On sunday 3/6/18 I once again had the satisfaction of leading the worship service at Parkrose Village United Congregation at Everard Park.
We had a long serving member of our congregation and former much loved Church of Christ Pastor Dean Hamilton, leave us a short while ago to enter Heaven.
As a tribute to Dean ,and to enable him to minister to us once more, I chose to retell a message he gave at Parkrose a couple of years ago when he was well.
He had emailed it to us at our request.
Here it is in his words but I did leave out some of it but aimed to maintain the essence of what he shared with us.
He called it “Our duty of thankfulness”
Dean's Words.
"I
came across some interesting prayers last week – they were all prayers of
children.
Here is one from Debbie – age 7: Dear God:
Please send a new baby for Mommy. The baby you sent last week cries too much.
From Angela, age 8: Dear God, this is my prayer.
Could you please give my brother some brains? So far he doesn’t have any.
From Lois, age 9: Dear God: Please help me in
school. I need help in spelling, adding, subtracting, science, reading,
history, geography and writing. I don’t need help in anything else.
Most of us delight in the prayers of children.
They are not afraid to say what is on their mind; to God and to most people.
They are very uninhibited when it comes to asking anything of God.
Have you noticed how often that most of our
prayers are “asking” prayers? While it is true that we are encouraged to ask of
God, there is more to prayer than just asking for things.
If you look at the Book of Psalms, many of these
prayers and hymns are songs of praise.
The first words of the last psalm, Psalm 150, is “Praise
the Lord.”
The first words of Psalm 149 are
“Praise the Lord.”
The first words of Psalm 148 are
“Praise the Lord.”
The first words of Psalm 147 are
“Praise the Lord.”
The first words of Psalm 146 are
“Praise the Lord.”
Well – you get the point.
We don’t spend enough time praising God –
praising God is not like thanking God. When you thank God, it is a prayer of
thanking God for the specific things he has done. Giving praise to God is more
of an adoration for what makes God who He is.
Thanking God is somewhat self-centered – “Thank
you, God, for what you did for ME.”
Praising God is more God-centered – “Praise you,
God, for what you are.”
And praising God is something many of us forget
to do.
This
is something we have to be reminded to do, because praising God does not come
naturally.
We have become so self-centered in our lives –
and even in our worship.
Have you ever thought about how worship has
become self-centered instead of God-centered?
We judge the quality of worship by how it blessed,
or failed to bless US. We don’t think about whether or not God was blessed by
our worship.
There was a time when we judged the music by
whether or not it glorified God. Now we judge church music by how it entertains
US.
Even our prayers focus on asking for things WE
need, and they become self-centered.
Praising God keeps our worship and our lives
focused on God rather than on self-centered themes.
But we can take some positive action to change our attitudes and develop a
praising heart, mind and spirit.
I read about one man
who decided to keep a “Gratitude Journal”’ Each day he looked for things for
which he was thankful and entered them up at the end of each day. At first he
found it hard to get started – and some days he jotted just a line or two – but
as he got into the habit he gradually discovered that his praising spirit was
growing, he was developing a spirit of thankfulness until he found his life was
growing in happiness and he was becoming a happier person to all the people who
were\ important in his life. Later he wrote a friend and related how this had
become a real blessing for him – he wrote “It simply comes naturally to me now,
and I am just a happy person in general”
We
need to slow down to count our blessings and to regain a proper perspective on
our lives.
And
to make sure we learn to give God his proper place in our lives as the one who
makes it all possible for us to live well.
We
need to develop a “thankful eye.” Well, you‟ve heard of a thankful heart, but
what is a “thankful eye”? Simply put, developing a “thankful eye” means that
you have the ability to see things God is doing in your life. You can see the
hand of God in the circumstances of your life, even if they are unpleasant or
not the things you would have chosen. It is the ability to see something and
recognize it as being a blessing from God when other people either do not see
it at all, or see it as something else. Look at it this way. God is a good God,
and it is part of His very nature to bless His people. It‟s just part of who He
is. We can do nothing to deserve those blessings, and yet God many times
lavishes them upon us in measureless amounts. His blessings surround us, yet
most of the time we are not aware of them. One of the surprises of heaven will
be the discovery of the blessings God heaped upon our lives when we did not
recognize them as such, nor give Him glory for them.
