Celebration Sunday | Celebrate the Lord! | Kurt Petersheim

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, family.

[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Nicole and I am going to be reading Psalm one fifty.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please stand for the reading of the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God in His sanctuary.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise Him in His mighty heavens.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise Him for His acts of power.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise him for his surpassing greatness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise him with the heart and the liar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise him with the timbre and dancing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise him with the strings and pipe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise him with the clash of symbols.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise him with resounding symbols.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let everything that has breath.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: And speed again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Nicole.

[SPEAKER_01]: You all have a seat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm one, fifty.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you have a Bible, you can open it up there with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm one, fifty, what Nicole just read.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't have a Bible, there's some under a lot of the chairs in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can look at one of those chairs and grab one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm one, hundred and fifty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Very last Psalm.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of right in the middle of your Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're looking for it, kind of right in the dead middle.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we will dive in Psalm one, fifty.

[SPEAKER_01]: God thank you again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you Lord for this day and thank you for an opportunity for us together and sing and give and commune and be in your word and listen and hear your word to us and just have fellowship too and just see our brothers and sisters and God it's it's good to be here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I pray right now that maybe you just, even waking us up more right now and just let us, let us just be invigorated by your spirit and by your word as it shows us your goodness and reminds us that we are created to praise you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are created to bring glory to your name.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we're here.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we exist and so Lord, show us that and just remind us of that this morning and give us a refreshed zeal for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: a refreshed joy in your name and willingness and desire to praise you for all that you are and all that you do in Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second service, you guys awake.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, seriously, man, first serve, this is the weirdest phenomenon.

[SPEAKER_01]: First service is almost always just more awake.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the strangest thing to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: First service is like, we're morning people.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you guys are not always like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel you, man, I feel you.

[SPEAKER_01]: But listen, I seriously though, I hope this morning, I hope that as we just look through Psalm one fifty, and I'm picking on you guys a little bit, but as we look through Psalm one fifty that

[SPEAKER_01]: Seriously, you just see and understand and believe in our reminded today of the reason you were made.

[SPEAKER_01]: The reason you were created, and it is to praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why you and I exist at the very bottom of who you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, you have all sorts of other reasons for being in purposes for your life in this world, but at the very bottom of all that it is to the glory of God, for his praise for the praise of his whole innocent his name.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope that there's excites us because that is something that we get to take part in all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And especially on Sundays to gather together and do that together with the church family, are this good, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a reason to celebrate.

[SPEAKER_01]: So today is a celebration Sunday, like I said, and this is just a day in August, we kind of set aside every year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every Sunday really is a celebration Sunday, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But we set aside a day in August.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just as we're getting back in the swing of our rhythms and school and all that kind of stuff, just to kind of come back together, look back over the last year or so and kind of look ahead to, and just see what the Lord has done, what He's doing, and just celebrate Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's look at Psalm one fifty for a minute here and I want to just kind of point out a few things.

[SPEAKER_01]: This outline was actually in my study Bible in my office and I was like, man, that's a great outline of this Psalm.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm just going to kind of share a few of those points.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number one is this.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the place of our praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: As we talk about praising the Lord?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the place of praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: How does he answer that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse one, praise the Lord, praise God where.

[SPEAKER_01]: In his sanctuary,

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise him where in his mighty heavens.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what my citizens and his mighty heavens.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's my say in all creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: The actual Hebrew word term is the firmament.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so really two places that he is instructing us to praise God here.

[SPEAKER_01]: One is in his sanctuary.

[SPEAKER_01]: One it says that that belongs to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: His sanctuary.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is his place that he has set apart for himself to be praised.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now that can be a physical location.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, for like the Tabernacle and the Exodus story or the Temple later on for the Jews as they built the Temple in Jerusalem, the actual set of part place or the synagogues that the Jews worshiped in the first century or really could just be any place that we set aside as a place where we praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now listen, this building is not the church, we are the church, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's who we are.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yet we do have a place, praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have a place where we can come on a Sunday morning, gather together like this, and praise God together.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a room that we call a sanctuary.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it means.

[SPEAKER_01]: To be set apart, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: A sanctuary is placed that set apart for praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is the function of this space, y'all.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is what we do when we come into this place.

[SPEAKER_01]: We praise

[SPEAKER_01]: God, and here's the thing to it, if you're a Christian person, if you are in Christ, then you are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the sanctuary?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is the place where God's presence in power resides?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's you and me.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are the sanctuary of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, and then he says in his mighty heavens, and really again, the word is firmament, the word is all creation everywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where do the praises of God get brought up?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where are the praises of God called to rise up to Lord wear?

