In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith emphasizes the importance of praising God and walking in His ways. He encourages listeners to let the word of God be their strength and power against sin. Pastor Chuck reminds believers that God is slow to anger and full of mercy, always ready to pick up the pieces when we make mistakes. He also highlights the beauty of God's creation and how it declares His glory. Overall, the sermon encourages believers to fulfill God's purpose for their lives and find joy in doing His will.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole It seems that in compiling the psalms, that as they came to the end of the psalms, they sort of grouped together psalms of praise. Now, all the way through the psalms there is praise. All the way through there are exhortations to praise. But in the end of the psalms here there seems to be just a grouping of praise psalms. In fact, from Psalm 146 on to the end, they begin with the Hebrew word hallelujah, which means praise to Jehovah. And so they are the hallelujah psalms, 146 to the end. 145 is entitled David's Psalm of Praise. And he begins it by declaring, I will extol thee my God, O King. The kingdom of God means the kingdom where God reigns. And all of those who have submitted their lives to be reigned over by God have entered the kingdom of God. We make a mistake when we think of the kingdom of God as something that is future, something that I will enter into when I die, or something that God is going to establish upon the earth in time to come. Now, there is in a sense a truth to that. We pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But God's kingdom exists now. It has always existed. And the moment I surrender myself to the lordship of Jesus Christ, to be ruled over by him, I have entered into the kingdom. And thus, I begin to enjoy the benefits of the kingdom of God. And there are many. So I will extol thee my God, O King. I will bless thy name forever and ever. Every day will I bless thee. And I will praise thy name forever and ever. So David opens this psalm by the declaration of his intentions of daily and forever blessing the name of the Lord. Now, the reason is, the Lord is great. And he is greatly to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. In the book of Revelation, as the cherubim in chapter 4 are ascribing their praises to God. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which is, which was, which is to come. The 24 elders in response to this worship of the cherubim declared, thou are worthy to receive praise and glory and honor. And he speaks of the worthiness as the result of his being the creator, for thou hast created all things. So great is the Lord greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable. And one generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts. Now, down here he says, I will praise thy name forever and ever. Bless thy name forever and ever. And we pass this heritage on to our children, and then to our children's children. The psalm speaks of one of the blessings of walking with the Lord. And that is of seeing our children's children, or our grandchildren. And there is hardly anything I know of more fulfilling than to hear the grandchildren singing about Jesus, singing about the Lord. And whenever we take them anywhere, they're always just, they're singing about the Lord. And what a blessing and what a thrill. One generation to another generation, passing it on, the praises of his works and the declaration of his mighty acts. And so I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. So this blessing God, praising God, speaking of God's glorious honor, his majesty. All men shall speak of the might and of the terrible acts. Now, terrible is a Old English word, and the meaning of it has changed through the years. The Hebrew is awesome, and we sing, our God is an awesome God. And so he's talking here about how awesome is God, the awesome acts of God. So I speak of the might, power, the awesome work of God, and I will declare thy greatness. So they go together, the might of God, the awesome work of God, and the greatness of God. And they shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and sing of thy righteousness. So the Lord is greatly to be praised. He is greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable, manifested in his wondrous works, in his might, in his awesome acts, in his greatness, in his great goodness, in his righteousness. All of these are characteristics of God that evoke from our hearts praise. Now, when you start thinking about these things, praise becomes a spontaneous reaction to the thoughts of the greatness of God, the righteousness of God, the power of God, the awesome work of God. All of these things should evoke sort of a response from our soul and from our heart, a response of praise and thanksgiving. And then the psalmist declares, the Lord is gracious. He's full of compassion. He is slow to anger and of great mercy. Now, so often we hear people talking about the God of the Old Testament versus the God of the New Testament, as though there were two gods, one an awesome, fierce, Mount Sinai, law-giving, fire and judgment God, versus the turn-the-other-cheek, bless those that curse you, the God as manifested by Jesus in the New Testament. And so often the God of the Old Testament is looked upon only as a God of fiery wrath and judgment, where the God of the New Testament is looked upon as loving and gracious and forgiving and kind. But in reality, there's only one God. There are two aspects to His nature. He is a loving God. He is a gracious God. He is a merciful God. And the Old Testament reveals Him as such. But He is also a God of judgment, bringing judgment upon the ungodly. Now, there is a certain built-in kind of a judgment to certain activities. If you do certain things, you are going to reap certain consequences. The Bible said, Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. And there are certain activities and certain actions that automatically bring a certain response or reaction or a consequence to that action. God, in His love, warns us against those destructive things. God is seeking to protect man from that nature of man that is in and of itself bent towards those things that can destroy. Those things that do destroy. And so as you study the laws that God gave, basically God prohibited those things that are destructive. Destructive to relationships, destructive to your health, destructive to your relationship with your wife, your family, with your friends, destructive with your relationship with God. Things that destroy you. And as you go through the law, basically these were the things that God said, No, you're not to do these things. And those things that build you up, those things that make you a better person, those things that enhance your relationship with others and your relationship with God, God said, These are the things you should do. So you cannot really fault the law of God. If you really go through and examine the law, you cannot fault it. The law of the Lord is perfect, the scripture said, converting the soul. The testimonies of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. You can't fault the law of God. And yet we often rebel against the law of God. My flesh wants to do those things that God's law said I should not do, those things that are destructive by their very