Psalm 145 (A Cascade of Praise)

If you're visiting with us this morning, my name is Henry Dennard.

I am one of the Team Four and the Team of Elders here at Calvary Baptist Church.

I'm not the regular preaching elder.

For some reason, out of the grace and generosity of his heart, he let me have this particular Sunday to preach.

And so, and also by the grace and generosity of your heart, he actually decided to show up and sit and endure it.

So thank you for your grace.

But if you're here visiting today and you want to hear him preach, come back next week.

So come back if you will.

I'm going to do something a little different today than I normally do.

Normally I will read the passage and then I will pray.

Well, I'm going to pray first and then I'll tell you why I'm not reading the passage first.

So let's pray.

Father, first of all, we just thank you for being our God and Father.

We thank you for who you are and all that you have done for us.

We thank you for working all things out and all of the things that we even are oblivious to or forget, but you worked all things out by your grace this morning just for us to be here.

So thank you for bringing us here to your house.

And Father, we thank you for already being in us and with us before we even got here.

So, Father, we thank you for your amazing grace.

We thank you for uh this means of being here without uh fear.

And Father, we just ask that though that you remind us as we sit here in our minds that these next few minutes or moments are about you.

We're here to worship you.

So, Father, help us work in our minds, in our hearts, in our souls, in our spirits to rest in joyful worship of who you are as we hear your word proclaimed, and as here in a moment we read and hear your word.

So, Father, thank you for bringing us here, and we pray that you'll be honored and blessed by what we do in these next few moments.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, first of all, uh again, if you're visiting, we are preaching through selected Psalms.

You see it up there, it says selections from the Psalms for the summer.

We have a normal uh, we preach through Bibles, books of the Bible, text by text.

Our pastor Andrew has been doing that through the book of Revelation.

Uh, we're coming toward the end.

He'll pick that up here in a week or so.

So just you can come back for that.

But right now we're taking a break.

And in this, um, we are preaching, selecting from what we would see as maybe our favorite psalms.

This particular psalm, Psalm 145, probably rises to the top of the list of my favorite psalms.

Not that Psalm 23 is not a favorite, not that Psalm 1 isn't a favor, not that Psalm 16 is a favor.

I mean, there are a lot, but this one kind of rises to the top, and I'll tell you why.

A number of years ago, I mean, for since I was became a believer, I got involved and got engaged, and I basically used the Bible just as a study tool for to prepare for the sermon someone else was preaching, or to follow up with study after the preacher preached.

Or eventually I became a Sunday school teacher, so I used it to prep lessons for Sunday school, but I did not read through the Bible every day.

But I was convicted of that in 2008.

And I know it's 2008 because the first time I did it, I took my Bible, and for every section after I'd read it, I wrote the date that I finished that section.

So I can look through my Bible and see where I was reading in 2008 throughout the year.

Well, I continued that habit, and one day, a couple of years ago, I don't know when it happened, but when I came across Psalm 145, I read it differently that day.

It read to me differently that day.

God spoke to me differently through Psalm 145 than he had in all the times I just went through the Bible day by day, year by year.

And I was enraptured by this explosion of praise for my God.

And I saw it as I continued to read through it and think about what I was reading and feel from those thoughts how that made me feel.

It became a cascade of praise to my God.

Hence the title of my lesson.

It is a, as you just read it, it's just over and over and over the greatness, the glory, the beauty, the majesty of the God that I believe in, that I trust in, that I love with all my heart, and it was, and my heart engaged, my feet, and I was just, I was just, I was crying.

My throat was caught up.

You know how that happens, Jason?

You kind of get that catch in your throat.

And I came across this the other day.

One of my other uh one of my favorite authors is Paul David Tripp.

And Paul David Tripp had something similar to say about Psalm 145.

He says this When I was a younger pastor, I didn't understand ministry.

I didn't understand the people I was called to serve, how to best serve them.

I'm sure I said and did helpful things, and I genuinely endeavored to share the wisdom of God's word, but my ministry was lacking.

