Latest / HBCWestminster / 11.21.21 Psalm 100 Pastor Danny Gardner

Transcript

11.21.21 Psalm 100 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  You'll notice in our psalm this morning, there's a heading above our psalm. In fact, a title is given to it, a title that says, A Psalm for Giving Thanks. The heading of Psalm 100 is even unique among the psalms. No other psalm begins that way. Verse 1, even beginning with a psalm.
• 0:20
  forgiving thanks many of the psalms aren't titled at all some of them are just titled as a psalm or a psalm of david maybe it's the author's name a psalm of asaph or something like that but this one specifically unique among them a psalm for giving thanks this psalm was used extensively by the jewish people during temple worship
• 0:42
  When they were making their offerings, and especially their offerings of thanks, they would quote Psalm 100. It eventually trickled down into use in the synagogues as well. This psalm would have undoubtedly been used by our Lord Jesus. No doubt He said these words during His earthly ministry, throughout His earthly ministry, in order to convey His heart of gratitude to His Heavenly Father. And so with your Bibles open, if you would stand in honor of God's Word.
• 1:11
  As I read Psalm 100, we'll pray and begin. A psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us. We're his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name for the Lord is good.
• 1:45
  His steadfast love endures forever in his faithfulness to all generations. Father, we are a grateful people because of who you are and because of what you've done. And in this season of Thanksgiving, Lord, as we point our eyes heavenward and direct our thoughts and our hearts heavenward, as we direct our homes even heavenward, God, may our attitude be one of praise and thanksgiving. We thank you, Lord, that you are God.
• 2:19
  And we thank you, Lord, that you are good and that your praiseworthy deeds endure, your faithfulness endures to all generations. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. Well, Psalm 100 is a call to praise and thanksgiving on the basis of two realities we find in the text. First, that the Lord is God. But also, second, that the Lord is good.
• 2:48
  The psalmist we see felt so passionately about these two realities that he actually called others to join him in his praise and thanks. And don't you find this statement to be true, church, that when you feel passionately about something, you cannot help but include others in that passion. What you are most passionate about is probably what you talk about most frequently. Isn't that true? Passion, we find, is meant to be contagious.
• 3:20
  You know, at times my preaching gets criticized and don't misunderstand, I'm not looking for sympathy. The vast majority, I mean 99% of the feedback I receive is positive. It's done in love and support. I'm only doing this to illustrate. But I have been told at times that I'm too funny. I've been told, that's true. I've been told that I'm not funny enough. Also true. I've been told that I'm too deep. I've been told that I'm not deep enough.
• 3:53
  I've been told that I illustrate too often. I've been told that I don't illustrate enough. There are families who have come to our church because in their own words, because of the preaching. There are families who have left our church because in their own words of the preaching. There was even a family who left our church because in their words, and I quote, Pastor Danny, you talk about your sons too much. Really? Yeah, we're tired of hearing stories about them.
• 4:21
  And so my response was to invite them to a different church where my sons never come up. You ever wonder, it did cause me to wonder, like, do I talk about my boys a lot? Yes, I do. That is true. I illustrate about them all the time. I tell stories about them all the time. They always come up. You want to know why? Because I'm passionate about them. I'm passionate about them. You guys, my future is secured in heaven.
• 4:51
  And no doubt that is what I sing about and worship and that is what I look forward to. That's what my heart longs for. But my present reality is in the midst of three sons. I spend a lot of time with them. I am passionate about them. And don't you find it to be true that what you are most passionate about will always, always, always become what you talk about the most?
• 5:22
  Allow me to illustrate by telling you a story about one of my sons. You guys know, my youngest son's name is Chase. He's 11 years old. Chase is an evangelist. It is how God designed him. Man, that kid shares the gospel with everybody. Everybody, classmates, his teachers, his friends, his friends here at church, his neighbors. He shares the gospel with everybody. He is unashamed of the gospel. He shares his faith far more often than I do.
• 5:54
  I was walking with Chase this week. This week we're taking a walk and it was one of those really cool, crisp, beautiful evenings. We're walking around our neighborhood and he just asked me, he said, Dad, would you explain to me again why you chose each of our names? And I've explained to them before why Pearson and Zach and Chase, what their names mean, their middle names even. You know, just like you guys did when you were choosing names for your kids, those names mean something. We didn't just...