nature. And if I do those things in rebellion against the law of God, I'm going to suffer the inevitable consequences of those actions. And so God warns me, you do this, this is what's going to happen. And he warns us of the consequences of the violation of his law. He does that because he is gracious. And he's full of compassion. And I oftentimes do those things that are destructive. And God is compassionate. He sees you in your turmoil. He sees you in your sorrow. He sees you in your grief, those things that he was seeking to avoid and help you to avoid. You rebelled, did a many how, now you're suffering the consequences. And even then, God is gracious, he's merciful, full of compassion. Oh, you poor little nut, why would you do that, you know? And he reaches down and lifts us out and helps us. I think one of the most frustrating things that we have experienced in raising children is watching your child make a mistake. When they've come to that age where they can make their own decisions and watching them make a decision that you know is wrong. You know is going to bring pain and hurt to them. And doing your best to keep them from that. Doing everything that you possibly can within the limits of the law. You know you want to kill them at times because you know that what they're doing is so destructive it's going to hurt, it's going to bring them pain in the years to come. It's going to bring them sorrow. And you want so desperately to spare them from that. But they get headstrong. They get stubborn, they get rebellious. And they go ahead against your good judgment, against your pleas, against your advice, your counsel, your threats and everything else. And they do it. And there's not one thing you can do to stop them. And you just have to stand by and wait for the cycle. When they get to that portion where it's just the drop off and just that horrible pain that you were trying to spare them from. And then you're there to pick up the pieces and help them put it together. But had they only listened they could have spared themselves from all of that. And it's so hard. It's so hard watching your children make mistakes and you're trying to keep them and warn them from it because you can see the destruction, the pain that it's going to bring. And I think that that gives us a little insight to where God is. He sees us doing these things that He knows are going to bring us pain. They're going to bring us suffering. And God has done everything short of the violation of our will to dissuade us, to change us. But we get stubborn, we get headstrong, we go ahead and we do it anyhow. And then He just waits. And when we get to that crushing part and that painful part then He's so full of compassion. He's so gracious. And He helps us to put together the broken pieces. But He would have helped us to avert all of that had we only obeyed and listened to Him. And so the Lord is gracious. Even though I do things in my own headstrong will that bring me pain and hurt God is so gracious. He's full of compassion. And He's slow to anger and of great mercy. In other words, when you go ahead and do it anyhow He doesn't just cut you off and say, All right, that's enough. I've had it with you. Forget you, you know. Disown you. Never call on me again. And you don't do that with your children either. You just sort of pain and hurt and then you wait to help pick up the pieces and put it back. And that's the way God is. So compassionate. So gracious. Even though we have brought upon ourselves that pain and that suffering and that sorrow. For the Lord is good to all. And His tender mercies are over all of His works. And thus, all of Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord. The heavens declare the glory of God. The earth shows His handiwork. Day and to day they utter their speech. Night and to night their voice goes forth. A universal language. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. And all of creation praises God. It is there to remind you of the greatness of God. Of the power of God. Of the wisdom of God. Of the glory of God. The birds singing their praises to God. The trees lifting their arms in praise to the King. All of Thy works shall praise Thee. And Thy saints shall bless Thee. A step above praise is that of blessing God. The birds can't bless God. The trees can't bless God. The flowers of the field can't bless God. For blessing God is an act of intellect. It is an act of volition. And it is an act of love. And thus, only the saints can really bless God. And according to God's word, you who have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior are saints. Though you may not feel like it. You may have a different understanding of what a saint is. A saint is one who has come to place his trust in Jesus Christ. Saints aren't perfect. God help us. Perfect people don't exist. Saints aren't perfect. And saints aren't all dead. You don't have to die to become a saint. If you're not a saint now, you never will be. A saint is one who has just come to place his trust in Jesus Christ. And having placed my trust in Jesus Christ, I'm brought into a new relationship with God. A very special relationship. In which I can bless God. I can come a step above praise. And I enter into this relationship where I bless God and God blesses me. Now, the scripture doesn't speak of God praising man. The scripture speaks of God blessing man. And the saints of God can go one step higher than praise. Into the realm of blessing where God is blessed by her life. And now once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing comments. May the Lord be with you and strengthen you by his spirit in your inner man. That you might walk in the light of his countenance. In the understanding of his ways. As you keep his law and his precepts. And may the word of God be the strength of your life. Your power against sin. As you walk according to his purpose and you fulfill his plan for your life this week. May you know the joy of doing the will and the work of God. So that you have his approbation. His well done good and faithful servant. May we be busy this week. Fulfilling that purpose for which God made and fashioned us. As we heed his commandments. Now once again, here's Pastor Chuck with today's closing comments. May the Lord be with you and strengthen you by his spirit in your inner man. That you might walk in the light of his countenance. In the understanding of his ways. As you keep his law and his precepts. And may the word of God be the strength of your life. Your power against sin. As you walk according to his purpose and you fulfill his plan for your life this week. May you know the joy of doing the will and the work of God. May we be busy this week. Fulfilling that purpose for which God made and fashioned us. As we heed his commandments. So it's with great love that I tell you about U-Turn for Christ. An affordable, Christ-centered ministry of restoration. Hi, this is Pastor Chuck. I'm well acquainted with Pastor Jerry and the ministry of U-Turn for Christ. It's my estimation that it is one of the most effective ministries I know to help people turn their lives around. Without reservation, I recommend this ministry. If you would like more information about U-Turn for Christ, please call us at 951-943-7097. Again, that's 951-943-7097. Or visit our website at U-Turn for Christ dot com. This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.