We are going to have a blast today.
I hope this message and service will point your praise to God.
And you are all towards God.
And just a little disclaimer before we start.
I want to point out to all those under 30 years old.
Do you see what this is up here?
We called this back in the day, a cassette tape.
Anybody remember having cassette tapes?
And what we did with cassette tapes is we bought them at a very high price most of the time.
It depends on what is on the tape and how much we paid for it.
And through some magical technology, somehow music got onto actual ribbon.
And we used to do things called rewinding.
Who remembers rewinding?
And we had a fast forwarding.
And if you had the fancy tape player, it would rewind to the next blank space.
And how many of you had a favorite tape you used to listen to?
Did you on that tape have the knowledge?
Because there was two sides to the tape.
And do you remember that this song at this time, if you went to the other side,
you don't remember that.
And there were parts of the album you skipped.
And I remember being in church.
We had a small church early on and it was growing and went to two services.
And literally at 11 years old, 10 years old, my dad had me be the sound guy for the second service.
And that was back in the day when we had special music where people would bring a tape that had just
the background music and you would put it in the tape player.
And my dad taught me how to queue up the tape.
You would hit play and the first note you heard, you would stop it and take a pencil and put it in the little thing in there.
And you go back like a half turn.
And then it would be ready so when Corey's grandma would sing the special, because she was twice a month at that time.
That then when I hit play, that old gospel ship would play right at this right time.
And it was awesome, right?
So that's what that is.
This was before CDs and Spotify.
So anyway, and then if you were really poor like me when CDs came out, your car still had a tape player.
And so we had a tape adapter that had no ribbon that you plugged into the CD player and prayed that it wouldn't skip while you were playing the songs.
Anybody know what I'm talking about?
Okay, you're my people.
That's good.
Music is a powerful thing.
Today we're beginning a series in Psalms and I've been studying for this series for some time.
And the Psalms were the song book for the Jewish people.
They were, as part of the scripture, they're written by the Holy Spirit.
He used people like David and others to write so many of these songs.
And they're what they used to worship the Lord with, but not every Psalm was just about worship or just about praise.
Some of the Psalms, there's actually a wide variety of topics in the Psalms.
And actually, for the last few months I've been journaling through them on my own, kind of preparing for this particular series.
And it has the Psalms without the music.
Just the words of them have ministered to my heart and refreshed my relationship with God in ways that have been really good.
And I hope to bring some of that to you as we teach.
There's a wide variety.
Not every Psalm is just worship to God.
While they do that, there are many real life issues that come up.
And I believe that we're going to learn through this series.
Every week the music ministry of our church will sing the Psalm that we're going to study.
So next week we're going to be in Psalm chapter 3 and the choir is going to sing a song out of Psalm chapter 3.
So we're going to sing the word and we're going to understand the word and it's going to be a great thing.
And I think it has the ability to help be a very memorable series for us because music speaks to the head and to the heart in ways that help us remember.
So today we're going to study Psalm 150 as you know since we've sung the Psalm now in two different pieces.
It's difficult to miss the point of this Psalm, isn't it?
It says over and over again, praise ye the Lord.
Say that with me.
Praise ye the Lord.
That is the point of the Psalm.
That's that phrase it's said multiple times.
We're told to praise the Lord.
I want us to study this passage today and I want us to do it by considering two questions that we're going to answer.
We're going to have two questions and we should obey.
If we're being told to praise the Lord, what should we do?
If we're told to praise the Lord, we ought to do that today.
And we're going to do that.
But I'm going to ask these two questions.
Why should we praise the Lord?
And how should we praise the Lord?
Who agrees?
These are good questions.
These are the questions that the Psalm answers.
The first question, why should we praise the Lord?
I want you to say first, I want you to see this.
We should praise the Lord for who He is.
There's an old song from the 80's that said, Lord, I worship you not just because of, I worship you for who you are, not just for all the mighty things you've done.
And we see that aspect here in Psalm 1.1.50.
Look at verse 1, it says, praise the Lord.
Praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His power.
Praise Him for His mighty acts.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
We're told in verse 1 to praise God in His sanctuary.
The word sanctuary comes from the same word we get, saint or sanctified or sanctification.
