[0:00] Alright, if you will join me in Psalm 145. Some of you that serve in Awana on Thursday nights, you weren't with us last Thursday when we started off in the psalm and we looked at the first portion of it and we'll continue in it tonight.
[0:14] It's always nice when you get to have a missionary give their own update. They do a good job, they know what's going on in their lives. We ought to pray for the churches there in Columbia. We as a church have had Matthew's Banquet or Levi's Luau.
[0:28] We've had the similar type of events, inviting people in. And I just love hearing from Miguel, him and Mary Angela, just having a great time serving the Lord. And his walk in faith has always been an encouragement to me.
[0:41] And I've really enjoyed this time with him home on furlough and getting to spend some time with him. Before I jump in back into Psalm 145, I'm going to ask Stephen Cofield, if you wouldn't mind coming up here.
[0:52] I want to make sure that we're all aware he'll be here before. It's coming upon us quickly. We have a one-night event for Grief Share. And I just want to make sure you have all the information so that as you're meeting people throughout the week, you might consider extending an invitation to them.
[1:06] Yeah, so I'll just start by saying Grief Share has been a great ministry. I've enjoyed being a part of it. It means a lot to me because it really is one of the ways that a church can really be a church.
[1:20] We are to comfort one another. And we've been in that group together twice. We've done two revolutions of the 13-week traditional Grief Share course.
[1:34] That's what I'm looking for. And had a lot of good times in there. Got to meet and know people a lot better that are within our own church. And it's been a real blessing to me.
[1:47] This is our first time doing Surviving the Holidays. And I'm excited about it. It's a one-day, two-hour event. It's a little bit different setup than the traditional Grief Share.
[1:57] There's still a video that goes with it. There's a workbook that goes with it. And that workbook is supposed to be something that can help you throughout the holiday season. But I was looking on their website and they say that grief is just harder during the holidays.
[2:11] And it really is. There's traditions that you're trying to figure out. What's changing? What's not changing? And there's different things. Different nostalgia. Different memories that come up that trigger emotions.
[2:25] So it can just be more intense. Grief can be more intense during the holiday season. During some special days. And this is just a two-hour event that's supposed to help people navigate the holidays a little bit better.
[2:37] Kind of prepare in advance for what they're going to face. And so I would encourage you to be part of it if it's something that you've done. If you've done the Grief Share before, I would love for you to participate in this with us.
[2:48] Just since it's our first time, I'd love to have a good group there. Whether it's been this year or in years past that you've lost a loved one. And maybe you're still having a difficult time through the holidays.
[2:59] Maybe this will be something that can help. Or maybe it can be something where you're a help to others. So I would encourage you to be a part of it. I would really encourage you. If you're going to be a part of it, please register online. You can go to griefshare.org.
[3:10] You can search and find our group. Griefshare.org. One word. Search and find our group. The Surviving the Holidays. And you can register right there. It really does help us to get a number for who's going to be there.
[3:22] And through the website is the best way to register. I would also encourage you. Please let your friends, family, loved ones, people in your neighborhood that you know have lost someone. Let them know about it.
[3:34] No doubt there are people in this community that can be helped by this. And I would love for them to find it. And you might be the person that helps them find it. So get a card.
[3:45] Get just the website. It would be easy. You can actually send an invite. So if you have their email address, you can send an invite. And it would send them to griefshare.org, to our group, to where they can register. So I would encourage you to do that.
[3:56] The other thing that I will say is that they do a really good job of giving the gospel. Throughout the griefshare courses, the lessons, the videos, all through it, they find ways to clearly give the gospel.
[4:11] And I really appreciate that. And that's why I think that someone can come here looking for help during the holidays for their grief. And they can find the ultimate comfort in knowing that their sins are forgiven.
[4:23] So it's a great thing. It's a great ministry. And I'd appreciate it if you'd help us get the word out. Thank you. We have a great team working and group share, compassionate people. But our confidence is found in the word of God.
[4:35] It's all sufficient to help and point people to Jesus. And you may know or may not know that Miss Mary DeLuce that attended here for many years, she passed away on Thanksgiving.
[4:46] So we ought to be in prayer for John. And this Thanksgiving and every Thanksgiving will be difficult for him. And as Stephen has said, holidays are something that's more difficult. And they need the warmth of Christian fellowship during that time.
