Created for God's Glory

Psalm chapter 8, verses 1-9. It's located in our church Bibles, which can be found under the chairs in front of you on page 450.

! I'll give you a moment to reach there. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly veins, and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the fields, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! This ends the reading. Amen. Amen.

I'm really enjoying this worship service thus far, and it's an honor and joy to be here at Kingdom Life and bring before you the word of the Lord.

Thank you, Pastor Cedric, for that introduction. I only gave Cedric about five sentences, but being the investigator and meticulous pastor that he is, he researched all that information and brought forth a novel.

But thanks for the introduction, and all glory be to God. Amen. The message for this morning is called Created for God's Glory.

Created for God's Glory. And it's taken from Psalms chapter 8, verses 1 to 9. And you would have just heard this read in your hearing, and I would ask that you keep your Bibles open to Psalms 8, verses 1 to 9, as we look at this text this morning.

But before we do that, let us open up in a word of prayer. Father God, I was not there when you gave these words to your servant David. None of us were present, but your Holy Spirit was.

Oh God, would you use this sinner who needs so much of your grace, would you use me this morning to preach your word.

And by that same Holy Spirit, would you open our eyes to see, would you have us to see. Open the ears of our hearts, and open the eyes of our hearts, that we would hear your word, and that we would all be transformed from glory to glory.

Now God, you come. Meet with us. For we have come to hear from you. May you be glorified. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen.

Psalms chapter 8 causes us to contemplate on the greatness of God in creation. And David is the author of this Psalm. And David is writing, but he is writing in a different way.

This is very different from many of the other Psalms that David wrote. You see, as we know, David was a man whose life was filled with many trials, tribulations.

But Psalms 8, David is not writing a cry for help to the Lord. This is not a psalm of lament. It is actually a psalm of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving.

And in this psalm, you would notice that David is not focused on his enemies. He is not focused on his trials. But what he is doing is looking at God's creation. And as he looks upon God's creation, he is in awe of the glory of God.

Psalms 8 begins and ends with the same joyful expression. O Lord, O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Now we all live in a fallen world. We know what it means to experience trials, disappointments, and pain in life. Sometimes you can look at your life and think that you should be a lot further in your career or a lot further in your finances.

There is the disappointment of unmet expectations. And then there is also the pain and the emotional pain we feel when we lose loved ones in this life and we go through grief.

There is also the physical pain we feel as we age and our bodies get old. So we don't have to look too far in this fallen world to find something to complain about.

But David is not complaining in this psalm. And David is showing us that we can have a different perspective in life as we go through our trials, especially for believers.

You see, instead of focusing on his trial, David chooses to see the glory of God that is shining behind the dark clouds. And why is David so joyful?

This man whose life is full of trials. Well, it's not because he's engaging with wishful thinking. And it's not because David is just being optimistic about his life in a world where we can all become frustrated.

What David is doing, he is doing this. He is seeing the world through the eyes of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is seeing how his life would look and does look because he is a believer.

So as we go through our trials in this life, we can turn to Psalms 8 and we can find faith to silence our doubts. We can find hope to silence our fears for the future.

And ultimately, we will find peace and joy when we look at Jesus and we see his victory over our own sin and over the enemy. You see, Psalms 8 is one of these psalms that assures the believer that our God is so gracious to us.

He is gracious to us even in our sinful, fallen condition. And yet, we can look at mankind and we can say, we have all sinned in some way against a holy God.

And we may have looked at our lives and you may feel like, hey, I messed up my life because I did this. But here comes God. And Psalms 8 reminds us that in spite of our sin, God has chosen the believer for his glory.

And this is the position that David writes to Psalm in. And as David contemplates the greatness of the glory of God in all creation, he asks a very important question.

And it's in Psalms 8 verse 4. David says, What is mine that thou art mindful, that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?

And I want us to sit with this question for a while. What is mine? And when David wrote this, he's not just talking about the male.

He's talking about the whole human race. We could question, we could pose that question, what is mankind? And why does God care so much for human beings who are so unaware of his glorious presence?

You see, a lot of times we skip over this question, what is man? And then we go right to how God is mindful of us. But we cannot truly understand how mindful God is of us until we answer the question, what is man?

When you think of the human race, many would say mankind is a mystery. Why? Because we have the potential to do so much good. Think about Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut who walked on the moon.

and then you look at Adolf Hitler and what do you see? This man who did so much evil. In the Holocaust, he killed many Jews.