It's associated with holiness.
One of the defining attributes, one of the primary attributes of God is that He's holy.
He's holy.
He's other than.
He is separate.
God is W-H-O-L-L-Y.
Holy different.
God is holy different from us.
He's in a holy different place than we are because He is separate from us.
He is different from us in that He is holy.
It is intrinsic to who He is.
To know this about God is to realize that He is worthy of praise.
We are told in verse 2 to praise Him.
Here it says, according to His excellent greatness.
Say that with me.
Excellent greatness.
Here these two words are used, the two Hebrew words, robe and godel.
The word robe is translated as excellent.
But it also includes this idea of immensity or size.
So He's excellent but it's kind of referring to how big He is.
Sometimes this word, 68 times in the Old Testament and in the King James,
is translated as multitude.
35 times as abundance or 8 times as much is translated greatness 9 times.
Here it's translated as excellent.
The word godel, so it's robe, godel, excellent greatness.
The word godel, which I'm sure I'm pronouncing these wrong.
That's fine.
Probably in the Hebrew hud-el or something like that.
Like phlegm.
Anyway.
The word godel translated here as greatness is more rare, is a more rare
word in the Old Testament and it's translated 11 times as greatness.
When you put the words robe and godel together, you get multiplied
greatness.
He's saying praise the Lord to His greatness squared.
Greatness cubed, greatness multiplied upon greatness.
Is our God great?
Our God is so great.
We praise Him for His multiplied infinite unending greatness.
Greatness times greatness.
He's not kind of great.
He's not pretty great.
He is infinitely great.
He's infinitely great.
He is great in totally separate kind of way.
He's great in an infinite kind of way.
Our praise to Him should attempt to rise to the person of Him, to who He is.
We should praise Him because He is great upon great.
We should praise Him because He is holy.
Would you sing this with me?
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty.
God in three persons, blessed trinity.
Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee.
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee.
Which word and art then evermore shall be.
Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hitheth thee.
Though the eye of sinful man in our glory shane us see.
Holy, our holy, there is none beside thee.
Perfect in love and love and purity.
We should praise God because of who He is.
He is infinitely great and He is infinitely holy.
The Psalmist points us secondly to another reason why we should praise God.
We should praise God because of what He's done.
What He's done.
Back to verse 1 and 2.
Praise you the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His.
Say the word with me.
What is it?
Power.
Praise Him for His mighty acts.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
We were pointed to where He is and that speaks to who He is and His excellent greatness.
Now we're pointed to what He has done.
Verses 1 and 2 compel us to do that.
We're told to praise Him in the firmament of His power.
The word firmament means the heavens or the sky.
Strong defines it this way.
The Hebrew word rakia means properly an expanse.
That is the firmament or apparently visible arch of the sky.
The sky, the heavens, the firmament is a display of His power.
Something He has made and where He resides displays what He has done.
There is similarly a famous lyric in Psalms in Psalm 191 where it says,
The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.
How many of you saw the eclipse?
Is it God cool?
God is so cool.
Cool seems like kind of low, Brawl, for what He is.
We saw the sunrise and the sunset and I said out here, it was amazing.
God's heavens declare who He is and His works show what He has done.
We praise Him because we see what He has made and we praise Him for making it.
We can know something about God by what He's made.
In fact, Romans 1 tells us that God's deity is on display through His creation to the degree
that those who do not praise Him and worship Him for who He is and for what He's done,
they are accountable because they have seen what He's done and should conclude that there is a God.
Romans 1 says it this way, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them,
for God has showed it unto them, for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen being understood by the things that are, say it with me, made even His eternal power
and Godhead so that they are without excuse.
He says praise Him for where He is in the firmament of His power.
It also says similarly, we're told to praise Him for His mighty acts.
Has God acted?
He has.
God certainly has acted in the world.
He's done so in creation as we have seen.
He's acted through His revelation.
He declared Himself both naturally and supernaturally.
We can see Him in the book of His creation and we can know Him through the book of His revelation.
He is not the deistic God of a few of our founders who believe that He is the distant God unconcerned
with the affairs of men.
