In God Alone: The King We Worship (North OC)

Marcel: We're going to conclude our series that we have in God alone.

And so to bring everybody up to speed, the previous messages we talked

about how, uh, Dallas talked about how we're in good hands with God.

Then we talked about how God is our refuge and our strength and that God

wants our trust for the generations.

And then last week we talked about trusting at all times.

And today our message we're going to be talking about is studying

how looking at the king we worship.

The king we worship.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Father, thank you so much already.

I feel filled up.

I feel encouraged and strengthened in the faith.

Thank you for the ways in which we've already been ministered to, to hear

Jessica and her sharing and being able to connect and commune with you.

God to hear Philip share his, his God story and be able to

see how you worked in his life.

And God gives us so much encouragement and we praise you for the way you worked in

his life or the way you've worked in all of our lives in the way you are working.

And father, I pray right now that as we dig into your scriptures,

father, you will speak that you will minister and father that we can

walk away with greater and greater.

I'm going to read the first verse.

that are firm and steadfast that will lead us to greater

faithfulness in the name of Jesus.

We pray in the name of Jesus, amen.

Amen.

Now, we've been walking through some of the Psalms for our Sermon series.

And to remind those, or those who are coming for the first time, uh, the

Psalms, the Book of Psalms, what we call the Book of Psalms, are really a,

a, a collection of poetry and songs.

And so they serve as a spiritual playlist, uh, as these were some of

the songs that the ancients used to sing out to God when they gathered

together, just like we gather today.

And the Psalms really serve, uh, several purposes for us.

Uh, help us reveal and, and, and understand how to have a

deep, real, and honest, and transparent relationship with God.

They also remind us of biblical and divine truths of who God is and his word.

And, and they really sure up our foundation and our

convictions of who God is.

And they shape and help us in our view and our theology of God.

And so today we're going to look at Psalm 145.

And this psalm here is one of the last five psalms that

really deal with praising God.

And in Psalm 145, to give a little background in history,

Uh, it was written by King David.

And so, many of us know who King David is or was.

And David, we've all heard of David and Goliath.

And so that's the David that wrote this psalm, and he was a king, he was also

a shepherd, and he was a warrior, and he writes, and he's actually written a

number of these psalms, and he writes this psalm, and this psalm is an alphabet

acrostic poem, and so what does that mean?

It means that in the Hebrew language, because this was originally written in

Hebrew, it's translated into English for us, is that each line in the

psalm, Begins, or is in consecutive order of the Hebrew alphabet.

So if we had a psalm today and we wrote it, it would start off

that first line with the letter A.

And then the next line would be, see, you guys get what I'm saying.

And so we can't really capture this psalm in that essence because we

don't read it and speak Hebrew Conker.

He shakes his head, no.

But, so in order for us to understand, so that's some of the beauty of this psalm

that we're about to read, is that each line, if you were reading a Hebrew, you

would be reading and going, wow, that is so creative, that's so incredible,

as he's walking through each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and yet praising

God, and so, we're gonna read Psalm 145.

Church, are you with me here?

Alright, Psalm 145.

Let me actually start this here.

Psalm 145.

We're going to read, not from the NIV, but from the HCSB.

That's the Home and Christian Standard Bible.

And that's actually become one of my favorite, uh, uh,

translations of the Bible.

It's a thought for thought translation.

There's some similarities to the NIV, but it's a really good translation.

So we're going to go ahead and read Psalm 145.

It reads, I exalt you.

My God, the King.

Let's stop right there.

It's interesting.

We don't really know when David wrote this psalm.

Was he a king at this time?

Was he in the, in, in, in, was he a servant to King Saul at this time?

Or was he a little shepherd boy in which he was thinking about God?

We don't really know, but we know David is familiar with kingship.

Because it, during his life, it was either Saul or himself as a king.

But who does he call the real king?

He says God.

Now isn't that interesting?

He says, God, you're the king.

And so maybe he's the king, but he wants to acknowledge I'm not

really the king of all this.

It's the almighty.

Who's the king?

Or maybe Saul's the king.

He's like, yeah, Saul's the king.

And we know King David, he served Saul faithfully, but yet he acknowledges,

Hey, he might be the king, but the true king is God almighty.

Or maybe he's a shepherd boy before he even gets involved in the king's court.

