The Glory Of God Pt 4

All right, so, well, it's 10 after, let's pray and then we'll talk about, we're a week behind right now, so these last three weeks we're going to look at specific parts of redemptive history and how God's glory is displayed throughout redemptive history. And actually, we start before redemptive history. We start with creation, which is before God redeemed anything, or before He expressed His design to redeem creation.

He had to create creation. So tonight, we're going to do something that's very, very ironic, I guess. We're going to study God's glory in creation while we sit inside a building with, you know, I guess, synthetic lighting. It would be much better, I think, to just take a field trip to Colorado or something like that. But here we are. So let's pray and we'll talk about God's glory in creation.

So, Father, we thank you for this evening. I thank you for my brothers and sisters who are here with me now. it's just so good and pleasant it's good for us and it's pleasing to us when we dwell together in unity and we thank you for bringing us together as Christians united in Christ I pray that tonight as we look at these passages of scripture as we meditate on your glory that's revealed and what you have made that you would be pleased with the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts and that we would be built up and encouraged, that we'd be strengthened, that we would have a more accurate view of the world. We have such small ideas of your glory.

Oftentimes we ignore your glory altogether. Forgive us for this and help us to look at your creation in the way that you have described it in your words so that we can rejoice in your glorious, creative power and so that we can live lives that please you. I thank you and we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen Okay There are way too many passages of Scripture to look up tonight We don have time for that So get ready to look some up, but I will try to highlight some of the good ones.

They're all good, but some of the ones that hit the nail on the head a little bit more squarely. So the first point is something we've looked at already. and it's the idea, the truth, that God has created everything for the sake of his own glory, right? There's not a single thing that's made that wasn't made to bring him glory. So this week I got in a discussion about what Christians should wear, right?

Not with Jim, actually. Jim and I have had that discussion. It lasted weeks, I think. This was with someone else, and it was a group of young people. And some of them were saying, look, if God has given you a good body, you should wear whatever shows off your good body because God's given you that. And this is their, it's the Holy Spirit's temple.

So shouldn't you want to make the Holy Spirit's temple look good? What's wrong with that thinking? There's sin involved. Yeah. Yeah. Really, you are.

You're drawing attention to yourself. There's, you know, the idea that, you know, we want to make God look good by what we wear, that's a good idea, but how do we actually pull that off, right? I mean, the focus was still on self, right? And not on the one who created you. Plus, it leads to sin really quick because then, you know, it's up to you as an individual.

It's your personal idea of what makes you look good. It's not God's revelation guiding you to what really looks good, what's true beauty. It's maybe your own personal views of those things. Anyway, I also, this week, I wrote a paper on gold in the Bible. I studied gold. I traced gold through the Bible.

You know, gold shows up all the way through Scripture. It's really something. You know, the first place where gold shows up in the Bible, do you know where it is? Genesis chapter 2. It's by the river Pishon in the land of Havilah. There's gold in that land, and it's good gold.

And what struck me is that gold didn't have any... It wasn in some king treasury It wasn stamped into coins People weren buying things with it It was just in God creation right It was just there This beautiful thing was just sitting there And of course, Genesis 1, 27 through 28, we talked about this in the past, that God created image bearers, like if we were making things, we'd make statues of ourselves. And he said, fill my creation with images of myself, right? his original plan was to fill the creation with his image, with his glory let's look though at let's pull two of them out here Psalm 19, let's turn there together we can't ignore Psalm 19 Tim has said it before but the Apostle Paul some people like to guess that the Apostle Paul had read Psalm 19 before he wrote Romans 1.

There is a connection. So Psalm 19, the second half of it, it talks about the law of the Lord, how good God's Word is. The first half of it talks about creation. So these are familiar words, but David says here, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.

And he goes on to talk about how it comes out... That's a proof text if there ever was one for this kind of point, right? Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for... There's a reason. Why is the Lord worthy to receive... To be ascribed, right, for his glory and power and honor to be recognized.

Why? For you created all things. And it's by your will they existed and were created. Right? So God created everything and everything glorifies God as creator. So that's kind of the foundational premise behind this lesson is that all things exist to glorify God.