[4:59] As we jump back into Psalm 145, I'll give you a review. This is the last chapter of this section of Psalms. And we're just a handful of Psalms from finishing the book.
[5:11] And we've been, as you know, in here for quite some time. If you're preparing at the beginning of the year to start a new reading plan, I would recommend that you find one that has Psalms in every day of your reading.
[5:22] It has a special place in the life of a believer. And we see so many of the different emotions and learning how to... We've seen so many of them are lamenting, like something they would discuss, a group share.
[5:33] It gives us words for celebration. It just gives us words to help express the emotions that we have in our lives. This psalm, the description above it, has the word praise in it. And that's unique to this psalm, that it tells us that we should praise the Lord.
[5:49] I said last Thursday, and I was incorrect that... Well, I corrected the fact that it's an acrostic, meaning that each of the verses start with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But I said it was just missing one. But with some help, I've seen that it's missing more than one.
[6:01] It's missing a few. And as I told you last week, I don't know why. All right? In about 50 or less years, I bet you I'll know exactly why. All right? And I'll share it with you. But I don't know why that is the case.
[6:14] But for Greg and those that love alliteration, it's divided up into greatness, goodness, glory, government, and grace. And tonight we'll look at greatness and goodness.
[6:26] And Greg, if you wouldn't mind getting me some water. No coffee. I know you think it's better than water, but I'll just take some water, okay? But if you don't need an alliteration, try praising God for who He is and what He has done.
[6:39] That's what we're looking at primarily tonight, praising God for who He is and what He has done. I'm going to read the entire chapter. Hope you'll follow along with me in your Bible. And then we'll look at it some more.
[6:52] Verse 1. I will extol Thee, my God, O King, and I will bless Thy name forever and ever. Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name forever and ever.
[7:03] Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of Thy majesty, and of Thy wondrous works.
[7:17] And men shall speak of the might of Thy terrible acts, and I will declare Thy greatness. Terrible here being wonderful and great, not always negative, just wonderful, marvelous acts.
[7:31] Thank you, sir. And they shall abundantly utter the memory of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy.
[7:47] The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord, and Thy saints shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
[8:05] Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and rises up all those that be bowed down.
[8:16] The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thou hand, and satisfieth the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.
[8:28] The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them.
[8:39] The Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all the flesh bless His holy name forever and ever.
[8:51] Tonight we'll continue looking at the greatness of God, and how it is central to our lives. The greatness of God, and how it is central to our lives. Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your Word.
[9:02] Lord, I thank You for the example provided here for us, in seeing a prayer, an expression from David, Lord, unto You. And Lord, I pray that we would allow our hearts to be aligned by Your Word.
[9:14] Lord, as it's been sung, may we prepare room for You in our lives. May we prepare room for Your work inside of our hearts. And may Your Word have its desired effect in our lives.
[9:26] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So last week, when we were looking at how the greatness of God is central to our lives, David served as an example, looking at verse number 1. He said, I will extol Thee, my God, O King, and I will bless Thy name forever and ever.
[9:43] We took note of the fact that David, he approached the Lord with humility. He says, as the King of Israel, but when he addressed the Lord, he said, You are O King.
[9:55] You are the King above everything else. I am a father to my children, but He is the Heavenly Father. I am, I have a position to play in this world, but He is the greater in all of those positions.
[10:06] So David, if he's going to have a heart of praise, it's going to start off with humility. We've missed out on many opportunities to praise the Lord because we don't come with a mindset of humility.
[10:17] But as Greg brought me this water, I appreciate that. I was thinking when I was growing up in a small town in Kentucky, the pastor always had water up on there when he preached.
[10:29] And so one of the first times that I preached, I thought, well, I want to have my own water. And they always called me the kid preacher. So I thought, Brother John, I thought this would be really funny. So when I went to preach, I decided to make Kool-Aid out of the water up at the pulpit.
[10:43] And I made quite a mess of it. It was not a good idea. All right. And the pastor was quite upset with me for good reason. And he said, what were you doing? I said, well, I thought it would be comical.
[10:54] You call me a kid preacher. You know, I'm going to make Kool-Aid. And he said, well, one, in a church, we don't play around with Kool-Aid. All right. And he told me a story about that. All right. We don't play around with Kool-Aid. And he said, you definitely don't make it in front.
