Unified Efforts under God can Free Creation from Corruption
An all-creatures Bible Message

Unified Efforts under God can Free Creation from Corruption
 
A Sermon Delivered to
The Compassion Internet Church
 
29 June 2014
 
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor

Scripture References

Psalm 13:1-6
Matthew 7:13-14
Matthew 10:40–42

Unified efforts under God can free creation from corruption, because disunity only causes more problems in the world.
 
We talk and correspond with many people who are doing their best to live in the heavenly will of God as peacemaking children of God, but they keep stumbling over why God continues to allow the animals to suffer so horribly on factory farms, in slaughterhouses and laboratories, and in other animal exploitive situations.
 
Some of the people have even said that this is causing them to lose their faith, because they aren’t receiving any answers to their prayers about this horrific situation.
 
Think about this as we look at Psalm 13:1-6, for there is a lot of similarity between these people’s prayers and those of the psalmist.

1. How long, O LORD? Wilt Thou forget me forever?
How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me?

This is exactly how many of the people we’ve been talking about feel.
 
They feel that not only do the animals continue to suffer, but that God is forgetting them and hiding His face from them.
 
And they continue to pray…

2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Their enemy is the hoard of animal exploiting people and the people who buy and use the products of these tormented animals.
 
For the most part they feel very much alone, because the vast majority of the people they encounter are following the worldly ways of the devil who promotes all the suffering, bloodshed, and death.

3. Consider and answer me, O LORD, my God;
Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

Because they are not getting a clear answer from God, many of these sensitive people want to die rather than continue to live in this corrupted world of human indifference to the suffering of animals.
 
Truly compassionate people care about the whole of God’s creation including every other human being and all the animals, and they simply don’t know what to do to alleviate all the suffering, indifference, and corruption.
 
We cannot satisfactorily answer all of their concerns, but the one thing we are sure of is that if we stop speaking out about all the evil in the world, it will only get worse.
 
Our unified efforts under God can free creation from corruption, and this in turn will bring about an end to both human and animal suffering.
 
On a more positive side, over the years, we have seen some small compassionate changes, and much more awareness of the problems, even if those people don’t do anything about it.
 
This is far from being good, but it also shows us where we have to focus our efforts until we reach the tipping point when public opinion changes from being indifferent to the suffering of animals to one of empathy and outrage over what is happening to the animals.
 
And we are not just concerned about the animals, but strongly believe that the animal situation is the root cause of all other indifference and injustice in the world, because it hardens the hearts of all the people who are indifferent to the suffering of others.
 
If we bring peace to the animals, we will also find that we have brought peace to the whole of God’s creation.
 
And, we still have a lot of opposition to living in the heavenly will of God, and some of this animosity is directed toward us personally.

4. Lest my enemy say, "I have overcome him,"
Lest my adversaries rejoice when I am shaken.

The small positive changes we’ve seen seem to be doing a little overcoming of our enemies who seek to harm us; and with an eye to heaven, it’s somewhat encouraging.

5. But I have trusted in Thy lovingkindness;
My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation.
 
6. I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
NASB

We have seen this happen in our lives, for which we are very grateful, but we want it to also happen for the animals and the people who care about them and don’t eat them or otherwise use them.
 
Since Jesus came, God does not seem to be intervening directly to end the corruption of the world.
 
It appears He has left that responsibility in the hands of those of us who are peacemaking children of God, who seek, by every means they have, to free creation from its present corruption, as the Bible charges us to do.
 
But we have a huge uphill spiritual battle to peacefully fight against, for there are relatively few of us doing this against the vast number of people who are following the evil earthly ways of the devil, which is exactly what Jesus taught us would be the situation in Matthew 7:13-14…

13. "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.
 
14. "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. 
NASB

With this in mind, let’s go on and look at what Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:40-42…

40. "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

This is speaking about true believers who do their best to live in the heavenly will of God without any exceptions or compromises.
 
And Jesus goes on…

41. "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
 
42. "And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward." 
NASB

But we don’t want to stop here, for there is much more.
 
Let’s think about a few things.
 
There are a lot of people, even if they are in the minority, who seek to correct some of the problems we have in the world today.
 
We have talked a lot about caring for the animals, and there are people who care about companion animals, but continue to corrupt creation by eating other animals and who also are not concerned with the environment.
 
There are people who want to end pollution, but they care nothing about the plight of animals and are silent about the environmental damage caused by the animal agricultural industry, and maybe they don’t even care about their fellow human beings.
 
There are people who try to improve human health through diet and exercise, but they are silent about eating animals and their by-products that cause so many health problems.
 
We believe they do this because they don’t want to rock the boat of peer pressure, so they compromise their message and the good they could do.
 
There are people who want to end our warring madness against other human beings, but do nothing to end the warring madness against the animals and the pollution of our environment.
 
There are people who want to end the abortion of unborn human babies, but seem to care nothing about the rest of God’s creation, and even eat the babies of other beings.
 
There are others that go around and tell everyone they can that they must be born again in order to be saved, and at the same time they are contributing to the destruction and corruption of God’s creation.
 
What is the matter with our society?
 
Have we gone back to a polytheistic belief system, where we have a separate god for each different thing or concern and believe they have to appease these gods with bloodshed and misery?
 
May it never be!
 
We have one God, who created all the heavens and the earth, and cares about each and every one of us, whether we are human or animal.
 
So, it’s high time we stop separating God’s creation into separate entities that have nothing to do with one another.
 
All of God’s creation functions together as a unit, just like our individual bodies do, and we need to apply this way of thinking to the whole of creation.
 
Therefore, we need to be the all-inclusive loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God who truly care about the whole of God’s creation, and who, in the heavenly will of God, do everything in our power to free the whole of creation from its present corruption.
 
We need to learn to work together and stop fragmenting ourselves into special interest groups.
 
We need to ALL be united as God’s children who work in the heavenly will of God to free the whole of His creation from its present corruption.
 
We need to bring peace to ALL our fellow human beings.
 
We need to bring peace to ALL the animals.
 
And, we ALL need to bring peace to our environment.
 
We ALL need to be the loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God He calls us to be.
 
Our unified efforts under God can free creation from corruption.
 
And, if we want to, we can!
 
Amen?
 
Amen.

See: Our Readers' Comments
Return to: Sermons Archive