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Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

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questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

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and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Metter, lead pastor

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of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth for the life

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we're searching for. If you have your Bibles, take them and turn to Psalm 103 if you would today.

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Today, I'm going to talk to you about the life of blessing. The life of blessing. This is not part

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of the series that we just concluded this last week and it's not part of the Christmas series,

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but it's kind of an in-between time. We can just take a few moments and talk about what it means

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to bless God and live in the life of blessing. Psalms 103 if you would. How many of you had a

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great Thanksgiving? Raise your hand if you had a great Thanksgiving. Man, we had such a great time.

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I think we had more than 30 people at one of our meals and then we came back for our house for

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dessert. There was about 25 or so. We were glad when they came in. We were glad when they left.

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That's what my wife and I conclude. They were there with us for several days and we had a good

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time, but we are really glad to be here with you this morning, our church family. Please stand with

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me if you would as we open up God's Word. Psalm 103 beginning in verse 1. I'm going to read the

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entire Psalm and it's one of the greatest in the Bible. I consider this the Psalm that probably

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directs our attention to praising God and blessing God more than any other Psalm in the Bible. It is

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not only an exhortation to praise God, but gives us reasons why. Reminds us of all the things that

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God has done for us in our lives. This is probably one of the first chapters of the Bible I ever

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memorized as a young man growing up and I believe it's really affected my outlook in life. Just like

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I believe all of God's Word affects us in the way we view life, this Psalm has that potential for

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your life today. Here's what it says beginning in chapter 103 and verse 1. Bless the Lord,

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O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget

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none of his benefits. Who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who

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redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion, who satisfies

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your years with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. The Lord performs

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righteous deeds and judgments for all those who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses,

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his acts to the sons of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,

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and abounding in loving kindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger

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forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our

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iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward

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those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west so far, has he removed our transgressions

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from us? Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who

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fear him, for he himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man,

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his days are like grass, as the flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed

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over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the loving kindness of the Lord

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is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's

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children, to those who keep his covenant and remember his precepts to do them. Now we're in

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verse 19. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his sovereignty rules overall.

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Bless the Lord, you his angels, mighty in strength to perform his word, obeying the voice of his

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word. Bless the Lord, all you host, you who serve him doing his will. Bless the Lord, all you works

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of his, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Man, what an incredible,

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expansive chapter that deals with blessing God. Today, Father, in Jesus' name, we ask you to

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allow us to know what it means, to see the difference between praising you and acknowledging you

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and blessing you. And Father, my prayer today is that you will allow this chapter in this Bible

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to affect us in ways that nothing else on this planet can affect us in. Help us to have the

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perspective and the outlook and the viewpoint of having you in our lives in a dominant way.

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Father, speak to us, each of us. I ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people said,

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amen. Please be seated if you would. Well, if you begin to track Psalm 103 from verse 1 all the way

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through verse 22, you have a very clear picture where David is talking about him personally

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blessing God for all the things God has done in his life. He moves from there to talking about

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how God has dealt with all the people of Israel in verses 60-14, corporately, how God deals with us.

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And then finally, he has all of creation blessing God and praising God. So you move from the

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individual to the group to the whole creation, blessing God and praising God. That's kind of

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where this is going. But in reality to that, not only that, but you have a difference between just

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praising God and blessing God. The word bless is not a word we use too often when it comes to talking

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about God. We talk about praising the Lord. We're talking about worship the Lord a great deal. But

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blessing God is a different word. It's a different phrase. Blessing God basically is the wholehearted

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embrace of him as the center of our lives with our attitudes and actions. It means that we have

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experience with God that lets us say something more than an observation about God, more than saying

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God is a great God or more than saying the man upstairs has been good to me in a general way.

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We talk about God in a specific way. We bless God in a very emotional way even because we have

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experienced great things that God has brought into our lives. I've got a brother-in-law who a few

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years ago went through a very, very tough time in his life where he discovered that he had a brain

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tumor. And in discovering that it was called terminal by the doctors that began to examine him.

