All Creation Praises Together

Transcript

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[0:00] All right, our sermon text today comes from Psalm 148, and we'll start at verse 7 and go through verse 14. Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths. Fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather that obey him. Mountains and hills, fruit trees and all cedars. Wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds. Kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth. Young men and young women, old men and children. Let them all praise the name of the Lord, for his name is very great. His glory towers over the earth and heaven. He has made his people strong, honoring his faithful ones. The people of Israel. The people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord. Let's pray.

[1:00] God, we thank you that you are great. That you have made all things that we can see and know. And you have blessed each and every one of them. God, may we all bring glory to you. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[1:21] All right, we're going to start off by doing a little exercise. So you're going to have to do this. You're going to have to move. Sorry. I'm only a little sorry. You're going to have to get into groups. Try to get into groups of people that you don't know. Because it's more fun that way.

[1:38] Maybe like four or five people. And this is what I want you to do. I want you to talk about your favorite human-made invention. So tell people in your group why you like that particular invention. And make sure you include the purpose of that invention. So everybody in your group should mention at least one invention and its purpose.

[2:02] Whether it is unique or not. But try your best to think of really unique inventions. And things with really unique purposes. So at the end when we all get back together, we're going to, if it's okay with Eric, pass the microphone around and hear from your group what you think the most unique invention in your group was. And its purpose. So we'll do four minutes. But go ahead and try and get into groups of four or five. Not your family groups.

[3:12] But groups of four or five. And if you're in a group that has five, you can join a group that has five already. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

[5:49] Has every group come up with five inventions yet? Or an invention for every person? Okay. We'll stop the time. Go ahead and get comfy in your groups because you're going to be in your groups a little later.

[6:14] Eric, do we have a microphone? Can you go to each group? And each group report on the most unique invention with the most unique purpose in your group. I guess we're the first group. Can you tell me what's our most unique invention?

[6:40] We believe the washing machine. No one has it. So we claim it as being unique. Okay. Okay. So it's for every person. So we all use it. That's why. Nice. So actually, I think the most unique one was Katjes, which is a machine that will analyze the spin of a softball. I assume when you're pitching it, spin axis of it. That's pretty unique. So if you were looking for unique, that's the most unique. The other choices were coffee, chainsaws, and integrated circuits. Okay. So.

[7:25] All right. Okay. Our group had a lot of very unique ideas, but the one that we chose as the one to share was cochlear implants. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we kind of went through categories of assistive medical devices, but we landed on those. Okay. So.

[7:55] So. Are we the last ones? Yeah. Okay. So our, we thought the most greatest and the most unique was a bread slicer. It's simplicity. It's great. You don't have to rip it apart with worries about COVID and everything. You slice the bread, everybody gets it without being touched. And of course, we all know it's the greatest thing since. Yes.

[8:25] Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Everything that is created by God or by human has a purpose. Absolutely everything. So I have a video to show you, and it might take a second to pull up. This is something...

[9:40] I don't know... Thank you. Thank you so much. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. about every single last one of them. And they all praise God simply by being themselves and being a testimony to his creativity and glory. And it's funny that they bring glory to him and we don't even know they exist. It's a little funny that the psalmist directs the line directly to the creatures in the ocean and he directs the words in the psalm to the creatures and the things that he's talking to. He's saying, you things, praise the Lord. And yet, how do they know they're supposed to do that? As though they're going to understand what he's directing them to do and yet they do obey him. Just by existing they are bringing praise to God. And the same is true of the elements of fire and hail and snow and clouds and wind and weather. They all bow before him. And he says, I have to admit I stand in awe of fire and storms because I find them really powerful and also captivating. We had a fire a couple of weeks ago at youth group for making s'mores and it's amazing how calming the presence of a fire is because people just stare into it and stare in awe. It's powerful, it's hot, it's confusing, and yet there's something so captivating.

[16:51] We're pretty lucky that in California we have some really great examples of mountains and we have some pretty great examples of great cedars and great big trees. One of my favorite things to do is to walk near giant redwoods because I love the way that they just keep growing as though they're trying to reach God himself. They just grow so high and I love to stand beneath them. I love to stand in front of them and I love to stand beneath them because I feel so small and insignificant next to them. And they're just reaching out to God with all their might. And then come the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky and they're all called to praise God. I have an issue with birds and yet they're called to praise God. And who am I to dismiss that? The beasts include all the birds that are in the sky. They're all of the wild animals, the lions, the tigers, the bears. The livestock include all of the domesticated animals, the horses and the cows and the goats and the sheep and the tortoises. I brought Ethel to church today. She's sitting in the nursery because it's warmer than my office and she is not being an example of praising God. She threw a mighty fit at being taken out of her cage this morning. So you can pray for her soul.

