O Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants You have ordained praise, because of Your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider 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 son of man that You care for him? You made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned Him with glory and honor. You made Him ruler over the works of Your hands. You put everything under His feet, all flocks and herds and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, all that swim in the paths of the seas. O Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth." Let's pray. Oh, Yahweh, our Lord, we want to see that majesty, the majesty that struck David as he wrote this. We want to be struck with it again tonight. And so as we continue in the psalm, Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes further and let us see our place in your creation, our role in your universe, and that it would cause hearts to rejoice. This is one of those messages, Lord, really should just be encouraging, inspiring, joy-giving, and so we know that that won't happen unless your spirit enables it, so please do. We ask that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So verse four, we get that question, what is man? What is man? There's a lot of people that believe that they have the answer to that question. Biologists, you ask a biologist that question, what is man? They'll give you something about the genetic code. You can, if you want, you can move chairs around if we need to. Yeah, biologists will define man with a genetic code. Psychologists, sociologists, they'll try to define man with behavioral tendencies. Philosophers will delve into their speculations. But none of them, no discipline, no scientific discipline, will be able to explain the mystery of what man is without God's word. Blaise Pascal put it well. Listen to this quotation. He said, what sort of freak then is man? What a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy, judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sinkhole of doubt and error, glory and refuse of the universe. Who will unravel this tangle? I mean, who could possibly? understand the extreme greatness and nobility of mankind on the one hand, right alongside the unimaginable depravity and evil of mankind on the other hand. I mean, it's so extreme. It was man who invented Auschwitz and the gas chambers. And it was man who does things like diving on a hand grenade to save comrades to go rescue those who are being put in those ovens. Right? You hear about unthinkable things that ISIS fighters do or sex traffickers do to people, and it's just so horrific. And then you think about the great heroes of history that just when you hear the stories of the things they did, it'll bring tears to your eyes when it's depicted in a story or a movie. Same race. Humans. I mean, you think of the incredible love a mother has for a child. There's nothing in all the world like it. And then you hear about a mother who drowns her own children so that her abusive boyfriend won't leave her. Same race. We call ISIS fighters animals when we hear the stuff that they do. But really, what they're doing is far worse than anything any animal ever did. We see a hero, a war hero, sacrificing his life to save others, and we call him an angel, but no angel has ever given his life for a friend. The truth is we're neither animals nor angels. Animals are spirits without bodies. Angels are bodies without spirits. I mean, animals are bodies without spirits. Angels are spirits without bodies. Man is something else. We have both spirit and body. We're worse than animals and better than angels. Something about mankind is so important that when we're good, it just brings light into the world. And when we go bad, it's a kind of bad that just seems to rattle the very creation. Both our good and our evil seem to be important in ways that we can't even understand. Why does it matter so much? In fact, that's the conclusion that Pascal draws after he gives that quotation. He says all that about man. Then he concludes, man transcends man. There's something about us that's over our heads. We can't figure out why our actions matter so much. You can't figure that out from observation. None of the definitions of humanity from biologists or sociologists or psychologists or philosophers can answer that. But David gives the answer here in Psalm 8, what all the scientists can't do in a million books and studies, God does in nine verses. Our nobility and our evil are of great significance because Mankind is so important in God's created order, and the reason we're so important is because of how God has exalted man. David makes four statements about how God has exalted man in verses 5 and 6, and that's where we left off last time. We went through verse 4 last time. So we'll pick it up at verse 5, and here's the four things that he says about the exaltation of man. 1. You made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings. 2. You crowned Him with glory and honor. 3. You made Him ruler over the works of your hands. 