Happy 4th of July weekend. Good to see you guys. I trust everything went well. Everyone’s got their fingers left. It’s good.
I actually lost a fingernail. I didn’t share that last hour. I kind of felt I could share it with the 11 o’clock hour. It’s a little more appropriate. But I wanted to do something. Scott and James both said I can’t have real fireworks because of smoke alarms. So I did find a firework that you probably see at the stores, and I thought we have to have some sort of firework because it’s a Fourth of July weekend celebration. So we had to do something, and I wanted to let you know I was going to do it first because it makes a little pop, and I wanted security to know, just so we’re all on the same page.

I think this is my favorite holiday, though, because there’s no other holiday where we are so excited about celebrating the place in which we live that we use explosives. I mean, it’s fantastic. And I don’t know about you, but I just think celebrating our country 250 years—it’s so appropriate and so necessary. That’s why I was like, we need to have just one little popper thing.

Do you remember the first time you were trying to think and anticipate what fireworks are like? I remember when I was a young kid living on a court in Mantika, and my friends were like, “Ben, our dad got this firework.” And that’s how all our stories started when we were kids: “My dad got this firework, and it’s so amazing.” And I was like, really? Tell me about it, because my imagination gets a little strange at times. And so they told me about this firework, and they’re like, it’s a house, and this little house you light it, and then it starts to grow, and this house grows, and then all of a sudden, it explodes with fireworks.

Of course, in my mind, being whatever age I was—like 22—I started thinking in my head, this house is going to start really small, and then it’s going to grow and grow, and it’s going to turn into like a real life house and suddenly be on fire, and the fire stations would be called, and the fire trucks would come. And of course, when the firework came, it was just like… and then it just… my hopes were totally dashed.

But isn’t it interesting how, when we are so excited about things, we just seem to explode with emotions? I like to watch our little young kids, and I can’t wait to have grandkids and see them so excited on Fourth of July and other holidays. We just cannot contain it. Like everything about us is just excited. And you can see kids when they walk into amusement parks, and they’re just so amped up, like they have been eating cotton candy already, and they haven’t, but they just cannot wait to get in.

Sometimes there are moments in life when it’s appropriate to celebrate and burst with emotions, like on days like today when we celebrate 250 years of this great country, which God has allowed us to be a part of, to live in, to raise our families, to exist in. It’s also appropriate in other milestones in life, right? When there are bursts that take place, we just can’t help but scream and yell out of excitement. I think of graduations, weddings, retirements—like they are appropriate responses to the emotions that we have. And that’s why we get to celebrate and do these things.

We’ll do it now. Okay. And then we’re going to hop into Psalm chapter 33. Because what’s great about Psalm chapter 33 is it’s a celebration psalm. The psalms are replete with people celebrating and bursting with emotions because of who God is. All throughout the Bible, there are people celebrating and talking about how great the Lord is because of what He has done, what He is currently doing, what He promised He was going to do, what He foretold He was going to do.

In fact, when we get to Christmas time, we’re going to talk about how there were people and there were angels who could not contain themselves but burst with praise because of who God is and what God was doing. So, let’s talk about Psalm 33.
Happy 4th of July. And I kind of know that doing fireworks on July 5th is kind of like having a Christmas tree up after December 25th. So, thank you for doing that with me.

But Psalm 33, it says this in verse one: “Shout for joy in the Lord, oh you righteous. Praise befits the upright. Shout for joy. Rejoice loudly.” Not just “yay fireworks.” Not just little fireworks like this, but I’m talking the big ones that woke me up last night at like 1:00 in the morning. Big shouts for the Lord because of who He is. Praise befits or it is appropriate to praise the Lord for who He is and what He does.

It says, “Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. Make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.” Wasn’t it cool having the stringed instruments up here this morning? It was really great having them, and Jane’s putting that together. And I think with instruments, with everything we are, whatever we can find, use it to praise the Lord with our words, with all that we have, because He is worth it.

