How To Bless The Lord

How to bless the Lord. Did you know you can bless the Lord? That really impacted me this week. Just thinking about we can bless the Lord.

We can honor Him. We can give Him, obviously He doesn't need anything, but we can give Him our heart, our soul, our strength. And what we see is when we open up Psalm 103, is it's actually broke up into three parts.

First, the psalmist sings of personal mercies, which he has himself received. So he will open up the Psalms. He sings about personal mercies he's received from the Lord.

Then he magnifies the attributes of God as displayed in the dealings with his people. And then he closes out this Psalm by calling upon all the creatures in the universe to adore the Lord and join with himself in blessing Jehovah, the ever gracious. That's how it's broken down.

Now it appears to be written, this Psalm by David in his later years. And Charles Spurgeon said, it's when he had a higher sense of the preciousness of God's pardon. Have you realized as you get older, God's pardon is more precious to you? His mercy is more precious to you.

I remember you're kind of cavalier about it in your teenage years, in your 20s, but 30s, 40, you start to really realize just how precious that mercy and that grace is. Unmerited favor. And God just giving us that mercy and his grace.

So it begins with a very powerful verse that many are familiar with. Bless the Lord, O my soul. All that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. And just thinking about that, blessing the Lord, which is, it's exhortation, it's worship. O my soul, all that is within me.

Sometimes, this church and other churches, we get critiqued by those who don't like emotional worship. But I don't want to be the bearer of bad news. Worship is emotional.

It's not stagnant. It's not like stationary. I mean, we all worship differently, but when something within you worships God and it's according to Scripture, all that is within me, that's why he says, with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your soul.

And I had a 20-minute section there on that verse, but I'm gonna hold it for later because we just don't have the time. But it's also important to work through when we bless the Lord with all of our strength, that means in what we do, our activities. And do you give God the best of your day? How many of us try to squeeze him in later on when we're tired? He should get the best, the freshness of our day, whenever that is for you.

Other people are different. For me, after seven at night, I'm not real good. But at early morning time, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your soul, with all your mind, and it's exhortation, bless the Lord, oh my soul, forget not all his benefits.

Don't we have to remind ourselves of the benefits of God often? Because we can get stuck in the critical mode, always critiquing, always upset, always, you know, and just, we have bad days. And we, do you ever get, and you just stay real negative? And it's, it just begins to really wear you down. Charles Spurgeon said, soul music, soul music is the very soul of music.

What he means by that is music that comes from the soul. Music that comes from the deep reservoir of the heart. And you'll hear that term sometimes, anointing.

What that really means is there's a special touch of God's favor on their life. And you can tell, you can, I don't know about you, but when Natalie and Maddie are pouring out their hearts, there's, it's, there's something there. There's that, the touch of God, you have the gifting of God meets the anointing of God.

And what that is, is it's, it's music from the soul. It's the, you can feel the person. That's why it's different than performers.

They go around and do certain sets and we clap and, but this is coming from their soul, deep within their heart. And some of the best sermons you'll ever hear. I played that clip of that pastor from Georgia on Sunday and some of the best worship, some of the best preaching.

It really doesn't come from, I love studying and I'm not, don't get, don't take me, don't take this wrong, but sermon prep and studying and life experience and things like that, it's wonderful. But really that strong anointing comes from pain. Comes from walking that journey with God.

Knowing, knowing who God really is. And in case you're, you're somewhat new, I've mentioned this many times before, but so applicable right now, about that church that was having, I think it's a made up story, but it fits, so that's okay. But they're having this, this contest of who could quote the 23rd Psalm better.

Like, that's not really a good idea, but they, they had this event. And so you have this guy who came out of town and they, he's, he's just an incredible, you know, those guys, they'll use their voice for like the Bible, the Bible on audio and just that radio voice or that, that it's just incredible voice. And, and so he, he did it perfectly.

He, I mean, he just, he, he nailed it. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, and it was beautiful.

But the other person never showed up. He missed his flight or something. So real quick, they went and they got the janitor in the back and they said, come on, Bill.

You know, do you know the 23rd Psalm? Yeah, I, I do. And he got up there and wasn't real polished. His voice cracked a little bit, but you could tell the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. You remember burying his wife a year ago and how God, and the tear, and you could tell, and he got a standing ovation. The people were just so moved in this young, arrogant, I don't know what you call him, public speaker, just kind of left upset.

