SPEAKER_01: Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Newsong is a gospel-centered community-serving Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, in the parish of the Anglican Network in Canada.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to connect with you.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to reach out to us, you can find our contact information at Newsongport Perry.ca.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you through the ministry of the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Our first lesson this morning is from the Book of Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 13 to 27, and chapter 27, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver, and her profit better than gold.
SPEAKER_00: She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.
SPEAKER_00: Long life is in her right hand, and her left hand are riches and honor.
SPEAKER_00: Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
SPEAKER_00: She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her, and those who hold her fast are called blessed.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord by wisdom founded the earth.
SPEAKER_00: By understanding he established the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: By his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.
SPEAKER_00: My son, do not lose sight of these.
SPEAKER_00: Keep sound wisdom and discretion, and they will be life for your soul and a dorm for your neck.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.
SPEAKER_00: If you lie down, you will not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.
SPEAKER_00: Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her.
SPEAKER_01: Those who hold her fast are called blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God of wonders beyond our galaxy, you are holy.
SPEAKER_01: Holy, holy.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we pray that today as we consider the goodness and grace in your creation, we would glimpse once again your extravagant and resplendent glory.
SPEAKER_01: And that our hearts would be drawn towards the source of our life and the source of all wisdom, our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_01: Well, friends, we've been journeying these past number of weeks into the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: And we've been considering what it means to live wisely by God's design.
SPEAKER_01: Because what Proverbs has been teaching us is that by living wisely, we can live a flourishing and full and abundant life, the design for life that God's always intended for us as creatures.
SPEAKER_01: We understand that wisdom begins with what chapter 1, verse 7 calls the fear of the Lord, which isn't runaway screaming fear.
SPEAKER_01: It's a reverence.
SPEAKER_01: It's a right relationship with God, who is the source of our life and our wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: It's humility, it's a teachable spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's a curiosity to discover the design that God has wrought around us.
SPEAKER_01: And the fear of the Lord, the reverence of the Lord, will lead to considering what is true and what is good, what it is that binds the universe together through God's wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: And it's wisdom that gets praised in our Proverbs reading today in verses 13 to 17 here.
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom is something so precious, so pleasant, so good, it ought not to be neglected.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the author of Proverbs here says, she, wisdom, is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her, those who hold her fast are called blessed.
SPEAKER_01: She's a tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: She makes the difference between scarcity and blessing, between toilsome trouble and flourishing.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this tree of life imagery that runs so deeply in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe for some of us who've been to Sunday school, immediately our minds go to the earliest chapters of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, and rightly so, because in the very first chapters of Genesis, we're hearing creation described.
SPEAKER_01: And we read in chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, The Lord planted a garden in Eden in the east.
SPEAKER_01: There he put the man whom he had formed.
SPEAKER_01: And out of the ground the God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
SPEAKER_01: The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: The tree of life, as the author of this chapter of Proverbs understands, it's a symbol for the flourishing life, the life that God intends us to have, the life that gives way to eternal life through God's wisdom and through God's purposes.
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom goes as deep as creation itself.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why today I want us to consider what does living wisely mean with regards to the creation that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm a little nervous of the pulpit today.
SPEAKER_01: I won't lie.
SPEAKER_01: And in a strange way, I don't think I would be nervous to preach about creation when I began preaching.
SPEAKER_01: And bear in mind, I haven't been doing this for decades and decades.
SPEAKER_01: Creation, the earth, environment, its climate, has become a really political conversation, don't you think?
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you agree?
SPEAKER_01: It's become a very polarizing conversation, don't you think?
SPEAKER_01: It divides left and right of the political spectrum.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm nervous that when we dive into considering what God's wisdom is for creation, what might be interpreted as some kind of political tangent or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the intention here.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, oddly enough, what's now kind of identified so much with the left wing of politics, right, environmental consideration, has historically been associated with the right of the politics, right?
SPEAKER_01: Environmental conservation and conservatism have historically been joined at the hip.
SPEAKER_01: So what I'm trying to do here is not a political exercise, nor am I going to pontificate on what global policies need to look like, etc., etc.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not qualified to do that.
SPEAKER_01: We're not the UN.
