Grounds For Praising God

[Music] hi I'm pastor Ralph Douglas Wes pastor the church without walls and I'm so excited that you've joined us today our heart is to usher lost souls to Christ and power believers to our spiritual maturity and I'm thrilled to share that heart with you today through the life transforming power of the word of God I also want to invite you to get a daily encouragement by signing in for my free devotional at Ralph Douglas West dot org now let's hear today's message be encouraged David Livingstone may be the most popular missionary other than the Apostle Paul that we have record in history in 1866 he made his journey into the jungles of Africa to take the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and at that moment he went into the woods and it was almost as if he had gone into oblivion nobody could find and they didn't know whey was in 1871 he merged and when he resurfaced Z was emaciated he looked so God and poor and then Stanley found him and said if you would just hold on longer I'll make sure that Aid and support and supply would come your way another year would pass in 1872 when support would come to Livingstone and upon receiving it he simply blurted out these words bless the Lord O my soul and all that's within me bless His Holy Name Robert Sanderson is a name that may not mean much to any of us he served in the British Civil War he was a Christian he would be imprisoned and everything would be taken from him he had learned to memorize Scripture in each morning he would try to recite a psalm and of all the Psalms that he continued to recite the one that always claimed this attention was Psalm 103 in his prison cell he would just simply say bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name that this psalm has claimed attention of many and for many its words are in the Old Testament but it's music is in the New Testament what the sermon of the Mount was to the preaching of Jesus this Psalm seems to be for the Hebrew pilgrims namely David and others that would pray and recite it I will bless the Lord at all times and his praises would continually be in his mouth this is what he really meant when he says bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name what what caused him to save what he said and why did he say what he said and that's what I want to really focus in for the next seven eight minutes is just simply to say a word of why we are off to praise God it just opens up says praise the Lord bless the Lord it's not really an option like some of us I have to be forced to praise God it's a command praise the Lord it ought to be something that you do but that's not our natural instinct to praise God natural instinct is to do what Psalm 102 does to complain than to curse and be angry and dismissive so you have to train your mind and your heart and your soul to say to yourself that that's what David is really doing he's talking to himself is that you have to say to yourself bless the Lord in fact that ought to be what you take in not just a new year but for the rest of your life on the every circumstance just say to yourself I will bless the law [Applause] notice now when he says I will bless the Lord O my soul he says it's personal of all my innermost being I will praise his holy man he says to himself I will praise God I will come to the church without walls I won't need Kenny miles and I won't need Avis and I won't need Mac Frazier to have to tell me praise the Lord in fact I'm going to join in with them because as they praise God I'm gonna praise God along with them when I consider all of what God has done for me I'm really through with the sermon I'm just exhorting you along the way I'll write it very seriously though because we're always waiting on somebody to stir us up and somebody to motivate us but here the psalmist says bless the Lord O my soul and all that's within me that is all of the substance all of the intellect everything that's in me this is the totality of my being this is my ethos and to my consciousness that you have reason to thank God to praise God in fact when you don't think you have reason is because you have forgotten the benefits but when you remember what God has done for you you don't need it about it a stir you up and motivate you you just start thinking about what God has done for you in fact let's just take a moment very seriously this is not playtime this is serious time and I want you for just one moment to think of some things that you consciously know that God has done and if it had not been for God doing it would've gotten done and then I want you to bless his name I mean and I want you not to worry about your husband your wife your significant other and just bless his name I'm almost four now [Applause] and so we don't want to forget his benefits it's one of the things that people are concerned about now they're worried about amnesia and all Hymas and dementia to lose that ability to recall their own autobiography and so sometimes you need to take a pen and paper and just write yourself some notes about what the benefits that God has done for you this will keep you from having cheap praise she praises praise where you only get happy when you got stuff for instance tonight some people are not happy because they didn't get the car that they want out of house other clothes are the jewelry and I keep telling you for 30 years these are things that can be burned they can be repossessed they can be stolen you need some benefits that you came by over the counter you need some things that only God can give to you let me just give you some benefits that God has given to you so that every time you come to a church house and in your car or at home and you start thinking about and people ask you why do you get all excited about this god of yours think about the benefits the benefits they're little different but they are benefits let me give you about six of them and I think i'ma just stop right there some benefits that God gives to you in verse two you notice he repeats himself praise the Lord bless the Lord O my soul bless the Lord O my soul forget not the benefits and so what are they and he