Creation Care is restoring light to the darkened world Psalm 24:1; Psalm 96:11-13 Sophy Lim | 6 & 7 August 2022 ============================= (Psalm 24:1) “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (Psalm 96:11-13) “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.” ## Big idea: Creation care is restoring light to the darkened world. ## ## 1 The truth that hurts – the reality: (a) Creation was subjected to the ___________________. (Romans 8:20-22) “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” # The creation needs __________________. (b) Our parts in contributing to the rapid deterioration of the creation: i. _________________ consumerism. (Psalm 34: 8-10) “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” ii. __________________________of the pressing issues – “None of my business." (Proverbs 27:12 ESV) “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” iii. A lack of interest and commitment to God’s mandate – as a steward of the creation. (Revelation 11:18) “The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small – and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” (James 4:17) “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” Beware of the sin of commission (sins resulting from actions performed), and ___________________ (a sin committed by willingly not performing a certain action). ## 2 The Truth that heals and restores: (John 14:6) Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. # God’s redemption covers the totality of a person and ____________________. (Matthew 6:25-30; cf. Luke 12:22-28. Colossians 1:15-20) ## 3 The truth that we must now live by and act upon: i. Environmental justice is _________________. (Acts 17:28a) “For in him we live and move and have our being.” ii. Creation Care is __________________. iii. The call to do justice is not optional. (Genesis 1:28) - Conservation of creation is not a role and task of the elected but all of us. (Micah 6:8 ESV) “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Isaiah 1:17) “Learn to do right; seek justice, defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”