So mankind is this thing that has the potential to do so much good in this world and yet at the same time we can do so much evil. How do you explain the human race?

And many have grappled with this question, what is mankind? Some scientists believe that mankind is evolving and getting better with time, they say. They say mankind just needs more time, you see.

And as mankind discovers new information about themselves and the world they live in, they'll be able to change themselves and change this world. That's what the scientists say.

However, with all the new information and all the new technology, what do we find? That mankind is finding out smarter ways to steal and to murder.

You know, when I was growing up, I spent a lot of summers in Long Island and I remember my grandparents, we would go walking at night to greet the neighbors, but we never locked our doors.

We never had a lock. But since now, what do we have? We live in gated communities with security cameras and that's what technology does for mankind that's evolving.

And then you have the psychologists who have studied mankind in an attempt to explain this question what is man? For example, Sigmund Freud, I don't know if any of you heard of him, but he is what we call the most popular psychologist in the 20th century and he wrote this book called The Introduction to Psychoanalysis.

And in this book, Sigmund Freud attempted to answer this question, what is mankind? How can you explain the actions of human beings? And Freud came up with this conclusion.

He says, human beings were irrational and their decisions were not based on knowledge, but they were based on their emotions. So he believed that people made decisions just based off emotions.

and he would tell you that deep down inside the human being is this thing called the unconscious mind that we are not aware of. And this unconscious mind is what is driving our human decisions.

So this is the reason why we watch a commercial and we want to buy clothes or we want to buy something because we are driven by our feelings and emotions. So Sigmund Freud believed that deep down inside the unconscious self, this thing that's driving man, mankind needs to find a way to dig deep within to unlock this human emotions and these negative feelings.

And once we can dig deep within ourselves, we can free ourselves and mankind would reach its full potential. Now, this research that Sigmund Freud did, it gave rise to the industry of psychologists and psychiatrists.

And sadly, his work even entered the church. That's where you had in the 90s, people talking about the purpose-driven life and how mankind can reach its full potential and the power and purpose of man.

And we make so much out of man. But Freud, you know, with all the wiser psychologists and scientists and all of these attempts to free mankind mankind reaches full potential, mankind seems to be getting worse.

There seems to be identity crisis going on in our generation and mankind seems to be so confused that you have males talking about they identify as females and females saying they identify as males.

What's going on? You see, Sigmund Freud discovered nothing new. Yes, the Bible tells us that there's something deep within human beings that is controlling them.

But the Bible calls that sin. And the Bible says, because we are all born in this sinful nature, apart from the grace of God, mankind will be controlled by his own sinful desires.

But where Sigmund Freud went wrong is thinking that mankind can free himself from these deep-rooted sinful desires by searching within.

You see, salvation for mankind is not found within us. It's not about us unlocking something within. No, salvation is found external by trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us that in this flesh, in us, dwelleth no good thing. And when Paul looked at himself in Romans 7, verse 24 to 25, he says, O wretched man that I am.

O wretched man that I am. Well, how am I going to be freed from this? He looked away from himself and he says, thanks be to God. The salvation is found in Jesus Christ.

So what mankind needs is a heart transformation. What mankind needs is God himself to come and change our hearts.

And mankind has no power to change himself from searching within. We need the power of God to change us, church. And we need the Holy Spirit to show us who we are in sin so that we can turn away from ourselves and trust in the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So how do we explain mankind? The Bible gives us a very good description of mankind. Paul writes to the Christians in the book of Ephesus and he reminds them of the position they were in before God changed them, before God saved them.

Have you ever looked at yourself and wondered, what does the Bible say about my life before I became a Christian? Well, Ephesians 2 verses 1-3 tells us, Mankind in sin, what is he?

And you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the cause of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

You see, the Bible doesn't beef up man. It gives us the raw description of mankind. It tells us mankind is dead in trespasses and sins, apart from the grace of God.

This doesn't mean physical death, it means spiritual death. mankind in sin follows his own sinful desires, and he is under the influence of Satan himself.

Mankind in sin disobeys his creator, and he can care less about glorifying God. And this is the thing that gets me in verse three.

The Bible says mankind in sin are called children of wrath. This is a very hopeless position. And what the Bible is telling us is mankind in sin has become unprofitable to God.

