Guest Speaker: Mark Ort
Effects of Psalm 145:
- We gain a PROPER VIEW of God.
- God receives glory through our PRAISE .
- Our PRAYER LIFE is enhanced.
- We become EFFECTIVE WITNESSES of His greatness.
Mark Ort - HBCPN Elder
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Pastor Jeff:
00:00-00:04
Bringing the word this morning is Mark Ort, if you'd make your way up.
Pastor Jeff:
00:06-00:27
If you're around Mark for more than four seconds, you learn some things about him. And one of them is Mark loves the Lord. And Mark loves his family. I first met Mark about, I think it was 14 or 15 years ago, in jail. I love telling people that story.
Pastor Jeff:
00:27-00:28
Like, how do you know Mark?
Pastor Jeff:
00:29-00:30
We met in jail.
Pastor Jeff:
00:31-00:31
Like, you've been to jail?
Pastor Jeff:
00:32-00:33
Yeah, I've been to jail a lot.
Pastor Jeff:
00:34-00:35
And so has Mark.
Pastor Jeff:
00:35-00:38
Mark's been to, like, multiple jails, okay?
Pastor Jeff:
00:39-00:41
And but I first met Mark in jail.
Pastor Jeff:
00:42-00:43
We had a mutual friend.
Pastor Jeff:
00:43-00:54
I wanted to get involved in prison ministry, and the pastor of the church where I was serving said, "Hey, we, you know, have a guy from our church that is involved with prison ministry," and I got to know this guy, and his name was Frank.
Pastor Jeff:
00:54-01:01
He said, you know, there's this other guy that goes in named Mark Ortt, and that was where I had the privilege of first meeting Mark.
Pastor Jeff:
01:01-01:10
And because it is such a small world, we found out that Mark is actually married to Kristen, who is a grade between my wife and I.
Pastor Jeff:
01:10-01:13
We went to high school together and even had art class together.
Pastor Jeff:
01:14-01:18
And so we made kind of a fun connection there.
Pastor Jeff:
01:18-01:22
But Mark loves the Lord and Mark loves his family.
Pastor Jeff:
01:22-01:30
And what I'm really excited about is something that I know about Mark that maybe a lot of you don't, and that's that Mark loves the Word of God.
Pastor Jeff:
01:31-01:38
And I've had the privilege in the prison—we go in for Bible study, by the way, if you're visiting with us, I probably should have said that.
Pastor Jeff:
01:38-01:54
Somebody's going to leave like, "Man, like the preachers of that church are like always in trouble with the law." But no, we go in to do Bible study, and I've had the privilege of listening to Mark on many occasions bring the Word, and Mark loves the Word of God.
Pastor Jeff:
01:55-02:12
And Mark has been given a special insight into the Word of God and understanding it and applying it, and I know that I've always been blessed every time I've been able to hear him bring it, and that's why I've been so excited to hear him bring it today.
Pastor Jeff:
02:13-02:19
So let's give Mark a warm Harvest Pittsburgh North welcome and prepare to receive God's Word.
Mark Ort:
02:24-02:25
Well, good morning.
Mark Ort:
02:26-02:28
Please open up your Bibles to Psalm 145.
Mark Ort:
02:30-02:38
When Pastor Jeff had asked me to speak this morning, I usually, if I'm going into the jail or whatever, I just usually teach people what I'm learning.
Mark Ort:
02:38-02:41
And I was actually in the book of James at the time.
Mark Ort:
02:42-02:55
And it just wasn't clicking with me for a couple of days, and I thought, you know what, I love Psalm 145, and I haven't been in Psalm 145 for a while, so I thought, why don't we just go there?
Mark Ort:
02:56-02:58
Why don't I take a look at Psalm 145?
Mark Ort:
02:58-03:04
And as I was taking a look at the passage, and then the message that Pastor Jeff brought last week, it just kind of all fit together.
Mark Ort:
03:05-03:11
And I thought, you know what, I'm gonna study 145, and we're gonna talk about it this morning.
Mark Ort:
03:12-03:15
Wasn't that great singing this morning?
Mark Ort:
03:16-03:17
Amazing singing.
Mark Ort:
03:17-03:18
It was awesome.
Mark Ort:
03:19-03:27
And part of me thinks, man, we could just go home now because we basically did what David was doing here in Psalm 145.
Mark Ort:
03:28-03:29
The music was amazing.
Mark Ort:
03:29-03:31
We're blessed with a lot of talent here in the church.
Mark Ort:
03:31-03:34
And I appreciate you guys putting the music program together.
Mark Ort:
03:36-03:47
I'd like for you to just think for a moment about an occasion in your life that impacted you greatly, positively.
Mark Ort:
03:48-03:51
Maybe it was a high school or college graduation.
Mark Ort:
03:52-04:03
Think for a minute about something that you look back on and it was like, wow, that was a moment in my life where I turned a corner or something.
Mark Ort:
04:04-04:09
Could have been a marriage, maybe a wedding, about having kids.
Mark Ort:
04:10-04:17
I remember when each one of our children were born, it was like, wow, this was like the greatest day.
Mark Ort:
04:17-04:19
You know, our wedding, it was like the greatest day.
Mark Ort:
04:19-04:22
You know, after that, you're not the same.
Mark Ort:
04:23-04:25
After these occasions, you're different.
Mark Ort:
04:25-04:26
You're not the same anymore.
Mark Ort:
04:28-04:40
Whenever we got married, I actually was not nervous that morning, but whenever the doors opened up and I saw my beautiful bride, Like I literally thought I would collapse.
Mark Ort:
04:40-04:42
My knees were about ready to buckle.
Mark Ort:
04:43-04:49
And I knew at that moment, it was like, from this point forward, my life is different.
Mark Ort:
04:50-05:00
You know, just like when we walked out of the wedding, and just like when we walked out of the delivery room after our babies were born, we were different.
Mark Ort:
05:00-05:12
And hopefully it's that way when we come to God's word, especially this morning, when we look at Psalm 145, I hope by the end, that we're different.
Mark Ort:
05:12-05:28
That we look back and we're like, wow, I remember when we did Psalm 145, when I encountered God in 145, that was a different, I could just see the difference in my praise and adoration and my worship toward the Lord.
Mark Ort:
05:30-05:37
Not just 145, but anytime we come to Scripture, We're hearing from God.