“Shout for the Lord. Shout for joy in the Lord, you righteous.” When the body of believers are together, we cannot help but praise the Lord. It must come out. It must be an overflow of what God is doing and what He has done and what He has promised to do.

I think of the time when my wife and I were not married too long, and we went to Candlestick Park to watch the Giants game one July 4th weekend. And I don’t know about you if you remember Candlestick Park, but it was colder than the current stadium that they have now. And much of the time at the end of the game, the fog would kind of settle in above the stadium. And on that particular night, the fog rolled in, and the fireworks would go above the fog, and then they would explode, and everybody in the crowd in unison would go, “Oh… Ah.” Adults were doing this with the kids because they could not contain how incredible it was. And in an even greater way, when it comes to worshiping the Lord, we shout it. We rejoice loudly with instruments, whatever instruments they are, because He is worthy of our praise. He is worthy of it all as we sing. He’s worthy of it all.

One author says, “A believer without praise is like a person improperly dressed.” So true. It just comes out because of who God is and what He has done. God is, and what He has done. It says, “Sing to him a new song, played skillfully on the strings with loud shouts.” Perhaps writing a new song speaking of God’s greatness. And we see this throughout God’s word, too. But perhaps it’s singing a song that we know, but it’s speaking of a new, fresh experience of how God has worked.
Pastor Bobby, one of the pastors here, he often talks about how God’s mercies are new every morning. And indeed they are. God is worthy of our praise. Play skillfully on the string with loud shouts, with excellence, and the amp turned up to 11. Praise the Lord. Celebrate him because hope is found in him.

I think of even this morning and over the weeks that have passed, we’ll sing a song or we’ll watch something, and it’ll be fast-paced, slow-paced in the middle, and after it’s done, I can just feel people going, “Do I clap? Do I not clap?” I was talking with a friend: “Do I raise my hands? Ben, am I going to get in trouble for raising my hands? Do I yell amen?” Yes, you can do all those things. Thank you. You can, because God is worth it. When in doubt, clap. When in doubt, shout. That’s what the Psalms tell us to do.

For the word of the Lord, it goes on, “For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.” I love this. And God, there is no uncertainty. God is always clear. God is always direct. All his ways are right. I love that about him. I appreciate that so much. Everything he does is done in faithfulness.

I think about my own life and how I just miss the mark often. I was talking with my wife last night, and she said something which I talked to her about, so it’s okay to say. She’s not here in this hour. She was here in the last hour, and it just happens to come out in this hour. Anyways, she goes, we were coming home from friends, and she goes, “Babe, I was listening to this podcast, and I think you need to listen to it.” And instantly I thought to myself, “That’s going to be a name on one of my message series.” Okay, I listened to this podcast. You should listen to it. Ultimately, it was her saying, “Here’s what I think needs some work.” And I get it. She was right. But she was talking about how our interaction with our kids, and I think even with my son, and how there are so many times I need to do better in investing in his life and just spending time with him and stop being such a dad that’s stuck on rules.

But when it comes to the Lord, He never skips a beat. He always does the right thing. He always does what is needed when it comes to our life. I appreciate that about him. He’s so good. He is worthy of my praise. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. God will always bring about his will and his glory in whatever he does. I love how it says the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. All that we see and all that we experience, all people get to experience a grace of the Lord and just viewing his creation, experiencing life in the country in which we call the United States, in which we get to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

But I just look at God’s greatness in his creation. It makes me think of in our family, my wife and my two kids and myself, we call it the Kelly gang. And I know I brought this up before, but often times we’ll send out a text, and it’ll just say something like, “Look up.” And that’s a cue to look up and see God’s amazing creation. You’ll see a few pictures on the screen that are either from myself or from my kids. But I love to look up in the sky. I don’t know what it is. Ever since I was a kid, maybe it came from my mom, but I just like to look up and see the beauty of the sky, especially in the spring and the fall. It’s a lot of fun seeing the clouds, but we fail to look up at times and see the beauty, the magnificence of God’s creation.

