Rejoice and Praise

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This is the Truth Network. If not for God, today, we were going to be talking a little bit about just rejoicing and praising the Lord and worship and, you know, really how it changes the atmosphere. But I know, Robbie, you wake up in the morning. And is that is that part of what you do? You know, that's it is part of what I do. But I like what you what you said about.

Yeah, I get up at, you know, for some mornings, five, depending on what my day is. And yeah, my day just wouldn't be the same if I didn't start off, you know, in my relationship with God. And I think that, you know, we'll get into how that affects a lot of different things. But I love what you said about Clint Eastwood. You know, there's a simple enough story that most people go, well, everybody's walk with God has an effect, right? Yeah. I mean, years ago, and I don't know if you remember this, but Charles Barkley had a famous commercial where he said, I am not a role model. Do you remember that? I do.

Yeah. And there was a big stink about it was a big thing about it. But whether you want to admit it or not, people are watching you. You know, people are watching you, whether you're a Christian or whether you're not.

But if you're a parent, I think that your children are really, really watching you. I heard the story about Clint Eastwood when he was growing up. I believe it was in California. He would go to church every Sunday with his dad. With his mom, you mean?

You're right. He went to he went to church every Sunday with his mom. His dad would not go to church with them. And so Clint asked his dad, he said, Dad, he said, Why don't you go to church with us on Sundays?

And his dad said, Well, that's my only day off. And so Clint Eastwood never went to church again after that. Well, yeah, I mean, he's made a lot of money. He's been a success on the on the silver screen and stuff like that. But now he's, I think, following Buddhism or whatever it is.

And so it's possible that because of his father's indolence and just just unwillingness to go to church with a family, at least to go that far and to say that it's not that important because it's my only day off. It made an impact. And I believe we can have an impact on people in a really positive way.

We can also have an impact on people the other way as well. But to start off, I wanted to open up with Psalm 118, and it says, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good because his mercy endureth forever. Let Israel now say that his mercy endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron now say that his mercy endureth forever. Let them now that fear the Lord say that his mercy endureth forever. I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do unto me?

That's good right there. The Lord taketh my part with them that help me. Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

All nations compassed me about. But in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. And when I see that I see David and I think you were talking about this a little bit before Robbie, but the Psalms are really just songs to the Lord. Is that right?

Oh, yeah. And that that particular song was the song that traditionally was sang after the Passover Seder or, you know, the last the Last Supper itself was a Passover Seder. So, you know, legend has it or whatever that that was the song when it says, you know, listening him right when they sang him as they came out. Well, that was the him that they believe they sang. And and so there it is when you hear the bees encompass me and all that. Well, Jesus would soon, you know, be in the midst of that. But they were singing. And, you know, that's part of what comes with freedom is you get to sing.

Because you've you've had that experience, but, you know, you had that experience in Haiti that I just think is beyond cool. I did. But you said that David would wake up every what would happen at midnight. Yeah. Well, if you look in the next Psalm 119, OK, which is the long one.

Yeah. But anyway, in verse sixty two, he said, I will rise at midnight and actually a better translation would probably be an established praise because of your righteous judgments. Well, the Jews teach the old sages in their midrash and stuff that King David literally did rise at midnight and that they believe that they it wasn't good to sing songs after dark.

And after I mean, because the sun was going down, it's getting darker. And so they would recite what they called Tillam or the Psalms after midnight. And so King David said he would rise at midnight. This story went that he had this special harp that was made of these very light strings that when the wind would blow, the sing the strings would sing. And so he held this. He put this harp in a special place at night so that when the wind changed.

Now, we're not talking about the time of midnight, but for him, the real midnight. And when the night was half over and the sun was going to come up on the other side, the wind would change. And when that happened, it would blow through his harp and he would rise and begin to sing his Psalms. Yeah. Well, they said that the whole city of Jerusalem would get up and sing with him. And can you imagine? I mean, we're talking about King David and the guy could sing.

Yeah. And he was praising in a way that I believe, you know, we would all well, all look forward to hear him in heaven, a man after God's own heart. But his songs would lead Jerusalem at midnight. And when it said he would establish praise that because he was praising.

Right. All the people were watching if the king can get up at midnight and start singing. And it's really cool. It's a neat story because they even go as far as to say, well, it's interesting that Moses saw God face to face. But King David was a man after God's own heart. And part of the reason that they you know, Moses was actually that kind of friend that he'd be face to face. But because of King David's wholeheartedness.

Yeah. And his intensity of praise that, you know, he they believed that he was that close to the Lord. And, you know, it's a beautiful thing that he wrote those. And clearly. When you think about him establishing praise, whether you think the midnight story is true or whatever. Yeah.