He is a God of more of our founders who believe that God of the Bible had revealed both who He is
and what He wants in His word.
God has acted not just in creation and not just in revelation.
God has acted through our redemption.
This God came and dwelt among us and He died and He rose again so that we could be made sons and daughters of God.
Is anybody thankful for that today?
Should we praise God for that today?
Should we praise God for what He's done?
We should praise Him not just for who He is but for what He's done.
Listen to the choirs they sing now.
Sing on the hill of Calvary, My Savior, glad for me, My Jesus set me free.
Look at the wounds that give me life, grace flowing from His side, no greater sacrifice.
What He's done, what He's done, all the glory and the honor to the Son.
My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
I praise God for what He's done.
Sing for the freedom He has won, even death is dead and gone.
His life has overcome.
Speak, say the name above all names, over every broken place.
He has risen from the grave.
What He's done, what He's done, all the glory and the honor
to the Son.
My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
I praise God for what He's done.
What He's done, what He's done, all the glory and the honor
to the Son.
My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
I praise God for what He's done.
Now on a throne of majesty, the fathers will complete.
He reigns in victory.
Sing, hallelujah to the King, He is worthy to receive all the worship we can bring.
What He's done, what He's done, all the glory and the honor to the Son.
My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
I praise God for what He's done.
All the glory and the honor to the Son.
My sins are forgiven, my future is heaven.
I praise God for what He's done.
He has done so much for us, I need my notes, I got excited.
We should praise God because of who He is, we should praise God for what He's done.
Here's a question, question number two, how should we praise the Lord?
How should we praise the Lord?
Today's text we move from why we should praise the Lord to how we should praise the Lord.
Certainly we can praise the Lord without music.
We can praise the Lord without music.
Have you praised the Lord this week for anything?
You can praise it without music, you can praise the Lord on your own.
You can do it by yourself, right?
And we should.
If your praise and your prayer life is outpaced here rather than somewhere else, you should look into that.
You should pray more and you should praise more.
That's a good thing, but certainly you can't read this Psalm and go, well, you shouldn't praise the Lord with music.
Because how, one way you should praise the Lord is with music.
We should praise the Lord with music.
Look at verse three, this is awesome.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
Praise Him with the sultry and harp.
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance.
Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise Him with loud cymbals.
Praise Him with high sounding cymbals.
Our Heavenly Father is creative.
He is creative.
All right, everyone look around you.
Look at each other.
He's creative.
Is there any difference between us?
I mean, there's a lot similar.
But God makes all of us different ways.
He made you like that.
There's some things maybe you, some of it's your fault.
But there's a lot that's his design.
We're creative.
And he creates.
Now God creates differently than we create.
God creates ex nihilo.
God creates out of nothing.
Let there be light.
There was light.
Right?
We take from what he created and we do something with it.
But we wouldn't have anything to create.
Look at my guitar.
Somebody had to go get wood.
Somebody had to plant a tree.
Somebody had to steward some conditions.
Someone had to do whatever they do to get metal.
I don't even want...
I have no idea how these strings got made.
I have no idea.
I just know I need them if I'm going to use it.
We take what God made and we do something with it.
And actually we can take stuff God's made and dishonor him with it.
Has that happened?
Yeah.
But we can also take what God made and we can honor him with it.
And that's what this verse is telling us to do.
Let's take some things and make music with it.
Let's take what God has given to us in doing that.
There are a few things I can notice when we see what's expressed here.
There's a variety of instruments found in these verses.
He didn't just say praise the Lord with instruments.
He kind of named some instruments, didn't he?
There are wind instruments.
You have the shofar translated...
The word for trumpet here is shofar.
It was a ram's horn.
It's often.
That was blown.
You have also what's translated as organs.
And verse 4 which comes from the word most like, most literally translated of breath.
So when we think of organs, we think of a keyboard-like thing that makes...
But you know what?
At my dad's church, and this church is in town here, they have pipe organs.
You guys know what I'm talking about?
And at my dad's church they have one, Miss Boland who is a professor at Baptist Bible College
for years and years in the music department.
She can play the organ and this huge loud pipe organ.
And she's got the pedals.
But what's actually happening when she presses down is wind is being forced through certain pipes
to make those noises.