They can no longer serve God's purpose of glorifying him in that sinful condition. And you know what we do as human beings when we have something that is not profiting us anymore?

We throw it away. The old toothbrush would no longer brush our teeth. We throw it in the garbage and get a new one. But I'm so happy that God did not throw mankind away.

You see this is where the gospel comes to us my friends. In verse four of Ephesians chapter two it says but God remember in Genesis six God looked at mankind and it grieved his heart.

but Ephesians two verse four says but God but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead and trespasses in sins God made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and God has seated us with Christ in the heavenly places isn't that amazing thank God for verse four the gospel starts with two words but God and we can look at all of our lives and say we would have been like this but God and the gospel tells us in spite of our sinful condition God is still mindful of us and he still cares for us and this is what exactly

David is drawing out in Psalm chapter 8 in Psalm chapter 8 verse 4 David is saying what is mankind that God is so mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him and Psalms 8 shows us that God did not give up on us mankind who was created for his glory but yet fell into sin God made a decision God chose to save us from this hopeless position and make us alive together with Christ and I want to spend the rest of my time considering how God has shown himself to be mindful of mankind mankind and then we will draw out a few application points and what we can see from Psalms 8 is that God is mindful of mankind in creation God is mindful of mankind in redemption and God is mindful of mankind in glorification and we are going to look at each of these points first

God is mindful of mankind in creation in verse 3 David tells us when I look at your heavens the work of your fingers the moon and the stars which you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him the first way that God is mindful of mankind and creation is the fact that God took his time when he created human beings you see when we think about the moon and the stars that are in all its glory David says this is just the work of God's fingers he says when I look at the heavens the work of your fingers and what we call this in theology is anthropomorphic language is not that God physically has fingers but David is trying to point out figuratively speaking the ease at which God created dirt you know he spoke let there be light and there was light so

God spoke the earth into existence ease you know the work of his fingers however when it came to mankind remember he created mankind last in Genesis mankind is the apex of his creation the God who flung the stars in the sky and the moon figuratively speaking he gets on his knees and he looks at the trinity and he says let us make mankind in our own image and then he gathered dust and formed it and blew into Adam's nostril and man became a living soul and then you remember he put Adam to sleep and took a rib out of him and formed the woman I mean he took his time this is art this is our church mankind was created for God's glory the second way that

God is mindful of mankind in creation is the fact that God gave mankind not anybody else mankind God gave mankind dominion over the work of his own hands look at verse 6 to 8 David says you have given him dominion over the work of your hands you have put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen also the beasts of the field the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea whatever pass it along the paths of the seas God has given mankind dominion over his creation you know every time you eat a sheep on an island you tie him up and you kill him you but God give you dominion over the sheep he didn't have to do that he put mankind in this prestigious place and every time we catch a fish in the water and eat the fish we are acknowledging the dominion that

God has given us over his creation you see God is mindful of mankind! and creation he wants us to rule with him the second thing that we can God is mindful of mankind in redemption look at verse 5 David says yet you have made him speaking of mankind you have made him lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him crowned mankind with glory and honor so heavenly beings has translated angels and when David says we were created lower than the angels angels I think David is referring to the raw natural strength and giftings of angels he is saying that mankind was created lower in that way than angels but yet God has crowned mankind with glory and honor so think about this it is not just mankind who fell into sin but it is also angels!

You see that's him crowning mankind with glory and honor so when mankind fell into sin God could have chosen to leave us fallen just like the fallen angels but however he doesn't do that he chooses to send his son into the world to save mankind from their sins you see not only does God have a salvation plan for human beings but in that plan the person who activates that is his own son he comes down and takes on human flesh Hebrews 2 verse 16 to 17 puts it like this for surely it is not angels that he helps but he helps the offspring of Abraham he helps these poor helpless children and therefore he had to be made like his brothers speaking of

Jesus Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people you know when Matthew Henry comments on Psalms 8 especially on this verse he says!

These far exceed the favors and honors done us by creation and providence so he is saying this favor of God becoming one like us far exceeds him giving mankind dominion in creation and he says though they are great and far more than we deserve we have reason humbly to value ourselves by it and thankfully to admire the grace of God in it you see we can live our lives thinking that God doesn't care about us but that's not what Psalms 8 is telling us the third point I want to point out to you is God is mindful of mankind and glorification so he is mindful of mankind in creation in redemption and lastly in glorification you see not only has

God chosen to save us from our sins but all those who trust in Jesus Christ are undergoing a process of what we call sanctification and in this process we have been changed from glory to glory we will be like Jesus when it's all said and done we gonna look like him in every way and guess what we can be holy you see that mindfulness that he took creation human beings he called them to himself and who were in sin he didn't just say I'm gonna save you from your sins now you go your way no he says I'm gonna save you from your sins I'm gonna transform you I'm gonna say come sit with me!

