[0:00] This morning, if you have your Bibles, turn them where you are in Psalms again, chapter 100. And to be honest, I kind of my plan...! Is your plan always the same as God's plan?
[0:11] Well, my plan was to move on from Psalms, but I just...I'm not able to. So we are still in Psalms. And we're going to look at Psalms chapter 100 this morning. So I'm going to ask you to turn there.
[0:22] And once you've found it, if you're able, I'm going to ask you to stand as we read Psalms chapter 100 this morning. And we're going to read the whole chapter. It's only five verses long. But there is a great deal that it can teach us this morning.
[0:34] So Psalms chapter 100, and this is what God's Word shares with us today. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
[0:45] Come before His presence with singing. Know you that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
[0:57] Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting.
[1:08] And His truth endures to all generations. Let's pray. Lord God, thank You again for Your Word. I just pray, Lord, that You would speak to us through Your Word today. I pray that our hearts would be open, that our minds would be open, and that we would have a desire to reflect Your Word in our lives.
[1:27] So teach us, mold us, shape us, whatever You need to do to us this morning, Lord. I pray that You do. And thank You again for Your presence here. And it's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
[1:38] All right. You can be seated this morning. As you know, we've been talking about Psalms. We've been in Psalms for a few weeks now. We have looked at the fact, we looked at several chapters. Well, first of all, do you remember what a Psalm is?
[1:51] They were written as songs. All the Psalms were sung. They were songs of praise that they used in their worship.
[2:03] And as they sang them, there's a lot of different things that's talked about in Psalms, but most of it is praise. That is kind of the key to understanding Psalm. It is all about praising our God.
[2:14] And we looked at several chapters that started with praise you the Lord and ended with praise you the Lord. As a reminder to us that our lives should start with praising God and end with praising God.
[2:28] Our day should start with praising God and end with praising God. And what should be in the middle? Praising God too. Because God is worthy of our praise.
[2:40] And we talked about two things that we should do in our praise. We praise God for who He is. And we praise God for what He has done. Those two things should be a part of our praise life.
[2:52] As we understand who God is and what He has done for us. But this morning what I want to talk about is, it's not just important that we praise God, but it is just as important as how we praise God.
[3:08] What our attitude is like as we praise God. And I want you to look at the first verse in Psalms 100 that we read. Make a noise to the Lord, all you lands.
[3:22] It gives a descriptor there of what our noise should be like, doesn't it? I mean, there are lots of different kinds of noise we can make, isn't there? Can we make a lot of different noises?
[3:34] Yeah, and I love our kids in the service. Do they make a lot of different kinds of noises? Yeah. What are some noises we can make? Joyful noises.
[3:45] Happy noises. Laughter. That's a noise, right? Yelling in excitement. That's a noise. What are some other kinds of noises that can be made? Prayerful noise. What's that?
[3:56] A prayerful noise. A prayerful noise? All right. What other kind of noise? Annabelle? Faithful noises. Okay. That's just various noises we can make. That's a noise. So the kids we hear, are they always happy?
[4:08] No. No. So what other kinds of noises do we sometimes hear? Complaining. Complaining. Crying. Crying. Whining. Whining. But here's the thing.
[4:18] It's not just kids, is it? No. Let's be honest. Do we ever complain? Do we ever cry? Do we ever whine about things? But again, so it's not just a noise that we're to make.
[4:29] It tells us what kind of noise. It is to be a joyful noise. How would you describe joyful? What comes to your mind? Happy.
[4:42] Cheerful. A smiley face emoji. Okay. Laughter. Contentment. Anything else?
[4:55] You know, I read this, and all through Psalms, and especially in David's Psalms, and you know, the very next verse, it says, serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing and with joy.
[5:08] And that is found in so much of Psalms. The joy that we're supposed to have in our hearts. And I think that joy should lead to an excitement that we have.
[5:19] If we think of the joyful times in our life, the most joyful times that we have, does excitement go along with that? Yes, those things are tied hand in hand. Yes, those things are tied hand in hand, being joyful and being excited about something.
[5:34] And as I was thinking about this chapter and so many other chapters in Psalms, there's some E words that came to my mind. I don't know why they all start with E, but they do. Our praise as we praise God should have excitement as a part of it.
[5:51] We should be excited about who God is, shouldn't we? And we should be excited about what God has done. So excitement. The other E words, exuberance.
[6:02] What is that? That's kind of an odd word, but what does exuberance mean? Very excited. And then it's just kind of bubbling out of us. Excitement, exuberance, enthusiasm.
[6:14] What does that word mean? What's that? You're joyful. There's an enthusiasm that you have. Should those things describe us?
[6:26] Enthusiastic, exuberant, excited. Yeah, they should describe us. Sure enough.
