Worship in All Circumstances: Praise

Good morning.

Oh, that's about as good as the weather.

Good morning.

Good morning.

That's better.

My name's Chris.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm on the pastoral staff here.

And I'm just, it's great for me just seeing people kind of coming back from holiday.

Some of you have been away.

I know some of you are heading off.

But there's something about being part of a church, I think, which, you know this, we don't go to church, right?

We don't go to church.

We are the church.

You know that?

We are the church.

Which means that when we come together, this is only 20% of what we are as a church.

Sunday is only 20% of actually everything we do as a church.

Because there are community groups.

There are things that people are doing throughout the week.

St. Barnabas, connecting with youth.

There's lots of things that are going on in the church.

Because church is not just a meeting.

It's the people.

And it's a people who are gathered in the name of a God who is worthy to be praised.

And today we're going to talk about praise.

And this morning my goal is very simple, really.

I want to lead us to praise.

I want to lead us to praise.

To praise God.

Not to praise me.

Not to praise anybody else.

But to praise the one who is worthy of praise.

Maybe if you just bow your head in prayer for a second.

Father, this for me is a huge topic where I feel inadequate.

I don't have words.

I don't see just how great you are.

But I pray this morning you would open my eyes.

You would open our eyes to see you.

To see your greatness.

To see and to praise the one who is worthy to be praised this morning.

In your name.

Amen.

Amen.

So we're finishing off today.

We've been looking at a series in the Psalms.

And if you've been here, if you've not been here, we've been going for about eight weeks

looking at how we worship in all seasons of life.

Today it seems like we've got one season outside.

There are different seasons that we go through.

And the Psalms kind of take you on this journey.

On this kind of roller coaster of emotions.

Going from happiness that we talked about right at the beginning.

And then going through all this fear, awe, stress, worry.

And it's just this cycle of life that all of us, I think, can relate to.

Particularly in Hong Kong.

Things are constantly changing.

Everything's constantly happening.

We go up and we go down.

The weather goes up and we go down.

And that's what life is like.

And the Psalms are here to teach us in the roller coaster of life how to worship God.

And the really interesting thing about the Psalms is this.

The Psalms are explicitly organized with a trajectory.

There is a direction to the Psalms.

Because they go through all of this stuff in life.

There's 144 Psalms they go through.

And then the last five Psalms end with praise.

And that is deliberate.

It's deliberate.

Because the Psalms are trying to point you to the fact that whatever season you're going through.

Whatever circumstance you're facing.

Whatever is happening moment by moment.

Everything that God brings into your life is ultimately always meant to lead you to praise.

That's the purpose of it all.

And so today I want to look at three just very simple things to kind of talk about this.

I want to talk about we praise greatness.

We praise greatness.

But we often live, secondly, with copy greatness.

We praise greatness.

We live with copy greatness.

And then thirdly, the greatness of God's grace.

Okay?

So that's where we're going.

Three things.

But before we kind of get into this passage, I just want to say something about praise.

Did you know the reason God created you, the reason he chose you, if you're a Christian, the Bible says, is he chose you to praise him.

In Ephesians 1, it says, in love, in love, God predestined you.

That means he thought about you and he chose you.

If you were a Christian, he chose you before he made anything else for adoption as sons.

That means he brought you into his family, into relationship with him through Jesus Christ.

And it then says, according to the purpose of his will.

If you want to know what God's will is, here it is.

The purpose of his will is that you and I and this church is to be for the praise of his glorious grace.

That's the whole deal.

That's why you and I were created.

The reason that you breathe today is to the praise of his glorious grace.

The reason God has given some of you kids is to the praise of his glorious grace.

The reason you have a job, the reason you're single, the reason you're married, the reason we have air conditioning is for the praise of his glorious grace.

That's the deal.

That's why God created us.

Now, I don't know about you, but I've thought about that, and that sounds a little egocentric of God.

I mean, how can a God who says he's so great, he needs nothing, and then turn around and say, well, you've got to praise me, and even creates us to praise him.

That sounds a little bit like what C.S. Lewis said, like an old, vain woman seeking compliments.

Doesn't it?

But C.S. Lewis goes on to say, and I'm going to quote along this passage, but this is very, very perceptive.

What C.S. Lewis says,

He says,

He says,

Isn't she lovely?

