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Cultivating a Heart of Worship: Insights from Psalm 145
The focal point of this evening's discourse revolves around the concept of worship, particularly as it pertains to the challenges one may encounter when striving to maintain a worshipful spirit amidst adversity. I elucidate that genuine worship is not contingent upon favorable circumstances or the absence of pain; rather, it is rooted in a profound understanding of God’s greatness and faithfulness, as articulated in Psalm 145. This psalm serves as a divine reminder of the numerous reasons we possess to exalt the Lord, including His eternal kingdom, sustaining presence in our lives, and the assurance of His unchanging nature. As we grapple with distractions and burdens, it is imperative to realign our focus towards God, acknowledging that true worship transcends mere emotions and embodies a steadfast commitment to glorifying Him in all circumstances. Thus, I invite you to explore the depth of biblical worship as we collectively seek to draw nearer to our Creator.
Takeaways:
- In moments of trial and tribulation, the act of worship can serve as a profound means of connecting with the divine, allowing one to transcend personal pain and acknowledge God's omnipresence.
- Worship, fundamentally, is not centered around the worshiper, but rather is an expression of reverence directed towards God, acknowledging His supreme authority and greatness in all circumstances.
- The Book of Job exemplifies that even amidst suffering, one can engage in meaningful worship, reaffirming that worship is a response to God's nature rather than merely a reaction to life’s circumstances.
- A worshipful heart requires a spirit of gratitude and humility, recognizing the gifts bestowed by God, which fosters an authentic connection in our personal relationship with Him.
- As believers, our worship ought to be a daily practice, extending beyond congregational gatherings, reflecting our continuous commitment to glorifying God in every facet of our lives.
- Understanding God's eternal security allows believers to approach worship with a sense of assurance, knowing that their relationship with Him is steadfast and unbreakable, regardless of life's challenges.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
Speaker A:My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
Speaker A:I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.
Speaker A:Now, come along.
Speaker A:Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
Speaker A:Well, we're going to go ahead and transition to our.
Speaker A:Our study here this evening.
Speaker A:Thank you, Micah.
Speaker A:And unfortunately, this kind of ties together with what we're going to be talking about here this evening is, is we're talking about worship, and we're talking about biblically speaking to worship.
Speaker A:Well, well, for me, it's difficult to worship when things aren't going the way that I expect, when I don't have all of the answers, when I am going through pain, or when someone that I love is going through pain.
Speaker A:It's a lot more difficult to come in and worship in those times.
Speaker A:It's hard to worship when we're not living with a spirit of gratitude.
Speaker A:Sometimes I might be upset with what God's allowed in my life, and I'm not thankful for what he's given me.
Speaker A:Therefore, I'm not in a spirit of worship.
Speaker A:Maybe there's some times in our lives that we feel that maybe we're just distracted with the busyness of life.
Speaker A:Sometimes busyness and distractions will pull us away from having a worshipful spirit.
Speaker A:And so really, Psalm 145 allows us to realign ourselves with a worshipful spirit, to understand the greatness of God and give us many reasons, not all the reasons, but many reasons why we should worship the Lord and really what proper worship actually looks like.
Speaker A:Because we talked about this last week.
Speaker A:Worship is not about us.
Speaker A:By definition, worship is about the one who we are giving praise to.
Speaker A:And ultimately, as a believer, our prayers should be to God and God alone.
Speaker A:So worship's not about people noticing me, people's.
Speaker A:People's opinions of me.
Speaker A:Worship should be ultimately to lift up and exalt the name of God in every way.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:The Book of Job.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We wouldn't often think about the Book of Job being a book of worship, but we actually do see meaningful worship inside of the Book of Job.
Speaker A:You remember, Job has a statement.
Speaker A:Essentially, he says, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
Speaker A:Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Speaker A:That's worship.
Speaker A:As much as there's pain in those words coming out, that's still worship.
Speaker A:And I want you to understand here this evening, biblically speaking, that we can worship when there is pain.
Speaker A:As hard as it is.
Speaker A:Pain is not an hindrance or shouldn't be, biblically speaking, a hindrance to worship.
Speaker A:It's a different perspective of worship.
Speaker A:But ultimately we have to understand, as Marina mentioned here this evening in testimonies, that God is with us not just in the good, but he's with us in the difficult.
Speaker A:And he never promises us the exemption from the storms of light.
Speaker A:Remember the, the, the disciples.
Speaker A:He says, you know, we're going to go across the other side.
Speaker A:But he didn't say it's going to be smooth sailing.
Speaker A:He says, we're going to go to the other side.
Speaker A:So the promise was, hey, we're going to get there.
Speaker A:But there might be some difficulties along the way.
Speaker A:So when the difficulties came, they weren't worshiping, they were questioning, they weren't worshiping, they were worrying.
Speaker A:And a lot of times that's what happens in our life is we're, we're worshiping God when everything's going well and the, the, the seas are smooth, but when the storms come, we're not worshiping, we're worrying.
Speaker A:And worrying is focusing on ourselves.
Speaker A:We're worrying is trusting in our own strength and not in the strength of God.
Speaker A:And so we get here and, and so we're seeing what biblical worship is.
Speaker A:And biblical worship is always, it starts always vertically.
Speaker A:Now, eventually there will be a horizontal aspect to our worship because people will see our worship.
Speaker A:They will witness the authentic belief that we have in God and that should impact others for the cause of the gospel.