Then one day, in the mystery of God's loving and wise sovereignty, I bumped into Psalm 145.

I had read it many times before, but this particular time it changed my life.

That's not an exaggeration.

It truly transformed me and the way I did ministry.

While I'm far from complete, I have been living in the light of these changes ever since.

Paul, I'm with you, brother.

I've been living in the light of the changes on my mind, heart, and soul from Psalm 145 since that day it exploded in praise and worship to me.

Now, just technically, this is the last in the book of Psalms.

This is the last psalm attributed to David.

And it in a way is a doorway into the last five Psalms.

And the last five Psalms, when you go there, you can almost say that this is a cascade of praise.

The last five Psalms are a crescendo of praise because it only gets better after Psalm 145.

And you know you're familiar with let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

So it also is an acrostic.

Well, in some Bible translations or versions, it's an imperfect acrostic.

If you got the ESV, you'll notice that in verse 13 there's a part in brackets.

That's the part that is the missing letter of the alphabet in other versions.

It's the letter none in U N.

But it appears in other places such that the ESV authors, if you want to call them, uh editors, determined that it was fitting enough to include it.

So I'm going to include it because it's included in my ESV.

So it is part of the acrostic.

Y'all are familiar with the acrostic Psalms because Pastor Andrew introduced you or mentioned to you those things about six, seven weeks ago, and he did part of Psalm 119, which is an acrostic.

So it's almost as if, and I don't want to repeat what he said, but some of you weren't here, so you didn't hear it.

But it's almost as if David is saying, I want to use everything that's possible, every letter of the alphabet, all that I can assemble to use to tell the praises of this God who is infinite and eternal.

And it feels that way as you read it and you really experience it.

So I'm doing something different today because it also comes across as an oath.

Sung together because it starts with, I will.

Now I took that personally.

That's like that's David saying, I will, and I'll just adopt that for me.

I will.

But I thought more about it.

These psalms were not meant to just be private personal psalms.

They were public worship.

Now, I was a little chastised by Kent this morning because I didn't give him enough heads up because there's Chain and Shane actually wrote a song with music for Psalm 145.

But I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to sing it.

I'm not gifted like Kent is.

But I'm going to do something different.

I want you, that's why I'm going to put they're all going to be on the slides, so we'll be on the same version, because everybody reading aloud Psalm 145 in different versions could sound confusing.

So I put them on the slides.

I want us to read the Psalm together, starting with verse one.

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name for ever and ever.

Every day I will bless you and praise your name for ever and ever.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.

On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works I will meditate.

They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.

They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

The Lord is good to all.

His work mercy is over all that He has made.

All your work shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you.

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of men your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.

The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.

You open your hand, you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

The Lord is near to all who call on him, who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him, he also hears their cry and saves them.

The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

Amen.

So how did that make you feel?

I know how it made me feel.

And I say, What?

And here's how it made me feel when I heard you saying those words with me.

And we are all in agreement about this reality of who God is and all that means for us as his children.

I find it interesting that, and I didn't think this through, but a few weeks ago I got to preach on Psalm 139.

In Psalm 139, part of the theme is about how God knows me.

I am fearfully, wonderfully made.

And what wonderful news that is for God to know me intimately.

But Psalm 145 kind of flips it around.

But because of God, I can know Him.

Psalm 145 doesn't work that way.

You might could manipulate and stretch it to work that way, but I thought rather than choose to try to do that, I would look at the four major themes, the four major ideas or points in the Psalms, and go that way.

So I've got four points or four major themes or ideas that I want to talk about.

The first one is Praise the Lord for who he is.

One of my other favorite authors, A.

W.

Tozer, said this The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.

Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

For this reason, the gravest question before the church is always God himself.

And the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

That's a quote from the knowledge of the holy.

He goes on to say, and this is not on your slide, we tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.

This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the church.

Always the most revealing thing about the church is her idea of God.

So I love that Psalm 145 over and over and over puts on display God, and it's like a diamond that that David is just turning around from one facet to another facet to another facet, and he's looking at a diamond from all the different angles.

