Episode 6

Psalms of the Summer - Hallelujah (North OC)

We conclude our sermon series with the last chapter in Psalms - Psalm 150. We learn the importance of and value to our faith that praising God brings.

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OC Church of Christ

Transcript
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My name is Marcel Hall and with my wife Karina, we have the honor and

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privilege of being able to serve full time in the ministry here.

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As usual, it's humbling to to be able to preach God's Word, but we're

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going to get into God's Word today.

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And so we're going to conclude a sermon series that we started in the

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summer called Psalms of the Summer.

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I'm not sure if we're still technically in summer.

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In fact, I don't know what season we're in.

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Because it's been raining.

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We've had tropical storms in Southern California.

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I guess that was a tropical storm.

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That looked like it was just a storm, but we've had something weird going on.

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And so we are going to conclude our sermon series.

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In which we're taking, there's 150 psalms.

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So there's no way we were able to look at 150 psalms.

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But we've been going through the psalms and studying them out.

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And so, there actually, if you have our church app, and again, if you

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want to get a little more depth and context for the book of psalms,

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you can do that on our church app.

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But just to remind us that the psalms are really a collection of poems and songs

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that express devotion and really reveal an honest, personal, Relationship with God.

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And so they show us how to have a deeper relationship with God.

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The Psalms also reveal the nature of God as well.

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And they also serve as a great template for us as well in our relationship

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with God as we go through ups and downs in our faith and in our lives.

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We've studied out Psalm 1, Psalm 18, 23, 51, and last week, 73, and

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so we're going to go to the end today at Psalm 150, and the title

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of the sermon today is Hallelujah.

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Hallelujah.

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We just sang that right there, huh?

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And so that's the title of the sermon today.

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If you can go to God with me in prayer, let's pray.

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Father in heaven, it's exciting to be here with my brothers and sisters.

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It's exciting to worship you in spirit and truth as Jesus said that we will

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in John four and God We're grateful for this opportunity to connect with

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you and build encourage and strengthen one another in the faith father I pray

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right now that your word may be spoken I pray that you minister to our hearts

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you reveal more of yourself and God allow us to draw closer to you that we

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can Be in all of you and that we can in turn pour forth Praise in your name.

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It's in Jesus name.

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Amen So we're gonna look here at the actually the we usually preach out of the

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NIV But we're gonna look here at someone 50 through the H CSB home and Christian

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Standard Bible and so in Psalm 150, let's go ahead and let's read it together.

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It says hallelujah Praise God in his sanctuary Praise him in his mighty

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heavens praise him for his powerful acts Praise Him for His abundant greatness.

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Praise Him with trumpet blasts.

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Praise Him with the harp and the lyre.

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Praise Him with tambourine and dance.

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Praise Him with flute and strings.

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Praise Him with resounding cymbals.

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Praise Him with clashing cymbals.

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Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.

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Hallelujah.

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And so we're going to go ahead here and break this psalm down.

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Now what is the message of the psalm?

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What clearly is being communicated in this message?

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Praise!

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As my friend Rhys McNeely would say, you'd have to be a theologian to get that wrong.

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You know what I mean.

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It's clearly communicating a message of praise.

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Now it's interesting that this is the last psalm in the book of psalms.

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There's a hundred and fifty.

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Chapters in the book of Psalms and the last one ends off with praise To me

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that struck me that was interesting to me To think that the last one

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would end with praise because the Psalms are filled with triumph.

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They're filled with joy With praise they're filled with pain doubt anger

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sadness and It concludes with praise The Psalms reveal God's character, his

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attributes, his mighty acts for his people, and it concludes with praise.

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It shows us the depth of a relationship with God, and it concludes with praise.

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And I thought, you know, that's similar to our faith, and our

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journey, and our walk with God.

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Because as we have a relationship with God, when we go through trials and

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persevere, when we experience God's grace after we have blown it big time,

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but yet we repent and we experience His grace, as we struggle with doubt,

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as we struggle with things that happen in our lives, as we have great

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joys and highs, it leads us to pray.

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And so we can see this connection and I think that was divine order that God

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would have it that at the end of the Psalms as you sing out and you worship

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and you grow in your relationship with God, it will lead you to praise.

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And so let's break this down in Psalm 50.

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First off, it says, Hallelujah, which means praise the Lord.

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And so it starts off saying praise the Lord in his sanctuary.

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And so I said, you know what let's define that word praise a little bit.

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It means to express approval or admiration or a commend to extol.

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But in this context, to offer grateful homage to God as in words or song.

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And when you think about it, to praise God is the natural response

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when you recognize who God is and his wonderful acts in your life.

