Great Reasons To Praise The Lord Series

Great Reasons to Praise the Lord

Series: The Gospel of John

John 1:14-18

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - April 6, 2016

(Revised June 15, 2019)

*Sometimes it's hard to praise the Lord. God knows that, and sometimes He uses little things to put the praise back in our hearts.

*Christian mom, Dayle Shockley told about one of those days. It was one of those days when everything seemed to be going wrong. The phone rang non-stop. Dayle lost one of her contacts down the drain. Their dryer died, and their dog, Princess, was out on the deck barking non-stop.

*Dayle's head was reeling, so, she told her very young daughter, "Anna, please go tell Princess to be quiet." But Anna replied: "Mom, Princess is singing 'Jesus Loves Me.' -- I just know it!" (1)

*Well, probably not. But Dayle's whole day was turned around when she thought about God's creatures praising Him. And Psalm 150:6 says, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. . ."

*Sometimes God uses little things to put the praise back in our hearts. But the best thing that can put praise in our hearts is the Word of God. And tonight's Scripture gives us three great reasons to praise the Lord.

1. FIRST: PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS GODHOOD.

*Jesus Christ was no ordinary man. He was, is, and always will be the only begotten Son of God! This truth means that Jesus is just as much God as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

*In the opening verses of John's Gospel, he declared the absolute truth that Jesus is God. Calling Jesus "The Word," in vs. 1-3, John said:

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2. The same was in the beginning with God.

3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

*Forever in all eternity past, the divine Word Jesus Christ was and is God. Then through His miraculous birth, God connected His divinity with humanity in a totally unique way.

*That's why vs. 14-15 say:

14. . . The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

15. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

*"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Or as Eugene Peterson said in "The Message," "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." For 33 years God the Son moved into our neighborhood. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

*The word picture for that word "dwelt" is "pitching a tent." When Jesus came at Christmas, God pitched a tent right here among us.

*Now Mary and I don't do a lot of camping. In fact, we don't do any camping. But way back in 1976, Mary and I went all the way from south Florida to Toronto Canada. And most nights we stayed in a pup tent. Let me tell you, there is not a lot of privacy in a pup tent!

*To say that God "pitched a tent among us" tells us that He wanted us to get to know Him very well. And He did this in a way that should have been impossible. Jesus had to be, and He was born through a miraculous virgin birth.

*And when Jesus was born there was a miraculous connection between divinity and humanity. Jesus Christ was not half God and half man. He was fully God and fully man. The Lord Jesus is 100% God. All that God is, Jesus is.

*But at the very same time, Jesus is all that we are, except for the sin that is. God Almighty humbled Himself to become a human being. Just like us, Jesus learned how to walk and talk. Just like us, He got hungry and He got tired. Just like us, He laughed, and He cried.

*Jesus threw up on His mother. He dirtied His diapers. Imagine: You are in school and sitting next to you is God! You go to the store to buy a chair, and the nice young man waiting on you is God!

*Here is the wonder: The God who holds the universe in His hand humbled Himself to become a man. Jesus made a miraculous connection between divinity and humanity.

2. SO PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS GODHOOD. AND PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS GLORY.

*The Apostle John talked about the glory of Jesus Christ in vs. 14. There John said this about Jesus: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."