Celebrate His Might And Majesty!

Sermon

Lanier Christian Church

Celebration Sunday (Outside Worship)

October 30, 2011

Celebrate His Might and Majesty

Psalm 145

Psalm 145 is a special psalm. A special song of David. It was written in an acrostic format, meaning each line starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. If it were in English it would be something like:

A is for apple.

B is for ball.

C is for celebrate

D is for David

E is for Excellence

F is for Florida tried

G is for Georgia won

H is for Hurry up and finish this sermon!

We have 8 psalms written this way. Psalm 119 (longest) is a famous one, where each group of eight sentences starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Some regard this as David’s crown jewel of praise, because it’s the last in the Psalms that has David’s name on it, and it’s titled “A psalm of praise”.

This is a beautiful psalm describing the greatness of our God. When I read this three obvious words jumped out at me and they all start with the letter “M.” Mighty, Majesty, and Meditate.

At the beginning of this psalm David says: “Every day I will praise You.” Does that describe you? Do you praise the Lord every day?

David was filled with praise to the Lord. He had an attitude of praise! Is that your attitude? Would someone walk up to you and say: “I’ve noticed you have a great attitude – it is filled with praise!” Has that ever happened to you? Well, it should!

At church camp years ago, it used to be popular for the camp dean to yell out to the campers at meal times or worship times this bold phrase: “Attitude Check.” In response to that we were to say: “Praise the Lord!”

Let’s check that right now: Attitude check? “PRAISE THE LORD!”

One obvious way to participate in praise is to sing. That’s what this psalm was…a song. You may not consider yourself to be a musically inclined person, but there is one thing God has given each of us, and that is a song. If you don’t have a song of praise on your lips, you better have one in your heart!

Verse 7 says: They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

That’s what we are doing today, we are celebrating the goodness of our Lord and joyfully singing His praises. We have a reason to celebrate and to be joyful in song. The creator of all things loves us. We are His children. He is preparing a wonderful home for us. He has given us forgiveness and mercy and grace and love and peace and hope….

On Thursday evening, the St. Louis Cardinals had a great come from behind win in the World Series. They celebrated openly. Grown men jumped up and down and yelled and hollered and hugged each other. On Friday evening, they won again. And once again, they jumped up and down and celebrated even more than before. It was a baseball game both times. It was the World Series, mind you, but still a game…and they celebrated openly with no restraint. Yesterday in Jacksonville, FL, Georgia finally won a football game against Florida. And again, grown men jumped up and down and celebrated. For three evenings in a row, I have seen adults celebrating sports victories with very enthusiastic behavior. No one was ashamed to let their feelings be known. Their team had won. They were happy. They were thrilled! And they wanted everyone to know it!

Athletes and sports fans get so excited and celebratory, but when it comes to worship we Christians freeze up. Celebration before the Lord doesn’t come so easily. Praise is restrained. Joy is reserved.

Proclaiming spiritual victory is quietly mentioned. But isn’t our message life changing? Doesn’t the world need the good news of Jesus? Isn’t there enough bad news filling our days?

Why do we keep quiet about the greatness of our Lord? Many know nothing about our Lord because we won’t say anything about Him.

When the disciples began to offer praise to the Lord for the miracles of Jesus (at the triumphal entry) the Pharisees asked Jesus to quiet them. He then said: “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40)

As we celebrate today, there are two things we cannot keep quiet about: The Mighty power of God and His glorious majesty.

That’s right – M&M – today is an M&M sermon! Can you remember that? I hope so, but just in case, here are some M&M’s to help you remember! (Hand out packets of M&M’s) When was the last time you got candy for listening to a sermon? I hope it’ll help you remember today’s two key points: Mighty and Majesty.