 So Genesis chapter 1, of course, the creation story there. Now probably funny, just kind of a funny side note about Genesis chapter 1. Ever since I was a little kid, even before, well before I was saved, I always wondered what was in the Bible. You know, I always wondered, you know, here's the Bible. It seems so complicated. It's such a big book. So I tried to read the Bible several times. So probably the chapter that I have read in my life the most is Genesis chapter 1. Because you start reading in Genesis chapter 1, then you kind of slowly like fizzle out because nothing really makes sense, like especially if you're a little kid and you're not saved. So it's important to understand the creation story. And in this series that we're looking at why God gave us, we're kind of looking at some of the things that God created and looking at why God created those things. So tonight we're going to look at verse number 11 of Genesis chapter 1, the third day we're looking at, and we're going to look at why God gave us plants. Why God gave us plants and trees and all these different things that the Bible talks about. Look at Genesis chapter 1 and verse number 11. The Bible says in God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that it was good. So why did God put plants on the earth? Why did God give us these plants, these herbs, these trees, all these things that bear fruit? The first one is very obvious, the first reason it's the same reason that God gave us the animals is because for food. Now if we look at Genesis chapter 1, just look at verse number 30, you can see that God talks about the food right away of the plants and remember before Genesis chapter 9, the herbs and the plants were food for everybody, and that was the only food for animals and for men. Look at verse number 30 and it says, into every beast of the earth, into every folly of the air, into everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so. So obviously, if you look at Genesis chapter 9 and verse number 3, I can just read it for you, but the Bible says every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, this is where God, as we looked at a couple weeks ago, God changed the rules for us, now we could eat animals, and then it says, even as the green herb, have I given you all things. So the idea of us eating fruits and herbs and plants did not change in Genesis chapter 9, it was just the addition of animals being able to be eaten at that point. So basically, you turn to Acts chapter 14. Basically, the first reason that we can obviously just see right in front of us, and the most important reason is for our food. We are to grow plants and trees and fruits and vegetables to eat. Look at Acts chapter 14 and verse number 17. Acts chapter 14 and verse number 17. The Bible reads, nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, and that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. So first of all, we are to eat plants and the fruit of trees and all these things God gave it for us. Now it's interesting that when you look at the things that God has given us to eat, versus the things that we make ourselves to eat, one is much better. If you look at just the idea of fruit versus, what is the sweet thing that God has given us to eat? It's fruit. We never had so much fruit. We were talking about this with somebody just last week. But growing up in North Dakota, fruit was kind of a rare thing. You would have apples, you would have oranges available to you, but there was always this big special event where a fruit truck would come to a town near us. When I say a town near us, I mean like 60 miles away or 30 miles away, a fruit truck would come once or twice a year. And they would bring things like cherries, things like tomatoes, all these things that we just didn't really have readily available to us in that part of the country. But that is kind of God's candy that he's given us, fruit. And it's a sweet thing. It tastes good, but it's also very good for us. Now if you look at actual candy that we make, the interesting thing about it is if you get used to eating candy, you will not like fruit. And I think that that's kind of a big problem, especially in the United States. We're so used to sugar, we're so used to just like putting so much sugar in things that you tend to not want to eat the nature's candy, God's candy that he gave us, which is fruit. But we just have to remember that trees, the fruits, the vegetables, these things were given to us by God, and that's why they're always better for us. I mean, I'm kind of getting more and more like this, the older I get. But I think that the closer food is to its natural state, the better it is for you. Just because of the fact that God's design is perfect. God's design is perfect. And hopefully, that's one thing that we see when we go through this whole sermon series on just all the different things that God has given us. We're going to see how God didn't just give us plants, he didn't just give us animals, but we're going to see how these things like fit together so perfectly in the earth. So, he's given us fruits, vegetables. This is why somebody once told me one time, this wasn't a Christian person, but somebody once told me one time that you should never eat anything out of a cardboard box. And that's actually biblical advice when it comes to just the natural things that God has provided because what he was saying was don't eat things that have been heavily processed, things that have been designed by some food company somewhere and they've had all kinds of unnatural things added to them. It's always best to stick with God's solution. It's always best to stick with things that God has given us to eat. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, all these different things are very good for us. And that's a blessing living in California because I have never seen a place that has so much natural food as California. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 47. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 47. So, that is an obvious one. That God gave us plants, he gave us trees, he gave us fruit, he gave us these things to eat for food for us. And that hasn't changed from Genesis chapter 1 and that won't change until the end of the world as we know it. Look at Ezekiel chapter 47. Look at Ezekiel chapter 47. And look at verse number 12 of Ezekiel chapter 47. The Bible says, And by the river upon the bank thereof on this side and on that side grow all trees for meat. We just talked about that. Whose leaves shall not fade. I like that part in the Bible. Here's an interesting thing and we're not going to get into that quite yet but notice how the Bible just explains that and I was explaining this to my wife the other day. Maybe this is something that's amazing to me only and nobody else but it's interesting that the sun fades everything. You can't set anything in the sun without it being ruined. You can come up with the toughest plastic that we can find. You take your car that's metal that has the best paint job that you could ever find in the modern world and you set that thing out in the sun for years and years and years and that sun is just going to destroy that paint. It's going to destroy whatever surface it touches. It's going to destroy every plastic. Do you ever touch a piece of plastic that's been sitting out in the sun for just like a year? It just cracks like nothing. The sun and the rays of the sun literally the things that man makes it literally destroys them. We could set one of these chairs out in the sun and within just a couple of months these chairs would be completely faded completely just torn up from the sun but notice the thing that God created is not affected by the sun. Even in a negative way not only that we'll look at in just a few minutes the sun actually helps this thing that God created whose leaf shall not fade he says in Ezekiel chapter 47 but that's just an aside. Neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months still talking about things that we eat because the waters they issued because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for what? For medicine. So here's another thing that the plants they provide for us. Turn to Revelation chapter 22. Plants are great for healing for medicine. God has provided all sorts of different plants and herbs and I'm not going to try to even come up with a list of all the plants and herbs you can buy books that are that thick on natural remedies on things that will heal you that are just grown in the earth that are just plants. So turn and look at Revelation chapter 22 and look at verse number two. The Bible says in the midst of the street of it and in either side of the river there was a tree of life which bear twelve manner of fruits as talking about the New Jerusalem which bear twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation. So I mean that you know may have a spiritual application as well but the point is is another purpose of plants is literally for healing. Many remedies that we probably many remedies we probably haven't even discovered yet. I just went and looked up a couple natural remedies. Turn to Isaiah chapter 38. Turn to Isaiah chapter 38 but I found an article the most recent one I could find was an article that was a huge scientific study from 2017 just five, six years ago on the power of fig enzymes to help fight infections. So this article was talking about this big study that was done and they found that this certain enzyme in the fig would help to actually fight infections and not only any infections but staff infections. Now like just these staff infections have just become like more and more and more powerful it seems like over the last maybe 10 or 15 years. So you know all these antibiotics they're not as you know maybe we're over using them or whatever you want to call it but you know they're looking for constantly new ways to fight staff infections. I mean staff infections you could pick up from just like a floor and you could get one of these staff infections but it was talking about how they discovered that fig enzyme would help fight staff infections and actually heal wounds. In this article from 2017 now look at Isaiah chapter 38 and look at verse 21 this is just one example I am sure there are so many examples that God doesn't give us in the Bible where there are plants and fruits and things that will heal things that we don't even know about yet look at Isaiah 38 verse 21 for Isaiah had said let them take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster upon the boil and he shall recover. So here I mean the Bible is saying it's super interesting he's saying like take a plaster of figs like mash up the figs and put them over this sore and it will help the sore heal and then you know science just discovered this in 2017 that figs have like this infection fighting this you know anti biotic type power look at Genesis chapter 43 so we're talking about medicines plants used for medicine I mean other antibiotic type foods that people know about are honey you say well honey that's from animals yeah but plants honey is an interesting thing where the animal world and the plant world kind of come together to form this substance of honey you know the bees obviously are used to pollinate the plants themselves to fertilize the plants and then honey is formed from the bees garlic is another one garlic has antibiotic properties to it and also myrrh myrrh is all over the Bible look at Genesis chapter 43 and verse number 11 so here Jacob talking about what they should bring back to Joseph remember Jacob is in Egypt or he's not in