Series: Go Green
The Art Of Growing Yourself In ChristBe Responsible With Land
Pastor Doug introduces us to the Go Green series by challenging us to read Psalms chapter 8 for 30 days. We look at going green in respect to the environment around us and how Christions must act.
We learn what it means to have a relationship with the land in a Godly perspective. We have responsibility over the land and must take care of it. Yet, we should never worship the creation or the land and ONLY worship the creator. Can you deny the handiwork of God? You have been called to partner with God and his creation. You are not to put it over God or other human beings. Let us love God’s creation, let us embrace our own responsibility for it, and in the process let us discover God’s love for us.
Psalms 8:1-9
1 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Building a Healthy You
Harvey Friesen talks about the second part of creation (you) and how to keep it sustanable.
Practicing the discipline of gratitude is a way of turning the negative part of our lives into the positive part of our lives. Keep moving and you will keep moving. Stop moving, and you will stop moving. Keep forgiving people. Don’t have a fit body and a fat mind.
Psalm 8:2 – Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
Psalm 139:14 – ”I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – 9 ”Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom
you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
Philippians 3:5-7; 8-11 – 5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of
the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. 7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
Proverbs 17:22 – ”A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.”
Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Proverbs 24:14 – Know that wisdom is such to your soul;
if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
Building Healthy and Sustainable Relationships
Harvey Friesen dives into how to create a sustainable “us” within the context of “Going Green”.
Join a group! Young men and women need to rub shoulders with each other because that’s how we grow. Do you have a Paul, Barnabeas, and Timothy in your life? Do you have a Titus, Percilla, and Aquila that you are putting your life into and vice versa? We help each other with our mistakes and we walk with each other and grow better.
Psalm 8:4 – what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
Romans 2:3 – For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”
Philippians 2:3-4 – Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others
Living Your Life in Healthy Community
Harvey Friesen finishes up the series by focusing on the fact that God has us both in His mind and His heart.
God doesn’t grow deciples by themselves in trees of isolation. We were always intended to grow shoulder to shoulder with each other. Just like God grows watermelons in the ground, we also grow in the grit of life.
Psalms 8:5-9
5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
