Declare His Glory

[00:00:00] Let's pray together. [00:00:04] Lord, we thank youk for the privilege of being part of youf family. [00:00:09] We thank youk that we can gather here in freedom to praise youe, to worship youp, to sing praises to youo, and to share together. [00:00:20] And Lord, as we come now, to look at yout Word and to think together about what the mission of God is all about. [00:00:28] We just pray that you will guide us. We pray that your spirit will be amongst us, that we will learn from you, and that all that I say would be done in a way that brings glory to you. [00:00:40] Guide us through your spirit. We pray in Jesus name. [00:00:46] I don't know about you, but the last, particularly the last few weeks, it seems that we seem to be bombarded on television with images of children in need. I don't know if you've noticed that or whether it's just me. Jan and I were away for a while and didn't watch much tv, but since we've come back, it seems we get a lot of these images imploring us to help with starving children, whether it's in Gaza or wherever it may be. [00:01:16] Save the children. [00:01:19] All these various organisations that are doing a great job in dealing with malnutrition, Fred Hollows there's a long list of them and it's like we're being bombarded with these demands and reminders or you could almost say a guilt trip sometimes that we don't do enough. We need to do more, we need to give more. [00:01:39] Sometimes in missions it can be similar. [00:01:42] So I've even put slides up here from our own mission sim, the one Jan and I are connected with. [00:01:50] There's constant, I guess, constant reminders of the need in the world for people to hear about Christ. [00:02:00] Needy people spiritually and physically and medically and lots of other ways. [00:02:06] And we're being implored to maybe send people to give more, to pray more, to do more. It's an overwhelming task, or so it seems sometimes. [00:02:19] And this morning what I wanted to do is maybe just step back a little bit and look at this Psalm 96 together and maybe get a different perspective, one that focuses not so much on the magnitude of the task and how much there is to be done, but rather on who God is. [00:02:39] And that's why I've entitled this Declare his glory and Psalm 96. You could probably take any one of a number of other psalms, but Psalm 96 is the one that speaks to me mostly about this. [00:02:53] And I thought we'd just go through it together and maybe get a different perspective on mission from that. [00:03:01] So what I'm going to do today is just fairly quickly, I hope, move through the psalm just verse by verse, looking at what it says, and then take a few steps back and look at the whole of scripture a little bit more broadly to see how this speaks to us of what God is saying to us in the world and through the Bible and through all that he does. [00:03:28] So, Paul, read this for us. So we're just going to go through it again briefly. Sing to the Lord a new song. [00:03:35] Sing to the Lord all the earth Sing to the Lord Praise his name, Proclaim his salvation day after day. [00:03:44] That salvation is what Dan was explaining to us earlier in our communion together, and he did so very clearly. So I hope that's all clear in our minds what this salvation is that we are being called on to proclaim as we sing to the Lord. [00:04:01] In summary, we know that Paul tells us in Romans that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's that salvation. [00:04:17] Unfortunately, it seems that Donald Trump doesn't quite get that. I don't know if you've noticed that, but he has said that he thinks if he can organize a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, he stands a better chance of getting into heaven. Did you hear that? [00:04:34] I was intrigued by that. [00:04:36] Whatever you might think about Donald Trump, it seems to me that he hasn't quite grasped what salvation is all about. It is not dependent on what we do. Even if we can organize a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, it's a free gift of God, isn't it? [00:04:54] And it's because, as Dan was explaining, that forgiveness, that mercy, that compassion that comes from God through Christ, that's the salvation. [00:05:04] And we're called upon to proclaim it, not just one day, but day after day, in an ongoing way, declare his glory among the nations and his marvelous deeds among all peoples. So that's why I've entitled this message today, Declare his glory. Because that's what we're called upon to do with our lives, with. That's what we, as the church are called to do. And this is the psalmist here. And although it doesn't say that this psalm is written by David, it almost certainly was, because it seems to be a direct lift out of 1 Chronicles, chapter 16, where David says these words as the ark of the covenant is coming back to Jerusalem. And it's a direct quote. So the assumption is these are David's words, the psalmist and he is telling us declare his glory among the nations. [00:06:01] So let's move on. Why should we sing this new song? [00:06:06] And he says in verse four, for great is the