8-31-08 This Place We Live 2

A few weeks ago, Shannon and I met some friends at the lake to go water skiing at 6:45 AM on our day off. Some of you don’t even realize that 6:45 am on your day off even exists, but it does. It was a beautiful crisp, cool, bright sunny morning. It was so quiet that you could hear the an orchestra of crickets in the background. Steam rose from the grass as the sun struck warmed the dew there. It was one of those mornings that I was so aware of the beauty all around me. I loved it! I delighted in it! It was so Good!

 

Last week we talked about this idea that God loves the earth and he delights in it. God created the earth “Good” and he loves it and he delighted in creating it and he delights in managing it and he created us to do love it and delight in it with him, and what we said last week was that we haven’t done very well in this area, and it’s time for the church to stand up and step out and not hide on this issue.

 

God is Green. This is not a political agenda in this message – quite frankly, I’m tired of politics. There is not some environmental or social agenda in this message. This is God’s design from the very beginning, that we, as his people, would be good stewards of everything that we’ve been given – That we would be good stewards of our time, our treasure, our talents, and how we care for the earth. The question is this, “What are we doing with what God has entrusted to us?” Is it good? Would God delight in what we are doing?

 

 On that early morning ski, I found myself loving and delighting in everything in the creation. I delighted in everything that surrounded me: The water, friends, the sun, the quiet, the soft-spoken words among us, the dew, the crickets, everything. But how am I doing at taking care of all of that. But I don’t alway delight in how I treat the earth. All I think about is me, and what’s good for me, or what’s convenient for me. I don’t tend to think about the earth from God’s perspective, instead i think about the earth from a purely selfish perspective.

 

If anybody ought to be leading the way in taking care of God’s earth, it ought to be Christians. We ought to be living simpler lives, consuming less, and being more in tune with the creation, since it was God’s idea in the first place that we take care of his creation.

 

Last week we looked at Genesis 1 where God is creating, and after he creates each thing, he is delighted with what he had created and he says, “That’s good!” Time and time again God creates something and he says, “It’s good, It’s good, It’s good! And then he gets done creating and he says, “No, no, no, it’s better than that, It’s very Good!” God is delighted in his creation. God loves his creation.

 

And last week we said, that when you love someone, you love what they love, and since God loves the earth and delights in it, we ought to delight and love the earth too.  Not only that, we ought to be angry at the injustices that are being perpetuated at the earth and vow to personally do make changes to the way we live so that we can redeem that where we’ve gone wrong.

 

My mom and dad taught me while I was growing up, that if I were to borrow something, that I ought to return it in as good a shape as when I borrowed it, as good a shape or better. The question for today is “Will we give the earth to the next generation in better shape or worse shape than when we received it?”  What can we do in order to make that happen? The problem seems so big. How can I, who am so small, make a difference?

 

Jesus commands us to “Love God with all that we are and to love others as our self, but I find it interesting that when I think about what I want or what I’m to do with my garbage, all I think about is myself. I don’t think about how my actions will affect the next generation. I don’t think about how my actions reflect on God and his creation. I don’t think about whether or not God delights in my actions. The only thing that I think about is what’s in it for me or what’s the most convenient for me, or what’s cost effective for me! Does anyone else think this way?

The Bible is filled with scripture about creation and about God’s love for creation. What we’re going to look at right now is the longest section in the Bible where God just goes off about his creation. God just looses himself for four chapters as he’s confronting Job. Let’s go to Job 38

Job has gone through a rough spell and Job’s friends have shown up to sit with him and to mourn with him, and then they begin this dialog trying to figure out why all these horrible things have happened to Job. Each of them thinks that he knows God. Each of these men think they know what’s right. Then in Chapter 38 a fifth voice enters the discussion.

Job 38:1-41 (NIV)
¹ Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: ² “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? ³ Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

At this point I would have asked God if there was another option. Is there an option B?

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. ⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? ⁶ On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone–

This is a trick question, ask any builder. How can you set a foundation in the middle of space? Somehow God did that.

On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone–⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? ⁸ “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, ¹⁰ when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, ¹¹ when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? ¹² “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,

I love verse 16

¹⁶ “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? NO . . . but I’ve been to the U.P. ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been shown to you. Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? ¹⁸  No, but I’ve seen some R rated movies. Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this. ¹⁹ “What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? ²⁰ Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? ²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

This is God being sarcastic.

²² “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, ²³ which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? ²⁴ What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? ²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, ²⁶ to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, ²⁷ to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? ²⁸ Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? ²⁹ From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens

In verse 28 God uses masculine imagery for himself, and in very 29 he uses feminine imagery for himself. Remember that male and female where created in his image. God has both qualities.