[11:06] He just said, it seemed irreverent. All right. That's not the way you should be approaching your job of preaching. So that was the last time that I made Kool-Aid. And I really thought about it for a while since then.
[11:16] But the approach in which you come to things. David, he come to his time of praise with a humility. He could not see God in his greatness if he was filled with pride and seeing himself as the greatest.
[11:31] So praise starts with a humble approach to God. Second, in verse 1, it says, my God. So even when we're together corporately, like we are at the night and we sung songs together, it is always personal.
[11:43] There's a personal decision that you have to make. You can be among hundreds of people that are singing praises to the Lord. But you personally have to make the decision that you are going to worship and that you are going to sing and that you're going to respond to his greatness.
[11:57] It doesn't just happen in music, but it happens when we respond to who he is. And then he speaks about his resolve. I'll bless his name forever. I will praise his name forever. That's at the end of verse number 1.
[12:07] And he says, I'm going to do this. It's going to be my life. I am going to worship. I've said it many times and others have as well. You don't have a choice in the matter of worship. You only have a direction in which you can worship.
[12:18] Your lives are going to be spent worshiping either yourself or lesser things. Or you could have decided that you're going to resolve in your heart that your worship is going to be towards the Lord and forever.
[12:29] And the last thing we saw in that first two verses was that it's relevant for every day of our lives. And that's why I said the greatness of God should be central to our lives.
[12:40] Verse number 2 said, Every day will I bless thee. I will praise thy name forever and ever. Every day. Not just on Sundays, but every day I will bless thee.
[12:51] I will worship and I will make much of you. Adrian Rogers said, I want the manifold presence of God in my life. I need nothing more and I will settle for nothing less.
[13:03] I want the manifold presence of God in my life. And being aware of the fact that God's put his blessings on you. Which Thanksgiving is a condition of the heart. Should be more than a day on the calendar.
[13:14] But we should constantly be seeking where God has done wonderful works in our lives and be praising his name. Those are the first couple verses. And then the question is, why would we praise the Lord in this manner?
[13:27] Why would we praise the Lord in this manner? I'm starting like college football a little bit. It's part of being in Georgia almost 20 years. Might as well get on board with everything that's going on. In Kentucky, I don't even remember them talking about it.
[13:39] If you watch a football game in Kentucky, they're talking about the basketball season. All right. It's changing a little bit. But I know here in Georgia, there's a big love for the Bulldog Nation. Ain't that right, Miss Rhonda Gibby?
[13:51] All right. No, she's a Clemson fan. But there's love for college football. And so there's a lot of things that make sense to me. I understand. I played in high school. Even though now when I play basketball, I don't think I ever played anything.
[14:03] But I played in high school. And I can understand the dedication. But something happened recently. And I've asked a few of you about it. And I just can't wrap my head around it. Is that this one team wanted to get rid of their coach so bad that the booster club raised like $120 million to buy this man out of his contract so that they could fire him.
[14:24] All right. And that's just mind-boggling to me. It's amazing to me to consider that somebody might have wrote a check for $100,000 or $1,000,000 just simply so that when they watch football on Saturday, they don't have to see that coach anymore.
[14:41] And some of you are like, I get it. All right. But most of you in here are like, I just cannot imagine. Because what somebody valued at such an extreme amount, I'm not even crossing the road for.
[14:52] You know? Like, I am just not even considering it. Something that could be that valuable to some group has just absolutely no value in my life. I respect that we all have different interests and different hobbies.
[15:04] And there's other things that I've never spent a million dollars on and get anybody fired from a job. But I have other things I waste time in. But the point is, the value system that is placed upon it.
[15:15] So the question is, and I would hope that people would look at my life and your life and they would say, I don't understand why those people put such a value upon it. Not because it's good that they don't know, but it's good that they know that we put a value system.
[15:28] Why are you guys giving so much of one of your days off on this weekend to be with God's people tonight? Why am I always seeing you coming and going? Why every time I see you, you're running and doing something like this?
[15:40] We have a different value system. And it's based on the fact that we believe that the Lord is worthy of praise in this manner. He's worthy of a humble approach. He's worried of us giving our lives personally.