SPEAKER_01: So we're not going to do that today.
SPEAKER_01: What I want us to consider as one creature talking to other creatures created in God's image is what does it mean to live wisely in the slice of creation that God has entrusted to us?
SPEAKER_01: That's what I want us to consider today.
SPEAKER_01: How do we think and live and act wisely by God, the creator's design for his creation?
SPEAKER_01: Here's three things.
SPEAKER_01: I think we're wise towards creation when we understand number one, God's regard for his creation.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, our responsibility towards God's creation.
SPEAKER_01: And number three, gospel reassurance about God's creation.
SPEAKER_01: God's regard, our responsibility, and gospel reassurance.
SPEAKER_01: You can ignore the three points I put in your bulletin.
SPEAKER_01: I've changed them since I hit print.
SPEAKER_01: God's regard, our responsibility, gospel reassurance.
SPEAKER_01: I think if we can center ourselves in these three things, we will incline ourselves to the sort of wisdom that we find in the book of Proverbs, the sort of wisdom that lends itself to a full and flourishing life as God's creatures.
SPEAKER_01: So let's open up the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Let's have a look at verses 19 and 20 to begin.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see God's regard for creation.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to discover that matter really matters to God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord by wisdom founded the earth.
SPEAKER_01: By understanding, he established the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: By his knowledge, the deeps broke open, and the clouds dropped down the dew.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord by wisdom founded the earth.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the author wants us to understand.
SPEAKER_01: God's wisdom and God's creation are joined at the hip.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, they're inseparable.
SPEAKER_01: Creation has its order, has its comprehensibility, precisely because it has been formed by God's wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: And if we think about it for a sec, if creation is generated with no purpose out of randomness and chaos, then isn't randomness and chaos what we'd expect to find in creation?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we wouldn't even be around to observe the chaos in creation.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that there is order and design and predictability and comprehensibility suggests in the mind of this author that God's wisdom has ordered the creation that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: It's got a purpose, it's got a design to it.
SPEAKER_01: And it's our job to find that out.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this passage reminds us of a passage we looked at a couple of weeks ago, Proverbs chapter 8, where much the same point is being made.
SPEAKER_01: God's wisdom is like the thread that sews creation together.
SPEAKER_01: We want to understand that thread and how it weaves.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a few things that we want to see about God's regard for creation.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, creation is good.
SPEAKER_01: Creation is good.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Genesis chapter 1?
SPEAKER_01: Day after day, God beholds what he just created, and what does he say?
SPEAKER_01: He says, it says God saw it and it was good.
SPEAKER_01: Not bad, he's not indifferent.
SPEAKER_01: It's good.
SPEAKER_01: This word is like a combination of useful and beautiful and desirable.
SPEAKER_01: It's like the feeling an artist gets after they finish this canvas.
SPEAKER_01: They step back and they think, oh, that is good.
SPEAKER_01: That's rich.
SPEAKER_01: That's captured something desirable.
SPEAKER_01: God made a good creation and therefore he's committed to his purposes for creation.
SPEAKER_01: And not just that, but creation is glorious.
SPEAKER_01: I chose all the readings for this morning except for Psalm 8.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 8 was already assigned in God's providence for this morning, and I thought, what better Psalm could we have that celebrates God's glory in creation?
SPEAKER_01: This is what we read together.
SPEAKER_01: O Lord, our governor, our governor, by the way, by wisdom, how else is he going to govern?
SPEAKER_01: How excellent is your name in all the world.
SPEAKER_01: You have set your glory, your splendor, your majesty, your overwhelming greatness above the heavens.
SPEAKER_01: The idea is God puts his glory on display in the creation that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: So one church reformer named John Calvin can write this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, God daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of his universe.
SPEAKER_01: Wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that a great turn of phrase?
SPEAKER_01: There is nowhere, nowhere in creation, you can look where you will not see some sparks of God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: It shows God's glory forth.
SPEAKER_01: It shows his purposes and his orderings and his desires for creation.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe this needs to be a corrective sometimes about our trends to sideline or ignore or kind of demote the importance of creation.
SPEAKER_01: This idea maybe that God cares only for the spiritual and what's immaterial, rather than caring for the physical and material world that we occupy.
