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[0:00] Well, good morning. It's a blessing to be here. I've only been gone two weeks, two Sundays have I missed, and I was just surprised to come back and find casual Sunday, casual fourth Sunday, no jackets required, just vest, and I don't know if that's something new, Dave.

[0:20] Okay, okay. But really it is a blessing to be back with you all. We're going to read our passage and we'll pray like we normally do, and I'll also be praying for Dave because of the sale of his business and the need to have that soul so he can be fully committed to the church, but I want to pray for him in that as well.

[0:40] So let's look at Psalm 96, one of the advantages of finishing a book and then coming back and preaching, I can pick whatever I want to. So I was thinking of how I might encourage you, and the sermon's entitled God's Glory Among the Nations, really looking at the idea of missions, but also I thought what Kelly has already led us in in worship today, it ties in exactly.

[1:07] We want to see God's glory, and what does that produce in us? How do we respond when we see the glory of God? So let's look, Psalm 96, I'll be primarily focusing on verses 1 through 4, but we're going to read the entire chapter.

[1:25] Psalm 96, verse 1. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth.

[1:36] Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all the peoples.

[1:50] For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols.

[2:04] But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

[2:22] Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.

[2:35] Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.

[2:47] Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the fields exult and everything in it.

[2:59] Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord. For he comes. For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

[3:14] Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for your word. Lord, we pray even as Moses asked, even as Isaiah saw, Lord, show us your glory.

[3:33] May we see you for who you are. And Lord, we pray that our response would be that which is expressed here in this psalm. So open your word, Lord, that we may see your glory, but also see what your glory calls us to, how we ought to respond as we look upon you.

[3:53] And Lord, we lift up our brother, Pastor Dave. Lord, that you would work for the sale of his business, that you would free him, that he may commit his time, dedicate himself to the preaching of your word, to prayer, to the shepherding of this flock.

[4:13] Lord, we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. So in some ways, what I'm doing today is considering the relationship between worship and missions, or we might even say evangelism.

[4:26] What is the connection between worship and missions? So first, as we look at our psalm, kind of just following the flow of the psalm here, what I want to look at first is that praise is where this psalm begins.

[4:40] And maybe, I could say as well, where we begin. So we begin with praise. Praise is the beginning. And so as we look at Psalm 96, it begins with praise among God's people.

[4:52] Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Now, this psalm is also recorded in 1 Chronicles 16.

[5:08] And that is when the Ark of the Covenant is being brought into Jerusalem, into the temple. And so they're singing this psalm, they're rejoicing in this.

[5:19] And in many ways, that fits with what we had been looking at in the book of Exodus. God's presence among his people. Now God's presence will be permanently there in Jerusalem.

[5:30] And it's symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant. And this is the song that they sung. And we see in verses 1 through 2, sing repeated three times.

[5:42] Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. In the English, we kind of translate that three different ways, sing, tell, declare.

[5:54] But this part of me, you guys know my ability to sing, that I prefer to tell and declare. But however we go about it, the idea is that we're to express joyfully praise to our God.

[6:10] Joy and delight in who he is produces in us praise. Whether that be our declaration of it in speech or our declaration of that in song.

[6:23] And all throughout the song, we see reasons to praise God. Maybe look at verse 6 as an example. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

[6:35] Again, our worship leading this morning. Isaiah sits. Isaiah sees that splendor, that majesty of God there in his sanctuary.

[6:45] he's undone before it. And so as we think about God's glory, his strength, his majesty, his splendor, these things produce in us, they well up in us to the point that we overflow in praise of God.

[7:06] Verse 2 talks about his salvation. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Those of you who have been saved, there's a cause in us to rejoice in God, to praise him, to give him glory for what he's done in our lives.

[7:25] I even think about as the people here are called to praise God for his salvation as the ark is coming into Jerusalem. Now, without question, there's a spiritual element even in the Old Testament of understanding of salvation.

[7:41] But salvation to them also likely meant how God had saved them out of Egypt. And they were looking forward to that promise that God had given in the garden of the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent.

[7:55] And so, they're looking back to a physical event that symbolizes what they're longing for, the coming of a Messiah who will save them. But we know more of that salvation than they knew.

[8:09] More has been revealed to you than was revealed to them. And so, as we think about sing of God's salvation, how much more do we have to sing about than they were even aware of at the time?