You can look at a diamond and look at that facet.

Now, normally, in fact, it happened this morning in Sunday school.

One of my first questions, and I could call on somebody, and they would they would tell, what is one of my first questions in Sunday school when we begin our lesson?

We have a passage of scripture before us.

We know that the scripture is included in the whole written revelation of God Himself.

This is God revealing himself through us through the Word.

Of course, we then know that God revealed Himself through Jesus, who was the Word made flesh, as Benjamin read from this morning.

But if this is the revelation of God to us, then when we approach it, I believe one good question we should always ask is in this passage of this word, what is God revealing to me about him?

Yes, I know it's revealing something to us about Christ.

I know it's revealing something to us about the Holy Spirit.

I know it's revealing something to us about ourselves.

But I like to start with what's it telling me about God?

And so I believe that that's the place that we start to approach Psalm 145 is what is it telling us about God?

It's telling us there's enough about God that we can know that we can praise God just for who he is.

Now I went through the passage and I will show this on the next slide.

Here are some ways that God has put himself on display through just this passage, verse one, God.

That's a good place to start with God is God.

So God is God, King, verse one, verse three, Lord, and that's uh Jehovah Lord.

Uh verse three, great, verse six, greatness, verse three, unsearchable greatness, verse five, majestic, verse six, mighty, verse seven, abundantly good, and then verse nine, good to all, verse seven, righteous, and also in verse 17, verse eight, gracious, verse eight, merciful, verse nine, his mercy, um, verse eight, slow to anger, verse eight, abounding in steadfast love.

And that love there is the chesed, if I can pronounce that right, it's the A C S H E S D, Chesed love, which Andrew also mentioned when he preached uh before.

Uh verse 11, powerful, verse 13, everlasting, verse 13, enduring, verse 13, faithful, verse 13, kind, also in verse 17, verse 18 near, verse 19, he hears, and then culminates in verse 21, holy.

That's a good place to end.

You see how God did that?

Starts with God is God and ends with a holy God.

And we sing, holy, holy, holy is God, the Lord God Almighty.

So I have to ask you, what comes into your mind as you think on these words, talking about God as I read them and as you heard them and as you saw them on the screen.

Because what came into your mind, what you think and how that impact or affected you, says a lot about who you are and your relationship with this God.

If what entered your mind and how you responded was, okay, yeah, that's academic, that's true, that's those are facts.

And they didn't touch your soul or your heart with the reality, the magnitude, the majesty of all that that is, all that God is, you might want to pray.

I love this from John Piper.

Of course, he's another one of my favorite authors.

Uh, and one of my favorite books, Desiring God.

Desiring God, when I first came across it, it changed my life.

The way John Piper talked about God.

And some people, because I say John Piper a lot, I quote John Piper a lot, and you think, well, you're just a big John Piper fan.

No, I'm a fan of John Piper's God.

That's who I'm a fan of.

I love the way he talks about my God.

That's why I'm a fan of Piper.

He says this the fuel of worship is a true vision of the greatness of God.

I'll say that again.

The fuel of worship, real worship, is a true vision of the greatness of God.

The fire that makes the fuel burn white hot is the quickening of the Holy Spirit.

The furnace that made alive and warm by the flame of truth is our renewed, born-again spirit.

And the resulting heat of our affections is powerful worship, pushing its way out in confessions, in longings, in acclamation, in tears, in songs, and shouts, bowed heads, lifted hands, and obedient lies.

Really seeing God for who He is cannot leave you unaffected.

If it does, something's wrong.

And you need to be talking to this God about what that might be.

So considering all it means to know God as much as we can, how he's revealed himself.

We know he's revealed himself in his word, he's revealed himself through his son, he's revealed himself in creation, knowing all that we can know about God should lead our hearts and our minds to happy worship.

And remembering who God is should help us when we feel alone, insignificant, worthless, hopeless.

Purposeless, knowing who God is, and He's your God.

