Gratitude and Reflection: Understanding Our Place in God's Creation

Gratitude and Reflection: Understanding Our Place in God's Creation

Like I said, thank you for coming this dat to listen to this message. I hope this day is a blessing, and you know I like to start off first by saying I am so grateful that God has given me the opportunity to be born in this country and to have the rights that I could just do without even thinking about it, you know. It just it's just a gift. It touches me because people gave their lives for it, and I just don't want to just, ah, you know, and I'm so grateful, I'm so grateful. You know I just want to let you folks know. I am very, very grateful for this country and for the privilege that God has given me. You know it's a gift; it's a gift from God. We take advantage of it. It's sad, but our rights are a gift from God.

Opening Our Bibles: Psalms Chapter Eight

Let's open our Bibles. Let's go to Psalms chapter eight. I had something in mind that I was doing, but I want to dig in a little deeper into Psalms chapter eight.

God's Mindfulness of Man

Verse three says, "When I consider your heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained," verse four, "What is man that you are mindful of him?" Could you imagine what he was thinking? And I don't know if there's anybody here that actually felt that. Well, who am I? What am I? You know, what is my purpose? And if there is a God and he's up there on his throne and he has all these angels and cherubims and all these people just bowing down before him, hey, I'm stuck here on Earth, and I got these battles to fight with. What, you know, who am I? Does God even know or understand the problems I have? What is man? What man? Anybody?

God's Creation and Our Place in It

He continues, "What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you should visit him?" In all God's creation, what is the most beautiful thing you see? To me, I love the sunrise and the sunset because that's what I do. You know, I'm out there in the country, and I get to see the sunrise and the sunset. And to me, it's beautiful: it's like, wow, look how gorgeous. The most beautiful thing in creation does not compare to you. Do you know that? Do you know that? You say, "Wow, look at that flower. Oh my God! How gorgeous!" That does not compare to who you are. You are God's creation, created in his image. God talk, God, the Father, talked to God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He said, "Let us create man in our image." Do you know that? That beautiful flower has a stamp of God, but it's not created in the image of God. You are, and God is mindful of you. Do you know that? God loves you so much. You are his pride and joy.

Lower Than Angels, Crowned with Glory

It says in verse five, "You are made lower than the angels," right? Oh, but the angels, oh my God! Whoo! Boy, you see an angel and everybody wants to come, right? We want to see this angel. You are made lower than the angels, and you are crowned and have crowned him with glory and honor. Brother, I want to dive into this a little bit. I want you guys to understand. In this life, God broke up—no, I'm sorry, not God, Satan broke up God’s plan. You were created to subdue and maintain this Earth. God gave you this Earth to be productive and to keep it and to enjoy it. But Satan came in and ruined God's plans. And now we are prisoners, like the brothers said last week, of sin and of this Earth. And we subject ourselves to this world, which was never God's plan. God's plan was for you to take dominion, brother. So what did God have to do? What did God have to do? Was God caught in a chess game and he was trapped? Oh my God! What move do I do now? You know, was that—is that what happened? No, brother. Uh, nope.

God's Plan for Humanity

Like I said in verse five, "You have made him." God created us lower than the angels when we were created. But brother, God had a plan, but you crown him with glory and honor. Brother, that talks not only about us but about somebody else that God knew what was going to happen. I want you guys to go. Let's go to Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one. We're going to see God’s plan. Let's go to Philippians chapter one, and I'm going to read in verses... I don’t know why I can't find them. Anyway, Philippians chapter one, and we're going to look at verse three through verse six. Alright, now I want you guys to pay close attention. Paul, writing to the Philippians. I'm sorry, not Philippians, but Ephesians. Ephesians. Alright, they weren't Jews. Alright, they had their own gods, just like a lot of us. You know, we came out of different beliefs, and they told us about Jesus Christ, and we felt the conviction to come and follow him. But look, these are these Greeks. You know, he's going to tell me. I want you guys to kind of understand what he's trying to say here. He’s saying to these guys, "You are saved also. They know Christ. Alright, but they lack a little drive."

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

He says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places." First question: who blessed us? Alright, remember, verse three, who blessed us? Was it my efforts? Was it my knowledge? Was it something I possessed? Who blessed us? Number four, "Just as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." Who chose us, and why did he choose us? Listen to me. Do you feel unworthy? Do you feel that you have no value? Number one, remember the first one, verse four. Somebody wants to bless you. You want to receive a blessing? Well, God wants to give you a blessing. Number two: do you know that out of all creation that God made, you are the one that, in his eyes and in his mind, is precious to him before he even created the world? 

God's Predestination and Adoption

Brother, you have there in verse five, "Having predestined us unto adoption as sons by Jesus Christ himself." Brother, God himself chose me. In my ignorance and in my lack of knowledge of God, I used to tell God, "Well, God, if it's true about you, why don't you show yourself to me? You know, let a bird or a cloud or something tell me that yes, you're real." And brother, he did, but he did it in his way. And human being, you know, but brother, it was God that made the choice. I had nothing in me that God said, "I need that. I need that guy right there. I need you. Get over here." No, I was nothing. Brother, who are you? You are nothing. Solomon, who had all the money in the world and had everything that he built—he was an engineer, he built buildings, and he had, what do they call it, oh, where you plant? When you work with plants and trees, you know, there's a name for it, you know. And you go to school. He was intelligent. The man was super smart. At the end of his life, he wrote a book. It's called Ecclesiastes, and he titled the book "Vanity of Vanities." Emptiness of emptiness. Everything is worthless, empty in the flesh, but in God, you have value.

