Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today.

Our first guest is a in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, which keepeth truth forever. Then we're given a list of what God can do. Notice if you would, verse seven, which executeth judgment for the oppressed, which giveth food to the hungry, the Lord looseth the prisoners, the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind, the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down, the Lord loveth the righteous, the Lord preserveth the strangers, he relieveth the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

Wait a minute. Here's a whole list of wonderful things he does. And then that last thing he says, but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. You say we're supposed to praise God? That he judges sinners? Yeah, you should. You say, well, that sounds mean, preacher.

No, listen to me. The fact that God will judge sinners means that God keeps his promises. It means that God tells the truth, and he does not sway from it.

If God didn't judge sinners, then he wouldn't keep the promises he's made to you, either. Look at the last verse, verse 10. The Lord shall reign forever, even thy God, oh, Zion, unto all generations. And as we begin is how we end. Praise ye the Lord. During these verses, we are told that God is going to be praised for one simple reason. He is worthy.

He's worthy of it. I have a dear friend that, and I mentioned this before, that was head of security on Air Force One. And I've told you before that President Bush at that time came to Greensboro, and my friend called me and said, would you like to come on Air Force One? And so I got a very personal tour of Air Force One through the head of security. I got to see things that any tours would not be able to get to. I got to go into President Bush's private quarters and even his private restroom, not that that means anything, and I know he used a Braun electric razor. I saw it, and I blessed it. I said, Lord, help it not to cut our president anyway.

And I got to go to the communications room and all kinds of places and different things of that nature. And he had guarded the last four years of President Clinton. He guarded the entire eight years of President Bush. And then he retired once the elections were finished a few years back.

And he decided that he just really didn't want to be head of security anymore for Air Force One. Now, listen to me. The president, when you are in the armed forces, whether you agree with him or not, you are to protect him. That's your job.

Why? Because he's the president. But you admire him only if you feel he's worthy. God is not praised just because he's God.

God is praised because he's worthy. His office demands it, but his love motivates it. Does anybody else get that this morning?

Was that too deep for you? That ought to get you excited. His office demands that we praise God, but I want to because of what he's done for me. Worthy. Let's pray this morning. Lord, we love you. Help us as we look into your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Verses one through two, we find simply here the challenge to praise.

But this is very interesting to me. And I want you to notice very closely. Look at verse one. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live, I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto God while I have any being. Number one, we see a call to praise.

This is the challenge. This is what the psalmist says. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. It means this, that the psalmist basically says and he calls upon his own soul to praise the Lord.

That means this. There are times when your body cannot find reason to praise, but your soul can always find reason to praise God. That is how when an individual is down and broken and diseased and burdened and sick, that is how an individual like that can still praise God. That is how an individual that's been done wrong and abused and treated wrongly and things have been unfair. And yet an individual like that can still somehow say God is good and I give him praise.

It means that your body and your mind might not feel like it, but God saved your soul and so your soul always feels like praising God. I went camping Thursday night and Friday night. I know what that sounds like. It sounds like that you were in a tent. I took a tent. It sounds like you had blow up mattresses to put in a tent. I had that. It sounds like you had some fans to try to keep you cool tonight.

I had that. It sounds like you had a tarp that you'd cover over the tent because it always rains when you're camping. I had all that, but I slept in a nice comfortable bed in a room. I got as far as to unpack the tent out of the car and we went to a campground with my wife's family for two nights and that's the only time of the year we're going to be able to do anything with them.

And so it didn't work out. The hurricane was the week before and they didn't have power at the campsite. And you know, man, we got three kids and it was just all this stuff.

And I was really looking for any good reason anyway to get a room in the main building of the campground. And I'm glad I did. It rained both nights. And while they were getting wet, I was laying in a nice comfortable bed, had my own bathroom. It was wonderful. But I was there camping and Saturday morning we left and I've been keeping in contact with Gerline Dobie and Ralph there at Duke.

I've been back and forth to Duke just about every day for the past eight or nine days. And she was crying and she said it's really bad. You all know the whole story. They're supposed to go in and try to do some procedures to make his life manageable. They went in and it's worse than they thought.

They said we're not doing any procedures. They recommended just to turn everything off, send him home, let him die at home. And Gerline was crying and yesterday morning he had gone into seizures and he had an infection in his lungs and he has pneumonia. And Gerline called and she says, you know, it's just hard preacher after 57 years together.

And I said, Gerline, I don't know what you're going through at all. And we left and went back from the coast, obviously went back through Durham so I could go to Duke Hospital. And Ralph had made a little bit of improvement with the pneumonia. And their plan today is they're going to move him to another room, turn everything off and kind of see how he does, see if they can get the pneumonia.