Lord. The reason is because great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. He's to be feared above all gods. [00:06:18] For all the gods of the nations are idols. [00:06:22] And that conveys the idea of worthlessness. Worthless idols that the Lord made the heavens. [00:06:30] Now, in those days there were idols, people worshiped all sorts of idols. And we could explain all of that. It's all sorts of interesting stories in the Old Testament about the idols that they worshipped. These days our idols are a little bit different, aren't they, for you and me? [00:06:46] What are the idols? What are the gods that our society worships? [00:06:52] There are many of them. They might be things like education or wealth or even creation, the environment, maybe it's ever faster. Internet, which we're told is what we all should be striving after. [00:07:10] Maybe world peace between Russia and Ukraine. Perhaps it might be family, might be relationships, family relationships. It might be equality of opportunity. There are all sorts of goals and gods and ideals that our society chases after. [00:07:30] But ultimately all of them are worthless. [00:07:34] God, Great is the Lord. He's greater than all of those gods. So that's what David is celebrating. That's why we should sing this song is because of the Lord's greatness and the fact that he and his colossal worth, he is worthy to be praised. [00:07:52] Who is to sing this new song? The next few verses tell us. Ascribe to the Lord all you families of nations. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. [00:08:03] So who is to sing it? All the families and nations of the world. And we read about that in Genesis chapter 12. We'll have a look at that in a minute. [00:08:13] Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. [00:08:18] Why should we ascribe to the Lord? [00:08:21] Because glory is due to His Name because He is worthy of being glorified and of being lifted up and of being praised. [00:08:31] God is not made holy or worthy because of our praise. Because we gather here and praise him and sing praises to Him. [00:08:44] God is already worthy. We are gathering together because of his colossal worth. And that is the reason why we are to declare his glory, because it is due to his name. [00:08:59] Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. Worshiping the Lord in the Old Testament has an implication of. [00:09:09] Of trembling or even prostrating yourself before him, lying down in worship and praise and humility before God. That's what that idea of worship conveys. Trembling before him the whole earth to worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness. [00:09:28] And what's the message? This new song that we're to sing? What are we actually singing? What are we saying? [00:09:35] And he tells us in verse 10, say, among the nations, the Lord reigns. We've just been singing about that and even last week we finished our service with a song that says, he reigns. [00:09:50] The Lord reigns. That is the message. Jesus is Lord. The world is firmly established. It cannot be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. [00:10:00] We'll talk about judgment again in a minute. But it's a simple message, this one. [00:10:08] He reigns. God reigns. [00:10:14] And finally, the last few verses convey the fact that this is a message of joy. [00:10:20] Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad. [00:10:24] Let the sea resound all that is in it. [00:10:29] Let all the fields be jubilant and everything in them. [00:10:33] Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. [00:10:37] Let all creation rejoice before the Lord. [00:10:41] Yesterday I went for a walk with boots and all to Winterbrook Falls. And I was reminded of this. As we walk through the incredible forest and as we see thundering waterfalls and, and beautiful views, and we're just confronted by the creation of God. There is a sense in which all of creation is rejoicing before God. And we can be part of that if we choose to be. [00:11:08] And it says, let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for He comes. He comes to judge the earth. [00:11:16] Now, why would judgment be a cause of rejoicing? [00:11:20] At first reading, that seems a bit strange. [00:11:25] Let all creation rejoice because he comes to judge the world, comes to judge the earth. Wouldn't that be a reason to be fearful and trembling? [00:11:35] We need to remember that in the days that this was written, human judges were not necessarily a source of joy. Often they were. The judgments were determined or influenced by bribery and influence from various people. And the poor were not always getting the judgment and the justice that they deserve. So for them, for God to be judging the world justly was a cause for rejoicing. [00:12:06] And in thinking about why judgment can be a source of joy, I often think of this lady who actually this photograph I think appeared on the news even last night. Her name is Ghislaine Maxwell. I'm not sure if you know who she is. [00:12:25] She is about 63. She's a British, formerly a British socialite and a convicted sex offender. In 