Egypt but Joseph is in Egypt there's a terrible famine and they want to go and they want to bring they found Joseph as the second in command in Egypt and they want to bring some gifts to Joseph and look what they bring it says if it must and their father Israel said unto them Israel meaning Jacob if it must be so now do this take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels and carry down the man a present a little home a little honey spices myrrh nuts and almonds so he's saying he wants to bring them the nicest the best things he can bring them and what is he bring him he brings them this bomb we don't really know exactly what that is but a little honey spices myrrh all these probably expensive things that have all these different things uses other than just food and of course he says nuts and almonds so he's kind of pushing this expensive gift here pushing this idea of health and giving some healthy expensive things to Joseph turn to Esther chapter two that's one thing about California that I really appreciate is just my parents and people that I grew up with they said California is the land of fruits and nuts is what they would always say and look it's true literally it's true I've never seen a place with so much fruit so many nuts with so many naturally grown foods in my entire life and it's a real blessing because there's real health benefits to that look at Esther chapter two in verse number twelve now I'm not condoning the way this king is operating here but look at what the bible says talking about more about myrrh and more about this idea of just purifying having antibiotic type type properties now every maids turn was come to go into king as a heiress after that she had been twelve months according to the manner of women for so were the days of their purifications accomplished to wit six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet odors and with other things for the purifying of women just making sure everybody's healthy and all these types of things so we see that there's many different health benefits to you know just sticking with God's food that he's given us sticking with you know medicines that are a natural we should always you know we should always try like I'm not saying that there's not a place for modern medicine I mean not what I'm saying at all but we should always try the natural things at first see the problem the problem that we have today with things being just so easily available to us is that we'll just live a completely unhealthy lifestyle and then when we have health problems we'll just want to take some chemical pill to stop our health problems whereas if we would just stick to what God has designed for us we would have a lot less health problems that you know then we do I can't believe that someone in the government from the beginning of the COVID-19 mess didn't tell people like two and a half three years ago hey be healthier hey don't be you know don't be morbidly obese you know they didn't come out and just say like eat natural foods eat your vitamins make sure you're eating fruits and vegetables you know getting your vitamin C vitamin D vitamin A your zinc all these things showing people what to eat to get those things naturally nobody was doing that it was just you know put a mask on don't go here lock yourself in a closet and nobody was coming out and just saying hey let's live a healthy lifestyle look people would have had time to you know at least get scared healthy if somebody would have told them I mean there was some doctors that we were all following I'm sure you were following as well but that we knew that we're saying this they were just saying look be healthy eat things that boost your immune system don't eat things that break down your immune system and basically what that came down to was just eating healthy natural foods and not just eating junk is what it came down to and that's exactly what God's design is so we see that plants are provided for our food plants are provided for our medicine for health for all different kinds of reasons and we haven't figured out all the health benefits to just eating God's natural food but just as a philosophy we know that God's design is perfect so just stick to the things that are natural that came from the earth the way God designed it you know and I don't know I'm not like over the top on GMOs either or anything like that and I don't know if GMOs are bad or good but I mean just from the philosophy in the Bible you can pretty much just say that the closer it is to the way God designed it the better it will be for you that for sure now turn to Deuteronomy chapter 33 Deuteronomy chapter 33 what else? we see that plants trees, fruits, vegetables they're for our health, they're for our medicine they're for our food look at Deuteronomy chapter 33 and look at verse 13 look at Deuteronomy 33 in verse 13 the Bible says in Joseph he said blessed of the Lord be his land blessings of heaven for the dew and for the deep that coucheth beneath and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun and for the precious things put forth by the moon so here's what's interesting here's what's interesting I just want to talk about just for a couple minutes before we get into the next thing that the plants help us with or why God gave us plants I just want to kind of go over this idea that we think there's a very persuasive narrative out there today that says that we can control nature that is saying that we are wrecking nature that we can control the weather that we are controlling when things get hot when things get cold but notice what the Bible says here it says the precious fruits brought forth by the sun and the precious things put forth by the moon so let's just look at verse 14 for just a second what is it talking about? you have to kind of turn to Genesis