[8:22] They looked to something future. We're looking back and we have God's word revealed to us of how great that salvation is. Verse 96 says, I'm sorry, verse 96, chapter 96.

[8:37] Verse 1, O sing to the Lord a new song. Now, I think I may come back to this in a little bit, but this idea of a new song.

[8:50] Why are they committed to sing a new song? Well, think about it in their experience. Something new is happening today. God and His presence, His throne, the Ark of the Covenant where He's seated, His glory is entering into Jerusalem and into the temple.

[9:08] So, they're saying, it's worthy of a new song today. We don't have songs that rightly, fully incorporate the reality of what's happening today and so we need a new song.

[9:24] And I think about, now I'm not trying to get into some debates on worship and songs and how we go about that, but there are brothers that I love who hold to a position that we only sing the Psalms in worship.

[9:39] That's God's song book He's given us. But I also think we've been given even greater understanding of God's salvation. Even if you think of the flattening of prophecy that Christ's coming was in two stages and so we're awaiting the second coming of Christ.

[9:59] There's things to sing about that I just think were not fully revealed then. So, we're in need of a new song and if there's any question about that, we could even go to Revelation and the passage I preached on a few weeks ago where there's a new song in heaven and what are they singing?

[10:21] Glory to the Lamb who by His blood has ransomed people from a tribe, tongue, nation, and people. And so, even in eternity there will be reason for a new song because it will have been accomplished.

[10:37] What we look forward to, what we long for, the gospel reaching to the ends of the earth will be accomplished and then there'll be even greater, more new praise to the Lamb happening for all eternity.

[10:52] And so, they're called to sing to the Lord and praise Him in a new song. And so, it begins with God's people seeing God's glory, His majesty, His splendor and their response is one of worship.

[11:12] Now, as I say response, I guess I keep flowing with responses. So, response one is worship. And as they worship God, the worship of God builds up and overflows.

[11:26] I was thinking of if you've ever been to Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful, the steam builds up and builds up and then, boom! It spews everywhere.

[11:37] They know it's coming, it's on a schedule, but as it builds, it shoots up. And I feel like this is what's happening in the song. Worship is building up in us and we're praising God and worship overflows out of us because we've seen the glory of God.

[11:55] But we might even think of this in stages and say, as the worship builds up, it overflows to the point that we cannot keep our mouth shut about it. We want to tell other people, even in some extent, praising God.

[12:10] Even what we do here on Sunday, corporate worship, we're praising God for His characteristics. We're overflowing in praise of Him in a way that others around us hear that praise.

[12:23] And so, my second point is that the result of the first result, okay, the glory of God, the result is praise. Praise results in missions or evangelism.

[12:36] we are commanded this passage to speak of God and His salvation. We've seen that already a little bit in verses 2 and 3.

[12:47] Tell and declare are said there. Sing to the Lord, bless His name, tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all the peoples.

[13:01] Now, consider the historical context of this and does this strike you in any way. They are singing, writing this new song of praise to God as the Ark of the Covenant comes into Jerusalem, the city, the capital city of God's people and into the temple, into the Holy of Holies in which many of them, most of them will never be able to enter and certainly no Gentile.

[13:30] And yet, notice the praise. declares glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all the peoples. And so, even in the Old Testament context, there's this idea that God's praise and glory is to go to the Gentile nations.

[13:52] It's to reach to the ends of the earth, which again, is that new song we sing in heaven when that has happened. But they're commanded to sing of this, to tell of His work among all the nations.

[14:06] Look at verse 10 of our passage. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the word is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.

[14:18] So again, they're worshiping God in Jerusalem and speaking of, this message cannot stay here. We can't hold this in. It's got to go to those who need to hear it. There are others outside of Israel who are God's people who need to hear this word.

[14:33] We need to sing His praises. We need to tell of His glory. So we begin with the worship of God and that overflows to others. We could say worship is never meant to be merely or exclusively private.

[14:52] Right? I hope that you're worshiping God at times other than Sunday morning. Right? We're to have private worship of God. We're to have family worship in our home.

[15:06] But I want you to understand that even those things are never meant to be exclusively or at the end, let's say, at the personal level, private level. As we worship God, there should be in us, if there's genuine worship, a desire that others join us in that praise.

[15:23] that we would share that with others. So we begin with the worship of God and missions happens because our worship of God overflows to the point that we can't be quiet about it.

