Psalm 8

"O Lord our Lord how majestic in thy name in all the earth!" Sometimes you just gotta wonder. I mean there are moments when the glory of God just hits you between the eyes; moments when you catch a glimpse at the greatness of God; moments of Beauty, moments of power, moments of grace. And you just have to stand back and wonder.

I don't know about you but I see it in nature: in the colors of a sunset or sunrise. I see it in the power of the ocean. I see the glory of God in the trees and the sky. I see God's wisdom in the butterflies and flowers and birds.

I also see the glory of God in people; in the love of God in family and friends. I see the amazing grace of God in my church family. I see the greatness of God in newborn babies.

"O Lord our Lord how majestic in thy name in all the earth!" The Christian tradition has often wondered at the greatness of God. One response to this wonder is the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity says that there is one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all existed before time and are equal because they are all one. I like to think of it in terms of what the word "trinity" sounds like. The word "trinity" sounds like the words "tri-" and "unity" combined.

This in one of those beliefs that is very unique to Christianity. Other religions cry "foul." They say 1 does not equal 3. Either you have one God or three gods. But Jesus and the New Testament reveal to us that God is so great that describing him pushes human understanding. For humans 1 cannot equal 3 but God is so great that for him it can!

Christians have found many ways to symbolize this truth. A triangle is one shape with three sides and three angles. If you look at it from one side it will look different than if you look at it from another side. Water exists in three forms on earth: ice, liquid water, and steam yet all three are still water. St Patrick, when he was taking the Gospel to Ireland, used the shamrock. It has three leaves but it is one plant. So God is one God revealed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

The psalmist was the first one to say, "O Lord our Lord how majestic in thy name in all the earth!" He just had to wonder at the greatness of God. He says "You have set your glory above the heavens," yet "Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger." God's wisdom is beyond human comprehension. I mean this is the wisdom of the God that crated the universe.

Yet often the simplest word and encompass its greatness. One day a boy was at church with his family and they were receiving communion. When the boy was offered the bread he got a big piece so big that it took him several bites to get it all down. After the service the mother scolded him for taking such a big piece. Shamefully he replied, "But Jesus wanted me to get a big piece." Maybe God wants us all to get a big piece of God's grace.

The psalmist also saw the majesty of God in the night sky. Have you ever looked at the night sky from a place where there were not any lights? It is amazing how many starts you can see. But there are so many more starts in the sky than what we can see. Astronomers can point their telescopes at a part of the sky that has no visible stars and when they take a long exposure picture they end up seeing whole galaxies of stars that are so faint that they can't be seen otherwise.

When you consider the greatness of the vastness of space you can't help but wonder. Wonder at the God that could create it all. Wonder at the wisdom behind it all. Wonder at the power of such a great God.

The psalmist in wonder responds "what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?" What are we? We are some carbon based creatures on a small blue planet orbiting a yellow dwarf star in a remote are of an other wise average spiral galaxy among hundreds of thousand of other galaxies. Yet God knows each of us by name and has numbered the hairs on our heads. God has gone to the trouble of making us in the divine image and given us breath. God has numbered our day and measure our tears in a bottle.

What are we that God should care for us? Yet God did care for us and does care for us. In fact God loved us enough to send his son. And Jesus came as God in the flesh to experience our limited existence and to show us God's Love. Then he chose to die for our sins.

What am I or what are you that the Prince of creation should die for us? And God has given us dominion His wonderful creation. We not only have the power to domesticate and cultivate God's creations, but now more than ever we have the power to destroy. What are we that God would create this wonderful world and then put it in our hands when we could easily deface and destroy it?

O Lord our Lord how majestic in thy name in all the earth! God is truly Great! Our only proper response is praise. We can try to serve God and try to be faithful. But ultimately you just have to wonder and praise.

Praise God for his majesty and wonder. Praise God for his creation and wisdom. Praise God for his grace and forgiveness. Praise God for all the blessings He give us.

