Songs of Heaven

[00:00:01] Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Do you remember the first album you ever purchased? [00:00:29] I'm talking about the artist whose music. It captured your heart. It really drew you in and compelled you to go buy your very first vinyl record. Or maybe it was a cassette tape or a compact disc, depending on which generation you are. In fact, by show of hands, how many of you would it have been a vinyl record? Raise your hands. Real. All right. Our seasoned saints bless you. Thank you. How about a cassette tape? That was me. All right. And then how many of you. It would have been a cd, a compact disc. All right, how many of you have no idea what we're talking about? [00:00:57] That figures. Okay, well, this is a track. Oh, a track. Oh, wow. [00:01:03] This is back in the day, right? When you couldn't just digitally download an audio file and you couldn't stream it. You literally had to leave your house and go to a music store like Sam Goody or something like that, maybe in a nearby mall, and you'd have to actually buy the physical album or the record or whatever it may have been. So who was that for you? What was the artist's name? Whose album? You just. It was your first one. You're so excited about it. Was it Fleetwood Mac? Or maybe it was the Temptations, Patsy Cline, Frank Sinatra, Wu Tang Clan. I don't know where that one came from. I don't know. Earth, Wind and Fire. [00:01:41] Maybe it was Michael Bolton, Bryan Adams or Kiss, Salt N. Pepper. Hello. [00:01:47] Who was the first person? For me, it's pretty easy. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the summer of 1990 and I went to Sam Goody. That was at the Northeast Mall. Born and raised, the North Fort Worth Keller area. I went there and I got my very first cassette tape. I was called like I had no choice. It just drew me in. I bought this cassette tape and the artist, it was a no brainer because his music, it just towered over all the other artists in that day and time. And he, he was. Had this uncanny, unparalleled ability. I mean, he's creative genius, able to masterfully weave both rhythm and rhyme into his music. Not only that, he Was an incredible performer. He had mesmerizing dance moves. And I'll just. I'm gonna go out there and say it. I'm just gonna say it. And we can talk about after church if you disagree. That's okay. Is that he. He is the grace of all time. It never been anyone like him, nor will there ever be in the future. And interestingly enough, he's actually kind of reentered the spotlight even as recent as today. Now I'm gonna imagine based on that description, that you probably know who I'm talking about, right? So on the count of three, let's just. Let's say his name together. Ready? One, two, three. Vanilla Ice. That's right. That's right. [00:03:07] Did you think I was gonna say Michael Jackson? That what you thought? I mean, he's good, but come on now, don't act like you haven't been blessed by Vanilla Woo. [00:03:15] Ice, Ice, baby. [00:03:18] One of the greatest of all times. [00:03:20] Once you hear that bass line. [00:03:24] Alright, stop, collaborate and listen. Ice is back with my brand new invention. Something grabs ahold of me tightly Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly Will it ever stop? Yes, right now. Stopping right now, Right this second. And here's why. Because if I, if I. Yeah. Amen. Because if I. If I keep going, I'll start dancing. That's actually a Michael Jackson move right there. [00:03:44] I'll start dancing. I haven't stretched. I don't want. No one's going to pull a hammy on my watch. It's not going to happen. Plus, this video will be published on YouTube and forever live on the Internet. And I care about my kids, all right? I don't want them to have to live through that. [00:03:56] So Vanilla Ice, that was my guy. Like, I mean, I loved Ice Ice Baby. I don't think he ever made any other songs other than that. But I listened to Ice Ice Baby and my Walkman. Come on, you remember the Walkman? A little box. Press this button, flip open, you put your cassette tape in there and just hope that that film doesn't. Cause then you take it out and wind it back. Had my headphones on. I would listen to isis, baby. To and from school every single day until I can master all the lyrics. Even the very end when he's like, word to your mother. I don't even know what that means, but I hope she's blessed. [00:04:29] I dedicated the time and energy to learn all the dance moves. I was so cool in my own mind. It was awesome. So good. Vanilla Ice had a major impact in my Life for at least, like, three months during that one window of time where he was famous. [00:04:46] However, I will say this. Actually, I'm going to amend that. His impact on me far surpassed that, apparently. It's maybe just like a subconscious impact that I wasn't even aware of, but I want to make you aware of it. So here's what I've done. I actually found a picture of me when I was 30 and a picture of Vanilla Ice when he was 30. So take a look. Here's a split screen. Here's me and Vanilla right there. How about that? [00:05:11] We have a middle school guy. His name is Keaton. I told him to give him a shout out. What's up, Keaton? He's actually running the graphics right now. I walked in this morning to do my slide check, make sure everything was in order for my message. And he goes, man, I saw your picture. And I was like, you did? Yeah, me and Vanilla Ice. And he goes, huh? He goes, no, I thought it was two pictures of you. I'm like, well, it's working. [00:05:31] There it is. In fact, when visiting families would come to our church about this time, that's about 11 years ago. And you know when you're new and you're trying to meet people and learn people's names, and one of the best ways to be able to distinguish one person from the other is to highlight an attribute, an immutable characteristic that kind of sets them apart. And so I would overhear that some people, when they're trying to speak of me, they'd go, wait, wait, wait. Is Pastor Scott. Is he the guy that looks like Vanilla Ice? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know who you're talking about. So there's that. I won't even try, guys. That's not on purpose. It just happened. I'm trying to grow out of it. So Vanilla Ice impacted me. His music, I just say, really impacted me. And that's what music does. It has a way of really kind of shaping our mood, our attitude, our behavior, things that we do and say, and the way we look at life and all those things, and you and I both know this to be true, how profound music is on us. Because if you're in the car and you turn on, you know, know, the radio and a song comes on that you remember from your childhood, or maybe it's your wedding, and you're immediately transported back to that time and place, and you start to relive some of the memories, and you feel the meaning, and it moves you, and it's a really Powerful thing. And that's the reason why we're doing a series called Songs of the Psalms. [00:06:34] And we're looking back at a time gone by at some of the inspired songs. They're all inspired. We're just looking at a few of them that are in the Book of Psalms. And in doing so, we're reconnecting with the power and the purpose of the lyric and we're finding that it has never lost its value and we should really cherish the word of God. And so we're doing that through the Book of Psalms. Now, the word psalms, it actually comes from the Hebrew word psalmos or the Greek word psalmos rather. And psalmos means music or songs of praise. So ultimately you could think of the Book of Psalms as like a Spotify playlist with 150 tracks. And because we didn't want to spend over three years in this series, we decided instead of looking at one song or one Psalm every single weekend, going through all 150, if you will, we decided to press the shuffle button and instead we're just kind of looking at some of our favorites, some of the greatest hits, if you will. So today I've chosen to Visit the Psalm 8. Psalm 8 is where we're going to be today. And if you have your Bible, go and open up there because we're going to be in Psalm 8 pretty much exclusively for our time together. If you don't have a Bible, that's okay. [00:07:43] Bring it next time. If you don't own a Bible at all, we want you to have God's Word. And so if you'll see an usher, we would love to help you. And we can connect you with the right person to give you a Bible. It'd be a gift from us to you. Now it's a starter Bible. And so just know that you're probably going to need to buy another one. But we want you to have God's Word because Jesus says, you know, man cannot live on pizza alone. I mean, bread alone, but every word that comes from the Father. So we want you to have God's word so you can be spiritually strong and nourished in all those things. So before I get into Psalm 8, I want to read to you a quote from a guy named Derek Kidner. He is a theologian. [00:08:19] He wrote a two volume commentary on the Book of Psalms. Like this guy, he knows what he's talking about. I mean, I learned all kinds of stuff this week. And so here's what Derek Kidner had to say about Psalm 8. It'll be up on the screen so you can read along with what I'm reading. [00:08:35] He says of Psalm 8, this Psalm is an unsurpassed example of what a hymn should be celebrating as it does the glory and grace of God, rehearsing who he is and what he's done, and relating us and our world to him, all with a masterly economy of words and a spirit of mingled joy and awe. [00:08:59] That's beautiful stuff right there. I don't really know what else I can do to add to it, but if you need some additional inspiration, here's kind of my opinion on the Book of Psalms. It's kind of like the sweet Caroline, the don't stop believing of the Book of Psalms because it's positive, it's upbeat, it's a real crowd pleaser. So I'm hoping that it's going to bless you today. And it was recorded by David. [00:09:22] By David. And he kind of frames Psalm 8 really as a summary of life. It's like a Bible in and of itself because it answers some of the deepest questions, some of the greatest questions that we all ask. And it's like, who's God? Who is he? Who am I? [00:09:42] What am I here for? What's my purpose? And we really need to be able to answer that question with confidence. Otherwise we might fall into this kind of this nothingness mindset. Where is life really just about me, you know, getting a job and, you know, climbing the ladder, getting married, having kids, having grandkids, and then just, like, waiting out the clock. Is life really about just being chosen, frozen dead? Like, is that really what this is all about? And what Psalm 8's going to do is push back on that notion and say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God's so much bigger than that. Like, you don't even know. He's so vast, so mighty, so incredible. He's so big. And his purpose for you is so significant. You're so important to him and to what he's doing in the world. So we're going to unpack this. We're going to look at all nine verses in its entirety, and then we'll go back and we'll just kind of unpack it verse by verse. That sounds good. Say it's good. [00:10:32] All right, here we go. Psalm 8. It's up on the screen. You can follow along beginning in verse one. Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name. In all the earth you set your glories in the heaven. Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against Your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. [00:10:51] When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings, that you care for them? [00:11:01] You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands. You put everything under their feet, all flocks and herds and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and all that swim the paths of the seas. [00:11:16] Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. So David, he ends the same way he begins. [00:11:25] Anytime you see that, you know, he's wanting to guarantee, if possible, that the reader, the hearer, understands what's really important. And so where does he start? He starts with Lord, our Lord. [00:11:39] That's really good. That's really good news. That David starts with God, and he also ends with God because he is the beginning and he is the end. [00:11:48] He is the Alpha and he is the Omega. He should be the beginning of our day, and he should be the end of our day. And I'm telling you what, this is the most important theological concept we could ever grasp in that he's the big idea. [00:12:02] He's the big idea. [00:12:04] He's the one in charge. He's the one that's sovereign. [00:12:07] Have you ever read the book the Purpose Driven Life? [00:12:10] It's a little bit older now. Several decades ago, Rick Warren