4. You put everything under His feet. So we'll just go through those one at a time. The first one tells us what we are as human beings, where we fit in the universe. God made mankind a little lower than the heavenly beings. That's different from the way the world thinks. The world, evolutionists think we're animals. We're just animals. The founder of PETA said, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. I mean, she couldn't see any difference, Ingrid Newkirk couldn't see any difference between a rat and a human being. And you listen to them talk about, and you turn on these documentaries about chimps and they say, chimps, there's only 2% difference in the genetic code of a chimp and a human being. And I hear all that, and I think, if that's true, if there's 98% identical genetic code between human beings and chimps, then obviously there's more to us than genes. Because any moron should be able to look and see there's a huge difference between chimps and human beings. I mean, how much scientific observation does that take? If they would get their nose out of their books and just watch chimps? They pick bugs off each other's backs. That's their life work. Why do you suppose chimps never produce any documentaries on the genetic makeup of other species? Maybe it's because they can't even say the word gene. All your favorite paintings, you ever notice? All your favorite paintings, your favorite poems, favorite songs, books, movies, businesses, buildings, cars, symphonies. What a coincidence that they all came from human beings. Not chimps, right? I was reading this week about how pigs are such incredibly intelligent animals. If they're that intelligent, why are they so far behind in the space race? They haven't even put a pig on the moon yet. And why are they routinely eaten by humans for breakfast? If they're so smart. If you're wondering how significant man is in the universe, the very fact that you're wondering that should be a clue. Because we ask the question routinely, what is man? Dogs don't sit around thinking, what is dog, right? No comet feels small when it compares itself to a galaxy. We're the only ones that ask these questions. Obviously, there's something different about man. When you see how much our virtue matters, and you see how much our evil matters, and you see how different we are from animals and everything else in the creation, anyone with a brain should be able to see something's up with human beings. And it's not just that we're the highest of the animals. We shouldn't think that way. We shouldn't just think, well, we're on top of the food chain. When David ranks mankind in Psalm 8, he doesn't say, you made him a little higher than the animals. We're not a little higher than the animals, we're a little lower than the supernatural heavenly beings. We learn what we are by looking upward, not by looking downward. Unbelievers look downward to define. They look at the animals to define humanity, and they say, oh, we're a little higher than them. or we're the same as them. And they define human beings in relationship to animal kingdom. And as a result of that downward look, what happens? They become more like animals. They behave like animals. God wants us to look up to define the human race. And when we do that, what happens? We move more and more in that direction and become more and more like God and heavenly beings in our behavior. So we're a little lower than the angels. We are lower, a little bit, because they're up there and we're down here. We're on earth. We have physical limitations, not the least of which is death, right? We're subject to death. That's a big thing that separates us from the angels. Luke 20, verse 35, but those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection of the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage and, Jesus said, they can no longer die for they are like the angels. So Jesus said, that's a big difference between us and the angels right now, is we can die, they can't, but that's only temporary. So we're slightly lower than them now. And like I said, it's temporary. 1 Corinthians 6, 3, don't you know, you will judge the angels. You'll be above the angels eventually after the resurrection. So where does David get all this? All this stuff he's saying in Psalm 8 about mankind being exalted and glorified, where is he getting it? He's getting it all out of Genesis 1. It all comes right out of Genesis 1, the creation account, Genesis 1.26. Then God said, let us make man in our image, in our likeness. We're in the image of God. Think about what that means. The word image, that's what you use for a statue of an idol. We are little statues of God is what that says. We resemble God in ways that nothing else in the creation does. And we can have a relationship with the Creator unlike any other being. That's why our actions have moral implications, different from the animals. You know, even people who Claim to think that we're just like the animals that we're just we're just evolved animals Even those people will tell you that it's immoral to be cruel to the animals, right? But they don't think it's immoral for animals to be cruel to us or to each other Because if the animals do it to each other They say oh, that's just nature taking its course. That's okay. That's just nature You know if a bear eats a fish. Oh, that's just nature But if man is just another animal, then if we're just evolved, then we're just as much a part of nature as anything else, right? So asphalt, guns, cement, computers, SUVs, nuclear bombs, all just as natural as apples and oranges and grass and trees, right? Because we're just nature. But they know that's not true. Even the people who think that we're just evolved animals end up being inconsistent because