Hallelujah - Part B

The mightiest act of all, however, is in creation. It's redemption. The mightiest act of all is God sending His Son from heaven to earth to pay for our sins.

No wonder. In 2 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul, thinking of that act, said, thanks be to God or praise be to God for His undescribable gift. We heartily cheer on and support our favorite sports teams or musicians, but that excitement can be missing in our worship to the Lord. Today on Connect with Skip Heiting, Skip shares biblical truth to help you cultivate authentic and joyful praise to your Heavenly Father.

Before we begin, here's a resource that will equip you to live in God's truth. Fake news. It used to be restricted to tabloids at the grocery store checkout, and it used to be so obvious.

Chimpanzee head put on human body. But now there are entire websites dedicated to helping us figure out if a story, speech or statistic is true or not. Here's Skip Heiting with an important question. Is there such a thing as absolute truth? I want you to just think about that question. We want to help you get started in answering that question with two brand new booklets by Pastor Skip, Why Truth Matters and God and Suicide. You see, the Bible makes truth claims, and some of those claims are, well, pretty absolute.

But how can you know it's really true? These resources will help you better understand the nature of truth so you can pursue God's truth in your life. And there are a way to thank you for your gift of $35 or more today to help expand this Bible teaching outreach.

Get your copies when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Okay, let's dive into today's teaching. We're in Psalm 150 as we begin our study with Skip Heizing. Praise God in his sanctuary and then second praise God in his mighty firmament. Now let me ask you the question. What do you think is the sanctuary he's referring to?

Anyone at all? Temple in Jerusalem. That would be his context. When he says praise God in the sanctuary, I'm sure he was thinking of the public feast, the daily sacrifices, the festivals of people gathering together in the sanctuary of God to worship him. Now we know there's no temple today and we know that we're the temple of the Holy Spirit so we don't go to a specific place.

But needless to say, when we gather together corporately in what we call the sanctuary, the direction of it, the tone of it, the purpose of it is for praise. Now some of you know, probably most of you know that this wasn't built to be a church. This was built as a sports complex. This was, this building, this room you're sitting in was a soccer field when we bought it. It had AstroTurf.

Where there is badly stained and poorly chosen carpet, there used to be AstroTurf. And we pulled it up and we sold it but it was a sports arena. It wasn't a church but when we bought it, we dedicated it and we said from now on, it's a sanctuary. From now on, there'll be praises sung and there'll be the Bible taught and we will direct our thoughts toward the Lord in this place. But then notice what else he says. He says, praise Him in His mighty firmament, literally in the expanse of the heavens. So he's saying praise God on earth and praise God in heaven.

That's sort of a way of saying everywhere. It's as if he's summoning all of the humans on earth and all of the angels in heaven to join corporately together in the singular anthem of praise. Now just for a moment, I want to take your mind to the heavens. Would you not agree that in time, in terms of the size of the crowd and the beauty of the location, heaven is going to be the greatest praise event ever, right? When John in Revelation saw a little picture of it in Revelation 4 and 5, he said, I saw four living creatures and I saw 24 elders bow down. Then I looked out and I saw, gosh, as far as the eye can see, he said these words, I looked again and I heard the singing of thousands of millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the 24 elders. So he saw this huge, momentous gathering in the heavens and listen to what they were doing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praised forever and ever. So the thought here of this psalm is this, let God be praised on earth as well as in heaven. It's the same thought that Jesus had when he taught us to pray and he said, when you pray, say our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When you and I praise on earth, it's the one activity that is mirroring, matching what is going on in heaven.

His will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. So right now, right here, on this earth, in our lives, praise ought to fill our lives like praise fills the halls of heaven. I mean think about it, it's going to be part of your eternal occupation. Don't you think you ought to get a little practice now? I've said it before and I've said it in this series and I'll just say it again because we're going to move on but this is inappropriate when we gather to sing. I'm sorry that didn't work.