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It's the natural response When you begin to say who Wow who he is and

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what he's done in my life and in others lives and It says to praise him in the

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sanctuary to praise him in the mighty heavens You know when we have a worship

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service that's what it's referring to when the people of God get together.

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We praise them and that's what we've been doing this morning, hasn't it?

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Every song we sang has been about praising God Because that's why we

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gather, it's to connect and to praise him, it says in the mighty heaven.

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So even the heavenly beings are called to join in on this

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praise of our Heavenly Father.

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So not just us, but every being, whether it be being here on

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earth or in the heavenly realms, are called to praise as well.

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And then it says to praise him for his powerful acts, for his abundant greatness.

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Again, we serve a God who is worthy of praise.

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Some things are worthy of praise and some aren't.

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But our God, our good, our faithful, our omnipotent God, He is worthy of praise

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for His powerful acts and for His abundant greatness because of what He's done in

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your life, what He's done in my life.

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What he's done in the lives of those around you.

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What he's done from the beginning of creation until now.

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What he's done for all of his faithful children throughout history.

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God is worthy of praise.

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Can I get a hallelujah?

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That means praise the Lord.

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We praise him for his character, his wonderful attributes, his characteristics.

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We praise him when we go, wow, God is awesome.

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In fact, let's do something real quickly.

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Let's just take one minute here.

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I want you to share with the person to your right and left.

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Share one thing, just come up with one thing that you can praise God for.

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Maybe it's something in his character or something that he's done in your life.

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Go ahead and do that real quickly.

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Go ahead and share at least one thing you can praise God for.

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Those online, go ahead and type in the chat one thing

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that you can praise God for.

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Okay, alright.

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Real quickly here.

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Uh, Dorca, what's one thing that you can praise God for?

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For his mercy.

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Okay, awesome.

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Jamie, I see you nodding your head.

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What's one thing?

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For relationship.

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Relationship or ships?

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Ships, okay.

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Friendships, relationships.

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Okay, alright, here we go.

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Alright let's get a college student here.

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Can I get a college student here?

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Aiden, there you go.

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Don't look to the side.

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Aiden, here we go.

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Alright, what's one thing you can praise God for?

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For his grace.

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Okay, Thomas.

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Uh, here we go.

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Or Marcus Thomas.

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Sorry, excuse me.

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There you go.

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Went by your last name, brother.

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I went professional and official on you.

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Okay, go ahead.

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What's one thing?

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For family.

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Alright.

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Uh, John Orr, what's one thing that you can praise God for?

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For forgiveness.

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Now we could go on and on, couldn't we?

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I asked you to do one thing, but if you started to reflect, what would happen?

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You would start to think more and more and more and more.

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And then you would get to more, and more, and more, and more, and

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then you would get to more, and more, you guys get what I'm saying.

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And then you would hear something from somebody else and be like, ooh, that's

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good, I gotta praise him for that, too.

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Why?

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Because our God is a God worthy of praise.

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When we get a chance to reflect and think about who He is, it leads us to what?

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To praise Him.

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You know, Nicole Padilla said something really cool that was like,

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I was like, wow, this is incredible.

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So we're at a meeting on Thursday, and I said, hey, share one thing about,

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you know, that you can praise God for.

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She said, for apples.

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I said, okay.

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Interesting.

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She said, no, I just found out that the skin of apples actually is like an

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antioxidant or something like that and it helps fight off that's what she said.

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She sent me a text.

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You over here saying no, she didn't say it.

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She did say that.

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Okay, maybe I said one word that's wrong, but that's the essence of what she said.

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So she says that and she goes so here's the crazy thing is that helps

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you fight off flus and viruses.

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Which happens usually around the fall.

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And when is it time to harvest?

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For apples.

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Oh, look at you.

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There you go.

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And she was like, God is amazing.

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He planned it like that.

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I was like, Yo, let me go get a green apple right now.

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And you can see God is incredible.

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When we think about small to big to great to maybe things that don't mean much,

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but we see that God is worthy of praise.

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When you think about his character, you think about his plan, you think

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about his salvation, his mighty act.

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It will lead you and I to praise.

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You know, the more you spend time with someone, the more you learn about them.

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The more you see their traits.

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The longer you've been in the faith, you see God more, which leads you

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to more opportunity to praise Him.

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This is why it's so important we stay faithful to God.

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Sometimes we go, Oh, but God's not there.

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Well, just stay faithful and you'll see that He is.

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And you'll be in awe of that, and it will lead you to praise.

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Can I get a hallelujah?

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You know, this also requires, for us, it takes some time to reflect.