Wasn't it glorious?

Don't you think that magnificent?

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

Do you get what he's saying?

He's saying this.

He's saying this.

He's saying this.

God made you and me to praise him because he is the most valuable.

He is the most praiseworthy.

He is the greatest, most satisfying joy, and he wants us to find enjoyment in him because that is most satisfying.

Because what is the most great and valuable thing that you can think of in this world?

Because anything you can think of where you put God in the category and he always comes out better.

That's why he says, I want you to praise me.

But what is praise?

What is praise?

Praise is exalting, boasting of, speaking highly of deep down what you think is great.

It's our natural response to greatness.

I don't know what you praise on a regular basis.

You know, this week I've been watching the Olympics.

And there's been a certain amount of praise coming out from my mouth because Britain is second in the medal table.

And my wife is Chinese and we're beating them.

And that's a great source of joy for me.

But we praise what we think is valuable and great.

You know, Usain Bolt, the 100 meter winner, one of the greatest athletes.

Do you know what he said yesterday?

After he won his ninth gold medal, he said, there you go.

I'm the greatest.

Now, what is he doing?

He's praising what he thinks is great himself.

Right?

And that's what we do all the time.

You know, I've been praising Britain for winning the medals.

You know, I'm praising greatness.

When I hear people talking about how many steps they did on their Fitbit,

they're praising their greatness if it's more than 5,000.

But here when we come to this psalm, David, who writes this psalm, is the king of Israel.

He's the greatest king that Israel ever had.

And when you look at this, he could have said, I am the greatest, and everyone would have agreed with him.

But look at the first line.

Take your bulletin out.

Follow along.

I'm not going to go verse by verse, but I want you to pick out some key verses here.

First verse, he says, I will extol you, not me, you, my God and king.

He's saying, I'm not the center of this.

My greatness is not from me.

It is a gift from a king who is greater.

The true king of Israel.

God himself.

That's the true great king.

And godly praise always flows out of this humility of recognizing where you stand before God.

And then, when you do that, praise begins to overflow when you see who God really is.

I mean, just skim over this psalm from me.

Because this psalm, he's not just telling you to praise.

It's like an overflow of praise.

Look at the verbs for the speeches.

He says, verse 1, I will extol you, bless you.

Verse 2, commend your works, declare your mighty acts.

Then, verse 5, meditate on your glorious splendor.

I'll speak of the might of your awesome deeds.

Declare your greatness.

That's verse 6.

Pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness.

Sing aloud of your righteousness.

That's verse 7.

Give thanks to you.

Verse 10, bless you.

Speak of the glory of your kingdom.

Tell of your power.

Verse 11, make known your mighty deeds.

Verse 12, this is joy that is overflowing.

He can't hold his mouth.

It's got to come out.

Now, this isn't a man like me who, you know, I've been in church a while.

And I've been taught certain things about praying.

I don't know if any of you have heard the kind of ACTS acronym for how to pray.

It kind of goes adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.

And so what I have often done, I've kind of tried that.

And I kind of sit down and I go, okay, now I've got to adore God.

And I'm like, okay, God, you're good.

God, you're great.

God, you're kind.

I'm getting hungry.

But God, you're loving.

I think I better go on to confession now.

That's often what praise has looked like in my life.

But the words in verse 7, pour forth,

that word, I will pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness,

that word literally means bubbles up.

It's like, you know when you turn on the shower,

and you hold the shower head,

and if you try and block some of the holes in the shower,

water just gushes out of another hole.

You block another hole, water just kind of comes out.

You just can't stop it.

It's bubbling forth.

It's irrepressible.

It's unstoppable.

There's this cascade of praise, he's saying.

It just bubbles up from within you.

That's a man who is intoxicated with God.

He's captivated by him.

He's not going through some kind of religious ritual,

like I've got to praise.

This is overflowing.

This is from the heart.

Because he's captivated by God, who he is, and what he's done.

I don't know if you noticed how many times he talks about things like wondrous works,

mighty acts, awesome deeds.

I mean, it just repeats it again and again and again.

You think he's like, what are you on?

But because when David thought of mighty acts and awesome deeds, he thought of a couple of things.

Because every Jew would think like this.

God's awesome acts and mighty deeds were shown in creation.

Because God creates and sustains everything.

