The 7th Commandment Called To Be Stewards Gen 2 7 17

 The Seventh Sunday After Trinity                                3-August-2025
Sermon Text: Genesis 2:7-17/ The 7th Commandment
Sermon Theme: The Seventh Commandment: Called To Be Stewards! I. Blessed By Our Creator With Life and Daily Bread!(vs.7-9) II. God’s Gift Brings Abundant Life Flows To Our World!(vs.10-14) IV. Adam Is Called To Steward God’s Gifts.(vs. 15-17) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
 
I.N.R.I. Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! Today we praise God for His never failing providence. Providence = providing - God’s divine guidance and care for every moment of your life. Do you believe and trust in God’s providence in your life?
      Slaves of sin can’t. They are turned in on themselves. They sweat and toil for wages. Seeking to serve only self they run after the wind. Thinking if only they can earn a little more they will be secure. If only they can buy another toy then they can be happy. If only they can harvest a bumper crop their future will be bright. If only they can build bigger storage sheds - then they can finally say to self, Luk 12:19 ..., "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry." ' Slaves of sin - striving to earn favor with God and man by the sweat of your brow. The wages of sin is death! Luk 12:20-21 But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' (21) "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
    Repent! Stop trusting in the idol called “ME.” Stop thinking that life consists in the abundance of the things you possess. We live in a land of storage units. Hoarding goods we never will use, we pay to store them - mounds of false idols promising security for dark days.
    Fix your eyes on Jesus! He is the Bread of Heaven! He has compassion on you! Today He preaches His Word to you within His Church. Today He feeds you the Bread of Immortality at His Table. Today God gifts you eternal life in Christ Jesus! Trust Him alone for body and soul! Turn to the Giver trusting in Him above all the daily gifts He gives you! Learn: The Seventh Commandment: Called To Be Stewards! I. Blessed By Our Creator With Life and Daily Bread!(vs.7-9) II. God’s Gift Brings Abundant Life Flows To Our World!(vs.10-14) IV. Adam Is Called To Steward God’s Gifts.(vs. 15-17)
I.   On the sixth 24 hour day of the existence of all matter around six millennia ago history records, (vs.7) Man isn’t a biological accident. The myth of evolution can never explain the origin of life. The information carried by our DNA is too complex to arise out of chance random processes. Not only is the information encoded on chromosomes, but the ability to read the information and follow it is contained at the cellular level of life. Truly at the Psalms twice sing: Psa 14:1 . The fool has said in his heart,"There is no God." They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.

