My message this morning is entitled, "Praise the Lord". I think this is one of the subjects in the word of God that as we begin to worship God with all that we are becomes a part of our life. It's an important part of what God has designed for the believer.
Psalms 113 1-3 says, "Praise O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forever more, from the rising of the sun to its going down, the name of the Lord is to be praised".
Father, we do praise you this morning. Jesus, you've been better to us than we could ever be to ourselves. Lord as we come to this time in the word I pray that you would fill us with yourself. Lord, let this be a freeing word and let it be something that changes us forever. May we decrease and may you increase, in Jesus name, Amen.
Everyone likes to receive praise, there's not a person in this room that doesn't like to receive encouragement at one time or another. All of us love honor and recognition. As a matter of fact, for people it's a need. We need to be praised, we need to be affirmed. Praise and affirmation is like air to the soul. Every time someone comes up and pats you on the back it makes a big difference in your life. Husbands, I want to encourage you to just tell your wife how good they are. Ladies, tell your husbands how good they are, and parents, tell your kids. We should be telling someone something like that at least once a day. The truth is for every negative word that we say to somebody we should follow it up with at least 5 positive words of affirmation to help build them back up. It's true, as a parent every time I discipline my kids I need to make sure that they know that although I may have been disciplining them for the action they just did, that more than anything I love them very very much. How many of you are thankful that you have a savior who knows how to praise you and bless you day after day?
Praise helps people to grow just like food and water helps our bodies to grow. Praise helps us to grow and to be strong. The truth is that not only are we to give praise to others but we also need to praise the Lord. We were created to worship the creator. How many of you recognize that there is a God who is bigger than you are, and who can care for us better than we could ever care for ourselves? Men need to praise, not because God becomes bigger by our praise but because our praise to the Lord begins to feed us. If people don't praise God they will praise something. You notice here as we begin to worship God in the services you will see different expressions. People will lift their hands, they will fold their hands, they'll bow.
I remember one time being in a church service and a guy who was kind of a rocker had just been saved and one time the spirit moved him so much he pulled his lighter out of his pocket and was holding it up just giving praise to Jesus. The truth is this, we were created to praise. If you don't believe that you watch a live music video or you watch people in concert. They will praise, they lift their hands and shout because they were created to worship something. Man will find a way to fill that void, if they do not worship God they will worship something. But all of us were created to worship the Lord. Again I want to say this, our praise doesn't make God bigger because he doesn't need our help or our affirmation. He already knows who he is. How many know we serve a God who is secure in himself? We don't serve a God who has an ego problem or an inferiority complex, he's quite ok with who he is. It's when we begin to worship him and love on him that we also become ok with who he is and we become ok with who we are.
Praise is not just a song, praise is lifting God up and glorifying his name. It's expressing a confidence in who he is, for his love for us, for his goodness, for his kindness and his mercy, as we talk to people and express our day and begin to just thank God for what he's done, it begins to give the Lord glory. Praises for his past blessings gives confidence for the future blessings that God will give. I have found that it's important for me to give gratitude and to speak praise to the Lord even in the dark times. How many have found that life doesn't always go the way you hoped it would be? Praise isn't just giving God glory for who he is when everything is going just right, praise is giving glory to God even when things around us aren't good.
The truth is for the believer when that becomes a part of who they are, no matter what happens in your world or in the world we still know who God is. Right now the newscasters and everyone are just talking about doom and gloom. I like to be a news junkie but right now I even hate to read the paper because everyone is so negative. How many of you have a God who is faithful to you today?
I remember there was a time when I really learned this in the dark times. We used to walk alot when I was growing up. My mom had a car but as we were growing up we weren't a wealthy family and so there were many times we walked wherever we wanted to go. How many of you are thankful God gave you two good feet? Your kids should learn how to use them, it's a good thing. I lived in Pennsylvania, everywhere I went really was uphill both ways. We had all kinds of shortcuts, we would walk about a mile to school and we had about ½ mile to walk to the grocery store. There were times Mom would send us out for milk and I remember one day in the fall, there was a shortcut we would always take half way there. If we went the long way there were street lights and the road but if we cut through this one wooded section through two yards, we made this wonderful path. People never bothered us because we never bothered them.
