Jason Sterling: If you have a copy of God's Word, turn with me.
Jason Sterling: Psalm chapter 8 this morning.
Jason Sterling: We're continuing our journey this summer through various psalms.
Jason Sterling: In the last three weeks we have been looking at psalms of lament.
Jason Sterling: Thought we would change the pace a little bit this morning and look at this Psalm 8, which is a psalm of wonder and a psalm of praise.
Jason Sterling: This is one of the most beloved and recognizable passages in the book of Psalms.
Jason Sterling: I think you'll see what I mean as we read.
Jason Sterling: Follow along with me.
Jason Sterling: This is God's word.
Jason Sterling: Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
Jason Sterling: You have set your glory above the heavens.
Jason Sterling: Out of the mouths of babies and infants.
Jason Sterling: You have established strength because of your foes to steal the enemy and the avenger.
Jason Sterling: 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?
Jason Sterling: That you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him.
Jason Sterling: Yet you have made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.
Jason Sterling: You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.
Jason Sterling: You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beast of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Jason Sterling: Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
Jason Sterling: Let's pray and ask for God's help this morning.
Jason Sterling: Let's pray together, father, please come Anytime we open up the Scriptures.
Jason Sterling: We need the Spirit to come and teach us and to correct and show us Jesus, make our hearts alive, and so that's what I'm asking that you would give us ears to hear and hearts to receive your word, this word that you have for us on this morning.
Jason Sterling: Be with the one who preaches.
Jason Sterling: Help me, give me boldness, but also great humility as I open up the Bible this morning.
Jason Sterling: Please be near to us In Jesus' name.
Jason Sterling: Amen.
Jason Sterling: King David in Psalm 8, he's standing outside on a clear night and he is looking up at the moon and the stars.
Jason Sterling: And as he studies this vast creation of God and as he studies the night sky, david is struck by a question that many of us have asked, or perhaps you're even asking this morning In this vast world, in this vast and magnificent universe, do I really matter?
Jason Sterling: Maybe you have felt that same overwhelming smallness that David has felt in this psalm.
Jason Sterling: Perhaps it hit you when you were scrolling through social media and you were comparing your life to everyone else's highlight reel around you else's highlight reel around you.
Jason Sterling: Or maybe it hit you in the hospital waiting room or at a graveside when you were confronted with your own mortality and the fragility of life.
Jason Sterling: That's when it often hits me.
Jason Sterling: As a pastor, I'm in and around lots of suffering and it seems like weekly I come home to my wife, susie, and I just simply say life is so fragile.
Jason Sterling: Maybe you have felt that smallness when you realized that your greatest achievement in life quickly fades from the memory and in a short no one remembers, nor do they really care.
Jason Sterling: For example, who can remember the Super Bowl champions from two or three years ago?
Jason Sterling: Maybe you can, but oftentimes even accomplishments that are watched and viewed by millions quickly fade and are forgotten.
Jason Sterling: You might have felt that smallness when you're staring at a stack of bills and everyone around you seems to be doing just fine and completely has things figured out.
Jason Sterling: Or maybe it comes when you are overwhelmed by parenting and the task ahead, and we could go on and on and on.
Jason Sterling: One of the deepest cries of every human heart is do I matter?
Jason Sterling: David answers that question in this psalm, and his answer will transform how we see ourselves, transform how we see our purpose and our place in God's world.
Jason Sterling: In order for us to be transformed, we need to consider three things we see from this passage.
Jason Sterling: Consider three things we see from this passage God's majesty, the first thing we need to consider.
Jason Sterling: Secondly, our place in creation and then, lastly, consider our calling.
Jason Sterling: So, consider God's majesty, consider our place in God's world, in creation, and lastly, consider our calling.
Jason Sterling: Let's jump into that.
Jason Sterling: Let's look at our first heading consider God's majesty.
Jason Sterling: Look at verse one.
Jason Sterling: Notice how, david you probably picked up on this when we were reading but he structures this Psalm with bookends that talk about the greatness of God oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth?
Jason Sterling: And then he describes God's glory as being set above the heavens.
Jason Sterling: And so every time you go out and you look up, you are seeing an intentional display of God's majesty and glory.
Jason Sterling: Look at verse three glory.
Jason Sterling: Look at verse three.
Jason Sterling: When I look, the new international version says consider.
