Hallelujah - Part B

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.

Many of us heartily cheer on and support our favorite sports teams or musicians. Sadly, that excitement can be missing in our worship to the Lord. So today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares biblical truth to help you cultivate authentic and joyful praise to your Heavenly Father. But before we begin, we want to let you know about an amazing opportunity you have to visit the sites where the prophets and kings in the Bible heard from God. Lenya and I are taking a group to Israel in 2022 and we want to invite you to join us. We'll visit places like Nazareth, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and the Garden Tomb. And that's just a fly-by look at the itinerary. Find out more about the trip at inspirationcruises.com slash c-a-b-q. Thanks Skip.

Now we want to let you know about a resource that will help you hear God's voice more clearly by walking through his Word. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the re-evaluation of priorities, life choices, and the path forward. This illuminates the question, what do I want out of life? Here's Skip Heitzig with some thoughts on priorities.

Don't we all want the life with a happy ending? A life marked by growth, a life marked by productivity and refreshment, and God's touch of blessing and prosperity and maturity upon it. Here's our special offer for this month for those who support this media outreach. The Daily God Book by Skip Heitzig plus playlist, eight CD messages on significant psalms. Start 2022 with Skip's Daily God Book. And they're both our way of thanking you when you give $35 or more today to help more people connect with God's Word. Call 1-800-922-1888 or go online to connectwithskip.com. Now here's another playlist sample from Skip. When you pursue him and when you pursue holiness, happiness tags along.

Call 800-922-1888 to give or visit connectwithskip.com. Now we're in Psalm 150 as Skip Heitzig gets into today's message. 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 astro turf where there is badly stained and poorly chosen carpet.

There used to be astro turf 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 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 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 a 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 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.

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 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 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 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 then 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 now if you were to take one human cell and translate that dna material into text into written book form one cell would produce four thousand 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 now the mightiest act of all however is in creation it's redemption the mighty act of all is god sending his son from heaven to earth to pay for our sins no wonder in second 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 um a latin and a later on a french word that means price price when you are 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 if you're going to do that 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 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 be that would come in handy for some restaurants i've been to i'd love to just eat a taste berry and then 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 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 symbols 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 symbols praise him with clashing symbols sorry the word clashing is in there it'll 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 somebody 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 and praise to the lord it's part of the art that forms around praise most of you know that martin lutheran 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 presence 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 impurity 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 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 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 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 a 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 beakman 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 should you you 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 this story and i promise i will close with the 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 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 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 fair you know you'll pay a hundred dollars 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 and he 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 turn 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 are 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 wraps up Skip heitzig's message from his series playlist now here's Skip to share how you can help keep this broadcast going strong connecting more people like you to god's word it's a great comfort to me that no matter where we go or what we do god is ever present in our lives our whole ministry is based on the desire to connect friends like you with god and with his word but we need your help to keep these teachings going out to you and to others we'd be so grateful if you shared a gift today to keep this radio ministry going strong here's how you can do that right now give us a call at 800-922-1888 to give a gift today 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate that's connectwithskip.com slash donate your generosity will keep this biblical encouragement coming your way and help change lives around the world and we invite you to visit connectwithskip.com today where you'll find even more of skip's messages over 3500 teachings that unpack the bible verse by verse to help you tackle life's toughest issues once again that's connectwithskip.com next week Skip heitzig begins a new series that will strengthen your faith and you'll relationship with the lord connect with Skip heitzig is a presentation of connection communications connecting your to god's never changing truth in ever changing times