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When you sit back and you reflect, let me just think about this for a second.

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Many things come to mind.

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And then you begin to think about how good God has been in your life.

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How good He's been to His people.

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How infinitely powerful and wise God is.

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Let's continue moving forward here.

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It says praise Him with a trumpet.

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It says all these different instruments.

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Basically saying praise God with all that you have.

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And it's interesting it says praise God with instruments.

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So we are to praise Him in song.

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Now, God chose music in His message of praise, I believe, for several reasons.

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And I read this and I thought this would be really cool for some

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of my Bible geeks out there You might appreciate this here, right?

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But there's music with some of God's great acts.

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So you can take a picture write this down We're not going to get a chance to look at

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these but in creation Music accompanies it with the Exodus with the incarnation with

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the revelation of redemption in Revelation 5 There's this accompaniment of music

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And all my music fans say hallelujah But we see here again, he says, praise him.

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You know, music is powerful, isn't it?

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It does something to us.

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When you hear your jam, what do you do?

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You turn it up, or turn it up, you know what I mean, however you roll.

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You start, even some of y'all that are not even a dancer, you be moving

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a little bit, you know what I mean?

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Even if you're off beat, but it's all good.

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It does something to your spirit.

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God created us like that and he knows we're like that so he's like,

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here's what we're going to do here.

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I know how powerful music is, so I want to include music in our worship

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and praise so that it can move your heart, your mind, your soul, your

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spirit, and your connection with me.

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This is why we get together and worship.

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We don't just get together to sing songs and just feel good, no, because it

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connects us to the living, powerful God.

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In a deep and profound way, which we couldn't in other circumstances.

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And we see, wow, God, you're infinitely wise.

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You see, praise through music enables us to connect with God

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emotionally and with our hearts.

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When I first became a Christian, I didn't get that.

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And I was, I was, I was totally fine with being late to service because I

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was like, I just want the good stuff.

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And the good stuff to me was the sermon.

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So I was like, look, yeah, I didn't, you know, I didn't like, I didn't, I

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didn't like gospel music at that time.

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I didn't, I didn't really like, I was like, there's a couple songs.

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I was like, yeah, that's cool.

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But let's just get to the sermon.

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So I wouldn't really sing out.

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I wouldn't really connect with God in that way.

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And then, uh, Raphael Lua one time mentioned, uh, he's a minister out in LA.

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He mentioned something about, about worship and praise and I

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thought, huh, that's interesting.

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And then I read in the Gospels where it says that Jesus went to

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the Mount of Olives and that he sang hymns with his disciples.

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And I thought, how did he sing?

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What was that like?

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Does Jesus sing the same way that I sing when I come to my worship service?

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And I was convicted.

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I said, no.

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And so then I changed and then I read some books on worship.

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And now, now I'm guilty of wanting too much worship music.

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People are like, Marcel, can you cut down?

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I'm like, no, because we gotta praise him.

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And so God is transforming, but even now, and I ask for your prayer, please pray.

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Because I have to be in charge, uh, overall of the worship

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service, I can't get distracted.

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I was talking with Jamie Dena earlier, and I'm trying to talk to

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her, and I said, Jamie, I'm sorry if I seem distracted, because I am.

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And, and, and she was like, it's okay, Marcel.

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I was like, hallelujah for grace, praise God.

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But I need help because I can be here, and I can be thinking about everything

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that needs to happen, and I can miss out on opportunities to do what?

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Connect with God in praise.

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And so as we get together, the scriptures call us to praise

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God with a great instrument.

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Can we go ahead and thank our worship team real quickly?

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Amen.

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They do a fantastic job.

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Let's keep moving forward.

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It says, let everything that breathes praise the Lord.

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I love the way the NIV says it says, let everything that

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has breath praise the Lord.

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It made me think of Revelation 5, where it says, Then I heard every creature

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in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all that is

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in them saying, To him who sits on the throne, to the Lamb be praise and honor

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and glory and power forever and ever.

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It's this picture that every creature, every being would praise God.

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And that's what it says in Psalm 150.

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It says to let everything that has breath praise the Lord, even

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the animals, even the, the, the, the roaches and the insects.

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I'm sorry, I know I grossed some of y'all out, but even the insects, all

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the way to our senior citizens, let everything that has breath praise God.

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From the shrimp in the sea to the birds in the sky, let them all praise the Lord.

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It says everything that has breath and you go, well, why?

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And this hit me.

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Because every being that's alive, every being that's alive has or currently

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is, excuse me, has and is currently experiencing God's mercy and grace.