[15:38] Others hear our song. We want to tell them about it. And really, that's what worship is, right? We speak of, we sing of, we praise that which leaves us in awe.

[15:52] When you think of even the word worship comes from worthy ship, when we see something that's worthy, we want to tell people about how great it is, no matter what that may be.

[16:04] And so we love to tell people about that which we find worthy, that which maybe we favor or love. I thought C.S. Lewis, of all people, communicated this the best in his reflection on the Psalms.

[16:19] He says there, but the most obvious fact about praise, whether of God or anything, strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor.

[16:37] I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise. That line's key, let me read that one more time. all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise.

[16:56] And so then he gives some examples. He says the world reams with praise. Lovers praising their mistresses. Readers their favorite poet.

[17:07] Walkers praising the countryside. Players praising their favorite game. Praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical people, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes, and this is somewhere below stamps and beetles, okay, even sometimes politicians or scholars.

[17:41] I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it.

[17:55] And so again, some more examples. Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that's magnificent?

[18:07] You see, there's an invitation. Join me in seeing the value of it. Join me in the praise. He says, the psalmist in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.

[18:23] My whole more general difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us as regards the supremely valuable people, what we delight to do, what we indeed can't help doing about everything else we value.

[18:44] Now, long quote, but I think it's important to understand what I'm expressing to us. I even think about my ministry here and inevitably you think about regrets or what you might desire to see.

[18:57] I think of many of you in this room, I don't know your heart, but if you don't know the Lord, my prayer is that God would save you, that God would work in your heart.

[19:12] And I think about even in terms of missions and evangelism as we reach out to the world around us, to Hazleton, surrounding areas, to the ends of the earth, how can I motivate that?

[19:23] How are we going to see that happen? Well, I can tell you the way that's not going to work. If I sit up here and say, well, you're supposed to share the gospel. That's what you got to do.

[19:34] Share the gospel. I want you to check it off the box. I'm going to ask you every time we come for Sunday. I want to make sure you're doing it. Well, there may be some of that out of guilt or shame, embarrassment.

[19:47] But what he's saying is that we love to talk about that which we love. And so if there is a lack of evangelism or missions, it's indicative of allowing lack of love for God, we haven't yet seen, tasted, drank of God's glory in a way that leaves us so that we can't shut up about it.

[20:16] Nobody can keep us quiet. I can't tell you it would be much better if as a pastor you had to say to people in your congregation, look, you're sharing the gospel too much versus you're not sharing the gospel enough, right?

[20:28] Do you ever talk about anything else other than Christ? Is there anything else you enjoy, even if it's for the sake of Christ? But when we gather together, when we're at work, when we're around family and friends, what is it that we delight to talk about?

[20:43] What do we enjoy talking about? I thought about even myself, my own heart. What's my favorite soccer team? Okay, a few of you, oh goodness, pray for Gino.

[20:59] Okay, so maybe I haven't said this as many times in sermons as I thought, but at least one of you caught on to a favorite team. So I have a favorite team, and sometimes inevitably that ends up being worked into a sermon so you can pray for my heart.

[21:14] But I was struck by last summer I went and watched them play against Arsenal and beat them 2-0. But I went and watched them play in New Jersey for their summer tour. And a couple of things struck me about that.

[21:29] One is, if many of you probably don't know that, often our family would try to get here about 9-15 or 9-20 for worship so that I could begin preparing my heart some and going over what all we're going to do in the day and then we'd all pray together in the office.

[21:46] And lately, Jim was the one I was having to fight if I could beat him there. But typically I get there, if I get here at 9-20 40 minutes early, I'm the first or second one in the parking lot.

[21:57] Sometimes the head usher is beating me. First, second, third person in the parking lot. So we get to this soccer game that's at 6-30, we get there about 3 o'clock and the parking lot's already a third of the way full. Three and a half hours early.

[22:11] I don't know what I would say if I got here one day and the parking lot was filled up at 6 o'clock in the morning for worship. people were there early, the fan clubs had tents set up, and everybody was under the tent, and there would be one guy who would start off one of the songs that they would sing in the stadium, and then the whole crowd would join in singing these songs.

[22:38] songs. And that went on for the entire three hours before we went into the stadium. And then the praise continued throughout the game.

[22:49] Songs, now I can't say that for Arsenal, I don't think there were really many fans there, but Manchester United fans were going crazy. I just realized I probably made my fans out to be more idolatrous than your fans, Gina.