Mark Ort:
05:37-05:39
We're hearing the voice of God.
Mark Ort:
05:40-05:42
It's Him speaking to us.
Mark Ort:
05:42-05:50
And my knees might've buckled in the church that day, but our knees should be buckling before we come to the word of God.
Mark Ort:
05:51-05:53
Our heart, is your heart pounding this morning?
Mark Ort:
05:54-05:55
Is it beating a little bit faster?
Mark Ort:
05:56-05:59
Did you get goosebumps when we're singing those songs because we're in a presence of God?
Mark Ort:
06:00-06:05
I mean, if you didn't get goosebumps in those songs, I really got to wonder if you have a pulse.
Mark Ort:
06:06-06:09
Seriously, those were some amazing worship songs.
Mark Ort:
06:10-06:15
And so, getting up in front of people and speaking makes my heart pound a little bit.
Mark Ort:
06:16-06:20
But knowing that I'm coming to Scripture, it pounds a little bit harder.
Mark Ort:
06:21-06:29
We've had this discussion in our car on our way to church many times where, you know, I tell the kids, it's like, I have some butterflies in my stomach.
Mark Ort:
06:29-06:32
I feel a little bit nervous, like a healthy nervous.
Mark Ort:
06:33-06:35
"Why would you feel that, Dad?" they ask.
Mark Ort:
06:35-06:39
And it's because we're coming to hear from God.
Mark Ort:
06:40-06:42
We're coming to hear from Him.
Mark Ort:
06:43-06:44
It gives me some butterflies.
Mark Ort:
06:44-06:47
I'm thinking, is God gonna receive my worship?
Mark Ort:
06:48-06:51
Did it ever occur to you that God could send you away?
Mark Ort:
06:53-06:54
Like, I don't like your worship today.
Mark Ort:
06:56-06:57
Does that make you nervous?
Mark Ort:
06:58-06:59
It makes me nervous.
Mark Ort:
07:00-07:04
And it makes me nervous that I would be the one bringing the word to you.
Mark Ort:
07:04-07:06
It's something that I take seriously.
Mark Ort:
07:06-07:12
This is no trivial thing to stand behind this podium and speak for God.
Mark Ort:
07:14-07:18
And I know your pastor is committed to sharing the truth.
Mark Ort:
07:18-07:21
And Pastor Jeff needs you guys to pray for him every week.
Mark Ort:
07:22-07:38
In fact, I would like you to commit to that, to pray for your pastor or anybody who stands behind this pulpit, that they would share the truth, that they would work hard and labor in the word and study so that you can hear what God is saying.
Mark Ort:
07:38-07:40
It's not a small matter.
Mark Ort:
07:42-07:49
It makes my heart race, and it makes it beat a little faster than normal.
Mark Ort:
07:50-08:01
Just pray for Pastor Jeff and for the leadership of the church that we would be free from distraction and things that would keep us from delivering what God has to say to you.
Mark Ort:
08:03-08:10
And I think as for you, the people who are worshiping with us, we should be trembling.
Mark Ort:
08:12-08:19
I think of in 1 Kings 8, you've heard of Solomon, King Solomon, he was building God's temple.
Mark Ort:
08:20-08:27
And when the temple was done, This is a great prayer in the Old Testament.
Mark Ort:
08:27-08:34
When the temple was done, Solomon stood before the congregation in 1 Kings 8.
Mark Ort:
08:35-08:40
He stood before the congregation and his arms were stretched out toward the heavens.
Mark Ort:
08:41-08:45
And he stood there and he started this magnificent prayer.
Mark Ort:
08:45-08:48
And maybe that can be your homework this week is to read this prayer.
Mark Ort:
08:49-08:50
This prayer of dedication of the temple.
Mark Ort:
08:51-09:05
And something happened while he was praying, Because when you get to the end of the prayer, it said that Solomon got up from kneeling, he got off his knees with his hands outstretched toward heaven.
Mark Ort:
09:07-09:11
It doesn't tell what happened in there, but apparently his knees buckled.
Mark Ort:
09:12-09:13
He was before the presence of God.
Mark Ort:
09:15-09:19
And at the beginning of the prayer, he's standing, and by the end of the prayer, he's not, he's on his knees.
Mark Ort:
09:21-09:26
And as a congregation, we should be trembling before God because this is His Word.
Mark Ort:
09:29-09:35
That song we sang, it was on the screen, "You're Beautiful Beyond Description." And we're gonna learn about that today.
Mark Ort:
09:36-09:37
We stand in awe.
Mark Ort:
09:38-09:41
I stand in awe of Him, it said on the song.
Mark Ort:
09:42-09:47
He's the one that communicates to us in His Word, His precious Word.
Mark Ort:
09:48-10:00
Hopefully, as you think about those events in your life that changed you, hopefully Psalm 145 is one of those things that changes your life.
Mark Ort:
10:01-10:07
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke to a self-professed agnostic.
Mark Ort:
10:08-10:13
Now an agnostic is someone who is not sure there's a God.
Mark Ort:
10:14-10:15
Maybe they don't care.
Mark Ort:
10:15-10:16
It's different than an atheist.
Mark Ort:
10:17-10:18
He has said that there's no God.
Mark Ort:
10:19-10:43
And he told me in our conversation that, he said, "You know, there's millions of religions "and people have fashioned God after their image." We say that we were created in God's image, but he was saying the opposite, that people have fashioned a God in their image.
Mark Ort:
10:43-10:45
They've created God.
Mark Ort:
10:46-10:49
And I said, you know, you're right.
Mark Ort:
10:50-10:58
That's why there's so many religions because people have tried to fashion a God that suits their needs or their wants.
Mark Ort:
10:58-11:07
The longer I thought about our conversation, the more I thought, you know, he's right not only for like the false religions, but he's right about us.
Mark Ort:
11:08-11:19
We have been guilty of creating a God in Christianity that is made from something that we think.
Mark Ort:
11:19-11:23
For example, is God like hard of hearing?
Mark Ort:
11:24-11:25
Does he have an ear problem?
Mark Ort:
11:26-11:30
Sometimes I pray and it's like, does he hear me?
Mark Ort:
11:30-11:31
Is he up there?
Mark Ort:
11:32-11:32
Is he hard of hearing?
