a series that got started, I believe last week,
brother Gentry started it, or maybe Damon, who was it?
Who spoke last week?
God spoke, oh you did.
Yeah, okay, amen.
He is like that, I'm like, oh.
And it's on worship, and when we think about worship,
when we talk about worship in church,
people often automatically go to music, right?
Because music is a great way to worship God,
and we have so much opportunity in the forms of music,
we can have access to all kinds of music,
and listen to all kinds of music, and that's a good thing.
Tonight we're gonna talk about inspiration for worship.
How many of you guys have ever been watching
football game?
That's what I'm trying to think of, football game.
And you see these big, lumbering, gigantic guys
with muscles on muscles, and they're so fast,
they don't look like they should be fast,
but they're gigantic, and they're fast at the same time.
I can be gigantic and slow, but these guys are like big.
Anyway, and they tackle, they make a great play,
they do something, and they're celebrating,
and they're looking all macho,
and then finally one of them sees
that a camera's looking at them,
and they look in the camera, and they say, what do they say?
Hi mom.
Have you guys ever seen that happen before?
Like these huge masculine brocifs, I mean they're huge,
and they're like, they're shouting out,
they're giving a shout out to their mom.
Why mom?
Why not dad?
Why not anybody, hey coach, I don't know what you would say,
but why mom?
Why do you think mom, why do you think they,
you think they shout out to their mom?
This is an easy one, huh?
Cause mom's, who doesn't love their mom?
If you don't love your mom, don't admit it,
you're in church, man, that's not good.
Like we all love our mom, right?
Because mom is the, because mom,
it's crazy you said nurturing,
cause in my notes it literally says,
because moms are nurturers.
They care for us, some of the earliest memories any of us have
is probably of our moms, because moms are good
at taking care of, dads are like, walk it off, get up,
rub some dirt in it, right?
Anybody have dads like that?
That's how my dad was, toughen up son, you know.
Thanks dad, you're very caring.
My leg is broken, actually that actually happened.
I literally, I was on, have I told you the story?
I was on a deck in Springfield, Missouri,
sitting on the railing of the deck.
We were on a trip after my mom had passed away
and we were on this trip, going to see all the places
that were special to them and we're on Ray Adams' deck
and my brother, the big jerk, pushed me off of the ledge
of the deck and I landed on my wrist
and I told my dad for like two or three days,
dad, I got up crying, my wrist really hurts
and he's like, nah, you're fine, it'll stop.
Eventually he's like, we're on our way to Texas
and he called my grandma.
You might want to get him a doctor's appointment
and then when we got the doctor's appointment,
I had a broken wrist.
He got me ice cream because he felt so bad
because he's like telling me the whole time,
it's gonna be fine, you know.
But our moms take care of us, they love us,
they are nurturing, they make us feel cared for and love.
But tonight I want to tell you this,
that even our moms, this is a silly illustration,
but even our moms do not care for us like God cares for us.
God really does care for us, God really does love us.
And if there's anything that's an inspiration
to our hearts for worship, it's this truth
that God really does love us.
When we remember God's compassion and his faithfulness
that goes back to the beginning of time,
we want to let the world know about his love
and when everyone is looking at us,
like those guys looking at, hey mom, you know,
we ought to, when we are understanding God's love for us,
when we think about God's love for us,
we ought to want to tell everybody
about who he is and what he's done for us.
God's goodness and God's love lead us to worship him
when we really think about it.
And so today we're gonna look at Psalm 25,
we're gonna look at verses four to 15,
where it highlights three aspects of God's love
that inspire us to worship him,
that inspire us to worship him.
Let me ask you a question, when you were young,
this is an all play now for you to talk
to somebody near you, don't, you know,
we'll just do it that way, kind of fun.
Who is someone that inspired you to go after a goal
or a dream when you were young?
Maybe it was a coachmate, who was it that inspired you
to go after something, who motivated you to do something?
Ready, set, go, tell somebody next to you, go.
Okay, who wants to share theirs real quick, go.
Who motivated you?
Yes.
My grandma.
Grandma, okay, very good.
Brian.
Damon.
Sarns?
Damon Sarns motivated, that's awesome.
Who's grateful for Damon?