I'll bet you anything you could walk into Wal-Mart or any place you want to the most secular place you could possibly stay and start saying the twenty third song, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death and people will know, have some sense of what that is. Right. Yeah. Because of of, you know, essentially King David singing, you know, however many thousands of years ago.

Yeah, he did. And the the part that you were talking about is that the end hat or the the hat is the hat was his verse is the section. Yeah. Well, each section of the twenty of the hundred nineteen Psalm is based on a Hebrew letter. And the letter hat is where you'll find this section. And interestingly, hat is kind of like saying marriage.

OK. And life. OK. And so, you know, this is kind of where we get married to God is in this whole idea of praise, of praise. And I'll read it. It's verse fifty seven. It says that verse fifty seven of Psalm 119. Thou art my portion, O Lord. I have said that I would keep thy words.

I entreated thy favor with my whole heart. Be merciful unto unto me according to thy word. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments. The bands of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten thy law. At midnight I will rise to give thee to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. I am a companion of all of them that fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy.

Teach me thy statutes. How does that speak to you, Robbie? Well, the whole section is is very much a picture of marriage.

Right. And the whole anointing of those passages show you how close King David really was with God. But it's it's when you think about what where we're going here is as we get more and more married to Christ, we're affecting other people. And don't you love the fact that as he gets closer to Christ, one of the things he says is my companions are those who fear you and those who seek your precepts. In other words, if you notice that you have a kindred spirit, it's just like, you know, you and I can come in here and within 15, 20 minutes, we're involved in a deep discussion about how cool God is. Yeah. And when we first get in here, I'm like, what the heck are we?

I don't have anything to talk about. That was the same thing we had Pastor Ron in here last week. Well, when you get somebody that that loves God, isn't it amazing how quickly that that all of a sudden the conversation goes to really, really good places? And it really is a matter of of of being joined and spirits just, you know, relate to one another. Now you tell that you got to tell the Jamaica story, man. I will.

It's Haiti. Well, I did want to say something about what you just said, though, because. We had our Bible study and there's a section in the Bible where Jesus said, wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, he said, I am in the midst of it. And what we were talking about in the Bible study on Tuesday night was that, you know, well, we have to make sure that we're not taking the Bible out of context. And so we looked at the whole context of that part. And right before he was talking about correcting people and, you know, if somebody messes up, you know, you go to them face to face, whatever. And so they said, well, this maybe maybe was just in that context. And then there was a guy over there, William, who doesn't usually say much. So when he says something, it's pretty profound. But he said, you know, I think what he's talking about here, he said, I think this is kind of separate from the last part. And when I looked at it, I saw the same thing as well, that the and we've talked about this before, the importance of of gathering together with other believers.

And it could be there's different settings. I'm not saying it has to be just in church on every Sunday, whatever. But that is a great way. Another way is through through Bible studies or through, you know, just meeting in small groups and stuff like that. Now, there's great stuff online. I mean, you could do Zoom stuff like that.

But to me, there is something about being with somebody face to face that is different than it is over the phone or via Zoom or anywhere else. So there's no doubt in my mind. And I think about, you know, Pastor Quartz was at Calvary all those years, and he had some profound things to say. But along those lines, he said something I've never forgotten. He said, you know, you don't have to stay in a Sunday school class in order to get to heaven.

You know, you don't have to go to church every Sunday in order to get to heaven, he said. But you don't necessarily need a boat to get to England. But it is a long swim. It's difficult to do it on your own. I mean, in all seriousness, it's very difficult to do it on your own.

Yeah, I've never forgotten that because, I mean, it is a long swim. Mm hmm. Oh, and the beauty of it is as you sit down with people, because chances are, I don't know a single person that I'm close with that thinks like I do necessarily on all issues. We have differing views.

However, we have some of the coolest conversations, you know, that just go really, really neat places that, you know, God is just. He is in the midst of that. And you sense that and you feel that.

And I really you know, there was a. Along the same lines, there was a Jewish rabbi who was noting, you know, people's you know, that man said, well, you know, I only come to services, you know, on Passover and Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat, you know, and certain. And he said, Do you not realize that all those people around you are watching? And when you only come four times a year, they only come two times a year. And when you come 10 times a year, they only come five times a year. And when you come 20 times a year, they come 10. And so whether you realize you're you know what you're doing, just like the Clint Eastwood story is your devotion.

And again, I'm not saying go to church because of the legalistic reasons or even to influence anybody necessarily. But I am saying that, oh, what a joy it is to know that if you really love this stuff and you really do show up every morning at midnight and establish praise, you'll be affecting a lot of people for for good. And there's nothing to be ashamed of.