You can sit in front of your computer and do that. But when you're here in a place where God's people are gathered together and there are songs to be sung and a Lord who is alive to be praised, we engage in worship. We sing those anthems of praise to him. There was a man who was visiting a church and it was a little church in Connecticut and it was more of a formal church and a formal liturgy was given and there was a part in the service called the Eucharistic Liturgy and at that point there were kneelers in the pews and people got on their knees and they sang Hallelujah. And the word Hallelujah was the words they were saying. And this visitor, this man, noticed one woman with her arms raised heavenward while she sang Hallelujah. What caught his attention wasn't so much that she had her hands raised, it's that her hands were twisted, were gnarled, were diseased, crumpled up. Next to her were walking crutches and he just looked at that picture of that woman like this with those hands raised and he thought, Dear Lord, why?

How could a woman like that with that kind of suffering lifting up those arms sing Hallelujah? That's an important question and that brings us to the third part of the frame. That's the why question. Why should praise occur? That question is also answered. Verse two, praise Him for His mighty acts, praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Two reasons are given. We praise God for what He does and we praise God for who He is no matter what He does.

Okay? We praise God for what He does and we praise God for who He is no matter what He does. We praise Him for His mighty acts. Every service when I ask people, I said, so can you think of one of the mighty acts of God, the first answer that came out. That's why I didn't do it this time because now I can anticipate it. Somebody said creation, which is a good answer.

When we see creation, which is a mighty act, when we see the intricacies of God's creation, it should lead us to be amazed and to praise the Lord for the ingenuity of the Creator, the immensity of the Creator. The other night I was with my family. We were at a little restaurant. We were eating outdoors and it was in the evening and the clouds were going by and they were changing color. And my little grandson, Seth, kept pointing up saying, Papa, sunset. And just a little while later, the clouds would change into a pink hue and he goes, Papa, sunset. And then they get a little darker and more purple.

Papa, sunset. And he was so enthralled by the change of the color and the sunset and it dawned on me. That's precisely how God intended creation. That's the kind of response God wants as we observe creation. We look at him and go, that's beautiful.

That's amazing. Praise the Lord. I appreciate that art and that beauty. So the intricacies of creation help us to appreciate the ingenuity and the immensity of the Creator. That's what it says in the book of Psalms. We actually read Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God.

The firmament shows his handiwork. So as we look upward, we should say, praise the Lord. That's a mighty act. And when we look inward at us, that's a mighty act.

Here we are. God formed us. The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made.

And I know we spend a lot of time looking at the mirror and that's always a losing game. But if you were to look inside of your body, and I remember studying this years ago, but I'm always amazed at the human body. You have in your body about 30 trillion cells.

That's what they tell us. The average human body is 30 trillion cells. Now some have many more than that. Some have much less than that.

But that's the average, 30 trillion. In a single cell of your body, you have what's called DNA molecule. Dioxiribonucleic acid. It's basically a blueprint. It's an instruction manual that tells that cell how to act every single moment from birth till death.

It's a set of instructions. If you were to take one human cell and translate that DNA material into text, into written book form, one cell would produce 4,000 volumes of literature. Essentially one cell would fill this whole stage from bottom to top all the way back with books. One cell. If you were to translate all 30 trillion cells of your body into text, into written information, it would fill the Grand Canyon 40 times over.

Too overflowing. Fearfully and wonderfully made. So when you look outward, you should say praise the Lord. When you look inward, praise the Lord. Those are his mighty acts. The mightiest act of all, however, is in creation.

It's redemption. The mightiest act of all is God sending his son from heaven to earth to pay for our sins. No wonder in 2 Corinthians 9 the apostle Paul, thinking of that act, said, thanks be to God or praise be to God for his undescribable gift.

So many mighty acts. Creation, redemption, preservation, provision, all of that. So we praise God for what he has done. We also praise him for who he is.

Now listen carefully. This is important because sometimes in your life you can't readily think of what he does. Your life's all about the bad stuff. I'm going through a trial and I feel overwhelmed by the situation and circumstances in my life. Bad things have happened and are happening and so you're not like counting all your blessings of all the things he has done.

At that moment, that's when you turn to the second reason to do it, which supersedes all other reasons. You praise him just for who he is. Just for who he is.

