Christian Environmentalism

Well, as we continue our journey through Genesis, looking at the first eleven chapters of Genesis, we have come to Genesis chapter two. We have gone from a poetic rendering of the creation account to a more prosaic rendering of the creation account. We've had the big picture, and we've hovered and looked down at the big picture of creation. Now we get on the ground and we see and we hear and we smell what it is that God is doing in the nitty gritty of creation. We've seen the what. Now we see the how and the why. The picture comes to us more clearly as we look through these passages in the second chapter of Genesis, even the name that is used for God God has changed. As we get to the second chapter of Genesis, we are viewing the same picture from a different perspective. It's like when you go to an art museum and you go to a gallery and you can look at a painting straight on and see the picture from that perspective. But then you can move over to the side of the painting and look at it from a different perspective, and all of a sudden, you see the different textures of the brushstrokes and the magnificence of that piece of art can capture your attention from a different perspective and you see the intricacies of the piece of work itself. That's what we do here. Or if you're looking at a beautiful Persian rug and you look at it from one perspective and you look at it from the front, if you want to know if it's the real deal, you have to do but one thing that is turnaround to the back. And when you turn around to the back, you see the intricacy of the work. Look closely and see how close the threads are, and you understand the intricacy of the work. That's what we're doing as we go from Genesis chapter one to Genesis chapter two. But as we arrive here in Genesis chapter two, there are several issues that are raised. Now we don't have time to deal with all of the issues that are raised, but we will deal with one issue in particular. As we look at Genesis chapter two, verses four through fourteen. Verses four through fourteen, I want you to see something that it's often not spoken about in church. I want you to look at this from the perspective of environmentalism. What yeah, I want you to look at it from the perspective of environmentalism. Now, those of you who know me and know me what, we all know that I am as far from a raving environmentalist as you could possibly get. The Green Party is not my friend, Amen. But there are issues raised here. Listen to this from John Jefferson Davis in his book Evangelical Ethics. Since during the last century, in the wake of the publication in eighteen fifty nine of Darwin's Origin of Species, the opening chapters of Genesis have often been read by evangelical interpreters with issues such as creation and evolution, and the age of the Earth and mind. While these issues are important, debates about matters of the origins of things have led to a neglect of other crucial implications of the text, such as humanity's relationship to creation. I think Davis has a point. We need to get into the debate as to how old the earth is, as to how the earth came to be. We need to be in that debate. We need to go toe to toe, I to noose in that debate. We need to yell it from the rooftops and not let anyone have an inch. As it relates to the issues of the origins of the universe. However, we also cannot give ground on the issue of man's relationship to the universe. And much of what we have seen in this perversion of environmental issues has come because we have refused to go toe to toe and eye to eye and those to those on those issues as well. There are basically three approaches to environmentalism. I want to offer you a fourth, but want us to look at these three approaches to environmentalism. There is one approach to environmentalism that I call the pragmatic approach to environmentalism. It's pure pragmatismcientific approach, if you will. It's about weights and measures, and so a pragmatic approach to evangelism will say, we have this many natural resources right now, the issue is all about fossil fuels. So here's how much fossil fuels we have. Here's how much fossil fuels we're using. Therefore, you do the math. By this date, we're out of those. Might need something else. That's a sort of pragmatic approach to environmentalism. Okay, But not only do you have pragmatic approaches to environmentalism, but you also have political approaches to environmentalism political approaches to environmentalism. Now, the political approach to environmentalism is a little bit different than the pragmatic approach to environmentalism, and we're seeing that right now, by the way, the political approach to environmentalism. And so here's the political approach to environmentalism. The political approach says, for example, global warming is scientific fact. By the way, that's a lie. Global warming is not scientific fact. Global warming is up for debate. Okay, are the causes, I should say, temperatures rising and falling. That's happened throughout the history of the Earth, not only the Earth, but by the way, Mars is also experiencing a rise in temperatures that correlates nicely with the rise that the Earth sees. So for those who argue for and listen anthropogenic, it means beginning with man, man is the cause of global warming. So greenhouse gases CO two and all this sort of stuff. Well, if you begin there, man is the cause of global warming, you got to explain to me how we made it increase on Mars. Amen. Last time I check, we haven't been there to mess that up, all right, But the political approach to environmentalism says this. The political approach says, you