Mark Ort:
11:32-11:33
Does he need a hearing aid?
Mark Ort:
11:34-11:38
I don't think he quite hears what I'm saying at times.
Mark Ort:
11:39-11:46
And so, we think he doesn't answer our prayers the way we think He should answer our prayers.
Mark Ort:
11:46-11:48
And so it's His fault, He's hard of hearing.
Mark Ort:
11:50-11:57
Or we've made Him out to be some kind of celestial grandfather that's sitting up there, He's kind of aloof.
Mark Ort:
11:58-11:59
He's not up with the culture.
Mark Ort:
11:59-12:00
He doesn't understand.
Mark Ort:
12:00-12:03
He's kind of like in the fog.
Mark Ort:
12:03-12:05
He doesn't get it.
Mark Ort:
12:07-12:08
Maybe He's a little forgetful.
Mark Ort:
12:09-12:12
And we say something, He heard it, but He forgot about it.
Mark Ort:
12:14-12:27
Or maybe we've made him into some kind of a overbearing ogre type being that he's ready to smash us at the drop of a hat.
Mark Ort:
12:28-12:33
At every turn, he's going to punish us. We see him, we view him like that.
Mark Ort:
12:33-12:37
Or we see him as maybe he's untrustworthy, maybe he's uncaring.
Mark Ort:
12:38-12:41
There's any number of things that we've made God into, right?
Mark Ort:
12:42-12:43
But he's not that.
Mark Ort:
12:44-12:46
These are unbiblical views of God.
Mark Ort:
12:49-12:52
We cannot praise God right if we have an unbiblical view of Him.
Mark Ort:
12:55-12:59
We cannot praise Him right if we view Him wrong and have an unbiblical view of Him.
Mark Ort:
13:00-13:01
Psalm 145 is going to help us with that.
Mark Ort:
13:03-13:04
We don't have to wonder.
Mark Ort:
13:04-13:06
We don't have to make things up about God.
Mark Ort:
13:07-13:11
He has revealed to us in His Word exactly who He is.
Mark Ort:
13:14-13:21
When we have an encounter with Psalm 145, it should profoundly affect our lives.
Mark Ort:
13:22-13:28
In the book of Psalms, we know that David wrote a lot of the Psalms.
Mark Ort:
13:29-13:35
And if you go back through your Bibles, I think some of your Bible, my Bible has this.
Mark Ort:
13:35-13:37
has titles at the beginning of each Psalm.
Mark Ort:
13:38-13:47
Some of them have more like a bigger title, like a description, like David when he was being chased by Saul or David and Bathsheba and things like that.
Mark Ort:
13:48-13:55
But you'll see there's titles in a lot of the Psalms that say, "A Psalm of David." Now, David didn't pencil that in there.
Mark Ort:
13:56-14:05
Somebody who was putting the book together in its order and everything, tried to make it maybe easier for us or dividing things up into chapters.
Mark Ort:
14:05-14:07
And that wasn't obviously in the original.
Mark Ort:
14:08-14:15
And these titles, I don't know if all of them weren't in there, but most of the titles were not in the original.
Mark Ort:
14:15-14:17
Somebody put those in there.
Mark Ort:
14:17-14:26
But you'll see a lot of the Psalms, if you go through your book of Psalms, like Psalm 8, it's a Psalm of David.
Mark Ort:
14:27-14:29
Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name.
Mark Ort:
14:31-14:33
Psalm 19, it's a Psalm of David.
Mark Ort:
14:34-14:36
the heavens are declaring the glory of the Lord.
Mark Ort:
14:38-14:53
This is one that we like, popular, hear it a lot, Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd, it's a Psalm of David." And it goes on like that, Psalm 103, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." It's a Psalm of David.
Mark Ort:
14:55-15:14
139, "I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made a Psalm of David." When we get to Psalm 145, it said, "A Psalm of David of praise." And from the commentaries that I read, they were saying that Psalm 145 is the last Psalm of David.
Mark Ort:
15:15-15:16
Now there's a couple after that.
Mark Ort:
15:17-15:20
Some of the scholars say that they were all together.
Mark Ort:
15:21-15:29
I'm not sure if they were all together or not, but we get to this Psalm, and this Psalm is a Psalm of David of praise.
Mark Ort:
15:30-15:37
And that word here in the title is the word tehillah, which has the same root word as the word hallelujah.
Mark Ort:
15:38-15:39
Pretty interesting.
Mark Ort:
15:40-15:55
You have these hallelujahs throughout the book of Psalms, these praise songs, but this is the hallelujah of hallelujahs is what the people are trying to say here.
Mark Ort:
15:56-15:59
This is like the climax of David's writings.
Mark Ort:
16:00-16:04
This is the crescendo of praise here.
Mark Ort:
16:04-16:05
Now what's a crescendo?
Mark Ort:
16:06-16:09
Jesse, you're a music person, you know what crescendo is, right?
Mark Ort:
16:10-16:10
What is it?
Mark Ort:
16:11-16:12
Bigger and louder.
Mark Ort:
16:13-16:15
I'm not a music person, but I know what crescendo is.
Mark Ort:
16:16-16:18
It's big and it's loud.
Mark Ort:
16:18-16:22
This praise here, this Psalm is that.
Mark Ort:
16:23-16:23
The word is tehillah.
Mark Ort:
16:24-16:26
It's a Psalm of David of praise.
Mark Ort:
16:27-16:29
All these other Psalms, we love them.
Mark Ort:
16:29-16:32
We sing them, we recite them, we memorize them.
Mark Ort:
16:32-16:37
But we get to this Psalm, and it's like we're exploding with praise.
Mark Ort:
16:38-16:39
There's nothing louder.
Mark Ort:
16:40-16:44
We're exploding with praise, excitement and praise.
Mark Ort:
16:46-16:53
When we have a crescendo of some of this music this morning, The crescendo should produce goosebumps.
Mark Ort:
16:54-16:59
It should produce in your soul that something welling up and giving to God.
Mark Ort:
17:00-17:04
Charles Spurgeon said this about this particular Psalm.
Mark Ort:
17:04-17:14
He said, "There's no chorus too loud, no orchestra too large, and no Psalm too lofty for the lauding of the Lord of hosts." I love that.