So let's look at more of the details, okay? First up creation displays God power right We all know Genesis 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth right We're familiar, I think, with John chapter 1. Let's turn there real quick. If you ever have a Jehovah's Witness knock on your door, this is a really good text. And, you know, they don't believe that Jesus is God, like fully God.

They believe Jesus is a God, right? Like we all can be gods if we do good. So, you know, a Jehovah's Witness will quibble on John 1.1 where it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. They'll quibble with that and they'll say, it should read the Word was a God, right? Now, there are reasons why that's not a good argument.

There are reasons in Greek why that doesn't hold. And even as you read through the rest of John 1, you can get into like a really technical discussion discussion like how the Greek supports this translation and not the Jehovah's Witness translation. But what's really simple is just to point out verse 3. All things were made through him and with him was not anything made that was made.

So if Jesus was made, who made Jesus? You see the trouble, right? It's talking about Jesus here and it says that through him all things were made. And just to reemphasize the point, just in case you didn't catch that, he says, and without him was not anything made that was made, right? So nothing was made except by Jesus, and Jesus couldn't create himself, right?

If he didn't exist, he couldn't create himself. So there's a logical conundrum here. You have to, John is making as clear as he possibly can that Jesus is God, but our point is here that there's not anything that exists that doesn't exist except by Christ. Colossians 1 makes a really similar point, right? If you read Colossians 1.15 and following. One of my favorites, though, is Hebrews 11, verse 3.

Does anybody know this verse? We all know Hebrews 11.1, right? Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. No, faith is the certainty of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen. Hebrews 11, verse 3. Would someone read that?

All right, so by faith we understand that the universe was created by God. by the Word of God. God's Word is powerful. Theologians talk about this phrase, ex nihilo. It's a Latin phrase, which I've been told means out of nothing. Is that right, Dennis? Looks good.

He made it out of things that it says in Hebrews 11.3, things that were not seen. This is incredible. We all make things, right? Is there anybody here who doesn't make things? I think we all make things, right? Either at work or hobby or something.

We write stories, we write songs, we build things, we fix things, we bake. But we have to start with raw materials, right? None of us, except in our dreams, just comes up with stuff, right? I mean, we have to start with something God's already made, but God started with nothing. and this is re-emphasized we have to look at these passages these are incredible would someone look up Psalm 33 verses 6 and 9 who's got that one mom and Dennis would you go to Romans 4 17 so Psalm 33 verses 6 and 9 All right?

All things exist because He spoke. And when He spoke, it came to be. And when He commanded it, it stood firm. Just let that register, right? Like, sin makes us think that we have some sort of independence. Some sort of existence, right?

As if the thing made can talk back to the one who made it, right? But the only reason we exist is because of God's Word, right? Because of what He spoke. And Paul makes a similar point. Dennis, would you read Romans 4.17? He calls into existence the things that do not exist This is how powerful our God is What he says goes even if the thing he commanding doesn exist yet Right I mean there are probably people right now I don know screaming at the TV, right?

Telling the football game to go a different way. And their words are completely ineffective, right? They don't have the power to change the game. And we've all had this experience when we're working on something and it's being, we think, difficult, right? Like this job that should have been easy is suddenly very tedious. We've hit our finger a couple times, things are slipping.

It's just, you know, it's time to go. I had to change my headlight recently and I spent like 45 minutes trying to figure this out and it just was not working and then I watched a two-minute video on YouTube and it was a piece of cake, right? But like we want to be, in those situations, we want to just speak to this thing. We want to speak to the game or speak to the headliner, speak to, and just say, stop messing up, right?

Go right. And we're frustrated because we're powerless. Our words are powerless to change the way things are going. But God's word is so powerful, these things don't even exist. And God says, let it be, and it is, right? He can command and control the things that don't even exist yet.

That's some kind of power that I don't even understand, right? so God has supreme control over even the most powerful elements of creation we won't turn here but we're going to refer to Job 38 through 41 often and we don't have time tonight to read those chapters but just read through those chapters at some point if these ideas are catching your attention where God just shows Job that Job, you are a speck in my creation. And I have control. In these passages here, if I remember right, I pulled up the passages where he was talking about controlling snowstorms.