wrote this book. And in its time, it was like the book in Christian circles, and it was all over everywhere. I mean, even. I think even Oprah gave his book away one time. You know, she probably regrets that. But either way, this book was really, really incredible. And even today, even today, it is the number one selling book of all time. Time, second to Shakespeare, and of course, the number one selling book of all time. It actually is the Bible. Well, what's interesting about this book is the very first line. The first words in this book is, if you know it, say with me, it's not about one of you. Read it. Okay? One has read the purpose of your life. It's not about you. Is how this book begins. And that's really good, because as I look around this room, we're a mess. [00:13:01] We are an absolute disaster. I mean, think about it. We forget our car keys, we lose our wallet, we forget our passwords, we argue on social media with each other. We put pineapple on pizza. Like, what are we doing? And we think we can run the universe I'm just here to tell you that it's good news. And it is quite a relief for me to be able to say, oh, man, I'm actually not responsible for everybody and everything in my life and yours because I'm fragile, I'm fickle, I'm a hot mess half the time. [00:13:34] Let's face it, if we're in charge of the universe, we've seen this movie before. It's called Bruce Almighty. Come on, somebody. You seen that movie? [00:13:41] It gets out of control in a hurry. When we are at the center of the universe and when we pretend to be God and control every aspect of our lives and the lives of others, the collateral damage really is incalculable. [00:13:54] And while we know. Here's the funny thing. While we know that we aren't the masters of the universe, it doesn't stop us from trying to be the masters of our own little world. Does it not? We try to control our finances, make sure that we have predictable outcomes. We try to control our health, so, you know, we don't eat red dye. I'm all for that, you know? You know, we try to do all these things. We try to control our kids. [00:14:16] Good luck with that. We try to control our spouse, try to control our schedules, our boss. Control, control, control, control, control, control. And what we realize is we actually control nothing. And the tighter the grip that we have, the tighter the grip it has on us. It's called anxiety, and it's called stress. No wonder why we're so uptight all the time. It's because we need to resign. Put in the resignation letter today. Of resigning. Of CEO. Of your life and the lives of others. [00:14:45] What a relief that God actually gets to be CEO coo. That he gets to be the big idea that he is about his renown, it's about his glory and not mine. [00:14:54] We are in his hands. I got news for you. You don't need Allstate after all. You're already in good hands. [00:15:01] The rest of you get that later. Okay? So what I'm saying is, David, he's got it right. [00:15:08] Lord our Lord. That's where it starts, and that's where it ends. It's all about Him. That sounds a little bit redundant, doesn't it? Lord our Lord. It's like, was that a mistake? Can you just say Lord one time? It's the same word twice. Well, actually, when you do a deep dive, you look at, you know, the original language of Hebrew, you find out they're two different words. So the first word, Lord, when it's in all capital letters. That actually is the Hebrew covenant name of God, which is Yahweh. So the first word, David's going, you're Yahweh. [00:15:37] Have it. Yahweh. [00:15:39] It's Yahweh. And then the second word for Lord is actually the Hebrew word Adonai, which means master. So what David is saying is he's going, yahweh, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Yahweh, God, the only God, the one true God. God, you're my master. Yahweh and Adonai, you are both. You are the giver of my life, you're the sustainer of my life, and you control my life. [00:16:04] I'm yours. You are large and in charge and I am small and on call. Come on, somebody. That's what David is saying here. I want us to have freedom today. And freedom is found when we actually embrace that truth that my life really is about God. It's about him. And that's where the goodness is found. Lord, our Lord. Right off the bat, life's not about me, it's about God. Then he says, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Now, whether you've been to church for decades or maybe you're new to church, you probably have noticed that we make much of the name. [00:16:40] We pray in the name, we call on the name. We sing songs that have the word name in it. What a beautiful name. [00:16:51] You know my name. In fact, we sang that earlier today. I know a name now, if you take the Christian filter off of it. That's kind of strange. [00:16:59] It's kind of strange. And the reason why it's strange is because we in our culture don't really make much of names. [00:17:04] They just are what they are. Even when naming our kids, sometimes there's like some sort of meaning behind it. But oftentimes it's like what's popular. You know what's cool, what's gonna be alliterated? Cause I have three kids. They all have to start with the letter B, whatever it may be. [00:17:16] Like us, our youngest daughter, we were just watching TV one day when Jessica was pregnant. And this TV personality, her name was Ainsley. And we're like, that works. So she's Ainsley. Or maybe it's like how I got my name. See, my parents named me Scott because that was a man that my mom dated in college that wasn't my dad. [00:17:37] It's okay. I've been in counseling. I'm mostly good at this point in time. That's a true story, actually. [00:17:43] So we don't really have a whole lot of meaning. We think, oh, Tom. Oh, Samantha. Oh, that's nice. Those are nice names. [00:17:51] But in Hebrew culture. Oh, no, no, no. Oh. This was like everything. [00:17:56] Because the name was the summation. [00:17:59] It was like the representation of who you are, who you belong to, where you been, what you done, who you are today, where you're going tomorrow, is actually almost prophetic in some ways. Like, for example, when God, when he called Abram, he changed his. [00:18:14] He changed his name. Why? He gave him a new identity, a new purpose. He goes, I'm gonna call you Abraham because you're gonna be the father of many nations, even though you have no children right