If you look out when you walk down, and you can't see it well today, but you look out on creation,

you see the handwork of someone awesome.

Creation.

Redemption is the other thing that you would see with God's mighty acts.

But I want to just think about creation to start with.

And I thought about this, but I don't have adequate words to describe the greatness of God in creation.

I just don't.

When it says God's greatness is unsearchable,

it means you can't Google it and find the answer.

You have to look at it.

You have to meditate on it.

You have to consider it and just look in wonder.

And so that's what I'd like us to do now for a minute.

There's a great video that Francis Chan has, or pastor, has put together.

And I just want to show you this.

I hope the quality is okay.

I want to show you this.

And I want you just to look at it.

And I want you to think, what does this tell me about God?

What about what you're seeing right now?

First of all, this is the Earth.

Okay?

Then just take it off from the Earth from Southern California.

We're going to rise out for a little bit here.

Okay?

We're going to pull away from it.

We're going to pull higher.

Now this is at about 10 kilometers.

Like if you climb Mount Everest, this is what you'd see.

You'd see the curvature of the Earth from that distance.

Now you're going to climb even higher.

This is at 100 kilometers.

And you're a fourth of the way to the space station now.

This is what you'd see.

If you get to this level, you're going to insert an astronaut.

Get right there.

Okay?

Now we're going 100,000 kilometers.

100,000 kilometers.

If you're a fourth of the way to the Moon, that's what the Earth will look like.

Now we're going to pull away to a million kilometers.

At a million kilometers, there's the Moon.

Okay?

There's what you'd be really seeing there.

There are a million kilometers now.

You're past the Moon.

And now we're going to go to 100,000,000 kilometers.

100,000,000 kilometers.

There's still left to the Sun.

The Sun is not in three million kilometers.

Okay?

But now we're going to go to 10,000,000,000 kilometers.

Okay?

There's the Sun.

Okay?

It just passed the Sun.

Now we can see all of the planets.

10,000,000,000 kilometers.

And now we're at 10 to the 15th power.

I mean, it's 10 to the 15 zeros.

I don't know what I'm saying.

15 zeros.

And the Sun's like a bright dawn on the other stars.

And now we're going to 10 light years away.

10 light years away.

And there you go.

10 light years away.

Now you can see the Sun.

And by the 1100 stars, they're kind of the same person.

You know, that's our Sun.

And now we're going to go a thousand light years away.

A thousand light years away.

You wouldn't see our Sun anymore.

These are just a bunch of stars close to it.

That's a cluster inside the Milky Way.

Now we're going to do now even further.

And that's the Milky Way we live in.

See that cluster of stars?

Those are about 100,000 stars that are closest to us.

We can't serve Sun anymore this morning.

Now it's our Milky Way down.

We forget about here.

Okay, there's our Milky Way galaxy that we live in.

And we're just buried in there somewhere.

And we're going to pull out even further.

And you'll see that our galaxy is actually, it's a big galaxy.

And almost other things that you're seeing now are galaxies.

And we're going to pull away 10 million light years now.

The next thing is 10 million light years.

Those are all galaxies you see.

Amidst our million away.

Several hundred galaxies.

Now we're going to go 100 million light years away.

It's the last one.

And zoom out to 100 million light years.

Those are all clusters of galaxies.

Galaxies and clusters of galaxies.

You wouldn't even see how Milky Way galaxy anymore.

It's that.

We don't have telescopes that go beyond that.

That little sphere there.

What you're seeing right now.

First of all, this is the earth.

Okay?

And then just take it off from the earth.

Southern Cal.

Does that give us a little perspective?

When it says your greatness is unsearchable.

And it says God is the creator.

Do you begin to see why we should praise him?

Because if God is that great,

why is my life not more filled with praise?

I narrow my life down to a very small perspective.

But God is great and greatly to be praised.

When you see that kind of majesty,

and yet that is the God who is our God,

who can create all of that.

And he's not even in the picture.

He's further beyond that.

Doesn't that make you wonder?

Yeah.

So I want to ask us a question.

Why would I ever think that God was my personal assistant

to simply tap on my needs

and supply everything that I want just for me?

Why would I ever do that

when that is the God that we serve?

I want to move on to think about why it is that,

if I'm honest,

I often don't live my life with that kind of perspective.