How could you maintain and continue in a worthlessness, hopelessness, defeat?

This is your God.

And our lives in response should be a life of praise.

So my first question.

How could regularly remembering and meditating on who God is in all his attributes increase and enhance your worship and your joy?

And another question: how could that improve your relationship with your father God and with others?

Should it?

I believe it should.

How?

That's between you and God.

Talk to him.

Oh, and not just talk to him?

Shut up and listen for an answer.

Because sometimes I think we spend more time talking to him, telling him, and we don't wait and see if he's going to answer.

Okay, number two.

Praise the Lord for all he does.

He not only is, but out of his is-ness, he does.

And he does wonderful things.

So let's consider what he does, is doing, has done, and will do.

Again, through the verses.

Starting verse 4, he does works.

In verse 5, wondrous works, verse 13, works.

And also in verse 17, he works for you and for your good.

And he is always at work.

He never gets tired.

Verse 4, mighty acts, verse 12, mighty deeds.

Verse 6, awesome deeds.

Verse 9, he made, so that means he's the maker creator.

He made.

Verse 13, words.

He speaks.

He will speak to you still.

Verse 14, he upholds.

Verse 14, he raises up.

Verse 15, he gives them their food.

Verse 16, he opens his hand.

Verse 16, he satisfies.

Verse 17, he has ways that he works.

Verse 19, he fulfills.

Verse 19, he saves.

Verse 20, he preserves.

Verse 20, he destroys.

Oh, that destroys the wicked, which means you don't have to worry about the wicked getting their just due.

It's coming.

You need to pray that the wicked would be saved and avoid what they're due, just like you.

Because once before we were wicked like the rest of them.

So it's not just about out of who he is, look at all he has done for you.

I mean, sometimes I think we just kind of get in our routines and we go to work and we go to church and we go to school, we go to get groceries, do all these things, and then and we regularly forget what he has done.

Sometimes I think it's helpful when you're sitting at a red light, frustrated by how long the red light is, like me, that you take that time to think, but I'm sitting here at a red light safely.

He has brought me through all the other traffic and all the other roads and all the other green lights and yellow lights to this point safely.

Thus far has he helped me to be at this red light.

Wouldn't that be an amazing change of perspective?

It would be, it is for me.

But it's true.

We some don't think about all God right now is doing probably 10,000 things for you, and you are maybe only aware of two or three.

And here's the cool thing about it, and it talks about not only is he doing things, he will do things.

There's still more yet to come.

Praise the Lord for all he does, praise the Lord for all that he has done, praise the Lord for all that he's going to do.

So, considering all that God has done for us, is doing for us, and will do for us, should that shouldn't that lead our hearts into happy worship of this good, great God?

And shouldn't remembering that help us when it looks like he's doing nothing?

There are times when it's going to look like if you're not in the right, that he's not doing anything.

Lord, why aren't you helping me with this?

Lord, why aren't you keeping this away from me?

Lord, why aren't you why aren't you providing that job?

Why aren't you providing this?

And it looks like he's doing nothing.

Would it help in those moments to remember that he's already at work, been at work, will be at work for your good?

You just can't see it.

The Lord works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.

So, next question.

How could regularly remembering and medit I mean, really remember, not just saying, oh yeah, that's right.

No, thinking about it, meditating on all that God has done for you and is doing for you increase and enhance your worship and your joy and improve your well-being when you're in hard places.

Could it?

I'm saying yes, hallelujah.

It's there.

Take it.

Number three.

Number three, praise the Lord to everyone, everywhere, forever.

That's in the passage.

Praise the Lord to everyone, everywhere, forever.

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.

One generation should commend your works to another and shall declare your mind.

You know that none of us are here as believers by ourselves.

There's a generation of believers that was before us and before us and before them and before them.

We are the beneficiaries of one generation proclaiming God to the next generation.

And that's a great responsibility we still have to proclaim that to the next generation.

We're having promotion Sunday next Sunday.