We all know, if you've been paying attention to AccuWeather or more accurately, Alarmist Weather, where everybody is, like snowpocalypse is coming and our society is trembling at the power of the storm coming our way. In Job 38, I think it's that passage, it's somewhere in Job 38 through 41 where God says, I control the storehouses of snow. I like to remind people of that, especially Christians when they're complaining about the snow.

God he in charge of that So just keep it in check right But also Leviathan and Behemoth I mean people don know what these creatures are if they're like dinosaurs or giant, like whales or hippopotamuses or whatever people. But anyway, they're big, powerful creatures, and God says, I'm in control of those things, right? One of them even sounds like a dragon, it's kind of cool.

Let's just turn, just to establish this point, to Romans chapter 1. Romans 1, verse 20. This is a key text. I think I put at the top of the paper there a lot of the key texts on God's glory and creation. And Romans 1 is on that list, so you can see those and look through them sometime. Romans 1, verse 20.

It says, For His invisible attributes, namely... Paul is thinking in particular of which attributes? Namely, His eternal power and His divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so that these men who suppress that truth are without excuse. God's power is on display in creation. I just want to open it up.

When have you really experienced God's power in creation? We can't take a field trip tonight, but do you have a memory or experience where you've really felt God's power in creation? Mom? Who's been in a tornado? Very close? Yeah, see, that's power, right?

I mean, what's that? The birth of children. Yeah. there's something amazing going on in the birth of a child and doctors can do a lot of things they can take measurements and fix problems as they go along but ultimately they stand back and everybody says wow dad I was thinking the same thing yeah like four foot waves white capping waves and we're in a small boat.

No, it was scary. That was a transformative event in my life because that when I realized my dad not invincible And we in this boat trying to go across the lake and the wind really kicking up I mean the water really cold It's probably 50, I took a bath in it one day and it was really cold, like 55 degrees. It was cold. And we're really far from the, we have life jackets, but we're really far from the shores.

And these waves are just, it's kind of the deal. I'm in the front of the boat where when it goes up, you only see sky. And when it goes down, you only see really water unless you really crank your neck up. and dad was hitting him at an angle and all the things you do to not swamp the boat. And I asked dad at one point, dad, are you doing okay? And he said, yeah, but his voice cracked.

And I was like, I just kind of tightened my life jacket up a little bit and kept looking at which shore was closer. Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, the ocean, the stars. If you've been away from light pollution, you see the stars. We're going to talk, Isaiah 40, 9 through 31, fantastic text, where God comforts his people. He says, why do you say, O Israel, and why do you complain, O Jacob?

My way is hidden from the Lord. My cause has been disregarded by my God. See, Israel is feeling like God's powerless. He's not paying attention to them. And in Isaiah 40, God says this. He says, do you not know?

Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. And he says at one point, lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all of these? It's a rhetorical question. He who brings forth the starry hosts and calls them one by one, each by name, right?

Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. And so that's, God actually uses the stars at night as an object lesson to let his people know, hey, remember, I'm powerful. I know, see all the stars, you can't count them. I know each of their names. And the reason they're out there is because I've called them out there, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Of God's power. Yep. And when we see the sunrise and the sunset, we're reminded of God's power, His promise, you know, that this is going to continue. But also, it's a reminder of our limitedness, right?

Oh, it's time to sleep again, right? Because if I don't, I'm going to be a mess. But God, He's there. and he's making it happen. Alright, so next up, God's creation. I've lumped three things together here. God's creation displays not only his power, but also His holiness, His eternal nature, and His sovereignty.

And we'll go through these just real quickly here. We've already talked about Isaiah 40. God stands separate from creation, and this is one aspect of His holiness, His independence. Theologians talk about God's aseity. He's ase, He's apart. He's not dependent on creation for His existence. and this is one element of God's holiness that he's separate from creation.

He's the creator, everything else is creation. So that's the first thing. Creation, as we look at all the beauty, all of the interconnectedness, all of the power of creation, we're reminded that God is more powerful, he's more beautiful, he's more wealthy, he's more complicated, He's more everything good we see in creation. God is more of those things to the degree that we can't even put it in words because he's the creator of those things and these things are just a reflection of who he is.

So God stands separate from creation. He's holy. Let's look at Psalm 90. Psalm 90 verses 1 and 2. Song of Moses here. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. God is eternal. 1 Peter 1, 24 and 25, he's quoting Isaiah 40 where he says, all men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands firm forever.