His attributes. He's all powerful. He's ever present. He's all knowing. He cares for me.

That's who he is. We praise him according to his excellent greatness. Did you know the word praise comes from a Latin and later on a French word that means price.

Price. When you declare praise, you are declaring the value of God, irrespective of what you are experiencing. That's why that lady could raise those hands up in that church like this because of who God is in her life. So we don't praise God for what we can get out of him or we don't praise God because when we do it makes us feel really good. Those songs make me feel good. Cool. There's a higher purpose.

Just for who he is. There's a berry, a little fruit in Africa. It's called the taste berry. That's what it's called, taste berry.

And you know why it's called that? Because when you put it in your mouth, it changes the taste of everything. Now listen to this. This is intriguing. When you eat a taste berry, it's sweet and pleasant. And if you eat something after you eat the taste berry for up to an hour, I've been told, it still tastes good. So you could eat sour fruit after you've had a taste berry. Your taste buds are so altered by the taste berry that even the sour fruit tastes pleasant and good, sweet.

That would come in handy for some restaurants I've been to. I'd love to just eat a taste berry and say, this is awesome. Listen carefully. Praise is the taste berry of the Christian life. It's praise. When you make a declaration of praise, no matter how you feel or what you're going through, it takes the sorrow and even makes that pleasant to the taste.

Much better than without it. So for who he is. So we have taken this picture and we have three sides of the frame. The who, that's God. Where? Everywhere.

Earth and heaven. Why? Because of what he does.

Because of who he is. And here's the fourth part completing the picture. How. How is praise to be expressed. Verse three. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the lute and the harp. Praise him with the timbrel and the dance. Praise him with stringed instruments and flutes. Praise him with loud cymbals. My apologies that the Bible actually says the word loud. Some of you may be offended but it says it so I'm going to read it. Loud cymbals. Praise him with clashing cymbals.

Sorry the word clashing is in there. It will offend some of you but it's in the Bible so I'm going to read it. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. So that answers the how question. How are we to praise the Lord?

Two ways. With instruments man has made and with breath that God has given. Three verses are devoted to eight instruments that are listed and I'm not going to go through all the instruments and say how they were made and what they sounded like because they're lost in antiquity many of them. But suffice it to say that music was always important to God's people in the proclamation of praise. In the Old Testament we find Levitical choirs and instruments that David commissioned and some that he made himself. We have an interesting story in the Old Testament of a king sending worshippers out, musicians out as the frontline of infantry in a battle.

They would go first. I don't know if they wanted to get rid of their worship team or what it was but they were out there giving glory and praise to God. Then we come to the New Testament we read about Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that make melody into the Lord. So, music is a part of our expression in praise to the Lord.

It's part of the art that forms around praise. Most of you know that Martin Luther was not only a great reformer but an author. What some of you may not realize is that he was also a lover of song and he wrote songs. He wrote worship songs. He even played an instrument I'm told. He wrote these words.

I want you to hear them. Next to theology, writes Martin Luther, I give to music the highest place and honor. Music is the art of the prophets. The only art that can calm the agitations of the soul.

It is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents that God has given to us. And then he says this, shows his cantankerous side. If any man despises music as all fanatics do, for him I have no liking.

Don't mess with Martin. For music is a gift and the grace of God, not the invention of man. Thus it drives out the devil and it makes people cheerful.

And one forgets all wrath and purity and other devices. There's power in song. There's power in music.

And I think God intended that to be. Have you ever heard a song on the radio that you haven't heard for a long time but when you hear it, your mind goes back to when you first heard it and it's like you can even enter into the emotions you first felt. Oh man, I remember when I first heard that song. I remember that night. And sometimes it's a good memory. Oh, that's our song, honey. That's the song we heard when we dated. Still to this day, I can hear worship songs that were sung years ago that I remember and it just brings back the emotion of what I was going through, what I felt the Lord was leading me through.

