"He" 12-26-21
Overview
The Day After Christmas: Praise Continues
The excitement of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fades quickly. By December 26, the carols stop on the radio, the decorations go on clearance, and we wake up asking, "What now?" Psalm 111:1 answers plainly: "Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation." Whole-hearted praise means undivided, undistracted, holding nothing back—a declaration that we will worship God completely, gathered with His people.
Holy and Awesome Is His Name
Why this kind of praise? Because, as Psalm 111:9 declares, "holy and awesome is his name." God commands in Leviticus 19:2, "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy." His works are faithful and just Psalm 111:7; His precepts are trustworthy, established forever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness Psalm 111:7-8. Creation itself flows from God's infinite wisdom, power, and unchanging eternal justice—not the shifting standards of any human age.
Do You Stand Before the Lord, Holy?
Honest reflection forces a difficult admission. We do not keep God's law perfectly. We do not worship with a whole heart. Even our prayers fall short, as Paul confesses in Romans 8:26—"we do not know what to pray for as we ought." We are easily distracted, divided, and cold. By our own performance, we cannot stand before a holy God.
And yet—yes, you do stand before Him holy. Psalm 111:9 proclaims, "He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever." The babe born in the manger was born to live perfectly under God's precepts in your place, to grow up and die bearing your sin, and to receive the eternal justice of God on your behalf. Christ, fully God and fully man, is your redemption. God's greatest work is the pardoning of sin through Jesus Christ—the eternal covenant of grace.
Praise on December 26 and Every Day
There is nothing dull about the day after Christmas. It is the first day of continued praise. Where you are weak, He is strong. Where you falter, He stands in for you, sustaining and carrying you by His mercy. Because He has created you, redeemed you, and sustains you, the song does not end when the carols stop. With our whole heart we say: praise be to the Lord. Alleluia. Amen.
Transcript
If you would please open your Bibles to Psalm 111, our text for this morning will be from Psalm 111. 2s
Love Christmas Eve service. 13s
There is so much excitement happening on Christmas Eve. 15s
Everyone is happy all on a sugar rush from candy canes. 19s
We are all excited to be rejoicing in the coming Savior and it's so much fun. 24s
And then Christmas morning you wake up and it's the birth of Christ and there's so 33s
much to celebrate and then you continue eating Christmas cookies and having that sugar 39s
high and it's just wonderful to be with family and our friends and such a wonderful 44s
feeling. 49s
And then December 26 arrives. 50s
Sugar rush is gone. 58s
The radio stations that have been playing Christmas carols for weeks stop. 61s
They go back to regular programming. 68s
The stores put all their Christmas merchandise on 50% off or even more. 71s
And December 26 we wake up. 79s
It's kind of post Christmas. 84s
We wake up after so much fun, after so much excitement. 89s
And we say, what now? 96s
What now? 102s
Well we praise the Lord. 104s
That is what is now we praise the Lord. 106s
We have in our Psalm verse 1, praise the Lord. 110s
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the company of the upright in the congregation. 116s
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. 125s
What is it to give thanks and praise to the Lord with your whole heart? 132s
It means we are praising God. 138s
Holy, completely, fully undivided. 142s
Nothing is taking our attention away. 146s
We are holding nothing back from our praise and worship of the Lord. 149s
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. 155s
It is a declaration. 163s
I will do this. 166s
I will praise the Lord. 169s
Holy, completely, with nothing to come in between. 172s
Nothing to interfere with the praise that I have for my Lord. 179s
There are no split attentions. 185s
There is no coldness. 189s
There is no distraction. 191s
But I am holy, completely and fully praising and giving thanks to the Lord. 194s
And why do we do this? 202s
Why would we give thanks and praise to the Lord, holy, and completely with a full heart? 204s
Well, in the end of verse 9, we see because holy and awesome is his name. 212s
We worship the Lord because his name is holy. 221s
His name is awesome. 228s
And we worship this holy and awesome Lord in this public gathering. 233s
We gather with the other believers to pray and to prays and to give thanks with our whole hearts. 241s
Because holy and awesome is his name. 255s
In Leviticus, we read several times. 262s
You shall be holy for I am holy. 266s
You shall be holy for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. 268s
Holy and awesome is his name. 276s
And standing before the holiness of our Lord is to stand before him with fear and reverence with awe, 279s
