You know, if we dwell on what we've got instead of what we want, we'll be a whole lot happier. You know that? You know what happens when you start thinking about what all you've got? Your joy level goes up. You start thinking about what I don't have and what I'd like to have, down it goes. Isn't that crazy? Well, we were gonna get back into some stuff on our timeless creator and continue forward, but once again, the Lord has taken us on a little detour trip, starting with Brother Mark's message last Wednesday night. We were looking into this thing in Psalms 13, verse six, Wednesday, and I got looking at that verse. The more I looked at it, the more I realized, you know, there's a lot in those just a few little old words. It says over in Psalms 13, six, I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. And that's a little bit like that Psalms 50, 15, you know, where it says, call upon me in the day of trouble and I'll deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. We get about the first half of that. Call upon me in the day of trouble and I'll deliver thee. Yes. But then the back end of that verse, it's kind of like it just kind of drops off because our attention's focused on what we get. We don't focus on what's in it for him. It says, I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. And I got thinking about that and I thought, you know, I wonder why people don't sing. I wonder why they don't sing joyfully. You know, I mean, I've watched some people singing. I've been in some churches where there was some really great singing. You get in a place where you cannot hear yourself singing as loud as you can sing, you're in a good place. And I've been in places where it just literally almost a bedlam. And you can sing as loud as you want. You couldn't even yell at the person next to you without turning right in their ear for them to hear you. You say, are you kidding, man? What kind of crazy place is that? Some kind of holy rollers? Nope. You just get around a whole bunch of people that appreciate God, and when they're singing those words, then sings, my soul, my savior God to thee. You get a taste of that, man, I'm telling you what, it'll pull something out of you you didn't know was down in there. All of a sudden, you get this little spurt of energy, and the tears start flowing, and all of a sudden, everybody else around you disappears, and then it's just him. When it gets like that, then it's worth singing. That business of standing there, you know, oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds our hands hath made. You know, there's gotta be some problems here, really. There really have to be some problems. Because David makes a statement here and it's pretty clear. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. So why don't people sing? Well, maybe God hadn't dealt bountifully with them. Suppose that's the problem? What do you think bountiful means? Bountiful is freely giving, liberal in bestowing gifts and favors, generous. Has God been generous with you? Well, then it's not the second half of the verse that's a problem. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Well, if he's dealt bountifully with you, then there's gotta be some other problems. Maybe you just forget. Do we forget? Yeah, we do. We forget real easily. It just kind of falls out of our head. And the older we get, the faster it happens. What's really crazy when you're older, you think about all these things from way on back that don't matter. And the stuff that you need to remember, you can't remember where you filed it. You ever have a filing system where you start putting stuff in files? You ever pick up two pieces of paper at once and stick them in the wrong place? That's what it's like when you get older, not paying close enough attention to what you're picking up when you stick it in there and it all gets misfiled. And then later on, stuff you can't remember, you know, later on all of a sudden you'll be driving down the road, oh yeah, it was such and such. Two in the morning. I haven't reached that point yet. It stays on your subconscious until it finds it in the files. Anyway, maybe they just forget. Maybe they forgot his generosity. Maybe they're so distracted by more of what they want. If that's the case, and you're just distracted by yourself, then your attention's in the wrong place too. I will sing unto the Lord. Why? Because he hath dealt bountifully with me. When your attention's on him, everything's different. When your attention's on you, down the pits. It's like, oh man, Anybody in here not feel that way? Anybody? I mean, don't you kind of feel that way every day of your life? You know, it's sad. You can go to other countries in this world where people have nothing and they don't have those feelings. Do you know that? Brother Mark says, yeah, that's truth. Get on down there in Ghana and some of them other places, man, they're not in any hurry about anything. They say, well, come on, man, let's get it done. We're burning daylight. Tomorrow's another day. Come on, let's do something. Our society here in America is geared to such a pace, it's faster, faster, faster. I don't know, I suppose Brother Jim and Brother Jack saw it this morning, but they're writing up three tickets out there on 29 for speeding. One, two, three, right in a row. How come? Hurry up, man, hurry up, get out of my way. Lead, follow, get out of the way. That's the way we've been programmed. So our attention's really not in the right place. Our attention really needs to be in an entirely different area here if we're gonna even