[15:51] He's worthy of us saying that I'm going to worship you with all of my days. He's worthy of daily worship. So God is great and greatly to be praised.
[16:02] Verse 3, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. His greatness is unsearchable. You cannot exhaust it. You cannot know it all.
[16:14] God is holy, as it's said here. That's what we're looking at here. These two areas of greatness and goodness, they come out of the fact that he is holy. God is unlike us.
[16:25] He is holy. He is distinct and separate. He is not superhuman. God is not a better version of you and I. He is holy and he is distinct.
[16:36] And when it comes to thinking about God, the Bible gives us so many scriptures to help us see this about him. How even as now in heaven, in Isaiah chapter number 6, when you think about holiness, this is a passage that you often get to where it says he is holy, holy, holy.
[16:54] And Lori, I always think about how your uncle would always say thrice holy, but I don't use the word thrice enough to pull that off, all right? But the thrice holy God. Holy, holy, holy.
[17:05] Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. In the year that the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
[17:15] And above it stood the seraphims, which one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
[17:30] The whole earth is full of his glory. And it is showing us here the distinctness and the holiness and the greatness of our Lord.
[17:41] We want, we are trying, the world tries to convince us that the path towards happiness is a separate path towards holiness. The word of God and religion and all that is trying to steal from your happiness, but that's not the case.
[17:55] They're not at odds with another. They're on the same path of following Jesus, wanting to live a holy life, which leads to happiness. But as the Lord is separate, his greatness is unsearchable here.
[18:06] And that's what is being focused on here in the term greatness. It has to do with his holy distinctness. And his actions are worthy of telling the next generation. Verse 4.
[18:17] One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. I believe it was last Sunday, was it, where we had little Wesley up here with the guitar? It was that a couple weeks ago and we had the group up here of little children and they were singing and they were looking out upon the generation that was older than them leading them into singing those songs.
[18:38] It is our, it's our responsibility to praise his name. If anyone ever tells you a story, I know I do this a lot. If I ever tell you a story about the goodness of God, Brother Paul, and I've ever, and you say, I've heard this before, well just sit quietly and let me tell it again, all right?
[18:55] Because we're not the only ones that are listening. God is worthy of it. It's okay if you have a story that you love to tell over and over again. He's worthy of it. You ought to find places to tell it and go everywhere you can.
[19:08] When I worked at a church in Ohio, I didn't have many places to teach the Bible. And so what I did was I wrote a lesson every week and I would go out and I would find people in the apartment complex that I live near and I would ask them and I would say, I've learned something recently about God from his word.
[19:28] Can I tell you about it? Because I thought if I was ever going to teach faithfully and often that I should go ahead and decide to do that now. And I never found a shortage of things to tell people about God.
[19:41] Never did and never, never will. God's actions are worthy of telling the next generation. And as a church, we're given this opportunity, Ephesians 3.10, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers of heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.
[20:01] Church family, let's make it known the wisdom of God. And the way in which we live our lives, the way in which we care for each other, the wisdom, the sermon that he gives unto us, we let people know, we let the next generation know.
[20:16] And then we see in verse number five that God has a glorious purpose in this world. So not only is he great, which means he's holy, and that greatness should be spoken about to the next generation, but he has a purpose.
[20:26] I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and thy wondrous works. Or as Ephesians would talk about, showing forth the exceeding richness of his grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.
[20:40] And so discussions of his rich grace and kindness should not be missing from our homes. For our children, they walk away from faith, but they should never rebel against, as they might rebel against truth, but also they should have to rebel against the implications of that truth, which is joy.
[20:57] Let me try to say that again. If people in our lives, they walk away from our understanding and our faith, they should not only be rebelling against the rules in which we live by, but they should have to rebel against the joy that we have in knowing God's word and his wondrous works.
[21:17] We have a twofold responsibility in teaching about God, not only a precept of God's word, but the joy that it brings to our lives. And so when I, several of us went and heard John Lennox many years ago, and before he was a Christian, he said, I knew, if anything, from listening to my dad, that Christianity could be anything but boring.
[21:37] Because his dad just loved the Bible. His dad just loved talking about Jesus. And so he said, if I'm going to rebel against this thing, I will have to rebel against it, but knowing that my dad thinks it is not boring.