I remember one day I went to get a gallon of milk and it was a little bit cold outside and I took the shortcut down to the store. When I came home I realized it was getting a little dark and chilly and I figured if I took the long way I'd freeze. I thought if I took the shortcut I could cut at least 10 minutes off my trip so I cut through the woods but it had turned dark, no full moon just a dark cloudy Pennsylvania night. As I started up through the woods, although I knew the path really well I was scared out of my mind. If I went backwards I was still going to have to go just as far in the dark so I just kept going. Pretty soon I felt this fear grip me and God said, "Just praise me, you know who I am". How many of you are thankful that the Lord walks with you and talks with you wherever you go? So as I was walking through that dark woods I just began to praise the Lord, "Jesus, I thank you that you're God, no weapon formed against me shall prosper". As soon as I said that I ran into a tree branch and it freaked me out, glory to God. Pretty soon as I began to praise the Lord and just bless his name I felt that fear begin to lift. God said, you had a choice, you could have stayed in that fear or you could declare who I am. I found pretty soon that instead of looking at every little shadow I began to walk with confidence as I praised him. Although it was just as dark in the woods I felt light in my spirit and soon I came out of the woods, I took 10 minutes off my trip and how many know I was thankful for the street light at the top of the yard? amen.
The truth is in my own life I've gone through those same types of dark times, financial situations, health situations, things that have been just as real and scary and I had a choice, I could stand in fear or I could bless the Lord. I have found just as I did when I was about 15 years old that if I would bless the Lord and praise him and love on Jesus even in these times that something began to change inside of me as I declared the faithfulness of who he is. You see, praising the Lord is not just a command but it's the privilege of every believer. It is the benefit that we have in every situation to recognize who he is and to begin to remind ourselves that he has never changed and he is never going to. He's the same yesterday, today and forever.
There are benefits to praise. I want to talk to you about why praising the Lord is important, why it should be a part of our everyday life. First of all, praise silences the devil, it shuts him up. Nothing silences the enemy quicker than praise will. How many of you have found when the enemy is talking fear and negativity into your mind, if you will begin to take your mind off of the enemy and the situation that you're in and put your mind on Jesus that pretty soon that fear begins to leave and it shuts him up. Psalms 8:1-2 says, "Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength because of your enemies that you may silence the enemy and the avenger". You see Praise is one of the weapons of our warfare that God gives us to shut the enemy up.
The Bible says that he has ordained strength, that means that praise helps to establish the strength of God in our life. How many of you know that God is already established? Our praise doesn't establish the Lord as Lord over all creation, he already is Lord, but what praise does is establish Jesus as Lord in our life. It gives us the strength to face the enemy. Praise silences the devil, praise gives us the strength to trust God even in the battle times and battle times are hard. I wonder if there's anyone in this room who in the last year has gone through a battle of some sort? It could be in your marriage, in your finances, on the job, with a relationship with someone that you know but praise helps you through the battle.
Did you ever notice if you watch some of the old war movies that in every battle America ever faced there was a song developed through it? Somehow songs seem to stir people but it never did something inside of their heart. Praise to God in the midst of the battle silences the fear. Fear is one of the greatest weapons that the enemy has. The truth is if you believe you're defeated before you get to the battle you really already have given up. But if you begin to have the strength of the Lord as you begin to worship him for who he is knowing that it is not our power but it is his power in us, and as we begin to declare it not only to ourselves but to those we face, pretty soon their lives become exposed and they've got to stop because they know we know the truth.
Psalms 40:1-3 says, "I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord".
There is something about praise. The truth is if you will just turn to the Lord when the enemy is attacking you, you may not have a song in your mouth but how many know that God will help put a song there for you? You just have to by faith begin to declare that he is faithful. God already knows who he is, we just need to be reminded of who he is. The Bible says that many will see it and will fear and put their trust in God. The truth is, Christian, that when you begin to praise the Lord in your trials and in your tribulation it gives strength to other people. How many of you have looked at another persons life and seen their testimony, and you know they're going through something but when they look at you they say, "God is still good to me" and that does something inside of you. I determined a long time ago that's what I want to be like. All of us in our lives are going to have hardship, everyone of us are going to have trials, we're going to have seasons where things are really good and we're going to have seasons where things are really bad. But the truth is this, God is good no matter what season you're in. Tell someone to remember him in the season.
Many will see and put their trust in the Lord. Praise is meant to be verbal. Praise is meant to come from the mouth. My wife may know that I love her but it sure helps if she hears it every once in awhile. My kids may know that I'm proud of them but every once in awhile they don't feel like it, but If I tell them it makes all the difference. The encouragement that you give me time and time again each week is a real blessing and I want you to know how much I appreciate it. The truth is I've come to recognize that if that means that much to me, how much more I need to make sure that I speak that into the life of other people so that they know as well. Praise is meant to be verbal.
