is hardly the only place we see this - God is actively sustaining this world. He’s providing food right now for his creatures. He’s providing water for his trees, his grass. He’s involved. Jesus himself said,

Matthew 10:29

Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.

And look at verse 30! It’s God’s very breath - his Spirit - It’s God’s breath that gives life to everything. God’s Spirit is the animating force of life in the universe.

Put simply, wherever we see life flourishing in this world, we’re seeing God’s hand at work.

Here’s what this tells me. It’s tells me that, God cares about his creation.

God is not indifferent about the health of his planet. About the wellbeing of his creatures. About the natural order that he so masterfully designed.

God cares about his Creation. He cares for his creation. And any conversation about the environment, or the decay of the planet - it has to start there. God cares.

OUR ORIGINAL JOB

But in Scripture this isn’t just something that only God is concerned about. Humans were created to be concerned about it too.

The first book of our Bible - Genesis - makes this clear. God creates the universe, the earth, all living things, and then he creates humans with a very specific job to do:

Genesis 1:27-28

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

A bit later in the story, the author tells us:

Genesis 2:15

The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.

Put simply, God put humanity here to govern or reign over his creation. To tend and watch over the world that God cares about on his behalf.

Psalm 8 echoes this idea.

Psalm 8:4-8

What are mere mortals that you should think about them?…

[Yet] you gave them charge of everything you made,

putting all things under their authority—

the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals,

the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,

and everything that swims the ocean currents.

The point is, we were created to be God’s agents in ruling creation. Which, in theory, means that we should do it the way he does it. And how does he do it?

Well, Psalm 104. He nourishes life and fosters growth and gives water to wild donkeys that we don’t even see.

In other words, humanity’s original vocation was as stewards of life for God’s creation. Shepherds of abundance. Gardeners of peace.

Put simply, We were created to be caretakers of God’s creation.

BREAKING THE WORLD

So how well have we been doing with that job description?

Well, let’s just say it hasn’t been going so great.

We talked in week 1 of this series about the fact that all through scripture we see a breakdown in God’s creative order whenever humans decide for themselves what is best. When we are separated from God humanity breaks the world.

Yes, we spread hatred and injustice and pain instead of the life and abundance God desires, but here’s what I don’t want you to miss.

The brokenness of our world includes the breakdown of our relationship with creation itself. We were meant to be caretakers - stewards - benevolent rulers. But instead, we’ve become despots.

We’ve treated the “dominion” God has given us as a license to exploit creation for our own desires.

For example, what was meant to be a harmonious partnership between the human (adam) and the ground (adamah) has now become a battle. Here’s how God describes this new reality of sin.

Genesis 3:17-18

The ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you…

Another example. What was meant to be a harmonious relationship between humanity and the other living creatures (like Adam naming the animals in the garden), has turned into a relationship of violence and dread. God tells Noah,

Genesis 9:2

All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror.

Subjects are meant to respect their kings, not live in terror of them. This isn’t the way it was meant to be. Creation is groaning. The world is in decay. We see it all throughout the Bible.

And it’s only gotten worse in the modern world. As Psalm 104 shows us, God is actively caring for his Creation. But humans, meanwhile, are exploiting it.

While God is gently nurturing life, we’re deforesting the Amazon to plant palm trees, we’re blowing up mountaintops to get coal, we’re ripping up ancient prairies to graze our cattle…

We treat God’s creation like a pile of commodities to consume.

While God is paying loving attention to every wild goat and cypress tree, what are we doing?

We’re allowing invasive species to run amok, we’re destroying natural habitats to grow vast monocultures, and we’re exploiting God’s creatures in ways that are just not humane.

On top of all this, while God is “filling the earth with the fruit of his labor,” what are we filling it with?

We’re filling our waterways with toxic chemicals, we’re polluting the ocean with plastic waste, and we’re pumping enough CO2 into the atmosphere to practically guarantee the untold suffering of plants, animals, and humans by the end of this century.

So, no. Humans are not doing a great job as stewards of God’s creation.

While our God is a God of life, order, abundance, and provision, as a species we seem to be hell-bent on death and destruction and chaos.

We have gone from image-bearing rulers of God’s good creation to self-serving despots who are corrupting it.

God cares about his creation. But so far humans have proven that we don’t.

YOUR PATCH OF EDEN

So what do we do about this? Because if you’re like me, this can be extremely overwhelming. Debilitating even. “What could I possibly do about a problem so massive?”