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Of course he had all the examinations. He had all the imaging and scans and all those things

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and ultimately decided to go to MD Anderson Hospital for surgery. And after the surgery,

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even the surgeon said, you know, you're not out of the woods yet. We got the tumor out of your brain

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and if we got it all, then there are some good days ahead but there are going to be some challenges

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ahead as well. You're going to have to have all kinds of treatments and all kinds of things that

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will follow up with this in order to secure a quality of life for you that you hope to have.

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But he never did remove the word terminal from his diagnosis. Well one side piece of information,

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before my brother-in-law went into this surgery, he was just in his mind thinking through his life

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and what was ahead of him and he felt that he heard a voice behind him saying, all is well.

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He turned around, of course no one was there and just began to discuss or determine that God has

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spoken a word to him. All was going to be well. Now my brother-in-law is a believer in Christ.

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And he speaks about God in good terms. He would praise God with us if he was in the room today.

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But something happened after his surgery and after his later prognosis which said he's now

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cancer free and in the years since that time when the doctor said you're completely healed,

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you need no more treatment, you need no more surgery, you are in fact basically a walking

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miracle. Something changed in the way he talked about God. And I would say it's the difference

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between praising God in the sense of saying I know who he is to blessing God in the sense of saying

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I know he rescued my life. I know he changed my future by his actions in my life. And that's

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probably the best way I can illustrate or describe the difference between praising and blessing.

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Because when we bless God, we bless him with the wholeheartedness of everything that's in us

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because we've experienced him in amazing ways. Look at verse one here in Psalm 103 and David

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starts it off well. He says, bless the Lord, oh my soul. And then he says, and all that is within me,

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bless his holy name. In other words, he's speaking with affection and he's speaking with gratitude

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and there's that wholehearted definition. All that is within me, bless his holy name. Now think about

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what's all that's in you. That would mean in David's life, all of his intellect, all of his

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emotion, all of his sentiment, all of his feeling, all of his brain, all of his heart, all of his

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lungs, all of his tongues. He's blessing God in a way that's not casual in any sense of the word.

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He's thinking about God, he is praising God and he's blessing God and honoring him in an accurate

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way that God deserves as the object of our affection, the object of our worship. And it's

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interesting that when we bless God in this way that's so personal, it brings change to our own

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lives. It's not just that we bless him because he's worthy of our blessing and praise and

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adoration, but it's when we bless him, we change our whole perspective about who God is, about who

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we are and what's going on in our lives. And Psalm 103 helps us do that. And we're going to

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break Psalm 103 down into three different portions for you today because I believe it's speaking

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about three different things that blessing God changes about our own life. Number one, blessing

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gives focus, blessing gives focus. Look at verse two with me. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and

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forget none of his benefits. Now the psalmist is not saying, just remember a lot of the things that

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God has done for you. He's not saying that. He's saying bless the Lord with all of your soul and

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don't forget one thing God has done for you. Forget none of his benefits. That means that you

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remember and you rehearse and you think through all the things that God has done in your life.

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And that's part of what it means to bless the Lord with your whole soul. I love the book of Psalms

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and I know that you do too. And as you read through the book of Psalms, they connect with us so

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well. Sometimes we read Psalms and we see like this one where David's heart or the psalmist

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has a lifted heart, where he's blessing God, where he's grateful, where he's thankful.

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But there are other Psalms where we see just an authentic grief going on in his heart,

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where he's downcast, where he's worried, where he's fearful. The human element plays into some

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of these Psalms and quite frankly, some of these Psalms that we read in the book of Psalms,

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that we read in the book of Psalms are self-focused. In other words, the psalmist is expressing where

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they're at in their own life. And you read this in the Psalms, I'm afraid or I'm alone or I'm weary

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or I'm being hunted down or I'm downcast. Another psalm says I'm all alone. No one knows where I am.

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And when we're hurting and when we're drowning and when we're sinking, it's easy for our lives to be

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about our pain and our disappointment and our disillusionment. And that's what some of the Psalms

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really connect with us about. In fact, when you're down, go to the book of Psalms and you'll find

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that you are identifying with someone else and someone else is identifying with you in the toughest

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times of life. And I love that part of the book of Psalms because it's real and because it's authentic

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and because we really, really do have hard times and because it's real truth. But I also love the

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book of Psalms because it does not leave us there. It doesn't leave us in the pit. It doesn't leave

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us in the darkness. Let me give you a good example of that. In Psalm 42 verse 5, we read this,

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Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?

