Make Everyday a Masterpiece

What I want you to do right now is to grab your message notes that look like this. Stronger, taller, deeper is the name of the spiritual growth series that we started last week. And Mike Romberg did such a great job getting us started off on this. And today what I want to talk about, last week and Mike talked about growing stronger, right? Kind of your heart strength guarding your heart.

Today I want to talk about growing taller, getting closer to God and one simple daily habit that will get you, that will on the authority of scripture will bring you closer into a relationship with God. And God has really been teaching me a lot about this. But before I get into that I want to ask you to do me a favor. I want you to identify yourself as either primarily an optimist or a pessimist, all right? Now just think about this for just a second. Are you mostly, mostly an optimist or a pessimist?

And in a minute I'm going to ask you to just take 10 seconds to tell the people around you if you're an optimist. And I don't, you have 10 seconds. So don't go on, well I'm an optimist when it comes to the giants, but I'm a pessimist when it comes to the niners. And on Tuesdays I tend to be, just choose one thing and identify yourself. Here's your chance, ready, set, go. Are you an optimist or pessimist? You got to tell somebody.

All right, three, two, one. All right, show of hands here. How many of you would say, "I'm an optimist, I'm an optimist, razor." Wow, look at that. All right, how many of you honestly do not be afraid of all of the optimists that are sitting all around you? How many of you would say, "No, honest to goodness, I'm primarily a pessimist." Raise your hand if that's you. Raise your hand because you know what? I'm raising my hand because that's me. That's, that's honestly what I primarily am.

All right, now how many of you show of hands would say, "This whole sermon is going south because you made us talk to somebody next to me." You're pessimists, you're pessimists. You don't even have to wonder. But God has been teaching me something about this. I tend to be kind of a pessimist really truly. Any optimism I have has been learned. And this is the biggest lesson God taught me on sabbatical. And I'll be honest with you, he's not done. I'm still kind of in process on this one.

And so I'm going to kind of talk this out because you guys are cheaper than counseling. So I'm going to just talk this out here today, all right? And I'm going to tell you how God started teaching me this lesson. It was in a very unexpected way, as God always teaches us lessons, right? I was listening to a podcast about sports and they were talking about John Wooden. Does anybody recognize the name John Wooden? Raise your hands. Famous UCLA basketball coach. Even if you do not like college basketball, you will like this guy.

Very well respected as a man of integrity. Twice his UCLA teams went a perfect 30 wins and zero losses on the season. Do you realize how incredible that is? During a 12 year stretch, 12 years, he won 10 national championships. And he was also a very outspoken Christian and well respected for his beliefs. Well, what the podcast was about was that when he graduated from grammar school, his dad gave him eight principles to live by and they're all pretty great.

And so I'm listening to this while I'm jogging and I'm finding myself agreeing with these principles. They say things like this, be true to yourself, help others. That's a good one, right? Make friendship a fine art. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible. Build a shelter against a rainy day. Pray for guidance every day. Give thanks for your blessings. Now so far, I'm resonating with these. I'm jogging along going, yes, yes, yes. Oh, that's good. That's good. I agree with that.

And then it comes to the final one and I just kind of went, what? Because the final aphorism that his dad gave him to live his life by was this, make each day your masterpiece. And I'll be honest with you, I heard that and I thought, no, no, no, no, no. I do not believe that. Make every day a masterpiece. I don't believe that. Because not every day is masterpiece day. Not every day is a sunny day. Some days are stormy days. Some days are rainy days. Some days are cloudy days. Some days are personal failure days.

The day three months ago when I buried my mother was not a masterpiece day. And I got kind of angry listening to this podcast. I'll be honest. And I like took out my headphones and I said, this is self-help garbage. It is not biblical. You can't make every day a masterpiece. I'm a pessimist or I'm going to stay a pessimist. I'm just not all cantankerous. And then God, does this ever happen to you? God just took me right to a portion of the Bible that was about what I was wrestling with that day. How does that happen? I think there just might be a Holy Spirit.

