How to Find God Not in but Through Creation and Beauty
Stand Alone Sermon · Pioneer Park
This was a special outdoor gathering by the river at Pioneer Park, so there is no video this week. The full message is below in text.
Big Idea: Creation tells you there is a Maker; the church tells you His name. Beauty is not the destination but the highway, and the one it leads to is Christ, who made all things, holds all things together, and meets His people in the church.
Summary
Preaching outdoors beside the river at Pioneer Park, David Hancock of The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie took up a line people say often: nature is my sanctuary, so I do not need the church. Psalm 19:1–6 agrees that creation preaches; the heavens declare the glory of God day and night to every person alive. But creation can only announce that a Maker exists. It cannot say His name, forgive sin, or hold a person up when life falls apart, and a beauty that stops short becomes an idol. Colossians 1:15–20 names the one creation points to: Christ, the image of the invisible God, through whom and for whom all things were made, who holds all things together and is head of the church, the place where He has promised to be met.
Key Takeaways
- Creation is a sermon that never stops, and its one-line message is that you have a Maker.
- Beauty is dangerous when you stay too long; if a sunset does not lead your mind to God, you have worshiped the messenger and missed the message.
- Christ is not merely the Son of God but the Maker of all things, the golden thread that holds everything together, and the one you were made for.
- Creation proclaims that God exists; the church introduces you to Him, because Christ is the head of the church and meets His people where two or three gather in His name.
- Creation cannot die for you; it requires your death to live on. But the Creator came down the highway of beauty into the creation we corrupted, and one day the Son, the strong man, will run His circuit to us and make all things new.
Read Psalm 19:1–6 (ESV)
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Talk about it
1. The pastor opened with a line he hears often: “I don’t need the church, I just need a walk in the woods.” Where have you heard that, or said it yourself? What is true in it, and what does it leave out?
A Sermon All Around You: What Does Creation Tell Us About God?
The psalm opens with a chorus that never stops. The heavens declare, the sky proclaims, day pours out speech, and night reveals knowledge. There are no words, and yet the voice goes out to the ends of the earth. The pastor put it simply: there is a sermon all around you. The sun is the psalm’s chief example, stepping out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber and running its course like a strong man, its heat reaching everything it touches. The whole of creation sings, and the sermon creation sings has one line: you have a Maker.
The pastor made the application plain. Questioning whether there is a God? Watch the sunset. Wondering whether you are alone here? Fly fish a river in Montana and hear it sing of its Maker. Feeling that this is all there is? Walk in the woods, and the birds in the trees will tell you they had a composer. None of this is proof in the way a laboratory means proof; it is testimony, and it has been given every day and every night to every person who has ever lived.
KEY WORD: BRIDEGROOM
In Psalm 19:5 the sun is compared to a bridegroom leaving his chamber. In ancient Israel the groom spent the wedding night in a canopied room or tent, then came out in the morning dressed in his finest and glowing, the happiest man in the village. The image gives the sun a personality: not a cold ball of fire, and certainly not a god, but a joyful servant who loves his work and runs it with delight. The psalm points at the sun only to point past it, to the God who pitched its tent.
Talk about it
2. The pastor said there is a sermon all around you, and its message is that you have a Maker. When was the last time something in creation stopped you cold? Be honest about what you did with that moment: did it become a thought about God, or did it end as a photo and a pleasant memory?
Stopping Short: Can Nature Be My Church?
Here is the trouble. Creation preaches so well that she often becomes the thing we worship. The sun is a servant, not a god, and if you stop at the servant you never meet the King. The pastor was blunt: beauty is dangerous; stay too long and you will worship her. At the extreme, this looks like turning the tree, the sun, or the stars into a god and then asking the stars to define you and your future. But it rarely has to be that extreme. If you look at the beauty of creation and do not think of God, you have failed to hear her sermon, and that, in its quiet way, is worship of creation. You have made too much of her.
This is not a small problem, because creation cannot forgive you. She does not know your name. She will not be there to lift you up when your life falls apart. Creation was made to point you to the one who knows you, forgives you, and holds you up when life is hard, but she cannot introduce you to Him. She can only tell you that He is there. Which raises the question the sermon turned on: how does a person actually meet the God the rivers sing about?
THE PRACTICAL TEST
Whether you have heard creation’s sermon is easy to check. Stand in front of a sunset, a river, or an old oak, and notice where your mind goes next. If it goes on to God, the sermon landed. If it stops at the beauty, you have kept the messenger and lost the message.
Talk about it
3. Creation cannot forgive you, does not know your name, and will not hold you up when life falls apart. Think back to your last hard season. Did the woods or the water carry you, or did people who knew your name? Where are you still asking a beautiful thing to do a job only God can do?