SPEAKER_01: To quote C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, we're hybrid beings, aren't we?
SPEAKER_01: We're body and soul.
SPEAKER_01: We are spirit and flesh.
SPEAKER_01: We're both at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that God privileges one over the other, it's that God has designs for both.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he wants to bring them together.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when we talk about creation, we talk about it like it's something that's more of an inconvenience or a hassle to get to the real important spiritual stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And we end up sharing wisdom that sounds less like biblical wisdom and more like, I don't know, Plato or something.
SPEAKER_01: Like let's get to what really matters way out there and above this material world that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when I was uh in youth group where we had, oh God bless him, a guest speaker who was just pouring his heart out.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and, you know, I think our youth pastor sort of took him to the side at the end of his little uh talk.
SPEAKER_01: But uh his big point was um he was a big fan of The Matrix.
SPEAKER_01: Have you seen The Matrix?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Matrix is a great film.
SPEAKER_01: Don't uh it's great kung fu.
SPEAKER_01: But um but The Matrix is this idea that we live in a world that's not really real.
SPEAKER_01: It's a computer simulation, and you need to be released from the matrix into the real world.
SPEAKER_01: And his point was being a Christian is a little bit like you know you live in the matrix, and you want to get released from the matrix into what's really real.
SPEAKER_01: And I kind of think, ooh.
SPEAKER_01: That might be true of Plato, but that ain't true of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And the trouble is I think that idea is all too common.
SPEAKER_01: That God really prefers what's neat and tidy and spiritual rather than what's fleshy and messy and earthy.
SPEAKER_01: God has desires and designs for both.
SPEAKER_01: Creation is good and it is glorious by God's own design.
SPEAKER_01: And because God cares for his creation, we should care as well.
SPEAKER_01: But how?
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the second consideration here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's consider our responsibility toward creation.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 21 to 26 in our Proverbs reading lays out the sort of security and ordering that wisdom offers to our life.
SPEAKER_01: It's a full and flourishing life.
SPEAKER_01: And then it kind of concludes with a punch.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 27, an imperative: do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.
SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, a foolish person refrains from doing good towards their neighbor and need.
SPEAKER_01: We have a responsibility in creation, a responsibility to live into by God's design.
SPEAKER_01: What does all that mean for us?
SPEAKER_01: We're responsible to do justice to our neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: This is what's developed in the verses that follow.
SPEAKER_01: It's not included in your bulletin, but if you've got your Bibles out, you can see verses 28 to 35.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say to your neighbor, go and come again.
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you.
SPEAKER_01: Do not plan evil against your neighbor, who dwells trustingly beside you.
SPEAKER_01: Do not contend with a man for no reason when he has done you no harm.
SPEAKER_01: Don't envy a man of violence, and do not choose any of his ways.
SPEAKER_01: On and on this goes.
SPEAKER_01: The idea is we owe justice to those who occupy creation with us.
SPEAKER_01: It is a foolish thing to neglect the right ordering of God's moral universe around us.
SPEAKER_01: We're responsible to do justice to one another.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we're going to explore justice even more in a future sermon, because Proverbs has plenty to say about justice.
SPEAKER_01: But for our purposes right here, let's just observe the way that Proverbs is approaching justice.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's approaching it perhaps in a way that is subtle, but inverts the way I think we so often think about justice in our moment.
SPEAKER_01: Justice in our moment is often, it's often about making sure that we get ours, I think.
SPEAKER_01: We're often quite, hmm.
SPEAKER_01: In Proverbs, it's asking us to adopt an other-centered approach to justice.
SPEAKER_01: Let me illustrate it like this.
SPEAKER_01: I know a buddy of mine who has raised three wonderful boys.
SPEAKER_01: When they were very young, he says their treat every Friday was getting a glass of soda.
SPEAKER_01: That was the big treat of the of the week.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I would purposely, I says I kind of rotated around, but I'd purposely pour a little bit more soda in one of my boys' glasses.
SPEAKER_01: Because what's inevitably gonna follow?
SPEAKER_01: Parents, you know.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, he's got more than me.
SPEAKER_01: That's not fair, right?
