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Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of Real Faith in the Real World, a ministry of Normal First United Methodist Church in Normal, Illinois. Let's listen to hear what Pastor Kent King Nobles has to say today.

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As we get ready to hear from our green team members, imagine with me, just for a minute, if you will, that you have a home that you've invested a lot in. It's a beautiful home. It's a home that you love, a home that you really treasure and value. And imagine that you're going to be going away for a while, as some of you often do. So you're going to entrust this home to someone else to take care of. So you meet them, you show them everything, you hand them the keys, and you say, take good care of this. This place really matters to me. Now imagine you come back and you see the yard is all dead as you pull up in the driveway. When you open the door, you see the carpet is stained with something. What is that? Something wine or something. You look around and the trash is piled in the corners of your home. But then you notice the walls are scratched and they're broken, torn. There's damage in places that you wouldn't even think you could damage. You notice one of the windows is broken and things have been blowing in. It seems like it's not just neglect, that it's careless, that it's wasteful, that it's almost disrespectful. How do you feel about your home and this person you've entrusted to? You're feeling angry, hurt, betrayed? Now let's turn that scenario just a little bit, if you will. What if you're the person who was entrusted to take care of the home? And you didn't mean to, but some things happened and the home was really badly damaged. How do you feel as the person comes back and you're going to explain to them? You feel regret, embarrassment, maybe a desire to make it up, to make it right? Well, this is the home that we have been given by God, floating in the vastness of space. This thin blue line of atmosphere that makes our very lives possible. Oceans teeming with life, forests that breathe, sunrises and sunsets that stop us in our tracks, mountains, rivers, prairies, gardens. Think about it for a moment. A sunrise that slowly fills the sky with light, the rhythm of waves along a shoreline, the quiet beauty of snowfall, fields ready for harvest. The sound of birds singing in the morning, the complexity of a single leaf, or the vastness of a light of a night sky filled with thousands and millions of stars. This is not just scenery, this is God's creation. And God calls it good. Again and again, it is good. Creation, you see, is it's not just functional, it's beautiful, it's intricate, it's alive. And in the very beginning of our story in Genesis, we are told that God entrusts this creation to us, to you and to me, not to exploit it, not to own it, but to tend it, to care for it, to steward it. And that this is an incredible honor. Now, I had uh two professors in Atlanta, Georgia who went on a sabbatical one summer, and they invited uh two students to live in the house and take care of it. They came back at the end of the summer, and the two students were so proud they bragged, you know, during this whole hot, long, humid summer, we never turned the air conditioner on once. They were so proud of themselves. And the professors had a nice big collection of prized books. Yeah, you know what happened, right? They found those books were moldy and had been destroyed. So my point is, sometimes even when we try to do the right thing, it's complicated. Sometimes we get kind of overwhelmed or paralyzed and we're not sure what to do. But I think you would agree with me that we as humans have some room for improvement. That we can do a better job of caring for God's creation. We can do more. And think about some of the damage that we've done. I know that not everyone agrees on every detail about the environment, and unfortunately, this conversation has too often been hijacked for political purposes instead of looking for clear-eyed solutions. Not everyone's gonna see the challenges in the same way, not everyone's gonna use the same language or come to the same conclusions. But I also believe this that we don't have to agree on everything to do better, to take better care of God's creation, to waste a little less, to love this creation a little more intentionally. And I think this is the main message our Christian faith gives us, that we are called to love creation just as we are called to love the creator. We are called to love creation boldly. So, what does that mean for you to love creation boldly? How do you do that? Today, the green team wants to offer some simple suggestions. You're gonna hear from five people. Each will share a short scripture and maybe one or two practical, meaningful ways that you can make a difference. It's not everything, but it's something. Maybe God will speak to you today, suggesting one thing you can do to love creation more boldly. Because when people of faith take even small steps with love and intentionality, those small steps add up to big changes. So let's listen together for God's word.

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Thanks for joining us for this episode of Real Faith in the Real World. We hope that this message helps you grow in your understanding and sparks new insight on your journey of faith. If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to subscribe and share. And as always, if you have questions and want to dive deeper into today's topic, please feel free to reach out to us by going to normalfumc.org, click about normal first, and click contact to leave us a message. We would love to hear from you. And until next time, keep speaking, keep questioning, and keep growing.