Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1. For our sermon today, we're going to be looking at verses 28 through 31. I'm going to start reading at verse 26, which we looked at last week, but we're going to be looking at verse 28 through 31. I'm going to read the passage and pray John Brighton's sermon. Hear now the word of God. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant-yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed and its fruit. You shall have them for food. And every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Thus ends the reading of God's holy, inerrant word. May its truth be ever written on our hearts. Let us pray. Dearly God, we pray, reveal yourself to us in this text, and may we find our truth, our hope, our life in you. Guide us to know you better and know how to live as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, and guide our hearts and minds to worship you. May the words of my mouth and meditations of all our heart be ever pleasing and acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. So what does it mean to live a good life? What does success look like? How can you know you are living the happiest, healthiest, most fulfilling and meaningful life possible? Is it money? Is it having a good business or a good job, maybe a good home? Is it having a great work-life balance? Is it having some sense of security? or a good family life, is it having people around you who know you? What does it look like for someone to live the best life possible, the life God designed us for? A life of blessing. Blessing is an important word in the Bible. It is often used to convey the benefits of joy and prosperity that come from living in the will of God. To put it another way, blessing is what happens when we live out our covenant relationship with God. You see, throughout the Bible, God establishes relationships called covenants. And he says, when you are obedient to the covenant, there is blessing. And when you are not obedient, there is curses. So the opposite of blessing is curses. So the best life, the life that brings the most amount of joy and prosperity, the life with all the benefits of following God is a life that lives out God's good design, God's covenant commands for us. So what does this blessed life look like? This is what we see in our passage today. Last week, we talked about how God made mankind, male and female, in his own image, and gave us dominion over his creation. That's our design, that's our purpose, that's what God made us for. And here, God looks at the humanity he created, and in verse 28, it says, God blessed them. This is all about what it is to live a blessed life, to live out the fullness of God's good design for us. So I want us to see three blessings God gives to humanity, three blessings that make up the good life, the life that God wants for each of us. The blessing of culture, the blessing of cultivation, and the blessing of cuisine. First, we see the blessing of culture in verse 28. It says, and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish and over the birds and over every living thing. No one's asked me, but if someone were to ask me what are the top 10 verses for someone to memorize, this would definitely be in my top 10 list. Probably not one or two, but definitely in the top 10. You see, this verse, Genesis 128, is often referred to as the cultural mandate or creation mandate. A mandate is an order to do something. A CEO might make a mandate for his business to make a million dollars that year. Or a king might make a mandate that every firstborn son must serve in the army. God's mandate for humanity is to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over it. And this is God's given mandate for humanity. It is often called the cultural mandate because it's about creating culture. Hence why I said the first blessing is culture. So what exactly does this mean? What does it mean and what does it have to do with culture? Well, let's think about what this mandate is saying. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the world. In other words, People are supposed to have children. The first part of the blessing of culture is that people are supposed to reproduce and have children and have families and create communities and friendships, and they're supposed to have relationships with other people. Part of God's blessing for humanity is that we would be fruitful and multiply, which is to say that children are a blessing from God. Psalm 127 says, quote, Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior are children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. Throughout the Bible, you get stories of women and men longing for a child. Sarah and Abraham, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and so many more. The innate desire within many of us to have children is part of God's good design. Part of the blessing God has given us as human beings is the blessing of children. That's what it means to be fruitful and multiply. Then God says, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over it. The phrase, fill the earth, both has implications of having children, but also sending those children out into the world so that more children and more people fill more of the world. Humans are supposed to take over the land, so to speak. But he also says we are to subdue it. The word translated subdue has a rather forceful emphasis to it. It's the idea of a kingdom conquering another kingdom to take control of it. Humans are to control the natural world. We are to conquer the wild lands and rule over them. Similarly, the phrase hab dominion, which we talked about last week, literally just means to rule over. But the tone of this verse is actually not very forceful. It's rather poetic, even in the original Hebrew. In English, we say we're to fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over it. It's like someone digging out a weed patch to plant a beautiful garden. It's like trying to raise toddlers with calmness and sincerity and patience. I think the best