So powerful. So singing is such a part of who we are and how we express our praise. There's a couple that left Moody Bible Institute and became missionaries to the southern coal Indian tribe in Mexico. They had to get to this remote area by mule and by hand-carved canoe and they got to this area to minister to the coal Indians and they spent 25 years, the next 25 years of their life, giving their lives to translate the New Testament into the coal language. But what the missionaries said is that this was the people who did not know how to sing.

They had no songs. So when the missionaries were there, they not only taught them the scripture, the gospel, but they taught them music. So much so that anyone who came to Christ learned songs and the rest of the unconverted tribe referred to the Christians as the singers. Not Christians, but those are the singers. Now today there are over 12,000 believers in that tribe. It's a self-sustaining community.

But what an interesting thing. They're singers. And the missionary, John Beekman, said, the reason they sing is because now they have a reason to sing. And every one of you has a good reason to sing, to lift your voice up. And so we sing and we praise with instruments that God has given or that man has made and then finally with breath that God has given. Verse 6 sums it up and we close, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

Can I sum it up by simply saying, praise God by any and all means possible, by every conceivable instrument, by what you blow into or play with strings or bash together or just if you can't play anything and all you can do is this. I don't got much, but I got a breath. Good, then use it for the right reason. Last week we saw that you could use your breath for the wrong reason like gossip and complaining and foul language. The highest way to use your breath is praise. And did you know that's the goal of all creation? Did you know that?

The goal of all creation is this, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I'm going to close with a story and I promise I will close with a story. But this is so important, I don't want you to miss this. Years ago there was a little boy who lived out in the country. And he had never in his life been to a circus. He'd always wanted to. He'd heard about what a circus is like. He heard that a circus was coming to town. And he said, Daddy, please, can I go to the circus on Saturday?

I've always wanted to go. And the father agreed and said, if you finish all your chores by Saturday morning, then Saturday afterwards you can go down and go to the circus. So it happened.

He finished all his chores. And Saturday after his chores were done, his father gave him a dollar to pay the fare to get in the circus. So you know how long ago this was and where this was. Today popcorn is like 30 bucks. You know, if you go to the fare, you'll pay $100 for a corn or something.

So anyway, it was a dollar to get into the circus back then. So he takes the dollar and he runs toward the town and he sees out in the streets people gathering together. And he looks through the crowd and sees on the street a parade.

And there's caged animals that are on trailers going by and then there's a marching band that goes by and then another marching band that goes by and then another marching band that goes by. And then finally at the end of the parade was a clown kind of dancing and doing tricks. The boy was just so excited. He walked down to the clown since that was the last event in the parade and gave the clown the dollar bill. Turned around and he went back home. He had never been to a circus before and he thought that was it. When all that was was a parade leading to the circus tent where the circus would take place.

But he paid his dollar and he went home and he missed the circus. I can't help but think that there's many people that come to church exactly like that little boy. They come for the parade. There's the parade of worship songs and prayers and instruction and a final song and they go home missing the main event which is an actual encounter with the living God. Everything else is just a parade. The main event is where my heart connects with his heart in meaningful praise in a congregation of people.

That's the main event and people miss it every week. Praise will transform you. It will change you. It is a declaration based not only on what he does but who he is. And so I ask you, who is he to you? Is he Lord? Is he Savior? Is he central to your life?

Or is he just peripheral? And you're okay with just the parade. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series playlist. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep these messages going strong to connect more people to God's Word. Did you know the Bible says God has put eternity in our hearts?

That means we have a longing that points us back to him. But you don't have to wait for heaven to draw near to God today. We want to equip you to do just that by connecting you to his truth.

That's why we share these Bible teachings. And through your generosity today, you can help others come to know and experience God's truth as well. Here's how you can give a gift today and help connect others to the Lord. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. And come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig begins a series called Fact Check, sharing how you can face your tough circumstances and fear with faith. So when we face a difficulty, a trial, an experience that's hard, we have to fact check with faith. So are there issues?

Are there difficulties? Yes. But fact, God loves me. Fact, I'm his child. Fact, God has a plan unique for my life. Make a connection Make a connection at the foot Of the crossing Cast all burdens on his word Make a connection Connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.