consider these things. I will sing unto the Lord for he hath dealt bountifully with me. Maybe they don't think God gave them enough talent. You ever think about that? You say, well, what'll people think if they hear me sing? Man, you don't wanna hear me sing. Brother Mark gonna bring a special, you know? Well, that'll be the last time that ever happens. Some people can really sing good, can't they? I hate to tell you this, but that's not a qualifying excuse. You know why? Because the one you're singing to gave you the voice you got. You know what the problem is when you're not singing because he's dealt bountifully with you? It's because you're focused on yourself again. What do people think of the way I sing? What does God think when you don't? Too much about us, isn't it? You realize that God thinks differently about singing than we do? Because when we think about singing, we think about ourself and how good it sounds. You know, if somebody has a tendency to sing a little bit well, or at least think they do, There isn't anything worse than somebody that can't sing but thinks that they can. They get up there and just belt the stuff out. It's funny, man. Haven't you ever seen people sing like that? And they're up there thinking they're doing a great job. I don't watch any of that American Idol stuff, but that's the classic place right there. They'll get up there and sing, and the only thing that they could make money at is being a comedian. but he'd get up there just with all the confidence in the world, man. And then some people with really good singing voices, they don't have any confidence. They're afraid to get up in front of people. That's kind of weird, isn't it? I wonder how the Lord thinks about singing. What is it? Well, look over here in Exodus 15. Exodus 15, Brother Mark said, you know, Psalms 90 was a song of Moses. It's not really. It's not really. It is a psalm. And there is a difference. God makes a distinction between songs and psalms, although they're very close and that's why they're spelled so close. But you get back over into Exodus and Moses actually has a song of Moses. That whole chapter is a song of Moses. Look at verses one through three. Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. He is my God. I will prepare him in habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war and the Lord is his name. And you know what happened there? God dealt bountifully with him. He delivered him. And like I've said so many times recently, you know why God does it the way he does it? Why do you think he let Pharaoh follow them up there to the Red Sea and he didn't just stop him in his tracks? Why do you think he just knocked the wheels off the chariots to slow him down? Because he wanted them to follow him. He could have put him in pitch darkness and he couldn't even have seen in front of him, the horses wouldn't even have moved. He could have done all kinds of things, you know? He just wanted to slow him down. Why? Come on, come on. What for? Why does God do that? Because God wants to show you something about himself. He wants your attention on him. Did he get it? Yeah, he did. I mean, he got it almost instantaneously. Got up there to the edge of the Red Sea, you know, Moses stretched that thing out, wind blew all night long, and here it is. Saw a deal the other day where they showed a three-dimensional view of the end of that Red Sea and that one place where they crossed, it's super deep on both sides, and that one place they crossed, it's only about 300 feet deep. 300 feet? Man, that's some wind to move that water back. Don't you realize when God says, peace be still, and he can stop it all, that if he wants to start it all, all he's gotta do is just say, dry land. Dry land, you know, it's something to move the water back. You know, it's something else to dry it out. You can't dry this place out around here without about a month of drought. There's places around here you dig a hole in the ground and two inches underneath the surface, the water fills right up. We got a water table around here that's unreal. Anyway, look over at verse 20 and 21. And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dances. And Miriam answered them, sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. And what is that? That's an expression of gratitude for what he's done for them. That's what it is. But you don't think you forget? Look at how quick these people forgot. Look down in verse 22, the very next verse. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters from Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? They're already whining and crying and complaining. Look at 16 verses one to three. And they took their journey from Elam and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. You know what it is, don't you? God does something great for you and you forget it almost immediately. That's one of the reasons you're not still singing for stuff God did in the past. You know why it's easy for me to sing right now? Because I get to enjoy my wife every day. Maybe you just haven't almost lost something that important to you. Maybe it's not new with you every morning. but I'm a different person than I was. And I'm reminded every day by the pure joy I get in seeing her move around the house, just hearing her footsteps. See, the difference is that God's dealt bountifully with me and I don't forget it because he reminds me every day. Easy to sing that way. But we still forget, don't we? When was the last time God did something special for you? You need to remember those things. Anyway, maybe we're just