God is Good, all the time and all the time God is good! You know I think we juts need to praise Him. When I say "God is Good" I want you to respond "All the time." And When I say "All the Time" I want you to respond "God it good." God is Good! All the time! All the time! God is good! Let all God's people say "Amen."

First things first! That's how it should be; because if you don't have first things first then you have it second or somewhere else. If you don't even have first things first then everything is out of order. What you have is chaos. In Genesis 1 God is putting first things first.

The Bible says, "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void." In modern times Genesis 1 makes us think of the argument over evolution and the big bang: evolutionism versus creationism, science versus Scripture. But that is not at all what was going on in the minds of God's people when Genesis one was inspired. Back then it was an argument between God's people and the religions of the people around them.

You see all ancient societies have stories about how the world was created. One of the most popular was the Babylonians. They imagined a war between gods that resulted in one of the gods being killed. That slain god's body became the earth and living things sprung from it. As a result of this understanding the ancient Babylonians worshipped anything and everything. Every force in nature had a name and a deity attached to it. Every thing that existed could be claimed to be part of the god and therefore an appropriate object of worship.

Because of this chaos of gods and goddesses, God (the one true God, the God of the Jews) decided to put things in order. It is no accident that the first thing God tells us is that before creation that the earth was a formless void. That's significant because the religious life of humanity was a formless void before God set the record straight. According to Genesis 1 God created order out of chaos. And this order gives order to our lives. We humans, created in God's image, were to work for six days and rest by keeping the seventh as holy just as God had done.

At the same time this revelation brought order to the chaos of objects of worship. This story showed the people that God, the Creator, was the only God to be worshipped and praised. Everything else was just a creation of God. All the bird and fish and animals and plants and forces of nature were things made by the one true God. The best example of this point is verse 16. It says God created two great lights: a greater light and a lesser light. Those are obviously the Sun and the Moon, but it doesn't say "Sun" and "Moon." That is because many ancient peoples worshipped the Sun and Moon as gods. The inspired author didn't want people to misunderstand and think that God created these lesser gods and that they could be worshiped. So the writer makes it clear. These are just lights in the sky given to us by God for light.

Through all of this the greatness and superiority of God is established. Only God is worthy of worship. Only God has the power to create. Only God Almighty has the authority to command or destroy. Only God is creator and master of the universe. The things that God created are good, but they are not to be worshipped. There are no other gods!

We today have a much fuller understanding of God than people did back then. The ancient Hebrews only knew of God as the Creator. But we know that God came to live among us as Jesus Christ, and that God dwells with us now as the Holy Spirit. It is still just one God, but that God is so great that we need three names to speak of the Almighty. So we call God "Father," "Son" and "Holy Spirit." It is hard for us to understand how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can all be one. Jesus called God his Heavenly Father, yet Jesus said, "I and the Father are one," and how can Jesus be in Heaven at the right hand of the Father and here where we worship? But we know that God is so great that God can accomplish things that we can't even comprehend.

Despite our advanced knowledge of God, the message people need to hear is still the same as it was for the ancient Hebrews. Just as back then the religious life of humanity is a chaos of gods. There is nothing that is not worshipped today. People worship money and fame. They worship themselves and their own understandings of the world. If a person goes to the beach on Sunday without worshipping God, isn't that making the sun or the sea or themselves a god? Some people today even worship little white balls! That is why they go to the "Golf Course Temple" every Sunday morning. This worship takes different forms than it did back then. But people still persist in worshiping the created things instead of the Creator.

These people need to hear about God and God's greatness and mercy. Often times their lives are formless voids because they are not worshipping the God who creates order out of chaos. They need to know that God can create order out of the chaos of their lives. They need to hear that God can give substance to the emptiness of their hearts. We need to tell them. We need to let them know that only God is worthy of praise. We need to tell them that Jesus saves. We need to inform them that God's Spirit strengthens us. Before Jesus ascended to glory he gave all authority to his disciples to tell others this good news. That means that God, the God of the universe, the Creator of all things, has given us the power and authority to tell others and teach them the truth. God has given us the task, and the means to do it, by his power not our own. Don't think that someone else will do it for you. It's your job. God has given you authority to make disciples. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations so that they may know the peace of worshiping the God of order, the God of creation.

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit." These are final words of Jesus before he ascended to heaven. They are commonly known as the "Great Suggestion." Of course I'm joking. This verse is called the Great Commission. It is the summation of the mission of the church in this age.

However, if you were to look at the lives of most Christians, it would appear to be a suggestion. You would think that making disciples was optional. As if Jesus suggested that we spread the good news of the Gospel. But Jesus didn't suggest it, he commanded it. He clearly said, "This is your job. Go do it!"

Of course at this point I could spend the next 15 or 20 minuets chastising the church for not fulfilling the Great Commission. But I don't really think that will help a lot. The problem is not that people don't want to spread the Good News, they simply don't know how to. Too many people equate fulfilling the great commission with the kind of Bible thumping evangelism that has turned so many away from the Gospel. Or maybe they don't realize the power they have been given to fulfill the commission. They think, "I can't do anything. I'm no Billy Graham!"

I know I'm no Billy Graham. But I don't have to be! Jesus said, "All authority has been given to me. Go therefore..." We do not go out to make disciples based on our own abilities or authority. We go forth with the authority of Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords. The Bible says that out of the mouths of babes God prefects praise. Like babes it is God's power not our ability that makes us effective.

Right before the commission to make disciples, Jesus gives authority, then he says, "I am with you always to the end of the age." So he does not send us out alone. He sent the Holy Spirit to be the presence of God Almighty in his fullness to go with us. One time the youth were leading the service. They said they wanted to do the whole service themselves and they didn't want any adults in the pulpit that Sunday. Before the service I had a prayer with them and I said, "You know you won't be up there all by yourselves." They all got this "Aw, but preacher" look on their faces and then I said, "Jesus will be with you." If Alex Stevenson had to get up here each Sunday by himself we would all be in trouble. I couldn't do it. The only reason I could ever get in front of a group and preach or do anything is because I know Jesus is with me until the end of the age.

The Bible said that with a word God created the heaven and the earth. And as Christians we believe that Jesus is one with the Father and was there participating in the creation of the universe. So the same power that created the stars is with us as we go to fulfill the great commission. When we tell people that "Christ is the light" of the world the same power that said, "Let there be light" is with us. When we tell people that "God is Love," the same one who died and rose for our salvation is there with us.

That is the authority we have been given to make disciples.

But how do we do it? Do we have to preach on the street corner? If God calls us to go preach on the street corner, then we should. But even if we do we should not let that keep us from witnessing to our neighbors and our family. Doing the "religious" thing, preaching in the street, is not a replacement for doing the faithful thing, witnessing to our children and neighbors. If we are not loving our family and neighbors then the authenticity of our preaching in the street will be called into question.

We also need to learn to witness. We need to practice telling people what God has done in our lives. One way of preparing is by memorizing scripture; especially verses that have meant a lot to you. Another way is to pray for guidance on how to witness. Finally we need to be awake and look for opportunities to share that witness.

The witness of our lives is also very important too. Words are important but they are empty if they are not words that come out of the way we live our lives. It has been said that actions speak more loudly than words. And that is true: we need to walk the walk to talk the talk.

Jesus said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Is it the great suggestion or great commission in our lives? Do we seek to make disciples for Jesus Christ? Or do we act as if making disciples is optional?

Jesus commanded that we make disciples. You don't need to be a Billy Graham or a preacher to do it. The same power that spoke the heavens into existence is with you.

Go therefore, with the power of God and the Love of Christ. Go and show people in your lives the goodness and greatness of God. Tell them with you lips of the way God has taken care of you. And know that he is with you until the end of the age.

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