Text: Genesis 1
Topic: Taking care of the earth.

• Have you stopped to think about the privilege we have of living in such a beautiful environment?
  • Illustration: Mathewson tells of eating outside, watching animals, eating fresh produce, taking walks, hiking in the mountains, and getting caught in a storm.
• God's green earth is an incredible place for us to live, but with privilege comes responsibility.
• Some of you might be thinking, "This is a political issue, isn't it?"
  • Illustration: Even McDonald's is going green, recycling their Happy Meal boxes and saving rainforests with their Big Macs.
• Even though this matter of the environment has become a politicized issue, this is really our issue.
  • Illustration: Christopher Wright in The Mission of God: "The church must care for the earth as an act of love and obedience to its creator and redeemer."
• Care for creation is not only an act of loving God, but it's an act of loving our neighbor.
• So with that in mind I would like us to think from Scripture about what it means to care for God's green earth.

• In Genesis 1, we learn that God created this world as a good place for human beings to live.
• The opening lines of Genesis 1 are critical: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
• Creation is not divine. Some people who are concerned about the environment come from a perspective that says this created world is God.
• That's pantheism: all is God; the mountains, trees, hills, grass, and rocks are divine.
• No—God is the creator. The creation is his handiwork, reflecting his majesty and glory. We don't worship the earth.

• But what on God's green earth is a human being supposed to do?
• One of the clues is in this statement: "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness. So God created man in his own image."
• Usually when we talk about the image of God, we start with a list of characteristics we share with our creator, ways that we are like God. But the first hearers of Genesis chapter 1 would have heard this differently.
• The word image is actually the word statue.
  • Illustration: In the ancient world, kings would set up statues in remote parts of their empire to remind everybody that they were in charge.
  • Daniel 3
• Some ancient kings referred to themselves as images of God. By that they meant they were representing the gods or goddesses that they served.
• So when we read that we are made in the image of God, we are to read that as, Wow, God has made us to serve as his representatives.
• The word likeness here reminds us that we represent him by resembling him, so the chief end of human beings is to represent God.
• Some of you say, "I thought the chief end of human beings is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, so which is it: to glorify him or to represent him?" The answer is yes; both tie together.
• We represent him by carrying out his agenda, by showcasing his character qualities in the way we live on this earth, and that brings glory to him.
• Something else is wonderful about this: When you trace the image-of-God theme throughout Scripture, you end up with Jesus, because he reflects God's image perfectly.
  • Colossians 1:15
• You and I are predestined to be conformed to Christ's image, and that work of being conformed to Christ is going on in our lives right now through the Holy Spirit.
• When we think about serving as the image of God, there are a lot of implications for the dignity of human life.

• As we read the creation account, we realize that the responsibility to represent God begins with and includes the way we treat creation.
• In verse 28, as well as verse 26, are the words subdue and rule.
• When God tells his people as part of his blessing to subdue it and rule over it, he is not giving people a license to simply consume everything and to use the earth only for their benefit no matter what it does to the earth.
• God does allow us to use the earth for our benefit, but when he says to subdue and rule, he is talking about our responsibility to care for creation.
• The word subdue is used throughout the Old Testament to convey the idea of bringing something under control. It's a reminder that creation doesn't run by itself.
• A lot of people in the environmental movement say we're intruders in creation.
  • Illustration: Alston Chase wrote Playing God in Yellowstone to counter the idea that human beings don't belong in nature.
• The word rule means to exercise authority. Our role is to be a proactive one, not just a passive role.
• In the creation account in Genesis 2, we read that "the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." 
• The word work means to serve, and the phrase take care of it means to watch over it.
• The word that's used here, whenever you see it in the Old Testament, always means to exercise great care over—a shepherd cares for his flock; a watchman cares for a city.
• These words are also used later in the Old Testament to describe our service to God or our worship, and also our obedience or keeping God's word.
• The words used here have overtones of worship and keeping God's word.
• Our responsibility as human beings here on God's green earth is to represent God by caring for his creation.

• Since human beings are responsible to represent God and to be caretakers of his creation, how do we do that?
• Because so many solutions are tied to political agendas, the first step is to evaluate solutions and ideas with humility.
• We have to start with the biblical framework and not get tied up into solutions that satisfy a political agenda or business interest.
• First of all, we need to consume less—simple things like turning off lights, turning up the thermostat in the summer when the air conditioning is on and turning it down in the winter when the heat is on.
• Second, we need to recycle.  
• Third, we need to develop the environment around us so that our property reflects the glory of God.
• Fourth, we need to protect the environment from litter or waste in inappropriate places.
• Fifth, we need to restore that which has been lost.
• Perhaps it's time to get involved in some of the restoration workdays in our county forest preserves.
• All of these offer opportunities to let the world see that we care about the creation in which God has placed us—and that might lead to opportunities to share with them the gospel.

• Pursue these things out of love for God and not because we're following some fad to be green.
• And never think that you should care for our environment so God might accept you.
• We must say, "I'll care for creation because God has changed my life through the gospel, and because I realize that I've been placed here in this world."
• God's green earth is a wonderful place to live, isn't it?
• Let's honor God by representing him well and by taking care of this earth he has given to us to live.