I'm glad Brian's here too, that's really cool.
I'm glad you're here.
Brian's here too, that's really cool.
That's what we ought to be in the church, right?
Helping people out, inspire them to do what they need to.
Who else?
Your dad, Justin said my dad.
Can you think of a goal he motivated you towards?
Athletics?
That's kind of like representative of life, right?
That's what can be valuable in life, is like, if you're not
going to work hard at something that's fun, you probably won't
work hard at something that's hard.
Miss Jan, your what?
Your swimming teacher.
You swam?
Were you fast?
You didn't even like swimming,
but you loved your swimming coach.
That's cool.
You taught swimming.
She was good.
You didn't like swimming and then you taught it.
I like that, that's cool.
It's amazing.
You can definitely inspire us.
And that's really what tonight's lesson is about.
What inspires you to want to worship God?
And what we're gonna find out tonight
for us to stop and think about it,
that God's goodness and his love
is what inspires us to worship him.
We can do it out of duty,
but it's good for us to stop and think about
what he's done for us and how he loves us.
And that ought to cause us to worship, right?
Amen?
That's what we ought to do.
So let's look.
Number one, here's kind of one of the first aspects
of God's character that helped us to be worshipful of him.
Number one, God is full of compassion.
God is full of compassion.
Let's look at Psalm 25 and we'll start in verse four.
It says this.
Show me thy ways, O Lord, teach me thy paths.
Lead me in thy truth and teach me
for thou art the God of my salvation.
On thee do I wait all the day.
Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies
and thy loving kindness,
for they have been ever of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions.
According to thy mercy, remember thou me
for thy goodness sake, O Lord.
Don't you love the Psalms?
They're just so beautiful, even translated into our language.
It's poetry in Hebrew that we're bringing into English.
What an incredible thing.
Okay, point to me.
The point that I'm making is God is full of compassion.
Point to phrases in, I'm gonna have you raise your hand.
Point to phrases in these verses
that speak towards God's compassion.
Who agrees?
God's full of compassion.
Okay, where in the verses am I getting that from?
Give me, raise your hand and tell me.
This is like making you kind of think about the verses.
Yeah.
Tender mercies.
What do you think tender, mercies and tender,
like put those two words together.
What makes it, what does tender do to that verse?
What do you think?
It's heartfelt.
It's gentle.
It's caring, right?
The tender mercies are, hey,
there's the compassion part.
The idea that like, what's mercy?
Mercy is not getting what I do deserve.
And if it's tender mercies, it's like,
God has, that's compassion.
That's a great kind of phrase for compassion.
What else?
What else in the text?
What do you think?
Who agrees salvation would be God's compassion on us, right?
Who deserves salvation?
None of us, right?
God loves us, for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that who's our believer
in him should not perish, but everlasting life.
What else?
That's great.
What else?
In the text, give it to me.
Miss Kathy.
Loving kindness.
Who likes that word put together?
Loving kindness.
It's putting those two words together is almost speaking of,
you almost have the motivation and the action in one word.
His loving kindness.
He, because of his love, and it's an expression of love,
he is kind to us.
And it says about those two things
where they have ever been of old.
What else?
Okay, for sure.
Teach me, show me thy ways, oh Lord, teach me thy paths.
That is absolutely full of God's mercy.
Why?
Because he could just wipe us out for not doing what,
he not going down the path in the first place.
That's part of his mercy.
And he says in the end too, here's the last one.
According to thy mercy, remember thou me, why?
For thy goodness sake, oh Lord,
because you are good, could you please act in your character
of goodness towards me, God?
Remember me, do that for me.
He's appealing to God's compassion and God's goodness
in this particular phrase.
Let's ask this question, and again,
I'm trying to get you to talk a lot.
Maybe that's not good, but oh well.
Where do you see evidence in the world today
of God's goodness?
Justin, he's so positive.
He said, you're still alive.
Yeah, I love that.
Mark, you're connecting that to the text.
Mark said, people are still getting saved.
Aren't you glad that people are still getting saved?
Isn't it cool to see the waters getting stirred?
We have another one that's gonna get baptized on Sunday.
We're so, I mean, Lord willing, the creek don't rise.
Then there's gonna be people coming to get baptized
and people are getting saved.