That is a part of what that means is there are children or youth in our teaching program, teaching them about God and his son Jesus Christ, that will move to another degree of that teaching, another level of proclaiming the greatness of God.

So it's from generation to generation.

So and but but it's not just that.

When you're in the restaurant and your server is serving you, can you talk about how great God is there?

One of the ways that Christina do it is said, server by name, let's say his name is John.

We want to make sure we can what's your name?

When we get our food, we're gonna pray to God and thank him for this food.

And while we're praying and thanking his food, is there anything that you need that we can pray to him for as well?

Now we've had some amazing responses to that.

And then we've had some duds.

No, I'm good.

And of course, as they walk away, Christianity, we're gonna pray for them.

Anyway, now we know how to pray.

But part of our prayers, it also, I just got a comment from another guy uh yesterday who who heard me praying and thanking God for my meal.

I know something about you by what you just said in that prayer.

You know, it's true.

People learn something about you by how you praise God in public.

Now I've been around some people that just uh there's one woman I knew one time, she just went over, praise Jesus, praise Jesus, praise Jesus.

I mean, she just walked around saying, Praise Jesus, praise Jesus.

I kind of thought maybe she was a little not right.

But now I'm thinking about it more, maybe she's more right than I am.

C.S.

Lewis says this, and I came across this because it was quoted in Desiring God.

But C.S.

Lewis says this.

I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join in them in praising it.

Isn't she lovely?

Wasn't it glorious?

Don't you think that was magnificent?

The psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment.

It is its appointed consummation.

It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are.

The delight is incomplete until it is expressed.

Joy shared is joy magnified.

We do it.

Oh man, did you see that movie?

Andrew, hey, Spider Man last week.

Hey So Christy and I went to go see Spider-Man.

I'm not sure we enjoyed it as much as Andrew did.

Yeah, I mean people I bet if anybody who who's known me more than six weeks can tell me what my favorite restaurants is.

Because I talk about it.

We do that.

How much more that should just be a part of our natural words, language, conversation should be what we treasure more than restaurants and food and movies.

Should it?

We are, in my humble opinion, as followers of Christ, to be a part of a cascade of praise throughout time and throughout space.

That's why we're here.

That's one of the reasons why uh 1 Peter 2 9 is one of my favorite verses.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you might proclaim the excellencies of the one who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

That's our purpose as God's children.

To praise him to everybody, everywhere, forever.

Can you imagine that?

Because we talk, we know when we get to heaven, that's what we're gonna be doing.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty for eternity.

So considering all that God is for us and has done for us, is doing for us, will do for us, should lead our hearts to happy worship everywhere with everybody.

And if they're offended by it, that's not my problem.

Praising God for who he is and what he has done is good for me, and it's good for them, they just may not know it yet.

And it might be the means by which they come to know him is through your praises.

So here's a question.

How could a habit of praising God in all circumstances increase your joy and better bless those who are around you?

You love complainers?

Nobody likes complainers.

You love being around happy, joyful, thankful people?

Everybody does.

Well, maybe some grumps don't, but all right, number four.

Praise the Lord to proclaim Christ.

Andrew has been faithful in pointing out the reality, the fact that Christ is present in the Psalms, all of them.

I have this quote from Jonathan Edwards, who has this to say about that.

The main subjects of these songs were the glorious things of the gospel, as is evident by the interpretation that is often put upon them and the use that is made of them in the New Testament.

For there is no one book of the Old Testament that is so often quoted in the New as the book of Psalms.

Here Christ is spoken of in a multitude of songs.

It is through Christ that we're brought to this vision of God.

So it is Christ in the vision.

Um Peter 3 18.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.

Here's how I kind of see this is looking into Psalm 145 to see Christ.

You ever been watching a movie or TV show, and there's like two people talking and they're in the foreground, and of course they're clear, but the background is uh fuzzy, out of focus.

But something happens in the background.

I was watching a show, and this particular happened, it happened.

There was something happened in the background, and it just shifted.

The camera shifted, the focus shifted off of the people in the foreground to clearly showing something in the background.