Well, here’s where it’s important to remember that this is Hope month. Not despair month. We’re talking about how God is healing the six broken places.

So where’s the hope with decay? Well, it starts with this: A reminder that ultimately, God is the one sustaining Creation. That’s Psalm 104. This is his world. We are simply stewards of it.

Which means that if you are a Christ-follower in 2025, your job is not to fix the entire planet. Your job is to care well for the patch of creation that God has entrusted to you. To imitate God’s life-giving abundance in your own little slice of Eden.

Stay faithful in your own sphere of influence and trust that the Creator will take care of the rest.

Let me give you a few biblical examples of this, and then we’ll get really specific about what this might look like for you.

When God gave the law to Moses and the Israelites, he knew that humans and the earth were in conflict, so he included regulations to ensure that each of their individual patches of Creation would be well cared-for.

For example, God required the Israelites to take a day every week to stop working and to rest - the Sabbath. But that Sabbath rest also included all of their domestic animals. It says it right in the 10 commandments.

So think about it. If you were an ancient Israelite peasant, part of your faith involved ensuring that your cow and donkey got a day off.

That’s a part of stewarding God’s creation. Because those animals aren’t yours; they’re his! But he’s entrusted them into your care.

Another example: When the Israelite army was laying siege to an enemy town, they were not allowed to cut down the fruit trees for firewood. No senseless deforestation - even in war.

If they came across a bird’s nest, they were allowed to take the eggs, but not the mother bird, so she could have more offspring. These are all laws in the Torah!

And get this: Once every seven years, the Israelites were commanded to let their entire land rest. No farming or tilling or anything so the land would not be overexploited.

My point is this: these are not commands of global impact. They are hyper local to your sphere of influence. Setting aside some of your immediate desires - whether that’s getting more work out of your animals, some easy firewood or a quick meal, etc. - setting that aside for the sake of a bigger call.

But here’s where things get really hopeful. With all of these commands to care well for the slice of Eden each Israelite stewarded, there also came a promise. That God would respond to this care by overwhelming them with abundance.

Leviticus 26:3-5

If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land.

The curse of Genesis 3 - thorns and thistles from the ground - is reversed by their obedient stewardship.

In other words, God’s invitation to his people is to trust him - to care well for their own patch of creation - while God blesses the rest of it.

That’s the vision. As each Israelite cares for their own sphere of influence, the nation of Israel becomes a land of life and abundance, and that’s when the rest of the world will take notice.

But this vision didn’t end in with ancient Israel. Now, thanks to the death and resurrection of Christ, we get to participate not just in caring for this creation, but in inaugurating and establishing the New Creation - the renewal of all things thanks to Jesus. This is a part of the gospel! The good news!

This is the hope. We can show our friends and neighbors an entirely new way to live. In our little slice of Eden, we can show them the way not of tyrants, but of stewards.

INFLUENCE

This is the journey I’ve been on the last half of my life. This is what I’ve come to understand. This is why Liv and I rescue animals. This is why I wear the same 5 shirts over and over again. This is why I’m preaching this sermon.

Because these are things within my sphere of influence, and I want to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to me and show the world what’s possible. So what about you?

This is my patch of creation. But your sphere of influence is different than mine.

How is God calling you to care for your own little slice of Eden?

Is he calling you to be more sustainable in your home? Collecting rainwater to water your grass, installing solar panels, reducing plastic waste…

Maybe he’s calling you to care for vulnerable animals or ecosystems. It could be fostering dogs or supporting re-wilding efforts…

Is God calling you to be a voice for the voiceless? Maybe it’s advocacy or involvement with an organization that speaks up for the people and creatures being harmed by the planet’s decay…

Maybe God’s simply calling you to be more intentional with your lifestyle. What you buy, what you eat… To be thoughtful about how your choices influence the creation God cares so much about.

Again, the point here is not for us to all go along with the latest cultural fad, or to assuage our guilt about climate change.

The point is for us to rediscover humanity’s original vocation and the blessing and life God pours out when we do our job faithfully.

Yes, these issues can seem overwhelming. But I believe that thanks to Christ, it is possible for us, just as the ancient Israelites were meant to do, to live so abundantly on the land that the rest of the world sits up and takes notice.

God cares for this creation. It’s time we do the same.

[PRAY]

Hope Month 2025 - September 21

[Opening Comments re: divisive times]