SPEAKER_01: The lesson my buddy wanted his boys to learn is this the only reason you have to look into your brother's glass is to see if he has enough.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see the difference there?
SPEAKER_01: Often without realizing it, I think our attempts, our approach at justice is really, do I have enough in my glass?
SPEAKER_01: Rather than looking into our neighbor's glass and saying, but does she have enough?
SPEAKER_01: This is the kind of approach that Proverbs is inviting us to adopt.
SPEAKER_01: It's an other-centered approach.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, loving your neighbor, or pardon me, loving yourself at the expense of your neighbor rather than loving your neighbor as yourself is a very foolish thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: What does justice towards our neighbor look like in the creation we occupy?
SPEAKER_01: Here's one thing I think it includes.
SPEAKER_01: I think it includes wise stewardship of our resources.
SPEAKER_01: You know, North America occupies about 7% of the world's total population.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, we use something like over 40% of its resources.
SPEAKER_01: And in general, 20% of the world's population uses nearly 80% of its resources.
SPEAKER_01: So what's my point?
SPEAKER_01: My point is not guilt.
SPEAKER_01: My point is rather that I need to consider that I am more prosperous than I would otherwise first think.
SPEAKER_01: Reflexively, I wouldn't say I consider myself wealthy.
SPEAKER_01: But if I step back for a moment, I recognize God has given me an abundance.
SPEAKER_01: He has given us an abundance.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, he's given us a responsibility towards our neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: We need to look into our neighbor's glass, maybe our global neighbor's glass, and ask, but do they have enough?
SPEAKER_01: We need to discern what that looks like for each and every one of us, but maybe it begins with an attitude of gratitude for the abundant provision that God has given us.
SPEAKER_01: We thank God for the goodness, the good things, the blessings that he gives us day by day.
SPEAKER_01: They're bearing witness to the goodness of his creation, they're bearing witness to his goodness through creation.
SPEAKER_01: So we begin being grateful for creation around us and the creation that we enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: And then I think that gratitude fosters that sort of that sort of burning desire for justice, that we care for our neighbors in need.
SPEAKER_01: That's what things like the farmer's market outreach is all about and our Thanksgiving drive.
SPEAKER_01: In our own local way, we want to say, does our neighbor have enough in their glass?
SPEAKER_01: And has God given us an abundance with which we can contribute towards their need?
SPEAKER_01: That's the idea here.
SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, we have to consider the requirements of good stewardship, stewarding the resources that are given to us.
SPEAKER_01: And I think, friends, if we're going to be good stewards of creation, we have to do the hard thing and refuse a cheap consumerism that treats creation like something to just be gobbled up for our own purposes.
SPEAKER_01: We need to consider that God has purposes for his creation, that his creation shows forth his glory, and therefore how we treat his creation is going to impact how we perceive his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see how that works?
SPEAKER_01: We need to refuse a consumerism that cheapens creation around us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says in Luke chapter 12, take care and be on guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.
SPEAKER_01: See, greed and envy and selfishness that go with an idea of consumerism, it leads to a reckless misuse of creation and a twisting of our soul within it.
SPEAKER_01: We need to refuse that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the most practical pieces of advice that I received, not an infallible piece of advice, but I really liked it.
SPEAKER_01: It's the one less principle, was what was shared with me.
SPEAKER_01: When I need a new phone, I immediately go to the very best on the market.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking what's got the most storage, what's got the most apps, etc., etc.
SPEAKER_01: Do I really need the best phone on the market?
SPEAKER_01: I really don't.
SPEAKER_01: What's one less than that?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm looking for a new flat screen TV.
SPEAKER_01: That was Rachel and I.
SPEAKER_01: We had a big purchase a couple of years ago.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe an 80-inch theatrical size would be the dream here.
SPEAKER_01: But do I really need that?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we go one less.
SPEAKER_01: And the one less principle always acknowledges that what we've received, we've received from God.
SPEAKER_01: And it always ensures that we acknowledge we have an abundance and therefore a responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, we always have something to offer our neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: I think we're living wisely when we consider God's regard for his good and glorious creation when we live into our responsibility towards stewarding creation and exercising justice towards our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: But we need to center ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: If we're going to live truly in wisdom, we need to center ourselves in gospel reassurance about creation.