That's an incredible thing.
I want God to come back.
I want Jesus to come back, but I'm glad that he,
maybe he's not coming back because there's people
that still need to get saved, right?
And I'm glad that he waited long enough for me
to get saved, amen.
Yeah, so people getting saved.
We're still alive.
What else?
Yeah.
There's a whole lot of calamity that could come our way.
She was talking about the fires
and knowing that people have the fires coming towards them
and then realizing that God has been good to us
by not having that happen to us.
That's a good thing.
Dave.
Amen.
So Dave said that God allows the children
that pass away to go to heaven before that age
of accountability.
I believe, I actually agree with that.
I believe that.
Anybody else?
Yeah, God's goodness.
No matter what sin.
There's no sin beyond God's forgiveness.
Are you glad for that?
That there's always a chance to repent.
God is full of compassion.
What's my point?
We all know that God's full of compassion,
but we should allow God's compassion to motivate us,
to inspire us, to worship Him, right?
God is so good.
Sing with me.
God is so good.
He's so good to me.
Man, I'm so glad that God is full of compassion.
Okay, here's the next one, verse eight.
Verse eight.
Number two, God is full of overflowing care.
God is full of overflowing care.
Look at verse eight.
Good and upright is the Lord.
Therefore will He teach sinners in the way.
The meek will He guide in judgment,
and the meek will He teach His way.
And the paths of the Lord are,
all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth
under such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity,
for it is, what is it?
It's great.
It's overflowing.
It is more than is needed.
Here you have the Psalmist speaking to God's character.
And in verse eight, he says,
good and upright is the Lord.
This is who He is.
In fact, I would say that it's not wrong to say,
it's right to say that God is the definition
of goodness and rightness, right?
It's not some equality to which He attains
that's outside of Himself.
He Himself is the standard of goodness.
And then we're going to go back to verse eight.
He is the standard of goodness and right uprightness.
Does that make sense?
And in that sense, He says, good and upright is the Lord.
And I love the next word.
What's the next word?
Therefore, what is He saying?
Because of God's goodness and His uprightness,
because He is that, what is He gonna do?
He will teach sinners in the way.
The meek will He guide in judgment
and the meek will He teach His way.
I love basically all of those kind of go together.
He will teach sinners in the way.
Raise your hand if you're a sinner.
All right, almost all of us here are sinners.
That's good, right?
We're all sinners.
Is it, help me think through this.
Is it caring for God to teach us?
Are you glad?
There's kind of like two ways to learn.
You can, I tell this to my kids a lot.
You can listen and learn or you can live and learn, right?
Which one's easier?
Listen and learn, right?
Unless you got a bad teacher, then it's really,
then it's bad.
But it's way better for you to listen and learn
than the school of hard knocks, right?
And if you think about the Bible
and you think about God's revelation,
God chose this nation of Israel to give His law through,
to give His revelation through.
And if you think about God's law,
it was a huge advantage to the Jews.
It was a gigantic advantage to them
because the guy who created the world said,
hey, I designed the world this way.
So if you live this way, there's a lot less pain, right?
For instance, let's just take some of the 10 commandments.
Thou shalt not steal.
Who agrees that it's better for a culture to just not steal?
Aren't you glad that like we have laws
and there's police officers and there's a justice system
so that you could come here tonight
and the vast majority of us are not worried
about someone stealing our, I mean, you maybe,
is anybody here worried about it?
I mean, you may be worried a little bit,
but not like you would be if there was no police,
if there was no justice, right?
If there's no general understanding
that it's better not to steal.
My point is God gave them this law.
He wrote down His will and His word
and that is an incredible thing for us.
Your life is gonna be a whole lot better
if you follow what God's word says.
And so because God is good and right and He loves us,
He is kind to us, He's tenderhearted,
we've already learned that in the compassion,
He wants us to submit to what He wants us to do.
And in that sense, there is care in that.
It says because of His goodness,
He will teach sinners in the way, that's compassionate.
The meek will guide in judgment.
Let me ask you a question.
Are meek people, who is easier to teach?
Meek people or prideful people?
Meek.
And what he's essentially saying is
if people are willing to learn,
if you're willing to listen, he's willing to teach.