[23:03] But I thought here's something they love that they don't shut up about. And even when I watch the games, there's a banner up in the stadium that says Manchester United is my religion. Now, you think just this praise that's being sung, maybe it's not idolatry, maybe it's just enjoyment, but you see a banner that says that's my religion and you know it's idolatry.

[23:26] This is what I worship, this is what I live for. But in many ways I thought they're communicating it in better ways than the church does.

[23:36] they're there early, they're singing the praises of their favorite team or their favorite player. I'm not suggesting this for our worship, but they're bashing the other team, whatever that looks like, but that's not for worship.

[23:51] They're overflowing in praise for their team because they love their team. And so no one was there with the bullhorn saying, alright, if you're here, you've got to be singing songs.

[24:05] you need to be happy about this, you need to be enjoying it. Right? That's what they love and that's what they're there for. I think what if the same was true for us and God?

[24:20] Do we talk more about our favorite football team? I use that in the real term, not hand egg. But do we talk more about our favorite football team to people or our favorite sport, our favorite music, our favorite politician, our favorite rare beetle?

[24:37] I don't know if that's anybody in this room, but do we love talking about things other than God more than we love talking about God because it tells us about the state of our heart. God has given us these good things to enjoy so that we might be led to worship him, to give him praise.

[24:54] But when we stop on the object, we make it an idol. And my thought is that often, the reason we're not sharing the gospel is because we don't love God enough.

[25:07] We haven't seen his glory enough. There are other things we love that we don't mind talking about. We're glad to tell people about these things. I even thought about if you stay for, and I want to encourage you to do so, if you stay for our Spanish worship service, and if you were to ask most of the people, if you ask them, how did you end up here?

[25:32] What brought you here? In my experience, I would say 80% of them will say one guy invited them to church. The same guy. I won't embarrass him here today. But one guy who loves the Lord, who won't shut up about him, so that everybody who comes in his practice, he invites them to church.

[25:54] he shares the gospel with them because he loves the Lord. And I just think, how might our church be different? How might Hazleton be different?

[26:06] How might the world be different if that were true for every one of us here? If that's what we couldn't shut up about? And again, I'm not trying to guilt trip you and say, talk about the Lord.

[26:17] What I'm trying to say is, I feel in my own heart, my failure to have pointed you to the glory of Christ in a way that leaves you in such awe that you won't shut up about it.

[26:32] So, the church today is weak in the area of missions, not GFC, but the church broadly, because our love for God and worship of God are weak. Now, that's really coming from John Piper.

[26:44] I have a quote here. His book, Let the Nations Be Glad, his book on missions, he says this, you can't cannot commend what you do not cherish.

[26:57] Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God, sorry, when you read a quote, you need to read it correctly.

[27:13] Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to declare his glory among the nations.

[27:25] And he references Psalm 96 verse three, our passage. Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claim upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God.

[27:44] And so if we want to ask ourselves, why have I not shared the gospel with people around me? Why am I not talking about Christ in the workplace? The answer is easy. It's because we haven't loved the Lord enough.

[27:57] We don't think he's that glorious. Now, I can already hear the arguments, but I do. But haven't we seen that that which we find glorious, we talk about.

[28:10] We can't help but talk about. We want other people to know how great that thing is, whatever that is. believers. And so we don't need to be commanded to tell people about Christ.

[28:22] We are commanded, don't get me wrong. We have the Great Commission, among other things. We are commanded, but we ought not need to be commanded. It ought to overflow. We need to be saturated in who God is so that we want to talk about him.

[28:41] Now, I could spend much time talking about how we do that, but at the very least, I think about our communion with God often is through his word.

[28:52] If we're not reading his word all week and we hear it one time on Sunday or read a few times and preached, and that's what's sustaining us through the week and our enjoyment of God is that we heard from him for an hour.

[29:06] I think about even marital relationships. I hear of people who, like soldiers who are off on a two-year term.

[29:17] I can't imagine how hard that is to sustain a relationship. I'm thankful for modern technology. I've been gone a month in Africa, but I'm able to at least see my family and communicate with them.

[29:29] But just imagine if you said, told your wife, you really loved her, and you want to see her once a week for an hour so that you can really build that love for her. And so you see her on Sunday morning and then you think about Friday.