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Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence. Another translation of that

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same verse says, Why so downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God. It's almost like the psalmist is

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talking to his soul, to his mind, his will and emotions and saying, Why are you so weary? Why are

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you so worn out? I know the circumstances are not great at this moment, but put your hope in God.

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And that's what Psalms 103 does for us. It helps us know what to focus on when things aren't going

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the way we want them to go. I can remember a few years ago when I was first in ministry,

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I was probably 30 years of age or so. And I was definitely overwhelmed by some of the things

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going on in ministry. I was a pastor of a church, a small church at the time, and lots of, lots of

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tough things were happening in people's lives. And I just remember being worn out, so tired,

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so downcast is a good word for it. It was a dark time of my life. I just couldn't see

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the optimistic side of that at the moment. And that's not like me. I usually see the glass half

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full. I usually look at things with some optimism and a large degree of faith. But at that particular

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time, I didn't have that at the moment. And I remember just not knowing what to do. And I came

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across a collection of songs on a tape. I began to listen to those songs. And many of them were

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outright Psalms that had been put to music. And as I found the lyrics to them and began to listen

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to them and began to sing those lyrics, as I drove along in my car somewhere, only in a safe spot do

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I sing out loud. And it's in my car with nobody else there. My mind began to change. It began to

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change from my circumstances to the power of the God that I was worshiping. And I began to move off

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this darkness moment and feeling like I was in a pit. And I began to focus on the God who pulled

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people out of the pit, the God who brought light to dark circumstances and dark situations, the God

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who made the impossible possible because of his power. And I noticed that the more I praised him

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and worshiped him, the more I was lifted up out of that dark moment in my life. And I realized

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that focusing on blessing God can change the way you view your circumstances. It doesn't necessarily

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change your circumstances. You may still be in a struggling time, but it changes the way you view

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life and the way you view the God who is at worship, who you're worshiping. You know, that's why we

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worship. We come together to worship him because he's worthy. We come together because he is the God

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who has our affection, who has redeemed us, who has rescued us. But we also come to remind ourselves

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that this is the one that we pray to, that this is the one we trust in, that this is the one that

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we can count on and only he can be counted on. So important for us to learn our focus in blessing

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the Lord. So I want you to think for just a moment about what that means because life is a war.

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David's life was a war. He knew what it was like to be attacked and to be betrayed, to be

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stabbed in the back. He knew what it meant to be in dark places. But David the Psalmist also knew

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that this part of life would pass. It wouldn't always be this way and it wouldn't be always this

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discouraging and he wouldn't always be this downcast. So in writing Psalm 103, David is giving

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us a prescription of how he got out of that part of his life. It helps us to focus on God instead of

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ourselves, to change the focus from the circumstances that we so often rivet our minds on and help us

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see how God has acted in the midst of those circumstances. It helps us to give thanks to God.

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It helps us to focus on the reason for life. And I'm convinced of this. We're prone to forget to

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give thanks to the God who saved us. And I'm also convinced we're prone to not give thanks to people

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around us that God has put in our lives for many, many reasons. We just forget to give thanks. But

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here the Psalmist says learn to bless God for all the things that he's done in our lives.

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So let's look at the focus of what he does in Psalm 103. He gives us several verses that will be

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applicable to every person in this room. First of all, verse three. This God, he's a blessing.

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He says about this God who pardons all your iniquities and heals all your diseases. Now I

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for one, I'm going to be the guy that says I am so grateful that God forgives us for our iniquities,

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our sins. You know what iniquities are? They're trespasses, they're sins. They are times when we

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have disobeyed God in some way. And David knows something about that, doesn't he? Because David

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though was a king, but he was also a man after God's own heart at the same time. David was the man

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who fell so publicly into sin. He had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba, probably one of the most

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public acts of adultery in human history. He later sent her husband to the front lines where he was

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killed. He literally conspired with his army so that he could have Bathsheba. And when he finally

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was exposed and confessed his sin to God, God forgave this man. So this man knew something about