[6:39] The other E word that comes to my mind I've mentioned before, but it's kind of on the other end of the scale. You know I use this example all the time. When my kids were growing up, I don't know if it's as much of a thing now, but we had a lot of Winnie the Pooh books at home.
[6:51] You all know Winnie the Pooh, right? There's another E word that can come up here that I think far too often describes us more than excited, exuberant, enthusiastic. Yeah, Eeyore.
[7:04] You know Eeyore. Well, yeah, I'm excited. God's done a lot. Which one of those really describes us?
[7:20] Think about it in our lives. Which one really describes us? Do we have that excitement about our faith? We should. Do we have that excitement about what God has done for us?
[7:30] Because, folks, if we truly understand what God has done for us, that He loved us enough to send His Son to die on the cross for us, and to rise again so that we could have everlasting life in heaven, folks, we don't deserve that.
[7:47] But God loved us enough to do that. Should that fill us with excitement? Yes. Should it make us enthusiastic? Yes.
[8:00] Why is it so important that our praise to God is full of excitement and enthusiasm? Why is that so important? He tells us to do that.
[8:13] Why else? It's contagious. And God deserves us being excited about it, doesn't He? Doesn't God deserve that?
[8:26] And I'm not saying that we should always be just full of energy, but there should be an enthusiasm to our faith. You know, as Carrie got up here and was sharing about Youth for Christ, would you describe that as enthusiastic when she was sharing?
[8:44] Carrie, you're enthusiastic about it. It's obvious. Wasn't it obvious? Life-wise, when Brooke was here, was she enthusiastic about what she had to share? Yeah. Why were they enthusiastic?
[8:58] Excited to share with the kids? Excited to be doing that ministry? It was evident. If they had come up here with no enthusiasm, with no excitement about what they were doing, what would you have thought?
[9:16] Oh, they don't like their job. What else? Think about it. I guess I want an answer. I want you thinking about it. If they had just been up here and just reading, oh, this is what YFC does.
[9:27] They're not that excited about the mission, about Christ. Can't make a connection. Probably wouldn't get a donation either. Probably wouldn't get a donation either.
[9:40] There's probably some truth there. You wouldn't want to be a part of it. It makes a difference when there is enthusiasm connected to it.
[9:52] There is an understanding that this person really has a feeling about what they're involved with. They really care about what they're involved with. Folks, do we care about our faith? Do we care about our message that we're carrying to the rest of the world?
[10:06] You know, last week we were talking about Psalms and how it's to be shared from generation to generation. If we don't share it with enthusiasm, are they going to think it's really that important to us?
[10:20] You know, they have to see the enthusiasm we have for our God. And as we read through Psalms, it says to make a joyful noise to God. It says to sing.
[10:31] It says to play all different types of musical instruments. Those are all things that are enthusiastic responses to God. And folks, I believe with all my heart we have to have that kind of enthusiasm in our faith lives.
[10:44] And I think so often we kind of lack that. But the world needs to see that in us. The next generation that we share with, they need to see that enthusiasm in us.
[10:56] That we are excited about this faith that we have. We are excited about the God we serve. And we're excited about what He has done for us. That is why it says, serve the Lord with gladness.
[11:09] Come into His presence with singing. And know you that the Lord, He is God. He has made us. And not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. God made us.
[11:20] So does He deserve some excitement and enthusiastic praise to Him because of that? I want you to turn to another Psalm that we're going to look at.
[11:32] Look at Psalms 96. Just back a little bit. Psalms 96.
[11:48] Look at the first verse. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless His name. Show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen and His wonders among the people.
[12:04] What is it telling us to do there? To sing. Not only to sing. It also says in verse 2 to show forth. To show it.
[12:15] Singing is something you do with your mouth, right? How do you show forth something? How do you show something? That's our actions, isn't it? And again, that has to do with our excitement about this faith that we have.
[12:29] And then in verse 3, declare His glory. Again, something that should come out of our mouths, this excitement that we have for our faith. But here's the other thing. Last week we talked about needing to share it with the next generation.
[12:42] But here it talks about even something different. Declare in verse 3, His glory among the... What is that next word? Heathen. What does that mean?
[12:54] Who are the heathen? Unsaved. Don't call them heathen, but they are. But what are the heathen? Unsaved. The unsaved. That means the world out there, doesn't it?
[13:06] That's what it's talking about. It means that we are to praise God, not just in here. This is where it starts. Often in Psalms, David especially said, I will praise God in the midst of the congregation.
[13:20] That means when they come together to serve the Lord, when they come together for worship services, that they would praise God. It is important that we do that as a family, isn't it? Because when somebody over here shares a praise, it should affect all the rest of us.