Like I did it better. And an old deacon stopped him on the way out. And he said, young man, here's the problem.

You knew the 23rd Psalm, but that old man knew the shepherd. That, my friends, is the difference. That's the difference in church.

That's the difference in your walk with the Lord. Many people know the Bible. They can teach the Bible, but do they truly know the shepherd? And that often only comes through walking through the valley of the shadow of death, going through those difficulties, going through those, those, those things.

But David could write this. Oh, my soul, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul, all that's within me.

How God spared him from Saul and the Philistines and all these things. And David walked through this very difficult season. And that's why Spurgeon said, soul music is the very soul of music.

The psalmist strikes the best keynote when he begins with stirring up his innermost or inmost self to magnify the Lord. He stirs it up within himself. And that's not being fake.

When I have to stir it up sometimes, I'm not coming up here acting. I'm trying to stir it up in my heart and in your heart. It's a change of mind.

And you know, if you've done anything, singing or teaching or anything, Bible studies, sometimes you gotta stir it up. You gotta strengthen yourself in the Lord. You've gotta refocus.

You don't always feel like it. You've gotta strengthen yourself in the Lord, stir it up and get that heart set back on God again. And that's what he did.

He stirred it up in the innermost self of his being to magnify the Lord. And I wrote here, the wearied battle-ridden saint must praise God. We must praise him.

That's where praise comes from. That's why some people have a problem with worship. They're not a battled, wearied saint who's fighting the good fight of faith.

They're far from their Savior. They've got intellectual knowledge, but there's no heart engagement and they become critical. They become negative.

That's a sure sign that your worship is being affected at a very deep level is you become critical and contentious and negative and woe is me. I call that person the Eeyore Christian. How many of you guys remember Eeyore? Was it Winnie the Pooh? Oh, Winnie, I don't know, just walking around.

And I know that can hit all of us, can't it? I mean, these are little things too, but I think it was just Monday, supposed to be my day off, but I get up, my wife says, oh, the bottom of my car is falling off. The bottom of your car. And I go out there and there's the plastic all down and said, that doesn't just happen.

What happened? Did you go over something and then back up and it pulled it off? Yes. And then I go to my truck and there's a big nail in the front tire and then our back filter for the pool breaks. It's like, enough, Lord.

And those are, I know little things because compared to people, but it can really kind of mess with your spirit a little bit. Like I don't have time to fix all this stuff. So I get my son up, wake him up and have him out.

But I want to encourage you because even Spurgeon, the reason I'm quoting him is he wrote something just incredible. It's called the Treasuries of David. And it's his commentary on all of the Psalms.

And it's like, these guys, they had this deep relationship with the Lord because they didn't have the internet and they weren't busy all the time. They were candlelight, fire and candlelight and the phone's not gonna ring. Can you, Tim, can you imagine 1800s, just candlelight and a fire.

There you go for the next six, seven hours. You're gonna have to go walk six miles to the village to do something. And he would write these things, but he talked about that.

He said, you have to stir up, stir up something in your heart to magnify the Lord. And I found that it doesn't come naturally. It comes supernaturally.

That's why you take those thoughts captive. That's why you say, oh Lord, this is not right. And you repent, this thinking is not right.

Did you know you can repent of stinking thinking? How I feel about this person is not right. This offense I'm holding is not right. This critical heart I've developed, Lord, I've drifted from you.

This is not right. And you stir it up again and you say, oh God, bless my soul. I wanna worship you again with that heart of worship.

And I looked up a word this week, an ingrate. How many of you know what an ingrate is? It's a person who shows no gratitude or appreciation for kindness or favors they have received. And I put a comma when it should have been a period.

So this is a person who shows no gratitude or appreciation to God for the kindness or the favors they have received. Now, if we just took 20 minutes and took inventory of God's favor on our life, all of us would be magnifying the Lord. No matter how hard the situation is, if we just, how good is God? You reflect on your kids and your grandkids, your job.

Do you know all of you are in the upper 1% of the income level of the whole world? Like nobody in this room is at the poverty level of the world. We have buttons we can push for air conditioning. And I hear the air conditioning on right now on the drum set, that's pretty cool.

Air conditioning, heating, water, our kids, what God has given us, the mercy and the grace of God. And when you start to think about that, and yes, life is challenging. Life is difficult.

It gets confusing sometimes. Some of you don't know what cryptocurrency to buy. Oh, what a struggle.

