Take your Bibles and turn back to Psalms, Psalm 23. Psalm 23. If you're a teen or a teen parent, you know that we have Just finished, it's past Wednesday night, we just finished the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And so we've been going through it paragraph by paragraph, trying to see what Jesus was teaching to his disciples, to his followers. And we saw that he was emphasizing the importance of compassion, forgiveness, and humility. As you live a Christian life, if you live a life of humility, realizing that God has done everything and that you have done nothing, it's not a Christian life of I have to do this or I can't do that, but that I get to do this or I don't have to do that. So starting this coming Wednesday, we're going to start a series, and we're gonna look at Psalm 23, and we're gonna break it down a little bit. And so this morning, I would like to have the introduction to that series for the teens. So for this Sunday morning, you all get to join us, you all get to be teens. Some of us are a little bit older teens, but you all get to be teens with us. It'll be a little different than our usual Wednesday nights because it's Sunday morning and we have to be more dignified here in Sunday morning church. We can't have the back and forth, the questions and the answers. And so it'll be a little bit different. But Psalm 23, Psalm 23 is one of many Psalms that God has put here, 150 Psalms. We call it the book of Psalms, or it's a collection of Psalms. They're all different. These aren't chapters, but these are different Psalms that are written mostly by David, but other people too, that have been put together under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And I see in here, I see a blueprint that God has given to us on how we are to worship him. As we look through the Psalms, we will see who God is. What an awesome God we serve. He is a living God. He is a great God. And we need to realize that who He is, how He wants us to live, and how we should worship Him. God is to be the object of our worship. We are not the object of our worship. When we come to church, it's not about us. Too often, too many times, there's too many preachers out there who think it's about them or it's about the people. It's not. It is about God. We are to see Him as He is, holy, righteous, the creator, the sustainer. And as we look through the Psalms, we will see Him who He is. how He wants us to live, how we are to lift our voices in song and worship and praise of who He is. God is the center of the Psalms. Now, God is the center of all of Scripture. If we start in Genesis and we go all the way to Revelation, we see God all through Scripture. We see the hand of God working in the lives of all people, not just His people, but all people. But in the Psalms we see God, we see His Word, and that is the focus detailed of who God is. Take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 1. As they say to the teens on Wednesday night, we're going to go until the time is done. We're going to go until the Holy Spirit says, okay, time's over. Psalm 1, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight, the Christian's delight, is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Christian, the blessed man, the happy man. And when I say that, I mean it's an inward happiness. It's a peace that passeth all understanding. The world doesn't understand it. We go through trials and tribulations and the world looks at us and says, why do you have a smile on your face? Why, I told you, as you show up for school in the morning, are you singing, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and you have a smile on your face? There's all of these 7th grade, 12-year-old students who are going, what's going on? Why are you happy? No. Life is good because God is in control and God rules and reigns in heaven above and earth beneath and he's in control and everything that comes into my life, he allows. It's okay. Do we have that attitude? Blessed or happy is a man who doesn't walk with the world, doesn't sit with the world, doesn't stand with the world and with the sinners, but his delight is in what? The law of the Lord, in God's word, seeing who he is, how God wants to talk to us. In his law doth he meditate and think about all day long. You can't think about the word of God if you're not in the word of God. You will think about, you will meditate upon that which you fill your mind with. The idea of meditate, kind of gross, but sorry. The idea of meditate is the idea of a cow chewing its gut. The cow goes out and eats and eats and eats and eats, and then the cow goes and sits maybe in the summertime under the tree in the shade, and then it brings back its grass and it digests it. It thinks about it, it meditates upon it. All throughout the day, you can't meditate upon that which you haven't read or heard. What is the benefit here? The psalmist says, He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit, whose fruit? God's fruit, in his season, in our lives. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Whatever God has for you, the fruit, what are the fruit? Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, self-control. All of these things that Christians say, well, I really have a hard time with that. You know what that means? You need to get back in the word of God. You need to be reading the text that will help you with those things that you have problems with. But our fruit, when God is working in our lives, what comes forth? The love of God. The joy that only the Holy Spirit can give us. The peace that passeth all understanding. Only this comes from spending time with God. Turn over to Psalm 8. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, who has set Thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast ordained strength because of Thine enemies. that thou mightest still the enemy and avenger when I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, the stars, which thou hast ordained." We look around and we see the sun, the moon, the stars. The other morning, Maribeth and I were driving to school. We're driving down the parkway, going to Gloucester. It's about 6.30, 6.40 in the morning. We're driving down the parkway. We can see the Coleman Bridge over there on the left. The sun is just, not quite, but it's starting to, you know, the sky is a little bit glowing. There's the orange and the yellow and the pink. And I look at that, and every morning, what do I think? Thank you, Lord. That is awesome. That is incredible. And God has designed all of that, and I get to look at that each morning. And I'm pointed, as I look at the creation around us and I see the handiwork of God, the moon, the stars, which thou hast ordained, thou hast created and sustained. It didn't just happen. If everything packed down into the tiny, tiny little thing and then there was the big bang explosion and it all came out, if you studied science and explosions and things, when there's an explosion, everything takes off from the center and is spewed out in different directions, but everything is spinning in the same direction. All of the objects are spinning in the same direction from the explosion, from the center. The problem with that, if you look at our universe, the scientists, and they don't have an answer for this, is there are moons out there that are spinning opposite of their planet. How'd that happen? That's against science. No, it's because God, and I'm speaking here, but God has a sense of humor and says, figure that one out. Figure that one out. You can't do it, can you? Because I, God, did it. I worship and I praise my God and I say thank you very much. Evolution, if evolution were true, one thing, the body evolves and creates so that what we need in order to get better and become whatever we are. The problem is, I have a daughter who's studying to be a speech pathologist, so she studies the ear and the throat and the tongue and how all of this works. And if you had an opportunity to look in the ear and to see all the little complex things and how they all work together. Which one evolved first? Because there's no reason to have one if you don't have the other. You need them all at the same time. Evolution doesn't work. Look at the termite. The termite, the one, the little creature that looks like an ant except it has a clear shell over its body and has real short legs and has the pinchers out front and just goes through your home and chews up all the wood and destroys your home. The termite eats the wood, but the termite can't digest the wood. Inside the termite's intestines are little microorganisms. They chew up the wood. They digest it, they break it down into the sugars that then the termite can use for energy and strength. So which one evolved first, the termite or the microorganisms? Because neither one can live without the other. No, God did it. God's an awesome God. And the more we study science and the more we look at his word and the more we look around us, the more we see God and the more we say thank you. Thank you for who you are. And you've allowed us, you've preserved your word and you've kept it so that we can read it and study it and know who you are, God. And thank you for who you are. Psalm 9. I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most high. Do you? Do you praise God for who he is? Are you thankful each and every day for the roof over your head, the clothes on your back, and the food on the table? You should be. God, you didn't do it. God gave you the ability and the talents that you have. God gave you the brain that you have, the skills that you have with your hands, the talents, all of that, God gave to you. And he can take it away just like that. Be very thankful for what you have, the opportunities that he has. You say, boy, I pulled myself up from my bootstraps. Boy, I just made my way in life. No, God opened and closed doors. You didn't do one thing on your own. And the psalmist here is praising God for who he is and what he has done. Psalm 17, hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry. Give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips or false lips or pretend lips. Thank you, Lord, for hearing my prayers. I lift my voice to you. Psalm 18, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength, and whom I will trust, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine enemies. God is an awesome God. We need to give him thanksgiving for who he is and what he has done in our lives. David is writing most of these psalms. What does he need to be? This psalm goes on further and talks about the deliverance that David has had in his life. And you say, what does David need to be delivered from? Great, strong, big King David. He conquered when he was king of Israel. He conquered more land, pushed the frontier out and out. And who did David have to thank the Lord to be delivered from? How about when David was a little shepherd boy? And he was there watching his father's sheep at nighttime. What did David tell King Saul that God did? He helped him to battle against the lions and the bears. Then David was brought into the palace. He played music for King Saul to calm his spirits. But sometimes King Saul wasn't very pleased and King Saul would throw a spear and try to kill David before he was king. But King Saul was trying to kill him. King Saul chased David out into