I want to talk about copy greatness.

We praise what we think is great,

but there is something that I call copy greatness.

David says in verse 3,

every day I will bless you.

Every day I will bless you.

On your wondrous works,

I will meditate.

And yet,

how often is that true of me?

Because I don't know if you ever walk down Nathan Road

in Simpshire Joy.

If you walk down there,

you have a load of guys

who every time I walk past

are always saying,

copy watch,

copy watch,

Rolex,

cheap price,

copy watch.

And

I think

every day we are bombarded

by what I call copy greatness.

because copy whatever

is always an inferior version of the real thing.

It's always an inferior version of the real thing.

And I get so focused on copy greatness

because we've forgotten there is an original.

How does this work?

One of the main reasons

I think I don't overflow with praise in my life

is because I think the world revolves around me,

to be honest.

It should do.

I'm great.

At least

I'm so focused in my mind.

I don't know if you get like this.

I do.

I'm just so focused in my mind.

I'm wrapped up in the week.

My mind's going.

All the time revolved around my plans,

the things I want to fix,

the things I want to sort out in my world.

And it kind of,

everything kind of shrinks down

to my little world

that I'm trying to manage.

My little problems,

my things that are going on.

And that's why I stress.

That's why I fear.

That's why I worry.

Because,

I mean,

does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Because this,

the world is kind of this,

and I've got to handle it.

Because I've got to make sure that I'm great.

And I can't even handle my own world.

But I don't know what's been running through your mind this week.

What's been stressing you out this week?

I don't know whether it's deadlines,

whether it's job decisions,

whether it's kids,

whether it's Pokemon Go.

I don't know what it is.

But,

how much of what stresses you out

in the light of a God

who really is eternal,

the Bible says,

everlasting,

His kingdom is from everlasting to everlasting.

That's a long time.

How significant is what I stress about

compared to that?

But I do.

Louis,

Louis XIV,

was the greatest king of France.

He proclaimed,

I am the state.

Everyone had to call him Louis the Great.

He was the greatest celebrity of the time.

He built huge palaces.

I don't know if you've been to Versailles,

any of you.

I studied just outside of there for a year.

It's an extraordinary place.

He constructed monuments in his honor.

He'd have his own TV show if he was here today.

And he wanted his funeral to be as dramatic as his life was.

Do you know what he did?

He ordered,

for his funeral,

he ordered the lights in the cathedral to be dimmed.

Okay?

And one giant candle,

like a shining star,

to be placed on his coffin,

which was made of gold.

His gold coffin,

and his candle to be there,

so that he would be the centerpiece.

He would be the one lighting up the cathedral.

Because he wanted everyone to focus on him.

The funeral came,

the candles there,

thousands were in the cathedral,

all struck at this incredible event.

And the bishop,

Bishop Marion,

stood up

to give the sermon.

And then he did something

which was not in the script.

He went over

to the coffin,

and he snuffed out the candle.

And then he said these words,

As the cathedral was in darkness,

my brothers,

only God is great.

Because you see,

Louis XIV had lived a lifetime

trying to make his self,

his things,

the center of the world.

Trying to make him

the main thing.

And you know,

in the light of true greatness,

it's just snuffed out

in an instant.

So I don't know about you,

how do you try

and make yourself great?

You probably don't even

think about it like that.

But where in your thought life

are you the one

who is the center of attention?

I don't know if you ever

daydream.

But if you daydream

and fantasize

about the kind of

the life you'd like to have,

what you'd like to have,

have you ever noticed

that you're the one

who's usually the hero

of the story?

It's your kingdom

that you're trying to build.

Ever notice that?

I don't daydream about

everyone else getting the glory.

It's always me.

Why?

Because I live with

a copy greatness

where I want the praise

to come to me.

when you think about

your thoughts

and your plans,

what is the candle

that you are lighting?

Is it a candle

to yourself

or it is a candle

to the one

who is

a floodlight,

not just a little candle?

Because at the end of the day,

copy greatness

always gets exposed

as fake.

Always gets exposed

as fake.

So now,

I just want us

to think about that.

We were made

for the praise

of something great.

We are the ones

who try

and shrink

our world

down to a little

claustrophobic

kind of center

of us

and our little issues.