And my concern is that this reflects a lot of us, including myself from time to time. No gratitude or appreciation or kindness for what God has done. This will stifle worship in your heart.

This will kill worship. And if you're not a worshiper, everything flows from the heart. Everything you do.

For in the heart is the wellspring of life. I believe it's actually Proverbs who says, guard the heart, guard it, for out of it flows all the issues of life. Guard that heart and repent.

That's why we preach repentance a lot. It's because that's how we get back on track with God. And why does he say, blessed the Lord, oh my soul, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.

He forgives all your iniquities. Aren't you glad he doesn't keep track? Who heals all your diseases. Now, this is an interesting topic on healing.

I've taught on it before. And it can be confusing, isn't it? Christians praying for healing, seeing people not be healed, seeing others be healed. It's a confusing topic, but I have found, I think that one of the reasons is, confusion, if handled correctly, always builds trust.

You can't build trust if there's not doubt. If somebody says, I'm gonna pay you $100,000, your trust, you don't see it, but if they put it right here, there's no trust. You see it, there's nothing there.

I mean, there's nothing to not believing them. You see it in the same way when it comes to healing. We know God can, but will He? I'm confused, why is this person, seem to got healed and they don't really know the Lord and other saints of God, who have prayed and fasted, and you don't see that breakthrough.

I'm confused and they're confused, but that confusion always builds a deeper trust with God. Again, if they become better, not bitter. That's the key, that's what swings it.

I've seen many people become frustrated with God and they get actually upset at God and they, how could you allow this to happen? A pardoned sin is the greatest mercy God can give. Isn't that the greatest mercy, if you think about it, pardoning our sin. We can't pardon ourself.

We can't do anything on our own. We can't have good works, nothing. We are lost without God's grace and mercy.

It was so bad that He said, I'm gonna have to send the perfect sacrifice to cover, to shed the blood, to redeem humanity, to pardon your sin. That is the greatest act of mercy the world has ever known. Many-sided, Spurgeon said, is the character of our Heavenly Father.

For having forgiven us as a judge, He then cures us as a physician. What a beautiful picture. And I think many people, especially if you talk to the younger kids and stuff, they have a view of God that can sometimes be unhealthy.

Because the Bible talks about all the attributes of God, He's one. And sometimes they'll see Him just as a judge. A cosmic killjoy.

Out to get me. I can't have fun. Holy God, holiness.

And they kind of live with this. It's good to live with fear of God, but they don't realize that He's holy. He is a judge.

But He's also one of the attributes that we love is the attribute of love. He's holy yet loving. He's righteous yet merciful.

And having that, anytime you balance something, it's a good thing. Balance your budget. Balance your life.

And when you're off balance, it's not very healthy. That's why balancing the attributes of God is very, very healthy. An old hymn.

This was actually written, I think, do we have the year up there? 1861. Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1861. I just grabbed a line from it.

In Him is only good, and me is only ill. My ill but draws His goodness forth, and me He loves. Love is still.

How true. In Him is only good, and me is only ill. My ill but draws His goodness forth, and me He loveth still.

I put a note to remind us. Spurgeon actually mentioned this hymn as well. And it came out around the time he was writing the Commentary on Psalms.

So my point is, this old hymn was a new hymn to Spurgeon. It's okay for some new songs. This was written, it was new.

And he quoted it. And I only say it because sometimes we just think that the old hymns are the only way to really worship. But God's putting that heart cry on many, many young leaders.

Again, as long as it's solid and doctrinally sound and honors God, we should be very open to that. And now we're going to go a little bit quickly through this and you can just reflect. Look on the screen.

Let me read this. This is why he's lifting up his soul. He's praising God.

He's reflecting. If you don't know really like, I hear this sometimes, I don't know how to pray. Do you ever think that? It's okay.

I don't know how to pray. I don't know what to pray. Let me give you some encouragement on this.

Don't always have just a list. Do this. Do this.

Of course it's good. Let your request be known to God. But often you can read a psalm.

And it's not only a form of praying, it is praying because your heart's engaged. So let's go along with this. Next screen.

Who redeems your life from destruction? So here's what he's saying. Here's the psalmist. You want to pray? Here you go.

Who redeems your life from destruction? Who crowns you with loving and tender mercies? Who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's? The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. In other words, he will lift you up. And if you're going through a difficult season, remember that God is my strength.

He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever.