Like they wanted you to see that other thing.

And they used the camera trick to lead your eyes there.

I don't think we need any camera tricks to see Jesus in this particular Psalm, but I'm gonna help you a little bit.

So I've got I've got eight ways I see Jesus in Psalm 145.

So we're gonna go through them pretty quick because running out of time.

So number one, Jesus as king with a never-ending kingdom.

Verse 1, I will extol you, my God and king, and bless your name forever and ever.

Verse 13, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

Well, Henry, how does that say anything about Jesus?

Well, let's go to Luke chapter 1, where it says, He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

In Revelation 19, 16, on his robe and on his thigh has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Jesus is the king.

Number two, Jesus as the revelation of God's greatness.

Verse three, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

Verse five, on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works I will meditate.

Well, where do you get that?

Well, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 says, He, Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Hebrews 1:3

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Jesus is the revealed greatness of God.

Number three, Jesus full of grace.

Verse eight in the Psalm, the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Verse 9, the Lord is good to all and his mercies over all that he has made.

Well, where do you get that?

John chapter 1, verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

Jesus, full of grace and truth.

Verse 14, the Lord holds up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

Well, where do you get that?

Matthew chapter 11, 28-29.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

I think maybe I heard it this morning somewhere.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus raises up all who are bowed down.

Verse number five, Jesus the righteous.

Verse 17 says, The Lord is righteous in all his ways, kind in all his works.

Well, from 1 John 2, verse 1, My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

1 John 2:1

But if anyone does sin, he has an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And he will be coming back as the righteous judge.

Number six, Jesus is always near.

Verse 18 in the Psalms, the Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him on truth.

Philippians 4, verses 4 and 5 says, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, rejoice.

Philippians 4:4

Let your reason reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is near.

Of course, we know Matthew 28, and lo, I will be with you until the end of the age.

Number seven, Jesus is our salvation.

I know that's kind of a duh, but where is it in the Psalm 145?

Well, verse 19, he fulfills the desire of those who fear him.

He also hears their cry and saves them.

Well, Romans 10, 13 says, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

He hears your cry, and he will save you.

And number eight, Jesus preserves.

Verse 20, the Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

And I go to go to Romans 8, another one of my favorite passages in the Bible, Romans eight, thirty-five.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or sword?

As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

And in verse 38, I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

So in all of our praising God for who He is and praising God for what He has done, we can't help but proclaim the excellencies of our Savior Jesus Christ, who made all this possible for us, and is keeping it for us, not today, but forever.

So considering all that Jesus is for us, considering all that Jesus has done, will do, it should lead our hearts to happy worship and happy evangelism.

Happy worship leads to happy evangelism.

I gotta tell you this good news.

So question.

How could developing a habit of praising God in all circumstances help you share the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Living a lifestyle of praise should open doors for you to share the reason that you praise.

And I'll finish with this quote from Tozer.

I like Tozer.

He just like kind of gets down to it.

For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God himself.

And unless and until hearers find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth.

The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God that they may enter into him, that they may delight in his presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and the center of their being and their spirit.

This is a path to God.

It is not the end.

So my conclusion is this we were made by God to know God as fully as we can, to enjoy God as much as we can, and to enjoy making Him known to everyone, Him and His Son, that we can forever.

That's the bottom line.

Oh, one more thing.

If what I've said to you has not resonated with your heart, is not connected, then you need God.

But you need him, and you can only get him by going through His Son.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

So if this this these words of Psalm 145 or the things that I've talked about up here are not precious and sweet and delicious to you, call on the name of Jesus and then be brought into this family, into this citizenship, into this kingdom with a beautiful, majestic, wonderful King who loves you and wants what's best for you and works it out for you.

Let's pray.

Father again, we thank you so much for how you have revealed yourself.

We thank you so much for what you have revealed about yourself.

We thank you.

You've given us eyes to see what you have revealed about yourself, and a heart to respond with worship.

So, Father, use these words this morning to change us all from one degree of glory to the next.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.