[21:51] It's very important. I'll just pause there for a moment because we're talking about the next generation. At 40 years old and three teenagers in the house, I'm not going out of my way to find people to talk about parenting with, all right?
[22:03] Except for the word of God. When the word of God says something, I feel full confidence is the right thing to do. Just meaning I don't have any confidence in the flesh and in my own wisdom. But the Bible tells me time and time again that God, that my joy and satisfaction in him comes as an important part of me living out my Christian life.
[22:25] It never separates the two. It always has that. It always has Jesus telling the disciples the fear not. He's always demanding some type of emotional response to us and telling us, this should bring this in your life.
[22:37] And so with our children, let's not just have them knowing the truth that we know, but let's also teach them how to celebrate what we have. Recently saw somebody who decided to become sober living, which is a wise thing to do, smart thing to do.
[22:54] And they said one of the things that motivated them is that they decided that when their family was to celebrate, they were tired of seeing a separation between the adults celebrating and the kids, because if it was worth celebrating, it was worth celebrating at one table.
[23:10] And I just really loved that. I thought, what another great benefit of following God's word when it comes to those matters that we celebrate together. And I am not the great example of this, but I am the great example of being convicted by this, that as God's people, we should be teaching the next generation what it means to celebrate.
[23:29] Our kids should be excited. They're going to come and see their friend baptized. They should be excited knowing whatever it is that we see God doing in front of us. They should be excited about two churches being filled today in Columbia there, showing the exceeded riches of his glory, speaking of the glory and honor and majesty and his wondrous works.
[23:50] Let us teach that to the next generation. Let's teach them the truth, but let's them also teach that that truth brings a change in our lives. And so we see here that God is great and greatly to be praised.
[24:03] Next, we see that God is good and we should sing of his goodness. It speaks of his goodness. Some of you might have been taught this as a common mealtime prayer as a kid. God is great.
[24:13] God is good. Thank you, Lord, for this food. How many of you were taught that prayer? It's good in the fact that it's very short, all right? And you just get right to it. But the distinction there is God is great, God is good.
[24:25] And we often use those words just as like superlatives, right, on top of each other. You have good, better, best, and we only see that great is a better version of good. That isn't how the Bible uses this.
[24:36] Goodness is not a lesser version of greatness. Same throughout the Psalms. Psalm 113 would be another one. But it's two different aspects of God's holiness. I've already told you that the greatness here is drawing attention to the profound difference between him and creation, his holiness, that aspect, that distinction.
[24:55] But the goodness highlights this, is that what God does, what is right. God does what is right. He never does what is wrong. God always acts in a righteous manner because his nature is holy.
[25:09] God always does what is right. And that's what the Bible speaks about when it says that he is great, but also that he is good. In every way, God is right, and we should spend our time remembering this.
[25:21] Psalm 145, verse 7. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness. God never gets it wrong.
[25:33] His rightness is great. That is something that we should remind each other of over and over again. He never gets it wrong. I won't say because I would never embarrass my children, all right?
[25:46] But let's just imagine if one of my children was to say that they weren't happy about some way that they looked, all right? And they said this about themselves. And I said, are you speaking to me or are you speaking to God?
[26:00] Because I did not make you, all right? And the God that makes you thinks that you're beautiful, Thatcher. No, I'm just kidding, all right? He's handsome, all right? He's handsome. But he believes that this was right, okay?
[26:12] And so we don't question his rightness in that, all right? He did it in the way that he saw what was right. This is goodness. In every situation, God demonstrates his goodness by being full of grace and compassion.
[26:27] The Lord is gracious, verse 8. And full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. And so in life, everywhere you go somewhere, people are asking you, did I do a good job?
[26:37] You know, you go up to the counter and you order something and then they're like, can I ask you five questions for a survey? You get off the phone with somebody and they're like, at the end of this phone call, there's going to be a brief survey. You leave the restroom at a nice, very fancy gas station like Bucky's, you know, one of those places.
[26:52] And when it has a little smiley face and they said, did we do a good job? Everybody is like an insecure little kid, always wanting to know, did I do a good job? Did I do a good job? All these surveys.
[27:04] God always does a good job. He is always gracious. He's always full of compassion. And he's always right. And we say that he, that is good. God is always good.