spoiled rotten. What do you mean spoiled rotten? You got a refrigerator? You got a DVD player? You got a TV? You got a cell phone? You got air conditioning in your house? You got air conditioning in your car? There are people on this planet that are living under cardboard boxes. And the only difference between you and them is God spoiled you. Well, I was just born in America. Yeah, and what did you do before you were born where you should be born here? You can't justify anything that you have. Everything you've got, you received, everything. He hath doubt bound to flee with us, right? Well, the problem is the more we get, the more we want. That's a fact. They were talking about that stuff over there in Garbage City when you could just bring them a little bit of clean water. And they thought they died and went to heaven. We're spoiled rotten people. The reason we don't sing unto the Lord because he is doubt bountifully with us is because we are so spoiled. We don't appreciate anything we got. We're just like rich kids. What else do you want? I want more. I want a four-wheeler. Okay. Now I want six more for my friends where we can all go ride together. Now buy more property out there because I want to set up a track. We're tired of this. Now I want a lake. Give me some boats, some jet skis. You realize that's exactly how it goes. It goes from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. And as long as you got your attention focused on what you have, you feel joy. As long as your attention is focused on what you don't have and what you want, you're unhappy. because you can't benefit from what you have as long as you're so interested in what you don't have. All of those things are true, but you know what those are about? Those are all about us. I'm worried about what people will think. You know, I forget. Well, I'm spoiled. Or maybe we don't realize how important singing is to God. All your focus and attention's on yourself instead of Him. You know what this is? This is part of the knowledge of the holy. That's what it is. We think singing's about us. We think singing's about how we sing and what we like and what we don't like. I don't like that red book and I don't like the blue book. I don't like those slow songs. I don't like those fast songs. You have to sing every verse. Oh man, this is boring. It may be boring to you, but you can believe me, it's not boring to God if you're singing from your heart and I don't care what you sound like. because you all of a sudden start singing to Him instead of the person in front of you that might be hearing you. The problem is, we're just focused on ourself. I mean, I really hate to say it, but it's true. Look over in Ephesians 5, 15 to 20. See then you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. He that lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God. Redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore, be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. You don't think that's important to him? You don't think this business of singing is important to God? That's what it's all about. When you start looking into this book and you start understanding what God has put in here and why he's put it in here, it has to do with a sense of rejoicing and gratitude. God ever ask you to pay him back? What does God want from us for all of his generosity? Experience a sense of relief? Once again, does God endear you to himself when he answers your prayers or just make your life easier? Are you drawn more to the gift or the giver? I don't even think about either one of those. I just had this major problem, God solved it. It's not the way it's supposed to be. I mean, it really is not the way it's supposed to be. If God doesn't ask you to pay him back, then what does he want? He wants you to be endeared to Him. And if it's not good enough, the things that He's done for you, then He'll show you His magnificent power. Like what? Like parting the Red Sea, like walking on the water, like calming the winds, like healing the blind man. All of those things God did so that you'd appreciate Him more. That's what it's about. And we just kind of stagger through life, you know, and all we see is, what about me? We're going to find out one day, it's not going to be about us, it's going to be about him. And if you are endeared more to him for what he does, then he gets what he's after. Call upon me in a day of trouble, I'll deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. Whoso offereth praise glorifies me. Major part of it right there. Major part. You realize how important it is when you start singing to God? It's important. It makes a difference to God. Anyway, look over here at Judges chapter five, verse three. We're not gonna have time to cover a whole lot of this, but we'll cover a little bit. Here, O ye kings, give ear, ye princes, even I, I will sing unto the Lord, I will sing praise unto the Lord God of Israel. Hey kings, you guys need to get in line. What for? The powers that be are ordained of God. You couldn't be king without God putting you there. The things that are going on in your life, God controls. Does that mean that you just throw up your hands and say, well, everything's pre-gestinated, you know, what will be shall be, you know, I can't do anything about it. No, it doesn't work that way either. God gives you a certain freedom and liberty and a responsibility. You ought to go vote. Say, who should we vote for? The lesser of all the evils. You say, well, what we need is a good man. There aren't any people. There aren't any, there's none that do us good. You just go out there and you vote for the lesser of the evils, whoever that might be. You say, well, they're gonna control whoever gets in by whoever they run. No, God's gonna control who gets in. You just go do what you're supposed to do, let him do his part, and then don't worry about it, just trust him. You don't have to worry about that stuff. Anyway, David was a man after God's own heart. Did you know that? What made David different than all the rest of those guys? Why has David got this throne that lasts forever? Lion of the tribe of Judah, you know, the root of David. How come he's so predominantly mentioned? Because there's some stuff about that one individual that's different than the rest of the individuals. What is it? Well, 1 Chronicles 16. 