Do people have guardian angels?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Michael. We've been in a season on lots of questions related to the spiritual realm. So today's question that we want to dive into is, do people have guardian angels? [00:00:17] Speaker B: So the. I think the answer might surprise people. The answer, my personal sense would be yes, but not in the way that I think culture, like the sentimental way that culture imagines. Okay, so let's talk about yes, but. Yes, but. So the Bible never teaches that every single person has one specific assigned guardian angel. And that would be nice. I'd actually love to know that there's, like, some being who is assigned to me from Earth. You know, they're going to hang out with me and. And then this guardian angel is obligated to obey us. Like, if you start going down the route of some Roman Catholic, we'll just call spiritual realm teaching training online, they're going to say, you should pray to your guardian angel. You should ask your guardian angel for help. Your guardian angel is assigned to you, and then reports to the Father, stuff like that. So there just doesn't seem to be biblical evidence of that. But there are two things that I think are really, really important. So the Bible does seem to communicate Jesus strongly implies that children have assigned angelic representation. Okay, so let me read this to you in Matthew, chapter 18, verse 10. This is actually, I have read this to a handful of Christians who know the Word. This is never quite processed in their brain. So I think for some people, this might be a new concept. Matthew 18:10. Jesus says, See to it that you do not despise one of these little ones. And the context is there's a bunch of kids coming up to him, right? It says, for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Okay. So we might be tempted to take our notion of guardian angels and just kind of transport it on here. So, like, we just want to let the text say what it says and not have it say more than it says. Okay, so here's. Here's what we have. We have kids and there are angels. It doesn't say it's assigned to every individual kid, but there are angels assigned to. We'll just say children in general. It would appear that it is somehow for their protection because of their vulnerability. Again, the context is that the kids are coming to him, and then the Jews are saying, get the kids away. I mean, that's kind of the general vibe of what Jesus deals with with kids. But these angels are always seeing the face of the Father of Jesus. Fathers in heaven and that seems to be a reporting structure. So they have access to the Father, they're reporting on what's going on. Somebody might say, isn't God omniscient? Yes, God's omniscient. But there are structures in place that he outputs that are to protect real time in the spiritual realm. So he uses other agents such as angels and people to accomplish his will. So here's what we got minimally. Okay. We have kids in general, there are a group of angels that are. At least part of their job is to protect children. So that's number one. And I really appreciate that. I wonder how many times maybe my kids would have died if they did not have some level of angelic protection. I have no idea. Surprising. But Jesus is clear. You mess with one of these kids, they have angels watching and those angels are reporting to the Father. And so the Father's going to know everything you do to these little kids. That's pretty cool. Makes you want to really honor and respect little kids or any kind of kid. So the second thing is that Hebrews teaches that angels are ministering spirits that are to serve not all of humanity, but they are to serve believers. This comes from Hebrews 1:14 says, Are they not all referring to angels ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? And so angelic ministry is A, for all the people of God, and B, there is especially. It doesn't even distinguish Christian and non Christian kids that there are angels who report to the Father and represent children for their protection in some way. So do we have guardian angels? There are angels that are sent to guard uniquely children, but all Christians. And I actually think this is kind of cool because you don't just have one, you could have a myriad or multiple angels like actually sent for your protection. Yeah. So Psalm, Psalm 91, my kind of final thought on this. Verse 11. He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up to a pretty cool passage. [00:04:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And this is the same passage. You can correct me if I'm wrong. Whenever the devil is tempting Jesus, right? Whenever he's takes him to the temple, like pinnacle of the temple, and it says, throw yourself down because the angels will bear you up. And Jesus, he knows that the devil's trying to do this gotcha thing to assert the devil's authority. And Jesus is not having it, but he is referencing this passage. Yeah. [00:05:12] Speaker B: And it's interesting how easy it is to take some of this out of context. Yeah, Throw yourself off a building. Angels get you, right? And maybe they would get Jesus, I don't know. But, like, I guess whenever the devil tries to use the word of God to get you to do something, don't do it. [00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that's probably the takeaway. [00:05:27] Speaker B: It's a trap. Yeah. Yeah. So big picture, though, be encouraged. Even though you can't see them, Angelic armies are real and they are sent by God to protect his people and then also to protect children. [00:05:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I appreciate that. Also, I think some people maybe listening would think, well, like, what's. If I have a guardian angel? If there are guardian angels or ministering spirits, like, again, I can do something crazy. And, like, they're going to keep me from doing that or they're going to intervene or I was almost in a car crash and I survived. And, like, we don't know exactly how they minister or guard or protect, but it definitely seems to be like we live in a world where God doesn't quite intervene. The way we're picturing in that scenario of, like, you know, this car was headed to, like, fall off a cliff and, like, God stopped it with the hand of an angel. Maybe, maybe. But, yeah, we can't. Like, that just doesn't seem to be the way God usually works in terms of, like, our world today. Would that be a fair thing to say? [00:06:28] Speaker B: I'm going to go into the category of surmising a little bit of philosophy, right? So, like, one would be there's a determined amount of days for your life. You can try to live longer than that. You can't. And so I imagine a world. I'm going to make something up here, but I imagine a world where, Ryan, it's not your day. [00:06:45] Speaker A: It's. [00:06:45] Speaker B: You're asleep at the wheel and all of a sudden your car starts to veer and God's like, in his omniscience, he sends an angelic messenger. Just be like, hey, hey, buddy, wake up. How he does it, I don't know. And then I'll say revere out of the way. Right? And so, yeah, because the Lord's timing wasn't done with you, like, he could do that. At the same time, there are some people where their time comes up and I don't know, I would surmise, like, that person died in a car accident on that day, but had they not died in a car accident, they would have died some other way because that was the day. I have no idea how the providence of God, the omniscience of God all come together. Where God is orchestrating human events in such a way that accomplishes his will. But even within that, there's a whole lot of flexibility. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Right. [00:07:34] Speaker B: That's a real difference. [00:07:35] Speaker A: There's people making choices and. Yeah, yeah. [00:07:37] Speaker B: The other side of this, philosophically, would be like, this idea that angels have to stop everything. That's not their job. Their job is to support and help us, not to stop harm from happening. And so God is a respecter of people's decisions. He's also a respecter of people's authority. So as a mom and dad, I have authority, my wife and I, over our children. They reap the consequences of our good decisions and bad decisions. And it's not an angel's responsibility to stop me from doing the things that are within my scope of responsibility to do, good or bad. And so I do think there are times, though, that God could say, yeah, we're going to. We're going to stop that, because that doesn't need to happen right now. But it would appear the vast majority of situations, their job is not to prevent, but their job is to support and enable. Yeah, Generally speaking, I think that's a [00:08:26] Speaker A: really helpful clarification and nuance of that because I'm sure there are people that are, like, asking those questions, that are listening, and I think it's really helpful for them to understand. Like, again, there's some things we're surmising, but the way we see God work in scripture and throughout history, like, that tends to be the case. [00:08:41] Speaker B: Yeah, people are funny. They're like, I want you to stop all bad things, but don't touch me and leave me alone. My body, my choice. Let me do whatever I want. And I'm like, you actually can't have both worlds. I'm sorry. You know, like, it just does not quite work that way. So if you want freedom and responsibility, then with that comes, unfortunately, our ability to impact other people for great good and great harm and everything in between. [00:09:01] Speaker A: Yep. [00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:02] Speaker A: Well, thank you for the training and the help and the scriptures on those, Sam.