Speaker A:But ultimately, worship is a vertical relationship with God, a personal relationship with God, praising him for the good in our life and then understanding when we would consider something to be bad, that he's with us through that.
Speaker A:So we're in verse number 10.
Speaker A:He says, all thy work shall praise Thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee.
Speaker A:And so what is David saying here?
Speaker A:The psalmist is saying that even God's creation itself praises God.
Speaker A:All the more reason why we, as just one aspect of his creation, should be praising God.
Speaker A:And so we should be gratefully praising him and blessing him for just the simple fact that he created us, just the simple fact that we are in his image.
Speaker A:You know, a lot of times we talk about, hey, we're all just sinners here at church.
Speaker A:And though that is technically a true statement, I think a better statement should be, hey, we're all image bearers of the Lord, even though we're flawed image bearers, all of us are image bearers because when we start to think about my brother and my sister not being my enemy, but another image, bearer of the Lord, we will treat them in a different manner.
Speaker A:And so we see here he says, all creation will exalt the name of God.
Speaker A:Verse 11.
Speaker A:They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power.
Speaker A:Again, this is going back to the understanding of the responsibility of God's people to proclaim the greatness of God and proclaim his kingdom, proclaim the future, proclaim the gospel, proclaim the truth of God in our lives.
Speaker A:There was this song that we sang when we were little kids, and I'm sure the little kids sing it today.
Speaker A:It's talking about hiding our light under a bushel, right?
Speaker A:We don't, we don't want to do that.
Speaker A:And the truth is, is that the, the book of John, John 1 says that the light was given to us as believers.
Speaker A:We are not the light, but as believers, we know who has given us the light.
Speaker A:And therefore we're to shine that light to a dark world.
Speaker A:And so the way that we shine that light to the dark world is by proclaiming God's greatness, by proclaiming the kingdom, by proclaiming the future, by proclaiming the truth of the word of God.
Speaker A:And so we see in verse 12, he says we are to proclaim the mighty Acts.
Speaker A:And he says here to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
Speaker A:And so the idea here is just to reiterate the fact that he had mentioned all the way back in verse 4, remember what verse 4 said?
Speaker A:One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts.
Speaker A:He's reiterating the fact that we as believers, we as children of God, should make known to others the truth of his mighty acts and his glorious majesty.
Speaker A:This is proclaiming, testifying.
Speaker A:And this is done through many different ways.
Speaker A:We could do this by how we speak.
Speaker A:We can do this by how we worship.
Speaker A:We can do this by how we react, how we respond, how we serve, how we love.
Speaker A:But we are to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ.
Speaker A:And so one reason why we praise God is as we're going to see, just as verse 2 said and verse 12, the majesty of his kingdom, verse 13.
Speaker A:Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
Speaker A:One of the beautiful things that we have in Christ is that our relationship with him provides not only hope for the here and now, but hope for eternity.
Speaker A:What other investment can bring eternal dividends?
Speaker A:And what we can see here is again, David does something that is very familiar in Hebrew literature.
Speaker A:It's called parallelism.
Speaker A:He speaks one aspect here, then talks a little bit more about things, and then he brings back the same thing.
Speaker A:So he's, he's repeating himself, essentially.
Speaker A:And so verse two, he says, every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name forever and ever.
Speaker A:And then we go to verse 13, he says, Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.
Speaker A:Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
Speaker A:And so he's essentially explaining the.
Speaker A:One of the many reasons why he worships is the eternal hope that he has in God.
Speaker A:One of the reasons we can worship in the midst of difficulty is our eternal hope in a relationship with God.
Speaker A:So if someone came to me tonight and they said, how can I worship God in the midst of this devastating event in my life?
Speaker A:Maybe it's a devastating loss or a devastating diagnosis of a sickness.
Speaker A:If we're seeing it from the perspective of the here and now and that the end of life is the end, we don't have any hope.
Speaker A:Like, like if you came up to me and said, you know what?
Speaker A:I, I've got a diagnosis of I'm only going to live for six months, that's it, that's over, you know, and if I look at you and say, well, when you, when you're gone, you're gone, so you better, you got six months, that's hopelessness.
Speaker A:That's what the world sees, really.
Speaker A:Ultimately, the reason why there's hopelessness in the world is because there's no hope after death.
Speaker A:And so that's why everyone's trying to live for the here and now.
Speaker A:So what do we bring to the table?
Speaker A:We say, no matter what happens in the here and now, as devastating, as painful as it might be because of the sin in this world, we have a hope that is greater.
Speaker A:That's how we can worship in the midst of pain.
Speaker A:That's easier said than done, but ultimately it's the eternal hope that we have in him.
Speaker A:And so verse 13, he says he's reminding himself.
Speaker A:And sometimes in worship, that's what it is.
Speaker A:I mean, ultimately we're praising God, but sometimes as we're worshiping him, we're being reminded of the truth that we're were proclaiming.
Speaker A:It's preaching to yourself.
Speaker A:I, I have a spiritual mentor and I'll go to him for advice and I'll say, hey, hey, what would you do in this scenario?
Speaker A:And he would always say, well, if someone was to come up to you with that same situation, what would you tell them?
Speaker A:What would you preach to them.
Speaker A:I would say, well, that's easy.
Speaker A:Do this, this, and this.
Speaker A:He goes, well, then preach that to yourself.
Speaker A:It's a biblical thing to preach the truths of God to yourself just as you were proclaiming to other people around you.
Speaker A:Sometimes we think that we're exempt from the, the biblical knowledge.
