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A Little Lower Than the Angels

There are times when the church of Jesus Christ needs to confront straightforwardly a supreme national tragedy. On Wednesday of this week we will mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. And you and I will recognize that anniversary within the state of Michigan, a state that has become known as the location of Dr. Jack Kavorkian, Dr. Death.

The right question: What is man?

When we confront a supreme national tragedy like that, we first need to make sure we're asking the right questions. You will never arrive at the right information or the correct answers if you don't ask the right questions first. One of today's tragedies is that society is currently asking the wrong questions. They are asking questions like, Does a woman have a right over her body when she's pregnant? Questions like, Just how rare or frequent are those partial birth abortions? And questions like, Don't terminally ill people have the right to die?

Those may seem to be important questions, but they are not the first questions we need to ask. There are deeper, bigger, prior questions—one in particular—and David hit on it in Psalm 8:5. He wrote this psalm on the hillsides outside Bethlehem while he was tending his father's sheep. And while he was out there tending those sheep, spending long days and long, lonely nights looking up into the sky, seeing the stars and the moon, he started asking himself questions, and he arrived at the exact right question. It is this, verse 4: "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"

What is life? That's the question. Not, Who has this right or that right? Or, How frequent or infrequent? What is life? That's the question. And when you have that question, then you can proceed to answer it as the right question.

But even when people do ask that right question today, they're getting some foolish, false answers. They're getting the answer of agnosticism, of ignorance, which came from our Supreme Court when they said: Well, we don't really know. We don't know what life is. We don't know when it begins. And so we can't base our decision on that. We just don't know. They're getting the answer of materialism. The materialist says, "Human beings are just matter. They're simply a biological organism and no more." And that's the answer Dr. Kavorkian has given. He does not believe there's a God, and he does not believe human beings are any more than a biological organism. And so if it's necessary for you to put a terribly sick pet to sleep, why not do the same thing with your mother, if she's only a biological organism?

The right answer: God made us a little lower than angels.

David not only had the question; he had the answer. He raised the question and immediately proceeded to answer it. And the answer is this in verse 5: "You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor." He's saying three things there. Let me spell them out for you. He's saying God made man. God made human beings. God made you. God made all of these little children. This is the David who wrote Psalm 139 as well, where he described the process of God's grafting a child in a mother's womb to be the same thing as what happened in Genesis 2:7, when God molded a life and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life. God made. That's the first thing he says.

Secondly, he says God "made him a little lower than the heavenly beings." Isn't that an interesting phrase? "A little lower than the heavenly beings." The Bible tells us there are four categories of existence. There is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are angels, cherubim and seraphim. There are human beings, male and female. And there is all the rest of the created order. This verse doesn't say human beings are a little higher than the rest of the created order, but it does say they are a little lower than the heavenly beings, the angels. The reference point for determining the value of people is not to compare them to the rest of the created order but to compare them to angels: "a little lower than." Those are powerful words in this psalm. Look at the child next to you, around you, somewhere in your family, in your home, or here in church, and just say to yourself, "a little lower than the heavenly beings."

And the last phrase adds a third thought: "and crowned him with glory and honor." Verses 6, 7, and 8 go on to expand on that. God designed us, appointed us, and called us to be his coworkers to participate with him in the management of his whole world.

Life from God brings six gifts.

The question is, What is man? The answer: Made by God a little lower than heavenly beings and crowned with glory and honor. That means you and me. Those of us who are Christians, who have committed our lives to Jesus Christ, have six special gifts. They form the structure of our self-identity. The first gift is the breath of life. It is a privilege to be alive today. Secondly, we are made in the image of God. That's never said about the rest of creation. It is said about you and me—made in the image of God. Thirdly, we know the love of God, that marvelous love he lavished on us in Jesus Christ so we could be called his children. Fourth, we have the Spirit of God. It is by God's Holy Spirit that we are renewed each morning. And it is by God's Holy Spirit that we have come to confess Jesus as Lord, living within us. Fifth, we have spiritual gifts from God. All of us have, in uniquely differing combinations, gifts that enable us to function as crowned co-workers to manage his creation. And finally, we have eternal life from God. We will never stop living. Even though a day will come when this body is diseased, we will never stop living. That's what it means when it says "a little lower than."

A couple of years ago a lady and her friend went shopping in San Antonio, Texas. By mistake, they locked a 9-month-old baby in the car with the keys inside. While the mother and her friend were frantically running around the car in 99-degree weather, the car got hotter and hotter. A neighbor they called on tried his hardest to open the door with a coat hanger, while the child inside gradually turned purple and began foaming at the mouth. A man named Fred Oriola walked by and decided to help them when he saw their frantic state. He went to his trunk, opened his tool chest, pulled out a hammer, smashed the back window of the car, opened the door, and snatched the baby out. Was he a hero? In Fred's own words: "No, not to the mother. She was angry with me because I broke the window in her car. What's a window compared to a baby?" There's the problem in our society. They don't know what a window is compared to a baby, because they don't know David's question and they don't know David's answer—a baby is a little lower than angels.