Our Redemption Through Christ

Who is man? God, you created us lower than the angels, but you're going to crown us with glory. How? How are we going to excel? How? We are sinners. God had a plan, but Satan came in and stuck his foot in there. Now we all stumbled, and we can't get up, and we need help. How, God? How are you going to do it? Let's go to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five. God's going to tell us how. In Romans chapter five, we're going to look at verses nineteen and twenty. Romans five talks about Adam here. It says, "For by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners." God told Adam, "Adam, you could have anything in this garden that I've created. You could have it all, but I ask for one thing: do not touch that tree and the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. But the rest is all yours." Because Satan lured him away, but it wasn't a surprise for God. God already knew before the foundation of the world. He already knew. It says, "So by one man, we're all made sinners. So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous." By one man's obedience. You see that? We're all sinners. Everybody that's born in this world, we have gone astray.

Our Universal Need for Christ

Let's go to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. We're going to start reading in verse ten. Romans 3:10, "For there is none righteous, no, not one." Do you understand that? No, not one. None who understands. None who seeks after God. Wait up here. I was seeking after God. I was saying, "Well, God, if you exist, where are you?" Brother, I was seeking after God on my own way. The way I wanted to do it. I want to see it through a bird, or I want to see it through a cloud, you know, clouds up there, and I want to see the form, the name Jesus, and say, "Oh yeah, look at there." You know, that's the way I was. I was ignorant. I was ignorant to the cross. That meant nothing to me. Seeing the cross, what's that cross? All these two wooden sticks, and you know, that's a cross. No, it's not. It's a crucifixion. I was ignorant. I was taught God the way I thought I ought to seek God. We, in verse twelve, we all have turned aside. We have all together become unprofitable or worthless. There is none who does good. No, not one.

Our Righteous Acts Apart from Christ

Brother, our righteous acts, the righteous acts apart from Christ, are filthy rags to God. It is garbage. It means nothing. And it says, "For those who are in ignorance but yet claim to know God," it says, "Their throats are open tombs." Their tongues have become, I'm sorry, they have practiced deceit because they're telling you it does another way. Poison, the poison of asps or a rattlesnake is in their lips because they're giving you false hope. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery. Listen to me. Destruction and misery are in their way. Brother, where they're going to end up, the way of peace they have not known. And there is no fear of God. Brother, that is the awe, that is the reverence that we should have for what God has done for us because we don't know it. We don't understand it. He was sitting there, um, God, David, out there in the country, looking at the stars and seeing the beauty and then thinking about himself and said, "Wow, who am I compared to you, God?"

Jesus' Humility and Obedience

Yeah, but brother, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, when he wrote this psalm, he said, "You have made me lower than the angels." Christ, brother, in order to be our high priest, came and submitted himself to the word of God. That way, he could represent us as a human being. And guess what? He who was sitting on his throne made himself lower than the angels. You understand that? He made himself. He humbled himself, and he became lower than the angels. Let's go to Philippians chapter two, please. The book of Philippians chapter two talks about these Christians that were kind of—they were getting upset with each other, you know, and Paul is saying, "Brother, you guys have this proper attitude." Alright, and Philippians chapter two, and we're going to look at verse five. "Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, when you're sitting on his throne, brother, saw creation, saw what Satan did, understood. This is what he did. Did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." He said, "Okay, I, you know, sitting here with God, face to face, having, having, what do you want to call it, reunion one with another, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit." Step back, and he said, "I'm going to go. I'm going to go." He said, "Did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking on the form of a bond servant, becoming in the likeness of man." Brother, he, what he did, he went down and became lower than the angels. And I'm going to tell you guys something. What Christ did, he took on, when he took on human flesh, he had to face the same trials you face every day. You understand that? He had to face the same trial you faced.

Following Jesus' Example

Let me give you, for instance, alright, a for instance. God says, "Love your neighbor," but you got a neighbor that you don't love, okay? I mean, pretty nasty. "Oh God, come on, God." Alright, and you got a choice to make. You know, and okay, and if you say, "Well, God, okay, I, I'm going to, I'm going to submit myself to him, okay? I'm going to, this guy, he don't like me, and I know that. Alright, we're going to have the peace. I'm going to do what you want." The other one is, turn your back and keep on hating. "Tomorrow, deal with it," but no, you submitted yourself. "Okay, I submit myself." Then he takes you, and then he takes you into the, into the gutter. He says, "Clean it up. Clean it up. It's going to get all over. Manure, it's going to stink, and your clothes," and he says, "You clean it up," and it costs you to submit, but guess what? You submitted. In appearance of a man, verse eight, he humbled himself and became obedient. Brother, he humbled himself and he became obedient. You submitted to the point of death, even death on the cross. Brother, it cost him. When he submitted to God, it cost him his life. And brother, and people, oh, you know what? He was God, so he didn't, you know, it was a snap of the finger. No problem. "I'm dead. Hey, next minute, I'm alive." No, brothers, it was pain. He had, he felt that those whips on his back. There was blood coming out. He was thirsty. And he, and, and he was heartbroken because all his, all the disciples, Peter, this big old tough guy, Peter, said, "I don't know him. I don't know him." And brother, he was in pain. Brother, I'm going to tell you what, when you choose God's will and people slap you for it, and I'm telling you what, apostles in the book of Acts, like the brother's been pointing out, they got beat up because they did what God wanted them to do. They, they, they, they suffered the consequence. It's okay.