The Heart of It: How Do You Meet the God Creation Points To?
Paul answers in Colossians 1. Christ is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation, which does not mean the first thing made but the one who outranks everything made; He is the King. By Him all things were created, through Him and for Him. You were made for Him, not to be used but to be loved and enjoyed. In Him all things hold together: a golden thread runs through everything you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, and the thread is Christ. And He is the head of the body, the church. That last line is the hinge of the sermon. Creation tells you there is a Maker; the church tells you His name. Creation proclaims that God exists; the church introduces you to Him, and when you meet Him He reconciles you to His Father.
So a person has two options: enjoy creation and stop there, or look through creation to the one her beauty is pointing toward. Creation, for all her beauty, cannot die for you; in fact, we become like her fertilizer, and she requires your death to live on. If creation is all there is, she swallows you into the ground.
But if the one who made all of this and holds it together has entered it, then perhaps He can reverse death, and that is exactly what He came to do. The church is where you meet the God who has come to make all of this what it was always meant to be: the place where sinners find forgiveness, the brokenhearted are healed, and the weary are given life, because Jesus promised that where two or three gather in His name, He is there as head.
The church is also where a person learns to look through creation rather than at it. Beauty is not the destination but the highway. And the Creator came down the highway into the creation we corrupted to begin a new one, and that new creation is already growing in the church. One day He will return as the true bridegroom and the strong man, and the light and heat of His glory will bring new life to all things. When we finally see Him as He is, we will be transformed, and all of creation with us.
COLOSSIANS 1:15–20
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Talk about it
4. Creation tells you there is a Maker; the church tells you His name. What outranks the church in your week right now, and what does that ordering say about where you expect to meet God?
5. The next time you stand in front of something beautiful, what would it look like to look through it instead of stopping at it?
Questions This Sermon Answers
Can I worship God in nature instead of going to church?
Not fully, because nature can only tell you that God exists; it cannot tell you His name or forgive you. Psalm 19 says the heavens declare God’s glory, but Colossians 1 says Christ is the head of the church, which is where He has promised to meet people. Creation points you toward God; the church introduces you to Him.
What does Psalm 19:1 mean when it says the heavens declare the glory of God?
It means creation is constantly preaching, without words, that it has a Maker. Day and night the sky pours out testimony that reaches every person on earth. The sun is pictured as a joyful bridegroom and a strong man running its course, a servant of God rather than a god, drawing attention past itself to the one who made it.
What does it mean that Christ is the firstborn of all creation in Colossians 1:15?
It means Christ holds first rank over everything made, not that He was the first thing created. The same passage says all things were created by Him, through Him, and for Him, and that in Him all things hold together. Firstborn is a title of authority and inheritance; He is the King over creation, not part of it.
Vision for the Christian Life
The Christian life this sermon envisions is a life lived with the window open. Such a person still watches sunsets and still stands in rivers, and enjoys them more rather than less, because he no longer asks them to be God. He hears the sermon of the heavens and follows it all the way to its subject, and he knows where that subject has promised to be found: among the forgiven people who gather in His name, where the Maker of all things introduces Himself and reconciles sinners to His Father. He lives now inside a new creation that has already begun, waiting for the morning when the true bridegroom steps out of His chamber and the whole world becomes His sanctuary. Look through. He is waiting to meet you. Look up. One day the SON, the strong man, will run His circuit to us and all things will be made new.
Discussion Questions for Small Groups: Psalm 19 and Colossians 1
- The pastor opened with a line he hears often: “I don’t need the church, I just need a walk in the woods.” Where have you heard that, or said it yourself? What is true in it, and what does it leave out?
- The pastor said there is a sermon all around you, and its message is that you have a Maker. When was the last time something in creation stopped you cold? Be honest about what you did with that moment: did it become a thought about God, or did it end as a photo and a pleasant memory?
- Creation cannot forgive you, does not know your name, and will not hold you up when life falls apart. Think back to your last hard season. Did the woods or the water carry you, or did people who knew your name? Where are you still asking a beautiful thing to do a job only God can do?
- Creation tells you there is a Maker; the church tells you His name. What outranks the church in your week right now, and what does that ordering say about where you expect to meet God?
- The next time you stand in front of something beautiful, what would it look like to look through it instead of stopping at it?
Related Messages in This Series
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Pastor David Hancock is the Lead Pastor of The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie, FL, a church where believers and skeptics wrestle honestly with faith and doubt.