And he just recognizes, Hey, God is king.

What a great perspective.

Isn't it?

Acknowledging, realizing who God is in the grand scheme of things.

But let's continue reading.

He says, And praise your name forever and ever.

I will praise you every day.

I will honor your name forever and ever.

He's starting off with a conviction.

Here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to praise God.

And as he continues, he says, Yahweh, and this is God's name and, and

Yahweh means I am or I will be, and so he's acknowledging who God is.

He says, Yahweh is great and is highly praised.

His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation will declare your works to the next and

will proclaim your mighty acts.

He's speaking now to God, not only what, well, here's what I'm going to

do, but now God, hey, how great you are.

The next generation is going to praise you.

I will speak of your splendor and glorious majesty and your wonderful works.

They will proclaim the power of your awe inspiring acts, and

I will declare your greatness.

They will give a testimony of your great goodness and will joyfully

sing of your righteousness.

Not only me, not only I will praise you, but God, those that are after me and those

around me, they will praise you as well.

Why?

Why?

Because God is worthy.

And we continue.

He says the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger

and great in faithful love.

I love that phrasing right there.

We should always say hallelujah every time we read that.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate.

I don't want them to be un non gracious and non compassionate.

You know what I'm saying?

Mean and cruel.

He says he's slow to anger.

Hallelujah for that.

Cause if God was like me, he'd be quick to anger and I'd have a serious problem.

He says he's slow to anger and great and not only love but in faithful love.

And so he's rich, he's abounding in this faithful love.

For his creation and children.

He says the Lord is good to everyone.

His compassion rests on all he has made.

All you have made will thank you, Lord.

The godly will praise you.

They will speak of the glory of your kingdom and will declare your might.

Informing all people of your mighty acts and of the glorious

splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.

Your rule is for all generations.

The Lord is faithful in all his words and gracious in all his actions.

The Lord helps all who fall.

He raises up all who are oppressed.

All eyes look to you and you give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hands and satisfy the desire of every living being.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and gracious in all his acts.

The Lord is near all who call out to him, all who call out to him with integrity.

He fulfills the desires of those who fear him.

He hears their cry for help and saves them.

The Lord guards all those who love him, but he destroys all the wicked.

My mouth would declare Yahweh's praise.

Let every living thing praise his holy name forever and ever.

Amen.

What a wonderful psalm.

Psalm 145.

You know, this is a psalm of praise.

David praises God for his character.

He praises God for his wonderful attributes.

He praises God for his wonderful deeds.

He praises God for his glorious rule upon the earth and David

acknowledges and recognize and proclaims that God has been good.

He's been good to him.

He's been good to all of creation and he's good to his chosen people.

Now, as I was studying this out, this stood out to me.

I read this and I thought this is really cool.

But there's this Hebrew word, uh, kol.

And so in the original language, there's this word kol there, and when it's

translated, it's translated as all, or the whole, or every, or everything.

And so in the Hebrew, this word kol is actually over 15 to about

18 times, just in Psalm 145 alone.

And so as we read this, you can maybe miss it, or maybe that word

all kept standing out to you.

As we read it, but I wanted to take a second just to appreciate this because

I thought this was really interesting and really helpful for you and me.

He says, I will praise you every day.

That's again, that's that work whole right there.

Oh, the Lord is good to everyone.

He has compassion.

His compassion rests on all he has made.

All you have made.

Well, thank you, Lord.

Your rule is for all generations.

The Lord is faithful in all his words and gracious in all.

All his actions.

The Lord helps all who fall.

He raises up all who are oppressed.

All eyes look to you.

Satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and gracious in all his acts.

The Lord is near all who call out to him, all who call out of

him, out to him with integrity.

The Lord guards all those who love him.

But he destroys all the wicked.

Did you see a theme there?

There's this theme about all, right?

And so it's interesting, he says, look, God does all this.

He is all this.

And therefore, how does he end off?

He says, you know what?

All living beings should then praise God.

And so we see this king is king who knows all, who rules all, who

is over all and is a king for all and is a king who's all good, all

righteous, holy and pure and faithful.

And so when thinking of God's qualities, when you think of God's deeds, it

leads to us being in awe of God.

It leads to us thanking God, but it leads to praising God.

Wow, you are incredible.