they know deep down there's something different about man, which is why they say, oh, buildings and asphalt, that's man-made. Animals, bears, mountain lions, that's natural. They intuitively know we're not a part of nature. We're above nature. We are above nature. And that has implications about the unity of the human race. And let me just, this is a little bit of a side note, but this is a pet peeve of mine, so I'm just going to go off on it for a second. Our culture has gotten into the habit of using the word race to refer strictly to skin color. So you take a survey, happens all the time, you take a survey and they say, well, what race are you? White, black? It's like, that has nothing to do with race. There's one race. There's a human race, right? One human race. You get tension between whites and blacks and they call it racial tension. That's not, as if your skin color makes you a whole different race. That is such nonsense. And it's what causes a lot of the problem with these tensions. Think about this. If you, now I know that you can use the word race to refer to people from different places with different physical characteristics, but even that, I mean I could live with that if they wanted to, maybe, but it's not even that. You get somebody that's born and raised in Alabama. sitting here. And then next to him you've got like a KGB agent from Moscow. And then someone from Australia. And a white person born and raised in South Africa. And then an Eastern European. You get them all in a room and they're completely different cultures, different languages, different physical traits and physical characteristics, but they all have white skin and so they're all the same race. White. Then you have someone from Algeria and someone else from Jamaica, and then like a farm boy raised in Kansas who's black. And if they all have black skin, they're all the same race. It's just ridiculous. They do the same thing with Latinos. They do it with Asians. I mean, that's a huge category of people, all the same race. People who are as different as can be physically, socially, linguistically, geographically, and culturally are grouped together as a race just because of skin color. And then on the other hand, you can have two people that are best friends, grew up next door to each other, went to high school together, worked the same company, same job, speak the same language, have the same culture, same mannerisms, their parents and grandparents grew up in that same town, and yet one has light skin, the other one has dark skin, different races. It's like nothing about you matters except for your skin color. That is such nonsense and it's an artifact of evolutionism. The evolutionist believes that all the differences that you see between rats and pigs and dogs and bears and people and all, all these differences that you see when you look around are just results of random evolutionary changes and mutations. And so when they see two different colors of skin, black skin, white skin, they say, ah, that must be in the same category. And so if you have black skin, I have white skin, you're a little bit different animal than I am. And so you descended from a different race. It's just absolute hogwash. There's one human race. Everyone who's descended from Adam has a common ancestry and is part of the same race. And skin color is one of the least important things in determining what you are. So if people ask me my race on a survey, my answer is human. Human, what race are you? Now, let me just add this. When I say there's only one race, that's not actually 100% true. There's actually two. There's a total of two because there's another one. I'll explain what I mean by that next time, but I don't have time to get into it now. For now, I'll just say race has nothing whatsoever to do with skin color. All human beings are in the category of bearing the image of God, and that category is vastly different from any other category of created things. So, we are a little lower than the heavenly beings. That's how we measure what we are. We belong in that heavenly category more than the earthly category. Second thing David says about the exaltation of man, he says, you crowned man with glory and honor. Now that one, you know, I was thinking, what am I going to say about that? Honestly, it sounds a little over the top. It sounds like the kind of, usually that language is used to describe God. right? Clothed with glory and honor or crowned with glory and honor. Very extreme language to describe the exaltation of mankind. But I think, again, the point is that mankind reflects the glory of God in ways that nothing else in creation does. Just right before we started tonight, I was listening to this guy talking about Psalm 104 or something, and he said, the mountains and the heavenly bodies praise God just the same as we do. And I would have been fine with that statement if it wasn't for that last part about just the same. It's not just the same. They do it just by being what they are. We do it voluntarily. We choose to praise God. Nothing else in creation does that. Animals don't do that. Mountains don't do that. We decide to praise God and it's a different interaction, we reflect the glory of God in ways that the rest of creation doesn't. Nothing else is in the image of God, no matter how spectacular that shooting star you see is, or the eclipse, or anything that you see in the creation, rainbow, whatever, no