For many churches, denominations, and Christians, praising God has been something that has eluded us and thus, robbing us of great intimacy with God. That has been the work of Satan against the Body of Christ. One of the tactics of an enemy is to find his way into the fortress and rob the armory of its weapons. This means the garrison inside the fortress, although formidable, is now powerless to defend itself.
The devil has been working diligently to rob the Church of the weapons God has given us. Last week, we talked about those two primary weapons:
1) The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Satan does not want the Truth of God’s Word preached from pulpits. He doesn’t want Believers studying and growing in their knowledge of the Word, because He knows how powerful a weapon it is against his deception. Light shows darkness for what it is…darkness flees when confronted with light.
For the sake of drawing the bigger crowd, preachers have become motivational speakers. There’s a lot of encouraging words but very little of the only life-changing Word of God.
Or you’ve got some preachers this morning that, at the behest of the president, are talking about health care reform instead of introducing people to the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, the only One who heals us from all our diseases.
Show me a church that isn’t passionate about preaching, teaching, and discipling folks in the Word of God, and I’ll show you a powerless church.
2) The Double-Edged Sword of Praise. Let me make something really clear right now. I was raised in a Southern Baptist church that had some wonderful pastors, great Gospel hymns, and a Sunday School that taught me the precepts of God’s Word. I am very thankful I was raised in a solid church in a denomination that unashamedly declared, “If God says it, that settles it.”
For centuries, the church has focused on the importance of God’s Word, devotion to prayer, and diligence to witness in our daily walk. But somehow, praise was relegated to something we do only in corporate worship once a week. And that expression of praise was kind of fit neatly into a little box. I don’t remember ever being taught anything about the power of praise or how to biblically express it beyond just showing up and mimicking others.
It’s not always been that way. You look back in scripture, God’s people have long enjoyed passionate, demonstrative praise. But somewhere along the way, we allowed the enemy to creep in and rob the church of this powerful weapon. He doesn’t want Believers wielding the sword of praise.
We need to get these weapons back in the arsenal, and they need to be used—not sitting around gathering dust, not just hanging from our sides still in their scabbards.
HOW DO WE WIELD THIS POWERFUL WEAPON? As we talk about how we express our praise to God, keep in mind these two principles:
I. PRAISE IS A SACRIFICE.
¾ Jeremiah 33:11 "Praise the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good, For His mercy endures forever"-- and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. (NAS)
Hebrews 13:15 “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” (NAS)
A sacrifice is something that costs us something. It’s not the left-overs. It usually requires of us something that might just hurt a little, cause us discomfort. But the reward is always matched, many times outweighs the sacrifice.
So what we talk about today may be pulling a little out of their comfort zone. It may challenge you to grow a little. But worship and praise that comes from a heart of joy will be free, not awkward or contrived.
Hebrews says that the “sacrifice of praise to God, is the fruit of our lips…” The Greek for fruit is kar-pos’ and it refers to fruit of the trees, or a man’s posterity, and the harvest that comes forth. It goes back to the sowing and reaping principle.
God sows into our lives, blesses our lives with a purpose: that the harvest will be our praise and thanksgiving.
Jesus sacrificed His life on the Cross which sowed the seeds of salvation for you and me. The harvest, the fruit that comes forth in our lives is a sacrifice—the first fruits of praise. Lord, the very best that I have to bring you in praise! I will not offer anything to Him that costs me nothing!
II. PRAISE IS LESS ABOUT STYLE, MORE ABOUT SUBSTANCE.
¾ Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (NIV)
Most of you know I began my ministry as a music/worship pastor. I’ve studied church music history and how music and instrumentation evolved, how different liturgies and traditions came about, and I’ve witnessed first hand how contemporary worship styles have grown by leaps and bounds in the last twenty years.
Gang, styles are going to change. The psalmist declared, “Sing to Him a new song,” and I’m fine with anything that is melodious wherein the lyrics clearly point people vertically in worship to God. There’s a big artistic movement in churches these days; I love creativity and drama in worship. Yes, we do have a style here at MtnVu that makes us different, but substance is what drives the train for this church.
And it’s the same for you as an individual. God is more interested in your life worship…and He wants the walk to line up with the talk. We’re going to talk about some of the practical ways to praise; and it may be that you’re not into this or into that. But remember, it ain’t about you anyway, it’s not about style or technique. It’s about a life worship, a sacrifice of praise that’s substantive, not just exterior fluff.