[SPEAKER_01]: Everywhere that you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wherever you go, the church of Jesus Christ, we are His sanctuary.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are His, now His tabernacle, the presence of God lives in us, the power of God lives in us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise should happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wherever you are, wherever you go, all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're in your bedroom, if you're in your prayer clause, at home, if you're around your kitchen table, praise him.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you're at work, praise him.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you go to school, praise him.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you're in your car, who praises God in the car?

[SPEAKER_01]: Who praises God in the shower?

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't raise your hand.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who praises God?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wherever we are, wherever we go, we praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the sanctuary.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then in all of his mighty heavens and all of creation, again, it is all for his glory.

[SPEAKER_01]: all for the glory of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm nineteen one that heavens declare the glory of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: The points of praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number two, the points of praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the place.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the points of praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: That just means like why do we praise God?

[SPEAKER_01]: Number two, so verse two says this, praise him for his acts of power.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise him for his surpassing greatness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his surpassing greatness.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is his activity, his acts of power, what he does, and his identity, who he is, his surpassing greatness, acts of power, all the things that God has done, will do, will ever do, has ever done, is currently doing, we praise him for these things, and just simply for who he is,

[SPEAKER_01]: As the great, holy, awesome, high transcendent, wonderful, loving God.

[SPEAKER_01]: We praise Him because He's God.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is plenty of reason right there for us to praise Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: What He's done and who He is.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is why we praise God and there's no greater place for us to ever look.

[SPEAKER_01]: in the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ so that we got these cards around the room really leading up to these crosses and leading from these crosses and that's intentional that we want it to be known and be seen that as a church family we rejoice in the gospel

[SPEAKER_01]: of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: We praise God for the gospel.

[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel is the very center of who we are as the people of God and the reason that we praise Him because on the cross and in the resurrection, do we not see the full goodness of the character of God in Jesus Christ?

[SPEAKER_01]: The full range of His love and His kindness and His mercy and His forgiveness and the greatest act of power

[SPEAKER_01]: The world has ever seen that he would rise from the dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bear the wrath of God in the punishment of your sins.

[SPEAKER_01]: Die, stay dead three days and then come back to life.

[SPEAKER_01]: That dead man is walking and we praise him.

[SPEAKER_01]: We praise him because he's alive.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's our God for who he is for what he's done.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all the gospel in and of itself.

[SPEAKER_01]: would be enough to keep us praising God for eternity.

[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel by itself, that story, the cross, the resurrection of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the gospel is bigger than that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the very center of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's bigger than that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all about the nature of God and His creative purposes and His will that He is revealing through His Word and to His people throughout all creation for all time and that He's making all things new.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, in that he will return one day.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just sang that and we wait for that and we hope for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in the meantime, we get to just praise and celebrate all that he's doing in our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: All that he's currently doing in your life and through your life and around your life again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right here, just look around.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's probably about three hundred cards on these walls right now over the last few Sundays.

[SPEAKER_01]: You guys have written these things down.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're on the walls here for a reason for us to just be able to see them.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to leave them up for like a month and just allow you guys time to walk around.

[SPEAKER_01]: We want you to see those praises.

[SPEAKER_01]: We want you to look at them and want you to read and we want you to celebrate.

[SPEAKER_01]: Actually have some of them that are putting to a document for me and I just want to read some of them to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why do we praise God for his power and for his goodness?

[SPEAKER_01]: For what he's done and for who he is?

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody, one of these cards says this.

[SPEAKER_01]: My mom carried my baby brother safely and they're both healthy after we lost my sister at sixteen weeks, two years ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: But praise God for new life, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God for new beginnings.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are several cards in here that speak of God providing a child, either currently having currently pregnant or having recently had a child.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: This person said a commitment to reading his word every day has brought encouragement and growth and contentment and satisfaction to my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peace with my job is growing and strengthened my ability to show others Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: This person said even in the darkest times, my husband and I drew close to him and he saved us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's so many of these.

[SPEAKER_01]: This person said he has opened my eyes to the sin in my life that I didn't see and how it was not good in my life, bringing amazing people into my life that have lifted me and loved me and taught me God's mercy and grace praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: This person said, I paid off my mortgage.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's awesome.

[SPEAKER_01]: Healthy after a recent sickness.

[SPEAKER_01]: This person said, my vision.

[SPEAKER_01]: She said, I was diagnosed with macular degeneration, twenty-five years ago, capital all caps.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God has kept my vision so I'm still able to read, to drive, and to serve.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, this is why we praise our God for what he's done for who he is.