Jason Sterling: So when I consider your heavens, the work look this is an amazing verse the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place.
Jason Sterling: So think about the word let's just walk through this.
Jason Sterling: Notice the word when.
Jason Sterling: And so David is describing a specific moment when he slows down and he stops.
Jason Sterling: And he doesn't just look up and glance at the sky above, he looks up and contemplates it.
Jason Sterling: There's deep contemplation.
Jason Sterling: Think about the word consider, gaze intently to examine carefully something.
Jason Sterling: And so David isn't just looking up and going, oh well, that's great, that's beautiful.
Jason Sterling: No, he stops.
Jason Sterling: He is meditating on the vastness of God's world and the vastness of God's creation.
Jason Sterling: And notice what captures him.
Jason Sterling: You see it in the verse the work of God's fingers.
Jason Sterling: Think about the work and the precision work of fingers.
Jason Sterling: Think about a skilled surgeon doing a very difficult surgery.
Jason Sterling: Or think about an artist who uses their fingers and their hands to create very fine details in a painting or in a drawing or sketch of some sort.
Jason Sterling: David looks up at the moon and the stars and he sees them as the delicate finger work of God.
Jason Sterling: Verse 3 again, look at the end Set in place.
Jason Sterling: Every star has been set in place with divine intention.
Jason Sterling: Nothing is random, everything is deliberately positioned in God's world and in his universe.
Jason Sterling: And that leads David to this profound question.
Jason Sterling: Look at verse four.
Jason Sterling: What is mankind?
Jason Sterling: What is man?
Jason Sterling: That you are mindful of him?
Jason Sterling: Important to note.
Jason Sterling: He's not asking if God cares.
Jason Sterling: He knows God cares.
Jason Sterling: That is assumed.
Jason Sterling: But he is astounded in this moment and amazed in this moment at why the creator of this vast world would think about and consider and be mindful of fragile, small, mortal human beings like us.
Jason Sterling: Think about this the nearest star to us is 4.2 light years away.
Jason Sterling: Let me put that in perspective.
Jason Sterling: If you were to get in your car, set the cruise at 75, whatever highway speed you go and you did not stop, it would take you 30 million years to get to the nearest star.
Jason Sterling: Years to get to the nearest star.
Jason Sterling: It's estimated that in our galaxy there is over a hundred billion stars and yet this God, who set each of those in place with his fingers, knows you by name and is mindful of you personally.
Jason Sterling: I feel like stopping the service.
Jason Sterling: Let's do the benediction, chris, come up and let's fall down on our face and let's worship, because that is amazing and it should stop us.
Jason Sterling: Notice the progression God's greatness leads to contemplation.
Jason Sterling: The contemplation you see it here leads to perspective, and that perspective leads to this fundamental question about our place in the world.
Jason Sterling: David is not having a crisis of faith.
Jason Sterling: He's having a moment of clarity.
Jason Sterling: And in that moment of clarity it doesn't paralyze David and he doesn't go whoa pitiful me.
Jason Sterling: It drives him up to God, not away from God.
Jason Sterling: And so when you're lying awake at 2 am and you're worried about your children and you're worried about your health and you're worried about your finances and you're worried about your relationship status and you're worried about your future, consider this.
Jason Sterling: Consider Psalm 8, that the one who put the stars in place is mindful of you.
Jason Sterling: When you feel small, when you feel invisible and forgotten, in whatever context that is for you, walk outside on a clear night and look up If there are too many lights around you.
Jason Sterling: Drive outside of Birmingham on a clear night and look up If there are too many lights around you.
Jason Sterling: Drive outside of Birmingham, lay down, look up in content, don't glance.
Jason Sterling: Don't glance.
Jason Sterling: Consider and contemplate the creation of God and remember that the God who put the stars in place knows your name and he cares for you and knows and cares about the details of your life.
Jason Sterling: The question is not whether or not you will feel small in this world.
Jason Sterling: Of course you will.
Jason Sterling: We all have those feelings when we're overwhelmed by life or whatever the circumstances might be.
Jason Sterling: The question is what do you do with that feeling?
Jason Sterling: Will you let it drive you to despair, or will you let it drive you up, drive you to look up at the God who is mindful of you?
Jason Sterling: Secondly, let's consider our place in creation.
Jason Sterling: It gets even better, believe it or not.