know, here we have these scientists who have said X, and because they have said X, we have to enact policy in order to rescue the world. And so we have things like the Kyoto Protocols, and these Kyoto Protocols come into effect and nations are forced have their arms twists by twisted by the un to reduce certain greenhouse gases by certain dates. Why because of debated science. So political environmentalism then says, we are the party who sees this issue and we want to rescue the universe. They want the world to blow up. Political environmentalism don't don't give me the facts, give me information that I can use to demonize my opponent and get myself elected. Amen. That's political environmentalism, all right. But there is also pagan environmentalism. So we have pragmatic environmentalism, we have political environmentalism, and then we have pagan environmentalism. Pagan environmentalism sings a different song, whereas political and pragmatic environmentalism look at this thing from a scientific perspective. Here's the earth, here's our world, here's our rainforest, and our rainforests are disappearing this fast, and here's our water sources, and our water sources are being polluted. Okay, they look at they look at data, they look at facts. Pagan environmentalism starts from a different place. Pagan environmentalism says the earth is divine and we need to treat her as such. Pagan environmentalism says, you, human being should not think of yourself as the crowning glory of the creation of God. Oh no, no, no, you are but one among many of the creatures who occupy this globe, and you are no better than any other creature, and that you're not as important as this living entity on which you are hurled through space. Nature is alive, and more than just alive, nature is divine. That approach to environmentalism texts us to an entirely different set of conclusions. And so we have pragmatic environmentalism, we have political environmentalism, we have pagan environmentalism. What about biblical environmentalism? Could there be such a thing? Could there be a biblical approach to the environment. Well, if you believe in the inernity and the sufficiency of scripture, there has to be. If we believe that all scripture is God breathed and is profitable for teaching and rebuking and correcting and training in righteousness, that the Man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work, as Paul says, or if you agree is Peter says in First Peter one three. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and excellence. If we believe that, then there is no issue that we will face for which the Word will not equip us. If we believe that, if we believe in the inernancy of scripture, and if we believe in the efficiency of scripture, then we ought to be able to find in the Bible and answer to the question how do we relate to nature? Because that's the question, and based on the Biblical principles of how we relate to nature, we then can determine how we fall on these other issues. So let's look at these in turns, shall we. First of all, Biblical environmentalism will recognize the creature creator distinction. Look at Chapter two and verse four and then five. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. So we already see a distinction there. But look at verse five, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land. There was no man to work the ground. So we see here in these verses that there is a distinction between the creature and the creator. The earth is being created by God. The earth is not divi the earth is not eternal. The earth is created by God. So that's where we start. There is a distinction between the creature and the creator. There is a distinction between the creation and the Creator. There is a distinction between the earth and nature and the God of Nature. If we are going to approach the environmental the environment from a biblical perspective, we have to start there. So pagan environmentalism is completely out of the question. We don't treat the earth as this divine entity or as this extension or expression of God, as some would have us to do. For example, this song will be familiar to those of you who love Walt Disney and Walt Disney films. This song comes to us from the film Pocahontas. You think you own whatever land you land on, the earth is just a dead thing you can claim. But I know every rock and treat and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name. The rainstorm and the river are my brothers. The heron and the otter are my friend, and we are all connected to each other in a circle, in a hoop that never ends. How high well the sycamore grow, if you cut it down, you will never know? Do we know? This song? This is pagan environmentalism on steroids in a children's film. This type of environmentalism says you need to treat the earth right because it is a spiritual being just like you are. See. And if these creatures are my brothers, we got issues because I like to eat them. Okay, I got a problem. Okay, I got a problem because you know, I just you know, mister mister cow or mister chicken. You know you're my brother and we're connected in this hoop. Doesn't work too well, right, you know? So? Biblical environmentalism first and foremost recognizes acknowledges the creature creator distinction. The earth is not divine, The earth is not eternal. The earth is not God. The earth is not an extension of God. The earth is not a part of God. There's going to be a new Heaven and a new Earth. Amen. There is a creature, creation, creation distinction. Look at me, if you will. In Isiah chapter forty, I want you to see this Isiah chapter forty silly at eighteen to twenty