1 O sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
have gotten him victory.

2 The Lord has made known his victory;
he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.

3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.

4 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises.

5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody.

6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.

7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who live in it.

8 Let the floods clap their hands;
let the hills sing together for joy

9 at the presence of the Lord, for he is coming
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.

INTRODUCTION:

This morning I need your help as we start the sermon. I want us to reminisce a little. So, help me out by sharing, "What is your first and strongest memory of the Church?" (Let a couple of people share their memories and images of the Church.

Do you know what my strongest memory and impression of the church is? Vacation Bible School. I wasn't raised in the church. I didn't go every Sunday. But I did go to Vacation Bible School with my friends. And sometimes I went to Sunday School. But the strongest memories are associated with VBS. It was fun. It was a celebration. It was a time of praise and joy.

Now I want you to help me relive a little bit of that time. No, I'm not going to pass out a volunteer sign up sheet, though that's not a bad idea and Mary and Linda might decide to do that later. What I want you to do is help me sing, "Praise Ye The Lord."

Remember that song. OK, let's divide up. This side be the Halleluias. And this side be the Praise Ye The Lord. You don't have to get up and down if you don't want to. But you do have to sing.

I have all kinds of memories about VBS: memory verses, craft projects, mission offerings, laughter, adults who cared, snacks and games and a desire to come back. But the strongest memories and first impressions of the Church and of Worship I have are of singing our lungs out in joyous abandon to Praise God. What ever happened to that?

I. PRAISE:

A. Not Vacation Bible School, that's still a vital part of any churches ministry, but Praise? As I read the Psalm for today, I got to thinking about that. In some denominations, praise has always seemed to be a part of their worship. But generally speaking, I think Praise seemed go out of vogue in the mid 70's. There are lots of reasons. But I believe one of the biggest reasons was the commercialization of Praise by Jim and Tammy and the PTL Club. That show seemed to give it a bad name. They commercialized it and tied Praise so closely to money that Praise became a dirty word in the mainline denominations. And anyone who uttered the phrase, "Praise the Lord" was looked on as suspect or a sucker. I know a ton of folks who thought PTL stood for Pass The Loot.

B. And yet as we read this Psalm, we see that Praise is a very natural part of a faithful and faith filled life. It's the way we were created.

I love the poetic description in this Psalm of how nature praises God. Let the Sea Roar, let the floods clap their hands. The mountains sing their joy. What wonderful imagery. Disney could have had a hey day with this.

And we know it's true. The Earth, the sky, and the seas Praise God continually. Every tree branch swaying in wind; every bird singing; every chitter of the squirrels is a song of praise to God.

If you have ever seen One breath taking view of mountains or a waterfall. If you've ever watched an eagle soaring, heard a lion roaring, or seen a new born calf romping in a field then you've seen how all creation Praises God. If you've ever watched marshmallow clouds toasting in the sunset or heard the crack of down as the world begins to waken on a cool spring morning, then you know what the psalmist means.

If you've ever marveled at the tiny perfection of new born baby's hands or stood in awe of the miracle of child birth, you've experienced the praise of creation. And all of nature praises God.

C. We need to take time to Praise God ourselves. You see Praise keeps everything in perspective. It reminds us of the natural order of things. God first. Everything else, second. It helps us keep our focus on the fact that everything comes from God. It also helps us keep our status in life in perspective.

Years ago, Miami Dolphins coach, Don Shula, was vacationing in Maine with his wife and five children. One rainy afternoon they went to the town's only theater. When they entered the theater everyone stood up and applauded the Shulas. As Don and his family sat down, a man ran up and shook Don's hand. "How did you recognize me?" Don asked.

"Mister," the man said, "I don't know who you are. All I know is that just before your family walked in, the manager said that unless five more people showed up, we wouldn't have a movie today." (1)

Praising God helps us stay humble, no matter how big we get.

II. OUR BLESSINGS:

A. Praise is simply a way counting your blessings and saying "Thank you" to God. And look how blessed we are in this country and in this church.

Look at how blessed this church is. This is a very loving community of faith.

We are blessed with a great group of youth. Our Senior Class is outstanding. Eleven High School Graduates and two College Graduates.

I'm really going to miss our Seniors when they go off to college. But I also know that they will take with them a deep sense of faith and a joy in the Lord. They don't go unprepared because your love and your faith has shown them the way of faith. And through your example, they have built their lives on the solid foundation of Jesus. What more could anyone ask.

And we have a major major blessing in the success of our Move of Faith Campaign. We reached our first Goal and are on our way to reaching the second level. Somebody asked me if I was disappointed that we haven't raised the full $750,000. You know what I told them? "Absolutely not!" I am so proud of this church and this congregation I'm about to bust.

Based upon pledges, projections and loose plate, we over subscribed our budget for the year. Because of that we were able to give raises and hire new staff. And we've kept ahead.

And then on top of that, we raised an additional $450,000.00. We have the most successful Lord's Acre of any church in the Conference and yet that can't compare to what we just accomplished. Put it all into perspective. When was the last time that this Church raised $450,000.00? Never.

