What God Deserves from You

Three couples had gone to church one evening, & then decided to go out together to a restaurant to eat. The restaurant was crowded so they were ushered into a noisy room & told to wait there until their table was ready. Almost immediately a smiling waitress came up saying, "Welcome to `happy hour.’ What would you like to order from the bar?" They replied that they didn’t care for anything from the bar. Then, about 10 minutes later, the waitress came back & delivered a second `happy hour’ speech, & once again they graciously declined to order. As she left, one of the husbands turned to his wife & said, "Do you suppose they deliberately delay seating customers, hoping we’ll order something from the bar while we’re waiting?" So when the waitress came a third time to deliver her `happy hour’ speech, the wife said to her, "Ma’am, we’re all Christians here & we’re about as happy as we’re going to get. Would you please just take us to our table?"

Well are you happy this morning? Do you have some things to be happy about right now in your life? In Psalm 30:1-5 Read….

Psalm 30:1–5 NASB95

I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my enemies rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried to You for help, and You healed me. O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

Here at the opening of this psalm David extols – lifts up praise to God. What does he extol God for?

3 things specifically: God had…

1) Delivered him - Deliverance from the attacks from his foes.

2) Answered him - Answers to prayers in desperate circumstances

3) Rescued him - Rescue from impending death (probably divine judgment – the reference to Sheol and the pit probably give us the clue for this)

Then David goes on and notes 2 things you need to do – 2 things God deserves from you. 1st…

1. SING PRAISE TO THE LORD.

- Notice the word SING!

- There is something about singing…something about music that moves the heart and soul.

- Understand that the book of Revelation gives us multiple scenes of Heaven – scenes that are filled with worship and singing.

- Friend, if you don’t enjoy singing here on earth, I think you’re going to have trouble in Heaven!

- Singing moves the heart and soul when the worshiper becomes engaged in the presence of Almighty God!

- And when these words flow in the melody of music they become powerful = they energize the soul and spirit of the one worshiping the Lord!

- To sing praise to the Lord is to worship the Lord! And the Bible says God inhabits the praise of His people.

- The problem: is that too many Sundays our singing is lacking in the heart and expression from our lips and hearts! We may mouth the words…we may go through the choruses…but there’s really no heart in it! When this happens it really has become “lifeless!”

- Have you ever been to a spiritual conference – a men’s conference, a women’s conference, a Christian concert with hundreds or even thousands present and experienced a powerful and moving time singing and worshiping! You know why? Because the mass of people present were engaged in singing from their hearts and focusing on God!

- And there’s something about singing together with brothers and sisters in Christ in a truly worship experience! It energizes the soul – it blesses God!

- And I hope you realize how much work and practice goes into what we do here Sunday after Sunday with the Praise Team and the choir when they’re able to lead us…there’s a lot…and it’s not for a performance…it’s done in order to lead us to worship the Living God = TO CONNECT US WITH GOD – to come into His presence and sing praise to Him!

- David expressed here how much he had to sing praise to God for!

- And you have so much to sing praise to God for in your life!

TS – The 2ndthing God deserves from you…

2. GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD.

- Why? Because of all He’s done for you.

- Look here at what David says the Lord had done for him…(vs. 1-5) lifted me up, given him victory over his enemies, healed him from troubles, rescued him from death,

- Again God: 1) Delivered him 2) Answered him 3) Rescued him

- What has God done for you?

- Well He’s...

1) Delivered you – delivered you from sin - saved you, forgiven you, washed your sins away, made you His child, no longer under condemnation, sealed you with His Holy Spirit, given you a living hope, given you glorious and secure inheritance in Him and assurance of a home in Heaven!

2) Answered you – your prayers – how many times? - provided for your needs – physically, emotionally, spiritually – walked with you through the valley of the shadow of death, forgiven you when you’ve failed, fallen, messed up and restored you!

3) Rescued you from so much trouble and situations that would’ve been so bad for you – blessed your health.

- Oh we take so much for granted.

- But David emphasizes the need for you to give thanks to the Lord!

· To understand Who’s Hands you are in

· To understand Who watches over you

· To understand Who provides for you

· To understand Who loves you and cares for you

Conclusion

In 1623 Governor William Bradford issued the following proclamation 3 years after the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth; To all ye Pilgrims,

Inasmuch as the great father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the raids of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving t ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

They had so much to be thankful for after those 1st 3 years after battling through that 1st winter that saw only 44 survive out of the 102 Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth – and enduring the many hardships they encountered as they tried to survive.

You have so much to be thankful for too…So SING PRAISE to God and GIVE THANKS TO HIM!