Look at all you have done.

Let me see, and I can only capture only some of you, but if I can capture all

of you, oh my goodness, I'm amazed.

As we sang earlier, Lord, I'm amazed by you.

He blesses all of creation, especially those who love and fear him.

And he's helping to see that God, he's been this and he will always be this.

This is who he is.

This is his character.

This is his nature.

And these are his everlasting deeds.

Again, the king is for all overall, has all power, all

righteousness and good to all.

Here's the question.

Do you believe that God is this?

Do you believe in the God of Psalm 145?

Is that your God?

Be honest with yourself right now.

Do you believe that that's who God is and that's what God does?

That's his character and those are his deeds.

Ask yourself, do you believe this?

If so, then not only is God worthy of your praise, but then that means

God is worthy enough to be trusted.

You get what I'm saying here?

If God is the God of Psalm 145, then that means that you and I can do this.

We can trust in God the King.

Because if he does all those things and he is all of those attributes, then you

and I can put our trust in that God.

We can trust in him and in him alone.

Again, if God is all these things and does all these things, we

can trust them with our lives.

That means we can also trust his word and faithfully follow his word.

Because he is all those things and he does all those things.

His direction for how we should live can be trusted and followed faithfully.

If God is the God of Psalm 145, then that means that you and I, we can

trust him with our jobs and careers.

That means that you and I, we can trust him with our schooling.

That means that you and I, we can trust him In marriage, we can

follow his direction for marriage and it will lead to something good.

We can trust him in how we interact, deal, raise, live in our families.

When we see his direction for how we should be as an employee, employer, as

a family member, a brother, a sister in Christ, how we should handle our

finances, we can trust his direction.

Because if he's all those things, then he's trustworthy.

If that's the king that you worship, then there's good news.

You could trust that king because he's all those things and more.

He does all those things and even more.

So even when God allows.

Or sometimes even when God puts you into some challenging situations, we

can remain trusting and faithful because we know he's the God of Psalm 145.

You guys get what I'm saying here.

If he's that king, then man, oh man, we have some great news that

changes us from within and changes how we deal with our circumstances.

Because we know God is faithful and God will deliver.

He will provide, He will strengthen, He will solidify, and He will lead

us to glory and to His promised land.

And so this is why it's so important, brothers and sisters,

that our theology, meaning our view of God, that it's accurate.

It's so important that our view of God is accurate.

Because here's the thing, you won't follow a questionable or

shaky character, now would you?

Somebody that you wouldn't necessarily follow their advice, you wouldn't

follow because you feel like, Ah, if I follow that, this might not go well.

Think of a toothless dentist.

She said, Oh, okay.

If your toothless dentist was like, Hey, let's go ahead

and let's work on your teeth.

No, that's okay, brother.

Why?

Because you like, man, you got to get your stuff fixed first.

You, you, you would be a little hesitant, wouldn't you?

Why?

Because your view of them is like, I don't think you're really trustworthy.

I don't know if you're an expert in this particular area.

We've all done trust falls or what they call trust falls, right?

They call trust falls, right?

And so let's say, Kenny, Kenny, can you stand up for a quick second?

Okay, just stand on up, Kenny, there you go.

Alright, Kenny, tall, strong, you know, good looking brother there.

There you go.

Kenny, how tall are you?

6'4 Okay, there you go, Kenny, you're 6'4 Here we go.

Awesome, that's good.

Alright, Ariana.

Ariana, can you go ahead?

Can you stand up for me here for a quick second?

Ariana, how old are you?

Huh?

13.

Come on, Ariana, 13.

How tall are you, Ariana?

Five feet.

Now, we were doing a trust fall with Kenny and Ariana, and she was the fall on, uh,

uh, you know, she was the go ahead, and you know, that's a trust fall, right?

You go ahead, put your arms out.

Ariana, would you trust Kenny to, to catch you?

Yeah, you would, right?

That'd be awesome, right?

You'd be like, oh, Kenny got me?

Yeah.

Hopefully his back isn't hurting, but yeah, he got me, right?

Now, let's say we reversed it.

Kenny.

You were to do the trust fall with five feet, 13 year old

Ariana, you 6'4 you said?

Yeah, yeah, he said, yeah.

Kenny put that bass in there, yeah.