And if you've ever been where there's a huge pipe organ, it rattles the roof.
It's amazing.
So here, this ancient thing, he's talking about something that's blown.
So today's instruments would be like brass instruments or wind instruments,
flutes and reed instruments and organs that push through.
Then there's stringed instruments.
He says here, literally in verse 4, stringed instruments.
He talks about the sultry and the harp.
The harp is mentioned, the sultry is mentioned and is considered by some to be like a lyre,
which is a lot like a guitar.
Stringed instruments today would include guitars of all kinds, violins, amen.
Piano has strings, violas, cellos, basses, harps, yes, pianos, guitars, electric and acoustic.
Very similar.
Then there's percussion instruments mentioned.
The word in verse 4 is the timbral.
It's most akin today to the tambourine.
It's a rhythm instrument.
It's a percussion instrument.
Verse 5 is a whole verse.
And verse 5 is an entire verse in the Bible about cymbals.
You know what cymbals means?
That word for cymbals.
You know what it means?
Cymbals.
That's a kind of Bible study nugget I give people like you.
It's really cool.
Notice that they are, what are they?
They're loud.
They're loud cymbals.
Praise them with loud cymbals.
Praise them with high sounding cymbals.
These will be closest to drums and cymbals of all kinds today.
From the timpani to the drum set to the cahon that we have playing over here.
God makes some people with rhythm.
God makes some of you without rhythm.
I almost said before we played that first song, you can clap as long as you do it on the 2 and the 4.
Not on the 1 and the 3.
But these would be closest to that.
Have you ever seen that middle school kid with pencils and a desk and a little bit too much energy?
Right?
I was that kid.
In some ways I'm still that kid.
I notice that this rhythm instrument is the closest to the, it has a word close to it called dance.
It says praise them with the timbral and dance.
And there is something about rhythm that gets us to move and not all movement is wrong.
Certainly there is an evil seductive fleshly dancing that is meant to elicit sinful desire.
But there is also a kind of movement that can honor the Lord.
Or else it wouldn't be in the Psalms about praising the Lord.
I get sometimes, this happens to me sometimes when I'm in my office studying the Bible.
Sometimes I'm studying the word of God and something finally clicks and I finally get what the guy is saying.
What the author is saying.
And I just got to get up and I got to walk around.
This is amazing.
I'm not trying to say this to show you that I'm so spiritual.
I'm saying, what has he done?
And what has he given us?
And what has he revealed?
We have a great God.
We have an incredible God.
And the Bible should get us excited.
And sometimes I go to a basketball game and I watch guys put a leather ball in a round hoop.
And I get excited.
And I watch everybody get excited and then I come to church and I'm like, God died for you and he rose from the dead.
And everybody's like, cool.
Don't let that get past you.
Who he is?
What he's done?
Music is a powerful thing.
It can be used for good.
It can be used for evil.
It's a moral in the sense that what makes it moral or immoral is not necessarily the sound itself, but how the sound is used.
There's some subjectivity to it.
Some people like the banjo and some do not.
Some like the drums.
Some do not.
Some like some certain styles that others do not.
But I want you to notice something about all of the mentioning of these instruments.
What's being done with all of them?
They're being used to praise the Lord.
The music ministry at our church is not a ploy to get people to enjoy the service.
It is not just entertainment for the congregation.
It's not merely the tip of a hat to tradition or a demonstration of our innovation.
It's fundamentally ought to be a vehicle whereby people who live in our context can praise the Lord and honor him.
It's an expression of praise from us to the object of our worship.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Sing this with me.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
You guys should join the choir.
You can be seated.
In Psalm 150 we're told to praise the Lord with music.
What should be our philosophy of music?
We need spirit-filled, scripture-controlled music.
In Psalm 150 we're told to praise the Lord with music.
In Ephesians 5, 18 and Colossians 3, 16 we see parallel passages that tell us the spirit-filled, scripture-soaked Christians will be worshipful.
What does that mean for our church?
We should sing songs as people that are led by the Spirit.
Who agrees with me?
Okay, so what does it tell us?
How does that happen?
Well, look at Ephesians 5, 18 with me. We'll put it up on the screen.