• 6:17
  choose them arbitrarily out of a hat. We chose them specifically because they either represented people that we admired, that we wanted our sons to become like, or they represented some kind of a character quality that we wanted to be true of them. And so I'm explaining what each of those names meant. And then Chase said at the end of it, he said, Dad, I'm going to name my son Christian. And I said, well, that's a great name, Chase. I said, you'll probably want to discuss that with your wife before making that decision.
• 6:47
  Right? It's probably the two of you guys, but okay, you know, that's a great goal. I said, Chase, is it because of Pilgrim's Progress? I've read him that book before, right? And the main character's name is Christian. Is it because of Pilgrim's Progress? And he said, no, I'm going to name my son Christian because he'll be a Christian. I said, well, Chase, that's great. I said, you know, but you as his father, you can train him and educate him and encourage him in the faith.
• 7:15
  But his decision to believe and worship the Lord, his decision to become a Christian, that'll really be between him and the Lord. That's not really up to you. It's kind of up to him. And he said, nope, I'm going to force him. I said, Chase, you know, honestly, I wish that's how it worked. That's not how it works. I wish that's how it worked. He says, I'm forcing, he'll be a Christian dad.
• 7:42
  And I said, well, what happens if he doesn't? And he says, I'm buying one of those cattle prods. What? He says, oh, yeah, and if he doesn't, I'll zap his little rear end. That's a direct quote from the 11-year-old future pastor evangelist. You know, I'm imagining this scenario playing out. This will be my grandson. I'm imagining this happening, and I just thought, oh, that's so funny, Chase. I wish that's the way it worked.
• 8:16
  We find that our psalmist this morning is not shy about including others in his praise and worship. But notice, church, it's beyond that. He's even not shy about commanding it. It's a call to worship. But more than that, it's an assumption that we who dwell on the earth will worship. Because the reality, there is a heavenly reality that was so real to the psalmist, we assume as David, that's so real to the psalmist that he would say, well,
• 8:47
  knowing this heaven reality why wouldn't we give thanks and praise to god notice in verse 1 make a joyful noise to the lord all the earth serve the lord with gladness come into his presence with singing he assumes you find knowledge of god by all of earth's inhabitants and so he calls the entirety of the human race to join him in praise and you may say well then he assumes wrongly
• 9:16
  Because the entire earth does not believe. And you'd be right. But so overwhelming is the evidence for God's existence that those who would claim disbelief must do so in adamant ignorance of the facts.
• 9:36
  Their choice, and it is a choice not to believe. It's not that they don't believe, it's that they refuse to believe. Their refusal to believe is a denial of what their own hearts and their own moral code and their intelligence and their honest observation will tell them to be true. Notice Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God. Notice these words, right? God is not hiding in his creation.
• 10:03
  He's not even veiled. There is a declaration of glory if you'll just go outside and look. The sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech. Night to night reveals knowledge. There's no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. He says to the furthest ends of the earth, even to every single language, every time a word is spoken, it is revelatory of God's presence.
• 10:36
  Every time there is intelligence, every time there is knowledge, every time there is observation, every time there is science, it is a declaration of the glory of God. There's been a man coming here to the 8 o'clock service. He's been coming. This is his third Sunday in a row. His name is Paul. Paul is originally from Uganda. Now he lives here in Federal Heights.
• 10:59
  He attends another church in town, but that church doesn't start until 11 o'clock, he told me. I just met him for the first time today. I had seen him before, but I hadn't made my way back to meet him. But he came early enough that I got to meet him. I got to talk to him. His other church starts at 11 o'clock. He was driving by here early on a Sunday morning one time, noticed that we have an early service and all these cars in the parking lot. So he's been coming because he says, why wouldn't I attend both? I said, well, I don't know. I'm glad you're here. He's originally from Uganda.
• 11:25
  And I just said, man, he's incredibly intelligent. I said, what's life like in Uganda? He said, it's a tribal nation. So he said, there are tribal peoples all over the place. Each of those tribal peoples has at least two languages, most of them three. He says, many of them speak French. Many of them speak Swahili, which is the trade language. Many of them speak their own tribal language. And then many of them also speak English. I said, Paul, how many languages do you speak? And he said, I only speak three.