There's nothing to be ashamed of. So Haiti was on a mission trip with was Raleigh First Assembly, now Cross Assembly with Pastor Chad, who we talk about. We were down there and it was the end of the trip and we were going down. And I remember we were we had prayed. And when we had prayed, all of the lights went out in the place where we were at. And then they came back on and I said, I've got a bad feeling about something. And everybody was like, no, no, no.

So we go we're driving the truck. They call it a tap tap back there. It's like a cage that you're in an enclosed cage in the back of the truck. It's if you haven't seen it, you wouldn't know. But if you've seen it, then you would know. But it's a tap tap has to do with you want out.

Yeah, there you go. You're tapping on the you know, all of a sudden the driver got blinded by the sun and he ran into the middle, the median. I mean, it was it was a terrible accident. And one of the guys, his head was split open. I think his name was Nick. There was another lady named I think her name was Peggy. He was almost deaf. And when she wow, I just remember that when she was on the tap tap, even before there was a lady.

It was Nanette's mother, Fay, who we have the Monday morning meetings with. But she had given me five dollars and she said, give this to somebody who's deaf. So I went on the trip. I had the five dollars and I handed this lady Peggy the five dollars. That was the end of it. I thought it was crazy.

Whatever we get on the we're getting on the on the tap tap to go to go to the airport, I think in Port-au-Prince. And all of a sudden I was sitting in her spot and or something like that. And so I said, well, you could sit here.

And she says, no, no, no, you sit down. And there was a terrible crash and she got severely hurt. And I didn't have a scratch. I was fine.

So, you know, I don't know what to think of that exactly. But but I remember when it happened, it was a terrible crash. Everybody was just kind of sitting there. It was like in a daze.

It was almost like you were in the twilight zone or it wasn't real. And all of a sudden I felt within my spirit to start singing. And I may have sung this. I may have sung this amazing grace. How sweet the sound. And everybody started to sing with me. And it was like when we started to sing just at that moment, it broke.

It changed the atmosphere. And that I do believe, and I've seen this over the years within myself, that when when you start to praise the Lord through songs or what I'm noticing now, when I'm reading my Bible, I would always listen to it. I read the Bible out loud and I get something out of it doing that, that I don't do anything else or or praising the Lord or just singing worship songs. If I'm depressed, I'm not so depressed anymore.

I don't know, man. Maybe maybe people could save save a lot of money on psychiatrist if they started to praise the Lord. It was a great experience in the fact that I saw how quickly the atmosphere can change through praise and worship. And I'm sure you've seen that, too. You know, it's an amazing thing. I heard this story years ago. It's always touched my heart. And it's something I long for.

I've been trying to get to it, but I've never got there. So it was actually on. I heard it on Stu's radio station back before I worked for Truth Network. And it was James Dobson. And he had this just this story about this man who'd lost his wife.

And he wasn't a very religious man when he lost his wife. But after he lost his wife and he got more and more lonely, it said he would start to pray, which he had never done before. And he said that he felt like he was picking up the phone and calling God and saying, I you know, I need some help. I need you. And it said that I love the way this went. I've never forgotten it. He said, you know, the more time went on, the more he picked up the phone. Until he got to the point that he never hung up. And I'm like, yeah, that's there you go.

You know, that's that's what I want. That you know, that at some point to just feel like I am so connected to God in prayer that that I never hung up, that I've never hung up. And so when somebody is mindful and the idea is pretty cool in the Zion section, which is right before you get to the head section, which has got something to do with the head because there's a Zion in a hat. OK, when you look at these letters, they're made of other letters. So the Zion is is the letter that begins the word remember. OK. And if you look at the Zion section, really fun to do in the hundred nineteen Psalms, see how many times the word remember is in there. Because when you remember God, you see, that's really what happened in the tip in the tap tap or whatever. Right. All of a sudden, everybody and all of a sudden, Mike remembers, hey, man, God's got this and amazing grace. Yeah. And so as we as our mind goes back to picking up the phone rather than, oh, well, we hung up a while ago.

Then all of a sudden. You know, when you look at those and the cool thing about that Zion section, if you look at it in the hundred nineteen song is King David. He starts out by asking God to remember him. Mm hmm. Because for me, you know, I'm always like, God help me remember.

But it's interesting that that David says, Remember me? You go ahead and read it. I see you've got it there. Feel free. No, no, I don't.

I'm looking at something. But but the but David said, Remember me? Right. Well, actually, the first verse of the science section of the of the Zion section. Remember thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou has caused me to hope.

Yes. Well, remembering the word is obviously remembering Jesus because he's the word. I mean, and very specifically to King David, he was promised by Nathan that the Christ would come through his. And so this has a lot to do with Messiah coming. But the very first word that he mentions is this. Well, you know, one of the somewhat comical things is that the first time that the word remembers in the Bible, it says that God remembered Noah. And you're like, What do you forget about it? The only guy left on earth that they're floating in the water is is is is there is is there a flood? I know a guy.