2021, she was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences in Connection with a deceased financier and convicted sex offender named Jeffrey Epstein, whom you might have heard of. His name's cropped up a lot recently. [00:12:49] The following year, she was sentenced in federal court in New York City to 20 years of imprisonment. [00:12:55] Now, the reason I put this up is that whenever I think of judgment, I think of the time when this sentencing was reported on the news. [00:13:06] And what struck me at the time was the celebration that was going on in the streets outside the courtroom when that sentence was handed down. [00:13:16] And it fascinated me that here was somebody being judged and being sentenced to 20 years in prison. And it was absolute jubilation, at least among those who were gathered there. There may have been others who may not have been so jubilant that they weren't there. [00:13:32] And it's a reminder that judgment is a source of joy when the judgment is being handed down to someone else, maybe someone other than you or me, somebody that we might deem worthy of receiving that sentence, someone who's done something terrible. [00:13:50] Dan's just been telling us a slightly different story about forgiveness and unforgiveness. [00:13:56] In this case, the celebration was for a judgment or a sentence that was handed down to someone who was thought to be guilty. So judgment can be a source of celebration and joy, depending on who's being judged and who's doing the judging. So as we think about this, it is a message of joy. He will judge the world in righteousness and all the peoples in his faithfulness. [00:14:19] When God judges, He will do it justly. No one will be able to say that he's done the wrong thing. He will do what is just and what is right. And he is God is just in all ways. So as we think about the mission of God, I want us to now review the scriptures briefly, just to see that this, what we've just been talking about, declaring God's glory, that he's coming to judge the world. He is to be worshipped and to be praised, and his glory is to be declared. [00:14:52] That is what the Scriptures is all about. The Bible is not just a random collection of stories that make us feel good and are encouraging and interesting little snippets of history. [00:15:04] There is an overarching theme throughout the Bible about the mission of God declaring his glory. [00:15:12] And I'm gonna. You could think of it, if you like, as the Bible is the story of his glory from beginning to end. [00:15:20] So I'm just going to briefly go through a few references to remind us of that. This is a little bit risky because each one of these little References has a background that I don't have time to explain, and a history and a setting that would be ideal to be able to point all of that out, but we don't have time for that. We'd be here all day. So I'm just going to briefly point to a few characters in the Old Testament, and you might know some of these stories well, or you might not. [00:15:46] But if you think of Abraham, for example, in the book of Genesis, I think Matty may have mentioned this last week where God says to Abraham, I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing, and I'll bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. [00:16:09] Then a few verses later, we're told that Abraham went up towards the hills east of Beth Hill and he pitched his tent and there he built an altar to the Lord and he called on the name of the Lord. So even Abraham back then, early in Genesis, he was careful to stop and to praise God and to build an altar that declared the glory of God. Even back then, Moses. [00:16:37] You may have remembered the story of the Exodus where Moses says to Pharaoh, let my people go. [00:16:45] But in Exodus, the Lord said to Moses, get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, this is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews says, let my people go. [00:16:58] Does that sentence sound familiar? You've heard that verse before. [00:17:02] Moses said to Pharaoh, let my people go. [00:17:05] But we need to finish the sentence. He didn't just say, let my people go. He never said that without also saying, let my people go, that they may worship me. That's what God says, let my people go, that they may worship me. [00:17:21] The reason that God wanted Pharaoh to let his people go, release them from Egypt, was so that they could go and worship him. They could be a nation that worship him. [00:17:34] So the glory of God and the worship of God was the whole reason for the exodus from Egypt. [00:17:43] We could look at many psalms. There's many of them. Psalm 46:10 is a very well known verse that says, be still and know that I am God. [00:17:52] Often when we look at that, and when I look at it, I tend to focus on the being still part. Just be quiet, relax, be still. [00:18:01] But when we are still, we are to be still. Because we need to know that God is God. It's because God is who he is that we can be still and we can be at peace. [00:18:16] Psalm 67 I have actually Preached on that one before, only a year or so ago that says