now, because your name is gonna carry my name and it's through your seed that my son is gonna come forth. You see what it is. The names are so incredibly important in Hebrew culture. And so when David says, your name is majestic in all the earth, what he's not saying is, you know, yahweh kind of sounds nice. I like the way it sounds. I like the way it hits my ears. It tingles when I say it. Yahweh. Yahweh. It's awesome. That's all he's saying. What he's saying is your name, who you are, God, what you're about, that you're the same yesterday and today and forever. That, that name, the name above all names, that everything you're about, God, is so majestic, so royal, so incredible. [00:19:07] And that's kind of the same mindset we should have when we talk about the name of God. We're singing a song and we're mentioning the name of Jesus. [00:19:15] He's wonderful. He's counselor, he's mighty God, he's the alpha and the omega. He's the beginning and the end. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah. He's the land that was slain before the foundation of the earth. [00:19:27] He's a lion, He's a light, he's a rose. He is just and merciful and abounding in loving kindness. [00:19:35] He is all knowing and all powerful everywhere at all times. That he is a devil, defeater, a sinner, savior, a soul winner and a promise keeper. Like that is our God. Amen. And so when we talk about the name of Jesus, it's not just like, yeah, Jesus, Jesus. [00:19:51] No, it's all of what we just described. And that should humble us and cause us to go, wow, God, majestic is that name, how royal your name is. That's what David's really trying to help Us grasp here. [00:20:05] And may I say that as Christians, we become one of them by calling on the name of Jesus. No other name under heaven by which we may be saved. We call on his name for salvation. But watch this. And then we carry and bear his name afterwards. It's not just about calling on Jesus being saved. It's now, I am marked. I am branded. When I step into the room, the presence of God should show up. When I walk into a room, it should be an inhale, not an exhale. You know what I'm talking about. You walk in. Some people walk in a room and they're like, he's here versus when you walk into a room. People go, he's here. When we walk into a room, it ought to be an inhale, not an exhale, because God is showing up because we are carriers of His Holy Spirit. So here's my question as a Christian, since we're supposed to be about all that God is about. Are you about it? [00:20:56] Am I about it? Am I about my agenda or God's agenda? Am I about making my name great and getting more followers, or am I about making God's name great and helping. Helping people know that they can follow him too? Oh, the name's so powerful. I remember David. [00:21:14] He's writing a song. All the psalms, they're songs. So he's not just writing this psalm so it could be understood intellectually. He's writing the psalms so it could be felt emotionally. Cause that's what music does. It moves you. It changes your mood. It has meaning in your life. And God uses music as a powerful tool in our lives to transform us and change our affections and compel us to move and do what he's called us to do. So think about this. Speaking of music, have you ever wondered why we sing songs in church? [00:21:47] I mean, I know we do it. [00:21:49] 30 minutes of music on the front end, teaching on the back end is kind of what we do. Have you ever really thought about, like, what are we doing? [00:21:55] It's kind of a peculiar thing, because in what other context in our lives do we walk into a room and stand shoulder to shoulder next to strangers and. And sing for 30 minutes? [00:22:05] Can you imagine doing that at the DMV? [00:22:09] Be wacky. [00:22:10] But why do we do it here? [00:22:12] I'll tell you what we're doing. When we come into this environment and when we sing, we're singing theology. [00:22:17] That's what we're doing. We're singing Truth to God. We're singing to Jesus about Jesus and what ends up happening when we do that is regardless of what's going on in our lives, which, by the way, we don't sing when we feel like it. Even though we may have come to church and. And it was chaotic in the car. Been there. Hello. Or maybe you've got some sort of bad news that you're grappling with, or there's some sort of worry that you have and you brought it into church today. I want you to know that we sing anyway, and here's why. Because truth is still truth, regardless of the circumstances. And so we sing truths to God. And what ends up happening is these songs deposit in our soul, and it begins to change our outlook on life. Oh, our small God, who seems so. So far and almost aloof at times, that God, our small God, starts to be seen as big as he is. And we begin to appreciate who he is, knowing that no matter what I'm going through, God, he's right there. He's my good shepherd. He's. He's with me through the valleys. So we're gonna sing. We're gonna worship. Now, I want you to notice this, that in this verse at the very end, when. When David says, how majestic is your name, there is a Hebrew exclamation point. [00:23:24] A Hebrew exclamation point. [00:23:27] I think sometimes we just gloss right past some of the small things. This is so subtle, but so significant. It's a Hebrew exclamation point. It's almost like David's trying to tell us how he's feeling in this moment that he. He's pumped up, he's fired up. I don't think he goes, how majestic is your name? [00:23:45] How majestic is your name? [00:23:47] I think he's going, help. [00:23:50] Majestic is your name. God. Like, he's so, so excited about it. Okay, here's what I want you to do for a second. All right? [00:23:58] Look at your toes. [00:24:00] Yeah, I'm serious. Go and look at them. Okay, scoot them back just a little bit more because I'm about to step on them. [00:24:08] I'm about to step. And I don't want to step too hard. Okay? There's no judgment here. [00:24:13] David was unafraid, unashamed to express his adoration to God. [00:24:22] I think sometimes it's not just met church, it's just church, just us. I think sometimes we are dry bones, quiet, and we are stiff as statues when we praise our God. [00:24:37] After all that God has done, all the. Who he is after, and we stand here. Alleluia. You get all the praise. Coffee. [00:24:53] What? [00:24:54] I mean do you