[27:14] Verse 9, the Lord is good, always right, to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. In the New Testament, we say it like this, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, sending rain on the just and on the unjust.
[27:36] God is good to believers and unbelievers. Last week, people could have been ungrateful towards him and they offered no thanks and he allowed them to live.
[27:47] He still gave them breath. He still gave them time. He still was patient unto them. He still watered their gardens. He still was good unto them, full of compassion and slow to anger and of great mercy.
[28:00] And every movement that God makes is worthy of our praise. Verse 10, all thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. All thy works, we will praise thee. All thy works.
[28:11] If God has done something in your life, you do not understand. It is just that you cannot see what he is doing. It is not that he does not have a plan. All his works are praiseworthy.
[28:23] I don't see Coach Elrod here tonight. If he was here at Whitney, me and him would sing a Patch the Pirate song together. And we would sing about God never moves without purpose or plan.
[28:34] Man, if I was Jeff Bush, I'd just belt this out right now. You know, the singing preacher that he is. I even practiced for you guys. I thought I was going to sing, but I can't even hear myself right now. So I'm not going to even try that.
[28:45] Okay. God never moves without purpose or plan. I'm going to read the verse to you and we're going to sing the chorus. A little compromise here. Okay. That's not the word I'm supposed to be using, but a little compromise won't hurt us here.
[28:57] When God never moves without purpose or plan. When trying his servants and molding a man. Give thanks to the Lord, though your testing seems long. In darkness he giveth a song.
[29:08] Do you know the song? Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistakes. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as a gold.
[29:20] I was going to sing it, but I'm not able to. All right. But what a wonderful thought. God never moves without purpose or plan. Oh, Pat, he got that right, didn't he? And so in that verse here, all thy works shall praise thee.
[29:32] His works are praiseworthy. You don't always know it. You don't always see it, but he is praiseworthy. That does not mean that we don't live in a world that is affected by sin.
[29:43] Jesus, who was sinless, went to the cross at the hands of sinful men. He voluntarily gave his life, but it was their sinful decisions. We certainly live in a world that is filled with sin and the devil and those consequences.
[29:56] But when God moves, you know that he does it with purpose and plan. His acts are mighty, and we should tell others. We continue verse 10. All God's works, especially of his saints, should praise the Lord.
[30:09] Verse 10. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. All of creation shall be praising the Lord. All that he has done testifies of the fact that there is a God that is good and kind.
[30:22] But who should especially do it? His saints. I told you this morning, two references. The saint, 75 references. The saints is us together corporately. We should be the people that are pointing out the greatness of God.
[30:36] We tell of his power and his glory and his everlasting kingdom. Verse 11. Speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power. Verse 12. To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
[30:50] Have you ever considered that that's your responsibility? That's your job? When we talked about the priesthood of the believer, that you are supposed to be ushering and inviting people into worshiping God. Yes, we invite people into this building where we gather and worship, but our whole lives are supposed to be inviting people into the worship of the one true God.
[31:09] It's really what the Great Commission is all about. The sense of responsibility to take worship where it's not and to let people know. And so his mighty acts and his greatness. And we should consider that.
[31:21] You ought to find things. We ought to find things that we can rejoice in and share it with other people. Charles Spurgeon often brings the heat, alright? And he's about to do that. He said this.
[31:32] I consider that one of the great lacks of the church nowadays is not so much Christian preaching as Christian talking. Not so much Christian prayer in the prayer meeting as Christian conversation in the parlor.
[31:48] How little do we hear concerning Christ? Wow, what an indictment, right? How often do we hear about Christ? Christ. That's where churches and families and people, their love for the Lord dwindles.
[32:03] It doesn't just happen here primarily at the preaching of the pulpit. It happens when our conversation. It happens when my wife and Miss Jeda and Val are talking about on the way up to a wedding and coming back.
[32:17] And Miss Jeda's there, so I'm sure everything's okay, alright? But I have no doubt they're speaking about, at some point, they're speaking about the things of God because that's what God's people do. And we ought to be so intentional about it.
[32:29] We ought to have conversations. We should never determine a relationship among one another that isn't based upon the goodness of God. So we have friendships in here and we get caught talking about things.