• 11:55
  I was like, only three? I barely speak one. According to my English teacher, I didn't do very well, even in my own language. I don't even speak English. I had to take remedial English in college. That's a true story. I don't even speak my own language. And he just said, Pastor Danny, languages are so easy. He said, if you just sat down with a Google app, a translation app, and then immersed yourself in the culture,
• 12:26
  where you had to speak Swahili. He says, you could learn Swahili in two weeks. And I was like, two weeks? Paul, come on. I said, no way. He says, yep, you've got to completely immerse yourself in it. And he says, you have to not be afraid to be laughed at. And I was like, well, I get laughed at all the time. So check. I've got the first one. Now I just need the Google app, apparently. So two Sundays from now, I'll be preaching in Swahili. You're all welcome to join me. You're going to need to pray.
• 12:56
  That I get the gift of tongues. That's going to have to happen in order for me to speak in Swahili. I was like, Paul, there's no way. There's no way. Imagine that little African nation, Uganda, on the other side of the world. Dozens of languages. It says even there. Even there, the declaration, the proclamation of the glory of God. It is everywhere.
• 13:24
  There is not a word spoken, he says. There is not a place where the sun doesn't shine, where the glory of God is not revealed. Notice also Psalm 8, we just sang it. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. When I look at your heavens, the stars which you have made. What is man that you're mindful of him? The son of man that you care for him.
• 13:48
  You'll notice in verses 1 and 2 that there are three imperatives. Imperatives are commands. These are not options. You guys have your Bibles open. Look for the three commands in verses 1 and 2. Do you guys see them? The first one, it hits you right off the bat. What's the first one? Make noise. That's the first one. It's an imperative. You're commanded to do it. Make noise. What's the second one? Serve the Lord. What's the third one?
• 14:17
  Come into his presence, but you'll also notice not only are the three imperatives given, but there are attitudes attached to each. Do you notice that? It doesn't just say make noise. To be honest with you, we make enough noise. And not all the noise we make is joyful. Isn't that true? Make a joyful noise. Serve the Lord, but not begrudgingly, not angrily, not because you have to. Serve the Lord, it says, with what?
• 14:49
  gladness come into his presence but come into his presence with singing with singing joy gladness and singing you know it's crazy to me how many people who claim to have known Christ the longest who have
• 15:13
  attended church the longest, who have been in the faith and the family of God the longest, who have supposedly, we assume, spent the most number of hours on their knees in the presence of God through prayer and communing with Him through His Word, how often it is that sometimes they are the grumpiest people in the church rather than the most joyful.
• 15:42
  There are obvious exceptions to that, even many in this room, which we thank God for. Highland has so few, if not none of those. If there are any of those grumpy Christians, they certainly come to 8 o'clock or 11. None of them come to 9.30. We understand. But you know what I'm talking about. You come into contact with another Christian, you're like, where's the joy? Where's the gladness? Where's the singing?
• 16:15
  You know, if you're coming to Highland because you feel guilty, there's great news. You're off the hook. You're actually, according to the psalmist here, you're actually meant to enjoy knowing Christ. Enjoy it. That knowledge of God is meant to be exciting. One pastor in Texas has said this, the older I get, the more suspicious I become of crusty and angry Christianity.
• 16:44
  Crusty and angry should not be adjectives used of our faith. Crusty and angry. May it never be said of us. Amen? Crusty? What an awful word to use. I wonder sometimes if we are discipling that next generation of believers, the one that I just showed on the screen, some of whom are our kids, our grandkids, our nieces and nephews, if we are truly discipling them well in this regard. Will we give them doctrine?
• 17:15
  We give them practice. But do we give them joy and gladness and singing? A couple of years ago on a Wednesday night, one of our board members and I, Kurt Wentz, many of you know him. He's a good friend and a board member here at the church. Kurt Wentz and I.
• 17:31
  We're standing in the lobby right there, right outside of the double doors on a Wednesday Thrive night. And so all of the adults were in here. For whatever reason, I wasn't teaching that night. So I was just standing out there. Sound is being piped out there. Kurt and I are talking and whatever, laughing together and listening and all of that. And so we're standing right outside those double doors. Down the little hallway there and on the other side of those double doors was our kids ministry happening. On that side of those double doors, they were singing.