In other words, wake up if God is speaking to you, repent and turn to him. Too many people confuse his silence with his approval. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, thank God, nor punished us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is the mercy towards those who fear him. That's a key point. You're going to see that again.

Those who fear him. Fear God. The Bible says fear God and live.

The Bible says the beginning of knowing God is fear. The Bible says the beginning of wisdom and knowledge is to fear the Lord. Why is that so important? Because you walk better, you listen better, you respect better when you fear something.

This type of fear is a wonderful thing. Aren't you glad you fear some things? You hear that little rattle in the desert when you're walking by? Ah, you're going to walk a little differently. You see the yellow lines on the street? You're going to drive on a certain side of the road.

Now what I'm starting to fear is I pull up to people and they're driving 60, they're like this. I'm backing away. I'm getting away.

Fear, it can be a really good thing. Fearing financial collapse will help you budget better. Fearing divorce might make you a better spouse.

Fearing an early death or being bedridden for the last 15 years of your life might encourage you to make different choices in life. Fear can be a wonderful thing. How much more fear in God? And look at this, He has not dealt with us according to our sins.

Imagine Him dealing with us according to our sins. The Christian life, I was listening to the radio today, our station, I think it was Jack Hibbs said, the Christian life is not fair. And I said, you know what? That's right.

It's not fair at all. Thank God it's not fair. Because fair is you deserve this.

And God does not do that with us. He has not dealt with us according to our sins. By the way, my oldest kid's going to meet Him tomorrow.

I'm going to be on his podcast. So pray for that. That'll be cool.

Side note. Nor punished us according to our iniquity. So He has not dealt with us according to our sins nor has He punished us according to them.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, His mercy is so great to those who fear Him. What about those who don't fear Him? Those who don't fear Him don't repent and they live in rebellion so their sin is not covered. Very simple.

Bible 101. And here's another famous verse. As far as the east is, do you know those points never touch? As far, you actually couldn't say anything farther.

I mean, you could say, I guess, the universe, but they didn't know what the universe was back then. They could only, they counted the stars. Oh, there's about a thousand stars out there.

I think that's where it ends. Right out there somewhere. Have you seen recent pictures that keep coming out? Like, I know I talk about this, but I'm like, I'll just sit there and watch.

What's the new telescope? Not the Hubble, the, I don't know. There's a new telescope that's going way farther and grabbing like, it'll take just a little section, this black area, a little section and highlight it. And there's like 10,000 galaxies in that little section.

A web, webcam, or not webcam, but web something, telescope that goes even further. And it's just, I just can't believe all that. Like all of those things, like a solar system's pretty big, correct? And God just hangs it.

Millions and millions and billions of stars. It's unfathomable. And so he says here, as far as the east is from the west, he's removed our transgressions from us.

And I pray with people about this a lot. And I think I just did it Sunday as well. Do not let the enemy keep bringing up your past because he can beat some of us up pretty good.

Especially if you've lived here all your life. I drive by, that's the place I first had crystal myth, by Tim's house over there in the country club in Palmdale. No, not in Tim's house, by Tim's house.

My first drink on M4 at the cross from the little league field and all these memories. Oh yeah, you remember, you remember getting kicked out of Black Angus for the rest of my life. Now they let me in, that was a long time ago, so they forgot.

Some of the bouncers from, what's that place? Yes, goodness, yeah, I knew you'd still know. The old location over on, over there, Clubhouse 41. Dating myself, I remember the Clubhouse 41 on the J8 in the corner there.

Smoke Eye, Desert Inn, DI on Sierra Highway. Oh, I got it all down, I remember my past. And if you, it's not funny.

And the DPs, desert parties behind Quartz Hill Mountain before there's any homes. And so the enemy can remind you of that past, remind you of the mistakes you made. Remember that relationship that you fell that.

Remember that, and in those sins like, man, you can really go to a dark spot if you remember your past. And I've opened up about it before. I actually just got a email a couple weeks ago to fly out and be on a documentary with Lila Rose and her organization about abortion, how it affects men, but we'll be actually out of town.

But still that, that part of me, anytime I take the 405 in Sylmar by El Presidente Restaurant and knowing where that abortion clinic was, and just, oh, man, just tears on the 405. It's like your past. The enemy will use that to keep you very even isolated and depressed.

And you guys don't know it because I can't really talk about it a lot, but sometimes it'll be hard to preach if you're feeling beat up. Like, who am I? Who am I to go up there and say anything? Because that past. Forgetting that you've been redeemed from that past.