Ephesians 5, 18 says this,
And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.
He says there's a Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer.
If you're a believer you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.
If you do not have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, you're not a believer.
Okay? And the Holy Spirit indwells us, but sometimes the Holy Spirit doesn't control us because you can disobey the Holy Spirit.
Okay? And so what he's saying is, don't be influenced by wine that leads to excess, leads to sinfulness, leads to debauchery.
Instead, be controlled by the Spirit.
In Colossians, we won't go there, but in Colossians 3, 16 he says, let the word of Christ dwell on you richly in all wisdom.
And then he says the same fruit of what we're about to look at here.
He says the effect of being filled with the Spirit and the effect of letting the word of Christ dwell on us richly will lead to the same things.
Well, what does it lead to?
Somebody once asked, what does it lead to?
That's where you say, what does it lead to?
I wasn't that obvious. Okay.
Look at verse 19.
It leads to speaking to yourselves in Psalms.
Hey, that sounds familiar, right? It's what we're talking about.
And hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
So in this text, we see that Spirit-led music, Spirit-led worship with music.
Now, I got to laugh. How many of you are looking at the bulletin right now, or you have it in front of you?
I spelled it out and notice how you don't see mistakes until you print out 300 of them?
That's when I noticed that it's Spirit-led, L-E-D, not Spirit-L-E-A-D.
So this is evidence that I make mistakes.
Okay. Spirit-led, L-E-D, Spirit-led worship with music at some level is man-word.
What do I mean? Speaking to yourselves.
There is a sense in which music is a vehicle for actual people to speak to God and to themselves.
In our church, we're speaking to old and young, rich and poor, and everything in between.
We live in Finley, Ohio in 2024.
This means that we should probably not have a staple of polka music.
Or like my buddy TJ here, I said, what's like the native music?
He said flamenco music. Who would like to hear a flamenco song?
Maybe a couple of people. There's a variety there.
But it's not that this would be wrong.
It's just that if all we did was polka music or something, that wouldn't fit here.
It wouldn't fit. It wouldn't fit.
It wouldn't be appropriate.
That's not to say we would never have elements of that in our worship songs, but that we're trying to connect with the people where we are.
It's not our primary motivation, but a wise leader in church understands their context.
The point is that the music has to speak to truth about God, to God, and to those who are here.
Because we're speaking to ourselves.
Are you with me? In songs, in hymns, in spiritual songs.
When we get to heaven, I believe there will be all kinds of music there.
If you think it will only be bluegrass or only be classical or only insert your favorite genre, here I believe you're genre.
John Ray. Okay.
I believe you're going to be mistaken. We'll see God creatively when we get there.
So we see that spirit-led worship is man-word.
It's also creative.
He says psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
He uses three terms to describe the kinds of songs that we sing.
The psalms are what we currently are studying. They're poetic.
They were written by the Holy Spirit and are part of the Scripture.
They are beautifully written and speak to the heart. Who here loves the psalms?
Yeah. Then we have hymns.
Hymns can be defined. Here's a great definition.
A metrical composition adapted for singing in a religious service.
Hymns have historically been written in strophic form, consisting of many short verses, sometimes a dozen or more,
normally sung to the same tune.
A hymn is not a hymn because it's in the hymnal.
There are some things in the hymnal that are not hymns.
Okay.
But there are some things that are in the hymnal that are hymns and that's good.
Towards the end of the 19th century, refrains were often added, which are somewhat like a modern chorus,
but usually shorter and not necessarily the zenith of the song.
The more a song gets away from this simple verse or verse refrained form, the more it becomes less like a hymn.
Hymns are not necessarily old.
There are many hymns being written today with a resurgence happening in this craft.
A modern hymn is simply a hymn that was written recently.
Though sometimes we attach an extra connotation that the hymn is designed to be set to a more modern musical style
like guitar strumming rather than pipe organs blowing.
The best hymns are stylistically agnostic, lending themselves to instrumentation and arrangement across a wide variety of musical styles.
This allows them to be adapted according to the gifts and musical sensibilities of each local congregation.
Hymns are not simply songs in the hymnal.