the hills and went from cave to cave looking for David. He was jealous of him, but God protected and preserved David. From Absalom, his own son, King David, once he became king, one of his own children revolted against him. 2 Samuel chapter 15. but God protected and preserved David because David sought to put God first, never to do anything in his own power. He had opportunity to kill King Saul there in the caves, and he said no. Who am I to put my hand against the king's anointed? I let God take care of it. That's God's job. David realized who God was and that God was in control, and David was just a servant of God. God doesn't always promise to keep us out of trials and tribulations. He didn't keep David out of trials and tribulations. If you've been listening to a preacher on the radio, or if you've been reading some material from a preacher, and they tell you, oh, if you live for the Lord, and if you send money to my outfit, and you do all this, that God will protect you, and life will be great, and you will be blessed, and none of this bad will happen to you. That's not what the Bible teaches. We'll read later in Psalm 23, David says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For thou, God, art with me. We can praise God because he is with us. Through the trials and through the temptations, he never says I'm gonna keep you from them. He says, I will go through them with you. I will strengthen you to go through them with you. Look at the apostles. All but one was martyred. And then John was put on an island, separated from all of civilization. We praise God for who he is. And we can be comforted and reassured in that. I can remember many a night when the kids were little, you're fast asleep in bed, you have no idea that there's a storm going on outside. And then all of a sudden something says to you, open your eyes, and as you open one eye and you look right here, there is a little person who you have created who is standing there and just looking at you. No words are said. And then you hear with your ear that it is thundering and lighting outside, it is pouring rain on the roof. And you know that that little one is nervous, is scared. And so you reach over, you scoop that one up, you slide them into bed and put them between your wife and you. And within 60 seconds, her breathing has calmed down. She is rest assured, life is good, dad has me, and she's out. And now you're awake. God, in that same way, wants to be that father who you come to and say, hey, life is more than I can handle. Well, we should be coming to God before it gets to life is more than I can handle. We should be coming to God each and every moment of each and every day. But you come to him, especially when life seems to be out of control, things at work are going faster than you can take care of, and that he reaches over, scoops you up, and puts you there under his wing. As the hen uses her wings to comfort those little chicks, God protects you, and David is writing about this, and you read the Psalms, and you can see that, and you can say, hey, that same God that took care of David, that same God that took care of Abraham, and Moses, and Paul, and Peter, is the same God who rules and reigns in heaven above today, and earth beneath, and he says, I am here to walk with you through those trials and tribulations. I encourage you, read through the Psalms, and you see that God in real life. And David, as he experiences this, is writing this. In Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uneartheth speech, night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where voice is not heard. God is seen everywhere. Are your eyes open? Do you see it? And do you recognize who he is and what he's done and say, thank you, God, for what you have done? Turn to Psalm 139. Some of you may be going, wait a minute, I thought we were going to Psalm 23. If we've gone this far through, he's going to Psalm 139. We aren't getting to Psalm 23 today. Hey, you're good. I never said we were getting to Psalm 23. What I said was, the teens are starting the series Wednesday night on Psalm 23. Today is the introduction. You get to be teens and join us. Don't panic. We still have a ways to go. We're not gonna go through Psalm 23. Psalm 139, again, we see the attributes of who our God is. Oh Lord, thou has searched me and know me. What an awesome God we have. There's some of you, if you're like me, who says, my wife knows me better than I know me. You know, we talk about when you're dating and people go, oh, you guys go together again, you finish each other's sentences. That's just the beginning. We go shopping and she says, you want that? And I say, no, I'm thinking, no. She goes, no, you want that. So we buy that and I go, I like this, this is good. I'm glad I chose it. We go out to eat and she looks at the menu and she goes, you want that? And I go, you sure? Okay. I've learned to just go, yep, I do. God knows me better than my wife knows me and my wife knows me good. It's 37 plus years, plus dating, it's pushing 40. Life is great. And I think she knows me inside out and God knows me even more than that. Oh Lord, thou has searched me and you know me. You know all about me. He knows the number of hairs on your head, even though they're fewer than they were last week. He knows that. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising. Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. God understands the way that you think. And sometimes, have it been in my head, I think that's a scary thought, but God understands how I think. Thou compassest my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. When we're walking with the Lord, that's an awesome verse. When we're not walking with the Lord, that's a scary verse. He still knows. He knows all that we do, no matter where we go, no matter who we're with, no matter what we're doing, what we're thinking, what we're saying, God knows. Verse four, for there is not a word in my tongue for O Lord, thou knowest it all together. When you're at work, God knows what you're saying. When you're sitting out back and you're talking over the fence with the neighbor, God knows what you're saying. And the thing is, now I don't know how many are here this morning, the bulletin I think says last Sunday there were like 130 people in here, so you start thinking, God knows what 130 different people are thinking, no matter where we are, no matter what we're doing, but yet God knows how many billion, eight billion, whatever it is the number, in the whole world, and God knows all of them. what they're thinking. My brain doesn't understand that. But yet God is infinite. God is awesome. I have to remember I am a finite being. I am limited in the thoughts that I can think, the words that I can say, the places that I can go. I can only be in one place at one time, yet my school thinks I can do multiple things at the same time, be in multiple meetings at the same time. You can't do that, but God can. What an awesome God we have. When was the last time you thanked Him for who He was and that He can be there with you? In the dark? It's not dark to God. God sees you. Thou hast beset me behind and before, He's right there. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. Just say yes, Lord. Okay, you are smarter than I am. Okay, you got it? Then let's walk together. Don't say, God, you got it, and let him go. Say, no, Lord, I'm gonna serve you, I'm gonna walk for you, and God says, I'll walk with you, I'll hold your hand, and I'll lead you through it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. Again, that comfort that says God's got you. God's gonna take care of you. He's gonna, God doesn't sleep, but it's the same idea of when I scooped up my daughter and I slid her over in the bed and then you lay there and you just go, okay, I'm good. And when we walk hand in hand with God, reading his words, seeking his face to do what he wants us to do, we say we have peace in our heart, a peace that passeth all understanding and says, God's got this. For thou has possessed my reins, thou has covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. One of my daughters is gonna have a baby and I'm gonna be a grandpa. Life is good. And so she found out that she was gonna have a baby, and she makes a phone call eventually to her mother to say, hey, you're gonna be a grandma. And you know what the coolest part of the whole thing when you read this psalm is? God already knew. Now as the dad, I was the last to find out. She calls her sisters, she calls her brother, she eventually calls her mother, and then I find out. Okay, thanks. But God already knew. What a great God we have. He already knew, wait a minute, He knew before she conceived. She knew the day. On our first child, the doctor said, she will be born on this day, give or take a day or two. And my wife said, yeah, I don't think that's right. I think it's going to be on this day, give or take a day or two. And God said, no, the baby's going to be born on this day, give or take nothing. God is awesome. Do we praise him and thank him for all his awesomeness to us? And we've read these Psalms over, Psalm 139, I've read dozens and dozens and dozens of times in my life. But yet every time I read it, those same phrases, those same things hit me and just say, God says, that's me, trust me, love me, praise me because of those things. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect in the book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. Again, God knew it beforehand. He had it all written in one of his books. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. God loves you. To think of all of the thoughts that God has, For you, for me, just for me, for the, we're gonna guess the same 130 people here in this room. Each of you, if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. How much sand is at the beach? I love to go to the beach. I love to go down to the Outer Banks, walk on the beach, listen to the ocean, the waves pounding. For me, the whole world just seems to disappear when that ocean is just pounding there. The water's coming in, the waves are pounding, the whole rest of the world just disappears. It's a very peaceful, quiet place. And you stop and you look at the sand and you pick up sand. And you know, I couldn't even count how much sand is in one handful. And God says, no, no, no, no, look at all the beach, both directions, all that. And God says, I have more thoughts than all of that for you, for you, for you, for you. Wow, again, I don't understand that. And that's okay, I want my God to be greater than I am. I don't want my God to be something that I can create, that can fit in my mind. The Marvel movies, Superman, Batman, they all have a kryptonite. My God doesn't. My God rules and reigns in heaven above. He created the heavens and the earth. He sustains the heaven and the earth. He knows everything that was, is, and will be, and He loves you. and he cares about you, and he wants you to worship him. And as we read through the Psalms, we see who he is, and we see the awesomeness of who he is. And again, that just like when we were teens, when we were going through the Sermon on the Mount, that should humble us and say, wow, I've got nothing. But God, thank you that you are everything. Surely that will slay the wicked, oh God, depart from. Depart from me, therefore, ye blooded