Mark Ort:
17:15-17:23
No chorus is too loud, no orchestra too large, And no psalm is too lofty for the lauding of the Lord of hosts.
Mark Ort:
17:25-17:31
So let's look at the passage here and see what God has for us in this crescendo of praise.
Mark Ort:
17:32-17:32
Let's pray.
Mark Ort:
17:34-17:38
Lord, we wanna look at your psalm that you've given us this morning.
Mark Ort:
17:39-17:45
We wanna learn what you have for us, give you all the praise that you deserve.
Mark Ort:
17:46-17:49
Lord, You are amazing, You're awesome.
Mark Ort:
17:50-17:55
As the song said, You're beautiful beyond description and too marvelous for words.
Mark Ort:
17:56-18:02
Our vocabulary isn't rich enough to describe how You are.
Mark Ort:
18:03-18:10
So Lord, just help us to have hearts that will hear what You have for us this morning.
Mark Ort:
18:10-18:16
And may Your Holy Spirit go over the congregation this morning.
Mark Ort:
18:17-18:20
And may we lift you up in praise as we look at your word this morning.
Mark Ort:
18:21-18:22
Thank you, Lord.
Mark Ort:
18:22-18:22
Amen.
Mark Ort:
18:24-18:35
Psalm 145, if you open your word there, it says here in the first three verses, "I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever.
Mark Ort:
18:35-18:39
Every day I will bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.
Mark Ort:
18:40-18:43
"Great is the Lord and highly to be praised.
Mark Ort:
18:44-18:52
His greatness is unsearchable." The first thing I guess we have to do then is define what praise is.
Mark Ort:
18:53-18:55
And I think we're gonna put that up on the screen.
Mark Ort:
18:56-18:57
We have an acrostic.
Mark Ort:
18:58-19:00
I like acrostics, they kind of help me to learn.
Mark Ort:
19:01-19:18
A good definition here of praise is publicly and privately reciting the attributes and actions of the invisible sovereign God of eternity.
Mark Ort:
19:21-19:23
I don't know what else to say about praise.
Mark Ort:
19:23-19:24
I mean, that's what it is.
Mark Ort:
19:25-19:32
Praise is ascribing to God what He's due.
Mark Ort:
19:34-19:46
Praise is giving back to God publicly and privately with our voices, the credit that he deserves and recognizing God for who he is.
Mark Ort:
19:47-19:52
It's ascribing glory and strength and praise and honor and greatness.
Mark Ort:
19:54-19:55
That's what David was doing here.
Mark Ort:
19:57-20:04
First point on our outline is, this is the effects of Psalm 145.
Mark Ort:
20:04-20:06
We will gain a proper view of God.
Mark Ort:
20:08-20:13
Again, we can never praise God or worship Him right unless we have a proper view of Him.
Mark Ort:
20:13-20:15
We have to see Him correctly.
Mark Ort:
20:16-20:23
Like I said, we don't have to wonder who He is or what He's about because the word has told us.
Mark Ort:
20:24-20:27
And so we gain a proper view of God.
Mark Ort:
20:28-20:43
And actually I'm gonna give you the next two items on your outline because you're gonna see these two things throughout the Psalm The next one is God receives glory, God receives glory through our praise.
Mark Ort:
20:46-20:47
And our prayer life is enhanced.
Mark Ort:
20:49-20:55
God will receive glory through our praise when we have a proper view of Him, right?
Mark Ort:
20:56-20:58
And our prayer life is enhanced.
Mark Ort:
20:58-21:02
I often struggle with prayer because sometimes I don't know what to say.
Mark Ort:
21:03-21:04
There's a lot to pray about.
Mark Ort:
21:06-21:07
asking Him for things.
Mark Ort:
21:08-21:09
We're good at that.
Mark Ort:
21:09-21:10
I'm good at that.
Mark Ort:
21:11-21:13
Give me this or help me with that.
Mark Ort:
21:13-21:14
I can ask for things.
Mark Ort:
21:15-21:16
I think we're all good at that.
Mark Ort:
21:17-21:26
But I think, I don't know if you're with me or not on this, but sometimes I just have a problem giving God praise.
Mark Ort:
21:27-21:28
I don't know what that is.
Mark Ort:
21:28-21:38
I don't know why that is, but if we can study the attributes of God It will help us with our prayer life.
Mark Ort:
21:39-21:42
We'll like bubble over with things to pray about.
Mark Ort:
21:44-21:49
So let's see what David is saying here in verses one and two.
Mark Ort:
21:49-21:51
Praise ought to be personal.
Mark Ort:
21:51-21:52
It should be personal.
Mark Ort:
21:53-22:06
Note in verse one that David says, "I will extol thee." He says, "My God, I will extol thee, my God." He claimed God as his own.
Mark Ort:
22:07-22:10
God isn't a distant relative that we never see.
Mark Ort:
22:11-22:12
We're his adopted children.
Mark Ort:
22:13-22:14
He adopted us.
Mark Ort:
22:14-22:16
He made us his own.
Mark Ort:
22:17-22:19
So it's a personal thing for David.
Mark Ort:
22:20-22:25
He loves us infinitely more than an earthly father loves his own children.
Mark Ort:
22:26-22:33
And we can say, if we love Jesus Christ and we love his father, God, we can say with David, he is my God.
Mark Ort:
22:34-22:35
He is my God.
Mark Ort:
22:35-22:36
We can say that.
Mark Ort:
22:36-22:38
And that's what David was saying here.
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And if you notice also in these in verses one and two, David says that I will do something four times.
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He says, I will four times.
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This is highly personal with David.
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He says, I will extol thee.
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I will bless thee.
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He says, I will bless thee again in verse two.
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And I will praise thy name in verse two.
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This is a conscious, volitional decision that David has made.
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He said, "I'm going to do this.
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Whatever somebody else is doing, I don't care.
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Whatever those group of people are doing or this guy back here, it doesn't matter to me, but I'm going to do these things." David wasn't content to let somebody else do this stuff.
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There's an author that I like, A.W. Tozer, and he said, and I'm paraphrasing, I don't have the exact quote, but he said, "Too often, "we like to let other people do our study for us." It's like, "Oh, that's for the pastor, "or that's for the Bible guy, or whoever, "that's for somebody else.
