• In verses 1-2 of our text, to: Sing! Sing! Sing!
• In verses 3-6, He tells us to: Honor! Honor! Honor!
• In verses 7-8, He tells us to: Give! Give! Give!
• In verse 9, He tells us to: Worship! Worship! Worship!
All of this teaches us the importance of giving.
Look at verse 7 and part of verse 8. We read, “Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name.”
Notice, we are to give two things unto the Lord.
1. We are to GIVE GLORY UNTO THE LORD!
This is one thing every person had better be careful about. Not everyone is quick to give God the glory! And, God will not share His glory with anyone.
This is one of the reasons Satan was expelled from heaven. His pride caused him to exalt himself to be a god. He tried to rob God of the glory due Him and Him alone!
We often rob God in at least TWO ways:
a. We rob God by possession.
That is, every day God is so good to us! Yet many take the good things He allows them to enjoy and then act as if God has not done anything for them in the last ten years. When God is good to us we often do not give Him the glory for His goodness. This is robbing God of His glory.
b We rob God by position.
That is, there are those who have declared themselves to be their own god and the way they live demonstrates they think they have all they have because of their own doing. That is, they think they provided those things for themselves by themselves. They often walk around and brag, “Look what I have done!”
The truth of the matter is that they would not be able to crawl out of bed without God’s help. How can they have the gall to try to give the impression they have obtained any good thing without it’s being a blessing of God.
Parents need to be sure to teach their children to give God the ALL the glory in ALL things! For example,
Illus: A young man might be blessed with the ability to learn quickly. That is, he may be able to open a book and scan through it and answer the questions and make straight “A’s” while others may have to struggle through the same text book and end up with “B’s.” The young man who makes straight “A’s” can strut around as if he accumulated that gift to learn all by himself, but if he is truly smart he will fall on his knees and give God the glory for blessing him with such a gift!
Illus: Also a young lady might be blessed with physical beauty. She may even be the most attractive girl in her class. All the other girls may envy her. She could strut around school as if that inherited physical beauty was something she had accomplished by herself, but if she is truly smart she also will fall on her knees and give God the glory for blessing her with such beauty.
We need to be careful not to rob God of the glory that is due Him. The psalmist said, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name...” (Verse 8a)
Every day of our lives we should make sure that God gets the glory that is due Him. Also, notice the psalmist said-
2. We are to GIVE STRENGTH UNTO THE LORD.
Notice verse 7, “...give unto the Lord...STRENGTH”
This is not saying what we might first imagine. God IS NOT WEAK! He does not need our little strength.
Illus: Remember, He is the vine and we are the branches. We draw strength from Him. He does not draw it from us.
So, what does it mean to say we are to give God STRENGTH? It means as we worship the Lord, we are recognizing and affirming that He is a God of STRENGTH.
What a shame it is to find Christians who face the same problems lost people face and their REACTIONS and RESOURCES are the same as those of the lost world. For example-
Illus: There are some Christians today who are legal drug addicts. They are on all those drugs because they do not know how to handle their problems.
• The sinner may run the streets and find a dope peddler from which to obtain drugs to help him face his problems.
• The Christian runs to the local pharmacist to have a prescription filled that will help him face his problems.
What is the difference between the two? There is no difference whatsoever.
• Both are leaning on drugs to get them through their problems.
• Both reveal they do not believe there is a God of STRENGTH to help them.
What an ugly picture that Christian paints of God.
Illus: Suppose I was an artist and someone asked, “Do you know _____________? And I answered, “Yes, I know him.” Then the inquiring person said, “I would not know him if he walked toward me down the street.” As an artist, I would say, “Let me draw you a picture, that way you can know what he looks like.” So I start drawing a picture of ______________. However, suppose I do not draw a picture of the person the inquirer has asked about. Suppose the picture I draw does not resemble that person in the least. The inquiring person will think that ___________ looks like the person I drew when in fact he does not.
This is what many Christians have done. With their lives they have drawn a picture of God as being a WEAK God Who does not care a thing about answering the prayers of His people.
Again, the Bible says we are to give God the GLORY that belongs to Him. We also are to reveal that God is a God of STRENGTH, not weakness.
Illus: The spies came back from the promised land saying that the giants in that land made them look like grasshoppers. They made God appear to be weak and frail compared to the people they would have to face. God was so displeased with them that He caused them to spend 40 more years wandering in the wilderness.
Let’s hear of at least two things God expects us to give.
I. OUR WEALTH.
Look at the last part of verse 8. We read, “...bring an offering, and come into his courts.”
When a person truly comes to know and love the Lord the way they should they will want to give. That is, they will give that portion of their pay that belongs to the Lord. They will do it and will do it cheerfully.
Illus: It is always a shocking experience when a person gets involved in the finances of a church. What shocks the novice is that he often discovers that some of those who take major parts in what is said and done in the church give less than 20 to 30 dollars a year.