The meek will he guide in judgment.
What does that mean?
I had to guide my young son,
who Jeff just affectionately called Little Ben, tonight.
He didn't wanna eat mom's soup.
Yeah, you guys sound like you're down.
I motivated him to eat mom's soup.
And if he didn't, he would have had it for breakfast, right?
That's just how that works.
What am I doing?
I'm guiding him in judgment.
I'm trying to give him discernment
and there is some judgment that comes
when there's not proper judgment in the first place.
He says, and the meek will he teach his way.
It is way better to be teachable.
It is so much better to be teachable.
If you give the first part of your day
to opening up the Bible and then reading it and going,
hey, what does this mean?
And then if that's what it means,
where do I measure up with what it means?
Am I living out what the Bible
is telling me to do or telling me to think?
How do I apply that to my life?
And then what am I gonna do today to submit myself?
And if you do that over a lifetime,
your life's gonna be so much better
than it would have been otherwise.
I'm telling you, God will do that.
Verse 10, all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth
unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
I love that idea of covenant.
For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity,
for it is great.
This idea here is that God is just giving care over care.
He loves us and he wants us to submit to him
as he teaches us.
What an incredible thing.
Does that cause you?
I hope that, once again, what's the point of the sermon?
The point of the sermon is I'm trying to inspire you
by pointing to God and his character
and how he deals with us to worship God for what he does.
God could have said, humans, I'm done with them.
They had their chance.
All they get from me is judgment,
but that's not what God does.
They could have done that with us.
I'm done with Doran.
I'm just done with them.
Is that what God did with Doran?
Aren't you glad you're saved, Doran?
I'm so glad you're saved.
I'm so glad God's working in your life
and that you're growing.
That's an amazing thing.
And God does that for every one of us.
There's nobody in here better than another.
God loves us, he redeemed us, he saved us,
and then he teaches us.
He wants us to stop messing up
and to stop having the pain of what happens
when we go against what he has designed
and what he wants us to do.
So why is having a teachable spirit
so important in our Christian walk?
Why is it?
What do you think?
Anybody?
So we can grow.
If you're not teachable, you're not gonna learn,
you're not gonna grow.
That's a good thing.
God has overflowing care.
Here's the third one, last one, ready?
Man, I'm going too fast, good night.
Number three, God faithfully keeps his covenant.
God faithfully keeps his promises.
God's full of compassion, God has overflowing care.
Number three, God keeps his covenant.
I love this, verse number 12.
What man is he that feareth the Lord?
What does that mean?
What happens to the kind of person
who has a fear of God?
Well, him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
Okay, let me read this
and I'll come back and ask you a question, ready?
Number 13, his soul shall dwell at ease
and his seed shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him
and he will show them his covenant.
Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord
for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
What is he saying?
What is the Psalmist saying about the person?
Give me, again, use the text.
What is he saying about the person that fears the Lord?
What happens to them?
I didn't hear it.
I don't know what he's saying.
They will obey for sure.
Yeah, so good job, both of you, I love it.
Justin says they'll be taught.
He got that from that phrase right there.
What man is he that feareth the Lord?
Him shall he, him, the man that fears the Lord
shall he, God, teach in the way that he shall choose.
Right?
The guy who fears the Lord is open to hearing from God.
He's teachable.
And then God will choose what that guy needs to learn.
Does that make sense?
That's the idea.
If you wanna learn and you have a fear of the Lord
and you're open to hear from him, God's gonna teach you.
And in that sense, there's direction.
What else?
What's the next thing he says happens?
Peace in your life.
His soul, I love that.
Miss Jan, you wanna teach?
I'll let you, here, I'll just give you the mic.
His soul shall dwell at ease.
Have you ever had anxiety
because you knew that you weren't doing the right thing?
I've had that.
I've had a lack of peace because,
man, I have not doing right.
But when I fear the Lord, here's the thing.
When you fear the Lord,
you don't have to fear other things as much, right?
That's the idea.
If I have a proper fear of the Lord,
then Justin isn't so scary, right?
That's just how that works.
His soul shall dwell at ease.
The next thing, his seed shall inherit the earth.
What does that mean?
Miss Jan is getting the Ben stars, like Ben bucks.