It’s so fantastic. So much of our time is spent looking down, right? Looking down, or if you’re younger, it’s probably like this. However you tend to do it. I’m older now, so it’s like that. Fireworks should not be the only time that you look up. Look up to see the beauty of God’s creation and what he is doing. We celebrate our nation today, but it cannot remain only at that height. It must extend to the heavens.

Today we celebrate our great God. We stand in awe of him with wonder and gratitude, for he reigns and never changes. Now saying all that, you may be like, “Oh, Ben, that’s nice. I like how you tied in the fireworks and the looking up. That’s cute. But what does this mean for me?” That’s where we always get to, right? What am I supposed to walk away with? Well, that’s between you and the Lord. But if I was to challenge you with something, I would simply say, “Place your hope in him.” And by hope, I mean your confident expectation that God is working in a way that he desires, that he is in control, as we’re going to look at, that he is involved.

And the psalm talks about that. On days like today, we can read about what our founding fathers desired this country to become. We can look at our country and we can be excited about the direction, or we can look at the country and say we’re a little nervous about the direction of our country. I don’t have the ability nor the capacity to talk about all those areas. My job as a minister of the gospel is to look at God’s word and say, how can we do our jobs as citizens of the United States and also honor the Lord in our life? And I believe that’s what this psalm does. I believe it says, place your hope in the Lord because he is so great. We celebrate our country, but we also do not allow it to remain only at that level. We celebrate our great God.

So let’s read and talk quickly about some of the ways and reasons why we can hope in the Lord. Psalm 33:6-9 says this: “By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth, all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap. He puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

It’s interesting as you read the book of Psalms, the word “awe” is brought up quite frequently. And as a side note, the Psalms are fantastic. They are incredible. And hopefully I have time to share a little bit about this, but the Psalms really have helped to save my life, to help me place my hope in the Lord. I read the Psalms, and man, it’s like I’m talking some days. I’ve said that exact same thing. I thought that exact same thing. They are incredible.
But we can hope in the Lord because first of all, he made it all. He made everything. It says here, “By the word of the Lord and by the breath of his mouth, all their hosts.” He spoke and it came to be. He spoke it into existence. It makes me think of the creation account that we find in Genesis, right? And I’ll read just one of those verses from chapter 1:3. And God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. I don’t know if you’d consider that the first fireworks show, but God came up with it.

I was talking last hour, and there are some really incredibly intelligent people. They’re really smart folks on this earth, and they have created all kinds of different things from the existence of our country and even long before that. But all those people created something from something. I only know I think it’s only God who has the ability to create something from nothing, and not just with his hands, but rather he spoke it into existence. That’s a pretty incredible thing. That’s the God we praise. That’s the God we serve. That’s the God this psalm is talking about.

I love how he says, “The breath of his mouth, all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap. He puts the deeps in storehouses.” Of course, it’s referring to how when God created the water and set boundaries up for it and said to the sea, you can only come this far. But at the same time, God has the ability to do as he pleases with it. And I think of the ocean, right? How beautiful it is during the daytime. My wife sent me pictures of her last trip to the beach, and I was like, “Ah, it’s a perfect day.” And she sends a video, and you just hear the ocean. So fantastic. But then all of a sudden the sun goes down, and you look out at the ocean, and suddenly that beautiful ocean turns into mysterious and a bit frightening. Imagining yourself be out there. God gathers that up and says, “I have control over those things.” That’s the greatness of the Lord.

