Sermon notes for 11/13/2005
Will the Dust Praise You?
Introduction:
Dust is anything smaller than one sixteenth of a millimeter in diameter. Dust is smaller that the width of a human hair. Dust can be made up of many things- dirt, pollen grains, tire rubber, salt, skin flakes, or bits of comets and asteroids. The dust from outer space that comes into our atmosphere is called cosmic dust.
Dust may be small, but its impact is very visible. When the sun is low in the sky, its rays hit dust particles at an angle. This creates the sunset colors we see. The sky colors change as the sun moves, striking the particles at new angles. The same thing occurs at sunrise, because the sun is low in the sky then as well.
The more dust, the more colorful the sunsets and sunrises. When volcanoes erupt or forest fires burn, they send a lot of ash and soot into the air. This ash dust makes sunsets colorful for a long time, until the dust settles. These colorful sunsets can occur hundreds, even thousands of miles from the fires or eruptions. That is because dust travels.
Dust not only travels, it lasts. It can stay in the air for hundreds of years.
Dust not only helps create beautiful sunsets, it helps create rain. Water that evaporates rises up into the sky as water vapor. It condenses by attaching to dust particles. Each raindrop needs a piece of dust to form.
WBTU:
A. For today, I want us to look at one question that David asks about dust. Read Psalm 30:8-10. “Will the dust praise you?”
B. The creation gives glory to the Lord. (Psa 19:1 NIV) The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psa 19:2 NIV) Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. (Psa 19:3 NIV) There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
C. The Lord made the dust and the dust gives glory to the Lord. Here David is talking specifically about praising the Lord. Praising is usually associated with using the mouth and voice to offer admiration and commendation. One common way of praising God is through singing.
D. From the context here we see that David is really talking about himself. His question really applies to all of mankind.
Thesis: Will the Dust Praise You? Let’s talk about this question and how it relates to all mankind.
For instances:
1. We were created from dust.
A. (Gen 2:7 NIV) the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
B. Mankind is made up of three parts: body, soul and spirit. (1 Th 5:23 NIV) May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mankind is more than just dust, the body, but everything that is flesh is dust.
C. (Gen 18:27 NIV) Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
D. While we move around our houses, we give off dust. Let me explain. The skin is often known as the largest organ in the human body; this applies to exterior surface, as it covers the body. It is also the heaviest organ, accounting for about 15 % of body weight. For the average adult, the skin has a surface area of between 1.5 to 2 square meters.
E. A snake regularly sheds its skin and we see the remains. We do something similar. Dead skin cells are being released all of the time by our bodies. They are constantly being replaced by more cells. This happens all of the time in our bodies. The dust which collects in our houses is composed of half atmospheric dust and half dead skin cells from our bodies. When we dust our houses or beat the couch and watch all of the dust come up, we are really observing our dead skin cells combined with other granules. This is why we have to regularly dust our houses because our dead skin cells are piling up around us. Some times people with asthma or allergies have a hard time with dust mites. Dust mites feed on the organic components (dead skin cells) of house dust. Their feces become part of house dust and can provoke bad reactions in humans.
C. This dust, our bodies, was originally designed to live forever. The dust in our bodies would never go back to its original form. However,…
2. We will go back to dust
A. Because Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which the Lord told them not to eat of our bodies will go back to dust.
B. (Gen 3:19 NIV) By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
E. (Psa 22:15 NIV) My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
G. (Eccl 3:20 NIV) All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
C. If someone were to find a long dead body, they usually only find the bones. The rest of the body has turned back into dust. Under the right conditions even the bones return to dust.
F. In the Old Testament, they did not have a clear understanding about what happens at death. Not that all of our questions are answered but the New Testament makes it much clearer. In the Old Testament, they had the concept of Sheol, the place of the dead. (Eccl 12:7 NIV) and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
G. This is all they knew was that their spirits would go to Sheol. This was not paradise or heaven; it was just a place where the spirit/ soul would go when it left the body. The Old Testament writers had several questions about this:
1. Psalm 30:9 is one of those places.
2. (Psa 88:10 NIV) Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you? (Psa 88:11 NIV) Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? (Psa 88:12 NIV) Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
2. (Job 14:7 NIV) "At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.(Job 14:8 NIV) Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil,(Job 14:9 NIV) yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.(Job 14:10 NIV) But man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.(Job 14:11 NIV) As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,(Job 14:12 NIV) so man lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep.(Job 14:13 NIV) "If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me! (Job 14:14 NIV) If a man dies, will he live again?
Transition:
A. Peter, quoting from Psalm 16, another Psalm of David, said on the day of Pentecost: (Acts 2:27 NIV) because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.(Acts 2:28 NIV) You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’(Acts 2:29 NIV) "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.(Acts 2:30 NIV) But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.(Acts 2:31 NIV) Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.(Acts 2:32 NIV) God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
B. (1 Cor 15:47 NIV) The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.(1 Cor 15:48 NIV) As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.(1 Cor 15:49 NIV) And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.(1 Cor 15:50 NIV) I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.(1 Cor 15:51 NIV) Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--(1 Cor 15:52 NIV) in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Cor 15:53 NIV) For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. (1 Cor 15:54 NIV) When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."(1 Cor 15:55 NIV) "Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?"(1 Cor 15:56 NIV) The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. (1 Cor 15:57 NIV) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
C. (1 Th 4:13 NIV) Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.(1 Th 4:14 NIV) We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.(1 Th 4:15 NIV) According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.(1 Th 4:16 NIV) For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.(1 Th 4:17 NIV) After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
3. One day our dust (our bodies) will give praise to God
A. The dust will praise, the dust will sing.
B. The prophets begin to answer the questions of the earlier writers in the OT: (Isa 26:19 NIV) But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You, who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.
C. WHEN DUST SHALL SING
As Performed by the Wilburns
Written by: Larry Petree
I stood beside the graveside of a loved one
Like planting seed to watch and wait for spring
That’s when He returns with all His power and glory
He’ll call for death to come to life and dust shall sing
When dust shall sing on resurrection morning
The saints will rise and let their voices ring
Those who remain will be changed in a moment
We’ll hear the shout and trumpet sound when dust shall sing
Since Jesus died the grave has lost its victory
And if you’re in Christ death has lost its sting
Christ conquered death so He’ll conduct the chorus
With voices raised and shouts of praise dust shall sing
When dust shall sing on resurrection morning
The saints will rise and let their voices ring
Those who remain will be changed in a moment
We’ll hear the shout and trumpet sound when dust shall sing
So what?
(Dan 12:2 NIV) Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.(Dan 12:3 NIV) Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
Invitation