III. PRAISE IS LOVE LANGUAGE.
¾ Dr. Gary Chapman wrote a book years ago that has transformed many marriages across America called the Five Love Languages. Dr. Chapman, a long time marriage counselor began to see a pattern occurring in the breakdown of relationships, mainly in the area of communication.
He found that it seems everyone has a different love language; the form or expression that best communicated love and value in the life of the other spouse. For instance, one spouse physical expression was their language. For the other, love expressed through deed or action was their language. But imagine the frustration felt by someone trying to carry on a meaningful conversation with someone of a different language.
Compound that frustration into hurt and resentment when the other spouse doesn’t seem interested in learning your language-or worse yet, doesn’t see the value in even trying.
God also has a love language, a praise language if you will, in the way He desires to be worshipped. Of course, He loves us and is patient. And He is appreciative even when we may fall over our own two feet in expressing our love to Him. Oh, but the joy it brings God when we take the time to study what His Word has to say about what best communicates our adoration and love for Him and we put that into practice!
What we need to do is to learn the love language of God. He is the one who is the focus of our praise and adoration, right? He already knows my love language, and He demonstrates that love continually in my life. I shouldn’t take an attitude that says, “Well God, here’s my love offering today…hope you like it.” (Giving Donna a wrench for Valentines Day)
Again, my focus is to grow in my understanding of the One who loves me best. And to communicate to Him in ways that make God feel most loved, adored, and says, “God, whatever you desire from me…it doesn’t have to make sense…I might not do it really well, it might feel a bit awkward…but love motivates me to go beyond my comfort zone because, Lord, You’re worth it!”
Let’s look at some of God’s Love Languages today:
PRAISE CAN BE VOCAL
n It could be spoken.
Psalm 145:21 “My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever.” (NIV)
Psalm 63:3 “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You..” (NAS)
nIt could be sung. (“Make a joyful noise)
Illus: Down syndrome young man at TFBC—what a joyful noise!)
2 Samuel 22:50 “Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the nations, And I will sing praises to Your name.” (NIV)
PRAISE CAN BE AUDIBLE
n Clapping of Hands
Psalm 47:1 “O clap your hands, all peoples; Shout to God with the voice of joy.” (NAS)
-This could be done to music, or just joining in the applause of heaven, or thanking God for the praise He has brought forth through others.
n Musically (He’s a musical God!)
Psalm 150:3-5 “Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! 4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! 5 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” (NKJ)
This includes all kinds of music- so long as it harmonious (Ps. 92:3) and it points people to a closer relationship with God. If it’s sung, I believe it should be intelligible in the language it was written.
PRAISE CAN BE VISIBLE
n Lifting Of Hands
Psalm 63:4 “… I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. (NKJV)
Illus: The international sign for surrender is the raising of hands. It signifies I have laid down my weapon, I am ceasing from combat, I am no longer fighting. I am abandoning my efforts for they are futile…I am submitting myself to your authority.
To lift our hands to God reminds me of a small child who stands before their parent and lifts up their hands to be held.
n Dancing
1 Chronicles 15:28-29 “Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets and with cymbals, making music with stringed instruments and harps. 29 And it happened, as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the City of David, that Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David whirling (dancing) and playing music; and she despised him in her heart.” (NKJV)
DAVID’S DANCE
-The Hebrew word used here for “dance” means “to stamp, jump, leap, spring about wildly, or skip” It was spontaneous, it was an unrehearsed praise by David to God for what he was witnessing.
-He danced unto the Lord; it wasn’t for show or driven by ego…He was overcome with joy! He did not care who was watching.
MICHAL’S HEART
2 Samuel 6:20-22 “When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
-Michal’s criticism of David echo’s today by some who rebuke or see praise as undignified or irreverent. Michal’s words smack of jealousy for either David’s position, or maybe her jealousy that he was so free in his worship.
-Either way, you may face yourself what David faced.
-“Those who have not seen God in their hearts are bound to have differing evaluations from those who have. Their reactions will reflect their true feelings but should not deter us from the determination to praise the Lord.” (Dr. Jack Taylor)
DAVID’S CHOICE
21 David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor." (NIV)
-In essence David made a choice of who was worthy of his praise, worthy of his worship- and that someone was God and not anyone else.
n Kneeling
Psalm 95:6 “Come, let us bow down and worship him; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!”