[SPEAKER_01]: This person said, reading the verse of the day, Galatians six to which is carry each other's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: This person said, I was doing this devotional and God puts someone on my heart to reach out to.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I sent a text to that person and they responded that they'd been battling depression.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I had no idea, God is so faithful to lead us in His Word.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just have to be in His Word.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: This person said, freedom from alcohol since September, sixteenth, twenty twenty four through His love for me and prayers of my family and friends and people I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that person was baptized a couple months ago too, by the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is worthy of our praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a this is a young person, a kid who said he gave me a good home and a family that I'm grateful for.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is currently a different person.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is currently healing my depression and anxiety.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody else got that one?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's a praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, man, praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And look, I could keep reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's actually one in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: I saw it earlier.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's one here that says, he, he one time helped me with my homework and in parentheses that said, for real.

[SPEAKER_01]: My, he was like, for real.

[SPEAKER_01]: God really did that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was, I don't know what that was.

[SPEAKER_01]: Working on homework and God gave me the answer that I needed or whatever it was.

[SPEAKER_01]: But man, praise God, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: through little things and through great big things and everything in the middle like homework we praise God for his character and his nature and who he is and we praise God for his activity and his and around us and through us and and all that he does we praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then we keep going, Psalm one, fifty, say, go back to Psalm one, fifty, there, look at verse three.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the practice of praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: What does praise actually look like, played out, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the practice of it?

[SPEAKER_01]: It says praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and the liar, praise him with the tambourine and dancing, and some of y'all like, oh, I didn't know we were allowed to do that in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got tambourines in my car, no, I'm just, but seriously,

[SPEAKER_01]: Tamberings and dancing, praise them with strings and flute, praise them with the clash of symbols, praise them with resounding symbols.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we got that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have a trumpet anywhere, but we got some strings, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're praising God how, with joyful song.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is how we praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all, why do we sing?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know why God invented music?

[SPEAKER_01]: One purpose, praise to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that should, by the way, bring a bit of conviction to us of the ways that we use music not to praise him.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was created for one reason in its praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise him in these ways.

[SPEAKER_01]: So who are the participants of praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse five.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, sorry, verse six.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who are the participants?

[SPEAKER_01]: Who should praise God?

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody that's got breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: Raise your hand, if you got breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you see somebody without a hand raised, they're probably passed out right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: You need to resuscitate them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everything, it says everything, everyone that has breath, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, when we're reading the Bible y'all, it's just as important at times to ask, what does it not say?

[SPEAKER_01]: As to ask what does it say?

[SPEAKER_01]: What does it not say right here?

[SPEAKER_01]: It does not say, this is who should praise, this is who should praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you have all the answers, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't say that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't say, if you're happy,

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't say if you feel like it, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't say if you're a well-educated, theologian, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't say if you're not struggling right now, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't say if your family is perfect and together and there's no conflict, then you can praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't say if you've cleaned yourself up, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does it say?

[SPEAKER_01]: Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there was a time when Jesus was riding into Jerusalem and people were praising Him, the Lord, Hosanna, Hosanna y'all know that story.

[SPEAKER_01]: And some of the Jewish leaders get really frustrated at that and they tell Jesus, tell them to stop praising you, like as if he's not the Lord, as if he's not God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what does Jesus say?

[SPEAKER_01]: If they don't, the rocks will cry out.

[SPEAKER_01]: So apparently, everything that has breath and everything that don't is gonna praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we have breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we're called, this is our commission, it's our qualification.

[SPEAKER_01]: Take a breath, everybody take a breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's your qualification to praise Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't need anything else to tell you that it is now time to praise God.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are the participants of praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: We should be always.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you breathe?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the question.

[SPEAKER_01]: You answer that in the positive.

[SPEAKER_01]: You praise the Lord until your last breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then guess what?

[SPEAKER_01]: For all eternity, you're going to keep raising the Lord with every breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so finally, what is the purpose of praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: And this one isn't specifically in the text.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't say this, but in the nature of the word praise itself.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the purpose of our praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: The word praise in the Hebrew is the word halal or halal.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so on one fifth, do we see it several times the word halal, the word halal.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it literally means to boast or to celebrate.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: To boast in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: To celebrate in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, as the Hebrew people would add on the suffix, yah, that's yah way, that's the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, hallelujah is to praise or to celebrate or to boast in the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what hallelujah means.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just sang hallelujah several times.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you ever said, hallelujah, you are saying a Hebrew phrase.

[SPEAKER_01]: That means celebrate the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Celebrate to what?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the purpose of our praise, y'all?

[SPEAKER_01]: The purpose of praise is to joyfully proclaim the glory of God by celebrating him.

[SPEAKER_01]: All that he is, all that he does, just pointing to him, just lifting him up upon our praise, just pointing away from self, away from my stuff, away from even my struggles, my heartaches, my pain, my depression, my anxiety.