That's Isaiah 40 and also 1 Peter. He picks that up in chapter 1. So God, unlike creation, God is eternal. Creation is not. Creation exists in time. Not like God, not everlasting to everlasting. and third God unlike anything in creation is entirely sovereign we looked at this passage already Psalm 115 verse 3 does anybody know it without looking there this is a great text Psalm 115 verse 3 Our God is in the heavens He does all that He pleases Great verse Commit that one to memory Hang it on your refrigerator Our God is in the heavens, right?

And because He's God, not creation, He does whatever He pleases. Nothing in this world does whatever it pleases. Everything in creation is limited. By gravity or by predators or by parasites or by sunburns or whatever it is, everything in creation is limited. It's in a way frustrated from going hog wild in the direction it wants to go. But God himself does whatever he pleases.

Unlike anything in creation, he is entirely sovereign. Anything else on that? Any thoughts on God's holiness, eternal nature, or sovereignty being displayed in creation? Yeah. I don't know that psalm. God is in his holy temple, so let all the earth be silent.

That would be a good one to cross-reference here, but I don't know that. I know the psalm, but I don't know the number of it. Yeah. Plank Eye had a song. It's an old Christian rock band we used to listen to. God is in his holy temple.

So let the earth be silent. Yeah, it's a good song. And a good song. Plank Eye's a good band. I still have their album. I think it's in my car.

I'm going to have to crack that one out here pretty soon. God's glory and creation. Let's continue here then. It displays... This is a little bit redundant, but God's creation displays his creativity, right? Look at the diversity of God's creation.

Just go through Genesis 1 and look at what he made. He made everything, right? And he made, when it starts talking about the plants and the animals and the birds and the sky and the fish and the sea and the animals that walked on the land, he says, and he created all these different kinds of animals according to their kind and he said be fruitful and multiply.

So God set up the amazing diversity Jelena you studying biology right Do you agree that we live in a world that has an amazing diversity of not only life but like geological features and weather and just... It's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So Darwin sees hundreds of kinds of finches on the Galapagos Islands is where he was, on the Beagle, right?

The HMS Beagle. Is that his boat? Yeah. And he came to the conclusion, this is pointless for God to make this many kinds of things. So, yeah. Why would he do something like that?

It's just not efficient. Well, I think God's just showing his creativity. He's like, hey, look, I can do this. I can tweak it a little bit and do this. and it fits with everything else that I made, right? And what's amazing is even though sin has cursed the world, the creation groans because it's been subject to, what's he say, corruption or decay in Romans 8?

Not willingly, but according to the will of him who subjected it and hoped that it would be released from its bondage when the glorious sons of God are revealed. But anyway, so Romans 8 ties into that. But even sin has cursed the world, but we still see an amazing diversity of things. And all biologists see this. Biologists study this. It's all interconnected.

These ecosystems just work together. And sometimes people are afraid to touch the ecosystems. Because if we touch it, we might break it. Because we have. Humans have done that. They've ruined ecosystems.

Because we like to flatten things out and make monocultures. Like let's just plant a bunch of corn. And that will be better. And it's useful. We eat and that's nice to eat. but there's something different when you walk to a pristine wilderness and you see things working like they've worked you see all the diversity and things just fitting together it's incredible it's incredible what God's done Psalm 148 I should have brought my guitar we could sing all God's critters got a place in the choir but Psalm 148 is probably it's better it's better and it's in God's word so I can reference it here and it's legit Psalm 148 is, I think it's where, it's clearly where Francis of Assisi got his his song All Creatures of Our God and King Right It almost you You read Psalm 148 and you can hear that song But Psalm 148 says, From the heavens, the angels, sun, moon, stars, waters above the earth, sea creatures, hail, snow, fire, mist, wind, hills, cedars, livestock, creeping things, flying birds, peoples, rulers, princes, maidens, old men, children, young men.

Let them praise the Lord. And he gives reasons why in Psalm 148. Psalm 148, verse 5. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. And He established them forever and ever. He gave a decree and it shall not pass away.

In Psalm 148, verse 13. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted. His majesty is above earth and heaven. So that's similar to what we read in Revelation 4.11, right? For you created and they stand. That's why you get praised.