remember who we're worshiping? [00:24:57] We were worshiping the creator of the universe, the one who puts breath in our lungs. And all we can do is just. [00:25:04] What is happening? Look, I want you to know that the Bible actually encourages. [00:25:08] Here's the first thing. Authentic. Oh, it's got to be authentic. It's got to be authentic and animated worship. It's all throughout the Bible. It says, clap your hands, all you people. So we clap. [00:25:19] It says, make a joyful noise. So we're noisy. It says that we're to give a shout of praise. So we shout. The Bible says to worship God with a tambourine and a lyre. And that's what they're doing back there, playing those instruments. The Bible says, raise up holy hands. [00:25:34] You realize that raising hands is not just to ask questions, but to give answers. [00:25:40] That sometimes we're going, I know the answer. And he has a name. Hello. You are the answer. You're what I need right now. Even though I don't see a way. You have a way. Like, we are saying back to God that he's the answer to anything and everything we need and what we're about, what we're going. He's the answer to that. That's what we're doing when it comes to our worship. So I want to invite you. [00:26:02] Put that exclamation point on your worship. Put that exclamation point on your worship. [00:26:09] I'm not saying that we should do cartwheels down the aisles in Jesus name. That's not what I'm saying. You can do cartwheels down the halls of your house in the name of gymnastics if you want to. But let's be enthusiastic about it. Because if we're going to. If we are going to clap and cheer for a team, our favorite team, who wins because they kicked or hit or threw a silly ball, they. Then how much more should we clap and cheer and be enthusiastic and excited about a God who's won the ultimate battle? It's called he conquered sin, death and the grave. Come on, somebody. How about that? Isn't that good? We can worship God and be expressive and not look over our shoulder. Who's looking at me? But we're looking straight up. Cause God sees our heart. Anyways, so then let's continue with verse two. [00:26:49] David says, through the praise of children and infants, you've established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. Oh, I love this. He says, through the praise of children and infants. You know, our church is actually going to get a front row seat to this scripture materializing. Come in real life next week as hundreds of kids are going to descend on this campus. It's called wow week and this place is crazy. In fact, if you next weekend after coming to church, because you will, and when you leave and if your spouse says, hey, you got glitter all over your back, it's because of wow week. It's cause they were sitting in this chair and they were just losing their minds and wearing costumes. We try to tell them not to do it, but they're kids, right? So here's what this is. It's a four day extravaganza at night and it's games, interactive elements competitions, small groups, high energy worship, dynamic Bible teaching, snacks. It's gonna be an amazing time. I had a kid last year come up to me, I'll never forget it. He ran straight up to me with the greatest amount of enthusiasm you've ever seen. And he just goes, this is the best day of my life. [00:27:50] And then like Kevin McAllister on Home Alone, you know, when he realizes he's home alone and he's really excited about it, you know, and he runs off, he's like, ah, that was this kid, he ran off just like that. He was here one minute, gone the next. He's so excited. [00:28:04] What's so special about wow Week is that these kids are, they're on fire for Team Jesus. They're all in. [00:28:13] They don't care what other people say or think. It's all about Jesus. They're all about it. They're all about him and lifting up his name. [00:28:19] You know what they have? They have, it's called unabashed faith. [00:28:23] Unabashed faith. [00:28:27] That's what we need, we need to have that unabashed faith. [00:28:31] What happened to it? Here's what happens. At some point in time, the passion and faith that really every child possesses at some point in time, it leaks and fades and then totally disappears. [00:28:42] There was a psychologist several years ago who wrote a book and it was called All I Need to Know for Life I learned in kindergarten. [00:28:52] All I need to know for life I learned in kindergarten. And his concept or his premise in one particular aspect of his book, he said, just imagine that you go into a kindergarten classroom, let's say there's 30 kindergartners in there. You walk in there, they're all sitting there and you ask them this question. You say, hey, by show of hands, how many of you can sing? [00:29:11] You know what's gonna happen? [00:29:13] Every hand's gonna raise up they're gonna be like, can I sing? We all can sing. And then they'll start singing and it's squeaky, it's off key. And you know what? They think they're the best singer on planet Earth. [00:29:28] They do. Then you ask them another question. You go, hey, okay, you can sing, alright, how many of you think you can write a story? Like, you think you're a good writer? Raise your hand. And then they all raise their hands again. They're like, who is this guy? You know, chump. Of course we can go, all right, I'm a great writer, right? My mom loves. My writings are on the refrigerator. Hello, I'm awesome. [00:29:48] Then he says, all right, now fast forward a decade, okay? Decade and some years. And these same kids, they grow up and they go to college. [00:29:55] And you walk into the auditorium their freshman year of college and you ask the exact same question. Same kid, same question. Hey, how many of you can sing Crickets? [00:30:07] They look around, they go sing. [00:30:10] He might be able to sing. I can't. You think you can sing? Prove it. Oh, no, nevermind, never mind. [00:30:15] Same. Next question. How many of you can write? You can write a good story. And they're like, man, we want to be accountants. Okay, go down to the English nerds. They're the ones that are the good writers. Or down there, what happened? Same kids, different season of life. But what really was the problem? I'll tell you what the problem was. Life happened. [00:30:36] Life happened. [00:30:37] They got rejected, they were discouraged. They became more acquainted with their sin. And so shame