The ABC's of Praise

INTRODUCTION Morning. My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor of Renovation Church. I don’t know if you’ve ever read C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, but they are incredible. Absolutely brilliant. Some of the only books I’ve ever read more than once. My twins are 7 years old, so this Spring we decided they were old enough to go through them, so I started reading the books to them If you’re only vaguely familiar with the books, the stories are about children who magically travel to a land called Narnia where animals can talk. And Aslan the lion is a representation of Jesus Christ. And they way Lewis writes for Aslan is absolutely incredible. It will bring you to tears and enlarge your heart for Jesus Speaking of, there’s this great scene in the 2nd book, Prince Caspian, where the 4 main children go back to Narnia, and Lucy, the youngest child, sees Aslan again for the first time. Here’s how it reads: The great animal rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all around her. She gazed up into the large wise face. "Welcome child," he said. "Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger." "That's because you're older, little one," answered he. "Not because you are?" "I'm not. But each year you grow, you'll find me bigger." And it’s great imagery. When you grow in your understanding of God, He’ll be bigger to you. And this morning, as we continue in our “Songs from the Heart” series on selected Psalms from the Bible, we’re going to cover a Psalm of Praise. So, go ahead and grab a Bible…pause this if you need to…Psalm 145 Or (Renovation App) (Bible – Weekly Verses) Psalm 145 is rich with praise of who God is. And what I want you to see is that the more you meditate and think on God’s bigness, the bigger He will become to you. GOD’S GREATNESS All right, let’s start taking a look at Psalm 145 (Psalm 145:1 3) – NIV 1 I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. 2 Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. 3 Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. Before we go any further, let me tell you something really cool about this Psalm of Praise that you could never figure out reading it in English…even if you read it 1,000 times. In its original language, Hebrew, Psalm 145 is actually an acrostic where each line of the passage starts with a different letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. If it were English, it would be like the first line starts with A The second line starts with B The third with C and so on And King David, the writer, is trying to show you just how exhaustive the list of reasons to praise God is…from A to Z John Koessler, from Moody Bible Institute, calls this Psalm, the ABC’s of Praise Verse 3 says that God’s greatness is in fact SO great that your brain literally doesn’t even have the capacity to fathom it. Try and think of the greatest thing on earth that you can even think of God’s greatness is infinitely greater than that. FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION Let’s keep reading (Psalm 145:4 7) 4 One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. 5 They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty— and I will meditate on your wonderful works. 6 They tell of the power of your awesome works— and I will proclaim your great deeds. 7 They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. This is a section about one Generation proclaiming God’s goodness to another. For all of you that serve in Renovation Kids each week, thank you for your work in telling the next generation of God’s goodness. For all of you teaching your children about God’s goodness, this is what it’s all about! One of the things I’ve been struck by in this series is that for every Psalm we’ve chosen, I’ve known a song to go with it. And it’s not even intentional. I think sometimes we don’t even realize how much Scripture we know simply from songs. There is a great song with psalm 145. It’s a song by Shane & Shane, that’s literally just called Psalm 145…look it up Songs are such a good way to memorize Scripture. Especially if you want to do what this passage says, “pass on God’s goodness to the next generation” I swear my wife knows a ton of different Bible verses just from listening to Psalty the Singing Songbook as a kid… Which is a shoutout to all of you that grew up in church. And there are LOTS of great resources (say, like Psalty, or Awana,) where kids can learn about God’s goodness…often through song. Songs are a great way to “commend God’s works to the next generation,” but so is story. To all the kids watching this, I want you to do me a favor. You ready? Are you listening closely? When the church service is over today, I want you to ask your parents to tell you of a time when God was good to them or did something amazing in their lives. And parents, live out this verse…where one generation speaks of God’s goodness to another There’s such power in story. It’s one of the reasons that we would share Faith Stories in House Groups every week About a year ago, I made a parenting decision that whenever I hear any cool “God Story…” …whether it be on the radio, in a message, from a friend, at work, I always tell it to my kids later that night. I want to pass on the stories of God’s real life goodness in our world. Not only theology and Biblical truths, but also real life stories of God interacting in our world today! And as we sing and tell stories about God’s goodness…from A to Z…God will grow in our eyes, just like Aslan did for Lucy SLOW TO ANGER Let’s keep reading (Psalm 145:8 9) – NIV 8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. 9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. Now remember, this is the “ABC’s of Praise”…it’s a Psalm about all of the different ways God is good and worthy of praise. He isn’t just good because He’s powerful and works miracles… He’s good because he’s compassionate…slow to anger…and rich in love. He’s good because you and I are deserving of his righteous punishment. What we deserve for our wickedness, rebellion, and sin…is hell. And yet, He was NOT quick to anger, but slow to it. He had compassion on us… And He was SO rich in love that He sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross for us. If you never started a relationship with God, that’s how you do it. You believe on His Son Jesus…that He died for you…and then you will be forgiven and can have a saving relationship with Him. And the fact that any of us can enter into that…DESPITE what we’ve done…makes God worthy of praise! Let that enlarge your picture of who He is! TELL OF YOUR GLORY There’s more on His praise (Psalm 145:10 13a) – NIV 10 All your works praise you, Lord; your faithful people extol you. 11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, 12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. God’s people TELL of His glory…they speak of His might. And evangelism (telling others of God’s goodness) doesn’t have to be complicated. You can begin to plant seeds right now. I have a Christian friend that I really respect who is absolutely incredible at nonchalantly talking about God. When people ask Him how He’s doing… He says, “Having a good day…God’s been good” When they ask Him how He’s been successful in business, he says, “It’s God. He’s helped me get here.” And he doesn’t say much more than that… He doesn’t go into a long speech on the theology of God’s sovereignty. But you know what? Often people are intrigued by Him, and start asking more questions about God He describes a BIG God…an awesome God! And He’s incredibly intentional about “telling the glory of God so that all people may know” as this Psalm says HE IS NEAR AND HE HEARS Let’s read through the rest of the Psalm I wish I had more time to cover this. I encourage you to take some time today, or this week, to read through this Psalm more slowly (Psalm 145:13b 21) – NIV The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. 14 The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. 17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. 20 The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. 21 My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever. So we’ve seen that God’s greatness is so big that we can’t fathom it His praise passes on from generation to generation His goodness is found in his mercy And now, we also see that this same Great God is also near to us, and He hears us He hears your cry. When you lie on your bed at night, staring at the ceiling in frustration…he is there. When you pound your fist on the steering wheel on the way to work because you just can’t take it anymore…He is with you This God that we worship is everything we could ever imagine He’s so powerful that He created the universe And yet so near to you He’s in the room with you right now. He’s so strong that He can create a blackhole to destroy a planet And yet so tender that He weeps with you in your pain He’s worthy of Praise. We must praise Him! Because when you praise Him, when you remember all the good things about Him (from A to Z), your faith will grow…and He too, will grow in your eyes. Let me pray. Copyright: David Sorn Renovation Church in Blaine, MN You may use this material all you like! We only ask that you do not charge a fee and that you quote the source and not say it is your own.