But just think, all of creation here, this great diversity of voices are singing God's, they're called to sing God's praises, right? That'd be a neat choir to listen to, I think. I mean, we have like sopranos and tenors and basses and altos. Do we have any baritones in our choir these days? Is anybody who sings baritone? We might have five parts, but usually it's four, right?

God has, you know, in his choir, all of these different things singing his praise. So it's pretty incredible. I think it's C.S. Lewis. I forget if it's in a space trilogy or if it's in Chronicles of Narnia where he talks about creation as a song. It's in the Chronicles of Narnia where he talks about creation in its song form, right?

Where God sings into the creation this melody. Yep. Sings everything into existence. And there's a connection, right? I mean, between the harmony of a good song, the harmony and diversity of a good song, and the harmony and diversity of creation. All of the heavens declare the glory of God, right?

Creation sings His praises. Jesus, as He walks into Jerusalem, and the people are singing out Hosanna, right? And the Pharisees are like, they need to stop doing that, right? They need to stop. And Jesus says, if they didn't sing my praises, the rocks would cry out. Creation has to praise the Creator.

God is displayed in creation, especially in terms of his knowledge and wisdom. So creation displays God's knowledge and wisdom. This is what blows my mind. I remember doing, I built a, what do you call it, like an entertainment stand for my in-laws. They commissioned me to build this thing, and I built it out of maple and cherry. I wanted it to be really nice, So I drew up the plans on grid paper, right?

So it has little squares, and it's real organized and everything. I have the exact, it's all drawn out, right? And we go, I know exactly what wood to get. So we go to the store, and we order the wood. A few days later, we pick it up, and I bring it to the wood shop. My wood shop's all set up in their barn.

It's a really nice barn with a heated floor, and I have all these tools around me. Everything is just perfect. And then you know what happens? I start building this thing that I've planned out and I have all the materials and I have all the tools and as soon as I start building it it becomes a rescue mission because I miscut something or I have a little air nail I shoot the nail and it goes crooked and it pops out or there's something in my plans I didn't account for and now I didn't think about like here's one I used maple plywood that's finished for the walls is cheaper and strong and it doesn't warp and stuff.

Anyway, they didn't tell me it was only finished on one side. So I was like, the other side looks really hokey. So it turns into a rescue mission. But here's what blows my mind is nothing existed, but God created all the parts, and He, by wisdom, determined how they should all fit together, and it worked. When He sat back, on day seven, He wasn't going out to buy more trim to hide his mistakes, right?

He wasn't deciding to paint it instead of stain it because, you know, the paint would... I tell you, paint, wood filler, trim, and paint cover a multitude of sins, right? But God, he sits back on day seven and he says, it's very good. It all fits. It works. That blows my mind.

Read Proverbs 8 where wisdom says, I was a workman. I was rejoicing at his side as he put everything together. Which, by the way, that's in Proverbs 8. Wisdom is said you know wisdom is integrated into the created order Like The way things work in the world when they working properly is according to God wisdom And that's the same wisdom that should be ordering our lives.

So God can say things like, go to the ant, you sluggard. Look, I created the ant so that you can look at what it means to work hard. So wisdom is displayed in God's creation. and God knows how to keep it running and He knows how to redeem it. So Colossians 1.15. Let's just turn there. This passage is too good to pass up.

Colossians 1. Verses 15 through... We'll go all the way through 23. Jesus, 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 thrones or dominions or rulers or authority. All things were created through him and for him.

Note, this is Paul writing. He sounds a lot like John, right? Some critics say, well, John, he was kind of crazy. He thought Jesus was God, but nobody else really did. Well, Paul is saying just the same thing we read in John 1, verse 3, right? They were created through him and for him.

Verse 17, And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. So if Jesus decided to let things go, they would be gone. So he knows how to keep it running. And he goes on, He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross.

We'll just stop there in verse 20 actually. But he goes on and continues making the point that this wisdom that's on display in creation is also on display in redemption and it's found its way into your life, right? Because you've heard the gospel and God who said let there be light is now saying, let there be light again, which we looked at in 2 Corinthians 4 a few weeks ago.