way to think about this is to domesticate. We are to have children and we're to domesticate the world. We're to have children and domesticate the world. What I mean by domesticate is that we are supposed to take the wild places and make them where people can live and thrive. We're to take wild animals and make them into livestock and pets. We're supposed to take wild flowers and turn them into gardens and beautiful bouquets on our tables. We're supposed to take our families and make homes and towns and cities and live life together. Proverbs 24 says, prepare your work outside, get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that, build your house. Go get everything together, grow your fields, take care of yourself, and then build your home. Domesticate. Part of God's design for people, part of the blessing of God has given us, is to domesticate the world. Think about Baxter. Some 150 years ago or so, this was nothing more than just open prairies. And one day, someone moved here. A couple other people probably followed. And they cleared some of the prairie to build themselves a little house. And they cleared some other prairie to build themselves a farm where they could grow themselves some food. And then they had kids. And they cleared some more prairie to build some houses for their kids. And they cleared some more farm to be able to feed their kids. And over time, people started to build up a little space. And then they realized they needed things like a market, and they needed mail, and they needed a church. So some of them gathered together in a little town and formed Baxter. And over time, people from those farms started to move into the town and they built homes. And they had kids, and they would build their kids' homes a couple blocks down the street. And over time, Baxter slowly grew. Even about 20 years ago, everything west of West Street was more or less fields, farm fields. But then someone was like, we need more space for more people. So they opened up Westfield, the subdivision we have. And even today, we still have more people having babies and we're building new buildings and we're building new ballparks and new parks and playgrounds. That is the cultural mandate at play. to have children and domesticate the world. That's what we're doing right here in Baxter. That's what every town and every community is doing, because that's what we're designed for. You see, God made Adam and Eve, and he placed them into the Garden of Eden. The whole world wasn't a beautiful, perfect garden paradise, only Eden was. And he told them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Adam and Eve weren't supposed to walk around this beautiful garden and just look at the beautiful trees all day and watch the grass grow. No, they were supposed to have children and cut down the trees to build homes. And they were supposed to go to the very edge of the garden where there was nothing but wild fields and craziness. And they were supposed to clear out the fields and bring the plants that are in the garden even further out. And slowly over time, the garden would grow. And over time, their kids would build homes. and continue to grow the garden, and their kids' kids would build more homes, and the homes would become towns, and the garden would continue growing, and eventually the town would become a big city, and eventually the whole world would have been a beautiful paradise, one giant city with nothing but a beautiful garden surrounding it. If Adam and Eve would have just continued doing it, we would have had this beautiful thing, and over time they would have developed art, in sciences, they would have developed technologies to help them expand the garden and communicate and bear children, and they would have continued to grow their society and their knowledge. And all of this is what we call culture. God made Adam and Eve and gave them and all their descendants, all of us, the blessing of culture to domesticate and to have children. So first we see the blessing of culture in the cultural mandate in Genesis 1, 28. And then we see the blessing of cultivation in verses 29 and 30. It says in verse 29, God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed and its fruit. You shall have them for food. You see, God has given us certain plants, plants yielding seed, trees yielding fruit, and God gave them to us for food. Which means as we went out to expand and grow this garden, we were supposed to be planting the food, the trees and the plants that we could eat for food. There's a reason why most of us don't see people growing fields of hemlock or poison ivy, because they don't make for good food. They kill people or hurt people. Like when we plant things, when we grow fields, we grow things we can eat. Similarly, we don't grow large forests. We don't go planting forests generally. We grow corn and soy and wheat, strawberries, watermelons. We might grow cherries and almonds and have apple orchards. But it's all food that we can eat. Humans took the wild ground far from Eden and domesticated it and cultivated plants to eat. But it's not just about the plants for you to eat. Verse 30 says, and to every beast and every bird and everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breadth of life, I have given every green plant for food. Which means plants God has given humans are not just for us to eat, but also for us to make sure the animals eat. You see in verse 26, God gave mankind dominion over the animals. which means part of our job is to rule over animals and make sure they're cared for and fed. Part of the stuff we grow is meant to be used for feeding animals, for feeding livestock, for feeding pets, and for maintaining a healthy ecosystem around us. We will still want to grow forests for the birds to have. We still want to make sure we have wild grasslands for the livestock and wild animals. Part of cultivating the earth means making sure animals are fed and cared for. And as Iowans, you all probably know this. I recently learned that only about 1% of the nearly 13 million acres of corn