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what it meant to have his iniquities pardoned. I love the idea of the scripture all the way through

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that God forgives our sin. You know what sin does, don't you? Sin separates us from God. It keeps us

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from God's favor. It keeps us from the intimacy that we should be having with God. When someone

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sends against God, they need to be forgiven. That's why when the disciples asked Jesus to teach him

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how to pray, he gave them what we know as the Lord's Prayer. And part of that is forgive us our

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trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. But here the psalmist says God

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pardons all of our iniquities. Even later on in Psalm 103, he gives us a picture. Go to verse 10,

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if you would. We read through it a moment ago. He's talking about that sin that God is pardoning

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out of his life in verse 10. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us

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according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving

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kindness towards those who fear him. Imagine David thinking these thoughts about God after God

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forgave him for all he did. Verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed

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our transgressions from us. And think about that as well. If the Lord takes our sins away from us

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as far as the east is from the west, they never beat us again. God forgives us, it's completely

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forgiven. It doesn't come back on us ever again because his loving kindness and his mercy removes

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our transgressions from us that far. Verse 13, just as the father has compassion on his children,

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so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, for he himself knows our frame. He is mindful

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that we are but dust. I'm here today to say I am grateful, I praise the God and I bless the God

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who pardons all of our iniquities and heals all of our diseases. Today, I want to share with you

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the story of Joseph. The next verse says this, who redeems your life from the pit,

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who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion. In other words, this God he's blessing does lift

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us out of the pit. Now David knew Joseph's story. Everybody remembers Joseph, the life of Joseph,

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who was the object of jealousy by his brothers and he was later sold into slavery, but first they

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left him there. Remember, and left him there until later on they did sell him to the slave traders.

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The story of Joseph was well known to all of the people of Israel and certainly well known to David

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and the pit was a place where people are left to die, where they're abandoned. And yet here David

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is using this phrase to remind us that he redeems our life from the pit. If you read the life of

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Joseph, you'll see very quickly God redeemed his life. He rescued him out of the pit. He allowed

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him to be sold to Egyptian slave traders. Later on, he was number two in the land of Egypt. He

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actually redeemed his life and then used Joseph to redeem all of Israel. So David says this in Psalm

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103, God can redeem your life even if you see no purpose for you being in the pit. You have no

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reason why you're there. You don't understand it anyway, but he will redeem your life from the pit.

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I'm grateful for the God who redeems people's lives from the pit and all the isolation and

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all the difficulty they go through. The second part of that verse says he crowns you with loving

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kindness. He places a crown on your head of loving kindness and mercy. You remember Psalms 23?

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Psalms 23 says, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. I want you to

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do an exercise with me for just a moment. It won't take you long, but in this exercise, I want you to

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focus on God's forgiveness that we talked about a moment ago. What has God forgiven you from?

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And how far has he removed that out of your life? You don't have to say anything to anybody. You

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don't have to raise your hand to spend a moment thinking about what God has forgiven you from.

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After you've taken a moment to do that, I'm going to ask you another question. What pit has God

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removed you, redeemed you out of? What hopeless situation did he at some point in the past remove

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you from that you can give thanks to him, that you can bless him for today? That's the purpose of

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Psalm 103, to forget none of his benefits that he has bestowed on your life. Then look at the

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next line of scripture, verse five, who satisfies your life with good things so that your youth is

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renewed like the eagles. You'll love this. In the Hebrew language, this refers to being fully

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satisfied as in a meal where you ate all you possibly could or should have eaten. I think it's

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perfect timing that this happens Thanksgiving week, where we all ate. I think most of us all

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ate a meal where we ate all we possibly could and maybe more than we possibly should have. How many

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of you would say, that happened to me this last week, would you raise your hand? Okay. Some of

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you are telling the truth and some of you are clearly not. I want you to use that imagery for

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a moment because that's the image of this word. This word says that God satisfies your life as

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though it's a full meal that you couldn't possibly eat anything else at. When you come to the table

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of the Lord, and by the way, this was spoken to a group of people who did not always have full meals,

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they did not always have the blessing and the abundance that we have at our tables today.