three. There now as he had chapter forty, and. It reads to whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness? Compare him with an idol. A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and cast for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood? From the foundation of the earth. It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants, are like grasshoppers, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in, who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. That is our God whom we serve. That is the God in whom we trust and in whom we believe he is distinct from his creation. God is enthroned on high. The earth is not divine. Do we need to have a biblical approach to the environment. Yes, we do. And first and foremost, a biblical approach to the environment starts by recognizing the distinction between the creature and the creator. Secondly, biblical environmentalism recognizes the symbiotic relationship between man and nature. Look back there in verse five again, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord, God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. God has not caused it to rain, and there was no man to work the ground. So for the earth to produce all that God intended for it to produce, two things had to happen. Number one, God had to supply the earth with what the earth needed. And number two, man had to tend and cultivate the earth in accordance with God's plan and design. So there's this symbiotic relationship between man and the earth. We were made from the earth. You break us down, We're made of the same stuff that the earth is made of. God didn't make us from foreign material. We were made from the dust. And when you look at what man is composed of, and you look at what the earth is composed of, and you look at what the other creatures are composed of, we're composed of the same stuff. You find us, elements in us. When we die, we return to the same stuff, these same elements. So there is this symbiotic relationship between us and the earth. We have to recognize that. And we do recognize this, don't we know? If you are a hunter or you're a fisherman in here, you recognize this. Somebody who's committed to hunting and fish. It always amazes me, you know. Environmentalists are always out there tout you know, all these bad hunters and these bad fishermen. No, no, if you are a true sportsman, you are a true outdoorsman, You are a true fisherman. You are a true hunter. What do you do when you catch something that's too small? Throw it back? Why so he can grow and spawn and there can be more and we can hunt again tomorrow or fish again tomorrow. Amen, true hunters, you do what you go get a license, you go get a tag. When you get your license and you tag, you know what do you do? You're making sure that you don't overhunt. We don't want to overhunt because I want to feel the freezer next year too. Amen. There is a symbiotic relationship which means we have to be responsible. Imagine that we have to be responsible, but we have to help our children to understand things like you know, sweetheart, when you turn on that faucet, it's good when you're finished with it to kind of turn it off. Why well, Number one because that isn't like paying water bills for you to water the sink. And number two because we need to be stewards. Amen. We need to be stewards. So when it rains and God waters the grass, I really try to work hard, not the water with him. Anybody ever done that before? Raining outside your sprinklers are on. That's poor stewardship. It's poor stewardship, and I have done it a number of times. I don't even realize it. You sit out there, it's rain, and oh the rain is beautiful all of a sudden, you look down there, some of the rain is going. Oh, God's reigning and I'm reigning, dude. It's a symbiotic relationship between us and nature. God has provided everything that we need in nature. We need to be stewards of what it is that God has provided in nature, and we are. We are. We grow crops better and more abundantly now than we ever have before. Why Because we understand this symbiotic relationship between us and nature. We've had scientific advances unlike any ever seen before in the world. As it relates to us and nature and taking advantage of what it is that God has provided for us. It's incredibly important. We do more with less than we've ever done before, and that is important. A biblical understanding of the environment will take you into account this symbiotic relationship between man and the rest of nature. God makes it very clear the earth needed a man to take care of it so that it would produce what God intended for it to produce, the way God intended for it to produce. We don't ignore this. We don't ignore this. Listen. We've said this often. You know this phrase. There's a ditch on both sides of the road. On the one hand, there's a ditch over on the radical environmentalist's side of the road because it deifies nature and it ends up in idolatry. But there's a ditch on the other side of the road too. You can't tell me that you can be irresponsible with the way you use natural resources and at the same time say you love God and you're a steward of the creation that He's given us. You can't say, man, you ought to say, ouch, we're a wasteful people, sometimes unnecessarily. So look at the next part of this, the third part of this. We also must recognize the sovereignty of God of a creation. Look at me the next few verses. First of all, we see the Lord hadn't caused it to rain. Look at our six. A mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Verse eight. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And so God planeted this garden. Here's what's interesting. God didn't put man there and say to Adam, Hey, Adam, why don't you choose a really good place and organize it the way that you would like to have it organized. No, God put the garden there, and then God put the man in the garden. God made man responsible for the garden that God had created. So God created the earth, so he's sovereign overall creation. Then God created the place where God put man. We also see in Acts chapter seventeen that God has set up the boundaries for every people group. So God is the one who places us where he places us for us to exercise our stewardship. God is sovereign over creation. Amen. And because God is sovereign over creation, our approach to the environment has to be one that's by God, real simple. God made it. God determines what we get to do with it. God made it. God determines the proper and improper way to treat it, or respond to it or react to it. God made it. He has all authority over it. By the way we see here in this text, God not only has authority over the earth, but over man as well. God creates man and breathes into him the very breath of life. So God not only creates man, but he sustains man. God gives us life. Far be it from you or from me, to take the life that God has given us, to take the place that God has put us, and for us to determine in and of ourselves how we will respond both to our life and to the life that's around us. No, God is sovereign over all things. Turn away me to the right and look at Colossian Chapter one. Colossians Chapter one, we're gonna look at the anti deist passage. Here. Deism's the idea that, you know, God just sort of set things in motion and then divorced himself from them. He set up these rules, and he set up these laws, and then he just sort of removed himself from them. The Colossians Chapter one, beginning of verse fifteen, we get fifteen through twenty twenty's talking about Christ. Here he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether the thrones are dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him. And what for him all things were created through Christ. All things were created for Christ, which means means He's sovereign over all things. I was created through Christ. I was created for Christ. The world that I inhabit was created through Christ, and the world that I inhabit is created for Christ. So as I interact with the world, I had better make sure that I am doing with the world what Christ intended for me to do with the world, because He's sovereign verse eighteen. He is the head of the body the Church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre eminent. In everything, he might be pre eminent. He has sovereignty over all things. He has sovereignty over everything. So even as we approach this, let's look at this from a scientific perspective. People want to make the argument that there's somehow this chasm between you know, science and religion, or between science and Christianity. And we've talked about this before. It's Christianity and the biblical worldview that gave us the modern sciences. Okay, anybody tells you otherwise, they're lying. It's Christianity and the biblical worldview that gave us the modern sciences. But we start with God, not with science. Well, then it's not true science according to whom who told you that we start with God not with science. Christ is pre eminent over all things. So whatever I'm looking for scientifically, I am trying to find the supremacy of Christ in whatever I'm looking for. And so as I am going forward with these discoveries, what am I looking for? I'm looking for the supremacy of Christ. Well, okay, but sometimes you just want to find a cure for cancer. Why Why Because that's an expression of the healing work of Jesus Christ. That's why he's pre eminent over all things. Do I start with myself? Do I start with the earth? Or do I start with Christ? I start with Christ. Therefore, if I start with Christ, here's the difference. If I start with science and I say my desire is to heal disease, then I will take a human embryo and I will ignore the fact that it's an image bearer of Almighty God waiting to be born, and I will destroy it for the sake of science. But if I start with Christ, I say, we need to get stem cells somewhere else. And by the way we have we have seen successful work with stem cells from umbilical cords. We've seen successful work with adult stem cells. Little newsflash, We've had no success, no success with embryonic stem cells. People have been made better with other stem cells. Nobody's been made better with embryonic stem cells. Why are we still wanting embryonic stem cells. It's political, it's not scientific. We start with the sovereignty of God. We don't start with nature. We don't start with man. We start with the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign over all creation. So whatever I do as God's creation, and whatever I do with God's creation, I do it according to the dictates of the one who created them both. You see that. It's all about our starting point, people, It's all about our starting point. Fourthly, biblical environmentalism recognizes the beauty and grandeur of creation. Look at verse nine. I love this here in verse nine, and oftentimes we look right past it Genesis twenty nine. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is look at this, pleasant to the sight and good for food. Every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. I like that. I like that. We need to recognize the beauty and the grandeur of creation. God didn't just create the world for purely functional and pragmatic reasons. He also created the world for beauty's sake. Here's what's interesting. Look at what's happened in art as we've moved as far as worldview is concerned. Art from a biblical worldview is about what it is about man's ability to recreate what God has created in different forms and through different media. So when biblical worldview is dominant, art looks like what art looks like a Rembrandt art looks like the work of the masters. But all of a sudden, when worldview changes, art is no longer about me as an individual trying to recreate in different media, whether that's with clay or whether that's with you know, canvas and oils. It's not about me trying to recreate the beauty around me and mimic God who made me in his image. So as worldviews change, we then move to impressionism, not inherently evil, but it's got a different goal. It's not about accurately representing what God created. Impressionism is about slight distortion. And then we move from the impressionistic art to abstract art. Now we're talking about a distortion of what God made. Then we move to the Jackson Pollocks of the world who just throw paint randomly on the canvas. It's a journey of worldview people. And now as we look at it from an atheistic, secular, humanistic worldview, what do we say about art? Beauty is in the eye, which means you are sovereign. You catch that what's beautiful? Whatever you like over here, what's beautiful whatever man creates in an fad to mimic what it is that God has done. God has made these beautiful things and these beautiful colors. That doesn't mean it just has to be complete. Realism doesn't mean that we try to, you know, paint photographs. No, Sometimes it is about the beauty of looking at some animal and seeing a color in a part of its wing that you've never seen before in your life, and you go to work with colors, trying to put on your canvas that color that God created. It doesn't necessarily have to be an exact picture of that bird, but you're trying to make a picture of that color that God created. You put stuff on your walls, that's what you're trying to do. So I'm not saying that only the purest realism is true art. It's not my point. But my point is, as we look at art history, we're not just looking at the history of art. We're looking at the development of worldview as well. A biblical view of the environment recognizes the beauty and the grandeur of creation. A biblical view of the environment will pull the car over every now and then and say, kids, get out. Why it's the rocky mountains right there. We're gonna stand and look at them for a while. Amen, kids, stop for a minute. What want you go hug that tree? Wait a minute that I thought you weren't a tree hugger. No no, no, no, no, no, no, hug the tree to love the tree. That's a redwood. I want you to go. Try to put your arms around a redwood so that in your mind you can fathom how big that thing is. Just go, stretch your arms out as whid as you can. Try to put your arms around that big gold tree that God made. And now we're gonna go a few miles up the road and we're gonna drive through one of those whow A biblical view of the environment recognizes and appreciates the beauty and the grandeur of God's creation. When's the last time you did that? Or is it all just functional? Can I tell you I don't like modern church buildings. I don't why because so many of them are just purely functional. I like going inside old Lutheran and old Presbyterian church buildings where there's stuff that's there to create awe. Now, can you go overboard with that, Absolutely you can. But look at God's instructions for the temple and tell me that that was just purely functional. It was not. There's room for beauty and again, not excess. And if that's all you got again all together. Now, there's a ditch on both sides of the road, all right. We can be on the ditch over here where we pay no attention to beauty and grandeur, or we can be in the ditch over here where that's all we're concerned with and that becomes gaudy. And we've seen that. Amen, don't point fingers all right. Fourthly, biblical environmentalism recognizes the temporal nature of the created order. It recognizes the temporal nature of the created order. Look at the last part of verse eight, and there's something real sneaky in there. If you're not careful, you don't recognize it, or the last part of verse nine. Rather, the tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Isn't that interesting? Tree of life is in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that's foreshadowing. It's foreshadowing the fall of man, and it's foreshadowing death. A Biblical view of the environment recognizes the fact that none of this stuff was made to last forever. Nothing was You weren't made to last forever. I wasn't made to last forever. This table wasn't made to last forever. This gym floor wasn't made to last forever. Nothing was made to last forever. One day it's all gonna burn. But there's something about me that goes beyond this earth suit that I wear, and that was made to last forever. So if I understand the temporal nature of creation, I always keep it in perspective. This is beautiful, but it wasn't made to last forever. This is incredible, but it too had to be redeemed. I love that. In Romans chapter eight, where it talks about the whole creation groaning in anticipation of its redemption. Christ is the redeemer of man and of nature. Amen. When we recognize the temporal nature of the things around us, it puts these things into perspective. It changes the way we view them, and it changes what we consider of most importance and of most significant value. And we always put people above things when we understand it that