Jason Sterling: Look at verse five.
Jason Sterling: Yet you have made him human beings, a little lower than the heavenly beings.
Jason Sterling: Follow the footnote If you have the ESV, the English Standard Version, and you'll see there a little lower another way to translate it is than God and crowned him with glory and honor.
Jason Sterling: This is a stunning reversal that changes absolutely everything in our lives, if we can grab hold of this inside of our hearts.
Jason Sterling: He's contemplating how fragile life is in God's vast creation, and fragile we are.
Jason Sterling: And then he starts talking about our unique position in creation as human beings.
Jason Sterling: Our elevated position in creation as human beings, a little higher than the animals but lower than God, echoes, of course, of Genesis, chapter 1.
Jason Sterling: Human beings, the pinnacle of creation, made in the image of God, reflecting the glory of God in ways that other parts of creation?
Jason Sterling: Do not.
Jason Sterling: But here's what really got me this week.
Jason Sterling: Did you notice the coronation language in the second part of the verse?
Jason Sterling: God has crowned humanity with his own glory and honor, and this isn't an earned crown.
Jason Sterling: This isn't an earned dignity and glory.
Jason Sterling: It is bestowed upon us by God.
Jason Sterling: You did not crown of glory and honor on your head.
Jason Sterling: One of my favorite books of recent years is Theo of Golden.
Jason Sterling: If you've been around me any length of time, you've probably heard me talk about this book.
Jason Sterling: It's a book by Alan Levi and it's a story about an 86-year-old man who leaves his sophisticated life in New York City and moves to this small southern town in Georgia and he walks into a coffee shop and he sees 92 portraits of people in the town and in the community and something moves him and he decides that these portraits need to go to their owner.
Jason Sterling: They need to go to the owner of the portraits or whoever the portrait is.
Jason Sterling: Whoever I think you get the picture.
Jason Sterling: Whoever that picture is of needs to go to that person.
Jason Sterling: And so he decides to take the next year and he writes a note and he reaches out to this person and he meets them and he gives them the portrait and starts to get to know these people on a deep friendship level.
Jason Sterling: He befriends an eccentric, homeless woman named Ellen, and he befriends a young cellist, an artist, a barista, a store owner, a custodian, a lawyer and a high school student.
Jason Sterling: He wants them to know their beauty and their dignity and their potential.
Jason Sterling: Theo sees far more in them than they see in themselves and you know what starts to happen the entire city is transformed.
Jason Sterling: When people begin to see themselves, through Theo's eyes, as worthy of their portraits being painted, as worthy of being known, as worthy of being celebrated, it changes everything.
Jason Sterling: They start to treat one another differently and they start to recognize the inherent dignity in their neighbors that they had previously overlooked.
Jason Sterling: That is exactly what happens if we grasp Psalm 8.
Jason Sterling: If we grasp Psalm 8.
Jason Sterling: That's what happens if we specifically grasp verse 5.
Jason Sterling: When you start to understand that, by the grace of God, god has bestowed on you his glory and honor, it changes you, not only how you view yourself, but also the way you treat the other people around you.
Jason Sterling: You see, this verse addresses, and this Psalm addresses, the fundamental question that every person asks do I matter?
Jason Sterling: And David notice where he goes looking for the answer.
Jason Sterling: He doesn't go down here, he doesn't go to human achievement and he had lots of human achievement.
Jason Sterling: He doesn't go outside of himself, he doesn't go to the culture, he looks up to God and he lets God tell him who he is.
Jason Sterling: And, friends, the fact that God has crowned you and given you, made in the image of God, glory and honor and dignity.
Jason Sterling: It addresses both pride and despair.
Jason Sterling: If you struggle with feelings of a poor self-image or if you are always full of shame and feeling worthless.
Jason Sterling: We remember that God, the God of the universe, he has crowned you with his glory and honor.
Jason Sterling: You matter not because of what you have accomplished, or what you accomplish or don't accomplish, or what your grade point average is, or how good you are morally, or how many followers you have on social media and whether you're an influencer or not.
Jason Sterling: You matter because God says you matter.
Jason Sterling: He tells you who you are because God says you matter.
Jason Sterling: He tells you who you are, and maybe this morning you're a person that tends to struggle with pride.
Jason Sterling: Well, remember that your crown and your glory is bestowed.