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David is saying, you know what a satisfying meal is like. You know what it means to be full

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and satisfied with the things that you're eating. I want you to know that God is

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satisfying your life with good things. But I want you to bless the Lord because what he's done is,

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he's satisfied your life with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

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If you're not satisfied with good things, come to his table because he's the one

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that satisfies your life with good things. So in forgetting none of his benefits, David walks

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through all these things, the forgiveness aspect, the aspect of redemption from the pit,

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and the aspect of life. See, when I begin to focus on that, that changes the way I view life.

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I really focus on blessing God and I'm not distracted by the giants attacking me anymore.

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I'm seeing the God who defeats the giants. I am not distracted by the problems I have.

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I'm seeing the one who solves the problem. I'm not being weighted down by the impossibilities

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of the world. I'm looking at the one who makes all those impossible things possible in his power.

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And I'm not focusing on me anymore. I'm focusing on God. And that's what David is saying.

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Bless the Lord with all of your soul and forget none of his benefits. Blessing brings focus.

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And may I say to you that when you've lost your focus and when you've lost your balance

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thinking about God in any particular situation you're in, take a step back and bless the Lord

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with all of your soul and forget none of his benefits and it will change the focus of what's

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going on in your mind at that moment and you need that change. It's an incredibly important

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principle that David lives out. Now secondly, blessing does something else that helps us

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remember. In verse six and seven it says the Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all

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those who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the sons of Israel. And it

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continues like this all the way through verse 14. Now I won't read all those verses again,

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but I do want you to realize that all these verses say something about what God has done

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in the lives of those who follow him. This was a reference to the children of Israel,

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David's people, God's people, and it applies to us today as followers of Christ. And so really

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the question I want to ask you is when you read the Bible did you really read it in such a way

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that asks the question what does this passage say about God? Because when you read verses six

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through 14 you find all kinds of amazing things that God did historically for Israel and it says

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so many things about God. It reminds us of who he is. Let me read some of those to you and you'll

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see them on the screen at the same time. It says that God is righteous. It says that God is

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compassionate. It says that he is gracious. It says that God is patient. It says he's graceful,

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that he's merciful, that our God is a purifying God, that our God is gracious to us and abounding

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to us, and that God is filled with loving kindness and God is mindful of our state.

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And I ask that you look at that screen and ask yourself what one of those qualities of God

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have I seen in my life in recent days? And take the moment to say bless you God because you're so

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patient with me, because you're so compassionate with me, because you're so gracious for me,

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you're so forgiving to me. I bless you with everything that's in me because that's who you

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are. Verse 6-14, take us through that. And it reminds us that we need to remember the things

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that God has done for us. What do you need to remember right now about God? What do you need

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to recall about God? Are you alone? This passage tells us that he has the compassion of the Father.

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Are you guilty? This tells us that God is a forgiving and gracious God. Are you failing?

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This tells us and reminds us that he abounds in loving kindness. He helps us. Are you frustrated?

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It tells us that God is mindful that we're just dust. He's aware of the struggles that we have in

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life. There are so many reasons it's important to remember these things. But number one is for you

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to remember that no one else, no other being, no other person would treat you this way, that God has

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treated us by his character. When we remember how God has acted towards us, we realize allegiance

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and loyalty to be, should be to him alone. I'm not saying we shouldn't be loyal to close friends,

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to loved ones, to spouses, to family members, but I'm telling you none of those people can compare

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with the goodness of God in their life. No one can be as faithful to you as God is. No one can be as

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loving to you as God is. No one can be as merciful to you as God is. He deserves our

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unreserved praise. He deserves our blessing with everything that's in us and our allegiance and

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our devotion. There's something else this reminds me of as well. It reminds me that there will never

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be people who love me the way God loves me, show patience towards me the way God shows patience

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towards me. There will never be a time in my life where people can treat me the same way God treats

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me. Now if you were being honest today and you were part of this survey that I'm about to take,

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how many of you would say at some point in your life you've been disappointed with people,

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disillusioned with people at some point in your life? Would you raise your hand? Mine's up.

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People will always disappoint you because they're people, but may I remind you that God will never

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disappoint you? Can I remind you that God's character never changes? He never stops loving

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you. He never stops being patient with you. So it's important that when we bless, we remember

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all the things that He's done for us and that He alone deserves our praise and our adoration.