Life magazine carried a powerful series of photos in the womb by Leonard Neilson. There were several photos of the human womb but also of chimpanzees, chickens, pigs, lemurs, and other animals. Neilson said, "Maybe now people will find respect for life. Respect for life, because we are all the same thing." No, Neilson, no! We are not all the same thing. Children are not the same as pigs or lemurs or chimpanzees. They are a little lower than heavenly beings. Sacred. Sacred.

That's the question: What is man? And that's the answer: A little lower than the heavenly beings.

The gift of life brings responsibilities.

You and I have committed ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore we are the ones who have been given by God the responsibility of handling sacred life. So what do we do with it? How do we carry out this responsibility? We need to be realistic about the fact that we are living in what Christianity Today called a "decreating society." If God does the creating, humanity today is doing the decreating. We need to see how we run to the tune of a totally different song than this society does. God creates and we create with him, while society around us decreates. That's why there is abortion. And what about Dr. Kavorkian and his physician-assisted suicide, which seems to be gaining appeal in far too many people today? Decreating in a society where there are three massive industries determined to decreate—the industry of tobacco and the industry of alcohol and the whole drug culture pumping in millions and billions of dollars to help people decreate themselves and one another.

You and I are in the middle of this supreme national tragedy, believing God made us a little lower than angels and crowned us with glory and honor. What does it mean for us? Let me give you three suggestions, and I ask you to keep them rolling in your heart and your soul in the days ahead.

Number one, treasure growing. Treasure the presence of pregnant women among us. Treasure the presence of little babies among us. Celebrate baptisms among us. Delight in growing children who fill these steps Sunday after Sunday. Treasure their growth from one to two to three. Treasure their growth as they start preschool and kindergarten and first grade and second grade. Treasure that and see the work of God starting them as a little lower than heavenly beings and continually crowning them with glory and honor. Be a church that loves children.

Secondly, live for quality. Take these years God has given, this breath of life he's breathed into your nostrils, and don't you ever waste a beat of it. Don't ever fritter your life away. Live for quality things. Live for quality purposes. Live for goals. Live for commitment. Live for love. Live for service.

And thirdly, practice compassion. This is a world, because of the fall and its curse, where there is a lot of suffering and disease, and a lot of us, who are a little lower than the heavenly beings, go through times of disease and turmoil and agony and suffering. How I thank God that we are a congregation that learns to support and care for and love people through those times, that prays for them intensely. Be people, then, who stand by the side of those who are sick. Be capable of feeling deeply for them, of holding them up before the throne of God. Stand by them even in the deepest and darkest of agonizing times when they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and surround them in that time of dying with the compassion and love that Christians and hospice join together in giving, so that even in that most difficult time of life's journey we have dignity, because we're surrounded by loved ones who lovingly care for us.

And show that you treasure life by coming here periodically on Friday afternoons to give blood so others can live better. And make it possible so that, should it come to that point with you, your organs can be donated to someone who needs them.

The tragedy is deep and supreme. The question is this: What is man? The answer is this: Made by God just a little lower than angels. And that, that sacred treasure you have in your hand today, is the gift of life. The gift of life.

For Your Reflection

Personal growth: How has this sermon fed your own soul? ___________________________________________

Skill growth: What did this sermon teach you about how to preach? ____________________________________________________________________________

Exegesis and exposition: Highlight the paragraphs in this sermon that helped you better understand Scripture. How does the sermon model ways you could provide helpful biblical exposition for your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Theological Ideas: What biblical principles in this sermon would you like to develop in a sermon? How would you adapt these ideas to reflect your own understanding of Scripture, the Christian life, and the unique message that God is putting on your heart? ____________________________________________________________________________

Outline: How would you improve on this outline by changing the wording, or by adding or subtracting points? _____________________________________________________________________

Application: What is the main application of this sermon? What is the main application of the message you sense God wants you to bring to your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Illustrations: Which illustrations in this sermon would relate well with your hearers? Which cannot be used with your hearers, but they suggest illustrations that could work with your hearers? ____________________________________________________________________________

Credit: Do you plan to use the content of this sermon to a degree that obligates you to give credit? If so, when and how will you do it? ____________________________________________________

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Sermon Outline:

Introduction

The anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion marks a national tragedy.

I. The right question

What is man?

II. The right answer

God made us a little lower than angels.

III. Life from God brings six gifts.

IV. The gift of life brings responsibilities.

Conclusion

Humans are made by God, just a little lower than angels; which is a sacred treasure, the gift of life.