Declare His Greatness!

Children’s Church Dismissal

Can you guys tell me something great about God?

INTRO

Far too often we take God's greatness and goodness for granted. It's important for Jesus followers to increase their awareness of God's work in their lives and to proclaim His work for others to see. If we don't declare His work in our lives, how will others see Jesus at work?

Psalm 145 ESV

A Song of Praise. Of David. 1 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. 2 Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. 3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. 4 One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. 5 On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. 6 They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. 7 They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. 8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. 10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you! 11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, 12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. 14 The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. 16 You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. 17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. 20 The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. 21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

3 COMMITMENTS WE SHOULD ALL MAKE TO GOD:

1) PRAISE HIS GREATNESS (v. 1-4)

“Extol” means “to praise lavishly”

This is more than just singing a song or sharing a social media post. It’s more than a simple pleasantry.

To extol means to go big, over the top, high effort, high exaltation recognition.

This is the big deal kind of praise.

God is worthy of this and so much more because He’s not just a big deal…He is next level, nothing and no one compares to Him big deal.

This kind of praise isn’t just a one time, we’ve given some accolade’s kind of a thing…

David says, I will extol You…forever and ever. I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.

This kind of constant devotion to praising His Greatness is contagious, in that the next generation shall know the mighty acts of God!

It’s the kind of thing where our kids and our grandkids talk about the awe and wonder of God through our lives!

If we are going to praise His greatness, we have to recognize Him constantly and not get over it.

We need to commit ourselves to God to PRAISE HIS GREATNESS!

2) PONDER HIS GREATNESS (v. 5)

To meditate is more than giving it some thought. It’s closer to being obsessed with than just thinking about.

The word picture for meditate is a cow chewing its cud.

David promises to give deep and continual thought to the glorious splendor of God’s majesty, and on God’s wondrous works.

God’s Majesty: Majesty means “lofty, supreme authority, sovereign, regal, imposing character”

Let’s face it, Until you promise to give deep and continual thought to the majesty of God, you can’t even begin to understand His glory or the wonder of His works.

God’s wondrous works

He does so much more in our lives than we realize.

He does these things, not because we deserve them, but because He wants to by His own good pleasure.

God doesn’t have to work in our lives, He chooses to.

He chooses to, not because we are something or someone special, but because He is.

Take some time and just ponder on the wonder of His works.

Seek them out. Search them out in depth.

Don’t just settle for surface level understanding.

Dive deep into the works of God. Seek out His Character on display.

Ask yourself, what does the sunrise say about God?

What does it say about His character? What does it say about who He is? What does this mean for me as His creation?

What implications does this have for how I live my life? How I spend my time? What I do with the time and energy He has given me?

We can easily get lost in thought about a lot of meaningless things…why not discipline our minds to dive deep into PONDERING HIS GREATNESS!

3) PROCLAIM HIS GREATNESS (v. 6-21)

Don’t just keep God’s greatness to yourself! Pass it on to others.

Let the Spirit of God use you to open the hearts and minds of others to the majesty of God.

What should we be talking about? Here is a list of suggestions from our text:

Tell of His Grace (8)

Tell of His Mercy (8,9)

Tell of His Righteousness(17)

Tell of His Faithfulness(13)

Tell of His Kindness(13, 17)

Tell of His Reliability (13)

Tell of His Nearness(18)

Tell of His Provision(14, 15)

Tell of His Satisfaction(16, 19)

Tell of His Patience(8)

Tell of His Steadfast Love (8)

God’s mighty works are too great to keep to ourselves! We have to share with others.

We can’t just personally recognize His greatness…we must let our mouths “speak the praise of the Lord (21)” that all may bless His holy name forever and ever!

We must commit ourselves to PROCLAIM HIS GREATNESS!

CLOSING

When I look at my life, am I declaring God’s Greatness?

We can easily spend hours of our week talking with friends, co-workers, and family about all kinds of meaningless topics…

What would it look like if we intentionally made God’s greatness our favorite topic of conversation?

What it would look like if God’s greatness dominated the conversation with those around us?

Why do we let the world rob us of dwelling on His splendor because they think it’s weird or we’re afraid they’ll think we’re weird…

Through the lens of eternity, who are the weird ones…those who can’t stop consumed with God’s greatness and can’t stop talking about it or those who managed to give it a nod and then ignored it?

As we close, let us use this time of response, and even this area in front, to commit ourselves to DECLARING HIS GREATNESS!