There are clearly many hymns in the hymnal, but not all songs in the hymnal are hymns.
There are songs and spiritual songs in our hymnal.
So we have hymns.
We also have spiritual songs.
Spiritual songs are songs that may not fit into the other two categories definitionally or stylistically,
but would be included in songs that are appropriate to sing to one another in the context of worship and the brotherhood of believers.
Notice that we are told here that all three are appropriate and should be used in our lives and in our worship.
Are you with me?
Not just hymns, not just songs, not just spiritual songs.
He says use all of it.
Spirit-filled people and spirit-filled congregations then would not limit themselves to hymns only or spiritual songs only or songs only.
The idea is that we use every one of these as they are appropriate, scriptural and God-honoring.
So spirit-led music is creative.
Spirit-led worship with music is outward.
He says singing and making melody, right?
So here's what I want you to do when it's time to sing at church.
Are you ready?
Sing.
When it's time to sing, sing.
If you're filled with the spirit, you know what you do when the song comes on?
You sing.
You're like, I can't sing.
I know.
I know what I can sing.
You can sing.
You can make sustained noise to words, someone on rhythm to the Lord.
And if you can't do it well, God made you that way and He knows.
And He'll grade you on a curve.
It's fine.
When it's time to sing, it's not about your performance, it's about the God we're worshipping and the truth of what we're singing.
of what we're singing.
And so you know how I can tell you're not spirit filled?
That is not spirit filled.
Spirit filled people sing and worship.
Now not everybody's singing is spirit filled.
Are you with me?
Sometimes people sing and they're thinking about themselves.
How good they sing.
How good they are.
We don't want that either.
Who is it for?
Well he tells us spirit led music is outward.
We're singing and making melody.
But we're also spirit led worship with music is inward.
He says singing and making melody in your hearts.
Some of us aren't as gifted as others at singing.
We can sing in our hearts and from our hearts.
Whenever we sing it should not be about us.
It should be about him.
Our hearts should be pure and right with our Lord
as we worship.
Give us clean hands and give us pure hearts.
Let us not lift our souls to another.
So what is spirit led worship?
It's manward, it's creative, it's outward, it's inward.
And here's the most important part.
It's Godward.
We're singing and making melodies in our hearts
to the Lord.
Ultimately the music and church should be the fruit
of our lips giving praise to his name.
We're not the audience.
We are not the audience.
He's the audience.
It's for him.
We're not worshiping ourselves.
We're not simply enjoying the music.
This is for him.
Therefore our music should be truthful.
It should be God honoring.
Every song that's written was written
or performed by sinful man.
Even the Psalms were written by God
through people like David who were very flawed.
David wrote a lot of Psalms and killed a guy.
David wrote a lot of Psalms and committed adultery.
If we have to sing songs that are by perfect people,
we're in trouble.
Because the Psalms are perfect
because God wrote them using those imperfect people.
So what do we ask?
What does the song say?
Is it true?
Is it appropriate?
Does it honor the Lord?
So let's not fight over music.
Let's not get selfish over the vehicle
that God wants us to use to bring praise to the Lord.
If you don't like the song, wait till the next one.
If you think the song is unscriptural,
don't gossip about it.
Go talk to one of us about it
in a spirit of humility and concern.
We are a church family called to love each other
and to worship God.
Let's do that in unity with enthusiasm
and passion as spirit-filled believers,
worshiping our true God.
Would you stand with me?
Now, this is not the end of the service.
I want us to, with our whole bodies and our whole hearts,
sing a song of praise to the Lord.
Let's sing this.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Jesus keep me near the cross, where all flesh does founted.
Free to all our healing stream, close from down, free from death.
Near the cross a trembling soul, love and mercy found me.
There the bright and boring spark, shed its flames around me.
In the cross, in the cross came my glory ever, till my ransom soul shall find rest beyond the river.
Near the cross a tremor died, with its dream before me.
Help me, it's off from me to live, live in shadow for me.
Near the cross a watch and rain, hoping trusting ever, till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river.
In the cross, in the cross came my glory ever, till my ransom soul shall find rest beyond the river.
Rest beyond the river.
I'll never know how much it costs to see my sin upon that cross.