• 17:58
  They were laughing. They were shouting. They were dancing. They were celebrating. You guys, you should have seen them. Kurt and I walked over to those double doors. We're looking in there. I mean, kids are going, they were having so much fun singing together and dancing. And you know, they got all these songs, One Way, Jesus, you know, and they're singing and doing all of this. And we were just enjoying that. We turned around and looked what was happening on this side of the double doors. And our adults, all of us,
• 18:29
  We're sitting there, very somber, very quiet. If I may be so bold, looking bored. Some looked even to be kind of nodding off. Now, that's an assumption. I grant you, maybe your eyes were closed in prayer, okay? And if so, God bless you. But I was like, what? And we just kind of smirked, you know? We look one direction. The kids are just having so much fun. We look this direction.
• 19:03
  Finally just said, and it was awesome, it was perfect. He looked that way, then he looked this way, and he said, preview of coming attractions. I thought, what happens? What happens in that 40 feet? It's only 40 feet. What happens when they go from that room to this room? Where the joy wears off, the gladness wears off, the celebration wears off, the singing completely changes.
• 19:34
  and is transformed and i wonder if that is the faith we want to hand to our kids and there are of course exceptions to what i'm about to say and and please understand i know that to be true there are parents who have modeled the joy of the lord perfectly and whose kids have still decided to reject the grace of god even with their parents great examples i know that to be true but it's little wonder to me sometimes that there are kids
• 20:04
  Now grown kids across the nation who have abandoned the faith, the faith of their parents, and who are now seeking joy elsewhere because they did not see in the generation ahead of them a model of joy and gladness and kindness and singing. And so, of course, they're going to wonder, well, why would I want that? I don't want a somber, bored, and sleepy faith. Those are not the adjectives he uses.
• 20:37
  When I was young, I would very often ask my former senior pastor, who was my boss and my friend and my pastor, what I needed to improve in order to grow in ministry. I was brand new in ministry, and I just said, what do I need to do differently? Watch what I do. He was such a great pastor. I mean, honestly, still is. A visionary, a great leader, a great teacher. And I just said, Chris, tell me what I need to change. I appreciated his honesty with me. He didn't hold any punches.
• 21:07
  One time he told me I needed to change my preaching. He said, you know, Danny, you're great at the hammer, but God's people don't always need to be hammered. Sometimes they just need to be encouraged rather than crushed. It was great advice. One time he just came to me. He says, Danny, you know, I've been thinking about it. Here's something you need to change about ministry. And I said, okay, yeah, tell me. I'm thinking doctrinally, whatever. Did I preach something that was false? And he said, you know what you need to do? What? You need to smile more. You don't smile enough. You look grumpy all the time.
• 21:41
  He says, and I always wonder, like, why? What do you have to be so grumpy about? You need to smile more. He gave me that advice. And honestly, it was great advice. Not to be too cliche here, but can we please, for the sake of our kids, and for the sake of our spouses, and for the sake of our friends, for the sake of our unsaved neighbors, can we please turn that frown upside down? Let me show you what I'm talking about. Turn with me to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. Hard right turn in your Bibles.
• 22:14
  Acts chapter 4, I'll give you a second to get there, but remember the context here. Jesus has been crucified, buried. He is raised from the dead. For 40 days, he ministers to his apostles. At the end of those 40 days, he ascends into the heavens. He commissions his apostles to go and make disciples of all nations. The Holy Spirit has come down from heaven, has descended and fallen upon the church. The church has been born.
• 22:39
  And from now on, our relationship with God is different because not only is God with us, but according to Acts 2, God is in us. His Holy Spirit actually lives in us, empowering us, gifting us to go and to fulfill the great commission. In Acts 3, there's a lame man, a crippled man who is healed. You'll recall he's begging outside of the Temple Mount, Peter and John.
• 23:05
  Say, I don't have any silver or gold, but what I have I give to you, I give to you freely. In the name of Jesus, stand and walk. The man stands and walks home. So miracles are being performed. The Apostle Peter gives this unbelievable Pentecost sermon where people are gathered because of the Passover. People are gathered from all over the world, tribes and nations, all represented there to offer their praise and thanksgiving sacrifices to God. And so the Apostle Peter now preaches this sermon. People in every tongue hear him.
• 23:35
  They turn around, they take him back. They take the Lord's gospel back to their own hometowns. The gospel is getting ready to explode all over the earth. And that Sanhedrin, that religious ruling class of men who had only two months earlier crucified Jesus, they decide they better do something because crucifying him wasn't enough. If they want to stamp this thing out, they better do it in a hurry. And so in Acts chapter four, they drag Peter and John, the two most foremost at that time.