matter how spectacular it is, it's not in the image of God. Human beings are in the image of God. Heaven has declared the glory of God, but they don't declare it anywhere near as loudly as human beings. So we're crowned, and the word crowned introduces a very important concept. It introduces that royal, kingly concept, showing man as king in the world. And that's even more explicit in the next statement, the third statement, verse 6, you made him ruler over the works of your hands. So it's definitely a kingly idea. Again, right out of Genesis 126, then God said, let us make man in our image and our likeness and let them rule. So right off the bat, first thing, man's created, let him rule. Kings. God created a bunch of kings. God made us to be kings with His creation. The whole Bible, remember, is about the kingdom of God. From beginning to end, it's about the kingdom of God, and man plays a huge role in ruling in that kingdom. Now, remember, what's the main point of Psalm 8? The main point of Psalm 8, verse 1 and verse 9? Majesty of God, right? It's all about the majesty of God. It's a psalm about the majesty of God. And it's a psalm about how God shows His majesty in two very surprising ways. First, by using the weakest instruments to defeat His enemies. Lips of babies, right? And secondly, by using the weakest of instruments to rule His creation. He puts mankind in charge. And that's impressive. That shows God's majesty. How does it show God's majesty that he made me a king on this earth? He made me to rule this earth. How does that show his majesty? Well, because he does a great job ruling this earth, and he does it through human beings, which is astonishing given what we know about human beings, right? It takes a lot of skill to delegate important tasks. If you've ever been in charge of anybody, you know this. It's hard to find that perfect balance between micromanagement and then leaving so much freedom that you don't provide enough leadership and the person goes in a bad direction or whatever. It takes a special kind of person, I think, to be good at that. Someone who can empower others to really flourish, provide just enough guidance, but still let them do it. Very difficult. Very difficult. It's easier if you're dealing with somebody who's highly competent, right? You delegate a task to somebody who's highly competent, then it's easier. The less competent the person is, the more impressive your leadership is if you can make it work with an incompetent person. So God delegates the task of ruling the universe to these tiny little microbes on this little dot in the universe called Earth. How majestic is his name if he can run things that way by delegating to us? And so we are to rule to show God's majesty. Genesis 1.26, God said, So theologians refer to this as the cultural mandate. were mandated to fill the earth and subdue it, that is, create culture. Mandate might not be the best word. It's actually a blessing, a cultural blessing, you could say. But right after God creates man to rule, He tells man, be fruitful, fill the earth, and subdue the earth. And why are we supposed to do all that? For God's purposes, right? What we're trying to do is bring about God's—because He's still the king, we're viceroys, we're vice-regents, we're deputies ruling in God's behalf. So it's His purposes that we're trying to bring about as we rule. So as the earth fills up with people and animals, there's a need for some organization and management. Right? Just basics. You've got to have society. You've got to have culture. If two cars are approaching, if we have a rule where you just keep right, then we're fine. Right? You just keep to the right. You keep to the right, we'll be good. If there's a line somewhere, you get in back, and you wait your turn, you form a line. If you have neighbors, don't make too much noise at nighttime when they're sleeping. There's just a lot of organization required for society to function, and mankind is in charge of creating all that. subduing and cultivating the earth includes every aspect of culture, government, arts, novels, cell phones, the internet, satellites, hospitals, vaccines, bulldozers, cranes, factories, industry, running water, sewage systems, water treatment plants, oil rig, pipelines, nuclear submarines, all of that. God made us creative and gave us the ability to utilize the resources of the earth and bring about its possibilities, bring them to fruition. That's what culture is. So are man-made things natural? No. No. Asphalt is not natural. It's supra-natural. Now, God is super-natural, which means transcending nature. Man is supra-natural, meaning above nature. We're above nature. So grain is natural. Bread is supra-natural. Bread is just an amazing example of what kinds of things can come by, can be created by a supra-natural being. The world is not very fruitful by itself. You just leave a field and it's going to be weeds. Sometimes you'll get a few wildflowers, maybe some wild berries or something, but mostly it's just not very fruitful. It takes man to come along and make it fruitful and then create things like bread. especially Panera Bread, which comes close to being supernatural, I think, in how good it is. So the cultural mandate is for us to take natural resources, put them to use, and mimic God by being creative and creating things. So here's a question. Should we as Christians be environmentalists? Should we be