And I open up the Bible like 30 minutes later and I open it up to Psalm 145. If you have your Bibles, open it up to Psalm 145. Now I'm pretty sure this has been in the Bible all along. But somehow, somehow I never really saw this. And this just haunted me during my whole sabbatical. And it challenged me. I'm going to be reading this from the New King James version today. Psalm 145 verses 1 through 8. Look at this. I will extol you my God, O King. And I will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you.

Now hang on. Would you just read that phrase over with me? Would you say that? Every day I will bless you. Say that one more time. Every day I will bless you. Say it loud. Every day I will bless you. And I'm reading this going, uh oh. And I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts. And I will declare your greatness. They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness. For the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. Slow to anger and great in mercy. And then he goes on a riff about the grace of God for the whole rest of the psalm and then wraps it up in verse 21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord and all flesh shall bless His holy name forever and ever. Amen?

So I'm reading this verse and I'm going wait a minute. If it's true that the chief end, watch this, that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever in worship and in fellowship, then this psalm is in fact about how to make every day a masterpiece. Now here's the problem as kind of an inbred pessimist, somebody who's always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Somebody who thinks oh you know I can, I might try that but I can think of all the possible things that could go wrong with that scenario. I'm reading this going so I'm supposed to bless God every day, make every day a masterpiece. I don't know how to do that.

How am I supposed to do that on really seriously dark days? Because if I did learn how to do that I've got a feeling it would change my life. Do you believe your life can still be changed by the way? Do you believe you can still change at your age? How many believe you can still change? I hope so because for some of you today is the day you change. Today is the day because in this psalm God tells you four ways to make every day a masterpiece and it starts with this incredible phrase. What I need to do, jot this down here you know, it's number one is to bless God every day. Say that with me. Bless God every day.

Every day. Not just on sunny days. Not just on the giants of one seven in a row days. Even on the giants of lost seven in a row days. Even on rainy days. Even on cloudy days. Even on I buried my mom days. And the verse I really want to focus on today is verse two. Would you read this verse out loud with me as it comes up on the screen? Let me hear you. Every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. I'm afraid you're gonna forget something from the sermon and if there's any if you remember one thing it's this first point that is that the Bible says and this is not about emotion this is about intention.

Let me repeat that. It's not about emotion it's about intention. I will bless God every day. So what I want you to do is to turn to your neighbor on your left and right and tell them bless God every day. Go ahead and do that right now. Bless God every day. Bless God every day. Okay so that's great the Bible tells us to do that. What does it mean? Well that word bless in the Bible is fascinating. This is actually one of the most used words in the Hebrew scriptures the Old Testament but the problem with defining it is we actually don't have an exact match in English. It's one of those words right. How many of you speak another language? Can I see a show of hands? You speak some kind of other language. You know that there's there's not always a parallel word right and this word is so rich in the Bible that the best thing we can do is say well it's like a bunch of other English words right.

For example the word bless in some modern translations is translated praise or celebrate or adore or salute or thank. So do you start to understand the meaning by kind of triangulating among all those words praise celebrate adore salute thank. Etymologically the word comes from the Hebrew word for kneeling to kneel down and so what it means is spiritually you are operating in a humble spirit. You're going through life realizing that every good gift you have every good thing in your life everything in your life comes not from you it comes from God every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of the heavenly lights who loves you and who saved you.

Blessing God is a habit in the Bible because of that. In fact the Jewish Talmud said if you enjoy anything without saying a blessing it is as if you stole it. How about that? What that's getting at is this anything you don't turn into praise turns into pride. Did you get that? Anything you don't turn into praise turns into pride. Think of our new building. We have a children's building that's going up as part of our 2020 vision. We have another children's building that's going up south of Chennai India as part of our 2020 vision and they're both scheduled to open the same time spring of 2016.