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Now what that means is that we learn to be grateful with God, grateful for God,

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and the more grateful we are for Him, the better relationship we have with Him.

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Recently I read a very interesting study of a couple of researchers. He were researching marriage

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and specifically they researched the topic of gratitude in marriage. They were looking for

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the number one indicator that a marriage was going to fail. But here's a practical application

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on gratitude in marriage as an example. So we're going to be grateful for God. We're going to be

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grateful for God. One of them discovered from a separate study that he could identify the trait

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that caused divorce in nine out of 10 marriages. And that trait he called contempt. That is

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criticism with a sense of arrogance or superiority, where one just was super critical, hyper critical,

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and literally had contempt for the other. And he said, this is the relationship killer in almost

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all marriage. The other study looked for the antidote for that. And the conclusion was that

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gratitude was the only antidote for contempt because you can't have gratitude and contempt

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at the same time. And their solution was this, learn to bless that spouse that you may have had

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contempt for or were seen as contemptible in their sight. Bless them by telling them what you're

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about them. I'd sit down together and go back and forth being grateful for each other, one after the

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other for about three minutes at a time. They call this gratitude tennis, a very corny name.

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One of them serves up a comment of gratitude. The other knocks it back over into the other court.

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You go back and forth for three minutes and repeat as needed. And in their research, they saw that

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contempt could change to Thanksgiving when they remembered the good qualities that was in the

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relationship. Now I share all this with you, not just for the purpose of marriage advice, even

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though it's great marriage advice, but I share this with you from the perspective of your gratitude

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towards God, being able to help you see him in that light of always responding to you with goodness

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and loving kindness and mercy so that you're never holding God in contempt. You're never angry at God.

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You're never upset with God because things aren't going the way you want them to go.

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David knew what it was like to have things go bad and that he says, bless the Lord, oh my soul,

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all that is within me, bless the Lord and forget none of his benefits. All right, so that's number

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two, blessing makes us remember. It causes us to remember the good times. Thirdly, blessing brings

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perspective. And in one sense, we're learning to change our perspective all the way through Psalm 103,

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but this really goes a little further into further down the road in an eternal way.

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Because once you get to verse 13, or rather 15, 16, and 17, he begins to change his tune just a

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little bit. In verse 15, he says, as for man, his days are like grass, and he begins to talk about

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the brevity of man. But then he says in verse 17, but the loving kindness of the Lord is from

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everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. Now the ancient fathers of faith saw this as a

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reminder of how short life is. Like the book of James chapter one, your life is like a thin vapor

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of air that appears for a little while and then vanishes quickly away. And sometimes we're aware

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of that, and sometimes we're not. But life is brief, and the whole spectrum of eternity,

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life is really brief. You don't have a large dot on that long timeline of eternity. And those

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saints that have gone before us would say something like this. They would say, the greatest link to a

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full satisfying life is not to be exclusively anchored here, but to eternally anchored with God.

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In other words, don't put all your hopes of joy and contentedness and peace in life on this planet,

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because it'll be a mixed bag at times. It'll be tough at times, but place it all on the eternal

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side of life. And we're not good at doing this. In fact, when I read verses 15 through the end of

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the chapter, I struggled to grasp literally what was being said. Psalm 103 and verse 16 even goes

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further. When the wind has passed over, your life is no more, and the place acknowledges it no longer.

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And I'm struggling with this when I'm reading this verse. Not only will I be gone, but my footprint

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won't even be there. I don't even know that I've left any impact on anybody else's life. That's

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what this Psalm says. And it says it to set up the next truth. And the next truth is, from everlasting

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to everlasting, the loving kindness of the Lord is on those who follow him, who fear him. Stay with me

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here. I call these the bookends of life. Before you came along and showed up on the, at the dot on

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the timeline of eternity, there was eternity past before you ever got here. Now God knew you in

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eternity past. He had foreknowledge of you, but you showed up at some point in history, just like I

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did. And we live our life for a short period of time. When I die, that ends the dot that we're on

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the timeline of our lives, but then beyond our death is eternity future. So proceeding me with

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eternity past and following me is eternity future. And what David is saying is this. I want you to

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remember that your life is very brief, but I also want you to remember as you think about the

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goodness of God, if God is able to bless you in this life the way he has, what must eternity be

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like for you? How much better will eternity be when you get there? So therefore look ahead to

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eternity, the other side of the bookend of your life, because God has even greater things for you

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there. What you thought good on earth is going to be greater in heaven. What you thought was a

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blessing on earth is even going to be more of a blessing in the future in eternity past.