[32:40] And Stephen's always wanting to talk about how great my fried turkey is. But you know, Stephen, we got to talk about other things sometimes, alright? Or whatever the conversation is, as Christian people, we should always be looking to elevate the conversation, a Christian conversation about the greatness of God.
[32:58] Added to their praise is this thought, verse 13, Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. We will praise forever, his kingdom will last. One reason why praise shall continue forever is because God's kingdom will last forever.
[33:13] F.B. Meyer tells a story about a mosque in Damascus that was once a Christian church. And it was plastered underneath, but then a stucco went over it.
[33:25] And you could barely see it by the stucco. But it was these words here, is that his kingdom, thy kingdom, is an everlasting kingdom.
[33:35] So there in Damascus, on the side of a mosque, with stucco hiding most of it, is this verse, is that kingdom is lasting. That kingdom was an everlasting kingdom.
[33:47] And it's so fitting, because you think in moments that it's not, that it's not going to happen, that he is lost. But that is most certainly not the case. And God rules with kindness to those in need.
[33:59] The Lord upholds all those that fall, verse 14. The Lord upholdeth all the fallen, rises up all those that be bowed down. If you've fallen, and you need help, and you don't think he's interested, he says quite the opposite of that.
[34:12] He's there. He cares. He's compassionate. And it's evident towards those that have failed, those that have fallen. He does not despise or reject them. And there's a sense in which he specifically draws near to them.
[34:24] If they allow their fallenness to humble them, God will draw near to us, and he will uphold us. And so he is kind. And impartial, verse 15 and 16, he gives us meat in the new season, open hand.
[34:37] He is sinless, he is righteous in all of his ways, holy. And then the ending part here speaks about his grace. The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him, and all of them in the truth.
[34:48] He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He is approachable. We can draw nigh unto him. He hears our cries, verse 19. He fulfilled the desires of them that fear him. He will also hear the cry and save them.
[35:00] And God's grace, though, in verse 20, the Lord preserves all them that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy. God is kind. God is gracious. God is long-suffering. But his grace can be rejected, and all the wicked will be destroyed.
[35:15] And it needs to be made known. Thy mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name. The Lord is nearer to them that call upon him. I'll leave you with this last quote by Alexander McLaren.
[35:28] It says, They who long for God will always have as much of God as they long for and are capable of receiving. God is worthy of our praise. He is great.
[35:39] He is distinct. He is separate. And he is good. And he is right. And I like to imagine, and I believe it to be true, I love speaking to you all, especially on a Sunday night, about the goodness and greatness of God, because I believe that it can echo throughout the week.
[35:57] The people that you will meet that I will never meet will get to hear about the goodness of God. And I can motivate you. I can provoke you to this good work. I can help stir up something, because you've done that in my life.
[36:09] You've admonished me. You have helped me in our Christian conversations. And so now it's our turn. David has done it. And we share with worthy reasons why we should praise him.
[36:20] He is great. He is good. And the greatness of God is central to our lives. May we recognize in our lives that there's any gratitude. And we take inventory.
[36:30] What is consuming our thoughts? What's consuming our conversations? And as children of God, let it be about the greatness of our God. Let's pray together. And then we'll end the night with a word of a song.
[36:44] Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for this reminding, this stirring inside of us by David, Lord, who calls you king, who is humbled, and who calls you king.
[36:55] And he wants to bless your holy name every day of his life, Lord. You are good. You are right. And you are great. You are separate. And Lord, may this generation praise your name to the next, Lord.
[37:06] And we will speak of your terrible acts, wonderful acts, not just to one another, but outside of this place. Lord, you help us have a confidence to be willing to speak to people about the Christian things, even when we're not standing in a church building.
[37:25] You are gracious and you're full of compassion. The Lord is good to all. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord. And Lord, we want to be, of all your works, we want to be the loudest in proclaiming your name.
[37:38] Lord, we want to make known your mighty acts and that your kingdom is everlasting. And we thank you, Lord, for being so kind and so compassionate towards us and hearing us.
[37:49] When we have failed, when we have lived our lives ungratefully, when we have not used our lives and our schedule and our resources and our mouth to make much of you, you have been long-suffering patient and you hear us, Lord, when we cry out for help and you draw us nigh.
[38:05] And Lord, may our mouth speak the praises unto you. And all of us, Lord, make much of your holy name. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.