Praise Him

Wednesday Night 8.23.23

GAMES:

Sardines

DYM

Main Verse:

Psalm 146:6 “6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever.”

Psalm 46:1 “1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Illustration:

College football, praise for the team.

Addtional:

We all love praise in our areas of life.

Praise in our sport, praise for good grades in school, etc...

Points:

Life is temporary.

Moments in life are also temporary.

Are we praising in the moment or sulking?

Happiness is found in the help and hope of Christ.

God is faithful.

____________________________

Most of you guys know that I love fall.

It’s my favorite time of year for many reasons.

The changing of the leaves, the coolness that comes in the air.

Wearing hoodies again is always nice.

Apples, pies, thanksgiving, Halloween, all of these things make up fall.

Of course another one of my favorite parts is college football Saturdays.

It’s fun to sit down with good food and watch your favorite team play football.

But there’s also something we see in college football that we rarely see elsewhere in our culture.

We see praise.

We see fans praising their team with everything they have got with 100,000 other people in a sold out stadium.

It’s awesome.

But it’s also sobering.

We do have to be careful.

We have one soul. One Spirit, one life.

Is our life consumed in praise of man’s accomplishments or in God’s?

Spurgeon said, “we have but one soul, and if it be saved from eternal wrath, it is bound to praise its Savior.”

We know that to be true, but do we act on that belief?

Do we find ourselves praising Jesus for His goodness to us?

That’s the sobering thought for me.

I’m quick to praise Clemson football.

Sometimes I’m not as quick to Praise Jesus for His goodness every day of the year.

Psalm 146:1 “1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul.”

I know school just started and you may not feel like praising God for school.

But I’d like to remind you to praise God right where you are by challenging you in 3 ways tonight.

Life is temporary.

Today is a good reminder.

I saw this morning there was a fatal accident on 221 and I saw later in the day it was a teacher at Duncan Elementary who had passed away.

That’s sad man!

We hate those moments, but at the same time, it does help us who are still alive to remember our life an be taken from us in a moment.

It also reminds us that the moments themselves are temporary.

Moments in life are also temporary.

Are you going to be in school forever?

NO!

Dude school isn’t forever.

Whether you love it or hate school, it’s temporary, are you finding joy there?

Are we praising in the moment or sulking?

Psalm 146:2 “2 I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.”

Every moment, we can praise God.

He has saved us. He has given us a new day to live.

He has provided us a school to go to.

Kids in other countries would literally give up everything they have to trade places with you for your education.

Do we remember that?

Are we giving praise to Jesus that we have the opportunities we do?

In short tonight, remember that this season of life is temporary.

But it’s also fun.

Give Jesus praise in the bad, remembering that you won’t be in school forever.

Give him praise in the good too, knowing how blessed you are to have the education and extra curricular opportunities that you do have.

2. Happiness is found in the help and hope of Christ.

Psalm 146:5 “5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”

That word blessed can also mean happy.

Dude, sometimes I go through life and I’m hoping in me and helping me.

You know what I mean?

Like, my problems are consuming my thoughts today and so I just need to help myself get through the day before I can help anyone else.

You know what I find though, I can always find someone who is going through something worse than me.

And it’s not hard!

We need to listen to those around us.

There are so many who have deep struggles. Deep pain. Deep sadness that they are dealing with.

Their help and their hope is the same thing we need as well.

We all need to remember our help is GOd and our Hope is God.

That’s what Psalm 146:5 says “5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”

Where are you looking for your happiness today?

Lastly

Psalm 146:6 “6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever.”

3. God is faithful.

If you’ve been here on Sundays the last 2 weeks, this is what we’ve discussed.

And what a good reminder.

verse 6 doesn’t just say God is faithful cause he made a couple things.

Is that what is says?

No.

It says “He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.”

The one who made it all.

He is faithful guys.

The rest of Psalm 146 goes on to say he feeds the hungry, sets the prisoner free, gives sight to the blind, lifts those up who are low, loves the righteous, sustains the fatherless and the widow and on and on.

In other words, God sees it all.

Your struggles this week, no matter how big or small you think they are, He sees it and man He is with you there in the trenches.

What if we could just taste that and hold onto that.

He is with you.

He wants to encourage you and strengthen you today.

He wants you to know His faithfulness.

He’s not trying to hide from you.

I think the issue is we try to Hide from Him.

We wrongly think we’ve got to look a certain way, act a certain way, talk a certain way, kor behave a certain way for God to notice us.

So would you tonight just look at verse 6 again.

Psalm 146:6 “6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever.”

“He [sees] everything in them [heaven, earth, the sea, and everything He’s made]”

That’s our God.

He wants to be known.

Psalm 145:12 “12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.”

God wants to be with you right where you are.

Exactly as you are.

Would you remember to praise Him for that this week at school?

No matter how good school is or how bad it is.

Praise Him.

He’s faithful. He sees you. He wants you.

Give Him praise for that in every moment.