SPEAKER_01: We need gospel reassurance.
SPEAKER_01: What does creation hold for tomorrow?
SPEAKER_01: That's the question.
SPEAKER_01: And Proverbs 27:1 says this do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a really practical warning, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Don't be arrogant, right?
SPEAKER_01: Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
SPEAKER_01: That's the idea here.
SPEAKER_01: Now, occupying the fragile framework of creation that we do, often things don't go the way that we plan.
SPEAKER_01: But characteristically, I wonder if from generation to generation we oscillate between arrogance in what will come to pass to our favor and anxiety about what will deteriorate out of our favor.
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if we live in a particularly anxious rather than arrogant moment with regards to creation.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we hear the stories in the news over and over about our climate, about how it's changing.
SPEAKER_01: And I, as a pastor, see firsthand the spiritual impact that this has in the lives of those who are listening to the news.
SPEAKER_01: I can think of one conversation I had not too long ago where this one person was saying that they're convinced that the climate's going to collapse within a few decades' time.
SPEAKER_01: And the truth is I'm not I'm not a scientist, so I'm not going to verify the data for myself.
SPEAKER_01: But the despair and hopelessness and utter desolation that this rot in his soul was crippling.
SPEAKER_01: What do you say to someone like that?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we ourselves feel that.
SPEAKER_01: We feel the weight of that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to be foolish enough to just say, well, just ignore the news.
SPEAKER_01: That's a foolish thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we need to recognize that the story we tell, very often in our moment, sounds a lot less like Genesis 1 and 2, that God looks at creation and says, This is good.
SPEAKER_01: And it sounds a lot more like Genesis 3, where our parents, having foolishly disobeyed God's good will and command for their lives, have lost access to the tree of life.
SPEAKER_01: And now God says to Adam, Cursed is the ground because of you.
SPEAKER_01: In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorn and thistles it shall bring forth for you.
SPEAKER_01: You shall eat the plants of the field, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear the imagery of a creation that is being undone through our foolish disobedience to God's good will and wisdom?
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear the deterioration and the decay, the alienation that our first parents have from the good creation that they were made to occupy?
SPEAKER_01: See, I think the story we tell sounds a lot more like our reckless foolishness with regards to creation is leading to increasing decay.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to recognize, based on Genesis 3, that there's truth there.
SPEAKER_01: There's truth to our recklessness and disobedience that leads to deterioration and decay.
SPEAKER_01: But we as Christians need to ask this question: Is there any reassurance to be found in the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Is there any reassurance to be found in the midst of this crisis and dire situation?
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow is the question.
SPEAKER_01: What does tomorrow hold?
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says, Therefore I tell you, don't be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the birds of the air, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
SPEAKER_01: Are you not of more value than they?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28, Jesus says, Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
SPEAKER_01: If God so clothes the grass of the field, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
SPEAKER_01: And here's the conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
SPEAKER_01: Sufficient is the day for its own trouble.
SPEAKER_01: There's a Bob Newhart skit where he's got a client in his office.
SPEAKER_01: He's a psychologist, right?
SPEAKER_01: And the client is pouring out her heart and her problems, and he just says, Well, stop it.
SPEAKER_01: Just stop being so anxious.
SPEAKER_01: Just stop being so.
SPEAKER_01: Is that what Jesus is saying here?
SPEAKER_01: Just stop it.
SPEAKER_01: Stop being so anxious.
SPEAKER_01: That's really helpful.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is pointing us to a theological principle that gives us great assurance.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of this creation, wisdom teaches us to look at the world, not naively, not with our head in the sand, but we look at the world and we see evidence of God's ordering and care.
SPEAKER_01: We look at birds, we look at lilies, and they bear witness to the fact that God works providentially in the universe that we live in for our good.
SPEAKER_01: And again, John Calvin can write this what are thought to be chance occurrences are just so many proofs of heavenly providence, especially of fatherly kindness.
SPEAKER_01: When we look at creation, we can see evidence of God's own fatherly kindness.