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"I'll just go and sit, and I'll kind of listen and absorb." A.W. Tozer said, it's a great book, "The Pursuit of God." He said that far too many people are content to let other people do their Bible study for them.
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And while he's correct on that, I would say that too many people are willing and ready to let other people do their praise and worship for them.
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Let the other guy do that.
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Let the other guy sing at church.
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My voice isn't that good.
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Those guys over there are better than me, so I'm gonna let them sing.
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Let them do the worship.
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I'll mouth the words and it'll look like I'm singing.
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Am I right?
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Is that what we do?
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We can't be content with that.
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Corporate worship is very important.
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It's important to get together and worship together.
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But it's also this personal matter between you and the Lord.
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It was personal between the Lord and David and he made it personal when he said, "I will do these things for my God." And not only is it personal, but it's perpetual.
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He says, "Every day," well, back up in verse one, he says, "I will bless thy name forever and ever.
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Every day I will bless thy name." It's not something that we do on Sunday or at the one day a week, this was a normal part of David's life.
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It was every day.
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There were some passages, morning, noon and night.
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This was something that he did.
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It was part of his regular routine.
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It was ongoing.
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It was never ending, continual, forever.
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He's not gonna let up on this.
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This was a daily experience for David.
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If spending time with God is not part of your daily experience, not part of your routine, I would encourage you to change your habits.
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Get in the Word, experience what God has for you.
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Block off some time during the day to do that.
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I know we have a busy life.
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You know, I get up really early and my habits are actually changing because I have trouble seeing in the morning.
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So if you're driving around me, make sure you're far away.
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When I go to work early, and I can't read my scripture in the morning like I used to.
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I read a little bit, but I can't see very well in the morning, about 10 o'clock.
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So I changed my habits.
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I started reading at night.
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Well, now my eyes get tired at night.
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I start to burn really bad.
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I had to change my habits.
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I started taking my Bible to work and taking a break at lunch.
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And I'll read my Bible at lunch because that's the best part of my day.
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I can see really well, my eyes aren't burning.
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And so we encourage you to make that an important part of your day, ongoing.
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Sure, we may skip a day, something happens.
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We miss a day here and there, It should be a regular part of your daily routine.
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Just communicating and experiencing God through the word.
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And then David launches right into his, the first of his reciting of the attributes of God that helps us with this view of God, how we're gonna see him.
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He says, "Great is the Lord and highly to be praised.
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His greatness is unsearchable." His greatness is unsearchable.
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What does that even mean?
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His greatness is so vast and incomprehensible that even the greatest mind can't figure it out.
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I mean, if you took the greatest theologians in history, the Jonathan Edwards and the Spurgeons and A .W. Tozer and combined their theological backgrounds with somebody like a James MacDonald and a John MacArthur, and you took the intellect of Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and you put all these great minds together, it wouldn't even scratch the surface of the greatness of God.
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It doesn't even come close.
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His greatness is unsearchable.
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But that doesn't mean we just stop looking for it.
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We're gonna jump to verse five, 'cause we're gonna come back to verse four here at the end.
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He says here, "On the glorious splendor of thy majesty "and on thy wonderful works I will meditate." David is using some pretty vivid language here.
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It's hard to describe the greatness of God.
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We just said he was unsearchable.
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David was reaching into his reservoir of vocabulary and pulling out the best words that he had He was probably speechless before God, as we could see that.
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If we were standing before God and all his radiance and resplendence, we would be speechless.
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We probably would not know what to say.
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So he's reaching into his vocabulary and pulling out the very best adjectives that he has.
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And he comes up with these and he says, glorious, on the glorious splendor, I will meditate.
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And glorious here is speaking of richness and wealth and abundance.
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And splendor is referring to adorning decoration and holy ornamentation.
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And majesty, majesty is beautiful and lofty.
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In Psalm 96, six, it says, "Splendor and majesty are before him.
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Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary." Do you see this?
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Do you see what David saw?
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He was meditating on the richness and the beauty of God, the abundance of wealth in the Lord God, the holy array of ornamentation.
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This is what he was gazing upon.
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One thing about gazing at the beauty of God and His glorious splendor is that the longer we fix our eyes on Him, the less appeal that sin has to us.
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When we're used to feasting at a table, when we see Him and we're eating from this table of beautiful food that He's provided for us, We don't want to go back and eat out of a dumpster, right?
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So there's this beauty that we're looking at, and if we're fixing our eyes on that beauty, it has a tendency to keep us away from sin.
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I know this is gonna be a horrible analogy, but it may give you an idea.
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I used to like to eat dull pineapple chunks.
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I don't know what it was, they just were really good.
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I used to like them.
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When Kristen and I were in Maui, we stopped at a little stand along the road, and they had just picked pineapples, like five minutes ago.
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And I ate this pineapple, and I couldn't believe how good it was.
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It was amazing.
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It was just like the best thing I had ever tasted.
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Like really, really, really good.
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And we had bananas there, too, that had actually ripened on the vine, or ripened on the tree.
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And I'm not a real big banana fan, but these things were like eating from like the best fruit trees ever.
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But when we came back, I don't know that I've knowingly ever had another pineapple chunk out of a can.
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You know what I'm saying?
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It's like a canned pineapple after I just had this amazing fresh pineapple.
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So we're gazing on Jesus Christ and we're gazing on the beauty of God.
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And when we see that, why would we fall into sin?
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I know we're human and we're gonna do that.
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But what appeal does it have to us now?
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We've seen the beauty of God.
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Jonathan Edwards said that God is altogether lovely.
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When we gaze on His beauty and His loveliness, the passing pleasures of sin appear as what they really are, they're sick and twisted.
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A great Christian friend of ours just passed away a couple of days ago.
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And we're sad because we're gonna miss her.
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But we're happy for her because right now, Right now, she is gazing at the beauty of God.
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She's looking at him in all his majesty.
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David goes on reciting these attributes of God in verses eight and nine, helping us to gain this proper view of God.
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He says in verse eight, "The Lord is gracious and merciful, "Slow to anger and great in loving kindness." Grace is God giving us something that we don't deserve, while mercy is actually withholding what we do deserve.
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If we got what we deserve, we would have been extinguished a long time ago.
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But he's gracious and merciful.
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It says he's slow to anger.
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Do you know somebody that snaps at the drop of a hat?
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It's like the littlest thing.
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Boom, they're like, they're blowing up.