Psalms 150:6 says, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord". Psalms 34:1 says, "I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth". It's meant to be there, if it's in your mouth it's going to come out. It's meant to be expressed. I want to encourage this church to be better at verbalizing our praise, not just to our family but to God.
I believe that praise should characterize the conversation of every believer, talking of the faithfulness of God. Not to the point where it's socially annoying but to the point where we are continually acknowledging God's favor and blessing and his leading in our life. Praise should characterize our speech. Praise God instead of complaining and whining. It's ok to acknowledge that you've got an issue but I have found this, many times when I just acknowledge that I've got an issue I keep having the issue. But If I begin to praise God in the middle of my issue then my attitude begins to change and God begins to receive glory. Have you ever found a Christian who starts whining and complaining about the stuff they're always going through and pretty soon it begins to drag the other person right down with them. Listen, misery loves company. How many know that's not the kind of company you like to keep? The truth is this we can always whine and complain or we can begin to praise God.
The Bible says that If we are silent the rocks will cry out. Have you ever just looked at God's creation? I remember when we were living out west we came upon some of those mountains out in Oregon and Seattle that are absolutely astounding. They don't have to say anything, you just look at them and you know there's a God. Have you ever looked at some of what God creates? There are times I pull some things out of the ocean and just look at them, they're absolutely beautiful. I remember someone looked at me once and said, "Yeah, well what's the big deal about that?" I looked at him and said, "You do it". It's a beautiful thing.
I've gotten to travel around the nation and see many things and it's amazing to see the wonderful red clay of Georgia, the wonderful dark dust of Pennsylvania and being out in the sand here in Florida. I remember one guy was talking about how some scientists were going to go and challenge God, they were going to make a man. God came and breathed breath and there was a man. God said, "Ok, you're turn". The scientists bent down and began to pick up some dust and God said, "No, get your own dust".
If we don't cry out, the rocks will. Nature declares his glory all the time. When I get up in the morning even though like this morning it was raining out, what a marvelous way to enjoy what God has created, it's beautiful. The truth is that praise brings a great deal of healing. God has done so much and he's been so faithful so I need to make sure that my praise is verbal.
By praising the Lord we change the atmosphere of our lives. Atmosphere is the climate and the attitude in which we live. Isaiah 61:3 says, "Put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness". The truth is this, the weight of this world is overwhelming and there's many reasons for the weight that we carry. There's alot of stuff that we go through and Satan wants us weighed down, stooped over, exhausted so that we're weak, so that we can't carry another thing. How many have ever found yourself carrying some of that weight? The thing that changes it is praise.
Praise clothes us with the life and the peace and the freedom of God. There is a reason that when you praise the Lord it feels like a million pounds have been lifted off of your back. There have been times when I didn't feel like praising God. How many of you have ever been there? There have been times when I didn't want to praise God. As a matter of fact there were times I felt like I couldn't praise God, sometimes I didn't even feel like there was something to praise him for. That's when you know you have the enemy suffocating you just a little bit, that weight is just there.
Praise becomes the great exchange, our weight for his weight, our burden for his burden. The Bible says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. There have been times in my life where the burden has been so heavy that you just want to weep, when you're facing so many things. Sometimes you feel so dirty, so filled with anger and confusion and I have sat down in the presence of God and said, "Lord, If I begin to praise you I'm going to be the greatest hypocrite in the world". He says, "You're my child and I love you. Loving me is not hypocrisy". I remember when I've just come before him so weighed down, "Jesus, I thank you". There's times I've come like sitting bull into his presence, "I shall not be moved". How many have ever been there? Then I just begin to praise, I may not be able to enter into the fast songs because maybe that day I was feeling wounded. God understood, there was no condemnation. I began to read the words even though I didn't feel like singing them but as I began to read them it made a difference. I remember as that weight would lift and the tears would flow as I would just begin to worship Jesus and begin to praise him for who he is. That's why we do praise and worship in church. Not only should we give glory to God but how many have ever come into this place and the time of worship and praise has been the place where you've been healed? Long before the word has even been brought, that lifting has begun to take place.
Praise prepares the believer for miracles. All of us know the freedom that praise brings because it looses us spiritually and it looses us naturally. Paul and Silas, in Acts chapter 16:23-26. Paul and Silas were doing what God had called them to do preaching the gospel and all of a sudden the world got a hold of them and beat them up. How many of you have ever been beat up by the world before? Sometimes as believers we think that as long as we're doing all that God asks us to do that everything is going to go just peachy. How many of you have found sometimes when you do everything that God asks, the enemy wants to challenge you and ask you if it's worth it? Here's Paul and Silas, a couple of the most powerful men of God ever, people were being healed, people were being saved, people got a hold of them and beat the living daylights out of them. The men were in a weakened condition and someone said to the guard, "Don't let them escape, it's your head if they do".