So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're my God, you're all together love me, all together worthy, all together wonderful to me.
So here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're my God, you're all together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonderful to me.
You may be seated.
There's another verse here, ends the whole Psalm verse 6 says, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Read the last four words with me.
Praise ye the Lord.
The theme and this entire Psalm can be summed up in this verse.
If you have breath in your lungs, you have it because the Lord gives it to you.
If you have a life to live, it's because the Lord gives it to you.
If you enjoy the gifts of God, it's because James 1.17 says it this way, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.
From the Father of, come it down from the Father of lights and him is no variable this, neither shadow of turning.
He gave us the ability to taste and to feel and to smell and to see and to hear the wind blowing across your skin and the warmth of the sun, the beauty of the sky at sunset and the comfort of the handshake or hug from a friend.
All of it is a gift from God.
Your husband, your wife, your kids, your friends, your family, your church family, all our gifts from God.
If God has given us breath, we should use our breath in our life to praise the Lord.
The greatest gift he gave us to top all of it off is the gift of his dear son.
He came to this earth.
He was born of a virgin with no sin nature.
He kept the law that we did not keep and he died the death that we deserve to die.
He took the punishment for our sin on the cross where God poured out his wrath for our sin.
Second Corinthians 521 says, for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God and him.
This is the essence of the gospel.
His life for mine.
How could that ever be?
His life for mine.
John 1.10 says, he was in the world and the world was made by him.
And the world knew him not.
He came unto his own, but his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
You receive Jesus Christ and you are saved through faith in him.
That faith can be worded in a prayer when we call on God for salvation.
Romans 10.9 says this.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth under righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture sayeth, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
For the same Lord over all is rich unto all who call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
You can offer God worthy worship only because he's made you holy when you put your faith and trust in Jesus.
You can't offer God worship that he'll accept in your own sinfulness and in your own unbelief.
The Bible says that our righteousness is in that state are like filthy rags.
You need a new heart.
God gives it to you when you put your faith and trust in him.
Today we're going to praise the Lord one more time.
We're going to sing the song we have studied Psalm 150.
We're going to finish out this sermon with that today.
And then after that we're going to sing one more time after that the song of invitation.
And you know walking an aisle doesn't save you.
Praying a prayer in and of itself.
The prayer like you just say a prayer without understanding who you're talking to.
That doesn't save you.
It's Jesus who saves you.
And so we're going to give you the opportunity to respond.
But if you do come we'll take God's word and show you how you can know for sure.
Your sins are forgiven that have in your home.
You can put your faith and trust in Christ.
If you're here today and you already know Christ, man you understand what it means to worship God.
And so this second singing of Psalm 150, let it be not just something you're participating in because we're all doing it.
We're singing praise to God.
So let's all stand and let's do this one more time.
Psalm 150, praise the Lord.
You made the starry host. You grazed the mountain peaks. You made the evening sky with wonders.
Nearer to your town, from desert to the sea, a roi should testify.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Sing His greatness, all creation. Praise the Lord.
Raise your voice, you hights in all ye depths, from furthest seas to west. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
You reached into the dust with love and spirit breath. You've formed us in your very lyingness.
To know your wondrous works, to tell your mighty deeds, to join the everlasting chorus.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Sing His greatness, all creation. Praise the Lord.
Raise your voice, you hights in all ye depths, from furthest seas to west.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
That symphony resounds, let love departs me out. All heaven hear the sound of worship that every nation bring.
It's honors to the King, a royal harmonies, eternal. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Sing His greatness, all creation. Praise the Lord. Raise your voice, you hights in all ye depths, from furthest seas to west.
You're distant burning stars, all creatures near and far. From sky to sea to shore, ring out forevermore. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Every head bowed and eye closed, no one looking around. We've responded today in singing and in worship.
If you've been touched by the word of God, you need to make a decision for the Lord.
Maybe you need to come and confess some sin as a believer but not in fellowship with the Lord like you ought to.
Maybe you need to get saved. Whatever your need is, we want to give you that opportunity now.
They're going to sing near the cross and if you need to come, I'm going to pray and give you a chance to respond.
I love you. We do praise you for who you are.