Jason Sterling: It is not earned All the things that you have achieved.
Jason Sterling: Whatever they are, they are gifts from Almighty God.
Jason Sterling: Because you are crowned with glory and honor, you can hold your head high without being arrogant, and you can bow your head low without falling into despair.
Jason Sterling: Because God says you are royal and you wear a crown without falling into despair.
Jason Sterling: Because God says you are royal and you wear a crown, it has profound, profound implications, too, on how we treat one another.
Jason Sterling: And this is when it gets tough, because if God crowns you, we normally like that.
Jason Sterling: But it also means God has crowned others as well.
Jason Sterling: God has crowned the person in your workplace or in your school, or in your family, or in your church or in your neighborhood.
Jason Sterling: He has crowned the ones that annoy you and whose views you despise.
Jason Sterling: He's given them the same glory and honor that he's given you.
Jason Sterling: And think about Theo.
Jason Sterling: When we begin to see others as worthy of being known and celebrated and having their portraits painted, it changes everything.
Jason Sterling: I mean, just think about that with me for a second and think about our world.
Jason Sterling: What would happen if we started to see all the people around us as people who have been bestowed with the crown of glory and honor just by being human Doesn't mean you agree with them about everything.
Jason Sterling: But if we saw them as human beings, created in the image of God, bearing his image and starting to recognize God's glory in people that we tend to overlook, friends, that would change our world.
Jason Sterling: It would change our neighborhoods and our schools and our churches and our cities and our country.
Jason Sterling: Remember when you wonder, do I matter?
Jason Sterling: You know what your heart's crying out for.
Jason Sterling: Your heart's crying out for God.
Jason Sterling: He is the only one that can answer that question definitively.
Jason Sterling: If you look down here for the answer to that question, it will destroy you.
Jason Sterling: If you look to this world and your accomplishments and the culture to tell you who you are and to validate you, it will destroy you.
Jason Sterling: God made you and he gets to tell you who you are, and so look up and be reminded of who you are, that you wear a crown, and let God answer that question in your life.
Jason Sterling: Lastly, consider our calling.
Jason Sterling: Look at verses six through 8.
Jason Sterling: David declares that God has given humanity dominion over his creation.
Jason Sterling: So another clear allusion to Genesis, chapter 1.
Jason Sterling: The word dominion here gets at this idea of care and stewardship and wisdom and careful rule.
Jason Sterling: And so God has put humanity and we know this from the creation account in Genesis 1, has put humanity in charge of caring for and stewarding creation.
Jason Sterling: How are we doing?
Jason Sterling: How are we doing with that?
Jason Sterling: Well, you start reading the Bible and look around.
Jason Sterling: We have failed, haven't we?
Jason Sterling: Miserably, as stewards of God's creation?
Jason Sterling: Think about it this way Pretend you're going out of town for a couple of weeks, let's say on a trip.
Jason Sterling: You get your neighbor over, you say I need you to take care of my home and you tell them where everything is.
Jason Sterling: You tell them exactly what needs to be done.
Jason Sterling: You give them a key to your place.
Jason Sterling: You leave.
Jason Sterling: You come back in two weeks and you pull up to the driveway and you say something's not right.
Jason Sterling: The windows are broken out, your door's left wide open.
Jason Sterling: The place is a disaster.
Jason Sterling: The pets are starving because they've not been fed, your garden is trampled, your flowers have not been watered.
Jason Sterling: They are dying.
Jason Sterling: Your neighbor, we could say, has failed in the stewardship of your home.
Jason Sterling: That is humanity's story.
Jason Sterling: That is our story with creation.
Jason Sterling: God entrusted us with his beautiful world and we have left it a mess of our mentally, morally, economically, technologically, relationally.
Jason Sterling: We have been terrible stewards.
Jason Sterling: We have served and used our dominion to dominate rather than serve, to exploit rather than cultivate, to take rather than give.
Jason Sterling: That's the bad news.
Jason Sterling: The good news is, the gospel transforms everything, and you know how?
Jason Sterling: In Hebrews, chapter 2, verses 6 through 9.
Jason Sterling: And if you have your Bible open, please turn there, if not write it down, look this up later, because it reveals that this psalm ultimately points to Jesus Christ.