and guilt is now resting on their shoulders. It's so heavy. And little by little, their dreams are crushed and their passion gets stifled and you know what happens? They become cynical and jaded. So what I'm trying to say is, what if we went back to the place where we had the awe and, and the wonder, the faith and the passion of a child? [00:31:02] That's something we have to reconnect with, rediscover. It doesn't come naturally. It's something we have to choose to step into. That's why Jesus says, anyone who has entered my kingdom must have the faith of a. [00:31:12] A child. You know why? Because they have had. They have a conviction to believe God's word and not be embarrassed, not be afraid of what other people might say. [00:31:24] It's the conviction that God can do the impossible. You know, when a kid, a kid prays, the kid believes that God's gonna answer his prayer. [00:31:32] A kid believes that God's gonna heal her grandma. When a kid hears these stories in the Old Testament, which we believe are absolutely true, a kid hears, you know, Jonah and the whale and Daniel in the lion's den. And the kid's not like, well, let's talk about this scientifically. [00:31:48] No, the kid's like, yeah, that checks out. Because my God is a miracle working God. Because if my God can create everything from nothing, he can do whatever he wants. That's my God. See, we need to reconnect with that faith and that wonder. That's what David, he's trying to get at here. He's going, look, you need to become more like them, not them. Become more like us. The faith of a child is what we need. But not only the faith of a child, we need the weakness of a child. [00:32:14] Kids, they'll have hubris. [00:32:17] There's no pretense with kids. They're not trying to impress anybody. They just are who they are. And they're comfortable in their own skin. [00:32:26] They're humble. [00:32:28] That's what we need. [00:32:30] God, he uses the weak things of the world to shame the wise is what the Bible says. The scripture says that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. And yet he chose a cross. And as the way to atone for the sin of the world. [00:32:46] Think about your own weaknesses. I've got plenty of them. Insecurities. And yet God would really. You still use me? [00:32:53] Like, what is that? Like, who am I? And God's going, exactly. It's not about you, it's about me. [00:32:59] And I give you countless examples of that in the Bible. How about Abraham? Let's start there. The father of many nations. Well, he wasn't always that. He was old and childless and thought his better days were in the past. But. But God chose him to be the father of many nations. Or how about Gideon? He belonged to an inferior clan, inferior tribe, and he was the weakling of the family. I mean, you picture Frodo Baggins. That's Gideon. And yet God called him a mighty warrior and used him to defeat the Midianites. Or how about Leah? She was unwanted by her father and she was ugly. [00:33:32] Yeah, sad. [00:33:35] And let me tell you, when the Bible says you're ugly, you're ugly. You are ugly because God is not a man that he should lie. She was ugly. But you know what? [00:33:45] God saw her. God loved her. Oh, watch this. And God chose her to be a part of the family tree of Jesus Christ himself. Or how about Peter and John? They're uneducated and ordinary men, rough around the edges. And you? God chose them. And Used them to turn the whole world upside down through the proliferation of the gospel. And then Jesus, he came as an infant, nothing more weak and tender and mild than that. And then he lived a life of sinless perfection and went to a cross, an instrument of humiliation and death. And yet God raised him up on the third day to secure and purchase our salvation. Here's the point. God displays his strength through unlikely vessels. Why does he do it? [00:34:26] Well, David said it. It's to silence the foe and the avenger. You see, when God uses someone like us, someone like you perhaps, to do significant things, it shuts the mouth of the roaring lion called the devil. You know why? Because God gets all the credit. Because whenever I do something that is even just tiny in terms of importance, the devil's like, oh, I can't believe Scott's capable of doing that. [00:34:53] And God's like, that's right. It was me working through him. [00:34:56] It silences the avenger. It silences the foe. And then verse three, David makes a pivot and he starts to reflect on who we are as human beings in light of the greatness of God. Here's what he says. When I consider your heavens, think about that word consider. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place, what is mankind that you're mindful of them, human beings, that you care for them. Here's what David. Here's what he's doing. [00:35:19] Remember, he was a shepherd. So he spent a considerable amount of time out in the pasture tending to his flock day in and day out, night in, night out, and at nighttime. He didn't have a whole lot of options. He couldn't just binge, watch Netflix and doom scroll on TikTok. So what he did was he likely just kind of kicked back, relaxed, and looked up at the starry sky and attributed the wonder of what his eyes saw to the one who made it all. And that is God. [00:35:50] That's what he did. [00:35:51] So you know what I think? [00:35:53] What I think is the biggest problem facing Christianity today. Here's the biggest problem. And we got a lot of options, by the way. We have broken homes, we've got pornography, there's violence, there's shallow Christianity, all those things. But you know the thing that I think is the greatest threat to spiritual vitality? [00:36:12] It's distraction, it's busyness. Oh, we are so busy. We've got jobs to do, we've got bills to pay. We got dinner to make. We got kids practices to take them to. We Got schedules to manage, we've got clothes to buy and clothes to wash and then we have more clothes to wash and then we've got reports to write up and we've got pictures to take and captions to write and soul numbing show us to binge watch on Netflix. All these things and what we end up doing is we double down on that. And instead of taking a step back and going, man, what about my life needs to change, what I need to let go of? We latch onto more and more and more because we have options. We live in America. And so before you know it, we run faster and faster