environmentalists? Well, it depends on how you define environmentalism. Because I think there's three different kinds of people when it comes to the environment. There's those who ruin it, those who rule it, and those who are ruled by it. So most people who call themselves environmentalists or people who are in the environmentalist movement want man to be ruled by the creation. Instead of subduing it, they want us to be under it in importance. So kangaroo rats and grey-horned owls are more important than farmers' livelihood. So shut down the farm if it's ruining the kangaroo rat's habitat. Don't cut down any trees. Leave the oil in the ground. Don't disturb any habitat. And you just want to ask those people, How do you get from save the whales to abort the babies? What's the line and how do you get there? Because they inevitably put us under creation and importance. Man is less important. When God put man in the garden, he didn't create Adam and Eve and say, careful, don't step on the native grass. He said, subdue it. Man's job is not to stay out of the way of natural processes. Our task is to tend and cultivate the earth. The right kind of environmentalism neither ruins the environment nor is ruled by the environment, but rules the environment. So if a true environmentalist has a garden, he doesn't let native grass just grow. A true environmentalist goes in there, rips out all the native grasses by the roots, gets rid of the rocks, which are also native, and tills up the soil, plants non-native seeds, tends that garden, and it becomes beautiful and fruitful and useful to feed human beings. And also pleasing to look at and to be in. So a true environmentalist finds the oil that God put in the ground, gathers it up, puts it to work for human beings to be productive. But he's careful about transporting it so he doesn't make a mess. People who are ruled by the environment think that it's more important than people will do things like ban DDT. Environmentalist movement banned DDT. And the result was millions of little children died a horrible death of malaria. because of mosquitoes that could have easily been killed by some DDT, but the environmentalists said, no, it might harm the eggs of some birds and whatever, which was a farce anyway. It wasn't even true. But a true environmentalist will spray some DDT on there, kill the mosquitoes, and let the human children live. The thinking of unbelievers becomes so twisted that they observe, they look at the heavens, like we said last time, Carl Sagan types, they'll look at the heavens and then they'll conclude, we're beneath the creation but above God. That's their pecking order, so it's the creation and then us and then God. So they do whatever they want, they ignore God's law, they create their own morals, but they somehow place themselves under the creation. If we observe the glory of the creation without a corrupted perspective of sin, the conclusion is just the opposite. The conclusion that we draw, we look at the heavens, we look at all the wonders of creation and say, wow, this place is glorious. Whoever created this place must be ultra-glorious. And so we place God at the highest level, and then us, because we're in His image, and then next is the creation, which is not in His image. And if we have the right perspective, we'll see ourselves as closer to God than to the creation. We are in between God and the creation, but we're closer, we're defined more by our closeness to heaven than our closeness to earth. We are God's vice regents to do his work. And that has profound implications on your work, whatever your job is. Variety of different professions and jobs in this room, whatever your task is during a day, this has implications. Let me just give you an example. Listen to how God is described in 2 Corinthians 9-10. Just think about your job for a second. 2 Corinthians 9-10. God is he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food. God supplies bread. That's one of the tasks of God. It's one of his job descriptions. He supplies bread for food, right? That's what he does. So how does he do it? Tell me, where can you go find naturally occurring bread? Isn't it true that every slice of bread you've ever put in your mouth was made by a human baker? With the exception of the manna and Jesus feeding the multitudes, the only way bread comes into existence is by a human being making it. And God says that's one of His jobs. In fact, not only is that one of God's jobs, it defines Him to where He describes Himself as He who provides bread for food. So put those together. I love what Martin Luther said about that. He said, the person who bakes the bread is simply the mask that God wears when He provides us with bread. The person who built this house is just the mask that God wears because God says, I'll provide you shelter. Whoever built this house is just the mask that God was wearing when He provided this shelter. This has implications on the work that we do. outside of just ministry, just regular work. Our society tends to divide work into categories related to how much education it requires and how much salary it brings in. So if you flip burgers or you push a broom, then you're kind of lesser than doctors and scientists and all that. That is not a biblical worldview. People who push brooms, I mean, think about that one. Do you realize that if no one cleaned your house, you would die? I mean, if there's no sanitation, no