• 24:03
  apostles they dragged them before them in order to try them no doubt in order to determine them guilty of the same crimes of jesus and no doubt in order to execute them the way that they did our lord and in act chapter 4 and verse 13 look what it says they saw the sanhedrin saw the what you guys see it in your bibles there verse 13 now when they saw the boldness of peter and john
• 24:32
  and perceived that they were uneducated, common men. They were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. What was it about Peter and John that so stood out to the Sanhedrin? Was it their miraculous power? No. Was it their great education? I hold a PhD in whatever. It wasn't. What was it that stood out to them? Boldness. They spoke the word of God with courage. Go down to verse 19.
• 25:05
  So now they get together the Sanhedrin and they say, well, we're just going to command them to stop doing that. Stop preaching like that. Verse 19, but Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. In other words, you're the lawmakers. So I guess you get to decide if what we're doing is illegal, right? You decide, whatever you decide, whether you're going to make it illegal for us to preach or not, you're the judge.
• 25:33
  But, verse 20, for we cannot but speak of what we've seen and heard. Whether it's illegal or not is not going to change or deter us. We will continue to preach in the name of Jesus. Command us all you want. You're not going to stop us. They're beaten. They're released. Peter and John head back to the church. Look at verse 23. When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. In other words, stop preaching in Jesus' name. And when they heard it,
• 26:04
  They all got together and said, okay, we're just going to be quiet about it. From now on, we're just not going to do that anymore. We'll stop, right? I mean, that's not what it says at all. They get together, a full-on worship service breaks out. A church service breaks out.
• 26:19
  They lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why do the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves. The rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. And so they just start to preach and sing and praise. And notice verse 31.
• 26:41
  When the church had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Same word, same word. We find here that when the leaders of the church speak the word of God with boldness, the people of the church will follow. And you know, I think this is true in the church. I think it's true in our homes. This is how we disciple our kids.
• 27:16
  This is it. This is how we leave a legacy with our grandkids and our great-grandkids. This is it. We don't just tell them the truth. We show them how the truth transforms the way we live. Perhaps some of you heard this last week, Al Mohler's The Briefing, when he recently discovered that there was a scientific study done on the reason behind baby ducklings swimming in a perfectly straight line behind their mothers.
• 27:46
  The research had been performed by the University of Strathclyde in the UK and Scotland. The research found, and they literally did, they researched this, they said, and I quote, ducklings have a surprisingly good grasp of hydrodynamics. You're like, yeah, I'm sure that's what they're thinking. You see those ducks, you know, the mom and then all these little lemmings behind them? Yeah, I'm sure they're thinking this was all study based on our research. Generation after generation of ducklings has done this study.
• 28:14
  determined that, yes, hydrodynamics, no, that's not it. But the study continues using a mathematical numerical model when the lead duckling swims in what they call the sweet spot. Behind its mother, a destructive wave interference phenomenon occurs. That's the physicist way of saying what NASCAR drivers have known for decades. NASCAR, they call it what? Drafting.
• 28:43
  What's that little duckling doing? The little duckling is drafting behind its mother. Now, the physicist calls it a destructive interference phenomenon. We would say, well, the mom, as she swims, is breaking that water. As the water goes around her body and then fills in that void behind her, it actually creates a tiny little eddy right behind the mom's rear end.
• 29:15
  Not only is she causing that destructive wave interference, whatever you want to call it, the water as it goes around the mom and now fills in that hole actually pushes forward rather than backward. And so if that little duckling can find that sweet spot right behind the mom, that little duckling will realize, I don't actually have to do anything.
• 29:39
  I can just sit here and the water behind my mom is actually moving the same direction as my mom. I barely have to do anything. And this is why all those little ducklings are right in a perfect line and they're all equidistant. They are all following that little sweet spot right behind mom, right behind older brother, right behind older sister. You just stay in a line and you barely have to do anything. My mom is propelling me along. So why do they follow their parents?
• 30:09
  That's because of the clear advantage it is. It's easier. Mom does all the work. It sounds just like our house. Mom does all the work. The ducklings gain the benefit as long as the duckling stays directly behind mom. What a cool thing. Talk about the heavens declaring the glory of God. Where did those little ducklings learn that? They didn't learn it.