chapter 1 to understand this verse here but basically it's saying most people think that plants need the sun most people think that plants grow in the sunlight but the Bible here says that plants are brought forth by the moon as well look at Genesis chapter 1 in verse 16 look at verse 16 of Genesis chapter 1 see the moon is light as well I just want to kind of show you how perfect God's design is and how he actually talks about it in the Bible look God is very scientific in the way that he did things I mean you must be a scientist to create the entire world look at verse 16 it says and God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night he made the stars also now of course we understand that without its own light that the moon just reflects the sun we get that but the point is is that one of the purposes of the moon or maybe the main purpose of the moon is to give light at night it's just to be the lesser light so notice how in verse 14 of Deuteronomy chapter 33 it talks about how some plants are brought forth by the sun and by the moon why because they both give light that's why now plants are sensitive are extremely sensitive to day length did you know that some plants like a lot of sun some plants like very little sun like for example poinsettias just one example poinsettias they won't flower properly if they're in the sun too much and there's actually not enough darkness they won't live or they'll flower too early and they will not be good also things like spinach if they don't have enough darkness they will not be edible so certain plants all I'm trying to get you to understand is certain plants need more of the great light more of the lesser light why is this think about this well if you live where we grew up the sun just doesn't shine that much and you'll understand that God designed it this way so there would be plants everywhere so the earth would be covered with plants just think about it one thing Garrett was I hope I can use you as an example if you plant some things in his yard he was wanting to plant some landscaping and I'm like well we live in an extreme climate here we live in a desert in Fresno if you didn't know that, Fresno is a desert it's an irrigated desert but it is a desert, it's an extreme climate so if you plant things in Fresno and you do not have irrigation on them you might as well not plant them because they will just die right away like first let's get the irrigation figured out in your yard to survive because it's an extreme climate here so only certain things can survive here and you have to have them under certain conditions it would just be like me I was obsessed when we first moved to Texas I was obsessed with palm trees I still love palm trees I love palm trees my whole life why? because you'll never see a palm tree in the upper Midwest you will not find one palm tree in North Dakota I guarantee it the first November that came around every single palm tree would be dead why? because certain plants are designed to live in certain environments temperatures sunlight darkness God designed it this way just like Deuteronomy 3314 is saying so the entire Earth no matter how much sunlight there is in Alaska at times of the year the sun is only out for like half an hour it's crazy it's dark for like 23 hours I mean there's certain plants there's certain things that will grow in that environment so the point I'm trying to get you to understand is God has perfectly balanced nature and he uses plants to do this turn to Isaiah chapter 40 turn to Isaiah chapter 40 not only has he perfectly balanced it meaning he's made plants that will grow in Alaska he's made plants that will grow in North Dakota he's made plants that will grow in Fresno he's made cactuses and all these different things that need very little water that can survive under 10 inches of water a year and that can just survive with just full sun when you go to Home Depot you better pay attention to that little tag on the plant that says full sun or partial sun or whatever or you're going to waste your money because you put this thing out in the sun and it's not what God designed it for it's going to die so look at Isaiah chapter 40 so not only has God perfectly designed nature but we cannot control it and this is where man today and the bible part company because the bible says you are nothing compared to this machine that I have put in motion look at Isaiah chapter 40 in verse number 12 I just want to read you a couple passages showing how small and nothing we are compared to God and the earth that he has designed and the whole ecosystem look at verse number 12 who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and met it out heaven with the span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance it's saying who knows who could say how much dirt there is who could say how much the mountains weigh it's like nobody could say this who could tell who on earth could tell me the volume of water that exists on the earth I'm talking about in the oceans in the ground everywhere nobody could tell you that number this is what the bible is saying look at verse 13 who directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counselor had taught him see this is us today this is us today in the world we are sitting there and we are saying oh we can direct the spirit of the we're smarter than God is what we think who could be God's counselor this is a rhetorical question that this person is asking with whom took the counsel and who instructed him and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding behold it's saying who taught God I mean people today are like there is no God and we must we know everything behold look at verse 15 he gives us the answers here behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance behold he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 