I was taking Jim Wyerman the president of the warriors down there on Thursday for a tour and he was very impressed with it and then Diego comes up our construction supervisor and he tells me René I checked it out it's true this is now the biggest construction project in the county and I gotta tell you something man in that moment I'm taking the president of the warriors on a tour he's impressed Diego says it's the biggest construction project in the county my ego is just just inflating I'm going it was crazy out of control and then I realized no anything you don't turn into praise turns into pride.

What we need to do is not aren't we great what we need to do is this God bless you that we were able to build that building God we bless you that you were able to bless people in the church who are willing to bless other people God we bless you that there's workers who have the skill to build that building God we bless you for the weather that enables to be ahead of time God we bless you that we haven't had a serious accident every there's a million reasons to bless God for that building because anything you don't turn into praise turns into pride amen and that's what this is saying but it goes even deeper.

Check this out in Bible times a father would bring in his kids and his grandkids especially if he was about to die and in his very solemn touching ceremony he would put his hands on their shoulders or on their faces and he would pronounce blessings over them I'd say I love you so much you're so precious and God is going to do great things in your life God will extend your borders God will bring you into a beautiful place. How many of you have heard those stories in the Bible right of patriarchs blessing those but check this out amazingly this word bless is often used of God doing this to you.

In fact the first time this word is ever used in the Bible is in Genesis 1. God creates people and what's the very first thing he does before those people had a chance to do anything good before those people had a chance to do anything bad before those people had a chance to do anything to earn his blessing before they had a chance to do anything to earn his love what does he do verse 27 he creates people verse 28 it says and then God blessed them.

Man do you see the power of that if you want to know the heart of your heavenly father it is the heart of a father who wants to place his hands on your shoulders who wants to touch your face and wants to speak blessing into your life. He wants to say I love you so much who wants to bless you with his love who wants to bless you with his grace who wants to bless you with his mercy who wants to bless you with his forgiveness until you almost can't take it until you say but God I'm not worthy of this blessing so great you can't fathom them blessing so great you can't understand them blessing so great you'll need eternity to even comprehend them he wants to bless you with the joy of a relationship with him and God wanting to bless you and just waiting for you to open your heart so he can bless you is one of the huge themes in fact it's the major theme of the bible how God wants to bless you.

And so what this verse is saying in Psalm 145 two is that there comes a point in your spiritual maturity where you realize the only appropriate response to God blessing you is you bless God to bless God means you are blessing the one who blessed you it means you're just going through life responding responding with gratitude to the blessings all around you.

Now I read that and I studied I did all this word study but I still thought to myself great but how yes but how because I am not naturally somebody who bounces out of bed and just goes bless God you know I don't bounce out of bed at all I lie in bed and when I wake up sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes early in the morning and what I tend to think about in my natural self if I'm not intentional about it is all of my worries all of my cares all I run through a list of the things I have to do that day not the things I'm looking forward to but the things I just dread I don't bounce and bless I lie and lie that is my tendency so how am I supposed to bless God every day?

Well the rest of the psalm he tells us how and I'm telling you this is starting to change my life and I think it just might change your life too because the next thing he says is this jot this down I need to behold his works every day behold his works every day I love that old word behold because it just means notice it means something might be right in front of you and maybe you're even seeing it but are you beholding it would you agree that we're not very good sometimes at noticing stuff around us right we get so much locked into our day-to-day lives.

I'll give you one example I'm at the boardwalk the other day and I'm in the casino arcade area you know the the part that's inside down there the like the north end of the boardwalk and there's a little chicken restaurant chicken restaurant and I go there and and and the menu board and the counter for the restaurants like here and right behind it is this big plate glass window and you can see right out onto the beach right so I'm standing in line everybody else is facing the window they're facing the menu board and all of a sudden I notice that a guy kind of a later middle-aged guy maybe walks right in front of the window and kind of stands there and he clearly he does not understand that there is a window there because he's standing there and he's looking at the beach and then he takes off his shirt and that's not a pretty already I'm kind of losing my appetite right and so I mean you know no offense but there it is and so and then he doesn't stop there he takes off his shorts and then he takes off his undershorts and then he takes off his sandals and his socks and I think he had a hat left takes off his hat and he is standing right outside the window completely naked and I'm just thinking what what is happening right here outside the window and I turn back in the line and how many people do you think noticed a naked man 10 feet away from them how many do you think noticed one and it was me and I don't know what that says about me no one else noticed they're all looking at the menu which is like right above him and they're going well now should we have the chicken strips or the chicken nuggets I don't know that's a hard choice apparently visiting from the south I don't know but but my point is we don't even notice that.

So I knew I had to do something and I went out and I told Dan Baker listen this is not appropriate you're a minister of the gospel just kidding it wasn't Dan but my point is that we're so bad at noticing these things that are that are all around us and that's why the Bible says in verse five I need to meditate on the works of God.

Now when the Bible says meditate it means prolonged focus on something it does not mean sometimes you hear meditate defined these days as emptying your mind as every of everything right just empty your mind of everything there's a word for that that's called sleep in the Bible meditate is focus on something focus on what psalms talks about two things the world and the word the world creation and the word scripture.

So you focus on the world right nature God's creation that's all around you and bless God for what you behold around you like thank God for this tree thank God for that leaf thank you God for the air I'm breathing thank you that I'm alive and can even breathe the air I'm breathing.

Sometimes when people tell me I want to build up my faith right now I'm not sure how not I'm not connecting with God I often tell them go through this week and just pray one prayer one one word prayer just pray thanks that's it don't pray anything else thanks and see if by the end of the week you don't hear a still small voice saying something like you're welcome stop and enjoy this amazing world behold it behold it it's all around you.

I'll tell you a story you know that lagoon behind KSCO on Eastcliffe Drive well I run by it on my way out to Capitola from Santa Cruz I try to do that a few times a week and last week I go running by it I see a few birds don't really think anything of it well on my return there's a guy out there with binoculars and he's staring at something in the lagoon and so I decide to stop and I ask him hey what are you looking at and he says there's a naked guy out there and I think it's Dan Baker no that's not what he said he's a bird watcher and he tells me I have been watching birds near this lagoon since 1958 and he I said well what are you seeing now he says I'm seeing something I've never seen in 57 years and he points he says see that that's an osprey he says there are two osprey here in Santa Cruz right now I have never seen one in 57 years and he says I'll show you something else look at the herons look at the turns look at the seagulls do you notice how they're all nervous he says they're all eyeing him as he circles in the sky because he's hunting and they're not sure if he's hunting fish or hunting them this is once in a lifetime stuff.

Now I'd already run past that lagoon that day and all that beauty and all that drama and all that once in a lifetime stuff was unfolding right in front of me but I did not behold it see beholding God's works has to be intentional but little kids do this naturally have you noticed that I love this picture of one of the kids of the beach baptism that is pure joy right just loving the world that God made.

I think part of what Jesus meant when he said you got to come to me like a child is this because children do enjoy what the work the wonderful awesome works of God all around them but as grown-ups we forget how to do this would you agree with that we get distracted we get burdened we get hurt we get anxious and I'll be honest on some days this is some days I don't want to live like that little kid I don't I don't feel like that little kid when I started my sabbatical three months ago I had quite a few bad days in a row the biggest one you know about when mom died and I won't lie as we started that sabbatical I was pretty low focused on loss focused on disappointment I was focused on loss but God let me discover a way to literally frame the world differently and choose to see his blessings.

And it involves this my iPhone and God reminded me of a way that I can use this iPhone during tough times to bring joy back into my life and I'm talking of course about fantasy football no just kidding I'm not talking about that at all I'm talking about the fact that I discovered that this phone's got a nice little camera on it and what I decided to do I'd never done social media before this year not regularly in any way and so I decided you know what I'm gonna do because I got to be intentional about this is about not about emotion this is about intention and I'm going to choose to take a picture of one beautiful thing every day and post it online and that's what I've been doing and that's what I'm still doing take a picture of one beautiful thing each day and post it often with scripture like flowers or clouds or the cliffs right here in Santa Cruz or the sunset or the sunrise or a forest or a baby smiling and then whatever I find I'm gonna say God thanks click and you know what I discovered there's a lot of beauty just outside the door and the simple act of deciding to find one beautiful thing and take a picture of it began changing my attitude.

Now I don't say that to say look how wise I am what I'm saying is I'm so thick-headed God had to be very literal with me René frame your world and whether you're using a camera to do it or not you are framing your world every day you are choosing to see your world through a lens so be intentional about what you focus on clean your lens make sure you're seeing your world biblically so meditate on the world and meditate on the word the Bible.

Now how do you do that well there's two ways to meditate on the word that I want to show you because the word meditate everybody pretends they know what it means meditate ruminate as a cow ruminates and it's we hear these things all the time we don't know what the word really means so let me just give you some practical examples two ways you can meditate on the world I want to show you this thing that's been behind me can anybody tell me what this little gadget is yell it out this is a French press a French coffee press right usually has a little glass flask in here that takes the coffee in the water how to raise your hands if you like to French press your coffee raise your hands leave them up leave them up raise your hands leave them up everybody look around at these people raising their hands these people all think they're better than the rest of us I just want you to know that and they do too you know it's true all of them my but we love you anyway my son-in-law Jordan loves Jordan loves to French press his coffee right and so I've had French press like twice in my life so Jordan is at our house and I'm about to make coffee he goes oh no no no let me French press it and so he gets out the French press that he brought and he French presses it for four minutes you know it takes about four minutes you boil the water and then you put the grounds in you're kind of plunges the grounds down then he pours it carefully into two cups adds a little bit of cream and gives me the cup and I start to slug my dough and it goes wait wait wait wait wait and he takes a sip in his eyes roll back in his head and he starts to sip it like a wine connoisseur sipping wine and he's then he starts to scribe he goes do taste the woodsy undertones and the beef body and the cocoa nib after taste do you taste that right do you taste that I'm looking down at my cup he goes what do you taste what do you taste and I take a sip I'm trying to get creative but all I can come up with is coffee ice cream and he's disgusted with me for that but he loves French press and you know what here's I don't know if French press coffee really tastes better than regular coffee or I think probably it does but partly it's because you've put a little bit of elbow grease into it right you spend a little bit of time on your cup of coffee and so you're going to enjoy it more contrast that with coffee you get at a diner right like a Denny's or or even like a Santa Cruz diner or a silver spur or a Zelda's you ever go to a diner and you got you order coffee and the server comes by constantly all morning long and and he or she is just filling up your cup you don't even ask for it they're just filling up your cup and before you know it by the end of the morning you've had like 24 cups of coffee and you can't sleep anybody has that ever happened to you and you're not even tasting it you're slugging it down you're not going woodsy undertones right now the coffee still has its effect on you the caffeine still works but you're not really getting as much out of it why because you didn't kind of like spend just a few minutes making your coffee.

Listen listen if all you get out of the bible is what we give you on Sunday mornings it still has its effect kind of the spiritual caffeine will still work but all we're doing is we're just topping off your cup every Sunday and if you're not putting a little bit of your own elbow grease into it you're just kind of like slugging it back like oh that was good not really tasting it but what you can do with your bible meditation is kind of french press it just four minutes every morning you look at a verse and go what do these words mean what does this verse mean in context how can I apply this verse just four little minutes and you're like wow I can get a lot more nuance out of a verse.

Now there's another way you can meditate and that involves this thing here I'm going to unveil it here what is this anybody shout it out this is a crockpot anybody here ever had roast beef cooked in a crockpot all day long can I see a show in hands it's like the best most tender piece of meat ever right because it's been simmering all day long well you can not only french press your bible you can also crockpot it and that means you just take a phrase from a verse or a verse and you let it simmer in your mind all day long and you start to think about it all you ruminate on it and you get a lot of and you're saying I still don't know what you're talking about look at your bulletins and I want you to look at what's attached to your bulletins there I actually put into your bulletins attached to the notes a way for you to french press and crockpot a verse every single day this week there's a verse of the bible and I put french press it spend four minutes answering those questions and then crockpot it memorize a little part of it and think about it all day long you will be amazed at how your outlook changes when you behold the word of God in this way and meditate on it all day long.