and faster before we're dizzified and 20 years pass and we look back and we go, what happened to my life? [00:36:56] What happened to my life? [00:36:58] See, if we aren't careful, we are doing soul crushing activity that looks like busyness and it's distraction. You know what the biggest distraction is? [00:37:09] In my opinion? [00:37:11] It's in our pockets right now. [00:37:14] It's our phones. [00:37:15] I read a report recently that said that the average person spends five hours a day on their phone. Five hours a day, that's a long time. And maybe you're like, no, no, no way. All right, here's what I want you to do. Get your phone out right now. Go ahead, it won't bother me. Get your phone out right now. All you gotta do is in the search field, type screen time and brace yourselves. Prepare to be disgusted. Okay, look at it. See if you're on the high end, low end on that. I saw I was six hours a day when I did this and I'm going, lord Jesus, help me. Now some of this is work related. You're sending emails, but let me just do a quick tabulation. If you spend an average of five hours a day on your phone, five hours a day, you multiply that times the number of days there aren't a year, that's 365. That's 1,800 hours a year we're spending on our phones. Now maybe you're like, eh, I don't know. That doesn't sound like a lot. Okay, let's now divide that by the number of hours in a day. [00:38:07] That means we spend 76 full days a year on our phones. And if you're a business owner, this is really gonna fire you up. If you divide 1,800 by an eight hour workday, we spend seven months productivity on our phones. Wasted, totally gone. [00:38:27] It's gross, it's crazy. [00:38:31] And what we realize is we don't have time to focus on things that matter, like God, reading scriptures and prayer and serving and fasting, all those things. So what's the solution? I'm never going to point out a problem and then just go, disappear, right? I'm going to give you a solution. So what's the solution to this problem? You ready? [00:38:49] Here's what it is. [00:38:51] Look at the stars. [00:38:54] Look at the stars. That's what David did. What did he say? He goes, when I consider your heavens, I'm going to take a break. I'm going to consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place. [00:39:07] Get out in nature. Take a break. [00:39:10] Psychology would also prove, based on research and data, that getting out in nature, grounding, just being in the presence of God, that what it does, it actually starts healing your brain because of all the images and all the junk that we're taking in. [00:39:24] Okay? [00:39:25] Now, I know that when you leave here, you're gonna forget about nature. You're gonna leave here, and instead of going out outside, you're gonna be like, let's go to Chipotle, everybody. You know, you're gonna go eat lunch. Cause you're hungry. Maybe that's just me talking. So here's we're doing a quick little exercise with a few just last few minutes we have remaining, a quick little exercise. And we're gonna do a little stargazing. We're gonna stargaze for a second. So the star that we're gonna start with is the only star in our solar system. Okay? On the count of three, what's the name of our star? One, two, three. [00:39:52] The Sun. All right, it's not a trick question. You're like, is he setting me up? No, it's the sun. The sun is the only star in our solar system. Okay? So I want you to understand about the sun. I got a picture for you. Here it is right here. This is from like NASA.gov, this is an official government photo. And this is legit. This is the sun because it's from the government. Everything the government does and says is true. So this is it right here. This is what you guys are messed up. All right? So this is the sun. [00:40:14] An actual picture of the sun zoomed in. Okay? So this is the sun. It is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Pretty impressive. But not only that, it's 63. Excuse me, 93 million miles away. That's a long way. 93 million miles away. Okay? So when we start talking about distances in the cosmos, we gotta have the right standard of measure, it can't be feet and yards. Yardstick's not gonna work. We have to use light years. So I'm gonna give you a little education about light years, and now you're sitting there going, man, light years. I don't care. I'm trying to feed my kids. What's going on? All right, Just bear with me. We're going somewhere. So a light year is when you travel at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. [00:40:55] That's fast. That means if you were to travel the speed of light from here, where we stand right now, to the moon, you could get there in two seconds. At the speed of light, you could. Likewise, if you're to travel from here to the sun, traveling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, you could get there in eight minutes. Meaning when a beam of light radiates from the sun, it takes eight minutes to touch your skin. Here in Fort Worth, Keller, Texas. Okay? That's how fast the speed of light is. Okay, hold on to that. But that's not the most important thing. I want you to know about the sun, how fast it takes to get there. What I want you to think about is the size of the sun. Okay? Here's how we're gonna do this. [00:41:31] This is a golf ball. I want you to imagine the Earth is a golf ball. The Earth is a golf ball. Okay? Look at it really intently. Okay. Do you see your house? [00:41:41] Oh, there it is. Nice manicured lawn. Way to go, Don Beebe. All right, there's your house. [00:41:46] Awesome. Okay, you see your kids running, playing little dog, your little doodle, whatever it is. Okay? There's your house. It's on the. So if the Earth were the size of a golf ball, that would make the sun to scale 15ft in diameter. [00:42:05] You see how big the sun is compared to this Earth? Little, tiny Earth. [00:42:10] Okay. You're not impressed? Let me contextualize it even more. [00:42:12] You can fit. [00:42:14] Earth is golf ball. You can fit 960,000 Earths inside the sun. [00:42:21] That's how big this sun is. And it's only one of hundreds of billions of stars just like it and bigger. [00:42:28] Just in our galaxy. Incredible. Okay, let me show you one more star. Now, this star makes the Earth look like a speck of dust. It's called Betelgeuse. Now, some people say Betelgeuse, but, you know, I was raised in the 80s, so it's