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That's not God.
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It says he's slow to anger.
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He's patient with us.
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Does he get angry?
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Of course he gets angry.
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Psalm 711 says that God is a righteous judge and has indignation every day.
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And that's a quote from earlier in the book of Psalms, Psalm 711, and I always remember that verse because one time I walked into a 711 on Route 8 South up in Butler, and I was about to pay for my gas, and I looked behind the counter and I saw pornography everywhere.
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And I don't know if it was the day before or the day after, I read that verse.
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In Psalm 711, that God is a righteous judge and has indignation every day.
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He is indignant about that kind of stuff.
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Yes, God gets angry, but he's perfectly balanced in his character.
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Certainly he's indignant over sin, but the Bible says in this verse that he's slow to anger.
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And we can rest in the truth that God does not wink at sin, but he is patient with us as we're developing in our faith.
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And He's great in loving kindness.
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It says here, "The Lord is good to all.
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His mercies are over all His works." He's good to all.
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He extends His goodness to everyone.
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To men, to women, young, old, all races, nations, atheists, agnostics.
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We're all beneficiaries of God's goodness, right?
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There is no one that God hasn't been good to.
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We're borrowing his air right now, right?
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Atheists and agnostics are getting free air to breathe.
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We've been given abilities to work and earn money.
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We've been able to enjoy the pleasures of life, marriage and having babies and raising children and things like that.
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These are all benefits and gifts from a good God.
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Says He's good to all.
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And the only reason that we're still standing and have a pulse is because of God is gracious and merciful.
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He is good.
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We should have been incinerated immediately the very first time we sinned, but God is gracious and merciful and good.
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That's what the Bible says.
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This is stuff that we haven't made up.
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This is what the Bible says.
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And it says in verse 13, that God's kingdom is everlasting.
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His reign is forever.
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There will never be a time when God is not on the throne.
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He won't abdicate.
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There's never a time where he's like, I had enough of this, I'm leaving.
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He's in complete control in times past, right now, and in the forever future, he's in control.
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His kingdom is everlasting.
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Verse 14, "For the Lord sustains all who fall, He raises up all who are bowed down.
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The eyes of all look to Thee, and Thou dost give them their food in due time.
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Thou dost open Thy hand, and Thou dost satisfy the desire of every living thing." He's our sustainer, He picks us up when we're down and we're hurting, He cares for us.
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He's our provider.
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He provides everything we need.
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Jehovah Jireh is the word that we see in the Old Testament.
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My provider.
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Every time I see a field that has cows in it, I think of God being my provider.
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You know why?
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Because God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
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That's a lot of hills.
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That's a lot of cattle.
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And when I see that, every single time I think, God is my provider.
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He owns it all.
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And so it's not hard for him to provide the things that I need.
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He has abundant supply.
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He's perfectly capable of supplying the things that we need.
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And when we are tempted to doubt his capabilities and His ability to provide for us.
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We need to start rehearsing these characteristics in our prayers and out loud.
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We should go over them, over and over and over, rehearsing them in our minds and in our hearts, convincing ourselves of the truth about God instead of viewing Him as impotent and uncaring.
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I hear stories about people who, you know, "Oh, God provided this big thing for us.
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God, you know, this was an amazing thing.
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You know, we didn't have this and God provided that for us.
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That kind of stuff happens to me too.
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This past winter, we had a lot of things go wrong at our house and a lot of things we had to buy.
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And I needed new tires on our minivan.
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One Sunday, right after church, I had gone south of Pittsburgh to take some pictures for somebody.
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They asked me to work, you know, hey, we're in this contest, and they own a AAA dealership, and they tow cars, and they have a fleet of like 17 or 20 trucks.
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I said, I'd love to take pictures for you.
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They're gonna put 'em in a publication, and they're gonna be judged, and maybe win this award for being the best AAA service in America.
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And I said, I'd love to take pictures for you.
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And so we did that on a, it was actually a snowy, I think it was in December, maybe.
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So we drove down there, it was really treacherous, And we get there and we spent a couple hours, you know, the kids were hungry and everything.
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And so I took these pictures and we had fun.
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And we went home.
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I had to take my car to that person's shop to get something done on it.
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I don't know if it was an oil change or I forget what it was.
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Whenever the car was done, they did the inspection.
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And I said, oh, probably ought to wait for the inspection because I got to get tires.
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And she said, "Don't worry about it.
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We put tires on it." I said, "I don't have the money right now." She said, "No, we put tires on it." She said, "We did that for you just as a thank you for taking those pictures." I didn't want anything for doing the pictures.
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We got $600 tires that I couldn't afford.
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And you know why?
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Yeah, they're nice people, but it's because God is my provider.
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God knew I needed tires on our van, and he provided those for us.
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God is our sustainer and He's our provider.
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It says in verse 17, "The Lord is righteous and kind.
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He is not unjust or impure.
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Everything He is and does is right and good.
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He cannot be wrong.
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He doesn't make any mistakes.
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His planning is perfect and impeccable.
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His decisions are all according to His will." Listen to this quote by Charles Spurgeon.
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"In the salvation of his people, he is as righteous and holy as in any other of his ways and works.
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He has not manifested mercy at the expense of his justice, but rather he has magnified his righteousness by the death of his son." The death of his son wasn't some kind of a mistake or I gotta figure out a way to save these people.
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I guess I'm gonna have to send my son and sacrifice him.
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No, this was a decision made by God in eternity past.
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And I'm thinking, wow, he's magnified his righteousness by the death of his son.
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God was not wringing his hands wondering, how in the world am I gonna save these people when we sin, the dealing with sin by the substitutionary atonement and death of Jesus on the cross, this was magnification of God's righteousness.
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God never makes a mistake.
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He is perfect and he's absolutely righteous.
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And then in verse 18, you'll see in verse 18, it says, "The Lord is near to all who call upon him." to all who call upon Him in truth.
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He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him.
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And He will also hear their cry and will save them." We'll save them.
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We're in desperate need of being saved.
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We need to be delivered.
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That's what being saved is, being delivered.
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We did a message in the prison.
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Ben, I think you were there that night when we were talking about deliverance and how to be delivered, what's a deliverer do?
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A deliverer takes somebody who's in danger and moves them to a place of safety.
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He takes somebody who's in trouble and pushes them over to this stable place.