So it's a good thing. Well, you remembered Noah. But the real thing is that all of a sudden, Noah became the priority in the moment of what he was now going to what God was going to do. And remember the thief on the cross.

What did he say? Remember me? Remember me? When you come into your kingdom. And so the idea of remember and what did Jesus say at the Last Supper?

Do this in remembrance of me. Right. And the idea. And what did Jesus say to the guy when the guy said, Remember me when I get in, when you get into your kingdom? Right. He said today, you're going to be with me in paradise. Let me tell you, that guy really earned it. He really earned his way into heaven, huh?

I mean, but think of the value of God remembering you. Right. And we see it right there. And so it's cool that King David starts out with that whole that whole section and and just follow through and see how many times the word remembers in there, because it's it's spectacular.

It is. You know, I did want to say something else I heard from Pastor Chad. It was he was talking about. He said, you know, when you're you're going throughout your daily life or whatever, he says, I'm not going to tell you not to listen to any secular music or anything like that. But I can tell you myself, 90 some percent of the time, at least I'm listening to Christian music.

And the analogy that Pastor Chad gave, he says, imagine you're on your deathbed, you're dying and you have one last song to sing to the Lord. He said, and this is the song that you sing. I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it hurts.

I'm too sexy for Milan, too sexy for Milan, New York or Japan. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm too sexy for this syrup, too sexy for your girl, too sexy for this world, too sexy for this ice, too sexy for that jack. Yeah, yeah. I'm too sexy for this chain, too sexy for your gang, too sexy for the fame. Yeah, yeah.

I'm too sexy for the trap, too sexy for that cap, too sexy for that jack. Yeah, yeah. yeah.

What does that even mean? I mean, you know, and you said, well, of course, I'm not going to say that's not gonna be the last song. But but if that's what you're listening to in the car and you got to realize your mind is like a computer and I've heard it said that that Satan was possibly the worship leader in heaven before he fell and that that he's he did it then and he's still doing it today to try to lead people away from Christ.

Because when you hear a song, it can really pull at your emotions and you can really believe something because it's in a song or it can have great importance to you or great meaning to you or whatever it is. And, you know, he was talking about all these songs that are bad. But he said, you know, then he said, let's let's look let's look at another song. Let's look at a Christian song now that, you know, when you're dying and you're you're you're running your you know, you're about to you're about to have your last breath.

And, you know, you could sing something. And this would be the song would be I'll fly away some some bright morning when this life is over, I'll fly away to that home on God's celestial shore. I'll fly away. I'll fly away.

Oh, glory. I'll fly away in the morning when I die. Hallelujah. Bye and bye. I'll fly away when the shadows of this life have gone. I'll fly away like a bird from these prison walls. I'll fly away. I'll fly away. I'll fly away. Oh, glory. I'll fly away in the morning when I die. Hallelujah. Bye and bye. I'll fly away. I'd rather sing that song than the first one by Drake. Yeah, well, it's even a neat meditation to think, huh, what would be that song? Right.

And and, you know, for you, which one do you really feel like gets into, you know, I wouldn't pick I fly away. You know, I've got others that will be yourself. I'm trying to think of the name of it. It's an Irish hymn. It be thou my vision. That's one of mine. Yeah. Oh, be thou my vision. Oh, lord of my heart. That's it.

Yeah. I can't can't hold a tune like Mike, but I know the but but there are so many wonderful songs. And one of my favorite lyric parts of that of that song is rich as I heed not nor man's empty ways, nor man's empty praise, thou my inheritance now and always. So, you know, and it tells me it's that even when things even if things get really bad, man, we've got Jesus. Yeah, it is.

And so, you know, you might be sitting there thinking, gee, I don't know exactly what you guys are talking about. But, you know, Jesus, he points the way for that. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. He says, nobody gets to the father but by me. But if you trust in him, you will fly away. Like that song says, he will be your inheritance. It's not going to be money. It's not going to be man's empty praise. But Jesus will be your inheritance. And all you have to do is surrender your life to him and ask him to forgive you of your sins and follow him the rest of your life. And there's tough times and stuff like that. But I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold.

Right. And it is a matter do you believe? I mean, do you believe that Jesus really was the Son of God? Do you believe that he died on a cross for your sins?

And do you believe that, you know, that that works? That this will, you know, what Jesus paid will get me there. And do I believe that Jesus needs to be Lord of my life from here on in?

It's a matter of, you know, do you want to do that? And if so, you can just pray with us right now. Jesus, thank you for what you've done for me. And thank you that I can be in heaven and fly away like Mike said. And you will be my vision and now and always. And we pray that you'll do that with us today.

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