Then in chapter 39 God moves to the animals.

¹ “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?

Then one of my personal favorites comes in verse 5

⁵ (Do you know) “Who let the wild donkey go free?

You know who let the wild donkey go free right? Of course it was the same person “Who let the dogs out”. Sound clip of the song “Who let the dogs out”

Look at Job 40:15 (NIV)
¹⁵ “Look at the behemoth, A Behemoth is probably an elephant,” Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. ¹⁶ What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! ¹⁷ His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. ¹⁸ His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron.

 ²⁰ The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby.

God goes on and on about his creation. God is in love with his creation. God delights in his creation and he calls us to love and delight in his creation with him. How are we doing at that?

The 10 commandments tell us to honor our Father and our Mother. In the small picture we all understand what that means, but I believe we can take that to mean that we should honor our Father in Heaven and our Mother – Earth. Honor, respect, care for, delight in, love God and his creation.

Look at what the Apostle Paul says to the church in Rome. He says:

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Romans 8:22 (NIV)

The creation is groaning, because of the ways that we are sinning against her. But there is hope! Jesus came to bring redemption and renewal for us, and as we are redeemed – as God changes our hearts, he changes our actions and when he does that, we align our will with his. The Lord’s prayers, says that we are to pray for God’s will to be done and for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. Are we drawing closer to heaven in what we are doing with the earth or hell?

 

Last week we looked at just a few of the trash facts and I think we all left here feeling like we needed to do something in order to begin to right some of the injustices we are doing to the earth, God’s delightful creation.

There are many small things that we can do to make huge impacts on our world. The following are some suggestions?

 

Energy:

 

1. Turn off those things that you are not using like your computer, or your printer, or your lights – there’s a big one. Some suggest that up to 25% of your power bill is from things that are on, but they are not being used. The way that you can reduce your electric bill and reduce that amount of energy being made, and that reduces the amount of mining and air pollution that is necessary to create the energy that we’re using.

 

1. Reduce what you use – take shorter showers, put your cloths on the cloths line instead of in a dryer, turn up (summer) or down (winter) your thermostat,  turn down the temperature on your water heater – little things like buying a foam pump for your hand soap, so that you use less.

 

1. If every household in America switched out one incandescent (regular) light bulb for a compact fluorescent light bulb it would save as much energy as taking a million cars off the road every year.

 

So it’s these tiny little changes that have this massive impact.

 

1. Recycling an aluminum can uses 95% less energy than making a new one. Isn’t that amazing! Last week we said that we throw away 35 billion aluminum cans a year. So every can that doesn’t get recycled multiplied by billions of people adds up to massive impact.

 

1. A ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 30 cubic yards of landfill space – that’s probably almost the size of this room, it saves 7000 gallons of water, 4200 kilowatts of energy, which is enough energy to heat a small home for half of a year, 390 gallons of oil, and it prevents 60 pounds of air pollutants. This is for recycling just one ton of recycled paper. Currently we recycle only 30 percent of our paper.

 

1. In percentages, if our recycling of paper increased from 30 percent to 60 percent it would save 315 million gallons of oil in a year. 315 million is about the number of minutes there are in 650 years. That’s a lot of oil!!!!

 

1. How many of you love junk mail? How many of you would like to stop all the catalogs and junk mail from coming to your mailbox? Now you can! If you go to: http://www.dmachoice.org/consumerassistance.php you can get off most mailing lists and reduce your junk mail considerably. This same site will also help you get off of email solicitations and telemarketers listings. Three for the price of one.

 

1. You can recycle paper, glass, cardboard, newspaper, plastic, metal cans, and scrap metal at the Lawton Transfer station on Tuesday’s and Saturdays. It’s free and this will reduce your garbage by at least half. This is huge!

 

My mom and dad just started recycling a few months back and my dad was amazed at how much of their “normal” garbage was recycled. It’s really quite amazing. Less trash, less use, less pollution.

 

1. If you have kids, you have tons of household batteries that you use every year. These can be recycled at Adam’s Hardware – right here in Lawton. There is a box on top of their battery rack in the store where they recycle them for you.

 

1. Do you ever wonder what to do with old cells phones, ink cartridges, or rechargeable batteries? All of them can be recycled at any Best Buy Store just inside their doors.

 

1. How about computers, TVs, VCRs, DVDs, Stereos, printers, and all other electronic waste. They can be recycled at Kalamazoo County’s Household Hazardous Waste Center, at 1301 Lamont Ave, Kalamazoo for a small fee if you are not a Kzoo resident. call 269-383-8742 if you have any questions

 

 

Transportation

1. If every American’s tires were properly inflated, it would save more than 4 million gallons of gasoline a day – not to mention it would save you money at the pump if your tires were properly inflated. Buy a tire gauge and check your tires monthly, especially when the weather changes. Cold temperatures makes the air in your tires huddle together and your tire pressure decreases, making your gas mileage decrease, which makes you use more gas and it costs you more money.