Wrestling with a question this raised? You can text in your question on any Sunday and hear it answered after the sermon. Or come sit with people asking the same things. Plan Your Visit
Read the full sermon manuscript
Often you hear people say “I don’t need the church, I just need a walk in the woods, or a boat on the river, nature is my sanctuary.” There is truth to this. But this river behind me, the sky above, the tree that covers you like a canopy; as beautiful as creation is, it can’t get you to God; it only tells you He is there. Today I want to help not only find God but meet Him, not in creation but through its beauty.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” (Psalm 19:1–6, ESV)
The heavens declare, the sky proclaims, the days pour speech, the nights reveal.
There is a sermon all around you.
The voice of creation goes out, singing to the ends of the earth.
The sun is like a groom leaving his chamber, rising like a strong man who runs its course from morning to dawn, and its heat and light touch all things.
The beautiful voice of creation sings a sermon for all to hear.
Its message: you have a Maker. Questioning if there is a God? Watch the sunset.
Wondering if you are alone here? Go fly fish in the rivers of Montana and hear the rivers sing of their Maker.
Feeling like there is all there is? Walk in the woods, and the song of birds in the trees will tell of its composer.
Creation preaches. And she preaches so well that she often becomes the object of our worship.
The danger of the creation and her beauty is to stop short and worship the messenger instead of who the message is pointing to.
Stop too soon, and you never meet God.
The sun is pictured as a bridegroom, a strong man running across the sky. Not a god but a joyful servant doing its job.
If you stop short at the servant, you never meet the King.
Beauty is dangerous. Stay to long and you will worship her.
This is when we stop listening to the tree and make it the more than what it wants to be.
We turn the tree, the sun, creation itself into a god, then we go ask the stars to define us and our future.
It doesn’t have to be that extreme.
If you don’t think of God when you look at the beauty of creation, you have failed to hear the sermon of creation.
That, in a way, is worshipping creation. You have made too much of her.
This is a real problem because her beauty can’t forgive you; she doesn’t know your name, and won’t be there to lift you up if or when your life falls apart.
Creation is meant to point you to the one who knows you, forgives you, and holds you up when life is hard, but creation can’t introduce to Him, only tell you that He is there.
How can we meet the true God? How can we meet the one creation points to?
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:15–20, ESV)
Christ is the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation. Firstborn doesn’t mean the first to be created, but firstborn in rank. He is the head over all. The King.
By Him all things were created. Jesus isn’t just the Son of God He is the maker of all things. And all things were created through Him and for Him. You were made for Him. Not to be used, but loved and enjoyed.
In Him all things hold together. There is a golden thread that is woven through everything you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. A thread that holds earth and matter together. It’s Christ.
He is the head of the body, the church.
That means the place you go to meet Him is the church.
Creation tells you there is a maker. The Church tells you His name.
Creation proclaims there is a God; the church introduces you to Him.
And when you meet Him, He reconciles you to His Father.
The Church is the place where sinners find forgiveness, the brokenhearted are healed, and the weary are given life.
You have two options in this life: enjoy creation and stop there, or look through creation to the one that beauty is pointing towards.
Creation, as beautiful as it is, can’t die for you; in fact, creation requires your death to live on. You become fertilizer that gives creation life. If creation is all there is, then creation swallows you into death.
But if the one who made all of this and holds it all together came into creation, then maybe he can reverse death. That is just what He has come to do.
The Church is where you meet the God who has come to make all of this what it was always meant to be.
Make the church a priority. Sunday’s a priority, gathering through the week with the people of the church.
Jesus says where 2 or three of you gather, I’m with you as head.
That’s when you meet your maker.
The Church is where you learn to look through creation to the Creator.
Whenever you see something beautiful, don’t stop there and enjoy it; look through it to your Maker.
Beauty is not the destination but the highway.
After an evening beach session, my family and I walked back to the car, and as we went, the setting sun glowed through the mangroves and created an image so beautiful it felt like we were walking through a portal to another world.
I’ve walked that same path dozens of times since and haven’t seen it the same way as the first time. Why?
Creation won’t let you take advantage of her.
Beauty shies it away. It wasn’t meant to be the object of delight but to preach to you the object itself.
The sermon of the beauty of creation is Christ.
Not only did Christ come to reconcile us, but He came to reconcile all things.
The Creator entered creation that we corrupted to bring about a new creation.
Through the death and resurrection of Christ, this new creation has started to grow, and it’s all beginning in the church. The Light of hope, the church, doesn’t just tell you there is a God, but arranges your meeting with Him.
The church remains until one day Christ returns, and when He does, the whole world will finally become His sanctuary, and God will be with us as our God, and we will be with Him as His people.
The true bridegroom will stand as a strong man, the S-O-N son and the light and heat of His glory will shine and bring new life to all things.
And when we finally see Him as He is, we will be transformed, and all of creation with us.