cleaning at all, you would get so bad, you wouldn't be able to live there. Trust me, I once had to clean up a house like that. It just needed to be bulldozed. Cleaning is hugely important. God provides you with a nice place to live. The maskiwares is the homemaker that is in that house cleaning it and making it nice. God provided all that food in there. One of the masks God wore when He provided all that food that's just sitting right in there is some truck driver who transported it from wherever it came from to wherever we bought it so that we could get our hands on it. Human participation in God's management of this world is an awesome thing. It's an awesome thing. That's why there's a whole... Theologians, their whole discipline is the cultural mandate. It's a big deal. God, I love this statement from Tim Keller, I think it was. God made the world to be remade by culture makers. God made this world to be remade by culture makers. That is, he made this world, not especially fruit, but with tons of raw materials. And then put these culture makers on the earth with creativity to create something greater than those raw materials. So that's what culture is. It's taking raw materials and making something great. So agriculture is when you, instead of what's just naturally coming out of the ground, you make it a big crop of food. Horticulture, same thing, except for the garden. Culture, you take raw materials, manipulate them, change them, and create something better, something greater. And we do that not just with the ground, but with paint and canvases. and with musical sounds and words and sentences when we make stories and wealth and everything in the whole world. That's what we're doing. We're taking these resources and we're putting them together. That's what human beings do. That's what human beings are supposed to do. That's what we were created for. All right, number four, fourth way that God exalted us. Verse six, you put everything under his feet, all flocks and herds and the beasts of the field, birds of the air, fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. So that's also straight out of Genesis 1. All that list of all the animals, it's there in Genesis 1, it's repeated in Genesis 9 after the flood. God designed the creation to be under our feet. Again, royal terminology, too. This under your feet, those who are subject to a king in that world, they were said to be under that king's feet. So again, this is our kingly role. The entire animal kingdom is under the royal, kingly rule of mankind. And David lists these animals. He starts out with the closest, notice the closest ones to us, then he moves outward. So first it's flocks and herds. It's domesticated animals. Then it's the beast of the field. It's wild animals. Then it's the birds of the air. Now we're moving up off the ground into the air. And then it's the fish of the sea, and then everything that swims in the paths of the seas. That's the most inaccessible, unexplored part of our world, the depths of the oceans. And all of it is under man's dominion. It's all under man's dominion, James 3.7. All kinds of animals, birds, and reptiles are being tamed and have been tamed by man. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man. So we've tamed lions and tigers and falcons and even dolphins, whales. The world is under man's feet. All right. So what about our double-trick question from the Facebook page? Where is Jesus in Psalm 8? I tried my absolute hardest to make it work so that I could get to that tonight, but I just couldn't squeeze it in. So the answer to that double trick question is so profound and so important. I really think we need to spend a whole study just on that. So we'll wait till next time for that. We'll play on and tackle on that next time. For now, I just want to wrap up our time by thinking about the practical applications for Psalm 8 for our lives. So I just talked about God exalted man and we've covered verses 4 or 5 through 8 now. God exalted man in four ways. What are the implications for life? I have five that I came up with in my list. Two of them I'm going to save for next time. Three I'd like to share with you tonight. So first, for daily life, If God, the most obvious one is this, if God created mankind to show his majesty by ruling over the earth, then we should rule over the earth. Okay, that's not, I mean, it didn't take me very long to come up with that one, believe it or not. We should fill the earth and we should subdue the earth. How do we do that? First, realize that every moment you're doing something that the animals don't do, that the animals can't do, you're contributing to man's dominion over the earth and you're fulfilling your humanity. And fulfilling your humanity is a very big deal. I'll talk a lot more about that next time. But to be human is a very, very big deal. So just doing things, just creating things, just accomplishing. Have you ever mowed your yard and you get done, you just sort of step back and look at it? You know, just enjoy the sense of accomplishment? I guess I don't do that that much anymore. I used to do that when I was younger. Now I just kind of want to get the mower put away and get in, sit down, and rest. But you know how it is. And it's something different for all of us. But think about, what is it for you that just gives you that sense of, ah, yeah, I just accomplished something? What task makes you want to sit back