[29:44] Are you still talking about that encounter? Some of you better say yes if your wife's around. But we want to be around that which we love. We want to learn more about our wives.

[29:55] Think of the newlyweds or those who are courting. You want to get to know each other and know more about them, and the more you know about them, hopefully, your love grows. Well, I say hopefully because we're sinful people.

[30:10] But God is perfect. He is all glorious. He is holy. And so the more we know of God, the more we're going to love him. Likewise, relationships are built through shared time together.

[30:26] Communion. And so, are we communing with God in prayer, in corporate worship? Are we learning about him and knowing him deeper by study of his word?

[30:40] Sorry, I got off topic a little bit on that, but that's application for how we're to go about this. So, the psalm gives us some things that we should share to the nations.

[30:51] We've mentioned already in verse two, his salvation. Verse three says, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. What do you think he's speaking of when he says his marvelous works?

[31:03] Well, verse five says, he made the heavens and then sit splendor and majesty are before him. So, his marvelous works probably include creation, the sustaining of the universe, the beauty we see in the creation around us.

[31:24] It's nice to come back. In two weeks, I feel like it's already greener outside. Right? We can see that, we can rejoice in it and say, I'm not God's giving us this.

[31:40] But as I said in verse two, his salvation is definitely included in those marvelous words. His saving acts, the way he's worked in history to bring about the salvation of his people.

[31:51] Again, historically, he's delivered us out of bondage in Egypt. He's brought us through the desert wasteland. We passed through the river. We've had the blood of the land that covered us and now he's brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey and here he is.

[32:05] He's resting in our presence with the Ark of the Covenant coming into Jerusalem. Let's praise him for his saving acts. But also, we're looking ahead and we look back to Christ's come.

[32:17] So when we declare his saving acts, that's the gospel, he's saying. Rejoice in the gospel. Declare his gospel, his glory, his marvelous words to all the nations.

[32:31] Verse 5 says, For all the gods of the people are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Yahweh is the word. Yahweh made the heavens. And so there is no hope in the gods of false religion.

[32:48] Again, those other things that compete with God's glory, God for his worship in our hearts. They're worthless idols.

[33:01] The best that they're ever going to do is tell us that there's something greater to be had, that this isn't enough. Paul says in Ephesians 5, he talks about marriage and he says, I'll tell you a mystery, but I'm speaking of Christ and the church.

[33:18] Marriage, I think, is probably the greatest gift he's given to us. And yet, it's meant to point us to union with Christ. Even that, we rejoice in that, it's meant to tell us rejoice in what God has done for us in Christ.

[33:35] And so all these other gods, these false gods are but worthless idols. Worthless. They produce nothing of value.

[33:47] But our God, Yahweh, he made the heavens. Everything else other than him is created. Even the gods that these other nations worship, our God's a creator.

[34:02] And so as we think about that in the worthless idols, think about that in terms of the context of speak God's glory to the nations. Tell of his saving acts.

[34:13] And so they're surrounded by nations. I should say even at this point, Israel's surrounded by the world who's consumed with the worship of false idols that are worthless.

[34:28] They will not save. They have no value in terms of eternity. And so they're told to declare. And think about for us, Acts 4.12.

[34:40] And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols.

[34:56] None of those will save. There is one thing that saves. One name under heaven given among men that will save us.

[35:08] And that's Christ. It's Jesus. And so as we look at the world around us, we're aware of the fact that there's a lot of worship of worthless idols. it's going to lead them nowhere but hell.

[35:25] John 14.6, Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now think about that, what he said about the world's idols, the declaration of God's saving acts to the nations and look with me at verse 13 of our chapter.

[35:44] Let's look at 12 and 13. Okay, verse 13. Before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth, he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

[35:59] And so the psalm here ends with God's judgment. Now, it's presented as a way of praise. We're rejoicing because Christ is coming to judge the earth.

[36:12] But notice he will judge the he's come to judge the earth, he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.

[36:26] So that is something we can rejoice about, that God will make all things right. But at the same time as we think about the salvation that we have, and we consider the fact that the nations are worshiping worthless idols that will get them nowhere but hell, are our hearts not moved to declare God's saving acts, to declare his Messiah, to declare Jesus Christ to them?

[36:55] Do we care for the lost? I think about even as we've gone through the book of Exodus, the two tables of the law, it begins with love for God, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is really a summary of the first table of the law, and then love your neighbor as yourself.