She's gonna, she says, yeah.
What Jan said was, you'll teach that to your kids.
I think there's two ways we teach our kids.
Sometimes we teach them by telling them, right?
You take your kids, you bring them alongside,
and you tell them, hey, this is how you ought to think,
this is how you ought to live.
Sometimes we do that through teaching time,
sometimes we do discipline.
Sometimes we teach our kids through our example, right?
There's this old saying that more is caught than taught,
right?
And I believe that our kids,
you can't fake them out for too long.
They know how we think, how we act.
They see us in easy times, they see us in hard times.
And when we fear the Lord,
and we have a life that consistently over time fears the Lord,
then hopefully our kids will catch that in what we say.
And in what they see, right?
And there is a level of blessing and success
that comes from people that live lives that fear the Lord.
That's just, that's true.
Verse 14, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him,
and he will show them his covenant.
What does he mean by the secret of the Lord?
I believe in some ways that's indicating
a close intimate communion with God.
God reveals not only his ways to those who honor him
in their lives, but he reveals his heart to them as well.
And God confides in them his most intimate thoughts.
They become friends of God.
It's a privileged relationship.
For other examples of the Lord revealing his secret castle,
you can see that in Genesis 18 or in Amos chapter three.
This idea is that God is close to, he's intimate with those
who fear them, and then it says,
and he will show them his covenant.
What does he mean he will show them his covenant?
What do you think, Donray?
I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Okay.
I believe that, I believe God will do that.
So that's great.
What does it mean he will show them his covenant?
Okay.
What's that?
Yeah, okay, yeah.
I like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The idea, so there is this idea in the scripture.
Have you ever heard read in scripture it says,
he that believeth in him shall not be ashamed.
Okay.
And there's one way of thinking about not be ashamed is,
I'm wearing the Jesus T-shirt and letting people know
I'm not ashamed of Jesus, right?
And there's that way of thinking,
that's one way in English we use that.
But that phrase also can mean
that if you depend on Jesus, if you depend on God,
God's not gonna let you down.
What she said was, and it's an illustration I use,
you ever see on TV the thing
or maybe you've experienced this
where you're supposed to go on a blind date
and the person's supposed to show up.
So there's the girl sitting at the,
at the, in the coffee shop holding the,
holding the, or the guy holding the rose
for the girl that's supposed to come.
And then she never shows up.
And there's an embarrassment, you guys with me,
because someone made an appointment
and this, you kind of let your heart out there
and then they didn't show up.
And then you're, God will never do that to you, right?
That he will, he will do, and this is where it connects.
And I think that's what you were trying to say.
God is going to do what he promises,
he's going to do, right?
Those that fear him, he will show,
you will experience the promise keeping God show up
and keep his covenant, right?
What an amazing thing.
And the Psalmist goes on and says,
my eyes are ever toward the Lord
for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
It doesn't mean you don't ever get in sticky situations.
It doesn't mean that if you love God
that there won't be at times more month than money, right?
It doesn't mean that your car doesn't break down.
It doesn't mean that people don't,
people still sin against us, don't they?
And sometimes we mess up even.
And that's why we need those tender mercies.
But God shows up and he cares and he provides
and he even shows up when we mess up and helps us out.
That's that idea of he keeps my feet out of the net.
He, we're not trapped by that.
What's the point of the sermon?
The point of the sermon is that we ought to worship God.
We ought to be inspired to worship God.
And we have a promise keeping God
whose character can be counted on to the degree
that we won't ever trust in him
and he doesn't keep his promises.
What an incredible, incredible thing.
So we ought to worship God.
Why?
What inspires us to worship God?
He's full of compassion.
Do you ever get God's goodness that you don't deserve?
I know I do.
I see that in my family.
I see that in this church.
I don't deserve to be here.
I really don't.
I don't deserve to be saved.
I don't deserve to be in the ministry.
I don't deserve, I don't deserve,
I said almost all.
I don't deserve anything I've got.
It's all God.
And that doesn't make me better than anybody else.
It's exactly the opposite.
God is good.
So he's full of compassion.
He is full of care.
And sometimes he wants to teach us.
I mean, sometimes he doesn't want to teach us.