and just enjoy the fact that you got it done? It might be painting a room in your house, or renovating, or reorganizing, cleaning your basement, or whatever. Maybe just an honest day's work. You just put in a hard day's work. You come home and you just feel like, yeah, I got something done. Let me just hear from you. What are a few things that, for you, give you that sense of you just feel good because you accomplished something? Getting a quilt done? Yeah? OK. That is a big job, quilt. I remember my first car the first time I went got the oil changed I just felt good it's like this car is just like gonna run like a dream now I was a little disappointed it ran exactly the same as before but I Anything else? What gives you a sense of? Being able to do something for someone else who, like today, was able to clean Faith's kitchen. It was an overwhelming task for her to have to come home to. OK, so you've got somebody that needs something done. They're not in a position to be able to do it. And you can step in and help. You can't always do that. When you can, it feels good. It feels good. Like, oh, yeah, I got that all done. The IT job that I did, I finished in Arnold, SharePoint, the big part of that is making people's job more efficient and easier. Right, right. So every time I get that done, like sit down, I had an example where a guy spent like seven hours a day doing something, went in and got down to like an hour, hour and a half he spent on it. Yeah, so an IT guy can do some work and then all of a sudden something used to take the guy seven hours a day, now it takes an hour and a half. Yeah, that's an accomplishment. You can feel good. You can multiply your work to save everybody else's work, make them more efficient. Anything else? It's a good game of golf. I was thinking it, but I wasn't going to say it. You weren't going to say it. Well, I was actually thinking about that beautiful, nice draw that just goes right where you want Yeah, it just lands. The one good hit out of 80. You go up there. I can't find my ball. Oh, it's up there further. Yeah. Now, when you do that, whatever it is you had in mind, when you accomplish that, maybe you're not like the guy in the movie. You throw up your arms, say, I'm the king of the world. But you could. You could say that. When you feel that sense of accomplishment, you could throw up your arms and say, I'm the king of the world. Because in a sense, I do that with laundry. You actually do that with laundry. King of the load. That sense of accomplishment, it's not really a sense of accomplishment. It's a sense of reigning over the created order and subduing it and cultivate it like we were created to do it. It's you being human. It's you doing what you were designed to do as a human being, and that's why it feels good. However, it can go bad, right? It can go bad, because you don't want to be like Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, verse 29. He really thought he was the king of the world. He says, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, he said, is not this the great Babylon I have built as a royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty? And the words were still on his lips and a voice came from heaven. This is what's decreed for you, Nebuchadnezzar. Your royal authority has been taken from you. You'll be driven away from the people and live like a wild animal and you'll eat grass like cattle. So we want to steer clear of that kind of thing, right? But we also want to steer clear of what Adam and Eve did in the garden when they failed to act as rulers of the creation. Because what happened? God told them, rule over the animals, rule over the created order, and He specifically mentions the animals, and immediately what happens? An animal shows up and The serpent tells them, eat from the forbidden tree, and what do they do? Did they put that serpent under their feet and rule? No, they obeyed the serpent, placed themselves under the serpent, under the creation. Instead of ruling the creation, they were ruled by the creation, and that plunged mankind into the fall. So Adam and Eve were punished because they weren't kingly enough. Nebuchadnezzar was punished because he was too kingly. What's that balance? What's the balance? How do you avoid both errors? When you feel, you know, you want to just say, I'm the king of the world, I accomplished, you know, I got this done, I got the, how do you not be like Nebuchadnezzar on this extreme and not be like Adam and Eve on this extreme? What is that middle ground? Any thoughts? Go ahead. Exactly yeah exactly because remember we're vice regents We rule for God which means our authority to subdue this world and put it under our feet we have that to accomplish his purposes not our purposes and And so we do it to bring God's glory, not glory for ourselves. Nebuchadnezzar did an impressive job putting the creation under his feet, but he was way off the mark because he did it for his own glory and ignored God's purposes. When a vice-regent starts thinking he's the sovereign king, it's time for him to go. Because everything we do needs to be for the glory of God, 1 Corinthians 10.31. Whether you eat or drink, do it for the glory of God. So try this. When you do something that gives you a sense of accomplishment, Go ahead and in your mind, if you don't want to do it out loud, in your mind, spread out your arms and say, I'm the king of the world for