Jason Sterling: The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 8 and then makes this critical observation Listen, in putting everything under them, humanity, god has left nothing that is not subject to them.
Jason Sterling: And yet, at the present time, we do not see everything subject to them.
Jason Sterling: In other words, at the present time, we look around and it's a mess.
Jason Sterling: And this psalm has promised complete dominion, but we see, in reality we fail to achieve it.
Jason Sterling: Then comes the gospel.
Jason Sterling: If you keep reading in Hebrews, chapter 2, listen to this.
Jason Sterling: I love this, but we do see Jesus.
Jason Sterling: But we do see Jesus, who made himself a little lower than the angels for a little while.
Jason Sterling: Listen, not crowned with glory and honor, but with death.
Jason Sterling: Isn't that astounding?
Jason Sterling: The hymn in Psalm 8 is ultimately not about humanity in.
Jason Sterling: It is about Jesus, the perfect human, who succeeded where we have failed.
Jason Sterling: How did Jesus accomplish dominion over creation?
Jason Sterling: His life Think about the life of Jesus.
Jason Sterling: He demonstrated perfect dominion with his acts of restoration and service, rather than personal power.
Jason Sterling: He calmed the storm.
Jason Sterling: Why?
Jason Sterling: To bring peace.
Jason Sterling: He fed the hungry, he healed the sick.
Jason Sterling: Why To restore and heal creation.
Jason Sterling: We also see it in his dominion, his ultimate expression, through his death, through making himself a little lower than the angels for a little while, by hanging from a cross, and he shatters death's hold over humanity.
Jason Sterling: How, through his resurrection, he ascends into heaven.
Jason Sterling: He sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, now ruling over creation.
Jason Sterling: And right now, romans 8 says all of creation is groaning and waiting for Jesus, our King, to return and finally and fully bring perfect peace to this world and perfect dominion to this world over creation, the way God intended it.
Jason Sterling: Last question so what do we do until then?
Jason Sterling: We don't just say well, whatever, right, no.
Jason Sterling: Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we live out our callings as redeemed stewards.
Jason Sterling: As redeemed stewards, god has redeemed us, not just our souls, yes, but also our calling.
Jason Sterling: We're not just saved from something, we're saved to something and for something, and that something is to be caretakers of creation, the way God intended us to be.
Jason Sterling: And so now this is another sermon, but let me give you a couple of takeaways and ways to apply this.
Jason Sterling: Now, united to him, we can begin to exercise dominion as stewards and serve, rather than exploit, everything God has given you, has been placed under you and under your care to steward.
Jason Sterling: And of course we naturally go to the environment.
Jason Sterling: Of course that's part of this, but it's way broader than that.
Jason Sterling: It means stewarding your gifts, the gifts that God has given you.
Jason Sterling: And so that gets at your work and what God's called you to do.
Jason Sterling: It gets at how you treat your employees.
Jason Sterling: Are you a good steward of the people that God has placed under you?
Jason Sterling: It gets at the stewardship of your family and the stewardship of your wealth and your money.
Jason Sterling: And it gets at the stewardship and how we care for our neighborhoods and how we care for the neighbors around us See how extensive.
Jason Sterling: And it gets at how we steward and use our words, and we could go on and on.
Jason Sterling: We are called to be different, to be the kind of stewards who point people to the perfect steward, jesus Christ, who is making all things new.
Jason Sterling: And so, as we close the next time, you feel overwhelmed and you feel small and you wonder in this vast universe, do you really matter and does God really care?
Jason Sterling: Do what David did and look up and consider God's glory and majesty that he has displayed in creation.
Jason Sterling: Consider the crown of glory and honor that he has placed on your head and, lastly, consider your sacred calling that God has given human beings to steward this world with wisdom and care and love.
Jason Sterling: Let's pray, father, thank you that you are mindful of us.
Jason Sterling: And, holy Spirit, I pray that we would live believing that this week, that you have crowned us and made us in the end, to the image of God, which is an amazing thing, and I pray that, through your spirit, you would help us to see others that way.
Jason Sterling: And then, lastly, would you help us?
Jason Sterling: It's hard.
Jason Sterling: We need you, holy Spirit, to help us be good stewards of all that you have given us.
Jason Sterling: So would you help us in our little corner of this vast world that you have put us over?
Jason Sterling: Help us to be good stewards of it.
Jason Sterling: We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.