They're doing a brain scan to find out why he's having the seizures and different things. And I guess in a sense it almost looks like the handwriting is on the wall. And it's hard for me because Ralph and Gerline have been two people that have been very nice to me since I've been here. They're an older couple but they still, even though I'm a young guy, they just love me and was always kind, never had a cross word, never had any criticism of me in any reason. And sometimes, you know, I'm not trying to criticize, you know, I'm just saying sometimes older folks, they don't think they do but they just, because you're young, they just don't like you. And they say they do but they just don't like anything you do because you're young.

And they accuse you sometimes, well you don't like older people, although you do and all these things. And I know that can happen, thank God it hadn't happened here. And you know, thank God everybody's been wonderful and sweet and kind here.

And they have. But Ralph and Gerline have just been supportive from the start. I mean they just, they said we love you and they've just been kind.

They love my wife and we called today on the way to church and I called up and I've been going up to see Ralph constantly and Julie's gone with me a couple times. And here he is just about on a ventilator and he's in horrible shape this morning and I was in the car coming away to church. Julie was in there and stuff and so I called Gerline and she was talking to me, telling me what they're going to do, turn everything off, put him over in the room. And I heard this moaning in the background and she said, hold on Ralph wants to say something.

And all the stuff on him and different, you know, things and he's in intensive care there. And I heard him say, is that Daniel? And she said, yes, it's Daniel. And he said, you tell him to give Julie a hug for me.

And I told Gerline, I said, you tell him that's the easiest thing anybody's ever asked me to do. I was up at Forsyth Hospital with him and after his defibrillator was going crazy and it shocked him seven times that night before. And they brought the food in while I was there with him and Ralph was eating and I was sitting and a nurse was trying to get him up in the set so he could eat and all this stuff. So I was sitting over in the background and so he bowed his head and he prayed and he just said, you know, very just humbly and he prayed a little bit. And he said, Lord bless our church and Lord bless Brother Daniel and bless Julie and bless Kayden and the boys. And he said, amen, thank you for the food. And Gerline came over to me while the nurse was working and she says, Daniel, since the day you became pastor, I've never heard Ralph pray that he did not pray at the table, out in public, at a restaurant, at home, in the bed. I've never heard him pray where he did not pray for Brother Daniel, Miss Julie, Kayden and the boys. I've never heard him not pray for you. And you know what, sometimes your body does not feel like praising the Lord.

Sitting over at Baptist Hospital is probably one of the godliest men that's ever come through Kerwin Baptist Church in Burdus Hampton. And they had to meet with the family last night and gave the family very bad news. And they just basically told them that, you know, that if something happened and Burdus coded while he was there in the hospital, he'd probably go on a ventilator and would never come off of it the rest of his life. And they said, you've got to make some decisions.

And they had to make some decisions as a family and Burdus did too last night. And I'm going to tell you something, I don't understand it and a lot of things are unfair. There's a lot of you that have dealt with loss and people that are sick and I understand all that. But all I'm getting to is this, that there are times when your body and your mind does not feel like praising the Lord. But your soul is what will live forever in eternity, either in heaven or hell. And if you've been saved by the grace of God, just five seconds of thinking about what hell would be like. Your soul wants to rise up out of your body and praise God for what he's done. Call to praise, second we see a commitment to praise.

Notice if you would, verse 2, now this excited me, this excited me. Listen to what the psalmist says here. While I live I will praise the Lord.

He said as long as I have breath. So we see under this commitment to praise, number one, there was a living commitment. As long as I live I am going to praise the Lord. Now he did not say as long as he felt like it.

He said as long as I live. That means this, there's going to be a whole lot of times in life where you don't feel like praising God or anybody. But you are just going to have to make a choice of the will that because God has saved my soul and given me heaven for an eternity, I don't care what's going on around me or who does what, I'm going to praise God anyway. That's a living commitment. And dear friend, you won't do that unless you commit to it.

It's not just going to automatically happen. And you're not just going to feel like it when you wake up and everything in your body hurts. At least that you can feel. You're not going to feel like it. But if you've already made a commitment, I will praise the Lord.

Now that was one thing, that's great, that's a wonderful challenge. But notice this, not just a living commitment but a lasting commitment. Notice what he says. I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

Did you hear that? He says I'm going to praise God here on earth as long as I live. And then after that, as long as I have any kind of a being, he didn't say breath, he said being. That means this, for an eternity in heaven, I'm going to praise him up there. You say preacher you don't know if you will. Oh you will.

If you get there, you will. I don't know about you but it's hard enough to praise God here on earth and to say you know what, I'm going to praise God no matter what anyway. But let me tell you something, this psalmist says this, I'm not just going to praise him while I live, I'm going to praise him while I have any being whatsoever.

