How Majestic is Your Name

What follows is a transcript of Pastor Gina’s message from our Sunday morning gathering. We share these messages on our blog for those who appreciate the opportunity to read the sermon again—whether for deeper reflection, personal study, or a quieter moment of prayer and introspection. As you read, we invite you to linger with the words, notice what resonates, and remain open to how God may be speaking to you through them.

A Message by Pastor Gina

Meaningful, but maybe they're not in the same place for us. You know, like an easy one might be like, you know, maybe I constantly volunteer or help in this organization, and I know I contribute, I know it's good, I know I love the people, but I don't feel myself growing in it anymore. So as Sandy was saying, as we get more seasoned, and maybe time is a little more limited, how can I find the things that are really calling me so that the things I'm doing are serving me as I'm serving others? And thank you, Omi, for sharing, and yeah, just ponder, you don't have to share it with me, but share it with your loved ones, share it, you know, journal it, but just as you're going into this new year, I like to encourage people, write a letter to yourself, you know, and read it next year, read it at the end of the year, and just see, and it's amazing.

And if you have a journal, you know, another good thing to do at the beginning of the year is go and read some of your entries, not just from a year ago, but from a few times back, and it's absolutely amazing to see how the Lord has moved in your life, how through all those days where you thought, how am I gonna get through this, here we are now. So I just invite you all, as we are entering into this beautiful year of 2026, to find your beauty, to find the thing that's calling you, and to release those things without guilt or shame, that it's time to say thank you, you served your purpose, now let's move on. So today in our message, I'm gonna be preaching from Psalm 28, and I don't normally preach on the Psalms.

I've always had this sort of feeling towards the Psalms, as you know, they're one, they're almost like, sometimes a lament, or a joyful expression that seems very private sometimes, almost like a love letter to God. I know there are times in my life where some of King David's best Psalms were like meditative for my soul, and it was just like having a healing salve to read about these psalmists, who too are in this like, oh, why are we like this? But then there's those other Psalms that are just so beautiful, and so full of life, and inspiration that it feels a little bit interesting at times to think about a whole message around that. But I thought, here we are, in the newness of the year, and coming back together after a busy holiday season, let's be in the glory of Psalm 8. And so it goes, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants, you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels, and crowned them with glory and honor.

You made them rulers over the works of your hands. You put everything under their feet, all flocks and herds and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea, all that swim in the seas. Lord, oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.

Just sit with that for a moment. Lord, oh Lord, how, ask that question, how majestic is your name in all the earth? You know, the Psalmist David, he opens up here with a proclamation of how majestic the Lord is. He's basically stating how amazing God is.

And it's interesting because, you know, we praise God, we sing songs to God, essentially church is all about God. You know, if we're running late, we make it on time, we're like, thank God. If we're having a really tough day, it's like, yeah, I need to go talk to God.

And it just makes me laugh sometimes because I know none of us like minimize God or, you know, make God less infinite. And I know we don't take God for granted. And at the same time, we kind of have come to rely on God, this staple.

Kendrick, do you want me to do something different? Okay, sorry, folks. And so, you know, I think about that a lot because, you know, it's like, so unless I get to be home for a consistent amount of time, there is not a day, oh, actually here, we'll go with this one. This one is more relatable, maybe a little inappropriate, but there's never a day I don't wear underwear, okay? I mean, it's just the facts.

Every day we put on our underwear. If it's not the same for you guys, that's awesome. Way to go, commando.

That's your deal, not mine. But there's always a purpose if I'm not wearing underwear called like showering, using the bathroom, changing clothes. Okay, that's all we're gonna talk about Gina and her underwear wearing today.

But the thing is, like, I don't thank my underwear. I should, you know, I should be like, gosh, God, thank you, you've held it together for me. But the thing is we have that every day, right? You know, there are certain things we have, certain things we do, certain things we wear, certain things we see every day that maybe we're not running around singing songs about and giving praise for, but if all of a sudden it was gone, boy, how majestic would you be for the loom, right? And so that's the thing is like sometimes I think we forget who God is because with our own words, we actually can't sum up God.

You know, each of us could stand up and tell 10 things that have happened in this past year that we know were the hand of God in action and they make us smile and they make us cheer and they make us laugh and we are so grateful. And even all of that fruit, even all of that sharing, even all of those smiles and joy would not even begin to touch the amazingness of God. And that's what I wanna do this morning.