He wants us to learn how to live the way he wants us to live
because he doesn't want us to have the pain
of going against the pain of sin.
Sin, when it's finished, brings forth death.
He doesn't want that.
And God wants to show us,
he wants to faithfully keep his covenant.
So we ought to worship God.
I started and I even in the,
I started the sermon with what's your favorite,
him or spiritual song or worship song.
And that's fun to think about.
I was meeting with the Patterson's today.
Marilyn Patterson is a charter member of our church
who went home to be at the Lord this week.
And met with John and Connie and Holly and Jenny.
And they were talking about what songs we want to play
at the funeral.
They're inviting everybody to come, by the way.
I know it says private on the obituary,
but anybody that wants to come, they can.
But they were talking about different songs
that their mom loved that we're gonna sing.
And man, I love some of the songs.
The old rugged cross.
And when the role is called up yonder, I'll be there.
And those are songs that like make us remember
what we learned in church and the truths that haven't changed.
Those are good things.
And it's good to worship God with old songs.
I believe the Bible says that we ought to worship God
with new songs, sing it a Lord a new song.
That God isn't just a God that worked before,
he's a God that works today.
And I think that's a good thing.
And we worship God with new songs.
But I believe with all my heart
that so much of worship that needs to happen
isn't musical at all.
That worship isn't just music, right?
That worship is when we are trying to live a life
as unto the Lord.
And it could be anything.
Whether that for eat or drink or whatsoever you do,
all to the glory of God.
What's over thy hand finds to do, do it with all thy might.
Don't do things for eye services, men pleasers.
Do things as unto the Lord.
He's your Father in heaven.
He sees everything you do.
And when we work and when we live and when we learn
and when we choose, we're choosing the way of worship.
We're either worship, the issue is
we're always worshiping something.
We're either worshiping the Lord
or we're worshiping ourselves
or we're worshiping other people.
And life is just way better when we don't have idols
and when we worship God, right?
And so I'm trying to inspire you to worship tonight.
And not just to worship in song, although we can do that,
but to actually like, what if Thursday was a worship day?
What if tomorrow you got up thinking,
God, you have been so compassionate to me.
You have cared for me so well.
You wanna teach me how to live a life that honors you.
You always keep your promises.
And so God today, Thursday, January,
oh, I don't have a calendar on it.
But tomorrow, the 23rd, I am dedicating Thursday
as a day of worship to you.
And that may mean you go to a certain station
and turn up and sing real loud and that's part of it.
But it also may mean,
God, please forgive me, I messed up.
It also may mean, I'm not watching this.
I'm turning the channel, because I worship God, right?
It may mean, it may mean I need to go tell that guy
about what God has done for me.
Does that make sense?
That's worship in a way that even just singing
with other believers is not.
So how are you to worship God?
You mean not on a Sunday?
Yeah, even on a Thursday.
There's a Sunday School class
in, at the church that I was at in Canton.
All the Sunday School classes have Christian t-shirt names,
right?
And this one was called, I love this,
but I love this name, it's called Something for Monday.
And the idea was, if you come to our class,
we're trying to give you, not something for Sunday,
that's good.
We're trying to give you something for Monday.
We're trying to give you something for everyday living.
So, my question for you tonight is this,
are you inspired to worship?
We're inspired to worship when we consider the love
and forgiveness God has shown us in Christ.
What are some of the ways God inspired you
to your worship this week?
Make a list and thank him for each one.
There's a good thing.
How has God blessed you?
How has he shown his love to you uniquely
in this last week?
Make a list and thank him for it.
That's a good starting place.
Here's a growing place.
We respond and worship to his leadership in our lives
as he lovingly guides and directs our paths.
Let me ask you a question.
How did God lead you this past week?
How did God, how did you respond to his leadership?
Maybe write down how has God directed you recently?
That would be a great way for you to think through
and to be inspired to worship him.
I had a New Year's resolution this year.
I have done the here journaling method for a few years
and which is going through verse by verse
and just journaling through the scripture.
That's actually how I, every Sunday morning sermon
is expanded journaling weeks after.
So that's just how, that's my method.
It's what I do.
I'm trying to apply it to me before I apply it to y'all.
And I have prayed a lot as a result.