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He's rescuing them.
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The deliverer is rescuing them.
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That's what Moses, Moses' job was when he went in back into Egypt, God said that he was gonna be the deliverer.
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What a great picture that was.
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Moses with God, of course, pulls these people out of Egypt and delivers them from the bondage they were in.
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And that's what it is to be saved.
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A deliverer is somebody who liberates you, giving you freedom and relief.
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He causes rescue and escape from a dire situation.
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This is what God did for us through his precious Son.
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That's how we get our deliverance.
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That's how we get saved, is because we put our faith and our trust and our hope in Jesus Christ alone.
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God did this for us.
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He rescued us from the punishment that was due because of our sin.
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He cleanses us from the stain of our sin and our guilt.
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Takes the guilt away.
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That's what deliverers do.
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It says also here, He's our keeper.
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If Jesus was able to save us, God is able to save us through His Son.
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Don't you think He's able to keep us too?
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If you did the thing that was the hardest, don't you think the easier thing is easier?
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He's able to keep us.
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The word for keep here, I love this.
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I love studying words.
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I'll get latched onto a word and it's like I gotta figure out where this word comes from.
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I love studying words.
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The word for keep here means that He is in charge of watching over and guarding it.
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It's the same word when the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night.
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They were standing there watching their sheep, making sure that nothing was going to happen to them at night.
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He was keeping guard over it.
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Well, that's what God does.
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He's keeping watch over our salvation.
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He's guarding it, keeping it intact.
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A God who isn't able to keep us isn't really a God who is doing his job as guardian now, is he?
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He's not as powerful as we are.
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Because if we do something where we could actually lose our salvation, then we're actually more powerful than the seal that God had put on us in his Holy Spirit.
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I don't wanna make that claim.
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I am not stronger than that.
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God is able to keep us.
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It says in Luke, or I'm sorry, in Jude 24, that God is able to keep us.
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Now unto him who is able to keep us from falling and stumbling.
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We belong to him and he is not letting go.
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That's what David says here.
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He says he's our keeper.
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Is this kind of stuff not exciting to know what kind of a God we have?
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Do you see how a proper view of God provokes praise?
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You see how it helps you in your prayer life?
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If we don't see God properly, how could we possibly praise Him right or pray right?
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People have often told me that it's important to preach the gospel to yourself, rehearsing it over and over again.
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And we need to hear that.
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We need to do that.
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And I would say we need to preach God's attributes to ourselves too.
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We need to tell ourselves who God is according to his word.
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And we need to recite those attributes back to him over and over and over again, reinforcing to ourselves the truth of who God is.
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And so when we study Psalm 145, we gain a proper view of God.
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God receives the glory through our praise.
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Our prayer life is enhanced.
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And lastly, we become effective witnesses of his greatness.
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You know what a witness is, right?
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A witness is somebody that sees something.
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Maybe you've seen a crime happen or something like that.
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You would relate to the judge or the jury what you saw.
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If you saw a bank robbery or something, if you saw something going on, you saw a red car and you saw somebody hop out and go in with a gun and they had a mask on or something, And the police were talking to you, were interviewing you, or the judge, or you're the jury.
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And they said, "Mark, come on up here.
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"We want your testimony on this.
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"We want to hear what you have to say." And you actually saw everything happen, and you went up and you're, well, I don't know, I don't really want to get into it.
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I don't know.
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You wouldn't be much of a witness now, would you?
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But if you went in and said, "Hey, I saw the red car.
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I saw the guy, he was about six foot tall and he had dark hair, he did have a mask on.
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And when he came out, they went that way.
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You know what a witness is, that's what a witness is.
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You would tell your experience.
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And when we encounter God, as David did in the Psalm, what would be the logical outflow of that?
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You're gonna say, "I don't know." Or you're gonna bust open, you're gonna tell people, I gotta tell people about this Jesus, about this God, His character.
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I gotta tell people about how He saved me, about how He delivered me and delivered me to safety.
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I gotta tell people.
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We let everyone know what an amazing experience, don't we?
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I was at the Grand Canyon in the year 2000.
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I took an eight-day whitewater raft trip through there.
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Whenever that topic comes up, which amazingly for me, the Grand Canyon comes up a lot at work or whatever.
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I don't know why, it just comes up.
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And I got to tell the story every time it comes up, where, I mean, there were some neat things that happened on that trip.
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I got food poisoning, that's not one of the great things that happened.
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I was sick for a day and a half.
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That's not the thing that I usually relay to people.
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But we were camping one night on these ledges.
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And when you're in the, I don't know, has anybody been in on the floor of the Grand Canyon?
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You've been on the floor of the Grand Canyon?
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Is it amazing?
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It's amazing.
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You see pictures of it and stuff, there's a picture on your bulletin of it.
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The Grand Canyon is a spectacle, it is amazing.
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But I'm on the floor of the Grand Canyon on this whitewater raft trip, and we're about three, four, I don't know, halfway through, and we were camping on some pretty dangerous rocks where the ledges, we got out of the boat and you had to like climb up these ledges.
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And they were about this wide and maybe eight foot long.
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And everybody in the boat had to pick a ledge.
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My particular ledge was not big enough to put a tent on.
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And it didn't matter to me because I'm sleeping out under the stars every night.
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I wanna see the stars at the Grand Canyon because you know what there's not at the Grand Canyon?
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There are no 7-Elevens.
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There are no lights.
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There's no telephone poles or telephone lines.
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There's no cell phone reception at the Grand Canyon.
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And so it was me and God.
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And I didn't want the tent blocking that out.
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And so every night I slept out under the stars.
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And this particular night, there was not enough room for some of the people to have tents.
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And I just rolled out my sleeping bag I'm laying there and all of a sudden the lightning started to flash way off in the distance.
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And I could hear the thunder coming.
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And as the thunderstorm got closer, you know, my first thought was not, "I'm gonna get soaked." I'm thinking, "Let it rain, like, just let it come. I don't care." It never did rain.
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But as I'm standing there on this ledge and the thunder would come, These lightning flashes would peel across the sky, and the thunder would start to rumble at one end of the canyon.
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And as it came down the canyon, it was like a freight train.
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Like literally like a freight train.
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And it's like pounding against my chest.
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It's like "vrooom" pounding against my chest, and then I could hear it go away.