A living commitment and a lasting commitment. Then the book, the chapter changes a little bit. Notice this, first there was a call to praise but second there's the caution to praise. Wait a minute preacher, you just said we're supposed to praise all the time and now you say there's a caution. Oh yeah but notice this, look at verse three. Put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no hope.

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to this earth in that very day his thoughts perish. We are cautioned here not to ever give praise to man. Now, you and I live in a society where all we do is praise individuals. We live in a society that is obsessed through entertainment and sports and we praise Lebron James. That's all we've heard for three weeks is where Lebron James is going to play. I don't give a flip where he plays. Let me tell you what I care about where I'm going to be for eternity.

Now I have a ten year old that cares a lot but other than that. I want you to notice first he says that man is a powerless creature. Notice this, put not your trust in princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help.

Man cannot help you. Now don't get me wrong, you got to understand that last word in the verse three, that word help. What is interesting here in the Hebrew it means this. It is basically salvation, deliverance and victory is what that word means. So we're not saying that there's not times in your life where individuals help you.

It's not what we're saying. We're talking about for salvation, for an eternity, for anything lasting. Man has no power or ability to help you or to change your destiny. So don't put your faith or trust in any of them, don't praise them, don't brag on them.

You brag on the one that has provided an eternity in heaven for you. Man is a powerless creature. Notice secondly, man is a passing creature.

Notice what he says in verse four. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to this earth and that very day his thoughts perish. Man perishes. Hey you're here one minute, you die, you go to the grave, you go on the ground, man's gone. The soul lives forever but man, the body's gone.

So not only is man powerless but man is passing. That means this, why would you praise an individual that is temporary when you could praise a God that is eternal? Every bit of praise you give an individual here on earth will die with that person. But every bit of praise that you give to God here on earth will last for an eternity. Caution, don't praise man. Dear friend, everybody around you is going to praise man. We as Christians, we praise God.

God gets the glory for everything. Let me tell you something about this church and I can't always control every little thing. It's not my desire to control things.

In fact there's very little here that I actually I guess control because I'm just that type of personality. There's things that happen here, people get upset about, I had nothing to even do with it, I didn't even know about it. But because you're the pastor you get blamed. Oh the pastor took this out of the bulletin, well the pastor made this change.

No the pastor didn't even know about it. The things I do know about you've got enough to criticize me on that. I don't know half the things, you know I just figure hey, I let people do their jobs. But I'm going to tell you something, listen to me. In our society I do not want anybody singing from this pulpit or preaching from this pulpit or playing an instrument in this building that would dare somehow desire or get any glory or praise for it. I'm not interested in that. Everybody tells me why don't we have such such, why don't we have this group, that group, whatever the case might be. And dear friend the Lord might lead at times we have individuals, I don't know.

But I'm not interested in people that I've got to go get a loan from a bank to afford to be able to have them come sing here. And the whole time they sing here it's a big show and everybody claps and everybody just wow, wonderful. How great they are. No, how great God is. And this church ought to bring glory to God, not individuals. That was free, that was free.

Now I've got 11 minutes, I'm hurrying. Number three, I want you to see the cause for praise. Alright challenge, I've got to decide to praise. Caution, don't praise individuals, you've got to praise God.

Alright, so why? What is it that God's done that is so great? That we're supposed to praise Him not only while we live but while we have any being for eternity. Notice if you would, verse five, interesting here. The psalmist shows us why an individual who knows God has many reasons to praise Him. Look at verse five. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord.

If you have put your faith and trust in God, in the only God, you have your hope and trust in Him, happy you should be. Then he begins. Number one, we see the greatness of His power. Look at verse six. The greatness of God, the greatness of God.

Look at verse six. Which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, which keepeth truth forever. That means this, as He begins to give the reasons why we should praise Him first, we're given the reason of the greatness of God.

And under that we see first the greatness of His power. That means this, He made heaven and earth and all that therein is. He's the God of creation.

He's the one that said let there be and there was. He's the one that made the very ground you're standing on. He's the one that made the breath that you are breathing. He's the one that created the body that you were born with. Everything hath breath should praise the Lord.

Because He's the one that put breath in it. The greatness of His power. Number two, we see the greatness of His promises. Look if you would at verse six.

Which made heaven and earth and the sea and all that therein is. Notice this, which keepeth truth forever. That basically means this, we can praise God because God's never lied, never does lie, and never will lie. He keeps truth forever.

If He promised it, He's going to do it. And I'm going to praise somebody like that. I don't know if you're like me, but I'm going to tell you something. I don't really always want somebody to agree with me. And I don't dislike individuals that think differently or feel differently about anything than I do. But what I do want is somebody that's consistent. Just be honest with me.

Don't tell me, yeah, I like this, and then you go to another person and you're different. Hey, just be you. Just be truthful.

Let me tell you something, I'm going to praise God. Because He's never lied to me. He's never misled me.