[37:15] Well that love a neighbor flows out of the love for God. We love God first and then we're able to love our neighbor. And so too here, it begins with praise of God that overflows to telling of God's glory to the nations around.

[37:31] And then my third point is that that then overflows in praise. praise. So it begins with praise that goes to missions that now goes to praise.

[37:44] I want to show you how that happens. Specifically, my third point is it ends with praise among the nations as they join us in the worship of our God.

[37:58] So look at verses 7-9. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

[38:09] Ascribe to the Lord the glory to his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth.

[38:22] And so now he's calling, so begins with the worship of God and then we televise his salvation to the nations around us. And then we're inviting them in. Come join us in the praise of our God.

[38:34] And again, this is what C.S. Lewis said is natural for us. Isn't she beautiful? Affirm what I already know to be true. My girl's pretty.

[38:47] And I want you to see that and testify to it as well. My God is glorious. Ascribe to the Lord the glory that is due his name. It's owed to him.

[38:57] We're not giving God something that he doesn't already have. We're acknowledging that which is his already. Give to the Lord the glory that is due his name.

[39:09] It's a command, it's a call to the nations. Join us in the praise of this great God. So I mentioned earlier the new song. I said I'd come back to it. C.H.

[39:20] Spurgeon says we have new mercies to celebrate, therefore we must have new songs. And again, I mentioned earlier Revelation 14, 3, they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.

[39:33] I'm sorry, that wasn't the one I mentioned, that's another example of that, but Revelation 5 is the passage I was speaking of earlier. And they sang a new song saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

[39:50] And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth. And so, if we have seen the glory of God, if we've seen God for who he is, our response is one of worship.

[40:05] And that worship builds and overflows into missions or evangelism, telling others of that, and that becomes a call to join me in the worship of this great God, inviting them into his worship.

[40:19] worship. And so, we should desire that all people join us in the worship of God. That's what it says here, all the peoples.

[40:33] And I think even in terms of our evangelism, often we are glad to invite people to church that we already like and are a lot like us. I'm not sure we're always eager to want all peoples to join us in the praise of our God.

[40:49] But first and foremost, it's about God, his glory. We should desire that.

[41:00] I think about even the friendships that we've made here. Many of those are friendships and relationships never would have had anywhere else.

[41:11] It's the love of God that has bound our hearts together and made us family. notice the nature of the praise as well. I would say two characteristics.

[41:23] Perhaps we could say universal praise and constant praise. verse two. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day.

[41:35] So let me ask, what days are we to praise God? What day is included in day to day? It's not Sunday to Sunday declare his praise.

[41:48] He's saying just every day that it's a day is a day we should be praising God. Just the days that are days. Every day, constantly, we're to go praising God.

[41:59] Then look at verses 11 and 12. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord.

[42:15] So I said universal. Well, we've seen a little bit of this already in that as we praise God, we want others to join us. And so universal in the sense of all people groups, all peoples join us in the praise of our God.

[42:32] But what's striking is, I think especially, we see this with the coming of Christ. When Christ returns, we're told the entire creation will rejoice.

[42:48] Romans 8.21, the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to the corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. God. Now, as hard as that is for us to conceive, the world around us is yearning, not with the brain or mentally, but the world around us is yearning, it's groaning, it's longing for Christ's return, that the world might be renewed and share in the glory of the children of God.

[43:21] I think even now in a fallen sense, we see the world around us to declare the glory of God. I think about Kelly at Camp Susquehort talking about the bullfrogs.

[43:36] Glory. Glory. I can't do it, but. And the birds singing God's praise. We hear it with the creation around us. We see that sunset. sunset. And we go, I worship the sunset.

[43:51] No. That's not where we stop, is it? We say, how great is the God that made this sunset? The Grand Canyon. Even the mountains around here that we look upon.

[44:04] How great is the God who made this? How worthy is he of our worship? And so we might say it this way that praise begins with a small group of God's people.

[44:18] people. But that's never how it's meant to end. It's not meant to stop with us at 1145 or longer if the pastor preaches long. 1130?

[44:30] Okay. It doesn't have to stop then. No. What is it supposed to do? Praise begins with a small group and it builds. And it builds till it overflows and like that geyser, it spews out.

[44:42] And other people join in that. And the pressure builds. And they join in the praise of God. And so we might even say the advance of the kingdom to the ends of the earth is really nothing but the increase in God's glory.

