Praise Ye the Lord!

We don’t know for sure the author of the psalm we will be reading today, some scholars believe it could be King David who wrote it. As we all know King David sure did love music, he loved to sing, right. As good southern Baptist we love to sing too don’t we? There’s nothing better than a good ole country singin, Pick your favorite hymn right?

The psalm we will be reading today begins with “Praise the Lord” or if you have the King James version, it says “Praise ye The Lord”. Someone once said that If King David were leading Choirs in churches today, he would look over his shoulder at the congregation and say, “praise ye the Lord!” or us country folk might say “y’all spost to praise too!”

Because praising God is for everyone not just the ones who get up on stage. Praising God is for all believers. For believers to do together! So Lets do that this morning. Lets praise the Lord!

Read Psalm 106:1-12

How often do we sit around and just observe church? We are called to partake in church as well.

Don’t let church become another check on your to-do list. We have to get involved in worship together. We have to remember why we worship!

Remeber why we gather to praise

Now a day’s we talk about live stream. Well you just can’t worship from home. We’ll I think I can worship God just about wherever he lets me. is it difficult to be involved in a worship service from your house?

YES! Is that the only option some people have though? Yes! If that’s your only option, then by all means you worship from home. If you have the means and the ability to come up to the church and worship with fellow believers, then you do what you can to make it up here.

Hebrews 10 says “forsake ye not the assembling of ourselves together.

Sometimes it’s really easy to point to the people who watch from home and say well that’s not worshiping, but how many times are we guilty of coming to church and doing the exact same thing.

We can say we come to church and feel good about ourselves but how many times is it just to say we checked it off our list.

We might even have good intentions when we come to church but we can get lost when we get here as to why we are really here.

A lot of times we have the best intentions when we come to church. and we are involved when we get here. Sometimes, We can get so wrapped up in our responsibilities at the church that we forget why we come in the first place.

Maybe we get caught up in making sure all the slides and video and sound is working flawlessly that we forget to praise God while we are here.

yes thats important to have working correctly but if something messes up we just need to keep on praising God, if the words don’t come up, thats ok we will sing what we do know. we might not know all the verses but i bet we can come up with one verse I bet.

Maybe you get up here to sing a special music and your worried about singing the right note or forgetting the words. well if you get up here, don’t sing for us, you sing for God and as long as your sincere in what your singing and giving God praise that’s all that matters to Him. So sing praises to God.

Maybe your responsible for a sunday school class, or a parking lot monitor, or an employee. whatever your responsibility is here at the church it is very important to the church to keep it running smoothly,

but, don’t let it be the focus on why we come to church, to give praise and thanks to God.

Don’t forget what God has done

There are so many times in our lives that we see what God has done for us but when things get tough we are quick to forget about how God has blessed us before. We can’t forget how God pulls us through so many little situations. like scrapping up enough gas money to make it through the week. or big things in our life like when someone we love is sick and God allows them to recover and gives them the strength to keep fighting. We might not realize it but sometimes we forget these blessings from God.

This isn’t something that just happens to us today but we see it all throughout the bible. The Israelites were quick to forget what God has done.

We see the pslamist here bring up the story of moses leading the Israelists out of Egypt. This is a refrence to their fear and unbelief.

Imagine being stuck between an army that is chasing you down and a sea that is standing in your way. They didn’t trust God to deliever them. they were so doubtfull that they would rather go back to being slaves then to trust God.

How many times in our lives do things get tough and we are quick to retreat back to what we know. How many times do we say well this is just too hard for me, or we don’t get the result exactly when we expect it to happen. That doesn’t mean God has forgotten about you, It just means that God isn’t ready yet. You still have to keep pushing through

This is something that is present in my life right now.

As me and my family prepare to move to New Orleans it has become difficult to sell our house. and it would be easy just to say you know what, Lets just stay and go on with our lives how it is.

But God has called us somewhere else and even though it might be tough we have to trust the Lord that he will provide. He has been faithful time and time again. So, why should this be any different. He has paved the way so far, we just have to know he will follow through.

We can’t forget what God has done in our life.

We can’t be so easy to retreat to what we think is right or what we think is easy.

We have to remember why we give God the praise he deserves.

We praise God because he is faithful yesterday, today, and forever more!

God will make Himself known

One of the names we see in the old testament of God is Jehova Jira, this translates to “The Lord will Provide”? If we serve a God who is going to provide why would we be like the Israelites at the read sea who is quick to retreat?

we can say all day long that we are going to put our trust in the Lord, and that, well i’m not like those isrealites, I won’t forget what God has done and retreat.

We can say I’m gonna trust the Lord no matter what. and we can tell ourselves that till we are blue in the face.

The truth is, we will eventually fall back into that doubt because Satan thrives off of doubt and fear, because that is exactly where he wants us.

The fear and doubt is not something that God sends on us, it is from the enemy who is trying to keep us down.

2 timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and love and self-discipline.”

We serve a God so much greater then the fear and doubt that satan can throw at us. We serve a God who makes himself known. Just as He did at the Red Sea.

Even with the doubt and fear that the Israelites were facing at the time, It didn’t stop God from doing what he does best. God provided for them even when they probably didn’t deserve it.

God brought his people safely across the red sea

He completly destroyed their enemy

He did miracle after miracle along the way

but, this still wasn’t enough for the Israelite people

read vs. 13-14

After everything God did, they still continued to have doubt and fear. they wondered the dessert for 40 years.

Warren Wiersbe - For Moses, this was an experience of faith that glorified God, but for the people, it was just another spectacular event. They were spectators at a performance, not participants in a miracle. but are God’s people any different today?

Are we going to just be spectators of what God is doing? or are we going to be participants? When God does something special in our life, we can’t forget it, especially when things get difficult. When things are going good for us we can’t forget then either. We need to remember what the Lord has done in the good times as well.

So as we gather together no matter if you are here or at home

No matter what your responsibility is here at the church

no matter if things are going great or it’s your darkest hour

We must praise the lord! Don’t let circumstances stand in the way of giving thanks to God.

When we are in the consistancy of prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord it will be easier for us to remeber the great things he has done for us when times get tough. We won’t be so quick to retreat to what we think is easier.

I encourage you today to begin praising God like you never have before. When we step into Gods house, let’s remember why we come in the first place. thats to praise God. If you worship from home with us online I want to encourage you as well.

Get your bible out

don’t start getting lunch ready half way through the service

But come prepared to engage in worship just as if you were here in church sitting on the front row.

Can we make that commitment today to Give god the praise he deserves. Let’s Pray.