we are nothing in this whole design this earth the plants the animals the weather the sun the moon all of creation we are nothing is what the bible is saying here and we think we can control this give me a break look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse number 11 look I'm not saying don't get me wrong I'm not saying we should trash the earth and fill it with smoke that is not what I'm saying I am not saying we should throw trash everywhere and fill the earth with black smoke that is not what I'm saying what I'm saying is that we can't control the nature that God has put in place look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in verse number 11 Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in verse number 11 we can't control it or predict it many times I think I should have been a weatherman because I mean what other profession could you have where you could literally be wrong like a large percentage of the time and nobody cares but here's the thing it's such a complicated system that you can't predict it with any kind of accuracy past 10 days you know past 10 days the accuracy goes to like nothing that's why you only see 10 day forecast because other than that you know people just they have no idea they don't know many times even the 10 day forecast is not very accurate you can't really predict it accurately until it's like one or two days out alright it's constantly changing even the day ahead forecast look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in verse number 11 he has made everything beautiful in his time also he that set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God make it from the beginning to the end you say so when are we going to figure out everything when are we going to figure out every herb and every single thing that that herb can do for us never the bible is saying we will never figure out all of nature and all what God has put in place look at verse 12 I know that there is no good in them but for man to rejoice and to do good in his life and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor it is the gift of God and verse 14 I know that whatsoever God doeth it shall be forever nothing can be put to it nor anything taken from it there is that we are going to destroy the world movement right there it is like nothing that God has put in place we can do anything too nor anything taken from it and God doeth it that men should fear before him look if we could control the weather if we could control nature you know wouldn't that reduce our fear of the Lord if we could just make it rain over here and just stop droughts and just stop all these things from happening look droughts are one thing and you know severe weather is one thing that God literally uses to judge nations and we think that all of a sudden we are going to be able to control that the Bible here is telling us we are never going to be able to control that that is God's control ok so look nature and this idea of balance nature is kind of a perfect machine and we will never be able to control it all the way to the end so here is the next thing that plants allow us to do plants allow us now we know that that God's nature is perfectly balanced along that thought process plants allow us to breathe think about the brilliance of this I mean I don't know why more people just don't look at this how could you possibly be an evolutionist how could you possibly not believe in God these are the things that you see plants literally breathe backwards I mean we would suffocate we inhale we use oxygen and we exhale carbon dioxide CO2 what everybody hates what do plants do they breathe in carbon dioxide and they exhale oxygen they literally breathe backwards and recycle we use and guess what I mean this is what everybody so concerned about today is these levels of CO2 in the atmosphere let me just give you a little bit of perspective on that this evening and just show you from the Bible a couple of things turn to Genesis chapter 8 turn to Genesis chapter 8 but guess what the more CO2 concentration that is in the actual atmosphere itself higher rates of photosynthesis and less water consumption in plants so just to give you an idea of the numbers that we're talking about with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 1960 in 1960 the carbon dioxide number in the atmosphere was about 320 parts per million today it's about 410 or so 420 alright so basically plants they do better when CO2 levels get higher this is why greenhouses greenhouses will many times you know put in CO2 and they will boost the levels of CO2 because why because the plants grow better when they have levels of like 700, 800 ppm of you know CO2 literally some plants I'm gonna just read you some statements here and increase the variance CO2 to 800 to 1,000 parts per million can increase the yield of many types of plants up to 40 to 100% so basically we're at 410 ppm and it's saying 800 to 1,000 and it will increase the yield of plants you know by 40 to 100% depending on the plant and I was looking for a range of when CO2 is really bad for plants like there's gotta be a top end right where the plant just can't take anymore CO2 and the basic the number that I came up with was you know just looking at several different sources it's really hard to get an exact number on this stuff I was pretty surprised you'd think more as much as much as we're doing in the world to like try to stop CO2 from going into the atmosphere you would think that there would be more known about it and I was pretty shocked to see that you can't really get good numbers on this but basically right around you know anywhere from 1200 to 1800 ppm is what I found as far as CO2 being bad for plants or at least to the point where the plant's like I can't do anymore with this I can't