[45:00] The increase in the delight of God's glory. Numerically, but also in quality. As we see more and more of it, we want to speak of it. And so we see, small group, sees the glory of God.

[45:14] We spew it out. We tell others about it. They join us in that. And it keeps happening and it keeps happening until there are people from every nation and tribe who join us in the praise of this God.

[45:25] And that's the thing that we see in heaven and that we rejoice in. But again, we see here in Romans 8 that this praise of God is building into a crescendo that one day will include the entire creation.

[45:40] We live in a fallen world, but when Christ returns, there will be a new earth that will be in some way capable of the worship of God. This earth isn't as great as it is in pointing us to God.

[45:53] His divine attributes have been revealed, even his power and that which has been created. But when the new creation is there, this praise of God in our hearts will build to this crescendo in which the world joins us.

[46:07] The creation itself will join us. Even those who never put their trust in God will bow their knee to him. So worship begins with the people of God.

[46:19] It spreads to the nations and it spans the entire creation. So as we think about this passage, we need to ask ourselves, what do you communicate to those around you about your values?

[46:38] Maybe we could say it this way. If you were to ask a coworker, a family member, friend, what is it that I love the most? What do I talk to you about the most?

[46:50] When I talk about this, you see my heart, you see a smile come on my face. I can't, I can't keep it in. What is that in my life? As we ask ourselves that, again, maybe as we ask others around us, what is it?

[47:06] Is it God that we're delighting in? Romans 1 through 3 talks about the fallenness of mankind.

[47:19] And it's summarized in this, the exchange, the glory of God with the creature. The creator is exchanged for the created, the creature.

[47:34] And I think, are there things that God has made that of necessity are lesser than him, that we love more than we love God? Even talk about, we talk about missions.

[47:49] What about our children or people in our church? Is there a desire in their hearts to want to be a missionary? Do we see that as so glorious? There's nothing that I could think of greater in my life than want to be able to, my whole job would be to tell people about God.

[48:09] Do they see that love in our hearts? I think we need missionaries, but also we need church members who are enamored with God, so in love with God that they won't shut up about him.

[48:24] You couldn't mate them. I think of Peter, you remember when they commanded him, you're free to go, just don't talk about Jesus. Yeah, how did that go? He's like, I can't do that.

[48:36] I can't shut up about him. I've got to tell people about him. What if we had a church that was full of Peters like that? I thought of even a way that we can think of missions or evangelism that may be helpful for us is to think of missions or evangelism as the multiplication of the praise of God.

[49:03] God. We love God. He is glorious, majestic in his splendor. He is holy. And so we want to worship him and we want others to join him and so that his worship might be multiplied.

[49:19] Again, I thought about this with soccer, so you can pray for me with my idolatry, okay? But you think about the team that doesn't, and you mentioned Arsenal, I won't go there because they've had fans for years, but Manchester City not having a lot of fans, they went to trouble, they go to the streets and there's 300 people out.

[49:38] Your desire is you want more fans to join you in this praise, but there's no one here that's feeling that love, that joy. I think if we truly worship God, if we see how glorious he is, then we want others to see that too.

[49:53] We're not content to be the only one. We want others to join us that his glory might be sung louder. Praise more often.

[50:04] More glorious to him. So my desire, even as I think of Grace Fellowship Church, but a country, my desire is that God would raise up Christians that can't shut up about him.

[50:21] That are so enamored with God that that's what they want to talk about. what they love, what they praise, what they want to bring others into delighting in. We can pray that God would raise up a generation of Christians like that.

[50:37] And I think we need to pray that he would work in our hearts, in the heart of the church, that that's, that would be what characterizes us. Let's pray together.

[50:54] Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you because you are all glorious, full of majesty and splendor, holy, righteous, far above us in all of your creation.

[51:09] But Lord, we also know our idolatrous heart. And there's so many things, Lord, here that maybe are right in front of our eyes, that are tangible, that we enjoy.

[51:23] And never stop to realize that you are the giver, you are the creator. That even these good gifts are but poor reflections and shadows of your goodness. Lord, we pray that we would look on that which is infinitely more glorious.

[51:40] that we would delight our hearts in you and that, Lord, we'd want to tell others about you. We would desire, we would long to have them join us in praising you.

[51:53]  Lord, we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.