Speaker A:But what we can see here as Christians is that when we're proclaiming that we have everlasting, hopefully we're believing that same thing, and we're trusting in that as believers.
Speaker A:And so ultimately, he's giving another reason to praise, and that is everlasting hope in Christ.
Speaker A:Verse 14.
Speaker A:The Lord upholdeth all that fall.
Speaker A:It's a beautiful picture of God lifting us up in the midst of our stumbles, our.
Speaker A:Our.
Speaker A:Our failures.
Speaker A:There's another psalm that says, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.
Speaker A:The, the.
Speaker A:The idea that we would see in that case is that there's going to be times in our life as believers that we will stumble, that we will.
Speaker A:That we will fall.
Speaker A:Now, sometimes we use that word fall as, like completely falling away from God.
Speaker A:That's not what that's saying.
Speaker A:It says those that stumble or fall can be lifted up not by their own strength, but by the power of God.
Speaker A:And that's what he's saying there in verse number 14.
Speaker A:It's the Lord upholdeth all that fall or stumble.
Speaker A:And if we're honest with ourselves, all of us have stumbled in our life.
Speaker A:All of us have fallen.
Speaker A:And so the true test of a person who is following God is not if you ever fall, it's a matter of what you do when you stumble, and that's trusting in God to lift you back up.
Speaker A:Think about Peter as he's walking on the water.
Speaker A:As long as his eyes were on Jesus, he was okay.
Speaker A:It was the moment that he took his eyes off of Jesus and started looking at the storms is when he sank.
Speaker A:But what happens?
Speaker A:He says, lord, help me.
Speaker A:And immediately he's there.
Speaker A:Jesus is there, lifts him up, pulls him out, and that's what the picture is.
Speaker A:In our life as believers, we always must be keeping our eyes on the Lord in every good situation, every bad situation, every difficult situation.
Speaker A:But the moment we look away, the truth is, is that we will drift.
Speaker A:But there's always that hope to come back.
Speaker A:And the Lord holds us up.
Speaker A:And so it's God's compassion and his presence in our life that we can see, evidently, when we stumble.
Speaker A:So the, the truth is, is that though we don't want to stumble just to see God's hand.
Speaker A:The beauty of our Christian life is that when we do stumble, we see God's hand.
Speaker A:Because if it, if it was a man made situation, like for me, when someone fails me, you know what my natural response is?
Speaker A:Forget them, cut them off, send them away.
Speaker A:But the biblical model, the Christ like model, the, the model that shows God's love and his compassion is that he's there for us in the midst of our failures.
Speaker A:He doesn't despise us, he doesn't reject his children.
Speaker A:He actually holds them up.
Speaker A:He holds those up that are falling.
Speaker A:I think that's one of, one of the amazing verses that we can see in this chapter.
Speaker A:Verse 14.
Speaker A:He says, so he doesn't just hold you up when you're falling, it says, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
Speaker A:So he doesn't just catch us when we're falling, but he also lifts us up and brings us back to a place of stability in our life.
Speaker A:There's so many other passages that speak to that, but one of those passages that I really appreciate can be found in Psalm 40, Psalm 40.
Speaker A:We see the psalmist talking about his difficulties in his life and his reliance on himself.
Speaker A:And then when he relies on God, what is the difference?
Speaker A:And so you go, go to Psalm 40 with me.
Speaker A:I want you to cross reference Psalm 145, because this is a picture of what happens when a believer stumbles.
Speaker A:And for all of us as Christians, one of the major reasons why we should worship is because God has not cast us out.
Speaker A:He has not forgotten about us.
Speaker A:Our past doesn't define us.
Speaker A:And so when we do stumble, we have that restoration, we have that repentance.
Speaker A:So in Psalm 40, the, the Psalmist here.
Speaker A:Most consider David to be the psalmist here as well.
Speaker A:He says, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry.
Speaker A:So David's calling out to God, God's hearing him.
Speaker A:It says, he brought me up also out of the horrible pit.
Speaker A:Some of us can identify with that horrible pit of sin that can have a grip on us.
Speaker A:He says, he's brought me out of that horrible pit, out of the miry clay.
Speaker A:The idea here would be like quicksand, like something that we can't get out of in our own strength.
Speaker A:And the more we fight, I don't know if you've ever been in quicksand or some type of mud.
Speaker A:The more you fight, sometimes it feels like the more you're pulled in, He Says God's pulled me out of the miry clay and then this is, this is what I love.
Speaker A:And he says, and set my feet upon a rock and establish my goings.
Speaker A:So it's not only that God saves us when we're falling and pulls us out of the difficulty, but then he sets us on a sure foundation.
Speaker A:He allows us to get out of that and get on the right path.
Speaker A:It reminds me of the verse in 2nd Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16.
Speaker A:All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for approved, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Speaker A:Meaning that God doesn't just leave us with, hey, you're wrong, or, or hey, stop doing these bad things.
Speaker A:But he says here, this is how you can stay on the sure foundation and walk on that, that path of righteousness.
Speaker A:So another reason to worship is God's forgiveness.
Speaker A:And not just forgiveness and salvation, but daily forgiveness and giving us an opportunity to have a second chance and a third chance and a thousand thousands chance and, you know, millionth chance.
Speaker A:Like, it seems like God's grace is abundant because it is.
Speaker A:And so that's another reason why we worship God, is because I'm still here, I'm still serving, I'm still in church.
Speaker A:That is a beautiful blessing of God's preservation in our life.