 

1. The average number of miles that your food and mine comes is 1200 miles from place where it’s harvested to our plate – 1200 miles. The solution: Grow your food or eat from a farmers market – the closest one is in Lawrence. If you work in Kzoo, then there’s one downtown. Center Street Market and road side stands keep your food from traveling so far. Can or freeze fruits, vegetables, etc and the good news is that it is better for you, There is the cost of our food and then there is the cost and the toll that our food takes on the earth even getting here. So if you can, eat food that is grown close to home, it saves energy.

 

It’s these small little things like light bulbs, tire pressure, recycling your newspaper and turning things off, and getting off junk mail listings that make huge impacts on the environment.

 

Sometimes we think that we can’t do anything to take care of the earth that God calls us to be good stewards. Sometimes I think in fatalistic terms and I think to myself, I don’t know what to do? I don’t think that I can do anything! But there are hundreds of tiny things that you and I can do that make a huge difference and help keep God’s creation “Good”.

 

1. Anybody here ever notice all the trash along the sides of the road? Anybody here ever need any exercise? One great way to care for the earth would be if one night we went for a walk and spent a few extra minutes picking up trash along a mile stretch of road. If each of us would do that once or twice a year it would have an incredible impact on the earth. Redeem that which others have done. Redeem it! Care for it! Be responsible for the earth around you. We can do this!

 

1. One of the things that many of us have maybe thought about doing lately is to just driving less. Can we combine trips; can we walk or bike, or can we carpool? I have a friend of mine who last year purchased an electric motor for his bike and he can go hundred miles without recharging the electric battery that runs the motor. He now petals 24 miles a day with the assistance of the motor on his bike. Think of the impact on God’s creation if we would begin to consciously think about other ways to conserve or reduce the energy that we normally spend.

 

1. Another way to save gas and energy is to just drive slower. The slower you go the less horsepower your car needs to push you along, and the less horsepower, the less gas that you use. Driving slower saves the resources that have been entrusted to us by God.

 

1. Future fuels – corn based ethanol is one of those fuels that is being promoted as a green fuel, but I’ve done some research on it, and it is hyped as something that we all ought to engage, but that just isn’t true for a number of reasons.

 

Corn is one of the staple foods for the poor around the world and since corn has become a large demand for Ethanol, corn prices have shot up greatly, and therefore the poor of the earth are not able to afford to buy corn as a staple any longer.

 

Think of this: It takes 450 lbs of corn to produce enough Ethanol to fill up the tank of an SUV. This same amount of corn has enough calories to feed one person for a year. So I have to think, should I fill up my tank with enough fuel to last me a week or allow someone to eat for a year. It seems like a simple enough evaluation for me.

 

Another thought on Ethanol is that because it’s cheaper to buy you might think it’s a better deal, but the quality of the fuel is less, so you get less gas mileage and so you have to buy more Ethanol to go the same number of miles as a tank of gasoline, and so the cost ends up being about he same. It’s not really a good green alternative.

 

Heating our homes:

 

It’s getting harder and harder to get natural gas out of the ground, and it’s become more dangerous and because of this, gas prices are soaring. Natural gas is not a renewable energy source.

 

Manufacturers are now making energy efficient and environmental friendly pellet stoves. The pellets are made out of compressed sawdust, so it’s using a by-product of other wood processes. They are currently doing research on how to compress grass to make pellets and how to make cherry pit pellets.

 

This could be a great source of entertainment for you and your friends. The next time that you have some friends over and the house starts to get a little chilly, just have your friends drag up a chair to your pellet stove and have a pit-spitting contest. At that point you won’t even need any other entertainment.

 

 

 

God created us in image and he created us to reflect who he is. God is creator and caretaker of the earth and God has made us stewards of his creation and he calls us to manage and care for his creation.

 

God delights over what he has made and if he delights in what he has given us as a gift. How are we doing at Loving God? How are we doing at loving his creation? How are we doing at loving our neighbor and the next generation? How are we doing at not being selfish, but instead to ask the bigger questions? The question that I normally ask myself is, “Is this good for me”. But just because it’s good for me, doesn’t mean that it’s good, does it?

 

Jesus taught us to pray for up there to come down here. Jesus taught us to pray for heaven on earth. Let us not just pray for up there to come down here, but let’s practice for heaven now. Let’s begin to redeem the earth, and take care of the earth, so that it’s good, just as God created it.