7 to 12. Then on that day, David delivered this first psalm, to thank the Lord unto the hand of Asaph, his brother. Give thanks unto the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him. Talk ye of his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name. Let the heart of them that rejoice, that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face continually. Remember his marvelous works that he hath done, his wonders. and the judgments of his mouth. You know what makes David so different? Rejoicing in the God of his salvation. You start understanding what this thing's about, you will realize that God is interested in those that are interested in him. He has very little interest in those who are self-serving. You wanna know one of the first ones that was self-serving? He used to be your father. You're of your father, the devil, and lest your father you will do. Self-serving, I will lift myself up. I will be like the Most High. God has very little use for His creation who are self-serving. If there isn't anything else that ought to stir you to start realizing who God is and start appreciating Him for it and singing a little bit more enthusiastically, it ought to be some of those things. Now, we're not gonna read all these verses, because we don't have time, but over in Psalm 30, it talks about singing of His holiness. Preacher said that's God's greatest attribute, His holiness. It might be. I'd have a hard time trying to organize them into which one's the greatest. But it says, praise is becoming. Psalm 33, if you're praising God, it's comely for you to do that, becoming to you. What's that mean? It means God likes it. You know, you're wearing something that looks pretty, it's becoming to you, right? People like you a little better when you're wearing that, right? God likes you a little better when you sing. I mean, it's pretty simple. Psalm 47, it says, sing with understanding. The fear of the Lord's the beginning of understanding, and to be in awe of your creator is fear mingled with reverence and admiration. We're not going to have an excuse. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Oh Lord, my God, when I am lost. Now look, if he's done that much for you, can't you put a little effort into it? Just a little energy into it, a little bit of your heart into it. I mean, if nothing else, come in here seeking for the Lord to give you something to stir your heart so that you can actually do this the right way. Instead of just, well, I gotta do it. The land sings over in Psalm 65. The valleys and the fields sing. If that part of God's creation can sing, it don't even have a brain or a heart. Can't you do a little better than that? We're not gonna have an excuse. Psalm 67, the nations sing. Psalms 89, it says, sing because his mercies are new every morning. His mercies were new this morning, today. You got something to sing about? I don't care if you don't have any food in the icebox. I don't see anybody here starving. Psalm 96 says, sing a new song. You ever made one up in your heart? You ever done that? I love it, Brother Bob. You're about the only honest one in this place that just doesn't mind saying, yeah, I make up all kinds of songs. I do too. They don't make any sense, and they don't fit real good, and I don't know what word to put in there next, but man, I'll do it. Why? Because that's out of the abundance of the heart. That's where that stuff's supposed to come from. That's where songs really come from. There's something beyond just words. Words are, oh God, help me, I'm in trouble, you know? But when you're singing, that's something else. That's a child that's joyful. Don't you think God's drawn to his joyful creation? Especially when they're happy about him. You want his attention? Or do you want to just, don't call me, I'll call you? Now singing is important to your maker. It says over in Psalms 100, he says, come into his presence with singing, into his courts with praise. I don't think we understand how important it is. If it's not for yourself, why not for the one that let you in on what he made for himself? Whose world is this? Why'd he make it? He's sharing it with you, it's his. He's sharing it with you. Back over in Psalm 13, six, he says, I will sing unto the Lord, for he has dealt bountifully with me. He likes you thanking him with music from the heart. He's not near as interested when you say, oh, thank you for saving us and thank you for loving us as when you say, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Oh, I like that better. How come I didn't start crying the first time, did I? Why is that? Because there's something else expressed through that music. Where does music come from? God gives it. And Satan perverted it. And there's still part of it that he's kept clean. So try to sing a little bit. Let's close in prayer.