So God's knowledge and wisdom are put on display in creation. Not only His power, not only His holiness, His sovereignty His creativity all these things are on display but also his knowledge and wisdom are on display in creation This one's cool. Creation displays God's provision and his care. He gives food to his creatures. Do you guys know any of these texts?

Any of these pop out to you? Do you know any of these? It might be 147. Let's look at that. Psalm 147. Psalm 147 says, He gives snow like wool.

He scatters frost like ashes. So remember that this winter. But it also says in verses 7-9, Sing to the Lord. Psalm 147, 7-9. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Make melody to our God with the lyre.

He covers the heavens with clouds. He prepares rain for the earth. He makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food and to the young ravens that cry out. Right? I don't know if that's what you're thinking about, Charlie, but that is a psalm that talks about...

Okay, so there's another psalm too that would talk about God. We sing that one at harvest... or we read that one at harvest feasts that we have in the past anyway. If you can find that, Charlie, I'd be glad to reference it here. I don't have it on my list. it might be is it 104 what is that 10 through 15 no I don't think it's that it might be no you guys look them up and if you can find them, we'll throw them into the mix here.

But any others here that stand out to you? What about Matthew 6? Anybody know Matthew 6, 26? Yeah, yeah, love your enemies because God sends His rain and His sunshine to the wicked and the righteous, right? He provides for His creation. Matthew 6, 26, don't worry, right?

Look at the birds. They don't sow or reap and yet God provides for them. It's an object lesson so that we can live by wisdom. Um so God provides food for his creatures Um he causes grass to grow He provides clothes for flowers right In the same passage on worry don't worry about what to wear. Even Solomon in all his glory wasn't clothed like one of the lilies of the field.

God clothes the flowers of the field when He clothed you, right? He provides and cares for His creation. Yeah. Yeah. Now, you know, the cynic would say, yeah, but look at all the death and destruction in creation, right? There's a lot of nasty stuff.

Haven't you ever watched PBS, right? These nature shows, they love showing that stuff, right? There's a lot of blood and guts and the polar bears, poor things. There's no more ice. They're dying, right? And like there's a lot of, and we would say, yeah, yeah, right?

I mean, it's sin. Sin. It's, creation is groaning. We agree with that, right? But that doesn't negate the fact that God is actively providing for His creation. Charlie, did you find that one about Him opening His hand?

Okay. Jelena? Yeah. Right. He could just make them so they don't need to eat. Or everything could just do photosynthesis, right?

Like frogs, they're green. They probably photosynthesize, don't they? So, yeah, he could just make it so we could all just be primary, you know, or producers, right? We just make our own energy. Or he could make it so we didn't need food. But you're right, Jelena, he set it up so that it's so complicated.

Everything depends on everything else. Now, that's really cool. I remember studying, one of my first courses in seminary was Bible geography. And my professor was talking about the promised land and how it's really not that good of land. I mean, it is as long as things are going well. But when there's a famine, that land is hit hard.

Just because of the weather patterns and the geography there, that they are dependent on God to send the seasonal rains. Israel was put in a place of great blessing. That land was fantastic land as long as God was sending the appropriate weather and protecting them from their enemies. So God has set it up. You're right. I love that point, Jelena, that God's made it so complicated, these systems he set up so that... food chains and food webs and, you know, we're really removed from that as modern day, we just go to mire, right?

And it's pretty simple for us, we get a paycheck, we go to the store, right? But like, if you've produced food, if you've grown a garden or whatever, you understand that there's a, we're dependent, that just as much as creation displays God's provision and care, it also helps us understand our dependence on Him to care for us and to provide for us. And so that's, God's glorified, right?

It's a good reason to give thanks. God, we have food. This is wonderful. You did so many things to make this possible. And that's, you're awesome, right? Any other thoughts with that?

I saw another hand. Dad? Yeah, John chapter 9. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, John chapter 9, there's a man born blind, and the disciples say, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus says, it's not because of this man's sin or his parents' sin, but that the works of God would be revealed, something like that? Yeah, so, yeah, he cares for his people.

And Jesus was, God's powers on display is the one who gives sight to the blind. And if you can do that physically, how much more so spiritually? Charlie? Charlie? There it is. Another one for God providing is Psalm 145 verses 15 and 16 You open your hand and you satisfy the desire of every living thing So when your desires are satisfied when you really hungry and you find a Wendy or when you're really thirsty.

