Do You Have A Guardian Angel?

Psalm 91:1-16
[1]He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of
the Almighty.
[2] I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."
[3] Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous
pestilence.
[4] He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His
truth shall be your shield and buckler.
[5] You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day,
[6] Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at
noonday.
[7] A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand;
but it shall not come near you.
[8] Only with your eyes shall you look, and see the reward of the wicked.
[9] Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your
dwelling place,
[10] No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
[11] For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
[12] In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
[13] You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you
shall trample underfoot.
[14] "Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on
high, because he has known My name.
[15] He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will
deliver him and honor him.
[16] With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation."
How many believe in angels?
The Bible tells us that there are numerous angels.
As far as I know, I have never seen an angel.
However, Hebrews 13:2 says, Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some
have unwittingly entertained angels.
So maybe I have seen an angel, but didn’t know it was an angel.
How many believe that there are guardian angels?
The phrase “guardian angel” comes from the ancient Jewish belief
that God assigns every child an angel at the time of birth.
The angel accompanies that person throughout his or her life.
God sends angels to protect us,
especially against the tricks of Satan.
Personally, I do believe in guardian angels.
I believe we all have guardian angels.
If we could see our guardian angels,
we would be overwhelmed by their beauty.
Every day this angel stands by your side.
Point #1. GUARDIAN ANGELS DO EXIST.
People believe in many things.
The best source of support
for the existence of guardian angels is the Bible.
Jesus seems to speak of the existence of guardian angels
when he told how evil it is to lead children into sin.
Matthew 18:10 "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to
you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
That is the foundation for the idea
that every little child has been assigned a guardian angel.
Skeptics would be quick to ask the questions,
“Why then do children die?”
I’m not going to deal with that question right now.
I’m just speaking about the reality of guardian angels.
The words of Jesus speak of the evidence that they do exist.
Psalm 91:11 opens up this idea to a wider sphere of influence.
It lets us see the possibility of adults also having guardian angels.
It says, "[11] For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
The next verse is the one Satan used to tempt Jesus.
It says, "[12] In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a
stone.
Listen to Matthew 4:5-6 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the
pinnacle of the temple, [6] and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself
down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands
they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' "
So Satan's first attempt to trick Jesus
was by a focus on the role of guardian angels.
It means it is easy to be deceived.
It is possible to make some presumptuous and dangerous choices
believing guardian angels will keep us safe.
Satan thought maybe even Jesus would take a chance, jump off that temple and expect
the angels to save Him.
Yes, guardian angels are real,
but we need to be cautious about what we do with their reality.
Guardian angels are very active in the book of Acts.
Peter and other Apostles are put in jail in Acts 5.
Verse 19 says, But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought
them out,
In Acts chapter 12, it tells about Peter being freed from prison.
Rhoda, the servant girl, was trying to convince them
that Peter had been freed from prison
and was standing at the door.
Several Christians gathered together in a house were praying.
When the servant girl told them Peter was at the door,
they said to her, "You are beside yourself!" Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they
said, "It is his angel."
So they believed it was Peter’s guardian angel.
However, the Apostle Paul spent a lot of time in jails,
but he never had this experience that Peter had twice.
Paul had his guardian angel experience in a shipwreck.
In Acts chapter 27 Paul and 275 other prisoners, guards, and crew
are fighting for their life as a storm threatens to destroy the ship.
Paul encourages them to hold on for none will be lost,
and he says in verses 23 and 24, For there stood by me this night an angel of the God
to whom I belong and whom I serve, [24] saying, 'Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be
brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.'
Paul believed in the reality of guardian angels.
The evidence seems to suggest
that guardian angels are involved in crisis intervention.
They never seem to appear in everyday life
when all is going well.
They are usually involved in life and death situations.
Even in the life of Jesus we see this.
His life was in jeopardy when King Herod tried to kill Him.
That is when the guardian angel of the baby Jesus went to work.
He came to Joseph in a dream and told them to escape to Egypt.
So the Bible supports the reality of guardian angels.
So if you believe in the Bible, you are committed to belief in them.
Point #2. MANY PEOPLE REFUSE TO BELIEVE IN GUARDIAN ANGELS.
In spite of all the evidence in the Bible,
there are things we see happen that cause us to doubt.
The main problem is their inconsistency.
You cannot really count on them
to be there for a special delivery just when you most need it.
Yes, Jesus was spared as a baby by His guardian angel,
but what about the other boy babies Herod had killed?
If they had guardian angels, why did they let those babies die?
What about children who fall and get killed?
What about those children who drown
or did get hit by a car,
or swallow poison and die.
The birth of John the Baptist was announced by the angel Gabriel.
He was a special person in God's plan.
If anyone ought to have had angel protection,
you would think it would be John.
Yet the Bible says he was thrown into prison and beheaded.
James and Stephen were also killed by their enemies.
Many other Christians over the past 2,000 years
have been slaughtered.
That leads the Christian to doubt the existence of guardian angels.
We wonder if we can count on them.
They fall into the same category as a plastic saint
Maybe they are no more dependable than a lucky rabbit's foot.
It almost seems like a superstition
to have any faith in the protection of guardian angels.
We are forced to conclude that Christians
cannot claim any right to be protected from all accidents,
natural disasters, laws of nature, and evil forces.
It is not that such protection does not happen,
but it is not an automatic reality that we can depend on.
It is purely a matter of grace.
Point #3. THERE IS A WAY TO RECONCILE THE EXISTENCE OF GUARDIAN
ANGELS AND THEIR LACK OF TOTAL PROTECTION.
How can this contradictory evidence be true for both?
There must be some way to reconcile these two categories.
The key is to simply recognize the limitations of guardian angels.
God has limited Himself in relation to the gift of free will.
He cannot let us be free to make our own choice
and still make us do His will.
If He could, His will would always be done.
If God has limited Himself, then, of course,
His angels have that same limitation.
It is foolish to think that the job of a guardian angel
is to make sure we never do anything stupid or careless
that can injure us or even kill us.
If that was the power of our guardian angel,
then we could do anything we pleased,
and ignore the dangers this world presents.
We could believe that nothing could go wrong.
We could drink poison, drive a hundred miles per hour,
play Russian roulette, cross streets without looking,
and live with no care whatever for danger.
All danger and risk would be eliminated.
Nothing bad could ever happen to us.
This is obviously not the world we live in.
Guardian angels are not given powers that are greater than God's.
They cannot abolish the freedom we have
to make mistakes and wrong choices.
If you think you can count on a guardian angel to spare your life
when you take chances or put yourself in harm’s way,
you have been deceived.
Christians die for many reasons
that are the result of their own foolish choices.
They take risks that are dangerous.
They have no right to expect to be spared the consequences.
CLOSING:
Anything we do that is dangerous, and we do it deliberately,
is not a case where we can claim any right to protection.
It is when you are in danger, not by choice,
but because of circumstances beyond your control,
that the guardian angels come to your rescue.
So there is no contradiction
between having faith in guardian angels,
and not counting on them to relieve you of your responsibility.
Nowhere are we told to put our trust in guardian angels.
We are to put our trust in Jesus Christ.
We can pray that we may be spared from tragedy,
but it is our responsibility to try to avoid those things
that can cause tragedy.
When I travel I do pray for Jesus to protect me.
I ask for the protection of my guardian angel,
but I use all the wisdom I have learned over the years
to make sure I am driving in a way
that does not endanger myself or others.
I believe in guardian angels,
but I take my responsibility very seriously to protect myself.
I do not expect them to do what it is my job to do.