What a blessing. We're called to give credit where credit is due. We're called to Praise God and sing of God's glory each day. George Herbert wrote a little poem that I love:

Thou that hast given so much to me,
Give one more thing -- a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if thy blessings had spare days;
But such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy praise.

The pulse of our hearts should be praise.

B. And it has become increasingly easier to do. Especially when we read passages like the one in John. Jesus tells the disciples AND us, "I no longer call you servants, now I call you friends." And that makes all the difference in the world. You see, a servant does what they do out of obligation, because it's their job, because they are commanded to. And they are expected to do it without question.

A friend on the other hand, does whatever is asked simply out of love and respect for the friend. We do what is asked because we want to please and honor our friend.

We have been faithful and sacrificial in our giving and faithful in our living because Jesus has called us friends. We don't give out of duty, we give because we have been blessed and we want to Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

III. OUR CHALLENGE:

A. Our challenge is to continue in that mind set of praise. And I've thought of a way to do that. How would you like to build two churches instead of one? How would you like to be a blessing for another community of Christians while giving God praise for the blessings we have already received? Let me share a portion of a testimony with you, and then tell you how.

In November of 1997, Bishop Ntambo Nkulu Ntanda, Bishop of the Northern Conference of the Democratic Republic of the Congo visited our Conference. He went to each District and gave his testimony. This, in part is what he said.

"I am the grandson of a cannibal witch doctor. None of his children were Christian. Everyone was a cannibal and a pagan. When my father married, he and my mother had thirteen children but eight of them died either in infancy or young childhood. All of our tribes believed that magic could bring illness, death or suffering and that evil people were putting spells upon our family. My grandfather gave us two idols to carry with us for protection. Each idol had powerful magic medicine stuffed into it or attached to it. We carried the idols from village to village hoping to find someplace where we were safe, but children kept dying. Because we were under the control of Belgium everyone had to be Catholic. If you were not Catholic you could not go to school and you could not get a job. We hated Christianity. At every new moon I would sacrifice a chicken to the two idols. That was a big sacrifice, a very large gift to the idols for we had nothing.

"In 1964 the Methodist church came to our area and they started a school. I wanted to get an education, but I did not want to be a Christian. They said that we did not have to be Christian and we did not have to be Methodist.

There were only two rules, They had to attend Worship and Youth Fellowship. If they missed more than twice, They were out of school. The influence of the church and the school made a difference.

"I became a Christian and I found peace and joy. Even today our country has little or nothing. There is tragedy everywhere. But those of us who know Jesus have Jesus. We serve a living God. He is within us.

"In December 1964 when I became a Christian, I also wanted to become a preacher. In 1976 I became a preacher. In 1977 they made me a District Superintendent. They gave me five churches; three of them were dead, two were alive. But after five years I had planted 157 new churches in 157 villages. My father died a Christian.

"It is very hard to be a pastor in my country. The salary is $1.00 that you may get every two or three months. You will work four to six months to be able to buy one kilo of meat. The average compensation in my country is $100 per year. But our ministers survive because church members bring harvest from their fields, and chickens. Though our country is weak, though our church is impoverished, we are spiritually strong. Pastors are the hope of the whole country. Only pastors are respected. Politicians are not.

"The hope of our country is in the hands of our churches. We must build more churches. We must change our country for Jesus."

B. Isn't that a moving story? If you would like to hear more, I have a little more of his testimony but you can hear him preach at the opening service of this year's Annual Conference. Services will be held at 7:30pm at First UMC, down town, Ft. Worth.

Now here's the challenge. We know that the funds we have raised are for our new Church. But how would you like for there to be two Joshua United Methodist Churches? One here and one named for us, a sister church, in the Congo?

For an extra ½ of 1 percent of what you pledged to our building project, we can build a Church, a parsonage, a pond for fish and supply the pastor's family with 2 bicycles, farm hand tools and a Bible.

You see, it only costs $2,500.00 to build all of this in the Congo. So, if you pledged $5,000 over the three year period then ½ of 1 percent is $25.00. That's not much is it? All it would take would be 100 people giving $25.00 each. Or 50 people giving $50.00 each.

CONCLUSION:

That's the challenge this morning. We're called to praise God and to live a life of praise. When we do, we are blessed and we leave a legacy. The youth who will be graduating or have already graduated are part of that legacy. A legacy of faith.

We're blessed to be a blessing and we can be part of a greater legacy, too. A legacy that will bring hope, change countless lives and possibly even change a country. Mary and I have made our pledge to our new building. And here's the first $50.00 towards Joshua United Methodist Church, in The Democratic Republic of the Congo where some boy or girl's first impression of the Church will be VBS and the singing of: "Praise Ye The Lord" in Congolese. I can't think of a better way to praise God.

1. Parable Etc. October 1996. Taken from Vision 2000 by Mark Link, submitted by Richard E. Zajac, Sisters of Charity Hospital, Buffalo, New York.

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