        The Lord God took great care molding Adam from the dust of the ground. Man did not descend from any other life form. In fact glance back to Genesis 1 where history records: Gen 1:24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. All living creatures were brought forth from the earth - not descended as the myth of evolution dreams. Yes there are variations within the “kinds”, for example a Chihuahua, a Great Dane, wolves, and coyotes are all from the “dog kind.” But there is never one “kind” morphing into another “kind” found in the fossil record or in biological science.
        With the creation of humanity the Lord God stooped down and breathed into man the breath of life. We are created body and soul creatures. Created to be in relationship with the only living God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our fallen flesh moans, “if only the Lord God would’ve taken such personal interest in my creation..” He has! Listen: Psa 139:13-17 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. (14) I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. (15) My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. (16) Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. (17) How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
     So what? (LSB pg. 321, 7th Commandment) Fear and love God! Fear, love, and trust in Him above all things! Trust in Him not your bank accounts, fields, homes, gold, silver, survival food, and guns. He created you! Mat 6:26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
     The Lord God created molding Him from the dust of the ground. The Lord God created you forming your parts within your mother’s womb. Fear Him! Behold His Love! (Vs.8-9) Perhaps Mary Magdalene was right when three days after Jesus was crucified for our sins - she mistook our physically resurrected Savior as the Gardener. The Lord God plants a garden - for man! His love gives away His creation to His creature. He toils to plant for you! Not a thorn or thistle is insight - every beautiful tree grows - for our God loves beauty. Every tree good for food - for our God sustains our human life! He plants His Church - a place for man to have community with His Creator - at the Tree of Life. Here man was to feast with life flowing from our Maker through His Word and gifts! Here was also a tree not given for man to eat - the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Here man’s free will would act in love by obeying God’s one prohibition.
II. Sadly we know the history of our fall from paradise. Shortly after the seventh day when God rested. Satan, a chief angel, rebelled against his Creator. He staged a coup, but failed. Cast out of heaven to earth, the devil and his demon horde sought to destroy the crown of God’s creation - mankind. He tempted our first parents to reject God’s Word - to steal what had not been given to them. Satan is a murderer and liar from the beginning. He cannot stand the truth. He stole our first parents innocence and cast us all into a den of thieves. (LSB pg. 321, 7th Commandment) On the day of our rebellion, creation and the gift of work given mankind now would suffer from our sin. History records: Gen 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. (18) Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. (19) In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return." Man lost his free will in spiritual matters in Adam’s rebellion. We are slaves of sin from the moment of conception. Enemies of God, by nature, we live only for self.
   The seventh commandment puts a fence around what God has given to your neighbor with a sign: “No Trespassing!” Our God is good! (Vs.10-14) He supplies life, food, and natural resources to mankind through all His creation. Our fallen flesh doesn’t want to toil and work - we’d rather steal. Stealing in the most common trade union after the fall into sin. Study the book of Genesis you’ll find one thief after another - from Cain, to Ham, to Jacob, to Rachel, to Jacob’s sons.
   Have you ever taken what is not yours? You are a thief. Slack off at work - you steal from your employer. Not pay your employees - you stole from them. Neglect to pay your bills - you’ve stolen from your lender. Loaned out your money at excessive interest - you’ve stolen by usury. It isn’t just those who hold up someone at gunpoint taking their wallet, or sneak into their garage taking tools that are thieves - we are! We pay far less for goods and services than they are worth - we steal. Pro 20:14 "It is good for nothing," cries the buyer; But when he has gone his way, then he boasts..
   Where does everything we need for life flow from? (LSB pg. 322, 1st Art. W.D.T.M?) Fear and love God the Giver of all you have. He entrusts to your brief stewardship His goods to sustain your life, care for your family, and be His hands in feeding the poor and starving laid at your doorstep. Daily repent of your thievery - of those things that only bring shame! Eph 4:28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
III. Our Creator God blesses us with work from the beginning. (Vs.15). Many a teenager thinks life would be perfect if they got paid for doing nothing. Viewing work as a burden instead of the privilege to be God’s hands in caring and serving our neighbor - they long to do nothing. They should spend a few hours each day visiting a nursing home. Residents long to be able to work again, to be creative, constructive, rather than staring at a screen alone waiting to die.
    Adam was to tend and keep the private prophet the Lord God gave him. Through his farming, the Lord God would allow Adam to take part in His creative and sustaining work in our world. This work would benefit both Adam, his wife, family, and creation itself. Our world is created for mankind - it isn’t complete without him. Man cares for the property given into his stewardship. It is Christians who care for creation and its creatures. Study the history of communism - instead of caring for the land - it destroyed it to seize power for itself. Sadly when land is seized by corporations who only want to make money - soil is killed with chemical herbicides and fertilizer. Instead of looking towards future generations only immediate money making is chased.
     Repent! . (LSB pg. 321, 7th Commandment) Joyfully work in your calling to care for your neighbor. Help him to improve and protect his possession and income. Our God makes some rich and some poor, but He sustains all as we steward the gift He gives through us to our neighbor. Follow Jesus! 2Co 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. Jesus gave up all for you! He followed God the Father’s good and gracious will to save us. (Vs.16-17).
      In the middle of Adam’s property the Lord God planted His Church. As I stated before, it was a place to commune with God through hearing His Word and feasting on the Tree of Life. It was a place to exercise Holy Spirit given Faith through loving obedience to God’s invitation to eat from every tree - except one. Trusting in God’s Word Adam was not to steal that which had been withheld.
      Sadly we live in a fallen world through our first parents rebellion against God’s life sustaining Word. Rejoice! Jesus preaches, Joh 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. The devil, the world, and yes our old sinful flesh are thieves - all the wages sin pays is death. Jesus comes bringing life. For three days He breathed forth the Holy Spirit through His preaching. His compassion cared for the bodily welfare of those who came to Church in the desolate place. Blessing the disciples meager seven loaves - over 4,000 were fed.
      Still Jesus speak His Word over meager bread and wine - a feast is set in this desolate wilderness - forgiveness, life, and salvation is placed upon your lips from the Tree of Life - The Cross of Christ Jesus. Having Jesus you have all - for body and life - life eternal.
      Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! Today we praise God for His never failing providence. God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. Amen.