awe struck by his holiness. 291s
And we are to be called holy because he is holy. 295s
Do you stand before the Lord, holy? 305s
Consider, consider for a moment, the holiness of God. 311s
Let's look at verse 7, the first part of verse 7, the works of his hands are faithful and just. 318s
Every bit of creation is the work of the Lord's hands. 327s
Every bit of creation is done according to the truth of God. 333s
To the truth of his divine promises. 341s
Everything in creation is created out of God's infinite wisdom, power and holiness. 348s
All from God is like himself. 360s
It is faithful. 363s
It is just. 365s
Everything created is created out of the purest love of love and excellence. 368s
God created all with justice. 378s
This is not first century justice. 382s
He did not create with medieval justice or even 21st century justice. 385s
God created out of his eternal justice. 391s
His unchanging justice. 397s
Do you stand before the Lord? 403s
Holy. 409s
Let's continue in verse 7. 412s
All his precepts are trustworthy. 415s
They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and up rightness. 418s
The precepts of the Lord are his commands. 427s
The commands of the Lord are trustworthy. 432s
The law of the Lord is trustworthy. 436s
The Israelites were to trust the precepts. 442s
The commands, the law of God. 447s
And that his holy precepts would lead them in the way of holiness. 450s
In the way of righteousness. 457s
The law of God, the holiness of God. 462s
It's been established eternally. 466s
The law of God, the holiness of God was established before creation itself was established. 470s
God's commandments have been constant and unchanging. 479s
His holiness, his expectation of holiness has been constant, unchanging. 485s
His law, his precepts, as we read in the Psalm, 496s
are to be performed with faithfulness and up rightness. 501s
Remember, he said, you shall be holy for I am holy. 506s
You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy. 512s
Do you stand before God? 519s
By performing God's commands perfectly? 527s
By worshiping the Lord with your whole heart? 538s
Do you ever get distracted? 544s
In worship, do you ever get distracted when praying? 547s
Paul, in the letter to the Romans, he says, that we don't pray as we ought. 551s
Scripture itself tells us that we don't pray as we ought. 559s
We know we get distracted. 566s
So we don't live under the law in perfection. 570s
We don't worship the Lord with our whole heart. 576s
Do you stand before the Lord? 583s
Holy. 588s
Yes, you do. 593s
You stand before God, holy, because of what it says in verse 9. 596s
He sent redemption to his people. 604s
He has commanded his covenant forever. 606s
All of God's commands, all of his holy and perfect precepts, 612s
all of the justice in creation has been fulfilled by Christ for you. 619s
Christ fully God, fully man is the Lord. 630s
The redemption for the world. 636s
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Savior. 641s
We sing of the Messiah who has come to save. 648s
We know the Messiah will come again to call us all to himself in glory. 652s
Christ the Messiah, Christ that babe born in the manger was born to live under God's precepts, 661s
perfectly for you. 674s
Christ, the child, the babe who was born in the manger was born to grow up. 677s
And to die, taking your sin, your imperfection, your inability to live perfectly under the law. 689s
Your inability to worship with a whole heart. 702s
He took that upon himself. 709s
And he received the eternal justice, the wrath of God for you. 713s
Christ was born with a very purpose to purchase your life. 724s
To redeem creation from the sin, the slavery to sin that we are under. 733s
God's works, as the Psalm says, are faithful, just trustworthy, eternal. 746s
God's greatest work is the pardoning of our sin by Jesus Christ. 756s
This is the covenant, the eternal covenant that he has made with you. 764s
It is the covenant, the eternal covenant of grace. 771s
Jesus, the Christ-child entered into humanity for the eternal purpose of redemption. 777s
Do you stand before the Lord? 788s
Holy. 791s
Yes, you stand before the Lord, holy in Christ. 793s
You stand with confidence before the throne of God. 800s
And you can proclaim, I am holy. 805s
For you are holy. 809s
I am holy for you the Lord, my God are holy. 812s
Today is the 26th of December. 822s
But there's nothing blah about this day. 830s
This is the first day, post-Christmas, that we get to say, we will continue praising the Lord with our whole heart. 835s
And where we are weak, he is strong. 848s
And where we falter, he steps in, he stands before us. 852s
He strengthens us, he sustains us, and he carries us through each and every day in his mercy, in his grace. 859s
There is only continued praise and glory and worship of our Lord because he has created you. 873s
He alone has redeemed you. 884s
He alone sustains you day in and day out by his grace. 888s
And to this, on this day, December 26th, 2021, we can say, with our whole heart, praise be to you and Aleyluya. 897s
Amen. 915s