Now we were to reverse it.

Kenny, how confident are you?

Not 100%.

And that's not a knock on Ariana.

Because most of y'all said, I don't know about that.

Let's not do that one on the stage.

Anna's like, don't do that one on stage.

Julie's like, don't do that one on stage.

We got insurance, but I don't know if we want to do this.

It's kind of on TV, you know what I'm saying?

You guys can go ahead and sit down.

Here's the point here.

You would question why, because you're like, I don't know

if I can fully trust you.

And so his view is, I don't know if you can carry me and hold me at this strength.

And if we view God as, I don't know if you can trust me, you

can catch me, what would that do?

We won't trust him.

We won't lean on him.

We'll try to take things into our own matters.

We'll try to make decisions based on our thinking, our limited thinking.

That usually leads to mistakes and regrets and bad outcomes.

But when we view God as being, of course, he can catch me.

Without a doubt.

Then what will we do?

We'll have that trustful.

We'll lean upon God with our finances, with our marriage, with our relationships,

with our jobs, with our schooling, with our brothers and sisters of Christ.

We will trust because we know we view God as what being able to do it.

And so this is why it's so vital that our view our theology of God is accurate.

Because it affects the way you view God.

It affects the way you respond to God and it affects your

choices and your lifestyle.

So we need to have a proper view of who God is and what God does.

Brothers and sisters, are you with me here?

And so where or how do we develop a proper view of God?

Let's walk through this real quickly.

Our view of God, we develop it.

What I've captured here are three main things.

Through scripture, through relationships, and through experience.

We get the correct view of God through His word, through our relationships,

and through our experiences with God.

Let's break this down real quickly here.

Romans 10, 17, Consequently, faith comes through hearing the

message and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

You see, we understand God's character, his nature, his deeds, his desires,

his promises through his word.

That's what we are doing right now.

We are reading through Psalm 60, uh, 145 and we are understanding God

and our theology is being formed.

Our view of God to an accurate picture of who God is.

Now, if we remove the word from our faith, what kind of view

of God are we going to have?

I appreciate Phillip sharing.

He didn't know the word, so his view of God was, I don't know if he

can really do anything in my life.

But what happened when he was, started doing those Bible studies?

His view of God changed.

He said, I can take steps toward him.

And now we stand before you talking about his transformation.

Because of the scriptures and seeing God in the narrative as we read from

Old to New Testament, as we see Jesus interactions with people, we understand

God through the way Jesus responds, the way he reacts, and the way he

initiates in these relationships.

So our view of God is formed.

Even if we go in the Old Testament from Genesis on, we see God again as

the true hero in the story and then we develop, whoa, this is what God is like.

So we need the scriptures to make sure we develop a healthy

and accurate view of God.

Also our relationships, I like this Psalm right here, it says,

come and hear all you who fear God.

Let me tell you what he has done for me.

There's this picture again.

Let me, can I just talk to you for a second?

Can I just share with you, and that's what Philip did, didn't he?

He shared what God has done for his life.

And what does that do that helps our view of God as well?

It's through our relationships.

We can see different facets of God's character through the eyes of others.

Through hearing and seeing how God works in other lives

helps us understand God more.

When we see and hear how God works in others lives, it helps

us understand God and it helps us develop the proper view of God.

Our relationships provide us with tangible experiences of God's character,

making concepts real and personal.

And so as I hear Daniel share about his view and understanding of God, that

helps me also gain a proper view of God.

When I hear Jean share about how God is working in his life,

I go, wow, God is like that.

That's what God does.

When Koki shares about how God has been working in her family's life, I

go, wow, that means God is a God who works in these ways and I can serve

and worship and depend on that God.

You guys see what I'm saying?

Our relationships help us develop a proper view of God.

Now, remove those relationships.

How might that affect your view of God?

I'm inspired by Philip's story.

If I didn't hear Philip's story, I might have a little less hope

today in the way God might work in someone's life or even in my life.

But because of the relationships, now my faith and my view is more solidified.

It's becoming more accurate.

We also develop our view of God through experience.

I want to read this passage is going back to Abraham.

He was one of the patriarchs in the faith.

And he has this experience where he's tested by God with his son.

And many of us know this and God just test him.

But he realizes that God provides.

And so at the end of this experience, Abraham says, so

Abraham called this place.