-One of the words used in connection with praise in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word “havah”. It is used more than 60 times in the O.T. and refers to a position of prostration or kneeling. It is generally translated into the English word “worship”.
n Prostrate
2 Chronicles (TYPO) 20:18 “Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord.”
Psalms 5:7 “And here I am, your invited guest - it's incredible! I enter your house; here I am, prostrate in your inner sanctum.” (The Message)
John writes of his vision of what’s to come for us in heaven in Revelation 4:10-11
“the Twenty-four Elders would fall prostrate before the One Seated on the Throne. They worshiped the age-after-age Living One. They threw their crowns at the foot of the Throne, chanting, 11 Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God! Take the glory! the honor! the power!”
(The Message)
It goes back to the very first foundational fact of praise; that praise is eternal. One day, if you’ve confessed Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, we will spend all of eternity in heaven praising the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords forever. The first thousand years will be one long praise offering.
And God has given us the pathway to praising Him. The question I have for you today is, what is keeping you from experiencing the fullest of your praise to your Heavenly Father?
1) That’s not the way I was raised. Learning a new language is not generally an easy process.
And I’ve counseled married couples that if I put them on the spot today would confess to you, that learning their spouses love language is one thing…learning to “speak” it fluently takes time and practice.
The problem is that the worship practice of most Christians is kind of like when we learned to drive a car. We had a 9 weeks of classroom instruction (maybe), and a few days in an actual car with supervision. But most of us drive just like mom and dad drove—good habits and bad. We go down to the DMV, take a short test, and all of a sudden, we have a license to drive a car!
Most of us have never received any additional, formal instruction or advanced training on driving. We pretty much drive with the same skills we had when we first got behind the wheel.
That kind of describes where I was when I first began to be challenged in the Word when it came to my worship. I’m a good driver…I don’t need someone to tell me how to drive!
Listen, I’m not telling you how to worship…I’m giving you the Biblical love languages of praising God. Here’s the bottom line; you can blow me off. I’ve had spouses who I counseled on the five love languages, and they’ve not done anything to explore, learn, or practice the art of loving their mate in their language.
Does it frustrate me a little? Yea. But you know what? It ain’t my marriage. You want to continue in a lifeless, cold relationship…be my guest.
Christian, are you satisfied in the level of intimacy you have with God?
Are you feeling his power and joy in your faith?
Are you comfortable with the level of relationship you have with the One who bought and paid for you, redeemed you from hopelessness?
My friend, I’m not telling you how to worship. I’m telling you how God loves to be worshipped. It’s your relationship. But remember, what you sow is what you’ll harvest.
2) Praise doesn’t come natural for me. Contrary to what you’ve heard, old dogs can learn new tricks for the Master they desire to please. The praise muscle is like any other in our body: if it’s not exercised, of course it will feel a little awkward, you may get winded quickly, and quite possibly be discouraged enough to say, “naahhh, it ain’t worth all this effort.”
Dr. Jack Taylor says in his book the Hallelujah Factor, “Until the practice of praise in private is continuous and free, the practice of praise corporately will be inhibited by fear, self-consciousness, and discomfort.
Growing in our expressions of worship, speaking the love language of God, requires an intentional spirit on the part of the one doing the loving. I’ve met dads with young kids, and I’ve never seen them hug or love on their children. The response is, “Yea, well, that’s just not who I am…they understand.” Well they might “understand” but their love tank is still just as empty.
Dads—that’s your job to love on your kids, hold them, bless them with a holy kiss. It might not come natural for you, but that’s not a viable excuse for holding out what only you can give them.
Fathers with daughters: your little girl is learning her healthy, God ordained sense of love and security from men from you. If they don’t get that affection from you, they will get it elsewhere from the first willing boy that comes along brimming with hormones.
Expressions of praise may not come natural, but have an attitude that says, “Lord help me to grow…” Better yet, why not ask the Holy Spirit to just take charge…and I guarantee you won’t go wrong!
Don’t fall into the trap of just going through motions to show you’re more spiritual. All we’re talking about this morning is here’s what God’s Word has to say to us as Believers. Here’s the logos—the truth of God’s Word for everyone. But the Holy Spirit is the only One who can take the logos and make it rhema—a personal Word for you and you alone.