gives a list he gives pictures of the benefits that you ought to remember all the time one benefit is that he takes you to the courtroom and in the courtroom he says he forgives your sins now in the courtroom you know you're guilty you already know you deserve to be sentenced to death to imprisonment that life should you know have no exit and all of that and yet God has given to you now a benefit and this is the primary benefit i'ma come back to it but this is the primary benefit and that is in the courtroom he now forgives you of all of your sins some of your translation says iniquities that is something that is being and cricket inside of you God has straightened it out oh there's something big and crooked in you and God doesn't hold it against you and better than that the Catholic theologian Hans Kuhn says it this way that God can write straight or a cricket line like that that God can write straight on a cricket line because you can't explain all the reasons why God has been good to you other than God Himself is just good forget not his benefits he has forgiven you of all of yourselves you know what forgiveness is I'm glad you asked it's the Latin table rasa it is God has given you a blank sheet of paper in that something tonight God has not given you a chapter of errors that need to be edited corrected of your past he has dismissed that and has given you a blank sheet of paper to say that you can write a brand new chapter to your life and not only has he forgiven here he has forgotten all about it in fact some of us tonight we can't shout praise God because we keep going back to the garbage digging up what God has thrown away leave it alone leave it there and now write a new chapter to your life benefit number one your sins have been forgiven that's enough to make you run around the building if you really think about that your sins have been forgiven benefit number two he heals you of your diseases that is he moves from the courtroom to the hospital and so every one of us need to come to the hospital the hospital is where sick folk come the hospitals where people that are broken and bent and hurt and bruised that's why they come stop looking for healthy people to come to church that's when church gets real boring is when you want everybody to come self-righteousness like you know the hospital is for sick people broke people bruised people to started people and once they come into the hospital God is able to heal them love that diseases wait now he heals sometimes immediately this is David prayer and you remember in 2nd Samuel 12 he is talking to Nathan and that God forgives his sins immediately but then there are times like Romans 8:23 where God he heals but it's in a process but ultimately God would deliver all of us so you need something to shout it out shout about you got a hospital to come to and it's a place filled with sick folk in fact if you want to see how sick they are look to the left and right of here nothing but sick folk in this room in fact and if nobody's next to you just look in the mirror horton room hospital room but then down at the slave quarters look what it says and when redeems your life from the pit it's a picture of what God does for us in the slave quarters those that have been enslaved and nobody to get them out we have a God in Jesus Christ on a cross got down into a pit with us and lifted us out of that pit and paid the ransom price so that you could be here tonight jesus paid it all and all to hear my over sin had left a crimson stain but thank God he washed it white as snow by the way I'm watching you you waiting on something to shout about if you can't shout over Redemption is probably because you ain't no Christian it don't get no better than your sins have been forgiven I've been telling you thirty years the shout over the right stuff your Redemption Jesus has paid the price so that you can have a right to have access to God the Father I'm done with the sermon now let me give you one more come on to the throne room because now you'll put crowns on your head of love and compassion crowns that will predict you here's another one coming to the banquet room verse five he satisfies your desires with all good things that is God gives you everything that you need and everything that you don't need let me say it one more time God gives you everything that you need and a lot of stuff that you ain't asked for wait a minute here you don't get it God has given you surplus every time he's given you something if you ain't got it yet when Rafael and I'm through I'm gonna stop only when Rafael was was a little boy yeah what always asked me to bring him skittles home he saw this scene in bad boys well well well where they asking for some skills and from that moment on he always wanted skittles daddy could you bring me some skittles and as I was trying to answer the call to get him some skittles but he would call me every day to make sure that I got these skills ring hello where yet I've said mo 1960 he said by Willowbrook our champion far as I said Willowbrook you say oh you're a long wait there he said how you coming home I said I'm a come down sugar pine he said don't come down sugar pine come down yellow and stop at Texaco and get some skittles that was every day every day they all said that to me ring hello hey daddy I say yeah wait yeah I said on 1960 well Willowbrook champion I said now I'm past champion are you close to date then I said yeah I got out literally how you coming home I said well I think I'm gonna come down Turk and I said now don't do that come down the ELMO and stop by Texaco and get me some skittles I'm sorry I'll do it I'll do it ring hello hey daddy hey what you doing I said I'm on my way he said wait wait wait you add you down my Willowbrook are you doubting that by champion I said now I'm in the neighborhood at all alright ok so I got home and the Ale was upstairs and making enough noise sound like was 3 or 4 people upstairs and I said hell yeah they'll came tan around the corner down the banister a thing is shaking now you know cuz he's come spinning around it so much and you knew a or Heil Heil can't stand still he's always