[18:17] Right Ethel? Right Ethel. Right Ethel. Right Ethel. Right Ethel Right give their obedience to it. And the psalmist here calls absolutely everybody, whether you are young or old, whether you are male or female, whether you are weak or powerless or have great power, we are all called to praise the Lord. So this is part of a group of psalms called the Hallelujah Psalms because they all begin with hallelujah. Psalm 150 verse 6 says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. It's another psalm in that same set of psalms. And this psalm has called all of creation, all of creation, even the most insignificant little blade of grass, to praise the Lord. And now it comes all the way to the psalm. It comes to us. It comes to people who are the crown of creation. You know, when Hans-Erik was reading Genesis 1, you would notice that God said, let there be for everything else in creation, let there be. But when it came to people, it got personal. And God said, let us make human beings in our image. He did not say, let there be humans. It got very personal because we are the crown of creation. We are those who are created in God's image to praise the Lord.

[20:19] God's call for us to praise the Lord knows no bounds. There is nobody here exempt from the call to praise. And so the obvious question at this point is, are you praising the Lord? And I'm not going to tell you to discuss this in your groups, but I want you to take like just a few seconds right now. We'll be silent for a few seconds. Just think in your life, ask yourself honestly, are you praising the Lord? And that doesn't mean just this morning when we were singing songs of praise, but with your life, are you praising the Lord?

[21:07] Now, the psalmist, deliberately saved humanity for last. And that is the order of creation too. Humanity made in God's own image came last and was given dominion over the rest of creation. And that involves a few things. First, it involves us taking part in praising the Lord, not by ourselves, but alongside the rest of creation.

[21:41] Right? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. but there's something about it that's exciting. Think of all the animals and all of creation, all the birds, the fish glub-glubbing underwater and splashing about, everything making their own sound. And you add to that the sound of a mighty crashing thunderstorm and wind picking up and maybe even a tornado blowing through because tornadoes and storms, they're part of God's creation too. And all of this sound, we are called to join it. We're not called to stand apart from it and make our own noise. We're called to be part of this choir. And when all the parts sing together, they make this harmony. And that's how our praise is. Our praise is part of the harmony of all creation, praising God.

[22:54] And not just on Sunday mornings when we sing worship songs together, but praise with our entire lives. This is what creation teaches us. Most of creation cannot use logic or reason or even communication to praise God. And so they praise God with their very existence and our lives need to be the same. To live a life of praise, we must be in tune with God so that the things that we do subconsciously still reflect God's will. Our general attitudes, should be one of praise to God. And this doesn't mean that we are always happy. Instead it's about living a life where God is at the very center whether it's in good times or in bad. And then the praise begins to come naturally and we see God in the small things in life and are more grateful to him for guiding us through the day today. The best way to begin living a life that praises God is by making small intentional changes that help you to praise him a little more each day. So we're going to take a moment in our in our groups to just talk about small areas of change that you can make in your life that would help you live a life of praise and I'm going to start to give you a second to think. So what is a small change you can make in your life to help you live a life of praise. Mine is that I can praise God more if I take

[24:33] intentional breaks throughout the day to review where God has shown up that day and to do that like setting an alarm on my phone just that catches me and says it's time to stop and think no matter where I am. It's time to stop and think about where God has met me so far in the day. So start by talking in your groups earlier and like we did earlier we'll hear examples from your group with the microphone. We'll do three minutes this time. Oh examples of from your group of ideas sorry you're talking about ideas of what you can do to make a small change in your life to live a life of praise and at the end we'll take examples from your group of those ideas.

[25:37] Thank you. I'm sorry. All right. So we'll have Eric go around with the microphone again. Oh he was directed not to start with the group he started with before. Okay. I guess I'm going to be telling about this too. So we all really appreciated Victoria's ideas and her idea and we kind of had different pieces of it like Rene talked about well maybe waking up in the morning and and thinking about the ways that you know God is great and all it's done and then keeping that in mind throughout the day and then in the evening thinking about what God has done for her that day. Share yours. Share mine?