But I want to talk about,

thirdly,

the greatness

of God's grace.

the passage

that we read

says,

the Lord is gracious

and merciful,

slow to anger

and abounding

in steadfast love.

The second thing

that a Jew

would remember

when they talk

about

the wondrous works

and the splendor

of God

would be

redemption.

God's great deliverance

out of Egypt.

God's setting

people free

by his mercy

and his grace.

That's what a Jew

would remember

when he heard this.

But when we live

with copy greatness

we forget.

We forget

God's greatness

in creation.

We forget

God's mercy

in redemption.

Because

basically

I think

most of life

I don't actually think

I'm trying to make

myself great.

I don't.

I'm just getting on

with life.

Like when I was teaching

I was trying to be

a good teacher.

Okay,

I was doing it

for the student

and I'd love the compliments.

You know,

it kind of strokes your ego

when someone says,

hey then,

you were just the most

amazing teacher ever.

You know,

and I'd like that

and say,

no, no, no,

it's fine.

No, no, no.

But you know,

really say more,

please.

You know,

but you know,

and we all like that,

don't we?

We all like it

when someone approves of you

and someone says,

kind of strokes your back

and gives you a little

tap on the back.

We all like that.

But you know,

I thought I was still

trying to honour God

in my life

and trying to follow him

and I knew the doctrine

of God's grace

and all that kind of stuff.

You know,

but I'm more and more

convinced now

that actually much of

what I do

is actually more

about me

trying to make myself

greater than I am

and less about

just Christ

in things

because I deceive myself

all the time.

Much of what I do

is like this.

Much of what I do

is about showing

how great

my wondrous works are

and wanting the praise

from people around me.

because the thing is

when you find

your identity

and your performance

and that's your

wondrous works,

what happens is

in verse 12

it says,

the eyes of all

look to you

to give them their food

at the proper time

or in due season.

But when you're looking

for your own greatness,

you don't see God

as a source of grace.

God is the source

of the one

who gives you everything.

You think it's your

hard work that got it.

You think it was

your performance

that made it.

You think that

because I've been so busy

I managed to put food

or whatever it is

on the table.

I did it.

I'm not perfect

but I'm kind of great.

And we don't overflow

with constant praise

of God

because we don't see

God's grace

in his provision

and we live

under this delusion

that we are great

until something happens.

Failure.

Failure is one

of God's greatest gifts.

I hate it.

I hate failing.

But failure is one

of God's greatest gifts

to expose

your copy greatness

and to lead you back

to opening your eyes

to seeing what is original

and true

and real greatness.

Because what failure does,

I don't know

if you've experienced

real failure.

But when failure

comes,

it strips away

from you

everything that you

had based your sense

of greatness on.

Right?

You know when you're made

to feel that small

because you've made a mistake,

you've done something

before other people,

you know,

whether it's

you failed in your morality,

you failed in your religiosity,

you failed at your work performance,

you failed at being

a good parent,

you failed at being

the child that you should have been,

whatever it is,

when you get to that

you can feel like

about that big

and it strips you

of that idea

that actually

I was pretty good anyway.

Right?

Anyone know

what I'm talking about here?

J.K. Rowling,

Harry Potter,

in a Harvard commencement speech,

she said

of her failed marriage

being a single mother

and living in absolute poverty

because she became famous.

Said,

failure meant

a stripping away

of what was inessential.

I stopped pretending

to myself

that I was anything

other than what I was.

How does this connect

to grace

and God's grace?

Well,

verse 14,

it says,

the Lord upholds

all who fall.

Or as one preacher put it,

those who are apt

to fall.

The Lord upholds,

that means carries,

lifts up,

those who are apt

to fall,

who fall.

Why does David

in a psalm of praise

write that?

Because David knows

what it is

to fail

and to fall.

You know,

he was an adulterer,

a murderer.

He was a failure

as a father.

His whole family

became so broken

that there was rape,

there was murder,

his own son

tried to kill him.

They were just copying

what he had done.

I mean,

he was a failure.

He knew

what it was to fall

and there was

a shame on him.

But just before David,

at the same time of day,

there was another king,

a king called Saul.

Saul also knew failure.

He disobeyed.

In 1 Samuel 15,

God commands him

to go and destroy

an army,

get rid of everything,

don't keep anything

for yourself.

