Stewardship is the practice of living as entrusted ones: receiving, cultivating, and returning all of life to God in love.
Every is a divine .
Genesis 2:4-5 NLT
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil.
Genesis 2:7-9 NLT
Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. 8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:15 NLT
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.
1. God His creation to the of His people.
Warped Views on Nature:
– Creation: “Nature is my resource, it must be exploited.”
Job 41:11 NIV
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
“The average person in the UK throws away his or her body weight in rubbish every three months.” —John Stott, The Radical Disciple
We weren’t placed in God’s world to from it, but to it.
– Creation: “Nature is perfect, it must be must be adored and left alone.”
Psalm 19:1 NIV
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim His handiwork.
“Indigenous people skillfully modified the fire regiment to create a range of forest openings in many different stages of post fire succession, which enhanced the biodiversity and yield of game, berries, root crops, edible seeds, and medicinal plants far beyond the untouched lands. In contrast, fire was often used by the colonists with a different intent—uniformity, such as production of pastures, cropland, and plantations.” –Robin Kimmerer, Maintaining the Mosaic
“We burn because it is good for the land; fire brings more life.” –Silas Whitman, Nez Perce Elder
Creation isn’t humanity’s , it’s our .
2. Faithful Touches Every of Creation
Genesis 2:19-20 NLT
So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals.
Genesis 2:18 NLT
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”
3. Creation Care is a Issue Too
“It is always the poor who live along the fence line.” —Sandra Richter, Stewards of Eden
Genesis 2:25 NLT
Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
4. Includes a Healed .
“The Christian vision is one of healing and restoration, reversing the effects of the fall. The gospel envisions spiritually and physically healthy people on a healthy and abundant land.” —Howard A. Snyder & Joel Scandrett, Creation Healed
Answer Key: blessing, entrustment; entrusts, care; commodifying; take, tend; romanticizing; accessory, assignment; stewardship, part; people; salvation, creation