As we go through this psalm and we remember who God is, I hope in it, you hear who you are and you hear the confidence of who you are in Christ as you're walking into this next year. So as the psalm begins, David starts off saying, Lord, oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? And if you study the Bible at all, you'll notice in some places, you'll find the word Lord with a lowercase L and then you'll see it with a capital L. And right there, I think without too much explanation, that explains, you know, there's Lords, but then there is our Lord. And when you listen to this, if you go back to the original Hebrew, David is saying, Yahweh, our master.

He's recognizing God as our master. He's saying, you're great and you're glorious. And nowhere, nowhere on the face of the earth or in creation is that not visible.

In fact, nowhere in heaven, right? That concept of heaven, which is the kingdom of heaven within us, is that not visible. God and all of his gloriousness and all of the source's gloriousness goes beyond what we can comprehend and understand. And we can't comprehend that greatness.

So all we can do is try our best. You know, is there something in your life that you really hold in just like the highest honor? Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's a relationship you have with one of your family members.

Maybe it's a mentor or someone who has been in your life and has just left such a lasting impact that you have those moments where you're like, I'm just so thankful that I know this person. And you can look back and see all they've done for you. For quite some time, that was hands down my dad.

Like there's no way I could ever think about my dad without just recognizing how much he took me through, held my hand through, put up with me through. And through all of that, he was a beacon and a pillar of strength. And it meant so much to me.

Well, when I think about my dad and I think about some of the phone calls we used to have, he would always bring himself down a notch and remind me that God is far greater than anything I could ever imagine or fathom. And that's why it says in the Psalm, it says that children and infants are singing your praise. It's saying that the foe has been silenced and the enemies, they don't have any hold.

That's how powerful God is. And so you have to ask yourself, do I believe that? Because what are your enemies? Are they a diagnosis? Are they a broken relationship in your family that you haven't been able to heal? Are they watching certain things that you have planned for slowly start to break apart? What are your enemies? Where are those places in your life that you find yourself creating this monster that's holding you down, that's attacking you. Instead of trusting that when David says you have established a stronghold against your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger.

You know, another place in the Bible is that if God is for us, who can stand against us? Your enemies have no hold. And if you say, well, Pastor Gina, I don't know if that's true. I still have to go have that doctor's appointment.

I still have to start these new medications. I still have to wait and see the results. I'm still gonna have to go through this treatment.

That's right. But you can either make that your enemy or you can recognize that with God beside you, there is nothing that's gonna come at you in this life that you will not be able to navigate through with wholeness. And if you're trying to paint yourself some kind of like a lofty picture, well, does that mean I'm gonna live forever? And does that mean that I'm gonna have the best health and all my kids are gonna prosper and my grandchildren? It can, it can mean that.

But you know, it's funny, the moment we take the time to ask, well, okay, if God is bigger than all of this, if God is silenced on my foes and enemies and that cancer or that thing we haven't identified or those bills or that relationship, if none of those things are gonna hold me back, then why do things still look and feel this way? Well, you know what I think? I think when we take the time to ask that question of why, I think when we take the time to push back and say, God, if you're so majestic, why are things like this? And maybe we don't say it that way, but don't tell me that in the moments of your challenges and trials, you haven't had that moment of being like, I am faithful, I'm solid, I'm not the person I used to be in God, why is it still like this? And you know, I don't know as in I can speak directly for God, but as a child of God, as a person just like you who's been navigating this life, I would say the minute you ask that question, then you have already missed the boat. You have already put before you your lack of faith versus your faith. You know, instead of going to God and saying, this is what's going on.

And you can be honest, right? Because there's nothing you can't take to God and say, you know, God, I'm really concerned. I've been having this sort of pain. And this is not true, by the way, I'm just giving you guys an example.

I'm very honest with you when something's going on with me. But to say, oh, you know, this has been coming up over and over again, and I'm scared, God, why is this happening? Why after all I've done? You're not even talking about the pain. Now you're on some search for what is God doing to you? Why is he abandoning me in this time? Or why is he putting me through this trial? And that's not how God works.

And so as you look around and you take stock in your enemies, maybe there's been a new transition in your life, and I won't use the word enemies, I'll go with challenges. I'll go with challenges. You take stock in your challenges.

As you take stock in the things that are coming up against you, what do I always encourage you guys? Rely on those things to become teachers, to become lessons in your life, to become an opportunity to say, you know what? This is sitting right in front of me. But how can I be like David? How can I sing praises like the infants? How can I calmly and confidently say, no, these things don't have hold on me. So if I gotta walk with you, cancer, let's get walking.

Let's see who lasts longer. It'll be me, not you. Oh, I gotta go through this time of working a lot, feeling like I'm on my own, trying to find these answers, and they're elusive, they keep slipping through my hands.