way. Finally, environmentalism utilizes the resources, the natural resources of creation. Looking the next part of this verse, ten, a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first was Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Habilah, where there is gold, oh gold, and the gold of that land is good, and delium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Kush. And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. So we know where this is. This is in the Middle East. But I want you to notice that there's gold there. There are precious metals there. A biblical view of the environment. Are going to recognize these as resources and their resources to be used, going to recognize that these things can be leveraged for us. Now Here, I want you to understand something here, because because here's where we sometimes make a mistake. We look at this and we say, see, God created man, and God put man in the garden. Therefore, when we cut down trees and we make parking lots, and we make tall buildings and all this sort of stuff, that is somehow a violation of what God intended for the earth. God put man in the garden with natural resources in order to create things. Newsflash, When this thing is all wrapped up, God doesn't put man in a garden for all eternity. He puts him in a city. Amen. Lights, So garden living is not superior to urban living. When God wraps this thing up. Heaven is urban people, Do you hear me? Heaven is urban. It is not suburban. Heaven is urban. It's a giant megacity with gold and onyx and fine materials that are crafted to make something out of the natural resources. Are you seeing this? So? Do I enjoy the country? I most ensured, I most assuredly enjoy the country. I enjoy the trees, I enjoy nature. And I love big, tall, beautiful buildings. I do. And I love it when we make them bigger and taller. I do. I love it when we do that. Why because that is man doing what's in him to do create. God creates ex Nihilo out of nothing, but man, as an image bearer of God, picks up all of the stuff that God gave him and says, I'm going to make something out of what it is that you gave us. And so now you can go see Grandma halfway across the world, and it doesn't take you six months to do it. I'm glad you can get on a seven seventy seven in a little while. You be able to get on a seven eighty seven. Goo gobs of people. You can go from here to Florida in less than two hours. Why because since the creation of man, we've been picking up natural resources and using the minds that God gave us to turn those natural resources into something better, into something useful. And that's a good thing. So don't buy this sort of pious attitude that says, well, if you are really a godly person. What you love is being in touch with nature. No, I'm really a godly person, and I'm going to love the city that God's building for us to live in when it's all said and done. You, on the other hand, might have a problem if you don't like cities. A biblical approach to the environment looks around us and sees resources and tries to take those resources and make something better. But again, there's a ditch on both sides of the road. So here's what I really like. I really like it when we go into a place and you build a house. And what do you do When you go into a place and you build a house. You find some land, and there's stuff on the land. It's like the garden of Eden, and all of a sudden you have to sort of push back the weeds and everything that we have because of the fall, and you have to make a place for your dwelling. But when you're making a place for your dwelling, what do you do? You save as many trees as you can. Why? Because there's something menace that likes both. And that's okay. That's okay, Because in the New Jerusalem they'b be rivers and thereby streams and thereby trees. I'm hoping they'll be fly fishing. I really do. I really do hope that in the New Jerusalem you can go fly fishing somewhere. Amen. This is a biblical approach to the environment, and so what do we do with this? I'm glad you at you take all of the issues that we now face, and you sift them through this biblical grid. And we say, there's a distinction between the creature and the creator. So I know I'm not going down that road over there that tries to make you know the creation divine. There is a symbiotic relationship between man and nature, So I know that I have to be a steward of what God's given. So I can love to hunt, but I don't just kill everything because I want to go hunt next year too. I don't want my neighbor to be able to hunt too. I want to. Okay, there's a symbiotic relationship between us. We understand that God is sovereign over us and over creation, so whatever we're doing, it has to be done in accordance with the purpose for which God made us and the purpose for which God made his creation. We appreciate the beauty and the grandeur of the creation, because it screams to us the glory of God and it's awe inspiring. We recognize the temporal nature of us and of the world around us, so that we always keep our minds on the eternal and we appreciate the beauty and grandeur, but we don't worship it. And finally, we recognize and we utilize the natural resources that God has given us, and we take the raw materials that God has given us, and to the best of our ability, we imitate God and we create something else through these minds that He's given us. If we take those things altogether, number one will be on safe biblical ground. A Number two, we will have a god honoring approach to our stewardship of this world that God has created for His glory and our enjoyment. And I believe that would bring honor to Christ. Let's pray