grow any faster I can't have any higher yields so I mean just so you know from the perspective of human health anything under a thousand parts per million is there's like no effect to humans and it doesn't get dangerous to humans till it's like over 2500 so the point is it's gone up 100 parts per million in the last 60 years you know to get to a thousand you know you can extrapolate and do the math on that but here's what's really interesting look at Genesis chapter 8 and look at verse 22 I've read this to you before I've read this to you before but we know how the world ends folks we know how the world ends we can read Revelation we can read Bible prophecy we can see the wrath of God and the things that are going to go and the order that they're going to go in and we know how the world ends there's nothing in there saying that man had too many factories and drove too many cars that's not in there look at Genesis chapter 8 and verse 22 the Bible says while the earth remaineth seed time and harvest cold and heat summer and winter you know kind of preaching against this idea of climate change global warming that cold and heat is guaranteed that that will not stop summer and winter day and night shall not cease but notice what it says here it says seed time and harvest shall not cease until the end you know what God is promising there God is promising us that the plants will continue to grow God is promising us that the crops will continue to yield their fruit and you will still be able to eat and you will still be able to plant and you will still be able to harvest until the end okay so from that point we can say that basically CO2 saturation in the environment is not going to get to the point where nothing can grow in the world God promises us that so you can pretty much cap it at 1200 parts per million or whatever there's going to be some point either God will end it before it gets 300 400 years from now when it gets to a point of 1000 parts per million or whatever or it will go down through natural plants sucking up the CO2 and becoming the saint that balances things out that's probably my guess is that you know God's design is going to balance things out as they ought to alright but if seed time and harvest won't cease that means that the CO2 level will stay in a range that is not only favorable to plants but that is you know this world will be habitable for us during that time okay so look it's just the balance of the earth is totally perfect is what you have to understand the more you read about these things just the idea that plants you know the more CO2 that's out there the faster they grow and the more CO2 that they they bring in it's balancing the effect that anything that we could do would have alright what are some other balancing effects that plants have just a couple just erosion you know if you've ever driven up to where's the place that just had the big fire a couple of years ago Shaver Lake if you drive up to Shaver Lake and you'll notice the first thing that I thought of when we drove up to Shaver Lake after that I think it was the creek fire all the hillsides are completely bare it's nothing but dirt all the plants all the vegetation all the trees are gone look they keep they keep the dirt in place and I was you know if there would be a big snowfall and a big snow event or even a big rain event though this is where all your mud slides and all your hills come down and all these terrible erosion effects happen so look plants like literally keep the earth in place they keep erosion from happening they're good for soil health as they die and they mix in with the soil they're fertilizer they're used for construction we can't come up with think about everything that is still made of wood just look around you in your life and just think about everything that is made of wood in your life I remember and quite frankly we can't even make a building material that's as good as wood when you think about it I remember with my father-in-law 10 years ago we were out pulling out some fence posts and we were replacing fence posts and kind of no I think we were just tearing out a section of fence so they could farm over where the fence was and he told me that these fence posts had been in the ground for 80 years there was these wood de cedar fence posts and I remember we pulled these fence posts out they had been in the ground for 80 years and he went in and my father-in-law actually started making like some crafts and some things out of these fence posts and when he cut the fence posts there was just a small layer of gray on the outside of the post but on the inside of the cedar fence posts that had been in the ground for 80 years you'd think it'd be all rotten it was like brand new cedar inside the wood because cedar cedar has like many hardwoods have an oil that just preserves them it preserves them against you know moisture from getting in it just preserves them from rotting we can't come up with building materials like this I mean people can't build anything today like we build things today and we hope they last 10 years the way we build things today but man can't make something like that so wood is still a very very popular and powerful building material turn to Matthew chapter 6 so there's all kinds of other uses for plants from just things in our life to construction to just fertilizer and just health of the environment around us but here's one and here's one that I actually missed on animals that I should have brought up but here's another one how's this beauty how's this just showing the creator this is what Romans chapter 1 is talking about when it says what two things when you study through Romans what two things does everyone have in their life that they start with you say it's not fair some people have a better chance of being saved some people