Betelgeuse. So Betelgeuse. There it is right there. Now, that doesn't look very impressive. [00:42:44] Okay, not very impressive. But what you have to understand is it's quite a bit of a ways away here. In fact, Betelgeuse is 600 light years away. So if you were to travel from here, from Earth toward Betelgeuse at the speed of 186,000 miles per second, you'd get there in 600 years. So forgive our satellites for not being able to get too much of a close look of Betelgeuse. There it is, right there. It's 3.5 quadrillion miles away. That's insane. These are numbers I don't even know what to do with. That's not the most incredible part. I want you to know the size of Beetlejuice. Okay, you ready? This Beetlejuice is twice the size. [00:43:20] How many? Think I'm gonna say sun. [00:43:23] It's twice the size of the Earth's orbit around the sun. [00:43:30] What? [00:43:31] That is massive. Okay, to give you a little more context, that's like if the Earth were a golf ball that you could fit as many golf balls in AT&T Stadium 3,000 times. [00:43:46] That's how many Earths can fit inside of Beetlejuice. Absolutely crazy. So I get what David is saying. He goes, man, I want to look at the stars. And he didn't have all these telescopes. He's just looking at what his naked eye can see. He's going, man, God, you're so big, so massive. And what he's not saying is, and I'm just little old me. Like, you know, you got Beetlejuice and you got the Milky Way galaxy, and why would you think about me? No, what David's saying is, Matt, Wild God, you have so many other things you could be gawking at and thinking about, and yet you care about me. What is mankind? You think of me. [00:44:21] What is our human beings? Did you care for us? Here's what David's saying that I want you to catch today. He's saying that even though God is so big, he cares about us, even though we're so little. He cares about when our marriages need to be repaired. He cares about the lump that we have that needs to be healed. He cares about our finances and our balancing, our checkbook. He cares about our wayward child. He cares about all these things. He's intimately familiar with all our ways. He knows you're waking up, you're lying down. In Psalm 139, David says that God's thoughts for us are precious. And if you were to count the amount of thoughts he has, for you it would amount to more than every single individual grain of sand on on the entire all beaches and the entire Earth. That's insane. So I'm trying to help you get at today. Maybe this is the takeaway. Ready? Here's what it is, is that you matter to God more than a galaxy. [00:45:09] More than a galaxy. [00:45:12] Even the Whirlpool Galaxy. [00:45:14] And she's something. Man, she is stunning. Can I show you a picture of the Whirlpool Galaxy? Here it is. The Whirlpool Galaxy. Look how beautiful she is. That's me. I'm not beautiful. There it is right there. [00:45:24] The Whirlpool Galaxy. You know the Whirlpool Galaxy? Let me tell you how far this, this place is. It is 31 million light years away. So if you leave Earth right now, you catch a flight from Earth traveling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. You will get to the Whirlpool Galaxy in 31 million years. [00:45:44] It's crazy how big this thing is. But what's even cooler is that the Hubble telescope. So good. The Hubble telescope was launched into Earth, the Earth's orbit 360 miles above the Earth in 1990. In 1992, the Hubble telescope peered into the cosmos, saw that picture that we have today of the Milky Way Galaxy or the Whirlpool Galaxy. And then it zoomed in even more so and saw this white matter. And within this white matter there was this black hole. [00:46:11] I can't wait to show you what's in the middle of this black hole. You ready? Here's what we saw in the middle of this black hole in the Whirlpool Galaxy. Right there. [00:46:19] It's the majesty, the glory, the mercy, the grace, the grandeur of our awesome God. He's bragging, isn't he? He's saying, even though you think I forgot you, I have sent a message in the entire universe that my greatest achievement, rescuing all of mankind, that cross is going to loom loud over all of creation. Here's what I want you to know today. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know where you are. I want you to know you matter to God more than a galaxy. So much so that this star breather in God became the sin bearer. They stepped down from heaven to Earth, became a little lower than the angels for a short period of time, became like us, being perfectly God, adding humanity to his deity, lived the life we were intended to live, but fall short of because of sin. He died the death we deserve. But the grave couldn't hold him. He rose again because he's mighty. God on the third day. And anyone, anyone includes you, even good people, anyone who would turn from sin, turn to Jesus, will be saved. That's a blood bought guarantee. You can take that to the bank. [00:47:16] Wherever you're going through, wherever you are right now, here's what I want you to know. God sees you. [00:47:20] God cares about you. Oh, he's big and we are small. [00:47:24] But he wants to crown you with glory, adopt you into his royal family by trusting in Jesus. Will you come to Jesus today? Will you come to Jesus? Lord, we love you. Thank you so much. [00:47:36] That while you are big and mighty, that while it's mind blowing to think how big you are, you hold the whole world and the whole universe in your hands. That you would be mindful of us, you would think of us, God. [00:47:48] And those thoughts are precious. [00:47:50] You love us. You care for us, God. I pray for anybody in this room today that is feeling defeated, down, depressed. [00:48:00] I pray God right now by the power of your holy spirit, that you would whisper into their soul, I see you better. Days are ahead. Cast your cares on me because I care for you. I love you more than a galaxy. If there's someone here today that doesn't know Jesus, that they are sensing a tug on their heart, that's you, Lord. And your word says, seek you while you may be found. They can find you today by simply opening up their hearts, saying, lord Jesus, I believe your God. You died for me on the cross. [00:48:28] Forgive my sin. Be my Lord and Savior. I follow you. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. [00:48:35] Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.