Praise

A very good morning to you and happy Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas is coming. I'm so glad to be with you. I'm delighted. And Pastor Urshen, thank you for the invitation. I'm sorry I don't get to see Sister Jackie Urshen and your boys, but please give them my regards. And it's good to see Sister Luke and Darlene and her husband, the Bridges. And Darlene was a friend of my wife when she was a child and good to see them. The older I get, the more I appreciate those who have remained seeing that some things don't change. The world changes really, really rapidly. And it gives me so much comfort to see some things consistent and steady. A solid rock through the years, a pillar. You never really know how much you mean to somebody. Your faith, your consistency. There are people in this room right now who depend upon your reliability. Children receive a great deal of security, a sense of security from seeing the

same faces Sunday after Sunday. And later on in life, they'll remember you. They may never say hi, they may never talk to you, but you'll be in their memory. Amen, amen. I'm so thankful for the saints who've remained. Would you pray, would you pray this morning, pray for me and pray for your own heart that you would receive God's word? Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for your help this morning, your blessing upon what is preached. Help me to be faithful to your heart in this word. Overcome barriers, obstacles, strongholds. And through your mighty word, I pray your body would be edified in your name glorified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen, you can be seated. Thank you for standing. As a young minister, I tried to preach sermons no one else had ever preached. I tried to find interpretations of scripture no one had ever seen. I tried to find the hidden and I suppose I wanted this wow response

or something. So I couldn't preach a straightforward message on Noah's Ark, or thou shalt not kill. I went deep into the Nethermost regions of Hebrew and Greek, Akkadian, Persian, and I tried to find something that no one had ever heard before. And I found, later on though, that this was dishonoring to the word of God and to the inheritance of the saints. For the treasures were at our very feet. They were obvious. They were in the simplicity of the gospel. The simplest concepts were absolutely deep and profound. And I had ignored them for so many years in trying to find the hidden. I overlooked the obvious. And I felt like when that phase of my life had ended, I felt like the man who set out to sea to find a distant new land, an undiscovered country, and sailed all the way around the world and at last arrived upon shores and found out that he had discovered his own home, his own

country. And I look around and I'm still there. I'm still walking upon those shores and seeing things I've always seen, but the beauty of them, the appreciation for them, the majesty of the simplicity of Christ. I would like to speak on the subject of praise. Almighty God, you know my thoughts from afar. You're the origin and the destination of everything I say. Lord, the affection I have for you, you know you are my judge. And I intend to worship you in everything that I say and yet how well I know that my worship cannot add to or detract from your nature and your glory from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God. I know full well that my worship of you says more about me than it could ever say about you. For one who stands in front of the masterpiece doesn't judge the masterpiece. It's my response to the masterpiece that is judged. If I find it worthy then my sensibilities are true.

If I find it not to be worthy, the defect is in me. And just so as I stand before you now, hear me and hear my worship and search me God and teach me the beauty of your ways and show me your glory. I'm not going to speak of any thou shalt nots or thou shouts. There will be no admonishments this morning. I merely want to praise the Lord. I once met a peculiar servant of the Lord's and I had seen him around all of my life but always at church and only at church. He seemed to get younger as I grew older. And the first time I saw him in church I must have been about four and he seemed then a wise old man. But now that I'm in my later forties whenever I see him he seems much younger than me and though I'd seen him many years we weren't formally introduced until about 17 or 18 years ago. I

still remember where I was when I learned his name. I was listening to the song Blessed Assurance and to tell you how long ago that was I was listening to it on a CD player at home. I listened to it over and over and over again because I was preparing to sing it at church that night. You know we used to have what were called specials. They weren't always very special especially when I was singing it but I remember I turned around and I saw my grandmother on the couch while the song was playing and her hands were raised and there was a well of tears collecting around her collarbone and she was mumbling softly Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus Thank you Jesus I had heard the rhythm of the song I had heard the syncopations, the modulations, the vocals but she was hearing something entirely different something I didn't yet understand and that's when I first met this servant of the

Lord. The servant was sitting next to her doing the same thing and I wondered how he ever got in my house. I asked him his name and he said it depends on what language you're speaking. In Greek my name is a pinus in Italian Lodate in German Lovett in Russian Cavallet the Chinese Commies and May among the Hebrew people I have long been known as Halal you may call me praise I was used to seeing praise only at church but as big as you please there he was with my grandmother glorifying God in my living room and it was an odd place I thought at the time to find praise I had always interpreted songs like Blessed Assurance devotionally when I was at church but mechanically when I was anywhere else but not grandma not long after that my wife told me that she met praise too but she met him in the mall my wife said I was in the Christian bookstore

and I saw a picture of a broken man holding a giant nail in one hand and a hammer in the other he was collapsed in despair but held in the merciful arms of the wounded Christ then I noticed I wasn't standing alone but praise was standing there with me making a bit of a scene he was weeping for joy and I looked back at the picture a second time and I saw that that man being held by Christ was more like me I was the broken one in the picture the Lamb of God upholding me she said I started to cry and I couldn't break away I grew up believing in Jesus but I always believed in him like I believe in the planets and galaxies I know they exist I know they exist but I haven't really experienced here I met Jesus and it probably wasn't a coincidence that when I met him praise was standing next to me I found it

odd though as she told me this that he would show up in such a public place even if it was a Christian bookstore and then I remembered that I took my wife Laura to dinner at Ocean Shores, Washington right at the edge of the world and I remember that the evening was warm and clear and we were going to get to watch the sunset over the Pacific and if you're from the northwest you know how very difficult it is to catch a sunset because the clouds cover the sky 300 some odd days of the year but on this night we were going to get to see it everything was perfect we sat by a window in a warm fire pit and the pianist played fur Elise and in the kitchen there were clanking dishes and glasses filling with ice and flames swishing and hissing pans and there were hundreds of happy conversations and then oh god you remember that praise came in and

asked to join our dinner I told him quietly not wanting to hurt his feelings that three is a crowd on a date leave me alone tonight he wasn't bothered he politely took another seat he was on a mission he had gone there to witness a miracle he sat in the booth across from me and stared out the window like a child and then the time came at last the moment we were waiting for the hot pink sun descended into the horizons the waters of the sea seemed to boil and waves of heat danced over the ocean and the dishes suddenly stopped clinking I became aware that the pianist had stopped playing the conversations went silent praise stared breathless and then oh excellent lord the last pink speck of your fiery chariot disappeared and the gates of night closed behind and the restaurant filled with saints and sinners erupted spontaneously in applause and praise stood to his feet and shouted with his hands up

raised the heavens declare the glory of God the sky show his handiwork oh lord our lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth I was conscious a few moments later I too was clapping and in my joy a sobering question occurred to me whom does the atheist have to thank for moments like this praise started showing up in all kinds of places after that we began to laugh together quite a bit I think we became friends we smiled once at the moon as it changed into a strange shape one night and we watched a young man sitting with his friends and a girl that he obviously liked stole a glance at him and he blushed and she smiled at this tribute to her beauty we saw two girls playing kickball in a quiet street and then we listened to the beautiful sound of their mother there was her voice echoing through the street calling them home for dinner I remember I

once held I once held my boy in my mere hands and we named him Carter and you excellent God you built his face out of memories the memories of my fathers and grandfathers and you made his eyes China blue and the years had passed and now I'm talking to him one day and praise is standing next to me and smiling and I watched the same son who once stood at my feet and strained his neck to look up at me he stood there straight and tall and strong a full grown man and he shakes my hand with a man's grip and he speaks to me with a man's voice and yet he looks at me still with the same little boy eyes oh God how great you are how great you are I hear praise whispering next to me I wasn't sure it was appropriate for praise to come with me once to the symphony it wasn't a gospel concert it was Johannes

Brahms but he came anyway and after the concert I asked him why he applauded the musicians so vigorously I'll never forget his answer he said what marvelous gifts God has given to mere dust and clay I started to get pretty comfortable around praise I was surprised that he was interested in the small and insignificant details of my life but it happened one afternoon I opened up my email and I read a note from the dean of students and it read Dear Professor Painter I regret to inform you that one of your students was in a terrible car accident last weekend and she did not survive the family has informed us that forthcoming details concerning her funeral will be posted sincerest condolences to you and her classmates this wasn't my daughter but I was still crushed for she was someone's daughter she was only 21 and one course away from graduating with honors and to think that I had only just spoken with her

three days before I remembered that my last discussion with her was about her grades and I pulled up her document and I read what I wrote to her and her document in my remark showed absolutely no sign that I was talking to a child on the brink of eternity my last words that I wrote to her were your papers well written but there are some research issues we'll need to work through in the next few weeks would to God I had said something in honor of the Lord I looked up from the document and heard the sudden and terrible crush of a high-speed collision on the highway and glass and metal and fire and a rolling mass of metal coming to a stop at a barricade and a sickening primal scream cut short by the angel of death and a drunk driver staggering out of his car and running away into the night oh man of sorrows and acquainted with grief I thought