have a better chance of coming to the knowledge of the truth than other people well guess what everybody starts with two things in Romans 2.15 the bible says that God has written his law in the heart of every man you know I'm paraphrasing that but the point is that every man has a conscience every man has a conscience number 2 is that every man sees the creation every man no matter where you grew up where you grew up in the darkest corner of the world every man sees the creation around him every man sees God's beauty every man sees what God has done you think about it just think about this look at Matthew chapter 6 and verse 28 he's talking about just not worrying about things the context but I want you to look at what he uses as an example he's talking about how we shouldn't worry about we should have faith that God is going to take care of us and why take he thought for raiment that means clothing it says consider it says why would you worry about what you're going to wear or having clothing to put on it says consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin look at the flowers is what the bible is saying it says they don't do anything and look at how God has arrayed them is what the bible is saying and look what it says in verse 29 it says that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these you know what the bible is saying here the bible is saying that the beauty of a flower the beauty of God's creation the beauty of nature itself is more beautiful and look you know this is true it is more beautiful than any garment that man could design or make himself this is what the bible is saying it's saying even Solomon even the richest wisest most successful man who has ever lived could not come up with a garment that is as beautiful as just the creation the flowers and the plants that God has made it's just the beauty of it the beauty of it the most beautiful garment man can invent is nothing compared to a single flower now here's another interesting one look at verse 30 wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field so look the bible is saying God put some thought into this you know when you look at some of the beautiful flowers and the beautiful plants that you'll see in your life just the ferns and the different things it's like God put some thought into this you know God was designing this God made it beautiful on purpose if God so clothed the grass of the field which today is which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven here's what's really interesting right there that I find interesting, this is just a side note but it's literally being used not only is this grass you know beautiful and it's something that God designed but it's literally being used in an oven what are they doing with it in the oven are they baking grass no they're using it to fuel God literally gave us plants he gave us trees he gave us these things the bible is saying it right here for fuel so if we could like destroy God's creation by burning a tree don't you think God would warn us about that in the bible instead he's like hey you know you're gonna God created the grass of the field and you're gonna end up using that to cook your food it's what the bible says then he says shall we not much more do oh ye of little faith so that's just a side note you know that fuels just another use for these things but God is just saying look at how beautiful the creation is everybody can see it it's a witness to the creator as in Romans chapter 1 I used to say to the kids as we lived in the country I used to say to the kids that the reason it's harder for a city person I don't know if this is true don't be offended but I would always say to the kids as we were country people I would say it's harder for a city person to believe in God because they're surrounded by things made by man but it's easy for people that grew up in the country to believe in God because they're surrounded by things made by God they're surrounded by plants they're surrounded by animals they're surrounded by nature in every direction I could I mean I love landscaping I love landscaping I could spend all day at the Belmont nursery I could walk around that place all day long maybe not today but other days I just love that I can't believe all the different beautiful plants that you can get and all these different things and it's just the options to plant these great things are just endless and why is that it's not because Belmont nursery is awesome even though they may be it's because God has just created all these beautiful wonderful plants for us plants have many uses it's just one more thing in our lives that God has given to us but I think the main thing is just to recognize the beauty of the plants think of the beauty of animals as well think of the beauty of animals there is no reason for God to have put all these different elaborate designs on these animals is a zebra camouflaged give me a break an artist having that is just an artist just being an artist is what that is and that's a testimony to God that's a testimony of the creation looking at that and as you see how the animals and the plants work together the bees making honey with plants you see all the different uses of the plants you see all these different things you must believe in a creator recycle our air for us and you must believe in God and then once you do believe that hey there must be a creator somewhere you must seek the truth at that point and then God will take it from there when you're seeking the truth God will send someone to show it to you plants, why God gave us plants and like I said this whole series we're just scratching the surface because you couldn't even go through all the reasons and all the different things and that's just an explanation let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer