Chris McCurley: In his best-selling book, The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard talks about how bosses should seek to praise their employees more. I bosses often don't have to look too far to find something negative in their employees, but Blanchard says that we should praise our employees more in the workplace. And the strategy that he has come up with is called one minute praising. We should spend time looking for areas where we can praise the workers that work for us as bosses and praise them for one minute. Now, this he says will revolutionize the workplace. It's not as easy as it sounds because we have been so conditioned to look for the negative. To look for the positive is going to take a little more effort. And and I read through this book and I thought to myself, how great would that be if we just implemented this in our interpersonal relationships, in our everyday lives? That we practice one-minute praising with our spouses or or with our kids or in the workplace or just our relationships in general. And I want to open with a challenge tonight. I usually end with a challenge. I want to open with a challenge tonight. And that challenge is I I want to encourage you to practice one-minute praising this week, but I want you to practice it in your prayer life to God. Praising God each day for what he has done, focusing on those things that you have to be thankful for. And we all have bucus of stuff that we can be thankful for. And if you're like me, it's easy to default to request and asking God for things, but spend time all week just praising him. Maybe you do already, praising him for what you have. And if you're if you're thinking about it and you think, well, I might have some difficulty doing that, well then Psalm 103 can be your template. Turn there. Psalm 103. Let's start reading. Verse one Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. Israel, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always shy, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as all as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust, as for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children. children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord all his hosts, his ministers who do his will, bless the Lord all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. So if I am asked to do a wedding, I will not do that wedding unless the couple goes through premarital counseling. And I don't charge for it because I'm afraid they wouldn't do it if I did. And so if I do a wedding, you have to go through premarital counseling. And during these premarital counseling sessions, at least one of them I will ask the prospective bride and groom to list five positive things about your future spouse. And then I'll ask them to list three negative things about your future spouse. And it never fails. They have no trouble coming up with five positive things. She's so beautiful inside and out. He's so handsome, but I love the way that he protects and he takes care of me and on and on. But when you ask them to come up with three negative things, I can't do it. I don't know if they just don't want to out themselves in front of each other, or if it's truly genuine that they're so in love they just can't even think of anything negative. But give it a couple of years. And they come back to me for postmarital counseling, and they have no trouble coming up with some negative things. In fact, there's more than three usually. She nags too much. He won't do this around the house. He never helps me. She's on me all the time about this or that and on and on. In fact, they could make a a laundry list of negatives and maybe not so much positives. And it just goes to show that if you're in a relation, long a relationship long enough, it it's easy to default to the negative. It's easy to do the same thing when it comes to life in general. Our default setting can become negative, and we complain about our job, we complain about our health, we complain about the weather. It's not hard to find something to complain about. And like I've said before, complaining is usually reasonable. It usually is. What you're complaining about is usually reasonable. You can find some way to legitimize what you're complaining about. I mean, your bias will affirm whatever it is that you're complaining about. But before you get to thinking that I'm sanctioning or signing off on your complaining, understand that complaining often removes God from the equation. Because complaining at its heart is basically saying, I I don't think God is going to act here. I don't think he's going to do anything. And so you complain without considering God in the situation. It may be reasonable, but complaining, even if it's legitimate, points to To a disconnect in the relationship with the Heavenly Father. At some point, we all need Psalm 103. No matter what life brings, we need to be able to shout, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name, bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits. Psalm 103 challenges us to change our default setting. It may require us to do a SWOT analysis. Many businesses, corporations do SWAT analysis. You know what SWAT is? SWOT, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? And so in your own life, you audit yourself. What are my strengths? What what are what am I good at? What are my weaknesses? What am I bad at? What are the opportunities that I have before me that I can take advantage of? What are the threats to my faith? What are the things that that threaten to harm my faith and my spiritual livelihood? You audit your life, you take inventory and you calibrate your life and you adjust it accordingly to ensure that you are filled with gratitude and that everything within you is predicated upon faith. In God, and because it is, it can't be contained. It just exudes out of you. It oozes out of your pores. It can't be contained. That's what's happening here in this Psalm. David's worship cannot be contained. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. What are those benefits? Well, let's look at them together. Verse three who forgives all your iniquity. Why start there? Why start with the forgiveness of your iniquities? Because you needed deliverance. I mean, before your salvation, you were lost in darkness. You weren't just sick, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You've been plucked from the fires of hell. So you start there because without that you have no relationship and nothing else really matters going forward. Without salvation, there's no relationship, there's no reward, and there's no other benefit that could really be called a benefit. And take note Of verses eight through twelve. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always shide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. So I want you to notice David's profile of God, because this profile of God comes up over and over again in Scripture. God has a long fuse, he slowed anger. He has a short memory, he does not keep his anger forever. He has thick skin. He does not deal with us according to our sins. And he has a big heart. So great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. Now I I don't need to convince you that you're a sinner. Many of you look in the mirror every day and you think about all the wrong that you've done. You think how in the world could God have anything to do with me? Some of you are locked in a prison of self loathing and self deprecation. What's wrong with me? Why have I not overcome things by now? Why am I not a better person by now at this point in my life? And our greatest barrier to knowing God better may be that we know ourselves too much. And if we know ourselves so well, we know that God knows ourselves even better. And therefore, that re hinders the relationship because how could God ever accept me with all the wrong that I have done? But instead of focusing on the garbage, we focus on the garbage man, right? We focus on the one who can take out the trash. That's what Dav David is doing here. Look at verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger. And abounding in steadfast love. Where does that come from? Sound familiar? Remember, the Bible is an autobiography. It's a story about God written by God. And in Exodus chapter 34, starting in verse 5, God describes himself. He gives us a description of himself. Who is God? Well, you don't have to wonder because God tells us exactly who he is. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him, Moses, and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. God tells us who He is. And by the way, that description of God comes up again, I'm sure you've noticed over and over again in Scripture, because it's that important. But in the Hebrew scriptures, word order matters. So words that are listed first should receive top priority. So the fact that compassionate and merciful are at the top of the list of Yahweh's character traits means something. It means that this is the dominant traits. Compassionate, merciful. The most important thing you need to know about him. And the phrase here in the Hebrew is Rahum we hanun. And it's a word painting. In the Hebrew, which means that not only do these words sound alike, but they also appear side by side for the purpose of explaining one another. They are paired together for the purpose of explaining one another, but they also paint a picture of who God is, which the Hebrew language often does. Rahum means compassionate. It's the word that's translated merciful most often in Scripture. It's from the root word meaning female womb. And you think, well, that's interesting. That's strange. But the idea behind this word is a feeling mother toward her children. Rahoom refers to how a parent feels about a child. So it's a feeling word. And then hanoon means to show grace or to show favor. It's something you do. It carries with it the idea of help. And so to hanun someone is to help them in their time of need. So Rahoom is a feeling word. God, like a father, feels for his children. He loves his children. He wants what's best for his children. And hanun is an action word, meaning God is going to do something to help his children. If he sees them in need, he feels for them, but he also acts for them. These two words fuse together to show us what God is like. He is compassionate, he is gracious and merciful. And when we come before God in prayer, when we worship him, when When we come to Him in the middle of a mess, we are coming before a God who feels, who cares about us, and we are coming before a God who acts and wants to do something about our situation. Now, this may be very different than the version of God that some of you grew up with. Some of us grew up with a God who was a tyrannical dictator who you better make sure that you crossed every T and dotted every I, or else He was gonna turn you into a roasted marshmallow for all eternity. But that is not the version of God that is described in Scripture. Some of you may have grown up with a version of God that you