Because you're my son you're my daughter that's what he's doing church C.S. Lewis says the eternal son of God if you want to some reverse for what he is doing in your life the eternal son of God became a son of man to transform sinful sons of man into sons of God the eternal son of God became a son of man in order to transform sinful sons of man into sons of God our ending point is much greater than Adam had in the garden sons of God you know as Christians you may be going through trials this morning but Psalms 8 reminds us that the God of the universe has not forgotten about you he is mindful of you in creation he is mindful of you in redemption and he is mindful of you in glorification and now you can know all of this good theology but the

Christian life can still be hard it's hard for me so you can know all of this good theology but the Christian life still can be hard I think the reason it's hard is because we can know that God has chosen us for his glory but we really do not understand how God intends to bring his glory out of our lives let me say that again we can know we can know that God has chosen us for his glory but the don't know you see if God were to tell Joseph hey I'm going to make you second charge of Egypt you're going to be this great man in Egypt and the prime minister but this is some things you got to do first I don't know if Joseph would have walked that path but God hides that from us but he does give us his!

! Psalms 8 verse 2 it says in verse 2 out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger I want you to notice the way that God brings this Lord he says it is out of the mouth of babies and infants it does not say he does it out of the mouth of strong humans or wise humans or even powerful humans and the avenger out of the mouth of babies and infants that may seem weak to you but it's the way he chooses to display his glory and that brings me to my first application point if God is going to use the mouth of babes to steal the enemies in our lives then that means we must be open to

God using our weaknesses how did Christ come to save us did he come as a grown man strong no he came as a baby in the manger you see God ways are not our ways and if it was up to us we would want God to use our strength but God doesn't do that God says his strength is made perfect well in our weaknesses and God is constantly looking for those parts of our lives that we are trying to hide from him and those are the parts that he wants to use church you see you can know that God has chosen you for his glory yes but we don't get to choose the parts of our lives that he will use for his glory we would want God to use the strong man but God chooses to use the weak things in our lives it is through our sufferings

Christ that God reveals his glory it is through our sufferings for Christ that he reveals his glory in those weak moments when you want to run from it he says I want to use it Matthew Henry says sometimes the power of God brings to pass great things in his church by very weak and unlikely instruments and confounds the noble wise and mighty by the base and weak and foolish things of the world that no flesh may glory in his presence but the excellency of the power may be the more heavenly a pair to be of God and not of man God does this because he wants people to look at our lives he wants them to see Christ he don't want them to see us and the way that they see Christ is when people know that we could not have done this by ourselves it's not a work of the flesh it's the work of the spirit and if this is how

God chooses to reveal his glory in our lives! we must be content with God using our weaknesses as Christians how do we know when we are content with God using our weaknesses when Paul tells us that we boast in it we don't hide from it we boast in our weakness yes God saved me when I was on my way to the club but that just shows his power I don't hide it why because maybe God wants to save someone else like that but somehow we think that we need to hide these things God said no I want to use it this is Paul understood in his ministry Paul is not talking about the Pharisee of Pharisees he is talking about the hypocrite the one who persecuted the church the one who was ignorant!

2 Corinthians 12 verse 8-9 says Paul says three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should lead me leave me but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you and this is how God works he says for my power is made perfect in weakness and Paul says therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me you see that as a follower of Christ do you boast in your weaknesses do you want people to see the power of Christ in your life we should not be ashamed of our weaknesses or afraid to show them we should see them as opportunities for God's strength and opportunities for his power to be displayed so whenever you find it difficult to talk about your weakness just remember

Psalms 8 verse 2 it is out of the mouth of babes and infants that God chooses to silence the enemy and it is through our weaknesses that God chooses to show for his strength and still the enemy and the avenger the second point I want to show you is that we must wait on God glory we must wait on God's glory to be revealed through our weaknesses so yes we must be content with God using our weaknesses but secondly we must wait on God for his glory to be revealed through our weaknesses and this means we must be patient in tribulation waiting on God can be very difficult in our lives waiting on God can make us overly anxious and sometimes we even forget about his promises like Sarah sometimes you get like

Abraham where you say oh that Ishmael will live before you because it's too hard it's too hard the wait feels long but I tell you waiting on God can be much easier if we just change our focus it all depends on where we're focusing as we wait as we wait on God we need to take our eyes off of our problems and just focus on the glory that is found in Christ alone you see remind yourselves of the end Christians are joint heirs with Christ we are sons and daughters of God God have a brand new heaven and a brand new earth that are prepared for the sons and daughters of God but what is God doing with us well he's preparing us for the place he has for us this is preparation time but as we wait on God we must remember what we are being prepared for and the glory that he is preparing us for so just remember in creation

God took his time when he created mankind and he is taking his time as he is sanctifying us you cannot rush God's sanctification process and that's why the scripture says let patience have her perfect work in you you might feel like God is not moving because he is doing stuff the way you think he needs to be doing but God is always at work he is at work when we are silent he is at work when we are in pain he is at work when we don't know how it's going to happen he is working it out and the Bible says all things not just some not the good not just the good all things work together for the good how can we know that because God is the one who!

! it to work this is not random it's not by chance it's not by luck you have been brought into God's sanctification process you in God's gym now and he can make them spiritual muscles grow and our job is to trust and to wait and to be patient in tribulation you see the Christian life is not a sprint it's a race of endurance the Christian is running a race of endurance and as we run the Bible tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus that's all the Bible tells us to do you know keep our eyes on Jesus we get in trouble when we look out of places Hebrews 12 verse 1 to 2 tells us therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses and let us run with endurance it didn't say sprint he gives us daily bread his grace and mercy is new every morning just thank him for the grace he gave you today

Jesus said tomorrow will bring worries of his own he wants you to live in today's grace it's a walk of faith don't speed it up he says let us run with endurance the race that is set before us and when you're doing that he says look to Jesus the author the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him how did Christ endure his suffering well he looked to the joy that was set before him and he endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God and I'm saying we run that way the exact way that Jesus ran the songwriter says turn your eyes upon Jesus and look full into his wonderful face and whatever that problem is he says the things of this earth will go strangely dim in light of his glory and grace you ever think about that like you be worrying about something and you just look at

Jesus and you think about the glory and! everything becomes strangely dim is because we are reminded of Christ's victory over our own sin and over the enemy the Christian is not running a race in vain he is there Jesus is already finished and the Bible says we who are Christians are seated with him in heavenly places we are not running in hopes to get there we are running from a place of victory!

because we are ready there and God says I'm preparing you for what is waiting for you the victory is so certain that the Bible tells us that the Christians are seated with Christ in heavenly places my friends remind yourselves of that of what Christ has accomplished for you and when you feel like giving up and Satan is tempting you to look away from that I say fix your eyes on Jesus and there is no shame in waiting on God Sarah was never put to shame neither was Abraham you can look at all the Old Testament saints all the new ones all the New Testament saints who was shameful in waiting on God none not David not Joseph not Moses and not you so when we think about the fact that

God has chosen the believer for his glory and God is spending his time preparing us for his glory we should personalize Psalms 8 verse 4 ask yourself why is this God so mindful of me in my track why didn't he just give up on me why am I still on the potter's field who am I that the God of all creation would be mindful of me and that's how David is looking at his life and when he looks through that lens he can say oh Lord oh Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth let that be an encouragement to you my friends amen father God we thank you for this time forgive us oh

God for not understanding how mindful you are of us forgive us in our times of doubt forgive us in our times of depression and God remind us of how much you care for us how much you love us how much you will never leave us and never forsake us thank you oh God for sending your son Jesus Christ!

and thank you for continuing to transform us and conform us to the image of Jesus Christ each and every day thank you that is not depending on our feelings or emotions but it's dependent on your promises you are the God who is faithful to us even when we are faithless and God you seek us out you look for us in our dark places and you bring us into your glorious light we are so thankful for what you're doing in our lives oh God would you continuously allow your Holy Spirit to continuously transform us from glory to glory may you encourage us help us to be encouragement to those around us help us to use our weaknesses oh God to be content in you using our weaknesses to make Christ shine!

in us and God we are so happy we are so glad that you are with us in this now God you come continue to encourage the hearts of your people and may you be glorified in our lives in Jesus mighty name we pray amen