• 30:42
  That was given to them by the Lord. And what a simple truth to illustrate this point. If you go back to Psalm 100, what a simple truth. That we actually are, as parents, as grandparents, as mentors, as disciple makers, we are the ones who are pushing against that tidal wave of culture, of agnosticism, of atheism, of God-hatred, of God-ignorance. We are the ones who are breaking that water so that
• 31:12
  The little ones behind us can find the sweet spot and follow. Well, that's the call to worship. And notice that call. And for these two, we go very quickly. The call is based on two realities, realities that we're familiar with. But notice the first one is that the Lord is God. Verse three, know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless.
• 31:44
  His name. We find that our worship must be intelligent. We got to know who it is we're worshiping. We don't just mindlessly sing, launching aimless worship songs. Our worship, we find, must be informed. Our worship must not only be in spirit, but also in truth. We got to know who it is that we're worshiping. We don't just launch our songs and prayers into the abyss.
• 32:11
  and praise the lord we don't serve the unknown god of the greeks our god doesn't hide he has revealed himself and he's very clear about who he is look at hebrews chapter one long ago at many times and in many ways god spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he created the world
• 32:34
  He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature. He upholds the universe by the word of His power. He is a revealing God. He is a sending God. He sent His Son, who is the heir of all things, the creator of all things, the radiance of His glory, the exact imprint of His nature, and the sustainer of the universe. But not only that, verse 3 says, it is He who made us. Not only must we know who He is,
• 33:06
  But we also must know what he has done. He has created us. And church, we live in a culture that acts as though they created themselves, as though they just kind of spontaneously generated. They literally believe that, that they came from nothing, from nowhere. And so they owe no allegiance. They don't recognize that they're under anything or beholden to anyone. We live among a generation of self-proclaimed, self-made men.
• 33:40
  who wear their independence and their arrogance as a trophy. But this says we are His. We are His people. We're the sheep of His pasture. We're sheep and He is our shepherd. And not only that, John 10 says He is a good shepherd. He leads us. He guides us, Psalm 23 says, to green grass, to peaceful streams. And so let's enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.
• 34:10
  Based on these realities, I think the only proper response is worshipful gratitude. Thankfulness, we find, is to the believer what incense was to the temple. It's the atmosphere. It permeates even the very air that we breathe. We shouldn't be able to take a breath without giving thanks. We breathe in the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord and we breathe out thanksgiving because He is God.
• 34:38
  But not only that, here is the second reality, verse 5. Not only is he God, but we find he is good. And praise God. Because what would it be like, church, if he was God but not good? That wouldn't be good for any of us. But we find the Lord is good contained within this simple word. Good is a host of reasons to praise his name. You'll notice verse 5 continues. His steadfast love endures forever in his faithfulness to all generations. Love.
• 35:11
  and faithfulness are explicitly stated but implied in these words good and love and faithful or a host of others kindness grace and love and mercy and justice and compassion are also implied and you find they never run out they endure forever and to all generations you know i think if you asked my three sons what kind of dad they have some of those same words i hope would be used if is your dad
• 35:42
  Good, you might ask Chase. He'd say, yes. Zach, is your dad loving? Yeah, he's loving. Pearson, is he gracious? Yes, he's gracious. But they might also include that those words depend on the kind of mood I'm in. Because although I'm a good dad, I'm not always good. Although I'm a loving father, I'm not always loving and I'm not always gracious. But we find here that never, never must the children of God wonder what kind of mood our dad is in.
• 36:17
  He is always those things. As Charles Spurgeon has said, as our fathers found him faithful, so will our sons. I love that quote. As our fathers found him faithful, so will our sons. And Highland, let us give thanks to the Lord because he's not only God, he's also good. And so rightly we can sing, great is thy faithfulness, O God our Father. There's no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. They will never fail, church, as thou hast been.
• 36:47
  thou forever will be. We have a reason to praise, church. We have been made by God. We're his sheep. He's a good and faithful shepherd whose heart will never sour. And so let us make noise and serve and come into his presence with joy and gladness and singing forever. And let us never be ashamed to include others in that passion. And Lord, I pray a blessing over the preaching of your word. Lord, you are God.
• 37:17
  But you are also good, and we are thankful for it. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.