Creation and Ruling
Notes
Transcript
Slow
Slow
High School - serving
What does ruling mean?
Get back to nature
Therefore friends, I believe that we are living at a pivotal crossroads in human history. God is calling us to change how we understand God and relate to nature. Or maybe God is just calling us to remember what has always been so, but what what we have long forgotten; that the planet itself, the Adamah, must be at the center of our worship and relationship with the Divine. = Sermon, UCC Church, Cambridge
Do whatever we please
If it feels good, do it.
If it feels bad, stop it.
Image of God
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
1. Biblically ruling is not primarily preeminence and control.
1. Biblically ruling is not primarily preeminence and control.
Sin and the family and the world
25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,
28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
Sport, Politics, Religion
training to view yourself as superior and dominant
Training to view yourself as a victim
If ruling is primarily preeminence and control, we either have it and abuse people or we feel inadequate and worthless because we don’t and blame others.
2. Biblically ruling is about being responsible to share God’s blessings.
2. Biblically ruling is about being responsible to share God’s blessings.
Blessed - Success
Have children
The command is to Adam and Eve. The principles apply to us.
Not must have as many as possible nor really that you must have children at any cost.
1 “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord.
Keep having children...
Do you view the Christian life as a blessing worthy of sharing? Atheists to a grumpy God
Recognize you can’t do what God wants you to do on your own
Recognize your life helps others see how God rules
Delight in sharing God’s blessings
2. Subdue the earth
29 And Moses said to them, “If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession.
1 Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.
The earth as vehicle of God’s blessing
Neh 5 example
Take blessing from your work. The land was available to gain a blessing from it. The land was a place they could now belong in.
Have dominion doesn’t mean eat or kill in this passage. It probably means ability to control /work the environment in order to receive God’s blessing. (Not bow down to the fish or the trees.)
Jesus and the fig tree
We are not victims. We tend to blame others for our lack of blessing.
3. How can I do this well?
3. How can I do this well?
We don’t live like this.
Sin’s curse - pain in the family and pain in the field
Too passive or too domineering
Why Jesus came… so we might be able to share in God’s blessing freely once again
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Masakuni Kawasumi III:
Bonsai are adorable. At the same time, though, bonsai have a vocal and assertive side. “I want some more water” they will insist, or “I’d like to grow this branch on my right side out a bit longer.” My bonsai flood me daily with protests like these as I make my regular rounds of the nursery. If I were to comply with every one of their requests, they would not grow into fine bonsai. At times the cultivator must have his way. You must not raise your bonsai indulgently, but must take to them with some severity. Cultivating bonsai is in some ways very much like child rearing. Water sprouts are prone to grow if you feed bonsai too much fertilizer, potentially disfiguring them. Leaving bonsai to their own devices, meanwhile, is all the more to be avoided.
Listens well, considers carefully, acts decisively
Wandering Jew
Practically - Find the who.
Get to the why. Find the means of blessing.
Own your decisions. Extreme ownership.
It’s not about whether it feels good or bad temporarily.
Trust in God
So you can be blessed and bless others.
You have a story of God’s blessing but you may not recognize it.
Work - Bring order and purpose to your world in order to share God’s blessings with those you are responsible for.
We want to be a Scripture-focused family that disciples in grace and truth in order to impact our community with the Gospel of Christ.
Our teens
Community Group questions
Where do you see people being too passive about their families or environments?
Where do you see people being too domineering with their families or environments?
How can you cultivate an awareness that God is blessing you?
What more could be said about how Jesus fixes the way we are blessed through being in the image of God? (Col 3:1-17)
How can you share God’s blessings with those around you (tithe, be hospitable, use your gifts, apply Colossians 3)?