[13:36] So it's important that we do it in here. But it's just as important that that praise doesn't stop when we leave that door back there or you leave this door up here. It is vital that our praise does not end when we leave this building.
[13:51] Because God is telling us here, and it's telling us here in Psalms, declare His glory among the heathen. In other words, out in the world. We should be sharing our praise just as much out in this world as we do in here.
[14:05] That means it doesn't matter who you're around. Praise God anyway. Who you're around shouldn't have an impact on how much you praise God. Do you believe that?
[14:18] Now, is it easier in here? Yes. Why? Surrounded by the brothers and sisters. This is a place for God's people.
[14:29] We're surrounded by our brothers and sisters. Obviously, it's easier to praise God when we're in here, and that is important. What about when we go out into the world? Is it as easy? No. Why?
[14:40] Why? There is the question. Why is it not as easy? Co-workers. Because of co-workers? The influence is around you. The influence is around you, but why? Why is it harder when you're out in the world, when you're at work, when you're in the neighborhood?
[14:53] Why is that harder? Joe? Yeah. So there are times we may feel outnumbered, and it's tough to make ourselves known.
[15:09] Why else is it hard, though? At its core, why is it hard for us to praise God when we're outside the church? Afraid of how people will react.
[15:20] Are you ever afraid of how people will react? What might they think of you if you just praise God for all things? What might they think of you? What are some thoughts they might have?
[15:32] Be honest. Yeah. That's a weirdo. He's a crazy. You know that Baker guy from Oakwood area?
[15:43] That guy's just nuts. He's just praising God for everything. Could people say that about you or me? You know, I'm at the point in my life, I hope they say that about me.
[15:54] I don't care if they think I'm crazy or not. But we all need to arrive at that point. And I'm not saying I always have it right. I don't. But we need to be far more concerned about what God thinks of us than what people think of us.
[16:07] And God wants us to praise Him. And it says, among the heathen, when we're out in the world, we need to praise God. And we need to do it with just as much excitement out there as we have when we're in here.
[16:20] Because people, if they see that we have that excitement in our hearts about our faith, if we see that we are excited, they're going to start to wonder, maybe there's something to this.
[16:31] I think the guy's nuts, but boy, he's excited about something. And they're going to want to know more. But again, the same thing is like when Carrie or any of the ministries were up here.
[16:43] If you don't see that enthusiasm, do you really want to be a part of it? Our faith is no different, folks. We have to show them that we understand what a precious thing we have.
[16:55] That the salvation we have means everything to us. That we praise our God because He is worthy of it, because He has done so much for us.
[17:07] God is worthy of our praise. Do you believe that? I mean, we are in our worship service right now, right? Worship. You know what that word comes from?
[17:18] Worthy. That's what it comes from. God is worthy of our praise. And this is our worship service, not our worship meeting. It's our worship service. We are serving God by giving Him the praise because He's worthy.
[17:32] People need to see the excitement we have for that. That we genuinely understand what an amazing and wonderful thing that we have. That we are willing to praise God with all of our hearts, with all of our soul when we're in church.
[17:45] And we're willing to do the same thing when we're not in church. When we're in the rest of the world, we don't act any different than what we do in here. That's what God wants to see in our hearts. He wants to see an excitement because of what He has done for us.
[17:59] That's what true praise is all about. Praise should never be just a rote thing that we do. It should be a genuine thing that stems out of understanding what God has done for us.
[18:14] This morning, the sermon, it isn't complicated. Nothing that's shared here is complicated. But it can be a challenge.
[18:27] And I just want to encourage us to have the kind of enthusiasm that God wants us to have. To have the kind of enthusiasm that the world needs us to have.
[18:40] I pray we have that in our hearts. And I pray that others see that in us. I encourage you to think about your faith life, your faith walk.
[18:51] When you're out in the world, which E are you? Are you the Eeyore? Or are you the excited, exuberant, enthusiastic person of faith that God wants us to be?
[19:08] Let's pray. Lord God, thank You again for this day that You've given us. I thank You for Your Word. And Lord, I pray that it would challenge us this morning. And I know, Lord, there are times that we are tired.
[19:20] There are times that we are stressed. All of us have that in our lives. But that should not diminish the fact that we have a faith that we should be excited about them. Lord, that we have a faith that we should be excited to share, to tell others about.
[19:34] They should see in our lives that this genuinely means something to us. So, Lord, as we praise You, I ask that You help us to do that faithfully.
[19:47] But, Lord, also help us to do it enthusiastically. With excitement in our hearts. Understanding what a worthy God that You are.
[19:58] Understanding how much You've done for us. How much You deserve our praise. Help us to do that not just here, but when we're out in the world. In the name of Jesus, I pray.
[20:11] Amen.