moving and dancing and talking I said I got something for ya there's all deadly how didn't Eve mask you I said you didn't have to you had conditioned me that before I got home I knew I needed to make a stop that's what I'm talking about God I give you what you need but it'll also give you what you ain't acts are the reason why he does it because he's abundant with love there are times where you never have to ask God for certain things you have conditioned your father he knows what you stand in need of you are on your own without any coercion from anybody just said I will Lester long have a good night i'ma just stop there ger that's all I got but he had one more stop and that's at the eagle's nest you see what he said he said when when when you bless me I'll take you some places and when you forget what you ought to be shouting about just remember the courtroom I have blotted out your transgressions remember the hospital forgiving you of all of your sicknesses step on by the throne room I put a crown on your head stop by the banquet room and remember that I've given you abundance into your full he said remember all of that he said but I want to take you somewhere else go by the Eagles nests and that Eagles must have been I guess in plenty in that day I don't know but these monogamous Birds always make a scene in big moments in biblical drama and so David says here that this is what God he'll renew you like an eagle and so they must have seen these old Eagles bouncing around these oh he goes they don't got all now and the opinions of their wings they don't function like they used to and the people would look at those Eagles of all Eagles of tired Eagles bouncing around and then something would happen these Eagles within those mountain crags they had they had their work there was thermodynamics they knew how to work the sky they knew how to work the wind so they would just jump up and extend them big long long long wings 7 1/2 feet big feet tip to tip and they were just glide upon that wind they were just cruise on the wind and the more they would fly the more strength they would get the more energy they would get and so now David says to you you're gone into a new year and some of y'all coming in tired you've been tired politically and you've been tired something actually and you've been tired physically and you've been tired financially you've been tired you've been worn down and look like you can barely lift yourself up but let me tell you if you learn how to bless the law if you learn how to open your mouth and bless the Lord and thank him for what he's done praise them for who ears but God will renew you're like the eagle's wings then those Eagles they fly the next thing you know they start flying like they used to when they were young and that's what God says I didn't bring you this far to leave you here on your own I brought you to give you energy no one can have a good night and may God bless you as we go into a new year no one does about the profit Center they say but they that wait [Applause] upon the law they that wait you know how to wait don't you sometime you gotta wait by survey and then the other times you just got to learn how to stand still and just wait on God it's hard to wait I know it's hard for me to wait because I feel like I have the strength and the energy to make things up but every time that all you can do it just wait and I said wait David said that in one in Psalms he said wait on the law same way you got to wait on the morning you got to learn how to wait on God I'm trying to leave you but I feel my soul rising up a little bit because I love to bless the Lord for what the Lord has done no one no wonder Isaiah said but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength you got it they shall mount up [Applause] they shall run and not get weary they shall walk and not faint and that's how you want to go home the night knowing that we have a god that's able to kill thus what we need he can mount you up Halloween just like an eagle I have a good night my children may God bless you real good but notice that David ended the same way that he began he said I will bless the Lord with everything that's in me he said I will bless him with all my soul and everything that's in me so why don't we tried before we leave and don't play with it don't act like or try to get out of your personality because God works through how you are if you are just a hand waving just wave your hand if you are shouted and be shouting if you are run up your honor but if you just lift up your voice lift up your voice but I want you to think about for just one moment what God has really done for you [Music] want you to think about the sins that have been forgiven I want you to think about sickness that happened healed I want you to think about a favor that God had I want you to think about a crown that God has put on your head want you to think about how God has renewed you now that you got that in your mind [Applause] master [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] his phone [Music] when you're living for Jesus every day counts that's why you need to regularly renew your hope and trust in him one way to help you do that is by sending you my 365 day devotional journal pass today pass today is my gift to thank you for your renewed financial support to help encourage more people with the life transforming truth of God's Word and 2018 so call now go online to get your copy of pass today when you do so thank you and be encouraged [Music] [Music] you

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Keywords: Pas, Church, Baptist, How to live a godly life, trust God, faith, trust, How to bless, how to have faith, how to live by faith, how to walk by faith, how to win souls, how to be a christian, encouragement, Houston, Northwest Houston, Southwest Houston, god, trust god, how to trust god, jesus, bible, love, peace, happiness, hope, sermon, life, christianity, ministry, ralph west ministries, the church without walls, preaching, finances, money, family, career, growth

Id: WBquFrcfYyU

Length: 28min 19sec (1699 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2018