Caring for the environment in a sinful world.

• Genesis 1:26 (NASB)
• Genesis 1:27 (NASB)
• Genesis 1:28 (NASB)

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Sermon notes
Bryant Wright
Johnson Ferry

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:26-28 NASB)

Concern for the environment did not begin with modern day environmentalists. It began jn the very beginning.

We often worship and serve the creation instead of the creator.

"Image of God" means...
- We can think like God.
- We can create.
- We have an inner moral "oughtness"
- We were created to rule.

It was not God's natural order for killing animals for food or animals killing each other. We were created as vegetarians in the garden.

The Fall changed all that.

Part of the fall is that all creation and the environment got out of kilter.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:20-22 NASB)

Man cannot stop the natural disasters. This longing of creation makes it difficult to care for the environment in the sinful world.

Prophecy of the restoration of Eden:

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9 NASB)

There will be harmony.

The reason Christ came is because of man's sin. Man exploits the environment in one extreme. Or he worships the creation at the other extreme. Some Christians see it as just a politic agenda. Being in God's image means that we have a basic calling to care for his creation. Page 1 of his Word tells us this.

Care for fellow man
Care for the land

How are you making your fellow man and your family and your land a place of beauty?

Garbage City in Cairo. The Muslims won't nothing to do with the trash. Christians have taken it upon themselves to recycle it and clean it. Beautiful place o worship in the midst of it.

God is glorified when we care for the environment.

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