God. Okay? I'm the king of the world for God. And think through how that thing you accomplished is done as part of God's sovereign management of this world and is for His glory. Okay, that's number one application. Rule the world, be a human being. Number two, if our identity as human beings belongs to the heavenly category, we're a little lower than the heavenly beings, calling that to mind, we're in the image of God, calling that to mind will help you deal with people the right way. Because it gives dignity to people. Being in the image of God gives dignity to people. It has implications on how you treat people, all people. In Genesis chapter 9, God commanded that anybody who murders a human being should be put to death. Death penalty if you kill somebody. Why? Because you're striking a blow at the image of God. That's what Genesis 9-6 says. Because God made him in His image. You mess with God's image, you forfeit your life. The image of God is serious. The fact that we believe mankind is in God's image should impact the attitudes that we have towards other image-bearers, even the way that we talk. Remember James 3? With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in His image or God's likeness. My brothers, this should not be. You don't slander people in the image of God. Don't curse God's likeness. Remember, human beings are little statues of God walking around. Don't dishonor them. Think about that in connection with the people who have hurt you, right? Think about it anytime you're just people-watching. Sit down at the airport or the mall and you're just people-watching. I mean, just thought image of God. Image of God. I've been doing that lately at 120th and I-25. So that's where I turn around on my route. So I sit there at the light, and all the people turn in front of me before my light turns green. So I just watch each person, and I just think, image of God. And I try to look at each person and kind of think what kind of person they are. Image of God. It's amazing the impact that will have on you. You ever come across somebody that's obsessed with angels? Like Facebook, they're always putting stuff on Facebook. You know, I saw this thing and it was an angel and whatever. I see that. I just want to post a comment and say, oh, I can top that story. You saw an angel the other day. I was in a situation and a human being showed up. I mean, I'm not talking animals, I'm not talking angels, I'm talking an honest to goodness human being in the image of God showed up. That's the attitude that we would have if we really believed Psalm 8, and it would come out in the way that we treat each other, the way we speak to each other. Just think about that the next time you want to yell at your kids or someone on the highway or whatever. Okay, third one, last one. Don't make the same mistake Adam and Eve made by placing yourself under the creation. There are things in this creation that you are supposed to rule over but are currently ruling over you, right? Like food or fun or alcohol or pills or money or a host of things. When we allow those things to come in between us and God, that's a problem because now we're under the creation. We've got something in between us and God. Instead of being a little lower than the heavenly beings, we're a little lower than the creation. No created thing should ever come between us and God. So when those things start to rule us so that our lives are controlled by them, typically we just think of it as a behavior problem. Oh, I've got to change my behavior. I need to stop being so addicted to this thing. But it's more than that. It's more than just your behavior. It's a perspective issue, fundamentally. Remind yourself, God made me to rule over this thing and to put the created order under my feet. The reason I let created things rule over me is because it seems like, at the moment, it'll make me happy. But I know I'll have the best happiness when I take my rightful place above those things, not below those things. I'll be happiest when I'm a true man, when I'm a true woman, when you're a true human being. That's when you'll be happiest. Ruling over the creation. So ask yourself, is there anything in the creation that has ascended up above you and is not under your feet? And you're no longer ruling over that thing for God's purposes, but you're being ruled by it because of selfish purposes. So those are my three applications. And I thought we could just end with maybe just a little bit of discussion. Maybe we can divide into some small groups since we've got a little bit bigger crowd tonight. So if we could have a... a group in that room, a little group in this room, and maybe a group back there. And just kind of go around the circle, and of these three applications, this is all I'm asking is just, which one of these do you think you need to give the most attention to? subduing the world, seeing your role as a human being in your work, having a different perspective about your work, doing it for God's purposes, being the king of the world for God, that kind of thing. Or number two, seeing the image of God in people so that you honor them more as image bearers. Or number three, don't make an idol out of anything. Don't let anything in the creation be above you. Rule you you rule it Which one do you want to give your most attention to right now in your life? Because you can't most people can't put three things into practice all at once. So