then of my puny words there are few research issues to work through in the next few weeks what do such words about such trifles mean now the sudden transfiguration of life into death revealed the irrelevance of so much of what I do every day I remember the words of the poet she said the bustle in the house the morning after death is one of life's greatest slimities sweeping up the heart and putting love away until it will be used again in eternity plays over and over in my mind and I just try to busy myself with menial tasks I'm hoping that my mind won't have time to ask what this family's pain and suffering means for our belief in a good God I heard a knock on my office door it's a familiar face it's praise I had determined not to let him in you don't belong here not here so he went away two days later I heard the knock again I

opened the door it was him again but I didn't have anything to say I thought Lord that I had finally found a place he didn't belong Lord you know my heart that I wasn't at that time rejecting you but I believed that pain and suffering should have its day in court it was pain's turn to have the floor in my life pain must be allowed to speak unfettered pain and then there's praise two different voices two advocates for two different sides of life one is an evangelist for you God and the other is an evangelist for chaos praise came in passed me just sat there in my office and stayed silently the next morning when I walked in he was already there I sat down and I ignored him and I went about my day I was in no mood for praise I ignored him and ignored him and ignored him every morning he was still there then I heard a knock on

the door I'm glad because I know it's not praise he's still on my couch and I opened the door but this time it's a dark figure more fitting to my mood I didn't need to ask him his name for I knew that I was looking at death I wouldn't let him in I closed the door and stood against it I heard him whisper from behind the door I have seen the moment of my life flicker and I have seen the eternal footman pull my coat my knees turned jelly and I shuffled over to my chair and I remembered that praise was still with me and I shouted at him angrily why are you still here he never said much outside of his exclamations of worship but this time he spoke to me my long time friend do you do you think you're the first to feel pain you act as though pain is a private revelation of yours you imagine that suffering has

given you a glimpse of reality that eluded the saints and sages of the past you're assuming in spite of all you've been shown that the prophets and saints of the past have praised God only in the absence of pain but pain and praise aren't two different voices there are one when the sweet psalmist of Israel cried allelally I was there I was Job's friend when he said the Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed is the name of the Lord when David cried with bitter tears God why are you so far from helping me I was there I was with David when he climbed to top the walls of Mecca and he wept Absalom, Absalom my son when Israel was at Qabar they hung their harps on the willows I was there and they sang a lament for the ages nothing would have been heard from the Philippian jailhouse if pain had not brought Paul and Silas there I was there and

our voices filled the night Jeremy do you believe that the Holy Ghost inspired these darker passages of Scripture or did the Spirit only inspire passages that speak of the glories of God and the triumphs of His people you remember my answer God I replied I believe that the Spirit is the author of both all Scripture is given by inspiration of the Holy Ghost in my upbringing it had taught me to say those words even when my emotions didn't believe them and praise answered then you believe that the Lord was saying to one and the same Lord my God, my God, why have you forsaken me there is what seems to be this contradiction even in God's own heart suffering and praise are not two different voices praise is the voice of both have you forgotten the symbol of the true faith is a cross do you remember in John's Gospel that the Son of God said He went to the cross to glorify

the Father I marvel that you think I don't belong where there is suffering you have learned that I don't just belong in church you have learned that I don't just belong in church in your home you have learned that I belong everywhere in life but only so long as everything in your life is okay you're okay with my presence when there are answers but you imagine I'm out of place when there are questions but if this is all you've learned from me in the last 15 years you've learned nothing at all why aren't you asking me how it was that your grandmother was singing on your couch on that day that you met me don't you remember that your grandmother went to bed every night in her life knowing that her husband had been unfaithful to her and had started another family with another woman your grandmother's friends in her church and her relatives knew and she bore the shame everywhere she went

don't you remember when she was a young woman she stood over the grave of her own child and she wept had she erased these things from her mind on that day that she sang that song on your couch blessed assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste of glory divine air of salvation purchased of God lost in his goodness washed in his blood this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the day long do you imagine that the tears of joy she shed in your living room were not mixed with great sorrow could it be that this is what you missed when you saw her raising her hands and weeping do you think it's significant that she was worshiping to a song written by a blind woman by the name of Fanny Crosby she sings though of visions of rapture bursting on her sight and of watching and waiting and looking above what do you suppose were those eyes

with which she looked your grandmother had learned that something could only be taken from her if it had been graciously given to her in the first place one has to be given health to know what sickness is one has to be blessed with a miracle of a child to understand what it is to lose one I never ever forget the pain but I take the pain and reinterpret it within a larger much much larger truth I belong not only where you watch a sunset and kiss a child's cheek but I belong and have always belonged where there is sorrow Christianity was not conceived around a table in a cozy cafe it was not born even in the bliss of Eden Christianity was born on a cross and the first words of its creed came from the lips the bloody lips of a dying Christ we don't praise God in spite of pain we praise them in large part because it is only through