Speaker A:One of the beauties of what I believe, one of the, one of the strongest aspects of the reason why I worship is what we would call eternal security.
Speaker A:And it's, and it's a hot button issue because not every Christian believes in eternal security.
Speaker A:A lot of Christians believe in the fact that I have to do something to hold on to my salvation.
Speaker A:But the truth is, is that if, if I had to hold on, I would eventually let go.
Speaker A:And so The Bible, Romans 8 is a passage of scripture that speaks to eternal security.
Speaker A:You could look at the book of Philippians about being sealed until the day of redemption.
Speaker A:And so what we need to see here is this.
Speaker A:One of the beautiful things is knowing the doctrinal truth of eternal security and then resting in that, in what we call assurance of salvation, to know without a shadow of a doubt that God has saved me.
Speaker A:And there's nothing that anybody can do.
Speaker A:There's nothing that even something that I can do if I'm truly a believer in Jesus Christ that can take me out of his hand, that says no man can pluck me out of God's hand.
Speaker A:And so the beauty, I think that we all worship God about when it comes to that is just the consistency of His Word.
Speaker A:The faithfulness of his word and the power to sustain us and provide for us that salvation all the way to the end.
Speaker A:He preserves us.
Speaker A:The Bible says that he is the author and finisher of our faith.
Speaker A:Hebrews tells us that he's the author and finisher.
Speaker A:Another way that you could phrase that is he's the.
Speaker A:He's the creator and the sustainer of my faith.
Speaker A:He sustains us.
Speaker A:So we go further.
Speaker A:Another reason to worship would be his faithfulness to us.
Speaker A:Look at Psalm 145 with me and go.
Speaker A:Go to verse number 15 says, the eyes of all wait upon thee and thou givest them meat in due season.
Speaker A:This is, this is speaking of God's provisions.
Speaker A:Those that humble themselves before God, looking and expecting him to keep his word, will understand what it means for God to give them, as we see in Matthew chapter six, give us this day our daily bread, the needs that we have in our life.
Speaker A:God is a provider.
Speaker A:God is one, as it says in, in the Old Testament, Jehovah Jireh, the one who will provide.
Speaker A:Now we know that he provides for us salvation, but biblically speaking, he provides for us our needs.
Speaker A:Not always our greeds, not our wants, not the things that we think we deserve.
Speaker A:But he provides for us our needs.
Speaker A:And so this speaks to this idea that God takes care of his children by providing for them, providing for them what they need.
Speaker A:So one of the reasons to worship is God's provision.
Speaker A:We've talked about his protection, we talked about his power.
Speaker A:Here we see God's provision, Him giving those things to us that we need.
Speaker A:And really the truth of the matter is, is that he gives us beyond what we need.
Speaker A:If we were honest with ourselves, God gives us beyond our needs.
Speaker A:Just look at us in America.
Speaker A:I mean, I know that America is not a perfect country, I realize that.
Speaker A:But the truth is, is that look at the blessings that we have.
Speaker A:All of you.
Speaker A:If you wanted to, not everyone chose to tonight, but all of you could have probably ridden a vehicle in here.
Speaker A:Most of us had food today to eat.
Speaker A:If you don't have food to eat, come talk to me.
Speaker A:We'll take care of you.
Speaker A:That's the beauty of God's provision, is that, hey, there might be someone who doesn't have enough to eat.
Speaker A:But God has blessed the fellowship, the believers, the opportunity to show love and grace to those so that we don't have to get without.
Speaker A:Because if you think about biblically speaking, God says what we need sometimes is a lot less than what we think we need.
Speaker A:He actually says Food and rayment is our needs, food and clothes.
Speaker A:But again, he blesses us with way more than that.
Speaker A:So we can see here God's provisions, I would say also in.
Speaker A:And, and I think that's important to notice as that he's going to give us meat in due season sometimes.
Speaker A:What that means is that God's provisions don't come when we expect them to come.
Speaker A:Like God, I need it tomorrow.
Speaker A:And, and I, and I think that a lot of times our testimonies that we really, that really resonate with us is, hey, you know what?
Speaker A:The bill was due today and that check came in this morning and it was perfect.
Speaker A:And that's sometimes how it goes.
Speaker A:But sometimes God's timing is different than our expectations and we can't demand from him that he is on a, a time crunch, right?
Speaker A:So God is going to do things in due season when it is his will.
Speaker A:Verse 16.
Speaker A:Thou openest thy hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing.
Speaker A:This speaks to this idea that God is sufficient.
Speaker A:God satisfies.
Speaker A:God's care for his creation goes beyond just providing for us in, in like maybe food or clothing.
Speaker A:But we even know that God's care is, is for the animals, right?
Speaker A:We, we even say that his eyes upon the sparrow, we sing that song.
Speaker A:And so we know that God's hand is enough for everyone, for everything.
Speaker A:This shows his amazing power, his amazing greatness.
Speaker A:Verse 17.
Speaker A:The Lord is righteous in all of his ways and holy in his works.
Speaker A:This speaks to God's perfection.
Speaker A:One of the many reasons why we should worship God is because of his holiness and his perfection.
Speaker A:Often we don't think about that completely.
Speaker A:What that means, that means that God is right in every single way.
Speaker A:He's completely righteous.
Speaker A:His way is always righteous.
Speaker A:His will is always perfect.
Speaker A:He makes no mistake.
Speaker A:I don't know about you, but the greatest of people in whatever field they're in, they're still not perfect.