That's why as the sins have been from East to West have been forgiven, if he's not holding them against you, you shouldn't hold them against you. We learn from them. We encourage people to turn from them.

But remember, thank God for the shed blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, that precious blood.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And we have to, again, stir up ourselves to not remember our former life and to not keep just staying in that place of defeat. And I think for me, a lot of it is regret.

Anybody ever have any regrets? If you could go back and live it over again. But then I'd start to think, but then I wouldn't be who I am today. And from that pain, from the ashes, God began to rebuild and restore.

And those who have been forgiven much, love much. I don't think people should have, I mean, I don't encourage people to have a bad testimony. If you can walk the straight and narrow, do it.

But I've also noticed that those who haven't been forgiven much, don't love much. Their home life was pretty great. They went to a Christian school.

Maybe they graduated from university and things have been pretty good. And that's good, but there's something also that does, God does a deep work in the human heart that is felled as well. It's broken, it's marred, it's damaged, but it's this precious thing that God can say, look at what the potter has done.

Look what the potter has done. He's taken that clay, that brokenness and rebuilt it. As the father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him.

What a verse. And don't mistake that word pity. It's not what we really use it for.

The Hebrew word for it is something like what we would say fills for, cares for, is concerned for. So as a father looks down on his children and the six month old who can't walk yet and will pick them up and hold them and put them where they need to be and watch over them. That same imagery is given here.

That God will do that to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are just dust, dust, dust, dust.

Did you know you're dust? You are just dust. And I love that Genesis account where God, it says God created us out of, and if you break down the minerals and the dirt in our human body, it's pretty amazing the correlation that how God created us. And man, his days are like grass.

Can you imagine reading this early in the morning with no distractions and just reflecting on this? This is what meditating on the Word of God is. You don't just read it, and I have to preach to myself right now. You don't just read it and say, oh, I read three chapters today.

You've gotta meditate on it. Let it dwell richly in your soul. And a man, his days are just like grass.

Grass is a flower of the field, so he flourishes, but then he also vanishes. For the wind passes over it, and it's gone, and its place is remembered no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.

There's that word again. And His righteousness to children's children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commands to do them. The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.

Bless the Lord, you His angels, you who excel in strength, you who do His Word, heeding the voice of His Word. Here it comes again. He ends with this.

Bless the Lord, all you hosts, you ministers of His, you who do pleasures. Now he's talking to the angelic beings. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Bless the Lord. And because we're talking about that, I'll cover a few things, and then we can just get right back into worship.

To bless the Lord means that genuine adoration and praise flow from us. That's actually how you bless the Lord. It's genuine adoration and praise that flow from us.

So let's do a reflection here for a minute. Is the well polluted in your heart? Or how do I know? What's coming out of your heart? What's coming out of your heart? I know nobody came in here perfect. Correct? If you did, talk to me afterwards.

There's something though that can, there's sometimes things that can come in that can pollute the well. The well spring of living water. The living well that flows out of us.

And we must reflect on that and repent of it. Is there gratitude for God's goodness? That's another reason to bless Him. Gratitude.

Did you know we're supposed to be thankful? How you doing? How you really doing? I mean, let's be honest. Are we really thankful? We try, but don't turn that news on. Don't look at your 401k sometimes.

Don't look at your schedule. Don't look at things, anybody, your plan's not going exactly like you thought. Any planners out there? Just me, I've got my plan.

Here's what I want to happen. Here's the schedule. And God's not real concerned with that.

That's why thankfulness regardless. We bless the Lord through our words and our actions as His children. We should live in a way that honors Him.

From our hearts flow our worship. And Google summed it up nicely for us. We'll be done with this.

Here's how we bless the Lord. Praise and worship. Our heartfelt praise and worship through songs and prayers.

Expression of adoration. What about thanksgiving? Express gratitude for His blessings, both big and small in our lives. Instead of getting frustrated sometimes, be thankful, Lord, You know what's best.

You know what's best. These plans didn't work. My schedule on Monday, you must have had something better planned for me.

Thankful. Obedience is also a way to bless the Lord. Sharing the Gospel, spreading His good news, remembering His works, reflecting on how He has guided you, and then living a life of love.

Love God with all of our hearts and love others as ourself. This is how you actually bless the Lord. And ultimately, blessing the Lord is a way of acknowledging His sovereignty, His love, His power in our lives.

It's a response of love and gratitude for everything that He has done for us.