SPEAKER_01: We see sparks of his glory and we see ways that he provides for us.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, creation is creation is under the curse that we read about in chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3, and yet God's fatherly kindness persists.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, God's fatherly kindness persists to the greatest degree that it can.
SPEAKER_01: It will renew creation itself.
SPEAKER_01: If God's providence is our first reassurance, then God's renewed creation is our second.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we read about in Isaiah 65.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.
SPEAKER_01: From start to finish, matter matters to God.
SPEAKER_01: The world we live in matters to God, and the environment we live in matters to God.
SPEAKER_01: It is his.
SPEAKER_01: It belongs to him.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, if we find reassurance, it's in recognizing that this story of creation is not a story about us.
SPEAKER_01: It's a story about him.
SPEAKER_01: It is his creation from start to finish.
SPEAKER_01: And he will be the one to restore it.
SPEAKER_01: He's promised to restore it.
SPEAKER_01: I uh babysat kids when I was a teenager.
SPEAKER_01: I remember very vividly babysitting these two young boys, and um before, well, as mom is dropping them off, she says, the thing that they're gonna want to do is they're gonna want to watch Finding Nemo.
SPEAKER_01: And Finding Nemo is a great movie.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't seen it, you should definitely see it.
SPEAKER_01: But she says, just so you know, they get really, really scared when the sharks show up.
SPEAKER_01: Just remind them that the movie has a happy ending.
SPEAKER_01: I always think about that.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be reminded in the midst of the story, in the midst of crisis, in the midst of anxiety, that we know whose ending this is.
SPEAKER_01: We know the author and designer, we know the creator.
SPEAKER_01: And so the image that Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection of the body is this idea that a seed has to die to its seedness to give way to the new life of the tree, to give way to the new life of the grain, whatever it is it's growing up into.
SPEAKER_01: He says, what is sown is perishable, what is raised up is imperishable, it is sown in dishonor, it's raised in glory, it's sown in weakness and raised in power, and therefore, Paul concludes, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says we can look at, we can look in creation around us and rightly recognize that there is deterioration and decay as a result of sin and the curse.
SPEAKER_01: But we need to recognize that ours is a God who takes dead things and brings them to new life.
SPEAKER_01: That God restores and he glorifies.
SPEAKER_01: God's ability to take what is decaying and deteriorating and raise it up is our reassurance.
SPEAKER_01: We need to remember that creation is God's story.
SPEAKER_01: And in the end, he will make all things new.
SPEAKER_01: So God's wisdom offers us true reassurance, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: By his providence, by his renewed creation, it cures our arrogance.
SPEAKER_01: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you don't know what tomorrow may bring.
SPEAKER_01: But it also cures our anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Because birds and lilies bear witness.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be anxious about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
SPEAKER_01: Your Heavenly Father will provide you what he knows you need.
SPEAKER_01: See, we're wise towards creation when we understand God's regard for a good and glorious creation, our responsibility towards our neighbors in creation, in justice and in stewardship, and we're wise toward creation when we find gospel reassurance in the true story, God's story.
SPEAKER_01: God's wisdom for creation ultimately leads us to its source.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes, Colossians chapter 1, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn, the preeminent one over all creation.
SPEAKER_01: For by him all things were created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, and all things were created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_01: If we want to come to the source of wisdom in creation, we have to come to the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And in worship and adoration, we need to lay ourselves down before him and acknowledge that he is the author of this story, and that he is the source of our goods and our reassurance.
SPEAKER_01: Let me conclude with this quote from a biblical commentator.
SPEAKER_01: We can maybe catch a glimpse of why wisdom acts like the tree of life here.
SPEAKER_01: It's the source of God's flourishing and the invitation to God's eternal life through wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: So Waltke, Bruce Waltke, a commentator, says Adam and Eve, humanity's representatives, lost access to the tree of life by their hubris.
SPEAKER_01: Humans can regain it by humbling themselves and receiving by faith the words of eternal life, which are inseparable from the word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Would you receive the word today?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening today.
SPEAKER_01: We follow a generous God who calls us to give willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially towards gospel ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Newsong is one hundred percent funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like to learn more about how to give towards Newsong's ministry, you can do just that at newsongportperry.ca slash giving.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you and keep you today and every day.