Speaker A:And I think that sometimes we're tempted to think that, hey, you know what?
Speaker A:Being really excellent in something is almost being perfect.
Speaker A:And maybe it is almost perfect.
Speaker A:I know like for baseball, some of you follow baseball, some of you don't.
Speaker A:To be really, really good in baseball, to be the best in baseball, you get on, you get a hit three times out of 10, the average.
Speaker A:So baseball is a game of failure, right?
Speaker A:But we look at someone who gets three hits out of 10 and go, they're amazing.
Speaker A:And you guys could make parallels in pretty much any other field.
Speaker A:God, dare I say he doesn't go 3 for 10.
Speaker A:He goes 10 for 10.
Speaker A:He goes a thousand for a thousand.
Speaker A:He goes a million for a million.
Speaker A:God never misses.
Speaker A:God never makes a mistake.
Speaker A:And that's what we're seeing here in this case is that sometimes we're not willing to worship his plan or his will or His.
Speaker A:His perfection because we doubt that God.
Speaker A:God's way's best.
Speaker A:Maybe we wouldn't utter that, but in the deepest, darkest place in our mind, we start to question God, do you really have what's best for me?
Speaker A:God, I don't know if this is right.
Speaker A:I don't know if this change is what I need to do.
Speaker A:I don't know if this is the right place to go or the right thing to say.
Speaker A:But the Bible says that trusting in God completely brings us to a place of trusting in the only one who is righteous in all of his ways and holy in all of his works.
Speaker A:God is not like the false gods of Greek and Roman mythology who have a lot of the human flaws.
Speaker A:God isn't driven by his flesh.
Speaker A:God is not in a place where he's going to do anything that is contrary to righteousness and holiness.
Speaker A:And so that's one of the reasons why we praise him.
Speaker A:We praise him for who he is and what he has done.
Speaker A:We praise him for the fact that he is completely righteous.
Speaker A:And we praise him for the fact that he has never done any wrong.
Speaker A:And then we go further here, verse 18.
Speaker A:The Lord is nigh or near unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him.
Speaker A:In truth, this echoes what we see in James, chapter 4, verse 8.
Speaker A:That draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.
Speaker A:This speaks of God's personal nature, his imminence that God isn't just sitting up in heaven as the Great Clock Maker, as a deist would teach that, hey, there's a God up there.
Speaker A:We believe that, but he doesn't really want to have anything to do with our lives.
Speaker A:He doesn't really care what you do with your life.
Speaker A:It's basically, hey, it's just all set in motion and you do what you want to do.
Speaker A:No, the Bible says that God draws close to those who pursue a relationship with Him.
Speaker A:The Lord is nigh.
Speaker A:He is close unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth, the right way.
Speaker A:Because there's a lot of people calling out to God, but they're calling out to God in the wrong ways.
Speaker A:They're calling out to God in a selfish way.
Speaker A:Maybe they're trying to make a deal with God.
Speaker A:Maybe they said, God, if you do this for me, I'll do this for you.
Speaker A:Or maybe God, I expect you to do this.
Speaker A:And I've actually heard this recently.
Speaker A:A preacher got up and was like, you know what?
Speaker A:You can demand this from God.
Speaker A:Now that's a very dangerous place to get up and start demanding things from God.
Speaker A:Now you can trust in what he said as a promise, but to get up there and demand something from God is.
Speaker A:Is putting God in a box that he should not be put in.
Speaker A:That's essentially idolatry, blasphemy, and, and we would say would lead us to a place of great destruction if we follow that path.
Speaker A:So what does he say here?
Speaker A:He says, the Lord will draw close to those who call upon him in truth.
Speaker A:What an amazing thing that is, that God is never too far for us.
Speaker A:I was watching this video recently, had nothing to do with spirituality, but they said, if I was to promise you a million dollars, if the per.
Speaker A:The first person that you called would answer the phone, who would you call?
Speaker A:So basically the premise was this.
Speaker A:I'll give you a million dollars if the first person you call answers the phone.
Speaker A:Okay, now for me, I know who that is.
Speaker A:That's my dad.
Speaker A:My dad will answer his phone.
Speaker A:It's crazy.
Speaker A:I could call him at 3 o' clock in the morning, he would answer on the second ring.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:He's just.
Speaker A:He's built that way.
Speaker A:I. I always call my dad and the answers is fun.
Speaker A:Micah asked me recently, he's like, dad, why is every time you call, he calls him Poppy?
Speaker A:Why is every time you call Poppy, whether it's morning or night, he answers it right away.
Speaker A:I'm like, well, because he loves me.
Speaker A:And he's always by his phone.
Speaker A:His phone's really loud.
Speaker A:Okay, he has it on loud.
Speaker A:It goes really loud.
Speaker A:So even though I know that my dad answers the phone, and if I had that bet, I would say, okay, I'm gonna call him.
Speaker A:He's gonna answer and be a million dollars richer.
Speaker A:But even then, there's limitations to that, right?
Speaker A:We can call out to God at any point in our life, at any time in the day, and any part of brokenness, and he is there for us.
Speaker A:That's what the Bible says.
Speaker A:Here, call upon God and he'll be there.
Speaker A:Now, what I would say is this.
Speaker A:It says, call out in truth.
Speaker A:Now, a person who is in unrepentant sin, then that calls out to God for his help, but yet does not Humble his or her heart is not going to hear an answer to prayer.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because the Bible says the Lord does not regard the prayers of those that are harboring iniquity in their hearts.