The Bible says they put them in the inner prison, that's called solitary confinement and to top it off they put them in chains and hung them to the wall. "And when they had laid many stripes on them they threw them into prison commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks, but at midnight while everyone else was hoping to get some sleep, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed". Paul and Silas began to praise the Lord and it set up the place for a miracle. No one was going to come in and rescue them, they were there alone, there was not an ?A' Team of Navy seals standing outside ready to break in and set Paul and Silas free. But they knew they didn't need the ?A'team, they knew they just needed to praise the God and Savior of their heart and they did. In the midst of it they said, "Lord, we'd do it all over again" and they began to praise him for who he was. They hadn't even been cleaned up yet, they still had the scabs and the blood running down their back, they had been beaten to a pulp. But here they were with chains around their ankles praising Jesus. Listen to me church, I want to be like that, I want to be able to serve Jesus that way. The Bible says that when they began to praise, the prisoners began to listen. Prisoners in the Roman jails weren't pansies, these weren't white collar criminals who had skimmed money off the top. These were the worst of the worst and there's Paul and Silas in the middle. They weren't saying, "God, I don't belong here because I'm not like these guys". Silas wasn't saying, "Paul, you got me into this, look at me, I've got this thing on my back, every time I rub my back against the wall it hurts and now I can't do anything and no one knows that I'm here. Just shut up and go to sleep Paul, you got me into this". Instead they looked at each other and began to thank Jesus. Can you imagine? We get all upset when our 401K isn't going to help us retire at 65, give me a break. We get upset when we don't have enough money in our pocket to get to McDonalds.
All of a sudden the miracle began to happen. I want you to listen to me, miracles happen because of faith not because of need. Paul and Silas needed a miracle but it didn't happen just because they wanted it. They began to praise the Lord and God moved the entire earth so that the doors opened up and the chains fell off. Do you know what those men did? They stayed there. They didn't run and thumb their nose at the jailer. Paul and Silas waited and when the jailer came they said, "We're here, we love Jesus and God is going to use this to touch your life". Praise sets the stage for a miracle.
Do you need a miracle today? Do you need to be set free from something? Are you going through some hard times? Are you complaining about your time or are you praising the Lord in the midst of it? Listen, I'm not asking you to give thanks to God for the situation that you're in. How many know that's just craziness? Jesus, I thank you that even though I'm in the midst of it you're faithful. Even though my marriage isn't the way it should be, I thank you that you're my God and you said you'd heal it. I thank you Lord that you've been good to me. Praise leads the believer into the triumph of Christ.
2nd Corinthians 2:14 says, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us manifests the fragrance of his knowledge in every place". I want us to understand that God desires us to enjoy both victory and triumph in every area of our life. The Bible says, "Now thanks be to God who always leads us". You may not know the way to victory, you may not understand how to get there, you may not know the way out but Paul and Silas didn't have something up their sleeve so they could pick the lock on their chains and the door, they just knew that if they would praise God in the situation that God would take care of them and God began to help them to triumph.
Listen, here's the difference between victory and triumph. Victory is the accomplishment of the defeat of the enemy. How many of you are thankful that the enemy is defeated in your life? Triumph is the celebration of the victory that is already won. The Dolphins had a victory a couple weeks ago, they beat the new England Patriots. Triumph was getting on tv and saying, "Hey, you all looked at our season last year and thought we were a bunch of losers but not only did we get in the game, now we're going to celebrate the win of the game". The next week they went out and won again. How many know that's triumph when they're continuing to win? I'm not spiritualizing Dolphin football but what I am telling you is that God not only wants you to have victory but to enjoy the victory.
The enemy had me down a few years ago but now I've got victory over him and now I'm living the life that God promised, that's triumph. Every time the enemy wants to try and bring up what happened in the past he's got to deal with what God is doing through me now. I get to celebrate every time someone gives their life to Jesus, I get to kick the enemy again. Every time I can get up and do what God promised that I can do with my life I get to kick the enemy again, that's triumph. How many of you want to enjoy the life that God has for you? Then praise the Lord, give him the praise.
Listen, the flesh must always be sacrificed for victory, ask any athlete. Something is a sacrifice because it costs us something, when we do it and when it's hard to do. Hebrews 13:15 says, "Therefore, by him let us continually offer him the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name". Sometimes your spirit needs to make sure your flesh isn't the one telling you how life is going to be. There have been times when I've come in either to my prayer time or when praise has been hard in church and I can't see a way out and I can't understand how God is going to be glorified in the situation that I'm going through. How many understand that flesh always wants to have dominion?