Well, great, keep trying. Maybe invite someone in to walk alongside of you. You know, it's funny, as I was writing my message and I was thinking about some of the examples I use, and you guys know I don't like to get in the whole aging thing, but as I was thinking about some examples, I was like, man, I remember when I used to name television shows from like when I was a kid, and you guys would get it, but people out there who were younger would still look at me like, what show is that? Where did that come from? You know, so I changed it up as I had children, you know? And whenever I think of God, I think of, and I'm not gonna use this one again, so let's write this one down.

I think of Buzz Lightyear. So, okay, well, good, I'm glad to see some head nods, because you know what? It's funny to see some seasoned members nod their heads and know who Buzz Lightyear, I'm gonna take that's because of grandchildren and so on and so forth, but sadly, I bet there are like teenagers out there who are like, oh, Buzz Lightyear? Like, what? You know, because Buzz Lightyear is where now? But the reason I'm telling you that is because that's the infiniteness of God. You know, it goes beyond time, it goes beyond space.

And when we continue on in this psalm, when you get down to verse four, this is the part where I really feel the connection to my heart cry. If you read the psalm itself, it says, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care from them? And you know, there's a song by a group called Mercy Me, and the way he puts it, the song is called, it's God with us, but he says, who are we that you would be mindful of us? What do you see that keeps you looking our way? And you know, that's really a powerful statement to me when I think about this psalm, because that just reminds me of like, man, do you see the vastness of what God created? Do you see all that is around us as we go through the year, especially those of you who have been in farming, and you see the seasons change, and like clockwork, things are planted, things grow, things are planted, things grow, and we just go over and over in that time. Or even, you know, it's funny, it's like people walk in here, and I like to see what they're wearing, and I see how they're doing, and you start to quantify all of that just in this little setting of what do we have in here? Like 35, 40 people? You know, God is doing so much as you get in your car, look at that view, go, well, you know, God didn't invent cars, right, right.

Okay, but where does that knowledge come from? Where does technology come from? Those of you who will leave here today and go sit at a restaurant, and eat foods that may not even be available locally, but they're here, foods you don't even know how to cook or prepare, but you get to have them. And all of these things may sound really simple. You know, like, what are you doing, Gina? Giving us a message on what to be thankful for? Sure, but what I'm really trying to do is draw your attention, do you recognize how important you are to God's creation? Do you recognize if you just turn on a television, pull up your phone, look outside, all that we have been given, and we are held higher than all of it.

We are more important than all of it. All of it has been given to us, to steward, to use for our growth, to use for our remembrance, to love and serve the community. That's what we've been given all of this for.

And it's so easy to get caught up in our movement of life that we forget how majestic God is. We forget how infinite God is, how God is seen in everything. And we forget how valuable we are to the story of creation.

You know, I think it's easy, and I don't know because I'm not there, but from my hallucination is, you know, as you get older, your focus is everything that's in that realm of your life. As you are a parent raising children in the home, your focus is on everything there. As you are a young man in school, your focus is on there, your friends and things of that nature.

And I think it's easy that when we are caught up in that, that it just becomes routine. It just becomes motions we go through, very similar to what Sandy was saying. But it's so much more than that.

Our world in the whole scheme of things is so small when you hold it up against the vastness of all that we've been given. And I'm humbled. I am humbled by what is at my disposal, what I'm able to partake of, and what I'm able to share with others.

And I say that you should be too. I think it's beautiful that God, the creator, who's made the heavens and earth and filled it and continues to do so, would make us just a little lower than the angels and crown us with glory and honor. You know, how quick would you be to stand up and say, I'm crowned with glory and honor, and this is why, and this is who I am.

Well, I'd like to say that we wouldn't jump up and say that because we don't wanna seem prideful. We don't wanna seem arrogant. We don't wanna seem as if we consider ourselves higher than things around us.

But the truth is, I think a lot of us don't jump up and say that because we don't even feel that in our beingness. We don't even feel worthy of that. We don't even feel as though we can deserve that.

But that's the truth. The truth is you were created in God's image. Do you understand the significance of that? How can you truly take in that we are created in God's image, that we are an extension of God, and let anything drag you down for more than just a moment? And I'll tell you what, if something keeps showing up that causes you to put Psalm 8 over here and put God in a little box over here and put yourself over here, then I want you to express it.

Talk to somebody because there's so much more in the life than that. You know, December, because of the, well, November, December, January, February, because of the weather, because of the positioning of the sun and the moon and the earth and all those things, we get winter. We get a lot darker days.

We get deprived our vitamin D. We don't get to see each other like we used to. We get plans canceled. And I hate to say it, but I said it a few weeks back, and it's a time of year where we seem to experience a lot of death, a lot of transition.