Speaker A:So it goes back to seeking him in truth and in humility.
Speaker A:So, so yes, the.
Speaker A:The repentant sinner, God always hears the unrepentant sinner.
Speaker A:It doesn't mean that God can't hear them, but it means that they have not humbled themselves to have that commitment to follow Christ.
Speaker A:And so what we need to see here is the importance of seeing.
Speaker A:The end of verse 18 is that it says, in truth, call out to him in truth.
Speaker A:So here's the reason to worship.
Speaker A:That God is there for me when I call out to him.
Speaker A:That he's close to me, that he.
Speaker A:That He's a friend that sticks closer than a brother, that he loves me as Abba Father.
Speaker A:What an amazing thing that is like that, that I can call out to him and call him in a personal way.
Speaker A:Moving forward, let's look at verse 19.
Speaker A:Does he will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him.
Speaker A:Again, he fulfills our desires.
Speaker A:Our desires are aligned with his desires, but those that fear Him.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It goes back to this idea that you can't just be living your life the way that you want to live it and say, God, I. I desire this.
Speaker A:Give this to me.
Speaker A:No, it's those who fear him who truly fear him in his way.
Speaker A:He also will hear their cry and will save them.
Speaker A:This speaks of those who call out to God to call out to him and fear Him.
Speaker A:Now, fearing this is an interesting word because sometimes you'll hear it explained a lot of different ways.
Speaker A:This is not a fear of punishment as much as it is an awe and fear of his power enacted in our life.
Speaker A:Some people call it a respect, which I think is a fair conclusion.
Speaker A:But at the same time, I do know that it's a little bit more than just, hey, I respect this person.
Speaker A:There's a great fear in the power of God.
Speaker A:Now, it's not an unhealthy fear.
Speaker A:It's not an unhealthy fear like, God's gonna punish me in, in a wrong way or a sinful way.
Speaker A:That's the kind of fear we have in this world.
Speaker A:But it's a fear of knowing how big and infinite God is and how small we are and how great it is that he would actually love us and care for us.
Speaker A:And so that's really what he's talking about here, is recognizing our position before Him.
Speaker A:And when we do that, when we come into his presence with that type of humility, what does it say will happen?
Speaker A:That he will save us.
Speaker A:Verse 20.
Speaker A:The Lord preserve with all them that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy.
Speaker A:This speaks of God's preservation to those that are his children.
Speaker A:All those in rebellion will face judgment.
Speaker A:Now you would say, is that something that we should worship?
Speaker A:Well, we should worship the fact.
Speaker A:We should worship God for the fact that he will preserve us, that he takes care of his children.
Speaker A:And we should worship him for making things right one day.
Speaker A:You know, there's a lot of people that won't believe God because they think, they think like, well, God's allowing people to get away with these terrible evil things in this world.
Speaker A:Let me tell you, God is not going to allow anyone who is living in evil and rebelling to him to get away with it.
Speaker A:There will be a final judgment.
Speaker A:Something that we can take solace in is that God will make all things right.
Speaker A:Even if it doesn't in our eyes on this side of heaven get made right.
Speaker A:God will make all things right.
Speaker A:We must trust that he is the righteous and holy judge.
Speaker A:We are not the righteous and holy judges.
Speaker A:We can't be the final word or authority over someone's life.
Speaker A:The Bible says vengeance is mine.
Speaker A:I will repay, say the Lord.
Speaker A:God will.
Speaker A:We've got to believe that God will make it right.
Speaker A:That's why we can sing praises to him.
Speaker A:Because he will make it right one day.
Speaker A:He's making it right right now.
Speaker A:But ultimately it'll be culminated in that righteous judgment upon all those that are in rebellion to him.
Speaker A:Verse 21.
Speaker A:My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.
Speaker A:And so we get the understanding here that David is making this, this Dec declaration, this what we would call his thesis statement, his final declaration that, that he is writing this as a testimony and his desire to praise God with everything in him for the rest of his life.
Speaker A:Now we've said this and every time David is talked about, we always have to make a preference.
Speaker A:Was David perfect?
Speaker A:Well, of course he wasn't.
Speaker A:No one in the Bible is perfect other than Jesus.
Speaker A:But we can know what God tells us about David.
Speaker A:And the Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart.
Speaker A:If, if, if we would want to worship in the most biblical God honoring manner, we should worship like David.
Speaker A:We should worship him with what we say, but also by what we do.
Speaker A:And so the last verse Here in Psalm 145 is an amazing bookend to David's life.
Speaker A:He basically says, I'm going to worship you because of all of these things forever and ever.
Speaker A:And from what we understand in scripture, David stayed faithful to the end.
Speaker A:We know that.
Speaker A:And we know that David definitely went through difficulties though in his life because you can't just live your.
Speaker A:Like think about it from this perspective was what was David's heart?
Speaker A:David wanted to build the temple.
Speaker A:You guys remember that, right?
Speaker A:But because of David's, some of David's decisions where he had blood on his hands, God says, well, no, David, you don't get to build the temple, your son will.
Speaker A:But there are certain things in our life that we might miss out on because of our decisions, but we'll never miss out on having that fellowship with God.
Speaker A:We know also David did have to pay earthly consequences for the sins that he committed with Bathsheba.
Speaker A:So it doesn't mean that we're scot free from punishment of bad decisions that we make.
Speaker A:But what we do know is that David could come back even after losing his son, his child, after the sin with Bathsheba.
Speaker A:In his brokenness and his repentance, did he mourn?