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And that's going to be the future for you. So David, in spite of all the things he had experienced

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that were great, was now looking into the future saying, it'll even be greater than. Eye has not

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seen, ear has not heard. We haven't even seen in our minds all that God has for us in the future.

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Look ahead to that while you live here on this planet. That means that we have to endure the

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worst. We rejoice in the fun things, but look forward even more to the one who blesses us on

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this earth will bless us in the future in eternity. So think about this with me if you would.

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Pain in your life that you have now will not be in existence in eternity.

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Hardship will no longer be there in eternity. Difficult stuff is gone. Even amazing things and

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says will be swallowed up by something greater. The highest of the highs and the lowest of the

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lows will be swallowed up in that one moment. And we'll be looking into the doorway of the

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eternal future that God has for us to endure the difficult times, enjoy the rejoicing times,

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but something better is coming. David wants us to remember that when we bless the Lord with all of

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our soul. Now Psalm 103 ends the way we talked about. He starts with a personal praise. He moves

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to a corporate praise and he goes on to what we would call all of creation. I've worded it like

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this. You get this right. Your voice will join the angelic leaders, the host of celestial angels

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around them and all of creation and blessing the Lord individually, corporately and creation-wise.

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We bless the Lord with our whole soul. Now why is this Psalm here? It's here to help us

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as we look at life, to look at life through God. No one loves you more. No one has more plan for

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you, better plan for you than God does. Look at life through the lens of God. Now we're going to

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end our service a little different today. I want to ask you to stand with me right now if you would.

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And as you stand with me, I'm going to lead you to read these last three verses out loud in unison

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we'll have on the screen. But before we do that, I'm going to remind you of the way we end our

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services every week. We have our decision stations that are available. We would love for you to stop

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by and talk to someone about placing your trust and faith in Christ if you've not done that.

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I also want to invite you to come to the guest reception room. I'd love to meet you and talk

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with you about Cross City Church and about faith. Any way that I can help you, I want to see you then

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if you'll come to the guest reception room right outside the center exit doors across the hallway.

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And as you leave, I want you to pick up an invite card. We start our Christmas series next week,

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expectant, where we're looking with expectancy about Christ coming the first time as a child.

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And I want you to invite someone to come with you to hear the good news of the gospel because

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it's amazingly, amazingly good news. So we're going to end the service this way. We're going

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together, recite these last three verses of Psalm 103, and then our worship leader will lead us

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in a song of a song that we sing together. And we're going to end the day blessing the Lord.

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Give it your best. Give it your enthusiasm, not your Sunday morning tepid mood. I want you to

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give it all the gusto. I want you to bless the Lord with all that is within you. I want you to

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all that is within you. All right. Think about what that means. All of your brain, all your intellect,

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all your emotion, all your memories, everything that says I have reason to bless the Lord. I'm

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going to be loud in this. I put the microphone down, but I'm going to be loud with this. All right.

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Because I believe God is worthy by praise and our adoration. Do you see the verses on the screen?

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Let's put them up there. Are you ready? Let's say it together. Bless the Lord, you his angels,

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mighty in strength, who performed his word, obeying the voice of his word. Say it. Bless the Lord,

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all you hosts, you who serve him, doing his will. Bless the Lord, all you works of his,

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in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Let's sing it now.

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Your name is great and your heart is kind.

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For all your goodness, I will keep on singing.

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10,000 reasons for my heart to cry. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul. Worship his holy name.

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Sing like never before, oh my soul. I'll worship your holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul,

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oh my soul. Worship his holy name. Sing like never before, oh my soul. I'll worship your holy name.

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But I'll worship your holy name. Amen, you're dismissed.