I remember one time I was on a long bike ride with Jeremy and we split. He went back and I was going back to Marion and I ran out of water on a hot day. And I was down on Boundary Road close to the Swan restaurant there. And I was like, man, it's a long way to Marion still, and I'm out of water. And I remembered, years before, my parents had showed, there's a spring there, an artesian well, right, with water.

And I remembered that, and it was like a half mile up the road. And, you know, we need to be thankful when our thirst is quenched and when our bellies are filled. You know, it's interesting, when Jesus broke bread, whether it's feeding the multitudes or whether it's the Last Supper, he gave thanks. Before they ate, he would give thanks. That's a good habit to be into, is to give thanks, to acknowledge when we eat that we don't have this food because we earned a paycheck and Meyer had sales.

We have this food because God had all these systems at work together and he's opening his hand to provide for his creation. So God has ascribed glory for that. Creation displays God's goodness. Genesis 1, it's seven times until it says very good. It concludes anyway with the phrase very good. Creation is good.

It's good. God saw it and it was good. It's good. It's good. It's good. Until the last day, on day six when he created, the last day he created, he said it's very good.

Right? Seven goods in Genesis chapter 1. And God's good creation brings us enjoyment. I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I'm reading a book by Joe Rigney called Things of Earth. And it's written as a compliment to John Piper's book, Desiring God. And Joe Rigney is writing this book to say, hey, look, the things that God has made are good things and we should enjoy them.

Which is the point Paul makes in 1 Timothy 4.4 and 6.17. You know we have to wash our hearts from idolizing creation but God creation is good and we should give thanks for it and enjoy it Hey that it That it I was racing through, and there's the finish line. Broke through. Anything that I missed, or do you have any thoughts about God's glory and creation?

Did I miss anything? Something that when you heard about the topic, you thought about it, but we didn't bring it up? Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, God's sovereignty should not...

I mean, sometimes people look at the sovereignty of God and say, I shouldn't pray because God's going to do it anyway. Like, He's sovereign. He does what He wants. But actually, the sovereignty of God is a good reason to pray because He's powerful, which is why it's so important to pray according to His revealed will. Right? God, if you're willing, you're able.

I know you're able because you do all that you please. And so, I hope this is helpful to you as you deal with snow this winter. as you look forward to spring, as you plant your garden, as you eat food, as your thirst is quenched. I mean, as you go to bed, be thankful that there's night time, right? There's night time. I can go and lay my head on a pillow and no one is telling me I should still be up because it's dark outside, it's cold, and I have a bed.

It's time to sleep. God, thank you for sleep, right? And God, thank you that you're still taking care of everything while I sleep. That's really cool. I can rest. you're still holding it together, this is good, right? Just, we need to be thankful, but more than that, we need to recognize God's glory in creation and this is the antidote to abusing it you know for a few years I studied at Ohio State I tried to study how Christians view environmentalism and the environment And I learned quite a bit But this, you know, it really was disheartening to me because it seemed like it was just the liberal Christians that were, you know, concerned for the environment.

And conservative Christians were often stereotyped as saying, well, it's all going to burn up one day anyway, so let's just, you know, let's just pull all the oil out. It doesn't matter how many animals it kills, because they're going to burn up one day anyway. And, you know, it's, anyway. Yeah, it's going to be consumed by fire, 2 Peter chapter 3. Yes, that's true, right?

And we need to live in light of that. But creation is screaming out God's glory. And so instead of looking at it just as a tool to use, right, instead of worrying about it or being frustrated with what's happening in creation around us, we need to put on this lens of seeing God's glory revealed in creation. So let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for giving us this lens that we can look at the world around us, even the gray skies and mushy, sloppy snow in Ohio. We can look at it and see your glory. God, your power, the beauty of the snow falling, just how dependent we are on you and how you provide for us, even though the environment's hostile outside at times, we have places to be that are warm, and we have hot chocolate, and you're so good to us.

And so I pray that you would help us to put on this lens that when we think about your creation, when we are provided for from your creation, when we talk about your creation with other people, when we talk about the weather, that we would be careful to communicate your glory in creation. Help us to stand in awe of you as we live in this world that you've made. In Christ's name, amen.