Speaker A:Yes, he mourned for the proper amount of time.
Speaker A:He was broken, but at the same time he was able to come back and worship God.
Speaker A:And David, again, not the greatest model of being a parent, but again, at the same time he loved God and he worshiped God.
Speaker A:So we should be those that worship God.
Speaker A:So worship is important.
Speaker A:That's why we have a Sunday morning service.
Speaker A:There are many reasons why we have a Sunday morning service, but we call it a worship service.
Speaker A:It's so that we can come together corporately as a family to worship God.
Speaker A:That is not the only time that we should be worshiping.
Speaker A:The Bible says that we should live lives of worship, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all the way through the week.
Speaker A:So the reason why we come together on a Sunday morning is not only for fellowship, even though fellowship would be a side piece to that.
Speaker A:But we can fellowship on Monday, we can worship on Monday.
Speaker A:So the reason why we meet on Sunday, one of the major reasons is that was the day that Jesus resurrected.
Speaker A:We pick one day of the week and we get together and we worship God.
Speaker A:But how many times, and I'm speaking to myself as I'm speaking to you, how many times have we come into a church service, what we would call a worship service, but our heart is not in a worshipful spirit.
Speaker A:We're coming in with our baggage and we're not leaving our baggage at the door and bringing that to Christ.
Speaker A:But we come in with maybe bitterness in our hearts or anger in our hearts or doubts in our hearts.
Speaker A:And we come in and we go through the motions.
Speaker A:Maybe no one knows that we are struggling with this, but we come in and we don't have a worshipful spirit when we sing the songs.
Speaker A:We're not worshiping God.
Speaker A:Well, essentially what we're doing is we're living in disobedience to him, whether we know it or not.
Speaker A:I. I will say this.
Speaker A:There.
Speaker A:There have been times in my life where I've come into church and I've had my mind on so much that I forget about why I'm even here.
Speaker A:You say you can do that even as a pastor.
Speaker A:I can do that as a pastor.
Speaker A:You can do that as a church member.
Speaker A:We can do that in any capacity.
Speaker A:When we forget about the reason why we're doing what we're doing, why are we worshiping for who he is and what he has done.
Speaker A:And we worship together.
Speaker A:Not so that someone will notice me, because that's sometimes what happens.
Speaker A:Like, I better get to church or someone's going to notice I'm not here and I'm going to get in trouble.
Speaker A:No, we come to church to fellowship.
Speaker A:We come to church to worship.
Speaker A:We come to church for exhortation.
Speaker A:We come to church for edification.
Speaker A:And so we worship together on Sunday mornings or Sunday nights or Wednesday nights.
Speaker A:But I would encourage you to pray about and ask God to guide you and challenge you of how you can live a life of worship.
Speaker A:And I'm not just saying, well, you know, I.
Speaker A:When I'm in the car, I turn worship music on.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:Again, another aspect of worship.
Speaker A:But we all know that you could have worship music on but not be in the spirit of worship.
Speaker A:Worship is always starts inwardly and comes out externally.
Speaker A:We can have the externals without the internals.
Speaker A:And so what I would tell you is this.
Speaker A:Where does it.
Speaker A:What does it mean for you to have a heart of worship?
Speaker A:What do you need to go back to in your belief and in your life and in your experiences to say, lord, I have a reason to worship you.
Speaker A:Now, if we had all those other blessings stripped away and all we had was our salvation, we would still have a reason to worship.
Speaker A:But God, even more so, gives us a plethora of reasons to worship in our lives.
Speaker A:And so that's what we're doing here in the rest of this summer.
Speaker A:We're just going to go through some of these psalms.
Speaker A:And we're going to try to look at what it really means to biblically worship God.
Speaker A:Biblically worship God.
Speaker A:And sometimes biblical worship is silence.
Speaker A:Sometimes biblical worship is singing with all of our lungs.
Speaker A:Some, some biblical worship is joyful with laughter and excitement.
Speaker A:Some biblical worship is in tears with a broken heart.
Speaker A:Some biblical worship is alone where no one else can see me.
Speaker A:Some worship is in front of others so that there's corporate worship and edification.
Speaker A:But the, the, the similarity between all that worship is we're, we're praising and lifting up God for who he is and what he has done.
Speaker A:You go back to verse number one.
Speaker A:That's essentially what David is saying here in Psalm 145.
Speaker A:I will extol.
Speaker A:The extol means to lift up to the highest point to nothing, to be on the parallel, to raise above all else.
Speaker A:He says, I will extoll Thee, my God.
Speaker A:He's personal, but then at the same time, he's above him.
Speaker A:Oh King, I will bless Thy name forever and ever.
Speaker A:So you, you.
Speaker A:I would encourage you to have a theology behind your worship.
Speaker A:Summarize it, have a vision statement, a mission statement.
Speaker A:My worship mission statement is this.
Speaker A:I praise God and proclaim him for who he is and what he has done.
Speaker A:It's very simple.
Speaker A:Praise Him.
Speaker A:I'll add another one here because actually you got to have three points.
Speaker A:Praise him, proclaim him and please Him.
Speaker A:Praise him, proclaim him and please him for who he is and what he has done for us.
Speaker A:I encourage you to think about it from that perspective because the way that we praise him is by lifting him up by, by, by proclaiming him, by, by proclaiming him to those around us in the gospel message.
Speaker A:By pleasing him through obedience.
Speaker A:One of the things that we're trying to do as a family, so, so we're trying to do family worship.