pain that we truly experience what God experiences all the time have you not ever listened to Paul speaking of knowing God in the fellowship of his suffering Jeremy Painter come to the altar and with those words pain left praise left I felt a little bit of the sting of death but I was silent I wondered at what point does disappointment become pouting and then I went to Denise's funeral her brother gave her eulogy and at the end he said my sister was in here he hesitated and he changed the tense my sister is a believer and one of her great sorrows I know was that I didn't share her faith in fact I had never believed in life after death I was convinced that there was only one omnipotence in the universe and that was death but since she's died I've had the hardest time imagining that someone so good and so full of life as Denise was that she could really be

dead and I'm beginning to believe that maybe she's not this faith that she had is tempting me death didn't change what Denise means to me Denise has changed what death means to me the light of heaven shone again in my soul I understood and I closed my eyes in reverence for this was a holy moment and when I opened them again sitting next to me was the familiar but somehow changed face of praise and in his face I saw eternity like a great ring of pure and endless light calm and bright round beneath it in time hours, days and years driven by the spheres his hands were uplifted just as I had met him next to my now departed grandmother so many years earlier and he praised death is swallowed up in victory this is my story this is my song praising my savior all the baby there's this book that was written about 50 or 60 years ago called slaughterhouse 5 and

I remember one particular scene in that book there was a man named Billy who was watching a documentary of World War II and he saw a bomber in black and white taking off with a full payload and winging its way over a city and dropping bombs on buildings and destroying the city and its inhabitants but suddenly Billy started seeing the video backwards for reasons unknown instead of bombs dropping on buildings and buildings crumbling the bomber as it flies over the city by some strange power pulls the bombs out of the ground below as it flies over the city the buildings with surprising ease by some invisible hand and invisible design reassembles like Lego blocks and bombs fly upwards and harmlessly back into the plane's bay doors and the bomber lands backwards on the aircraft carrier and men take out the bombs and put them on a train and the train takes them back to factories where women disassemble the bombs and load the

chemicals and explosive powders onto the carts and the carts roll backwards into mines beneath the earth where men take the dangerous materials out of the carts and pack them safely back into the earth and bury them forever this reversal is the heart and soul this kind of reversal is the heart and soul of the gospel message in the beginning all was perfection but mankind rebels and weeds wrap themselves around every beautiful thing and strangle the life out of it and sickness and disease and death and destruction but then the grace of God steps in in the years the locusts have beaten they're restored and Jesus is born climactically as a reversal not a wife giving birth to a child in the normal course of events but a virgin giving birth to the Son of God and when he grows into a man wherever he goes there's a reversal a blind man's eyes are restored back to health lame hands and feet go back

to the way they were a dead man instead of being put in a tomb walks a life out of a tomb covered in grave clothes and friends and family have to unwind in reverse and at the cross a thief is restored to innocence and made fit for paradise and when Jesus dies the grave around the city expels the saints they didn't tomb for centuries and 40 days later the Son who came down from heaven and was wrapped in swaddling clothes ascends into the sky swaddled by a cloud and 10 days later men repent that is they turn around and become like children again the crimson stained sons of Adam are washed white as snow like babies men and women speak tongues they don't know and the angels who spoke to the disciples promise that just as they watched Jesus ascend into heaven so they will one day see him likewise return and all the host of heaven shall one day be dissolved and

heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll and the Eden that was lost in the beginning shall be restored the tree of life shall be planted in the middle of the heavenly city in the life of Christ everything is backwards it's water that is wind in Christ's life it is temptation that stumbles it is sickness that catches a cold it is death that dies an army of devils say we did our best we did our best Satan says I offered him the whole world but he merely wagged his finger and said what is the world next to having my father the soldiers say we beat him more than any man the spear says I emptied his very heart the stone says I gave my all but he rose anyway throw all of the ugliest things at Christ and watch what he makes of them throw leprosy at him and watch it become baby's skin throw hate at him give him a sinner and

watch him make a saint give him water to wedding give him legion give him the storm on the sea give him the traitor give it all and spare nothing awful a crown of thorns the spikes through the flesh the barb spear the soldiers whip the sponge with sour wine the curses the insults the unbelief and roll a ten ton stone over his grave give him and it is finished but watch it become behold I make all things new praise him praise him be exalted be exalted earthly kings will only take your best but not heaven's king you could give him your worst but rejoice ever more christian the universe in which you dwell is a divine comedy for as saint luke's gospel says blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh this was all foretold in the story of abraham and sarah you remember their original names were abram and sarai but then they were given a child when they were