had to walk on eggshells. You had to make sure that you were doing everything perfectly, or else, and pleasing a God like that was almost impossible. And so you always felt like that you were in danger of losing your salvation. You were presented with a misrepresentation of the one true God of Scripture. Is there a sense in which God is scary? Better believe it. Am I suggesting that we shouldn't show reverence or respect? Not at all. Should he be feared? Yes, one hundred percent. But the idea that God is some angry tyrant waiting to catch you on a technicality is just not true. That is not the description that he gives of himself, and it's not the depiction that Jesus gives us of the Heavenly Father. For Jesus, the primary way to relate to God is not as some scared puppy cowering in the corner. Waiting to be beaten with a rolled up newspaper. Now Jesus describes the Father as a father and us as his children. We climb up in his lap and in in trust and vulnerability and intimacy and and in a relationship of love. Verses ten through thirteen. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, So far as he removed our transgressions from us, as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. I think you know this, but the hardest person to forgive is who? It's yourself, right? And when my daughter was really small, she used a pacifier when she went to sleep. And she didn't have it during the day, but just when she went to bed, she took a pacifier. Not just one. She went to bed with one in her mouth and two in each hand, and there were some other ones scattered in the crib with her. That was her security. Don't you dare even think about pulling that plug out. She held on to that with a tight bite, and she held on to the other ones with a tight grip. Sometimes she'd take one out, put another one in, just switch them in and out. She felt like she had to have that pacifier in order to go to sleep. What is the thing that you hang on to that you think that is giving you security but is in the end holding you back? What is that thing? What i is it your past? Is it is it some sin, some mistake that you've made in your past that you can't get past? Is it some decision that you made long ago? Is it is it maybe a A relationship or Maybe it's something you wish you had done. You need to let it go, but you think if you let it go, then you haven't really suffered enough? That God wants me to feel this pain longer because I need to pay for this? I don't know about you, but I thought about this in my life sometimes. I thought about is. Is this God's way of punishing me? Because I I don't believe that in my core, but I do question it sometimes. Is this God's way of punishing me? And then I always come back to, well, I deserve it, so even if it is, I mean, He's justified in doing so. But then I have to reorient my thinking and think, no, God, God loves me and He's going to walk me through this, He's going to help me through this, right? But that's just the way we're conditioned to believe. We've done wrong, we deserve to pay for it. And the bigger the wrong in our lives, the the more we think that we should have to pay. Even if God has forgiven us long ago, we still think that we should pay. He does not deal with us according to our sins, the psalmist says, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. And underline this, circle it, highlight it, whatever you need to do. As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who Who fear him. And and I know what you're thinking, some of you anyway. You're thinking, yes, that's all fine and good, Chris, but I'm the exception to the rule, right? You know, I I know that he forgives our transgressions. As far as the East is from the West, so far does he remove transgressions of everybody else? But maybe not me. I know that he is a God who is compassionate and merciful, but not me. I've done too much wrong to ever be a recipient of his grace. Think about who wrote this song. David was an adulterer, a conspirator to murder. Prophet had to be sent on the scene to get his attention because he was living life in rebellion to God. He ends up being a man after God's own heart. And he is pouring out his heart in this psalm to show us just how much God has done for him. And it all boils down to the salvation of his soul. The fact that he has been forgiven of all this horrible wrong that he has done in his life. Paul claimed that he was the chief of sinners, so you can't have that title. It belongs to Paul. When you get to thinking that you're the exception to the rule, remember who wrote this psalm and remember that the Bible is a is a story of failure over and over again. And I think the reason for that is because God wants us to see that in the imperfection, I can make you perfect. I can make you whole. I can bring you shalom when you think that it is so elusive, it can never be grabbed hold of. I think for many of us, we have to let some things go. We're really good trash collectors, but we're not good garbage men. We're good at collecting the trash, we're not good at setting it out by the curb and letting it get picked up. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. If you are a disciple, if you've come to God in forgiveness, if you have truly repented, God's not still mad at you. He's not holding this over your head as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us, and you can revel in the glory of knowing that you are forgiven. You can bask in the mercy and compassion that God shows his children. Look at verses 14 through 19. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to God's to children's children, to those who keep his covenant, and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. We are all stamped. With the words fragile, handle with care, right? We are frail beings. And nothing we ever do is gonna change that. Try as we may, we can't cancel out our humanity. We can take our vitamins, we can eat clean, we can work out three to four times a week, but that's not gonna change the fact that we are dust and that we are mortal. We are like a flower, like the grass, we're we're like a vapor. We're here one moment and we're gone. The next. But there is a but, and it's a big one. Notice verse 17. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. And that one little but links us with eternity by linking us to God. The but changes everything. In a transient world where everything is wasting away, we have a hope. Life without Christ is a hopeless end. Life with Christ is an endless hope. And doesn't it give you great hope to read the words He knows our frame? He knows that I am but a frail human. He knows that I make mistakes. He knows that I am but dust. He is well aware of the fact that I am flawed. He doesn't have to be told or reminded of that. He made me. He owns me. Me. I owe him, therefore. And what do I owe him? Well, I mean, in the simplest terms, I owe him my life. Notice how David concludes his prayer of praise. Bless the Lord, o you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. If you were sick and you're now healthy, bless the Lord. If you were had cancer and you're now in remission, bless the Lord. Give thanks to God. If you nearly died in a car accident, bless the Lord. Give him thanks. But even if, even if you prayed and the desired outcome didn't come your way, you still bless him. Because the healing comes in the fact that whether it's today or tomorrow, we all have wholeness and completeness for eternity. Christ always, always brings healing eventually. And therefore, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Let me ask you, when you count your blessings. What are those blessings you count? If you're like me, it's thank you, God, for a good education that I'm not even using now. thank you, God, for my children, thank you, God for my wife, thank you, God for my grandchildren, thank you for our home, thank you for you know our our possessions, thank you for all that you've blessed us with. And all that's fine and good. I don't want to minimize that. Thank him for that. But David would say, Don't just bless, don't just thank God for those blessings. Thank God for the hurt. For the heartaches and for the mess. Don't just count the strong, count the weak as well. Count all of it. Because all of it is going to be redeemed one day. And God is in control. And because God is in control, because He owns you, then it's all going to work out in the end. Don't just count the blessings that made you strong. Count the things that made you weak. Count the things that. That are gonna make you better in the long run. Like we talked about this morning, sometimes pain can be a great teacher, sometimes suffering can be a ministry, and sometimes it can well, many times, if not all the time, can make you better. This life is preparation for eternity. David says, Name it all. He knows your frame, so name it all. I was reading a story the other day, maybe you've heard it. A police officer was working in a neighborhood and he was walking down the street and he heard sobbing and he turned on his flashlight and he looked and over sitting on some steps was a little boy. And he said, Son, are are you okay? And he said, No, I'm lost. And so the police officer made it his mission to try to help him get home. And so he asked him, Where do you live? And the little boy didn't know. What's your address? He didn't know. He started asking about parts of town and monuments and things like that. Do you live close to here? Do you live close to there? But to no avail, the little boy didn't know anything about where he lived. Until finally the cop noticed the church in the middle of the town. Got a big cross extending from the roof, and he pointed to the cross, that church, and he said, Do you live anywhere close to that? And the little boy said, Yes, take me to the cross and I can find my way home. And that is true for all of us, right? Take me to the cross and I can find my way home. I believe that We should bless God in all circumstances of life. I think Psalm 103 is telling us that we are richer than we think, that we are more blessed than we know, that we have more than we realize. All that we believe, all that we have, and all that we hope for is found in the one who has blessed us beyond measure. Therefore, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Blessed. His holy name. How can we help this evening? The cross is your way home. And we can help you in a daily walk with him if you'd like to learn more about that, if you'd like to study the Bible with someone. Maybe you're ready to begin that daily walk and you've been contemplating baptism and you're ready to put on Christ this evening for the remission of your sins, certainly we can take care of that as well. I didn't realize we lived in Seattle now. I mean it rains every single day, doesn't it? But we don't have to go outside and find some water. We've got some right here we can baptize you and we can take care of that tonight. Whatever your need is, chance has a song. Why don't you come as we stand and as we sing?