Speaker A:One of the things that we can do with family worship is make it like a checkbox thing.
Speaker A:Like, okay, we did family worship tonight.
Speaker A:We read our paragraph, we said our prayer, we sang our song, and now we're going to bed.
Speaker A:Okay, but, but the problem with that would be is if, again, if the heart's not in the right place, what are we doing?
Speaker A:We're just doing another ritual.
Speaker A:So one of the things that, that again, you got to know me in the way that I think.
Speaker A:I said, okay, family.
Speaker A:We're going to come up with a family mission statement.
Speaker A:We're going to have a family vision.
Speaker A:And, and, and so of course, again, you got to Know me.
Speaker A:I wrote down a whole outline paragraph and summarize it with a sentence.
Speaker A:And so we're going to.
Speaker A:One of the things that we're going to try to do in our homes is we're going to try to align ourselves with whatever our family vision is.
Speaker A:I can tell you it's to honor, proclaim Jesus Christ, to be, to be a joy and to be an encouragement to each other, and then ultimately to proclaim Jesus Christ to the world.
Speaker A:So I would encourage you, whether you're single, whether you're a married couple, where you have children in the home, you have grandchildren, I don't think you have to be as formal as putting it on paper.
Speaker A:But know your why behind your worship, know your why behind your service.
Speaker A:Because you know, if, if again, my children or, or my church family sees me as only doing things because I have to do it, there's, there's a missing link there.
Speaker A:The missing link would be, I get to do this.
Speaker A:This is a privilege to be a part of this.
Speaker A:I can't wait to be around the family of God.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I can tell you that's why I, I long for Sundays, okay?
Speaker A:I, I wish every day was a Sunday.
Speaker A:There's a book, right?
Speaker A:Every day is a Friday.
Speaker A:I think someone wrote, I wish I should write a book.
Speaker A:Every Day is a Sunday, right?
Speaker A:You guys can buy it for me.
Speaker A:Buy it, get the market up being New York Times bestseller.
Speaker A:But the idea would be this.
Speaker A:We should long to be with others, but most importantly, we should long to be with our Savior.
Speaker A:And, and so, you know, I know theologically God's always with me, but there are times in my life that even though I know he is with me, I'm not present in that relationship.
Speaker A:Some of you men out there, you might know what I'm talking about.
Speaker A:You can be sitting next to your wives and you could be hearing audible noise, but maybe, just maybe you're not retaining because you're distracted with something else.
Speaker A:Especially if it's like Sunday at 1 o' clock and you got a game up and you're going, oh, yeah, I'll get that done this week.
Speaker A:You know how it can be that though I'm there in a real relationship and I hear it, I know that there is presence there.
Speaker A:I'm not engaged.
Speaker A:It's the same relationship that we have with God.
Speaker A:God is there and we can theologically know that he's there and we can see the effects of him being there.
Speaker A:But if we are not engaged with him, we're not properly in Alignment with him with a worshipful heart.
Speaker A:So it's an intentional thing that we have to do to say, lord, this is, this is something that I want, I want to meet you.
Speaker A:I would encourage you, and I think we have biblical precedent by doing this in a time of prayer and worship, to find a place where you can meet God.
Speaker A:Find a place where your distractions are gone, find a place where you can get alone with him and find that personal worship.
Speaker A:Because just as much as a corporate worship is vital for the Christian's life, I would venture to say that too, it is very important.
Speaker A:Important for us to have that personal relationship, that personal worship time with him.
Speaker A:And so I want you to think about that, pray about that as we get through this summertime.
Speaker A:How can I find a time to worship God?
Speaker A:And it'll be strange if you don't do something.
Speaker A:If you're not normally doing something.
Speaker A:It's always strange when you first started.
Speaker A:But the more you do it and the more normal it becomes, the more blessing that it will be to you if you just say, this is what I do.
Speaker A:I, I, I, I meet God before I do anything else.
Speaker A:I find Him, I find His Word.
Speaker A:Because if we love him, we'll worship Him.
Speaker A:And this is, you want to know the fuel for our worship?
Speaker A:It's the word of God.
Speaker A:The more you know this, the more you have reasons to praise Him.
Speaker A:And so start with the promises.
Speaker A:I would encourage you, you know, with the Internet today there, there are many good resources for finding the promises of God.
Speaker A:Just go back to those, the things that God has promised me as his child, and thank him for that, worship him for that, and then it'll build, it'll build from there.
Speaker A:And so I encourage you to think about that here as we move forward this summer in the Psalms.
Speaker A:Well, let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer.
Speaker A:And then after that, I'll have a few announcements and then we'll be dismissed.
Speaker A:Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us, and thank you for this opportunity to come together here tonight and lift up our request to you to fellowship one with another.
Speaker A:And we just thank you for your grace and your mercy.
Speaker A:And we have so many reasons to worship.
Speaker A:Lord, help us to be worshipful in not only what we say, but what we believe and by what we do and how we obey.
Speaker A:And I pray that we can be ultimately those that are worshiping in spirit and in truth.
Speaker A:And so, Lord, I just thank you for all that you do.
Speaker A:Keep us safe as we go our separate ways be with our fellowship to follow in our birthdays and we ask all these things in Jesus name.
Speaker A:Amen.
Speaker A:Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.
Speaker A:I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
Speaker A:If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
Speaker A:You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro Middletown BaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast.
Speaker A:Please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:God Bless.
Speaker A:Have a wonderful day.