And so it's easy for everyone to get the prescription of winter blues, depression. It's the time to feel that, this time of year. Well, I say, let's not feel that this time of year.

Let's look at everything that we have moved through, and then let's think on a much larger scale and recognize that God has given us abundance because he loves us. And as he's gonna continue, as Alan said, good doors and doors with stuff behind it that we don't actually want. Well, guess what? There are so many doors, and they're ours for the opening.

And when we open the ones where there is something negative on the other side, well, we could slam it and run away and hope nobody else opens it. Or we could look into it with confidence and say, yeah, I think I've seen you before. Okay, I can't tackle you on my own.

I'm gonna go get some help, but we got this. Or you can look and say, whoa, this is brand new. But you know what? I know some elders in the church I can go to and say, hey, this is something I found behind the door.

Could you help me navigate it? I know a best friend I can call and say, hey, this is what I'm experiencing. Can you help me navigate it? But more than that, I know the source of all creation. I know the one that breathes life into me and to all those around me.

I know the one that has filled my life with two homes, an amazing family, a vehicle to get to and from work, a wonderful place to be in community, lots and lots of family. And I don't even think I got to like a 32nd of the amount of blessings in my life. That was hardly any of the amount of blessings in my life.

And so I'm telling you, as we are stepping forth and you're hearing this psalm and you're understanding, I hope you're understanding, that the greatness of God is everywhere. It's massive and it's huge. And one of the greatest masterpieces of it all is us.

And there's a scripture verse that says, he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. Well, he who began this amazing work in you, here he is still beside us and has given us everything we need. So what do we do with all of this? You know, you read a psalm and now you have this picture that wow, God is beyond our comprehension and he holds us right there beside him.

And he empowers us and he blesses us and he gives us abundance and here we are. But what are we supposed to do with all of this? Well, it's to take rightful ownership of who you are. You are children of God.

And if you look at those verses, verses six through eight, it says, you made them rulers over the works of your hands. You put everything under their feet. Everything is under their feet.

When God took Adam in the garden and he said, here's the garden for you to work and care for. And in the Hebrew, it means to serve and take care. It means to watch and to protect, to not to abuse or destroy.

We weren't called tyrants. We were called to be servants, servant leaders, stewards of all that is good. We're called to love the earth and we're called to love one another.

And when God puts things under our feet, he does not put people under our feet. There are not people under our feet. And in the world where sin and separation can distort our ability to see one another, can distort our ability to know how to live with one another, then we can thank God.

Because even with the sin and separation in the world, we have Christ Jesus who continues to be that teacher, who continues to be open to us. And so as I'm here with you this morning, I wanna just reemphasize that God has given us many gifts and we are to steward them, we are to use them reliably and responsibly, but then God has given us many gifts. And the gifts I'm talking about this time are the people around us.

And we are called to love them, we are called to nurture them. We're not called to change them or to pull them through or to push them into salvation and peace and understanding with us, but we're called to walk beside them, to love them unconditionally. And one of the greatest things that we can do for the people around us as we are serving God is to continue to grow ourselves.

Continue to put forth the best version of ourselves, living up to that label, children of God. So then we can model that, so then we can steward that, so then we can offer that to those around us. God has given us the gifts of our friends and our families, but remember, he's also given us the gifts of our strangers.

The one who's sick, the one who's suffering, the one who has everything and the one who's lacking. He has given us the gift to speak out against the hatred, but not by adding hatred, but by being vessels of love, vessels of peace and vessels of hope. And so I want you to ask yourselves, Lord, oh Lord, how majestic is your name? And when you answer that question with all of the beauty and the glory, apply it to yourself.

Because what God sees when God is looking on you is his child, is an extension of him, is an ambassador of Christ Jesus. And so humble yourselves with me and recognize and adore the majesty and the greatness of our God as we embark in this new year, this new season. Please pray with me.

Our most gracious and loving God, we are so grateful for all that you give us. We are grateful for your word. We are grateful for the teachers that you've put before us.

We're grateful for the communities that you set us in. We're grateful for the challenges and the opportunities to rise above them in the fullness of who we are. We are grateful for Christ Jesus, for the example that was walked and lived on this earth and continues to be present here and now.

We are grateful for what has passed and we are grateful for what's to come. And as we embark into this 2026, we take a moment and we remember those who have gone before us and have laid a path. And we take a moment and we say thank you for all that's to come and all that's to be revealed as we continue as the love and the peace and the grace of Christ Jesus.

It's in his most beautiful name we pray, amen.