[29:22] Yeah. Yeah, I've been trying to do this for some time. And the latest thing I've done is when I'm driving around, if I go through a green light, I thank the street light. I say, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. But I'm really praising God that he let me go through a green light instead of a red light. And I know that's really stupid. But God does care for the very littlest things in our lives. And he blesses us in the tiny things as well as the great things.

[30:01] For our group, kind of building off of the other group, but we talked about going outside and just having kind of like gratitude walks or journaling at the beginning or end of our days, just reviewing where we saw God show up, the things that we're grateful for. We talked about listening to praise and worship. We talked about worship music.

[30:22] And another idea was when something good happens, just outright saying amen to be reminded that God was present in that moment and allow that to happen. And also talking about in times of hardship, just being reminded of the bigger picture and how God is still in the midst of the good and the bad and being grateful for his presence and his care in our lives.

[30:47] Very good. So we had a few ideas. One was to be intentional about praising God, not just when things are good, but when they're difficult. So that's a challenge. A couple of us were talking about putting away our cell phones or news feeds so that we can be more present and less miserable about how the world is, which is a real thing. And then creating art of our own is a way of praising God.

[31:28] Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. memorizing them because it comes back to you during the day. And you mentioned something about memorizing verses when he was in college and how that comes back to him once he starts again. So did I miss anything else? Natalie was mentioning, you know, at the dinner table rather than saying how your day went, trying to see how God was present in your life. So it's kind of like with grace that God's sighting. So just have a little moment to reflect and see how God worked in our lives that day. Praise him for that. Nice.

[32:21] Yeah, these are great. Yeah, these are great ideas. And hopefully by hearing each other's ideas, we can all get ideas of how we can incorporate a little more praise into our lives so that day by day, as we grow closer to God, we can grow closer to living a whole life of praise. So we wrote. Rule over creation with this example of praise. So that's one part of what it means to have dominion over creation is that we, in concert with the rest of creation, show an example of praise. And we also rule creation by being God's image reflected to creation.

[33:05] So God rules over us. And God is all powerful. And God has the power to do. And God has the power to do with us whatever he pleases. So this is going to get a little uncomfortable. But if God wanted, God could harm us. And if God chose to do so, then when we were no longer amusing to him, he could discard us. Or he could abuse us. Or he could wastefully use us. God has the power to do all of that. But he doesn't do that. Because our God is a loving God. Ultimately loving. And it's not in his character to even be able to do that.

[33:49] Instead, he loves us deeply with a love that we can hardly begin to wrap our minds around. And as God's image bearers, he gave us a similar dominion over creation. We were given creation to make use of, but also to care for. Before the fall of the world, we were given a purpose. After the fall of the world, humanity was tasked with naming the animals and tending to the garden. We were given dominion over creation to care for them.

[34:22] After the fall, the first animal was killed for clothing to cover our shame and for food to sustain us. And we were given that right and that power to use animals for creation for our survival. But that's not the way it was meant to be before the fall. So we have a God-given job to care for creation.

[34:46] Yes, we are allowed to use creation as we need to sustain ourselves. But we also need to care. We need to love creation with the type of love that God has over us. When you get home, and those of you with pets, you see your dog or your cat or your animal, they are happy to see you. You love them and you give them attention. You take care of their needs. You feed them. When they're sick, you take them to the vet and you care for them. So to them, you are an image of God reflected to them. That's why they're happy to see you. They're praising that their master is home. And you are part of their understanding of who God is. That is what we need to be to all of the world. The loving caretakers that God intended us to be. And not just to breathing creatures like the animals that we're going to be blessing today, but to all of creation. The plants and rocks and soil, the clouds and stars and planets. Part of being image bearers, part of praising the God who created us is taking care of the rest of his creation.

[36:03] So today we're celebrating Saint Francis of Assisi. And we don't normally celebrate the saints in our denomination. But they are the ones who are celebrating us. They are called saints because they have something important to teach us about the faith. And Saint Francis was no different. He had a deep respect for creation. He had a deep love for animals and nature. In Francis' last days, he became virtually blind and was unable to endure daylight. And one of the sisters at his home built him a hut in the garden of her convent where he could live out the rest of his days. And it's said that from that hut, Saint Francis could be heard preaching to the birds, urging them to praise God in accordance with the message of Psalm 148. So I leave you with two questions this week. One is how are you preaching to creation?

[37:00] And two is how are you praising God alongside of creation? Let's pray. God, thank you for your grace. God, thank you for all of your creation. God, thank you that we are part of your creation and that you love us so deeply. God, we ask that you would help us to be image bearers of that love toward the rest of your creation. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.