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And then another one would come.
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And I'm standing there with my hands wide open like this, and I'm feeling, I'm just feeling it.
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I'm experiencing the brunt of this thunder pounding against my chest.
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And I got to tell everybody about that story.
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And you know, me telling that story, it doesn't convey it as the same way as if you were there.
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Just to be there and feel that emotion and look up at the sky and say, God, you are awesome.
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You are amazing.
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to let me feel that, to let me experience one of your storms in this way.
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It was just, it was unbelievable.
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When you experience something that awesome, then you wanna like stop people and say, "Wait, hold it, stop.
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"I gotta tell you about this.
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"I'm gonna shout it to you." And that's what David was doing here.
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And there's different verses here that tell us how David tells, how he communicates to others this greatness of God.
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And I had never seen this in here until I studied it this week.
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But in verse four, we're gonna jump back to verse four.
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"One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts." To declare here, we see praise here being relayed from generation to generation.
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telling their kids and their kids telling their kids and so on.
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But I see it the other way too.
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Kids can tell their parents and their parents and then tell their grandparents.
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It's kind of neat having generational conversation here.
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This declare here is pronouncing or proclaiming to make known.
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It's kind of like, hey, I have an announcement to make.
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Can I have your attention please?
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I have an announcement I need to make.
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I need to declare something to you is basically what this word means here.
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And in verses five and seven, five through seven, we talked about on the glorious splendor of thy majesty and wonderful works, we're gonna meditate.
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And men shall speak of thy power, of thine awesome acts, and I will tell of thy greatness.
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They shall eagerly utter the memory of thine abundant goodness and shall shout joyfully at thy righteousness.
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You see all these different words here.
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Men shall speak.
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This is a telling or a commanding with authority.
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It's actually the same Hebrew word as whenever God said in the beginning of Genesis.
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When God said, "Let there be light," He didn't suggest, "Hey, how about some light here?" He was commanding light.
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He was commanding with authority.
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And that's what this word is here.
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It's to tell or command with authority.
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It's a common word actually in the Old Testament.
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And this is kind of the kind of speaking that we're referring to actually in the first of our four Harvest Bible Chapel Pillars.
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Proclaiming the authority of God's word without apology.
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It's a proclamation, it's telling.
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It's telling of God's awesome acts and his greatness.
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And I love this eagerly utter.
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It means to gush out or bubble over or flow like a waterfall.
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And we were at Niagara Falls recently.
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Many of you have seen the Niagara Falls in person and you'll all that water gushing over there.
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That's what this is.
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There's no reason to hide God's greatness.
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We can gush God's greatness out.
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There's no reason why we have to hold it in.
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When we see God's beauty and his magnificence and his majesty, we will gush forth like a waterfall, like David did here with praise and worship and adoration.
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And there's another word in here, shout.
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Shout joyfully of thy righteousness.
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It's another action word from David that means cry out.
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And remember, this is a crescendo, right?
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We're crying out in worship and praise.
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We're crying out loud, loudly.
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And then in verse 11, They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power.
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This speak and talk and make known, this is kind of like just everyday conversation.
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It's normal flow of the day and you're discussing, you're explaining, revealing.
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The actual to make known is like arranging in order.
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It's arranging something in a logical order.
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So it's kind of like apologetics when you're sharing a gospel with somebody.
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It's not this random quoting of Bible verses.
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You kind of have a methodology to it.
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And it's with the intent or the purpose of instructing or understanding.
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You're explaining, you're in normal everyday conversation with the purpose for the recipients understanding.
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That's what this speak and talk and make known is referring to.
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And we'll close with verse 21.
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He says, "My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord and all flesh will bless thee, his holy name forever and ever." And here it is, remember David was taking this personal, this was David's personal thing.
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This is me, my, my mouth, my God, I will, remember that?
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My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord.
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Whatever anybody else is doing or saying, They might even be silent, but I will not.
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I will not be silent.
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I will praise God as long as I have breath.
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I am not gonna stop.
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And let us fix our minds on this.
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We don't need to be ashamed of that.
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We don't need to be ashamed of speaking the praise of the Lord.
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And word of mouth is often the best advertisement, right?
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I had a friend who was coming to Pittsburgh that lived in Cincinnati, and she asked me, "What's there to do in Pittsburgh?" I'm thinking, "What's there to do in Pittsburgh?
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"Pittsburgh's a great place, let me just tell you." And so I started to advertise Pittsburgh.
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You know, I said, "Oh man, you gotta go "to the Phipps Conservatory, "beautiful flowers and stuff like that." I didn't have to tell her to go to the Pirate Game, she was going to the Pirate Game.
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You know, you tell people, "You gotta go see the Bucs." I mean, they have pierogi races and everything.
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You know, you get the pirate game.
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I mean, and I told her, you gotta go on the incline.
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You can't come to Pittsburgh and not go on the incline.
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And she did, she went on the incline.
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She says, Mark, that was a great tip.
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I love the incline.
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Pittsburgh's a beautiful city.
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She came by way of the parkway, and there's no city, no city.
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You go through the tunnel, boom, Pittsburgh.
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It's like one of the most breathtaking sights.
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I was advertising Pittsburgh to her.
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And not that I'm comparing Pittsburgh to heaven or anything like that.
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But when we're excited about something and we talk about it, the word gets around, right?
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So Psalm 145 gives us a proper view of God.
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It's showing us clearly who God is by the revealing of His character, what He is, who He is.
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And as a result, we're able to pray better.
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It enhances our prayers in praise.
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We're able to praise Him rightly.
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In our response, tell it to the world.
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Declare His excellencies.
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Tell people about it.
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Let's your mouth praise God privately and publicly.
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Remember, we're reciting those attributes of God and he gets the glory from that.
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Let's pray.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Psalm 145
What did you learn about the character of God in this passage that you did not know before?
What aspects of your prayer life need to change in light of Psalm 145?
Is it important or necessary to recite God's attributes back to Him in our prayers?
How does Psalm 145 affect your evangelism? Who do you need to talk to specifically and what will you tell them?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!
Homework:
Write your own four or five sentence prayer of exultation and post it on the refrigerator as a reminder to praise God! Maybe even start your own prayer and praise journal.
Read 1 Kings 8 (prayer for the temple)
