INTRODUCTION
Opening Statement: I would like to share with you some things that I learned while on my recent trip to Colorado for a Pastor’s Family Conference at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs. These are things that I didn’t know or hadn’t thought much about before.
1. There is nothing to see or eat in Western Kansas. When the sign says, “No Services for the next 70 miles,” believe it.
2. Never stop and get a cactus and put it in your van. When someone in your family suggests such a thing, quote something like “Get thee behind me Satan” and keep on going.
3. I never knew that Donnette could drive 90 miles per hour.
4. Just because there’s a sign that says “Little Horse Creek” doesn’t mean that there’s water up ahead.
5. Do not sit on the same end of the pool where Levi is planning on doing a “canon-ball.” I have never seen a 6 year old do a “canon-ball” into the pool like Levi.
6. Do not drive 19 miles up a 14,000-foot mountain on a gravel road with no guard rails if you are afraid of heights.
7. When you eat barbecue brisket and French fries at 9,000 feet, drink lots of water.
8. I am now an expert on loading and unloading a van for 5 people and 1 dog.
Now, some things that I “really” learned:
1. The Focus on the Family facility and campus is wonderfully state-of-the-art. And the people they have working for them are just exceptional. There are a number of Pastors, 200 or 300 of them, which are doing a wonderful job all over the nation. And they have wonderful families too. Imagine 400 pastor’s kids all together. One lady who was an expert at basketball handling and who shared her testimony in conjunction with that said that she has performed all over the nation and never found a young group more respectful than they were when she performed.
2. I heard some great speakers who love and cherish the family. You can’t come away from that place without a new dedication to your family.
3. We were lead in worship by a man who was delivered from homosexuality. He now has a large family and is one of the finest worship leaders I’ve ever heard.
4. I got to see a man who has given over 1.5 million to make things like pastor’s conferences possible. What I find is that if you create a vision, God seems to bring in those who can make it happen.
5. The live drama by a husband and wife team “Acts of Renewal” was so refreshing. They would sneak truth in through the back-door on you.
6. A Christian comedian made us laugh at ourselves.
7. (I have saved this last point until last because it’s a great segue into my message for today.) Colorado Springs is a beautiful city of 450,000 people with Pikes Peak overlooking it. The view from there has inspired thousands. I have a new appreciation for what happened there several years ago. When Katharine Bates was brought in to do some adjunct instructing for the local college in Colorado Springs, she went up Pikes Peak. We did the same and I can tell you that the view from there at 14,100 feet and 19 miles of road behind you, the view is simply magnificent! While on top on this great mountain, Katharine Bates wrote the verses for “America, the Beautiful.” (It’s on page 799 in our hymnal and I would like to read some of the verses).
Illustration: I was talking to a 15 year old Pastors kid who was swimming in the pool. He was telling me about how awesome Pikes Peak was the day before I went up. He said, “Man, God is awesome.” I already knew that, but to hear him say it meant a lot. He knows where he has come from.
Key Verse: All of this reminds me of what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 148:5: “For He [God] commanded and they were created.”
Exposition: He spoke our creation into existence. He was that First Cause that set our world into motion. The creation now speaks to us of the Creator. In fact, the Creation is one of God’s great missionaries; it sings His praises and so should we.
SERMON
Explanation: One author states that there are three questions that we can ask ourselves when we see views like we see from Pikes Peak. Does a law explain it? Does Chance explain it? Does design explain it? A bullet firing when a gun’s trigger is pulled or getting at least one head when a fair coin is tossed a hundred times are both high probability events due to natural law. Natural law explains it. Rolling snake eyes with a pair of fair dice, or even winning a million dollar lottery when considering how many tickets are sold, constitute events of intermediate probability that are justly relegated to chance. Chance explains it. But let’s say the same person wins that lottery three times in a row. Suddenly we suspect that something more than chance is involved. There’s a design, a pattern to what it happening. Somebody knows the numbers and is tipping the person off (Ray Bohlin).
Application: Whether you’re looking from Pikes Peak at a distance or you’re up close and personal observing the petals of a flower, it speaks of intelligent design. Laws can’t explain it. Accidents don’t happen in that kind of beautiful detail. For example, in a really bad car wreck things are scattered everywhere. There’s no unity or harmony. That’s an accident. But when all of these car pieces are put together it speaks of intelligent design.
Transition: There’s a Psalm written that talks about all of creation joining together in a grand symphony to praise the Creator. It moves from the heavens down into the human heart.