As we celebrate the 4th of July, we understand that our citizenship is much larger than the United States. The entire world has been created by God. Therefore, all nations are under God. And when I say that, please do not misinterpret that. I do not diminish the respect and the gratitude that I have to live in this great country. When I think about those who have served our country, when I think about those who are currently serving our country, I am humbled. And by saying humbled, I stand with deep awe and gratitude for those who have gone before us to allow us to live in this incredible place.
I went to the hospital. I had to pop in and see my dad this last week. He was there for just a couple days. Everything’s good. But as I was going up the elevator, I happened to walk in right about this lady walked in there, and she was working at the hospital, and I came straight from work and I happened to have on like khaki shorts and a green shirt, and she says, “Hey, are you in the military?” And I said, “No, sometimes I wish that I was in the military. I think those are pretty incredible people.” And she goes, “They are, they’re totally amazing.” And when I think about those who have served our country over the years, those who have given their time, those who have given much more than their time, when I think about the families who have spent countless hours praying and wondering where their loved ones are, I think about those who protect our towns, our law enforcement, I think about our firefighters. People who are a cut above. People who run towards the fire, towards the problem, towards the fight rather than away.

When I say that all nations are under God, it does not diminish the gratitude I have. If that is you, thank you for making our country what it is. What a privilege and what an honor it is to be a citizen of this place in which we live. Amen. We can get an amen on that.

The psalmist goes on, though. Let’s continue. Verses 10 to 12: “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.”
Listen, God made it all, and God is fully in control. He was in control during creation. He is still in control today. Nations and leaders can come up with all kinds of plans. That’s good, and it’s appropriate. It’s their job. It’s their role that God has established for them. But I will tell you, God’s plans always win out. He is the true king. He is the true leader.

The Bible says this in Romans 13:1: “Let everyone submit to the governing authority, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.” At times we may struggle and wrestle with this verse. But here’s the thing: God has allowed us to be under certain government institutions. He has established the leadership that takes place. What does that mean? It means we can obey these people and the institution of government that God has allowed to happen, so long as it does not contradict God’s word. And in those moments, we obey God rather than man.
And you may wonder when those things are. Just like I said, it’s when the issues are first biblical. Now, I’m not meaning preference. We have all kinds of preferences in life, don’t we? I’m talking about things that are biblical. In those moments, we obey the Lord rather than man. God is in control. He did not just kick everything off and say, “Let us have at it.”

The psalmist goes on to say, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Of course, the psalmist, he is an Israelite, and he’s speaking of the nation of Israel. He’s saying this is a blessed nation because God chose them. It wasn’t because of who they are. It was because of who God is, so that God’s wonders, God’s miracles, God’s salvation might be displayed and shared with all the nations of the world.

But I think about those nations who have the opportunity to follow the Lord and serve the Lord. There are nations who repent of their sin. Nations who say, “God, we are going to follow you.” Even nations who may not be following the Lord at all. I think of the city of Nineveh, and of course, that’s from the book of Jonah. Jonah, the guy who got swallowed by a fish. And then later he goes and talks to the city of Nineveh and says, “God is going to bring judgment.” And what do they do? They repent of their sin. And God relents.

We have opportunity to follow the Lord, to serve him. 250 years of our country, that’s a lot of generations. And this psalmist says, you know, God, God sometimes frustrates the plan of the nations, but the counsel of the Lord stands forever. Meaning, people are fleeting. One group of people may say, “This is important.” And then the next group of people might come along and say, “No, this is important.” God’s plans never change. God’s in control. He made it all. He’s in control.
But then it goes on in verses 13 to 15: “The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man from where he sits enthroned. He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.” When I first read that, when I used to, I used to envision God sitting up there on a throne with a clipboard, you know, or like the building inspector when we have a permit at the job site, and the building inspector comes, and we all just like hide. That’s not how God is.

And I’ll share with you why. Verse 15: “He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.” Listen, God made it all, God’s in control, but God is still involved. He sees what’s going on. He knows what’s happening. And in the last point, in saying that God is in control, I mean that he has the power to direct. But in saying that God is involved, I mean he has a stake in the process. He is deeply concerned what is taking place.