Our emotions always want to rule us and the truth is if you are ruled by your emotions you are always going to be disappointed by life because you could be up one hour and down the next. I believe that Christians can be emotional with their praise and worship. We have so many people in America on Meds because they're letting their flesh rule over their life. If life isn't good today, take another valium. Well that's good but your problem is still there, you just kind of feel good about it. It doesn't do anything inside of you. That's flesh trying to get the victory.
Faith believes before it sees and faith will always trust. Faith gives us the strength to praise God even when our flesh doesn't want to. That's when we have to say, "Today I'm not going to be ruled by what I feel, I'm going to be ruled by who I know and I thank God for who he is because he's always been faithful to me". In order for there to be a sacrifice, something is going to have to die and that's why I think praise and worship is so good because many times it will allow me to put my flesh in a lower place and let God have the highest place.
Praise opens our heart for revelation. Psalms 49:4 says, "I will incline my ear to a parable and I will disclose my dark sayings on the harp". David was saying that sometimes life is a mystery and I don't understand some things but while I'm going through those dark times I'm going to begin to praise the Lord. I recognize that when I get into his presence that's when I'm going to begin to understand some things. It is in praise that God reveals himself in our situation. He gives birth to peace and to understanding. How many times when you've praised the Lord has the healing come before the message has even been brought?
There's a reason we praise and worship in church before I preach because praise and worship paves the way for the presence of God. Many of us should be able to come to church and get a good message but the truth is our flesh is usually in the way. That's why we come and worship the Lord, it gives us the chance to get into his presence and to also deal with ourselves so that we prepare our heart. There have been times I've come to praise the Lord and there was no way I could have been prepared for what the preacher was going to say because I was in a funky mood. How many of you have ever come into church with an attitude?
I'm so glad my Mom and Dad gave me a drug problem, they drug me to church. The truth is this, if your kids don't want to get up out of bed and come to church, who's the Mom and Dad? Tell them they're getting up and coming to the house of God. I'm so glad because there were times that taught me to deal with the attitude. I'm so glad my Mom and Dad brought me to the House of God, they let me see the miracles take place. I saw the blind eyes opened, I saw deaf ears hear and I had to deal with my attitude. The truth is that it was good I was in church on Sunday because it changed me for Monday when I went back to school and got back in the world. I needed God to do a work in my life. Parents, I want to encourage you, your kid may not like coming to church but you're Mom and Dad, get them out of bed and tell them it's time to come to the House of God. "As for me and my house we're going to serve Jesus. If you don't want to serve Jesus then move out of the house but good luck at 13 years old". I know I stepped on some of your toes but you'll be ok. Praise the Lord anyway.
It's in his presence where there's fulness of joy, it's in his presence where we find peace and we find solutions for what God has. When I was in 7th grade and suffering from depression I would come into the House of God because my Mom made me come to church and there were times I would weep through the entire service but that's where I got healed. It's where I began to find out that Jesus would be my friend no matter what. Praise is the way into God's presence. Have you ever felt far from God? Praise Him. The Bible says, "Draw near to God and he'll draw near to us". The Bible says that God inhabits (dwells or lives) in the praises of his people". So if you don't feel like you're living in the presence of God then begin to praise him, that's the easy way in.
Psalms 100:4 says, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name".
I want you to hear me church, there is a proper way to approach a king and praise takes us properly into the presence of God. Praise may not change our situation in life but it does change our location and our relationship to the situation. The Bible says that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places far above all powers and principalities. I still may have the same situation in my life but when I begin to praise the Lord, pretty soon I'm rising up over that because I'm seated with Christ. How many know the enemy wants to keep you seated right where you are? But when you begin to praise him it changes you over that. The Bible says that he will take us and seat us next to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who comes and brings healing far above all the things that we have to deal with.
Four times in Psalms 107, David said, "Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men". What David was saying to the church is if you would just take a moment, if you would just understand what it means to praise the Lord, it will change your life forever. Oh, that men would praise him. Listen to me, whatever you're going through, praise the Lord, not because of what you're going through but because he's the God of what you're going through. Praise him because he made you, praise him because he loves you, praise him because he's been faithful. Praise him because he is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, praise him because he created everything, praise him because he's your creator and because he knows how to get you through it. If you don't know how to get out then praise him and revelation will begin to come. How many of you are thankful that he holds the answer and he holds the key?