So what Saul does,

he goes down,

he defeats the whole army

but he keeps the best animals

for himself.

And then he goes off

and he builds a little monument

to his own greatness.

And then Samuel comes back

and says,

hey, what's going on here?

And Saul's like,

yeah, it's great,

I've obeyed God,

you know,

I've disfeated the army

and Samuel says,

I'm sorry,

but why have you disobeyed God?

And Saul's kind of

going in denial,

he's saying,

but I did obey God,

I did obey,

the animals here,

they're all for sacrifice

to God.

And Samuel's not having

any of it

and Samuel says to him,

you have disobeyed God

and then Saul's like,

no, no, no,

it wasn't me,

it was all my soldiers,

they took it,

it wasn't me,

they took all the stuff,

it wasn't me

and he blames them.

And then Samuel says to him,

hey, listen,

God's going to snuff out

your candle

and your kingdom

and suddenly Saul

is like,

oops.

And then he becomes,

feels guilty,

he's got caught,

he's like an American swimmer

issuing an apology

and he says,

please forgive me

but now honor me now

so that all the elders

will like kind of,

I won't lose face

in front of everybody else,

kind of,

I want to have respect,

I know I've done something

a bit naughty

but I want to keep face

in front of everybody.

Everything Saul did,

even his own apology

for his own greatness

to make himself look good

in other people's eyes,

what David did

was different.

There is something

that is very different

between David and Saul

because I don't know

if you know,

David throughout the whole

of the rest of the Bible

is called God's man.

He is exalted

actually in the Bible

not because he was great

but because he knew

a God who was great.

Saul is hardly mentioned

anywhere else

in the rest of the Bible.

Hardly anywhere else

in the rest of the Bible.

Why is that?

Well,

when you see

your failure,

your sin,

the mistakes

that you make,

you can respond

in one of two ways.

One will lead you

either to try

and keep making

your own greatness great,

the other will lead you

to seeing the greatness

of God.

It's a key decision.

You're either going

to be like David

or you're going

to be like Saul.

What Saul does,

he denies,

he blames,

he tries to get out of it.

He says,

I'm sorry but,

do you ever do that?

I do that when I get caught.

I say,

oh,

I'm sorry but,

it was,

you know,

I was tired.

You know,

that's not an apology,

okay?

If somebody,

if your spouse says to you,

I'm sorry but,

that's not an apology,

okay?

Don't accept it

because what we're trying to do,

we're trying to still

defend ourselves.

I wonder,

have you ever lived

with a fear of failure?

Have you ever messed up

where you're actually

trying to cover up

what you've done

so that other people

don't know?

We can do this,

church people

are so good at this.

We're experts

at covering up

because we've got to

look good on Sunday.

But all of us

have elements

of failure,

of shame,

of things inside of.

There's not one person

in this room

who doesn't.

and if you think

you don't have,

then I'd suggest

you're probably

living in denial

because we desperately

want other people

to see

that we're actually great

when the reality

is exposed

by our failure.

It's painful.

I remember a friend

once said to me,

his,

I think he was

about three years old,

his son,

he told his son,

there's some cookies

on the table,

don't eat the cookies.

He went upstairs

to do something,

comes down

a few minutes later

and he sees

there's one cookie

gone from the plate

on the table

and his son

has disappeared.

He spends the next

10, 15 minutes

looking around his house

trying to find his son,

can't find him anywhere.

And then finally,

he hears this little

kind of coming

from behind the sofa

and behind the curtain

which was behind the sofa

and he kind of creeps up

down round the back,

round the sofa

and there,

curled up on the floor

was his three-year-old son

wrapped around the curtain

hiding behind the sofa

and my friend

kind of looked at him

like a little bit strange

like,

what are you up to?

And,

I mean,

he's only three,

but,

and he said to him,

why are you hiding?

And the son said,

because I can't face you

from what you've done.

And that is actually

what it's like for us

before God.

When you see a God

who's that great,

throughout the whole of history,

every single one of us,

from Adam and Eve

all the way till now,

we always try

and run and hide

our shame,

the things we,

we always try to wrap

that curtain around us.

Because we don't want to know,

we don't want others to know

what we're really like

sometimes inside.

Failure exposes us.

We all have a secret,

just think about this,

we all have a secret

that you don't want

anyone else to know.

Right?