in the first couple of verses, may God be gracious to us and bless us. Make his face shine on us, so that your ways may be known on earth and your salvation among all nations. That salvation that we were told about in Psalm 96, it's the same salvation is to be known among all nations. [00:18:45] But Isaiah 52 says, the Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. [00:18:57] Isaiah mentions it. Ezekiel, he says, in Ezekiel 33, he says that they will know that I am the Lord. [00:19:09] That's what God was seeking to do in the Old Testament all the way through, was that he would be known by all nations that he was the Lord. [00:19:18] Daniel, when he was praying, when he was aware of the situation in Jerusalem, he was in exile in Babylon, but he was praying to God about the city of Jerusalem. And in that little reference he says, lord, listen. Lord, forgive. Lord, hear and act. For your sake, my God, do not delay because your city and your people bear your name. [00:19:47] So again, it's because God is who he is and because God's people have his name attached to them. And it's for his glory that Daniel is praying that God would act and restore Jerusalem, not for the sake of the Jewish people, but for his sake, for the glory of God. [00:20:05] If we go into the New Testament, it's the same story. Jesus himself says, this is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven hallowed your name. [00:20:15] And we have probably heard that phrase so many times that it starts to lose its meaning sometimes. But hallowed be your name is not just a declaration of praise, but it's a proclamation that God's name would be honored throughout the earth. God's name is to be hallowed. God's name is to be proclaimed and to be honoured and to be obeyed. [00:20:37] That was how Jesus told us to pray. [00:20:41] And Jesus himself says, when he was praying to God, he says, father, save me from this hour. But no, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Jesus himself, his goal was that God's name would be glorified. [00:21:00] The apostle Paul, many places says the same thing. [00:21:06] He says, in Romans, chapter one, for example, in verse five, through him we receive grace and apostleship, to call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience for his name's sake. For the sake of the name of God In John, in 3 John, it says, for the sake of the name they went out receiving no help from pagans. He's talking about those who went out to proclaim the gospel. They went out for the sake of God's name. [00:21:36] So it's a recurring theme. And Stephen Hawthorn puts it like this. [00:21:42] He says, in Missions and Evangelism, motivation by a compassionate response to the human predicament is biblical and necessary, but it will only go so far. The overriding passion should be for God to be honoured. [00:21:56] It's the proclamation of God's glory. Declaring his glory is not just the motivation for all we do in missions and evangelism and even here in our church, but it is the overriding theme through the whole of the scripture and all that God has done. [00:22:13] Put it another way, John Piper says missions exists because worship doesn't. [00:22:20] So the reason that we are called upon to take the message of Christ out into the community and to the ends of the earth is because God is not yet being worshipped by everybody. [00:22:32] We are to declare his glory so that all the ends of the earth will worship him. [00:22:40] And as it's put by Tim Dearborn, he says it's insufficient to proclaim that the church of God has a mission in the world. [00:22:51] Rather, the God of mission has a church in the world. [00:22:55] Now, you might think, oh, he's just playing with words. And he is to a degree. But if you think about that, if the church has a mission, that means the emphasis on the church, the responsibility is on you and me to do that work. And that's where we can become quite overwhelmed and even exhausted with all the things that need to be done. [00:23:16] But to think of it as God is a God of mission and we are here in the world because we are his church. [00:23:23] So God is at work. God is doing, has been since before we were even born. [00:23:30] God is all about declaring his glory and being worshiped for the ends of the earth. Our job is to get on board. [00:23:39] So I thought I'd throw in a picture that I took a couple of weeks ago from Lenox Head. I believe in northern New South Wales, we were whale watching. [00:23:50] Now, if you think they don't look like whales, it's because they're not. They're surfers. [00:23:59] You could probably find lots of much better pictures of surfing than this one. But I put this in for this reason. What are they doing? [00:24:07] They're sitting on their boards and they're waiting. They're waiting for what's known as a set. [00:24:14] Those of you who've been surfing will know what that is. [00:24:17] And I do remember the times when My kids were growing up, particularly my daughter Shelley. For a number of reasons, she was quite keen on surfing and because she couldn't drive. [00:24:27] I guess it was my job to drive her on Saturdays all over