Proposition: The Psalmist stops twice to offer a reason for his commands to praise God (v.5-6 and 13-14). I suggest to you that these two stops and this process in the Psalm provokes TWO EMOTIONS. It provokes awe and it provokes nurture.
Background: The Psalmist uses personification extensively in this Psalm. He addresses the creation as if they were human and present with him. And he tells them to praise the Lord in “envelope” fashion (Praise the Lord begins and ends the Psalm). The message is in the movement. Poems like this aren’t meant to be “picked-apart”. It’s the movement that gives the message.
Text: Psalm 148
Recitation: The Psalmist “Awes” us then he “Nurtures” us.
The Awe Part
The Heavens…
148:1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the sky! Praise him in the heavens! 148:2 Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all his heavenly assembly! 148:3 Praise him, O sun and moon! Praise him, all you shiny stars! 148:4 Praise him, O highest heaven, and you waters above the sky! 148:5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he gave the command and they came into existence. [That’s it and it provokes awe. No bangs. No primordial soup. No sunbeam suspended on the Milky Way. God said, “Today, I think I’ll make a world that will be an expression of my power and my love.”] 148:6 He established them so they would endure; he issued a decree that will not be revoked.
The Earth…
148:7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea creatures and all you ocean depths, 148:8 O fire and hail, snow and clouds, O stormy wind that carries out his orders, 148:9 you mountains and all you hills, you fruit trees and all you cedars, 148:10 you animals and all you cattle, you creeping things and birds,
The Nurture Part
The People…
148:11 you kings of the earth and all you nations, you princes and all you leaders on the earth, 148:12 you young men and young women, you elderly, along with you children! 148:13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty extends over the earth and sky. 148:14 He has made his people victorious, and given all his loyal followers reason to praise— the Israelites, the people who are close to him. Praise the Lord! [This is nurturing. He loves me and cares for me. I’m not boring to him. For the Old Testament believer, this is the language of redemption and salvation.]
Exposition: This Psalm moves from the Milky Way and farthest corners of our galaxy and eventually lands into the human heart. It starts out with awe and wonder and amazement. And then the Psalmist just keeps getting closer until finally he exhorts all of us to praise our God and then he adds that closing, parenthetical thought: 148:14 He has made his people victorious, and given all his loyal followers reason to praise— the Israelites, the people who are close to him. Praise the Lord!
Illustration: This movement of the Psalm, from awe to nurture, reminds me of Queen Victoria who had two very different impressions of her two most famous Prime Ministers. “With William Gladstone,” she said, “I feel that I am with one of the most important leaders in the world.” “Benjamin Disraeli, on the other hand, makes me feel as if I am one of the most important people in the world (Yancey).” One prime minister provided awe; the other provided nurture.
Explanation: God is like this. The Psalmist along with the entire Old Testament, tells us of a God above us – awesome in power, even holy and unapproachable at times. But the Psalmist also tells us, as well as the New Testament, of a God who has come in alongside us. He took on a body with pain cells and identified with us. He nurtured us in our pain. And all of this should issue forth in lives of praise.
CONCLUSION
Application:
1. It’s time to give praise to God. He has created you. He blessed you with the talent and creativity that you have. He has taken care of you, redeemed you, set you apart as his, and secured your eternity. Give to him praise. All of creation is unified on one point: our obligation to praise. This obligation is for everyone, not just a small group.
2. A life of praise, more often than not, takes place outside of a church building. Look at where the Psalmist was when he instructed us to praise the Lord. The implication is that we praise and live for Him everywhere! We are to lift up our voices and lives in unrestrained adoration wherever we may find ourselves. Some may think, I’m not good at putting things in words. Not to worry! The sequence in the early part of this Psalm moves from the most articulate (angels) to the least articulate (mountains). A great impact can be made without words but just by being.
3. One of your greatest acts of praise is to worship and serve your awesome God and then to nurture your lost, isolated brother who may feel that his life is so bad that he / she can’t approach this incredible God. When we see and believe the Bible’s account of our origins, we see behind all of that a loving God who spoke us into existence and who is a Person that can be known both through special and natural revelation. And if there is a Person of intelligence and of design standing behind this harmonious world, then he must have had a purpose for creating me. We need a purpose for life. It’s part of God’s image in us. The number one purpose of God is for you to encounter and believe the message of the Savior. I mentioned earlier in the sermonic theme that Creation was one of God’s great missionaries. Well, God’s greatest missionary is Jesus. Receive him today.