If I was to say now,

tell the person next to you

the thing that you don't

want them to know about you.

Is anything coming to your mind?

What's your secret?

Because that's your shame,

that's the thing

you want to hide away.

But David,

who has such shame,

how can he come to the point

where he overflows

with praise

praise

in this psalm

while Saul

is just,

disappears

and he's left in denial,

his candle is snuffed out.

How can that happen?

Here's the thing.

David,

we looked at Psalm 51

a few weeks ago,

I think Eric spoke on it.

David

realized

you have a choice.

You either run from God

or you run

to God.

And David knew something

about God.

David knew

that the Lord

is gracious

and merciful,

slow to anger

and abounding

in steadfast love.

David knew that.

He knew

that there was a God

who was so great

who could crush him

in an instant,

who could just

turn his back on him.

He's got the rest

of the universe

to play with.

Why would he care

about someone

so insignificantly small

in the light

of all of his creation?

And yet,

he knew,

like every single one of us,

that this God

is not distant.

This God is near

to all who call to him.

This God

is the one

who reaches down.

Because you know,

it says,

that verse says,

he upholds

all who fall,

he raises up

all who are bowed down.

Do you know,

if you're bowed down,

how do you raise

somebody else up?

You have to come down

to their level

and pick them up.

The God who created

all of that universe,

who didn't have to care

a dot about anyone,

he came down

to our level.

level.

He came down

to you,

he knows where

you're hiding.

In all of that,

he knows you.

And he comes down,

not with,

you know,

normally,

when you,

when you do something well

and other people

do terribly

what you want them to do,

what's your response?

Normally,

I think what we do

is we look down

on people

or we try and give them

advice on how to improve.

You've got to work hard

so you can improve

that skill.

Do you know,

if you experience that

in your office

or you get scolded

by somebody.

Okay,

you made that mistake,

you did that wrong,

don't do it better next time.

Right?

That's how we normally

treat failure.

We're just critical

of people.

But this God,

this King,

is so great,

he's never failed.

He does everything perfectly.

He gets 150%

in the marks,

not 100.

He's beyond the scale.

And here are we,

insignificant,

tiny,

small,

hiding,

shameful,

sinful,

the Bible will call it.

And yet,

this King

came down to our level,

saw you and me

crouching in the shame.

I don't know what it is

in your life,

but he sees it.

And he's not there

with a judging hand

saying,

you should do better.

He's there,

he comes down to our level.

He dies on a cross.

The scolding

that we maybe deserved,

he took from the Pharisees

who mocked him.

The criticalness,

the shame,

he was bowed down

and humiliated

on a Roman cross.

For you.

In the whole universe,

he sees you.

Right now.

He sees you.

He knows you.

And his grace

is calling you,

come and enjoy

the fact that

I'm not a God

who is distant,

but I run to you

and I want you

to run to me.

Right now.

He's lavish

in grace.

And he calls us

who are wrapped up

in our puny little world

to see

that though we stick

our middle finger

up at God

so often in our lives,

I'd turn away

if I was there.

I'd say,

I'd create another universe.

But he doesn't.

He says,

I am gracious.

I want you

to come to me.

If you get that,

when you fail,

if you see

that God's bringing you to fail,

this week,

if you make a mistake,

you get scolded,

you go into work,

things go wrong,

God is giving you

an opportunity

for two choices.

You can either be like Saul

and start trying to

cover up everything

or you can be amazed

that in spite of what

you and I are like,

you have a God

who is gracious

and who says,

I accept you.

I delight in you.

You're mine.

If you're not a Christian,

you need to know that

and you need to run

to this God.

God.

Because you see,

if you get the greatness

of God in those two things,

his creation

and his grace,

and it sinks

from here

to here,

you don't have to just

talk about grace

as an abstract concept.

You will know it here

and it will bubble up

in praise.

Just check your prayer life

now.

Check your praise life

now because that will tell you

if you have really

seeing the grace

and the mercy

and the goodness

of God in your life

right now.

I want to leave you

with one more video.

Because I want to leave you

as David overflows

with praise,

I want to show you

a modern day

somebody overflowing

with praise.

And I want you

to just look at it.

And I want you

to think about

whatever's going on

in your week

in the light

of who our king

really is.

And I want us

just to respond

in praise.

So...