And that’s why I love this aspect when it says he fashions the hearts of them all. I’ve said this before, and forgive me if you’re hearing it again. I’m turning into my dad, saying the same thing often. It said God made you just the way he wanted to. And all your great attributes and in all the attributes you think that are not great. That doesn’t mean you are perfect. No, it means God made you just the way he wanted to. He fashions the hearts of them all. The other psalm talks about how he woove us together. He knit us together to be who we are. And this brings great hope to me because I don’t know every person. I don’t know the people who are making high and lofty decisions for our country. Yes, we’re to pray for them as God says so. I don’t know all the people that you interact with. I don’t know the people that I’m going to rub shoulders with every single day. But God fashioned the hearts of them all. God knows them. And God is deeply involved in their lives and he’s deeply involved in my life.

Isn’t that good to know? Like there’s something to understand. And when someone told me this one time, I was like, “Man, that makes a lot of sense. God has been working long before you took your first breath. God’s been working as you breathe in and out in your life. And after you take your last breath, guess what? God’s still going to be working. He has a plan. He is in control. He is deeply involved not just in your life but in the lives of other people you come in contact with.
And that means I can love people for who God created them to be and who they are as people as individuals who have parents, who have kids, who have brothers and sisters. That allows me to see people that way, not as what political party they’re affiliated with, not who they voted for, not their stance on certain policies. It allows me to care for people because God made them. God made me.

And this gets back to the point of the “so what” of this psalm and today: We are to place our hope in the Lord. We celebrate who God is. And by hope, I mean you have full confidence that God is going to bring about his will and his purpose in your life and the life of our country and the life of this world.

I said a little bit ago that these psalms save my life. And by reading the Psalms, it allowed me to understand what it really means to place my hope in him. And by hope, I don’t mean placing my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I had done that a long time ago when I was a junior in high school, and my salvation was secure. But the nature of my life, the habits that I have learned up to that point of my life, took a long time to change. A long time to change.
You see what’s funny is, and my wife was like, “Babe, I think it’s funny you’re teaching on Fourth of July.” I was like, “I think it’s really funny, too.” I wasn’t serious when I said that, but about eight years ago on a Fourth of July weekend, my life kind of, I guess you can say, exploded. My wife says imploded, but I’m going to say exploded because it seems more appropriate today.

You see, up until eight years ago, I had learned to live a life of fear, even understanding salvation and that Jesus has saved me. For some reason, I began to believe the lie that living a life of secrecy instead of being found out—or excuse me, living a life of secrecy was better than being found out. And that had much to do because I was afraid. I was afraid that people would leave. I was afraid that people would find out that I don’t have my life altogether. I was afraid that people would think less of me. And all of these things that followed me around my whole life kind of came to a head that Fourth of July week eight years ago.

And what was a simple conversation, a simple question from my wife when I walked through the door one day. She said, “Hey, what’s this charge on our card?” And that simple little question, when I could have just said to her, “Oh, babe, I’ve been having a difficult time just paying all the bills and making sure that we have everything taken care of, so I had to use the card to pay for this.” Instead of that, I said, “I don’t know. I don’t know what that’s from.” And it’s not like the kids could have done it. There’s only two of us. And from that little string that she tugged on, God continued to pull harder and harder so that all the areas in my life where I have sought and looked after to find reprieve from the fear that I was running from all my life and being found out all of a sudden just became tumbling out.

And at that point in my life, I was hopeless. Of course, these are not things that we hadn’t dealt with in life before and in our marriage. Countless times we have dealt with similar issues, but this is the first time where my life wife was like, “Hey, something’s got to change. You repeat the same thing over and over and over.” What do they call that? Insanity. And so all of a sudden, the person that I looked to, who I could find comfort in, who I could have difficult conversations with, even though it was veiled because of this fear that I had of being found out, that was not there.