He's always been honest. And He keeps truth forever. The greatness not only of His power, but of His promises. Secondly, not only the greatness of God, but now we get into the nitty gritty. We see the grace of God.

Notice, if you would, verse 6, Which made heaven and earth and the sea and all that therein is, which keepeth truth forever. Notice verse 7, which executeth judgment for the oppressed. Number one under that, He fights for the helpless.

Why do we praise God? Because He fights for the helpless. He executeth judgment for the oppressed. Those who cannot fight for themselves.

Those who do not have the clout or the ability to stand up for themselves. God stands up for them. He fights for the helpless. I could give you verse after verse after verse for this. But for sake of time this morning, let me tell you something, dear friend.

You and I ought to be thankful that God fights for the helpless. We've got individuals sitting right here in this building that are involved in lawsuits, in court cases, and all kinds of different things. And I don't know how many times individuals will come to me and they say, Man, you know, you look at half the time in the legal system, much of it is just a joke and it's who you know and it's who this person and any of you that have ever dealt with it, you know that it absolutely drives you crazy. It takes forever to get anything done. Nothing's ever fair and it costs an arm and a leg.

And I know all that and you can get to the point that you just think, Man, I just can't figure all this out and I just can't seem to know what to do. Aren't you glad that God fights for the helpless? Don't you notice, number two, He feeds the hungry.

Look at verse seven, which executed judgment for the oppressed, which giveth food to the hungry. Not merely daily bread spiritually, but He gives us daily bread physically. Dear friend, if you ate today or if you haven't eaten yet today, if you ate yesterday or if you haven't eaten yesterday and you ate the day before, you got that food because God provided it.

Now, unless you were fasting, if you went that long without eating, you're crazy. There's too much good food out there right now, okay? I'm telling you what you and I eat, God provides. We owe Him praise for it. Unfortunately, we eat more than He provides sometimes.

We just kind of go crazy. Anyway, that's another sermon, that's a totally other sermon. Look at verse seven, notice this, which executed judgment for the oppressed, He helps the helpless, which giveth food to the hungry, He feeds the hungry. Notice this, the Lord looseth the prisoners, He frees the hostage. You and I were in bondage to sin, but He frees the hostage. It goes all the way back when Paul and Silas were in the jail and God freed them. Now you and I were in the sin jail and God freed us. We have reason to praise Him this morning because He has freed us from hostage. I want you to notice as we begin in verse four, look at verse four if you will.

I really like this. Excuse me, verse eight, I don't know why I said verse four, number four. He fights for the helpless, He feeds the hungry, He frees the hostage. Now we have another section here beginning in verse eight. The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind, the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down, the Lord loveth the righteous. Number one we see under this, or number four in our list, under the grace of God, He lights the blind. God gave sight to the blind. Not only does He do that physically, obviously sometimes, not only does He do that physically in the Bible, we've seen instances, but God says that our hearts and minds were blinded by sin and God gave light to the blind. The Bible says thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Number five, look at verse eight, He lifts the broken.

Now I'm just giving you what the Bible gives here. Notice if you would, the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind, the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down. He lifts the broken. Some of you might be broken this morning. I mean you are bowed down and broken.

Things, circumstances, people have absolutely broken you. Well guess what, you've got reason to praise God today. You know why? Because He lifts people just like you. So while you can come into a church about ready to give up and you can walk out with singing the victory song, because God's word lifts the broken. I want you to notice, if you will, in verse eight, look at this last phrase, the Lord loveth the righteous.

Let me tell you why you and I have reason to praise today. Not only because He lights the blind, He lifts the broken, but number three, because He loves the believer. The Lord loveth the righteous. Dear friend, you might have had family turn their back on you or people turn their back on you, but God loves you.

And that's a good reason to praise Him this morning. I want you to notice this last section beginning, obviously in verse nine, notice this. The Lord preserveth the strangers, He relieveth the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked He turneth upside down. We see first in verse nine, He safeguards the strangers. Now listen to me, this is important, because the psalmist even praises the Lord here, because obviously God watches out for those who were not even part of the nation of Israel. Dear friend, Jesus came to die for the Jew and the Gentile. That means this, God, He helps you and saves you and died for you, even if you're not a Jewish person, even though they're His chosen people. He not only died for the Jew, but He died for the Gentile. That means this, that He reaches out beyond His chosen people and loves you. He safeguards the strangers.

Secondly, we see that He supports the sufferers. Look at verse nine, He relieveth the fatherless and widow. Who are the fatherless and widow? Fatherless are the ones whose parents have died. Who are the widows? The ones whose, obviously their mate has died. Obviously these are people that have suffered. These are people that have suffered loss.

These are people that have faced loneliness, that have faced despair, that have faced great loss in their life, and the Bible says that He supports those. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.