Ex 9:16, But, indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. 
We are in the process of seeing that the Lord rules and overrules in every detail concerning His Name’s sake as witnessed in the lives of His people. Those whom He chooses unto Himself, He keeps and holds and works for their good in accordance with all that will bring glory and honor to His name throughout all of His creation. This is the outworking of His so great love and essence of Holiness and Righteousness in operation.
We saw last time that God is no respecter of position or belief or any other human device to try to make Him do anything other than what is His own heart’s desire and eternal plan of operation. It matters not if the man is a king or a slave, whether that person acknowledges God or tries to dismiss God as nothing but a fable, God will have His way and His name will be manifested in the totality of His handiwork. This is evident in the fact that even the details of the release of the nation of Israel from slavery to Egypt is recounted and known by those who refuse to state that there is a God in Heaven. His name is irrevocably attached to the deeds of His deliverance despite the greatest efforts of mankind to deny Him. Just as Moses declared from God to Pharaoh, But, indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.
	We continue with the theme of God’s name being proclaimed through the working power of His might in picking up with the prayer of David when Nathan the prophet declared the heart of God to bless David’s house forever and forever in 2 Sam 7:21-26. If you would please open to it, 2 Sam 7:21-26. "For the sake of Thy word, and according to Thine own heart, Thou hast done all this greatness to let Thy servant know. For this reason Thou art great, O Lord God; for there is none like Thee, and there is no God besides Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And what one nation on the earth is like Thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do a great thing for Thee and awesome things for Thy land, before Thy people whom Thou hast redeemed for Thyself from Egypt, from nations and their gods? "For Thou hast established for Thyself Thy people Israel as Thine own people forever, and Thou, O Lord, hast become their God. Now therefore, O Lord God, the word that Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant and his house, confirm it forever, and do as Thou hast spoken, that Thy name may be magnified forever, by saying,' The Lord of hosts is God over Israel'; and may the house of Thy servant David be established before Thee. 
	We know for a certainty that David’s heritage is carried forth through Jesus Christ as the eternal King of Heaven and Earth. This everlasting Kingship is not just for the nation of Israel, but for all those who will call upon His name and be delivered from the grip of death and sin now and evermore. Especially in this, we give God all praise and honor and adoration in line with David’s proclamation of the goodness and the grace and the lovingkindness and the awesomeness of God. We echo his declaration of the fact that the Lord God Almighty would so regard man as to do this in the Omnipotence and the Omniscience and the so comforting safety of His Omnipresence. 
	This very thought of the mighty working of God to manifest Himself and His glory and His magnificence unto such as we caused David to write that psalm with which we have often joined in the past, Ps 8. Please turn to it. Ps 8. As we read it together, let the fact of the mighty hand of God in operation in your life and in my life become more and more clarified in the heart of praise that we offer up to the Lord God Almighty. 
Ps 8, O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth, Who hast displayed Thy splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes Thou hast established strength, Because of Thine adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him? Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God, And dost crown him with glory and majesty! Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth! 
	We are to be fully overwhelmed with the knowledge that God would so magnificently show forth His love unto us, His created beings. As a direct result, there should be a great and effective devotion unto the very essence of God welling up within our hearts with all gratitude and praise and worship that cannot even find expression within the limited confines of human language. We should be utterly dumbfounded that God would take even a minute consideration of those to whom He gave the very breath of life, and yet who so utterly rejected Him in our sin and trespass. But this did not prevent the heart of God from displaying His Forgiveness and His Mercy and His Grace in His salvation of us. He did this through the full outpouring of His Justice and His Holiness upon the very head of His Beloved and Only Begotten Son for you and for me. 
	Again we join with the chorus as recorded in 1 Chron 16:23-31 if you would turn to it so we can share it together. 1 Chron 16:23-31, Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him; Worship the Lord in holy array. Tremble before Him, all the earth; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; And let them say among the nations, "The Lord reigns." Amen.
	Do we ever just lose ourselves in the consideration of the One to Whom all praise and adoration and honor and glory is due? Sometimes, it seems, we find ourselves seated in worship, not concentrating on Him so much as upon ourselves and our problems and our plans and our resentment of others and our frustration with the course of how things are playing out in our lives. 
We are so focused on what is wrong and troubling that we fail to recognize that we are in the presence of the Majesty and the Splendor of the One by Whom everything has been brought into place. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him; Worship the Lord in holy array.
	It is no small thing to come together and to join in the chorus of the glory and the greatness and the magnificence of our God. It is not something that is to be done as a habit or as a doctrine or to avoid punishment or to show our own level of spirituality. None of these things are a part of truly bringing to God the very best of our hearts and minds in thanksgiving and reverence and tribute and respect unto Him for the declaration of His strength and His majesty and His power in our deliverance unto His name’s sake. 
	Just as with the fact that God kept Pharaoh in place in order to show forth His Omnipotence in the deliverance of His people, thus making His Name to be known throughout all the world, so does our every time of gathering together in worship bring forth more evidence of God’s power infused into His creation. You see, we are the ones who have been delivered by the power of God in Jesus Christ. It is in our lives that the world sees the working might of God on display as living exhibits of what God can do in such as you and me. In this reality, then, our times of worship are to reflect all the joy and the adoration and the thankfulness of being redeemed by Him from sin and death. This is a serious and eternal matter that must never be taken with casual disregard of the One unto Whom we bring our offerings of tribute and devotion and adulation.  
        What we practice together on this earth, each Sunday morning, is just a precursor to that which is recorded in Rev 5:9-14, if you would follow along as we read it together. It is just as vital and imperative this very day, as a witness to this present age in such turmoil and strife and in utter need of salvation, as it will be on that day when we will all be gathered together around His glorious throne. We should bring our praises unto Him in our hearts and minds and voices and thoughts as fully now as we will then. 
Rev 5:9-14, And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped. 
	We are the living testimony, even to the angelic hosts, of the power of God in action throughout the whole of His creation. We must never take for granted the so great power of God that was absolutely displayed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is that salvation, declaring the mighty and awesome Name of God, which echoes in the every recess of our beings for His glory to be declared even to the angelic hosts who seek to know all that God has done. 1 Peter 1:10-13, As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look. Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 
	It will be on account of what God has done for us that the angelic hosts will be declaring the grace and the mercy and the majesty and the glory of God alongside us for all the eternal ages to come. Rev 7:9-12, After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen." 
	The Psalmist was shown this truth that all of creation would declare the praise and the honor and the glory of God. Please open to Ps 148 as our further encouragement to worship God in the totality of the full splendor that He is due!
	Ps 148, Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, For He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, Sea monsters and all deeps; Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling His word; Mountains and all hills; Fruit trees and all cedars; Beasts and all cattle; Creeping things and winged fowl; Kings of the earth and all peoples; Princes and all judges of the earth; Both young men and virgins; Old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above earth and heaven. And He has lifted up a horn for His people, Praise for all His godly ones; Even for the sons of Israel, a people near to Him. Praise the Lord! Amen!
Let us ask the Lord to make known to us, in our salvation, the glory of His name. We pray that we will express that glory and praise and adoration unto Him with commitment and reverence and thanksgiving as we declare His name in all the earth. So be it!
	But, indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Jer 33:10+11. "Thus says the Lord, 'Yet again there shall be heard in this place, of which you say," It is a waste, without man and without beast, "that is, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, "Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting"; and of those who bring a thank offering into the house of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first, 'says the Lord. Amen.