old and when she first heard about it sarah laughed and so she named her boy laughter ha you suck and then god changed both of their names to not abram but to abraham not to sarai but to sarah look what he did look what god did he added two letters to each of their names ha ha ha blessed are you who mourn now for you shall laugh blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted this is going to end well all things work together for good praise him praise him praise him rejoice evermore joy unspeakable and full of glory peace that passes understanding to the one who does abundantly above all you could ask or think marry sing your magnificat elizabeth shout for joy zechariah prophesy over israel simian you may now depart in peace peter rise up from your shame and preach pinnacost matthew get up and leave your money table mark write your gospel john in exile lift up

your eyes for your redemption draws nigh paul lay down your burdens and rest at home with your lord if you think our work in this world is difficult try being the devil for the day you think you've wrecked god's plans for his precious world you've talked eve out of obedience you sit back with glee and watch the world become a little more like hell every day but there's always trouble for the devil a constant knowing anxiety a terrible sense that his life's work is being undone piece by piece he can construct the most elaborate schemes dreamed up through ages of insomnia sophisticated tessera mosaics of the darkest sins but since he's no maker his materials are necessarily those which god formed once upon a time in beauty and innocence of goodness he has to keep a constant watch over his human slaves but even those he watches very carefully are in danger in danger of being tempted by our awesome god satan's human

slaves are only one sunrise away from hearing the soft strings of heaven there only one smile away from seeing the sky part and the golden light of glory gleaming through satan has to be careful that he keeps his patience in a kind of not too high not too low state of mind and if they experience joy they're getting it straight from god the only true source of joy if they get too low they're in danger of seeing too clearly the state of their lives and their need for a savior and just when the devil thinks he's outsmarted god and hung christ like a curse from a tree he finds out too late that this was god's plan all along and then when christ was on calvary that god was actually when he looked as weakest flexing his muscles and pulling the hell out from under the devil's feet and everything that the devil does ends up compelling god to make things better than

they were before where sin abounds grace much more satan beats up paul but then satan finds out that all his work had managed to accomplish and the end was making paul a better man a humble man for a moment i almost pity the poor devil for he has to construct his lies out of the material of truth and thus he finds that the nearer he approaches the mastery of his art of deception the more framework of his lie is threatened by the weight of the very materials that he used the greater the lie the greater the truth that he had to use to make it and the more complete the deceit the more the man may stumble into god the devil is the artist whose art always turned out to mean the opposite of what it meant and in the very end the eden that satan helped destroy will be replaced but not just by another eden in its place will be a

golden city 1400 miles high 1400 miles wide 1400 miles deep devil do your worst praise ye the lord praise ye the name of the lord praise him oh ye servants of the lord ye that stand in the house of the lord in the courts of the house of our god praise the lord for the lord is good sing praises unto his name for it is pleasant whatsoever the lord pleased that he did in heaven and in earth and in the seas in all the deep places he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth he makes lightnings for the rain he bring it the wind out of his treasuries oh lord our lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth oh give thanks unto the lord for he is good and his mercy endures forever to him alone doeth great wonders to him that by wisdom made the heavens to him that stretched out the earth before the

waters pardon me I'm just going to praise him for a minute in some very old words to him that stretched out the earth above the waters to him that made great lights to him that made great lights praise the lord praise god in his sanctuary praise him in his mighty deeds praise him according to his excellent greatness praise him with trumpet sound praise him with loot and harp praise him with tambourine and dance praise him with strings and pipe praise him with sounding cymbals praise him with loud clashing cymbals let everything that hath breath praise the lord praise ye the lord I said I wouldn't give any instructions I just have a minor one it's from the book of Psalms for god is great what's the rest of it not just praised greatly to be praised praise the lord lift up your eyes lift up your hearts give praise and honor and glory to him praise the lord let my whole life every

breath that I breathe praise you every breath in the good times and the bad times lord my heart is set my heart is fixed upon you until the day you return I will praise you I will greatly praise you now to the one who is able to keep us from falling now to the king eternal immortal invisible the only god be all glory and honor forever forever and when pain and suffer suffering enter into this heart let none my praise die but let it now be mixed with the highest glory and honor a heart that is fixed and determined in everything to give thanks why don't we come to the altar and give god praise why don't we come down here and pray together give god praise give him thanks in all things if you're struggling if things have been difficult if you've lost if you've felt disappointment he's close to the broken hearted and he says those who are contrite in spirit

let's come and give god praise Jesus name Jesus name Jesus name Jesus name but I do this who I am praise him why