So you meditate on the word and you meditate on the world and that can make a huge huge difference how do you get stronger and taller and deeper these daily habits you bless God every day you behold his works every day every day every day.

The office staff did something really cool for me this summer they redecorated my office and as part of that while I was away they cleaned up my old desk and my old desk drawers and Valerie came to my house one day during sabbatical she said I thought you might like this I found it in your desk drawer and it was this it was a letter from my mom that she wrote in German to her mom back in 1965 the day she buried my father in Las Catus memorial cemetery the same place I had just buried my mother when Valerie found this letter that's a god thing right there and so I'm reading I'm going wow and this is mom's description of his funeral mom's description of the graveside service and she talks about her hurt she talks about how hard it was and then she describes how much the Lord is helping her and then she describes the burial and she says and there were so many friends there and they were great support and then she says oh mom and then at the end of the service we heard a lark sing and I'm pretty sure it was the first lark of spring that was so beautiful and then she goes on and I read that and I thought that is a clue right there to how my mother was able to endure so much tragedy in her life yeah we buried my husband oh and then we heard a lark sing.

Every day you behold his works so every day you can bless God and then what do you do with that the last two points very quickly you bless others every day you bless others every day with what you've been beholding about God look at verses four through seven one generation commends your works to another they tell of your mighty acts they speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty they tell of the power of your awesome works I will proclaim your great deeds to you being motivated they celebrate your abundant they joyfully sing of your righteousness.

Can you see that they're passing it on look at all those verbs they commend they tell they speak they celebrate they joyfully sing this is like ancient social media listen what these verses are saying is every single day you're making an impact on the people all around you the people you love the people you merely like the people you don't even know even on yourself your future relationships and skills and health and happiness it's not you might be you are every single day in what you say and what you post and what you share you have a chance to really make all the people around you really shine and help them behold the wondrous works of God too or you can bum them all out by complaining about your life and the government and the president and on and on and on.

If this is about intention now in case you're going what my life is negative how can I I can't be positive and I could be a faker did you notice the author of the psalm written under the title in your bible it says a praise of David did David have some tough days yeah did David always only bless God no did he ever complain did David ever complain yeah there's whole psalms full of David's complaints to God God wants to be honest and not everything is beautiful everything is not beautiful making every day a masterpiece does not mean you'll live on a high every day it's not about your emotions some days you will weep but David is saying that is not all I will do.

Listen David is saying even before my situation changes I will choose what to focus on so much of your spiritual growth is powered by what you choose to focus on and some of you it's it's in fact I would say it's never the circumstance you're in that is holding you back from growing it's what you focus on did you get that it's what you focus on turn to somebody and say it's what you focus on say it it's what you focus on.

So listen so often we we are waiting for God to improve our life improve my life God when God is waiting for you to improve your focus because your focus has power your focus impacts other people. Now in case you're still thinking well my life really is bad René being a positive influence on others is impossible for where I'm at right now I saw this news story on CBS this summer which is a great metaphor for this part of this passage I want you to check this out and I challenge you not to smile and cry while you watch this.

Look at the screen it is every kid's worst nightmare and six-year-old Jayden Hayes has lived it twice first he lost his dad when he was four then last month his mom died unexpectedly in her sleep I tried and I tried I tried to get her away couldn't Jayden is understandably heartbroken anybody can die does anybody but there's another side to his grief a side he first made public a few weeks ago when he told his aunt and now guardian Barbara DiCola that he was sick and tired of seeing everyone sad all the time and he had a plan to fix it and that was the beginning of it that's where the adventure began Jayden asked his aunt Barbara to buy a bunch of little toys and bring them here to downtown Savannah Georgia near where he lives so he could then want me to have it give them away.

Thank you man what is it you're doing well I'm trying to make people smile rubber duckies dinosaurs because those are the things that make people smile yeah and what happens to their face really really see that man right there Jayden targets people who aren't already smiling and then turns their day around he's gone out on four different occasions now and he's always successful it's to make you smile even if sometimes he doesn't get exactly the reaction he was hoping for it is just so overwhelming to some people that a six-year-old orphan would give away a toy expecting nothing in return except a smile of course he is paid handsomely in hugs and his aunt says these reactions have done wonders for Jayden it's like sheer joy came out of this child and the more people that he made smile the more this light shift Jayden says that's mostly true but I'm still sad that my mom died I bet you are this is by no means a fix but in the smiles he's made so far nearly 500 at last count Jayden has clearly found a purpose.

I'm counting on it to beat 33,000 33,000 that's pretty big goal you think you can make that goal I think I can I think he just did don't you love that I love that I love that I love it listen if a six-year-old orphan can find a way to make every day a masterpiece and to bless others every day then you can too especially if you know the final thing that the psalmist talks about and it's this and this moves us right into communion as we close be aware of God's grace every day be aware of God's grace every day starting in verse eight he just goes on a riff about the grace of God in fact look at verse eight on the screen and read this out loud with me the Lord is what gracious and compassionate slow to anger and rich in love and for the rest of the psalm he just talks about how this is true and some of you might recognize this because this is an echo of the moment way back in Exodus 34 where God discloses himself to Moses and he says I the Lord the Lord and compassionate and gracious slow to anger abounding in love and the whole rest of the Bible is a plot twist after plot twist about how God shows his grace to us ultimately on the cross where Jesus as a complete gift of grace dies for your sins and for my sins so that not only does God lavish good things upon us but he erases the bad things from us.

I started with the beach baptism today and I'm going to end there this is my favorite picture from the baptism don't you love this picture right here don't you just love it I look at this and first I think I'm so grateful that Santa Claus finally accepted Jesus because I've been praying for him for years and now he really knows the reason for the season but but also I just see that pure I wish you could have been in our baptism circle and could have heard all the stories because there's so many but I'll just I'll just close with one another man not this guy but another guy in our circle Richard he said I'll tell you why I'm being baptized today he says I started out going to church when I was a little kid left they were all a bunch of hypocrites didn't get it but he said something kept haunting me they say Jesus died on the cross for my sins but why would he die on the cross for my sins because I'm not worthy I've done I've done so many bad things I'm not worthy even if that's true he wouldn't want me and he said finally this was a man in his 70s he says finally just recently it has dawned on me he did that for one reason and he starts crying we all start crying as he says because he loves me and he says and that makes me love him too and he says now I understand it's because he loves me and what he wants is my love too and he says and that's why I am publicly proclaiming my love for Jesus Christ in baptism today.

You see if you once you let that capture your imagination it's great to behold the works of God and nature it's great to behold the wonderful principles in his word but but but really when you get down to it when you behold his grace ultimately expressed on the cross of Christ that's when you can't stop blessing God every day that's when there's always a reason even on the worst day to say God I bless you I bless you I bless you because even though I'm nothing even though I've hurt you you have placed your head your your hands on my head and on my shoulders and even looked at me in the eyes as your beloved son or daughter and you've said oh I bless you I celebrate you I adore you I salute you I thank you you've said that to me and so God I bless you I bless you I bless you and when you when you your heart is captured by that that is when you can make every day a masterpiece.

Let's pray together would you bow your heads with me God thank you so much for your love for us we bless you for that God now as we remember your death and resurrection in communion and right now I just want to invite everybody in this room and everybody who's watching everybody who's listening just to pray silently right now just bless God for some things he has done for you given to you just in your heart right now maybe you're not even sure God exists I encourage you to say thanks think of something and say thanks and see if there isn't a little echo in your heart that says you're welcome just bless God ah God your greatness is beyond anything we can fathom especially the greatness of your grace to us in Christ Jesus amen and together we just bless you for it we bless you for it God every day including this day in Jesus name amen.