The Lord will provide meaning Yahweh Jireh.

Meaning, Yahweh will provide.

He says, after this experience, I came to realize that you

are a God who will provide.

Now if he didn't have that experience, he wouldn't be known as the God who provides.

You see, before that he was God Almighty.

But after that experience, Abraham was like, you're the God who provides.

And so it's through experiences with God that we develop a greater

understanding of who God is.

And so as we go through experiences, we learn, we understand God more fully.

I am 100 percent convinced that God takes care of his servants.

100 percent convinced.

You can't convince me otherwise.

Because of my experiences with God.

Because I've seen God take care of my family, I've seen God take care of me.

I go, God you take care of your servants.

As I've talked with others, I go, God you take care of your servants.

I'm convinced that God vindicates the righteous.

That he will vindicate the righteous.

I know it, I've seen it in my life and I've seen it in other lives.

I'm convinced, but it's because of those experiences that I'm convinced of this.

If I didn't have those experiences, it might be theory or it might not

be something that I truly believe.

And so as we go through experiences with God, God helps us to see who he is.

This is why it's so important that you and I, we remain

faithful and persevere to the end.

Whatever the situation, I know it's hard.

I know it's tough.

But once you persevere until the moment you have victory, you'll realize who God

is in a greater and more intimate way.

But if you cheat yourself and you cut yourself short and you quit,

you'll never see who God really is.

So this is why we must persevere.

This is why relationships must encourage us to persevere so that

we can see God in his totality.

Brothers and sisters, are you with me here?

And so again, our view of God is developed through the scriptures.

It's through the relationships and through our experience.

And so what should we do in response?

I believe we should respond the way David responds at the end of Psalm 145.

And that's to praise God.

To reflect on God's character, His nature, His promises, His mighty deeds.

The mighty deeds He's had in your life.

The work He's had in other people's lives.

The God you see throughout the scriptures.

When you reflect upon that, that should lead to thanksgiving.

It should lead to all, but it should lead to praise.

Hallelujah.

That means, praise the Lord, we should be praising God again.

Why?

Because it reminds us of who God is and what God does.

It reminds us again of his character, his nature, and his

wonderful attributes and deeds.

As we sang these songs earlier, you are reminded of the truth

of who God is and what God does.

And so this is why we must praise God on a consistent basis because

it ministers to our very souls.

And what does that do?

It gives us the proper view of God.

It allows us now to do what?

To trust God more.

Which leads to what?

To faithfulness in our relationship with God.

So when we praise Him, we get the right view.

Then we start to trust Him.

And then we make decisions to follow Him in His ways.

Which leads to greater faithfulness in our relationship to and with God.

So let's get real practical here.

Brothers and sisters, are you still with me here?

I'd like to give some action steps real quickly here, okay?

First off here, real simple, just spend some time praising

God every day this week.

Spend some time.

Go ahead and take a picture, write it down.

Spend some time, whether it's a couple minutes, a whole devotional time, whatever

the case is, spend some time praising God.

And let me just share this real quickly.

There's a difference between thanking God and praising God.

Thanking God is thank you for this.

Praising God is giving God his flowers, is giving God his props.

God, you are this, you are, you are that, you are incredible.

It's recognizing who God is and give, and articulating that.

You guys get what I'm saying?

And so sometimes we struggle with this praise because why we're like,

uh, and this is why it's good for us.

Because then it expands and gets our picture of God more accurate.

And so I want to encourage you, spend some time just every day this week.

Maybe put an alarm on your clock or whatever on your watch or on your

phone there and just praise God.

Because again, it leads to greater faithfulness.

And then for some, this is for some, this might just be

a very small percentage of us.

I want to encourage you, consider writing your own psalm.

We want to trust for the generations.

We're called to trust at all times.

And the king we worship is worthy of our trust.

We'll close out here with Psalm 145, verse 17.

Psalms 145:17

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and gracious in all his acts.

The Lord is near all who call out to him, all who call out to him with integrity.

He fulfills the desires of those who fear him.

He hears the cry for help and saves them.

The Lord guards all those who love him, but he destroys all the wicked.

My mouth would declare Yahweh's praise.

Let everything praise his holy name forever and ever.

Brothers and sisters, may we trust in God alone.

Amen.