the state, trying sometimes in vain to find waves. [00:24:34] And I've spent a lot of time floating on a board in the water waiting for sets. So you get a whole. [00:24:42] If you wait long enough, then the waves start coming. And when they come, they can come with a force and they can be well worth waiting for. [00:24:52] But surfing is a matter of, you can paddle if you like, but paddling by itself is not going to get you anywhere. You need to wait until that wave comes. And it's useful to think of missions like that where God is at work and we sometimes need to wait to see what he's going to do, what he's going to send our way. And when it happens to start paddling and get on and enjoy the ride, we don't do the work in surfing. It's just a matter of timing it right. And you can have a lot of enjoyment just from experiencing what the wave has provided for us. God is at work, and our job is to get on board. In other words, there's God is on mission. We are on mission with God. [00:25:38] So I guess that's the theme. And I want to just give you a couple examples of what God is doing around the world. This fellow's name is Johannes. He's an Ethiopian doctor. [00:25:47] And he, in the last few months has stepped into the role that I used to do in Nigeria. When I Left just over 10 years ago, I handed over to another leader who, who took over the role of director of sim's work in Nigeria, which is what I had been doing. [00:26:05] And he did it for 10 years. And he now has left and handed over to an Ethiopian doctor who's a family physician. [00:26:13] And you know, Ethiopia is one of those countries where SIM first started its work nearly 100 years ago. [00:26:20] And now we're at a stage where one of those Ethiopians who's a product of that work that. That Sim did in those days, has now come to Nigeria to provide leadership. And he is spearheading a real effort to reach into the northeast of Nigeria, into among Muslims, and many who have never heard the gospel, never heard of Christ. [00:26:43] And he's got a team of probably 8 or 8 to 10 adults or more in that northern part of Nigeria. And many of them are actually Ethiopians themselves. [00:26:56] So God is at work, raising up people, reaching out, and people are responding. [00:27:01] This guy, his name is Peter. I had a chat with him a few days ago. [00:27:06] He and his family live in Jos and he has a heart for justice, more so than almost anyone that I know of. He has complete commitment and a passion for reaching out to those who are suffering. And he goes all over Africa doing amazing things, raising funds and helping in community development, but also in the context of declaring God's glory. [00:27:32] And you wouldn't know from this photograph, but about 10 years ago he had a stroke. So he is actually partially paralyzed. He has very little movement in one of his arms and a reduced movement in his legs. But despite that, he is still continuing to reach out and, and to mobilize others. [00:27:51] And if you have a passion for unreached people, I might suggest this app which I've been using for a while now, called Unreached of the Day, which you can get from the Joshua Projects website or you can get it through the Apple Store or the Google Store. [00:28:08] Unreached of the Day gives you. Every day gives you a people group somewhere in the world. Tells you their name and their numbers of people, where they're located and a little bit of their background and. [00:28:18] And it's just an opportunity to pray for that people group. And I found that it's very helpful in getting a global perspective on what God is doing around the world. [00:28:28] But of course, we have people right here in our midst. I can see the Emorys or one of them over there preparing to go to Albania. We have other people from within this congregation who are serving in different parts of the world. God is at work. [00:28:43] And hopefully we'll have hear soon that some of the plans we have for local outreach here in the Summer Hill area for what God might be doing and how we can jump on board. [00:28:53] So that's what I wanted to share with you this morning. In conclusion, I wanted to just read from 1 Peter, chapter 2. [00:29:04] You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession so that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. [00:29:19] That's the God that we are serving and we are called to declare his glory. [00:29:26] So my challenge to us is God is at work. Where can you see him at work in your life or in the people that you know? And how can you get on board with what he is doing? [00:29:39] So let's pray. [00:29:44] Father, we thank you that you are a sovereign God, that you reign. [00:29:51] We thank you for the challenge to declare your glory to the ends of the earth. Thank you for what you are doing around the world. We thank you for what you are doing here in this community, even amongst our own congregation here you are at work. [00:30:08] Lord, we pray that you will help us to find the place that you have for each of us to get on board with what you are doing and to declare your glory among the nations. We pray in Jesus name.