Learning
to live a life filled with gratitude means that we train our eyes to look for
the blessings of God which are all around us. It means that we deliberately
take some time to hunt for them. It means that sometimes we might have to think
for a while before we come up with something which qualifies as a blessing, or
it might be staring us right in the face when we get up in the morning. A
thankful eye sees things others never notice. A thankful eye sees past the
present, and sees deep into the future. A thankful eye is tuned to watch for
the workings of God in our present life.
Would
you like to learn how to be more thankful than you already are?
Here‟s
how:
1.
Understand that expressing gratitude to God is not an option
2.
Slow down to count your blessings.
3.
Regain a proper perspective on your life
4.
Remember where your blessings come from.
5.
Develop a “thankful eye.”
And
whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)
Some more reasons for praise.
Every one of the Praise Psalms will include a collection of reasons as to why
we should praise God.
In the Psalm we as our Old Testament lesson we are given a brief and poetic set
of reasons as to why we should praise God.
First, we should praise him because God is someone we can trust. He will not
fail us.
Psalm 146 says,
“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their
spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to
nothing.”
We too often place our trust in wealth, position, material things, power,
military might and think we “have it made”.
But money can’t save us. Just ask someone who has become unemployed and who
finds the money disappearing from savings accounts.
We like to trust technology. All the gadgets we have are nice, but they are not
dependable. Just ask someone whose computer has crashed.
What will you put your trust in?
Ultimately, it is God alone we should trust. Why? Because He alone is eternal.
Everything else will someday disappear. But God existed before creation and He
will always exist.
If you begin to develop an attitude of praising God, then you will find that
you put your trust in God, not in things that will fail you.
Second, we should praise God because He gives us hope.
Psalm 146 says, “Blessed is he whose help is the God of
Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the
sea, and everything in them.”
God has a track record.
There is reference here to Jacob – a reminder of the history of God and his
people in the Old Testament. We know what God did for Jacob – and we know what
God has done for his people through the centuries. In other words, God has a
track record in which you can find hope.
The psalmist talks about God creating the heaven, the earth, the sea and
everything in them. You can look around at the glories of the universe.
God has made an awesome universe. I can see some of that wonderful universe and
because I know about God’s track record in creating and maintaining the
universe, I have hope.
People put their hope in things that have no track record. Or at best, a poor
track record.
Where do you find your sense of hope?
If you begin to develop an attitude of praising God, then you will find that
you put your hope in God, not in things that will fail you.
Finally, we should praise him because God loves us.
In our Old Testament lesson, we read, “God upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives
sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves
the righteous.”
This is a huge universe.
It amazes me that God – who made this universe and sustains this creation –
pays attention to us at all.
In the grand scope of the universe, we are so insignificant.
And yet, in the heart of the creator, we are loved.
For that reason alone, we should have the attitude of praise for God.
I will finish with reading the beautiful Psalm
8
Psalm 8 Living Bible (TLB)
8 O Lord
our God, the majesty and glory of your name fills all the earth and overflows
the heavens. 2 You have taught the little children to praise
you perfectly. May their example shame and silence your enemies!
3 When
I look up into the night skies and see the work of your fingers—the moon and
the stars you have made— 4 I cannot understand how you can
bother with mere puny man, to pay any attention to him!
5 And
yet you have made him only a little lower than the angels[a]
and placed a crown of glory and honor upon his head.
6 You
have put him in charge of everything you made; everything is put under his
authority: 7 all sheep and oxen, and wild animals too, 8 the
birds and fish, and all the life in the sea. 9 O Jehovah,
our Lord, the majesty and glory of your name fills the earth."
Below is the order of service.
PARKROSE
3/6/18
Order
of Service
Welcome and
Opening Prayer
Call to worship: Psalm
100
Hymn: 8. “All
things praise the Lord most high.”
Announcements:
Geoff
Bible reading: Psalm 146
Hymn: 356 “Dear Lord and Father of mankind.”
Communion:
Offering:
Church Prayer:
Hymn: “Give
thanks with a grateful Heart”
Sermon: “Our
duty of thankfulness”
Hymn: 76 “Holy,holy,Holy! Lord God Almighty”
Benediction and
Vesper: Now unto Him