When I, it's amazing when your prayer,
when your Bible life goes up, your prayer life goes up,
right, and vice versa.
But I haven't been as consistent in prayer
as I'd like to be.
And so this year I made a resolution with the Lord
and I'm telling you about it
so you can maybe hold me accountable, all of you.
Yeah, just keep asking me, it'll be fine.
But to do journaling.
And I had this really bad habit.
I keep going from like writing with pen and paper
to going to digital and back and forth.
And I promised, I'm promising my wife now
I'm not gonna keep switching.
I'm gonna stay one or the other and not annoy her.
Anyway, so I got about halfway through the month
of January trying to consistently every day,
just journal and actually instead of,
instead of just praying out louder in my head,
actually writing out prayers to the Lord,
just as a way of being more focused for further,
just to do better at prayer.
But then I was like, I'm gonna go digital.
So I'm getting on my computer and I'm gonna do it on,
you can type out prayers, it's fine.
So anyway, why am I telling you that?
I'm telling you that because a couple of days ago
I wrote out, I went back and re-typed my prayers
just so I had it all in one spot.
Cause I'm going from paper to, I know I'm a nerd, I'm sorry.
But it was amazing to me, cause a lot of times
when I've journaled before, especially prayer journaling,
I don't go really back and read it.
I just did it and I don't go back and read it.
And having to actually go back and re-type it, I'm like,
it's only been three weeks and God has answered
so many prayers.
There's like things that I prayed about
that I was so stressed out about.
And I remember literally as I'm typing it,
feeling anxious about it.
And then I'm re-typing it, I'm like, why was I so scared?
God answered that prayer, it worked out.
Did God work out everything?
Not yet.
He hasn't worked out everything.
But I got answers prayer.
And it's like, why have I had a hard time
having this kind, I'm your pastor and I mess up.
I don't always do what I thought.
Why, it is something that's so enjoyable.
I wish you could do it.
Like, and you don't have to write it out like word for word,
but like bullet point, what you're,
what you want to pray to God for that day
and say it out loud while you're,
I don't know, however it works for you.
But having that record and going back,
it's just like, God is so stinking good to me.
And I believe that as children of God,
if you know Christ as your savior,
he's good to you too.
And I just think we don't always take the time to notice it.
Let me say it this way.
I know I don't always take the time to notice it.
I ask God to do something and he does it.
And I just kind of assumed that he was gonna do it all along.
And our God is so good to us.
And you know what that ought to do for us
when we realize he's like that?
I think we ought to worship him.
Yes, in song, yes with what we say,
but also in how we live, we ought to worship him.
We know God's compassion draws us to worship.
Let me ask you this.
Do you know someone who's far away from God
that you could show some compassion to?
Do you know someone who is going through a difficulty
that just needs some compassion, some love?
You know, sometimes people that need compassion and love
don't deserve compassion and love,
but we ought to give it to him anyway.
Ask God to bring people in the mind
who need to see his love and forgiveness
through your life and faithful worship.
Spend some time having, maybe even, this is crazy.
Spend some time having coffee with someone you've prayed for.
That would be a good thing.
God, I love you so much.
I thank you for your word
that points us to how much you love us
and how compassionate you are.
God, we are needy people in need of a lot.
Of mercy.
We are in need of much grace.
We don't always do it right.
God, I pray that even this message tonight
would not be something where we buy into a cheap grace
where we can say, oh, we just can keep living
however we wanna live
because you're just so good to us and gracious,
you'll just forgive us.
Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?
The Bible says, you said God forbid,
may it never be that way.
And God, I pray that that's not our heart's motivation
as we walk away from a message like this.
But God, that our heart's desire would be to worship you
because you are so, so good to us.
You are so gracious and kind to us.
You keep your promises
and you allow us to fear you in a way
that brings about guidance and love and teaching and growth.
I pray that you would help us to have that heart attitude.
And God, may we, yes, on Sunday,
incorporate worship through music and prayer
and teaching and preaching,
but also on Thursday in the office
at the place of work, at school, in our homes.
Help those places to be sanctuaries
where we're inspired to worship you and you alone.
We love you, thank you for all you do for us in Jesus' name.
All God's people said, amen, amen.