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Every being alive, whether they're in line with God's will or outside of God's

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will, they are currently experiencing God's Some mercy and grace of God.

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You see, because God can condemn every single one of us right now.

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But he hasn't.

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And he's given us the opportunity to connect with him in a relationship.

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There's mercy and there's grace.

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And so what should that lead us, especially as the children of God?

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To do what?

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To praise God.

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Why?

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Because we recognize, wow, I could be condemned, I could be set to the side,

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I could be cast to the side, but no, he's not giving me my due punishment,

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but now he's giving me love, grace, mercy, so that I can connect with him

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on a deeper level for all of eternity.

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Again it's when we reflect, we can see the glory of God and all of

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that is fueled by his passionate, driven love for you and me.

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So we should praise Him in our worship service.

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We should praise Him on our own.

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We should praise God with our lives.

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That's also part of praising.

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Our daily decisions, our choices.

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This is our offering and our opportunity to praise Him with how we live our lives.

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And again, why do we praise God?

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Because it helps us in our relationship with Him.

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It helps us reflect upon Him, and therefore it strengthens our relationship,

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and so this kind of really cool, uh, uh, process, uh, starts to take place.

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When we begin to praise God, that leads to a deeper and greater connection with Him,

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which leads us to more reflection of Him.

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But then when I reflect on Him, I go and I want to praise Him, and you can see

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this really cool cycle that takes place.

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The problem is when one of those When I stop reflecting, then I won't praise,

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or I won't connect with him, or when I'm not connected, then I won't reflect.

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You guys get what I'm saying?

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And so this is so important why we have our personal, it's not private

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in the sense of nobody can be involved, but we have our personal

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relationship with God, and we have our collective connection with God.

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That's why it's so important daily.

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I get on my knees and pray and I connect with him through reading his word.

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It's important that you and I get together, not just on Sundays,

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but throughout the week so that we can praise him and encouraging

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and strengthening one another.

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Can I get a hallelujah for that?

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And so let's go ahead and insert ourselves.

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Let's restart.

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If we haven't that cool cycle of praising of connecting and reflecting.

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And you can see even creating say, oh, you know, that's kind

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of like a little peace symbol.

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You know, that's what happens.

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When we get this cycle going, it brings peace to our souls.

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I heard it in a song, it said, Worship may not change the

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circumstances, but worship changes us.

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And so we might be in some hard predicament, but it changes our view of

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the predicament as we're worshiping God.

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And therefore we're strengthened and enabled to take on whatever

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task may lay before us.

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Praise God.

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And so what's our response?

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Well, let's simply praise God.

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Let's praise Him intentionally.

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Let's be intentional with our praise.

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Let's give ourselves fully in our praise.

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And let's make sure our decisions are offerings of praise to our

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living, powerful, almighty, loving God, Creator, and Father.

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So I want to get real practical here and give an action step here

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for the week, really for the day.

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I would encourage you to do this today over lunch or even as you go

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out in the foyer and hang out here.

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Here, here's what it is.

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I give you a question for reflection and discussion so you can discuss

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today and you can reflect upon it.

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Here it is.

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Here's the question.

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How can we use the Psalms for praise and personal growth?

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How can we use the Psalms for praise and personal growth?

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Right now we're going to take communion.

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This is where we take the emblems that represent Jesus's body that

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was broken and his blood that was sacrificed so that we can have an

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opportunity for a relationship with him.

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And we go back to Psalm 150 in verse 2, it says, praise him for his powerful acts.

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Praise him for his abundant greatness.

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You know, none of his mighty acts are greater than Jesus coming in human body.

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Living a sinless life, dying upon the cross for our sins

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and then being raised again.

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And then his wonderful mercy of giving us the Holy Spirit when

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we repent and get baptized.

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And so for that, we can say, Hallelujah.

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Let's pray.

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Father, thank you so much, so much for the cross of Jesus.

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Thank you that that is the greatest act of mercy, of kindness, of love, and of power.

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God, it reveals that you are a God of mercy, of grace, of power, of love.

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You are a faithful God.

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You are not a God who is distant, but a God who is there.

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And God, we want to thank you.

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We want to recognize.

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We want to reflect.

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We want to honor all that you do, all that you have done, and all that you

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are going to do, and all that you are.

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And again, we see the embodiment of your character in your son, Jesus.

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We thank you for him.

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We thank you that he persevered.

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We thank you that he was disciplined.

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We thank you that he stayed upon the cross.

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But most of all, we thank you that he raised on the third day.

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God, we love you.

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We are humbled.

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We are grateful.

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And we are inspired.

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We pray this in Jesus name.

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