And so I found myself at a place saying, “God, I don’t know where to turn. I don’t know where to go.” And God said, “You know what? I have a place where you can go.” And so God said, “I want you to start attending CR, Celebrate Recovery here at this church.” And all of a sudden, I heard God saying, “I want you to start being in the Psalms.” And suddenly, as I read the Psalms, I was like, “Oh my gosh, it’s like I’m talking right now.” And someone else has shared the same things. There are times in the Psalms when it says, “How long, oh Lord?” And I can’t tell you how many weeks and months I thought, “How long, oh Lord, till this gets corrected?”

Listen to the last part of this Psalm 33. It says, “Behold the eye of the Lord,” or, “Excuse me, verse 16: The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength.” How many times in life have I thought I just got to try harder, got to do, got to do more. If I work hard enough, then I can stop living this way. Going to bed at night, how many times? Tomorrow is going to be different. And waking up the next day and it being exactly the same. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. Only God can deliver us from those things. The warhorse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. The latest, greatest cannot save us, cannot overcome sometimes the sin and the dysfunction that’s in our life. Only God can do that.

“Behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love.” For the first time in my life—not for the first time, but for the time eight years ago—I had to look up when there was nowhere else to look. It was like God was saying, “Hey, Ben, look up. Hope is found only in me. Not by your might, not by your strength, not by the latest, greatest. Hope is only found in me, and my steadfast love that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.”

Some of us may be at a point in life when we’re like, “God, what are you doing in this situation in my life? How long do I have to keep wondering? How long do I have to keep waiting?” We may feel like we’re in a famine waiting for God to move and to act. He’s moving. He’s working.

Listen to the next part: “Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.” And this speaks of a little bit of tension in waiting for the Lord. God is always right on time in his working. He’s never late. He’s never early. He’s always right on time. Our response is to wait for him. Doesn’t mean it’s easy. Doesn’t mean it’s easy. He is our help and he is our shield. He is going to defend us when defense needs to happen. He is going to help us advance when we need to move forward. For our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name.

My heart was glad in the Lord because finally I was at a point to where there were no more secrets, to where I was fully known by the Lord and fully known by others. I don’t know where you are. Maybe you find yourself in a similar spot. Maybe not. Sometimes we need to stop believing the lie that it’s better to live a life of secrecy, to live in bondage of sin rather than experience the joy and the freedom that comes of being fully known by the Lord, being able to be honest with other people. But it begins by placing our hope in the Lord. We trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us even as we hope in you.

And we live in a great place. And we should celebrate the fact that we get to live here. But it cannot rest there. It must extend to the heavens because hope can only be found in the Lord—lasting hope that never fades, that continues from this life to the next.

So on this July 4th weekend, let me encourage you, let me challenge you to place your hope in the Lord. And maybe as you go home with your family and your friends, you may be able to share with them, “This is how I need to place my hope in the Lord today.” Maybe it’s for the first time. Maybe you don’t understand and know who Jesus is. You’ve never experienced the joy of placing your hope in him as your Lord and Savior. It begins by saying, “God, to the best of my ability right now, I believe that you’re God and I’m not.” And the Bible talks about how Jesus died on the cross for my sins and was buried in a tomb and then rose three days later so that I might have life and have it to the full. Lord, I don’t fully understand it, but to the best of my ability right now, I believe that. Would you make me the person you want me to be? And share that with someone if that’s your desire.

We have the prayer room over here. And if you’d like prayer regarding anything that we’ve talked about or maybe that God’s bringing upon your heart today, don’t be in too much of a hurry to leave, but ask someone to share with you a little bit deeper here’s what it means to trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
All right, let me pray for us and we’ll get out of here. Is that okay?

Lord, thank you for who you are. Thank you for saving my life. Thank you for the Psalms and the hope that they bring in our life. And Lord, I pray for those who are here today that you would encourage them, that you would challenge them, that you would allow them to find safe harbor in who you are. Protect them, keep watch over them this week. We love you, Lord, and we thank you. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.