[SPEAKER_01]: All that's real, but we're just lifting him up above it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going, God, you're still good.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will still boast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will still praise.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will still celebrate good days and bad days praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Means praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Celebrate the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what today is.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are celebrating

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the purpose, y'all.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is the reason we were created.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to ask the band to go ahead and come back up.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to sing one more song here in just a minute.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to continue to praise Lord through song through the resounding of symbols through strings and all of those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to keep joyfully singing to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: But here's what I would love for us to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this time, as we finish up our service and we have some baptisms today as well to celebrate with.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we do this here, I want to encourage you guys, listen, celebrate the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right now, in this place, at this time, celebrate the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have a lot to celebrate God for.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have a lot to celebrate God for.

[SPEAKER_01]: Over the past year, in the past twelve months here at Easter at Jial, we have seen over forty people give their life to Jesus, and be baptized.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what God is doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what God is doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's brought twenty-three new members to be part of our Easteridge family.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's brought a hundred and fifteen first-time guests to walk up the hill on a Thursday night to see our.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's allowed thirty-seven, thirty-seven people to go through and complete step studies through celebrating recovery.

[SPEAKER_01]: To be free from addictions and depressions and hurts and habits and hangups.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we had a hundred and fifteen plus kids between VBS and camps this year just hearing about Jesus being disciples in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've had five of them get baptized this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, we've had over a hundred volunteers between Sundays and Thursday serving the church leading the way in building up and discipling this church family.

[SPEAKER_01]: On Tuesdays, we have this thing called classical conversations here.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's kids coming, home school kids coming here.

[SPEAKER_01]: So learn about Jesus and like, yeah, math and stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Jesus, like they're learning about Jesus and being disciple and Christ and memorizing scripture.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we have a Bible study fellowship meeting on Tuesday nights where ladies are coming digging into the scripture together.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have over two hundred and twenty five of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're in growth groups this last semester, being in the words together, having fellowship together, having community together and guys listen this is why growth groups part of the reason why it's so important because listen it's great to praise God for your stuff but when you get to hear other people stuff

[SPEAKER_01]: You can hear their stories, the people's stories sitting right around you.

[SPEAKER_01]: How much more do you want to praise the Lord?

[SPEAKER_01]: Celebrate who he is, what?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's done.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can praise the Lord a lot more because I know the people in my group who got his worked in their lives, changed their lives, saved their lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll celebrate over that as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, through our our mission's partners, we have already this year given over thirty five thousand dollars to missions.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's allowed us to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to have another mission's month next month.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to continue to give to our mission's partners.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are able to be used by the Lord to give over a hundred kids Christmas presents this past year through the salvation army.

[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, we're able to give twenty-eight hundred dollars through the baby bottle campaign.

[SPEAKER_01]: We did a couple months ago for the pregnancy center.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is fifty-three women who can get help at the pregnancy center now because of the money that got allowed us to give.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just in a spare change.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've had members going on mission trips, foreign mission trips, local missions, jail ministries, feeding the homeless, Christian learning center.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've seen God change and strengthened families and marriages.

[SPEAKER_01]: people coming to church.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have never been in church or haven't been in a very long time.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's a church down thirty six that's thriving and making disciples too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Life now church that rolled off here in January, but God's working through them and blessing them and drawing people to Himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Praise the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Celebrate Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what He's doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what He's doing and we

[SPEAKER_01]: We just get to watch and be part of it and join in his work.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so as we sing this last song, here's what I would love you to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, just take a minute if you want and just stay seated and praise God right where you're sitting or just think about the ways that he's blessed you and say thank you to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Stand and sing if you want to stand and sing and just celebrate and listen, there's tables on the sides over here.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to go down to a table and you want to write a card too and just praise God on that card and put it up on the string, there's paper clips, just stick one up there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, we'll have those out for another month or so.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just want to keep adding to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just keep adding praises and being surrounded literally in the sanctuary by the praises of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you need prayer for anything, I'm going to stand down here and invite us in the prayer team.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you would like to come down for prayer too, but listen, this is just an opportunity to celebrate Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Celebrate Jesus, where do we do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: In the sanctuary, in an all creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who does that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Whoever has bread, how do we do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: With joyful singing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why do we do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because of who he is and because of what he's done.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what does that mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: It means we celebrate him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah.

[SPEAKER_01]: We celebrate the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, we love you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for who you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for what you've done.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, we just this morning and want to say, we love you and we celebrate you God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Show us more and more reasons why we can worship you God.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a never ending and exhaustible list of reasons to praise you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God, we do.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we praise you this morning, we thank you in Jesus' name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.