men. You know, we work about, we read the newspaper, we look at what's going on on TV, and we just say, ah, I can't believe this is going on, I can't believe that is going on, and what about this guy, and we worry about that guy, and God says, I got all that. I already figured it all out. And God says, I love you, I care about you, and the most important thing for you For me, is that we walk hand in hand with God. Do what he wants us to do in life. And what we see this morning is we need to praise him for who he is. Understand God? Maybe just a little bit. As we read his word, we're gonna understand God a little bit. And each day as we read, I hope, we will understand God a little bit more. Will we understand God completely? and that's okay. But our goal is always to learn more of who he is, to thank him more for what he does. Some of you have had the misfortune of playing golf with me. I don't play golf against anybody else. Even when I go, I don't play golf against anybody else. I play golf against me. My goal is to hit it a little bit better, a little bit straighter. See how long I can keep the first ball. Have you ever done that? Have you ever played and said, how many holes can I keep the first ball without putting it in the water or losing it in the woods? My best, nine holes. I was amazed, and as soon as that thought crossed my mind and said, hey, Tozer, you went nine holes, it was gone. God keeps us humble, doesn't he? But my goal is to better myself when I have the opportunity to play golf. As I read God's word, my goal is to learn more about who God is and how he wants us to live, and as we learn more about him, we can thank him and praise him and worship him more for who he is. Psalm 139, sorry, verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. As David, as he's writing this, he ends this awesome psalm with, God, search me. Now, does God need to search us to find out who we are about us? What does He want? He wants, as He searches us, He is revealing to us our sins, our faults, our shortcomings, and saying, hey. And so our eyes are opened to where we're short of God, where we're not praising Him enough, where we're not walking with Him enough, where we're not witnessing enough, where we're not praying enough. where we're not spending enough time with God. I remember years ago I was preaching a message here and back before the camera was up and I was allowed to walk, wander as I used to do when I was preaching and I was coming across the front right here and the church was set up different, the aisles were a little bit different. and there wasn't one in the center, and I was preaching a message, and I was talking about how people say they just don't have a lot of time, and their days are so busy, and things are going, and I said, you know, if the power went out at your house, and the TV and the internet didn't work, I said, how much time would you have? And a voice, if I remember right, 11 or 12-year-old boy, I know who it was, sitting directly center, middle, back. We'd have a lot of time. He said it out loud. Everyone in the room heard it. It was perfect. It was the hand of God speaking, but out of the mouth of babes comes the truth. If we would set aside, again, is the internet bad? Is the news bad? Is whatever bad? No. But are we in and of itself? No, not necessarily. But are we putting those things ahead of the time God says, where's the time you're spending worshiping me? Where's the time you're spending in God's word? Getting to know God and praying for those around you and for the ministries that we have here at Faith that he wants, maybe some of you involved in. God wants you to serve him. As we read through the Psalms, we see God, we see who he is, how awesome he is. And every time we read through the Psalms, we're gonna see more of who God is. And we're gonna go, wow, how'd I miss that before? What a great God you are. Why did you save me? And that's the question I just have to leave, because there's no reason that God saved me, except that he loved me. Romans 5a, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It wasn't because I was a good kid, because I was a selfish, selfish kid. Before I got saved, and even sometimes after, but before I got saved, all I wanted to do was play sports and see my friends. Play sports, play sports, play sports. But God in his sovereignty on that Saturday morning, in that fall Saturday morning there, reached down and said to my mom, you need to go outside, break up that hockey game, bring the boys inside, sit down with Dan and share the gospel. I knew the gospel. I was in church more than the preacher was in church. But I had never applied it to Dan Tosher. And on that Saturday morning, the Holy Spirit opened my spiritual eyes and heart and said, you need to trust Christ as your savior. And since that day, I have had the opportunity to continue to read his word and to see God, to be challenged from it, and it's awesome. What a great God we serve. And we need to worship and praise him for who he is. Let's pray. Father, thank you for who you are. Thank you for the salvation that you have provided through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for preserving your word that here, so many years later, we can read it and study it and know you. And Father, this morning, we ask again that the Holy Spirit would challenge each one of us where we are spiritually, draw us closer to you, conform us to the image of your Savior, Our son, your son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we ask that you would quiet our hearts, meet with us where we're at, and show us where we need to be. Help us to walk with you each and every day. In Christ's name we do pray.