Don’t miss this epic study of love, redemption, and restoration.

Thank you again to everyone who helped out with the memorial service last Saturday. The family and friends of the deceased as well as the church were greatly blessed by your service.

Tonight at 6 we complete our study through the book of Colossians. As Paul ends the final chapter to the church at Colossae, he exhorts us to “Remember my chains”, a beautifully haunting and Holy Spirit-inspired statement.

Join us!

Jesus said to them, ‘If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.’ (Mark 9:35)

Contact us for more info or just show up at 2pm.

And if we don’t see you tomorrow, we’ll see you next Saturday for the conclusion of our study through Colossians.

At Upstream, we praise Jesus for the common grace gift of music.

From our study on Saturday night, Colossians 3:19 declares…

Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.

Remember, gents: This isn’t just for married folks. Young men and women need to understand God’s order in and desire for marriage before marriage.

3 Ways to Love Your Wife

1. As provider

• Gen. 2:5 – before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground;
• 1 Tim. 5:8 – But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

2. As protector

• Gen. 3:6 – So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
• John 2:13-17 – Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

3. As priest

• Eph. 5:25-27 – Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
• Heb. 4:14-15 – Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

In these ways, by the grace of God, husbands head a marriage that reflects the Gospel to a world so desperately in need of an understanding of God’s order, nature, and desire.

From our study on Saturday night, Colossians 3:18 declares…

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Remember, ladies: This isn’t just for married folks. Young men and women need to understand God’s order in and desire for marriage before marriage.

3 Ways to Submit to Your Husband

1. Be his helper

• Gen. 2:18 – And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
• John 14:26 – But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

2. Be respectful of him

• Eph. 5:33 – Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
• Mark 14:36 – And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

3. Be a witness to him

• Mark 15:40-41 – There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.

In these ways, by the grace of God, wives build the foundation for a marriage that reflects the Gospel to a world so desperately in need of an understanding of God’s order, nature, and desire.

So what does the Bible say about caring for His creation?

First, there is a clear biblical command to care for God’s creation.

• “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Gen. 2:15)
• “You must keep my decrees and my laws…. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” (Lev. 18:26, 28)
• “The land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and garner their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the Lord…. The land is to have a year of rest.” (Lev. 25:2-5; cf. Ex. 23:10-11)
• “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.” (Lev. 25:23-24)
• “If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” (Lev. 26:3-4)
• “You shall not pollute the land in which you live…. You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the Israelites.” (Num. 35:33-34)
• “If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you?” (Deut. 20:19)

Next, we understand that humanity has defiled the land

• “I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.” (Jer. 2:7)
• “How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished.” (Jer. 12:4)
• “It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.” (Jer. 12:11)
• “Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?” (Ez. 34:17-18)
• “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.” (Hosea 4:1-3)
• “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Rom. 8:22)

Last, but not least, we know the consequences of defiling the Land

• “He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into thirsty ground, and fruitful land into a saltwaste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there.” (Ps. 107:33-34)
• “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. The LORD almighty has declared in my hearing: ‘Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants. A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath of wine, a homer of seed only an ephah of grain.’” (Isaiah 5:8-10)
• “The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth; its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.” (Isaiah 24:4-6)
• “You have polluted the land with your whoring and wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come.” (Jer. 3:2-3)
• “The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great-and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” (Rev. 11:18)

It is the position of the Bible that Christians be good stewards of the earth. Not because we worship creation, but because we adore the Creator.