grown in Iowa is food grade sweet corn. 99% of the corn grown in Iowa is what is technically called field corn. And field corn, it can be used in cereal and for ethanol and all sorts of other products. But over 70% of the field corn in Iowa, over 70% of the corn we produce is actually used for feed. You see, we know that we grow corn and other things not just to feed ourselves, but also to feed animals, to care for the livestock and tend to the needs. Because we grow plants not just for us to eat, but for everyone. That's how God designed it. So the second blessing God gives people is the blessing of cultivation. So we have the blessing of culture, the blessing of cultivation, and the blessing of cuisine. I don't normally do the alliteration thing, but this came to me with the three C-U, C-U, C-U, so I just went with it. All I mean by cuisine here is food, the food we eat. Verse 29 says, every plant yielding seed and every tree with seed and fruit, you shall have them for food. Verse 30 says, I have given every green plant for You see, God has given us the blessing of food or cuisine. Isaiah 119 says, if you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land, which is basically to say, if you live out God's design and do the work God made you to do, you get to eat the things the land produces. Part of the blessing God has made us for is giving us a blessing of food or cuisine. I don't want to spend a lot of time here, but I'm going to say three quick things on food real quick. First, God actually cares what you eat, and God cares that you eat. God cares what you eat, and God cares that you eat. You see, Adam and Eve were told not to eat of a particular tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So there was something that God cared they did not eat. Throughout the Old Testament, there are many commands of food not to eat, specifically given to the Jews, the Israelites. God cared what they ate. And there's even some commands, believe it or not, in the New Testament. Acts 15.29 says, you are to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from meat of strangled animals. God cares what we eat. But in Mark, we saw that Jesus saw a crowd of people around him and how they sat with him for many days and they were hungry. And he made sure to feed them. God fed the Israelites quail and manna in the wilderness. God is concerned what people eat, but God is also concerned that people eat. Second, let me just answer the obvious question we get here. Yes, we are allowed to eat meat. Genesis 129 does not mean that we are all supposed to perpetually be vegetarians. As we just said, God actually gave the Israelites quail in the wilderness. We saw in Acts a permission to eat most meat. In Genesis chapter 9, God says to Noah after the flood, quote, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. So just like God gives him the green plants here in Genesis 1, after Noah, God gives people everything, every animal for food. So why is it that he doesn't let us eat meat in Genesis 1? Well, notice in verse 30 that the animals are also supposed to be vegetarian. Humans are supposed to eat seed-bearing plants, animals, every green plant. Why? Because death hasn't happened yet. Death is a result of sin in the world. Death doesn't happen until after Genesis 3 and the fall. You see, if we lived in a perfect world, we would have no meat to eat because there would be no death. Which means, probably, there's going to be no meat in heaven. Sorry to burst your bubble. But if we believe that the heaven, the new creation, is a place where death no longer exists, then nothing's going to die for you to eat it. So there's no meat. And third, and the final thing I want us to see on this whole topic of food, is that God gave us plants to eat. One very practical application is you need to eat your vegetables. Literally. Like, this isn't a lesson. Like, God made us to eat plants. Every science book, every nutritionist, every trainer, every mom will tell you you will be healthier if you eat your vegetables. If you're someone who really likes to eat meat, remember that it is biblical to eat your veggies. So these are the three blessings we see for humanity. The blessing of culture, the blessing of cultivation, and the blessing of cuisine. And then in verse 31, God looks back over all his creation and he says, it is very good. At the end of the sixth day, after God completed making everything, he made man in his own image, the crown jewel of creation, placing him in the garden, and didn't just say it was good. But he said it was very good. It was the way it was supposed to be. Blessing, the blessing of humanity we see in verses 28 to 30 means that God made mankind to live in a perpetual state of blessing. God saw it and God saw that it all was good. You see, when God first made everything, this all was supposed to be natural. It wasn't supposed to be difficult to accomplish these things. We were supposed to have children and domesticate the world, to bring about culture. We were supposed to cultivate and grow crops and animals. We were supposed to have good food and interesting cuisine, and it wasn't supposed to be difficult or tiresome or troublesome or dangerous. We were supposed to be in a perpetual state of blessing. and it was all supposed to be very good. But it isn't now, is it? Between wars and terrorism and crazy people at concerts and parades, it sure feels like people spend an awful lot of time taking life rather than making life. Crops fail. Droughts happen. People don't have enough food. Children go hungry. Some struggle to conceive. Others live on the streets with no home, no family, and nothing to call their own. There is so much brokenness in the world. If this is how God created it, if God created everything good, what happened? And the short answer is sin. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve rebelled against God and his good design, and humanity has been living in a state of rebellion ever since. The whole reason we don't get to experience the fullness of God's blessing is we live in a world that has rejected God and his good design. At the beginning of the sermon, I mentioned how blessing is the benefit from God's covenant with us. And in the Bible, the opposite of blessing is curses. When people don't live out God's covenant, they don't receive blessing, they receive curses. And in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve broke God's command, they became cursed. An interesting thing about the curses in Genesis 3, which we'll get to in a few weeks, is that they all bring difficulty to the blessing God gave in Genesis 1. They don't do away with it, but they make it much more difficult. You see, God doesn't do away with the blessing of culture to have children domesticate, but he does tell the woman that there will be pain in childbearing. God doesn't get rid of the blessings of cultivation and cuisine, but he does tell the man, quote, cursed is the ground because of you, in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall bring forth for you. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread. In other words, the curses that Adam and Eve faced, that Adam and Eve brought into creation, makes the blessings we just saw in Genesis 1 a whole lot more difficult. And as you keep reading, every time you see blessings and curses in the Bible, every time God blesses people, he's making it easier for them to have children, to domesticate, to cultivate, and to eat. And every time there's curses in the Bible, he's making it more difficult to have culture and cultivation and cuisine. That's the pattern here. The reason things can be so difficult is because we live in a world that is cursed by God and the judgment of God is upon the whole world for our rebellion. But Jesus came to make us right with God. For Jesus says in Revelation 21 5, behold, I am making everything new. Jesus came to bring about a work of new creation. He lived the life we were meant to live, living fully in God's blessing, just like we saw. And he died on the cross, taking the curse of Genesis 3 upon himself, for it is written that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for curse is all who are hung upon a tree. Galatians 3.13. And this Jesus rose from the grave, defeating the powers of sin and death that bring about so much destruction and decay and cursing and chaos in this world. So brothers and sisters, when you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, it doesn't just mean that you get some future blessing in heaven. it means you get to live out God's blessing, the blessing of His good design in the here and now. If you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him, you will be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and He will enable you to more and more walk in the blessings of God's good design. Let me close with one final thought here that I think is really helpful. For those of us who are true believers, I think this is good to know. that when we believe in Jesus, the curse of death, the curse of everything that breaks down, doesn't just disappear. But Christ has already begun a work of new creation. We call this phase the already not yet. Christ has already begun a work of new creation, but it is not yet complete till he comes again. And Jesus says in his very last words to his disciples in Matthew 28, quote, all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And I will be with you always to the end of the age. This is often referred to as the Great Commission. Time does not allow me to go into detail on the correlation between the cultural mandate in Genesis 128 and the Great Commission in Matthew 28. That could be a whole sermon on its own. But one of my favorite quotes comes from a theologian named John Frame, who says, quote, the Great Commission is the cultural mandate for the fallen world. The Great Commission is the cultural mandate for the fallen world. In Genesis, God tells us to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. In other words, to have children and domesticate. And the whole reason we're to do this is to fill the world with his image. Because remember, God made us humanity in his image. And if we're to fill the world with more of us, it's to fill the world with more of God's image. But the sad thing is because of sin, the image of God within us is broken. It's still there, but it's not clear. It's not the full that it should be. But when Christ changes our lives, he restores the image of God within us. So when Christ tells us to go and make disciples, to bring others to Jesus, to help others be changed by Jesus, he's saying, go and help me to restore the image of God in other people. As Christians, we don't fulfill the cultural mandate simply by having kids and building homes and living good godly lives. We do those things. But ultimately, we fulfill the cultural mandate by making disciples, by bringing people to Jesus and teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded. Because it is in Christ where true blessing is found. If we really want to experience the blessings of culture and cultivation and cuisine to their fullness, to how God actually wants them, then we need to ultimately follow Christ and call others to do the same. Because the only way we can get back to a life where these blessings come naturally is through Jesus Christ, who restores this world. for our good and his glory. Amen. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you, O Lord, that you are a God that is good and that out of your goodness and your love for us, you blessed us as human beings. We're sorry that we don't always live in those blessings. We're sorry that we so often reject your kindness to create culture and to cultivate the world and to eat good food. Lord, forgive us when we reject you and live in our own simple ways. And Lord, help us to find true blessing in Jesus Christ and help others to do the same, that we may see this world, this community, and one another be restored by the truth of the gospel. We pray this for our good and your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.