That is not true of one who truly loves the Lord. The one who truly loves the Lord will not have to be begged to give. He will give freely out of a heart of love.
Why would God tell us to bring an offering? Is it because He needs our money? No! You know where all wealth comes from. It COMES FROM GOD!
In Deut. 8:18 we read, “But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth...”
Illus: Every gold, copper, silver, etc., coin came from the metals of the earth that belongs to God. Every paper bill that you find came from the trees that God caused to grow.
God said, “...bring an offering, and come into his courts,” because when a man does that he is acknowledging that it all came from God.
To do otherwise is to say, “No, I earned this with my own two hands. God had nothing whatsoever to do with it!”
All of our blessings, including any money God blesses us with, comes from God. But notice, there is another thing we are to give. It concerns-
II. OUR WORSHIP.
Look at verse 9. We read, “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.”
The command is to WORSHIP THE LORD, but also the command is HOW WE ARE TO WORSHIP THE LORD.
How is everyone to worship the Lord? In verse 9 we see two things.
A. “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness...”
One of the attributes of God is holiness. Notice, our text is not dealing with whether God is a holy God or not--that is a fact that can not be disputed! What the psalmist is dealing with is how we are to worship Him. The scripture makes it clear we are to worship Him in the beauty of holiness.
What does that mean? It means...
1. The style of our worship service should reflect that God is a holy God.
Sad to say, but many so-called worship services do not reflect a HOLY PEOPLE worshipping a HOLY GOD.
Let me give you an example of how much of what goes on in many churches today has nothing to do with being led by the Spirit of God. It has to do with following the trends of the world.
For example, Jim Bakker has said that when he started the PTL club he adopted the same format as the Johnny Carson show used. Most of you are familiar with the Carson format. He would sit behind a desk and announce his guests and they would come out from behind a curtain. If the guest happened to be a singer he (or she) would come out and sing and then sit near Johnny while he interviewed him.
That is just one example, but that is not all we have stolen from the lost world.
For example, many of you have watched what is called Christian television. As you watched, you have seen broadcasts of song services. You may have seen three to five women on platforms, depending on the size of the church, who were leading the singing. They are referred to as “Worship Leaders.” However, as they are leading the singing they are swinging their hips in all directions and are dancing.
Now if you leave a church service like that and go to a local night club you will find they also have women on a platform who are singing, swinging their hips and dancing with their feet. Why do night clubs feature women to do that? It is for the benefit of their customers. The owner knows he can draw a crowd with women who do not mind flaunting all they have and there are men who will sit there and watch them flaunt it. By the way, many have the men performing to draw large women audiences also.
If night club owners do this to draw crowds, we wonder, why are the people who claim to be Christians doing the same things in so-called worship services?
It is time for God’s church to stop patterning worship services after activities that sinners participate in. We need to return to the style of worship that reflects the holiness of God. God has told us, He expects His people to be a holy people.
2. The people of our worship services should reflect HE is a holy God.
• If a man is going to be an usher, and collect tithes and offerings, he should be a joyful giver himself. It would not be appropriate to have an usher who robs God of His tithes and withholds offerings. There is nothing holy about a thief.
• If a man is going to have some say in the business meeting about how the church spends its money, he should be a faithful giver to the Lord’s work there. There is nothing holy about a hypocrite.
• If a person is going to sing in the choir, the people who listen to him sing should have confidence in him as a Christian. It does not matter if he can sing like a mocking bird, if he is not living a holy life God’s Word says it is as a sounding brass and tinkling cymbal (empty)!
Psalm 96:9 tells us, “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness....” Also, the psalmist said-
B. O worship the Lord...fear before him...
Psalm 96:9, “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.”
Illus: A poll was taken of college students to find out what they feared. The following is the result:
• Nuclear war....................................57%
• Parent’s dying.................................54%
• Failing in school...............................44%
• Dying..............................................43%
• Having a car accident......................34%
• Loneliness.......................................33%
• Not having a boyfriend/girlfriend......30%
• Being beaten/injured........................30%
Notice, not one said that he feared God!
We live in an age when people have lost their fear of God.
The New Testament church was filled with problems that we have in churches today.
• Some of the people were lying.
• Some were abusing the gifts of the Spirit.
• Some were robbing God of His tithes, etc.
But, when God struck Ananias and Sapphira dead in church notice what happened. In Acts 5:5 we read, “...and great fear came on all them that heard these things.”
Conclusion:
One day men and women will stand before God and tremble in their shoes. They will recognize what fools they had been to have lived and not given their lives to God.
Listen, the best time to fear God is NOW! Do not wait until you stand before the Lord. The psalmist admonishes us to FEAR GOD RIGHT NOW!
I. OUR WEALTH.
II. OUR WORSHIP.
A. “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness....”
B. “O worship the Lord...fear before Him...”
