04 - The Power Of Praise 2010 By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes (1)

Acts 16:25 “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.”

This is a story that begins with a demon, is born along by a false accusation, dead-ends in a prison cell, but climaxes in a testimony to the power of praise.

We have seen in the last few weeks that the church that pierces the darkness will:

Learn to turn pain into gain

Stay with the Word of God, no matter what, and will…

Resist and Defy Political Correctness.

Now today we’re going to see that the church that pierces the darkness will understand the power of praise.

There is a giant difference between singing about Him and singing to Him.

There is a head song, and then there is a heart song.

There are songs we sing by mechanical repetition without real understanding of their meaning or significance.

And there are songs we sing out of the overflow of thanksgiving, faith, and praise for what God has done.

FACT: The church that pierces the darkness will be a praising church!

The church that penetrates this present darkness with the light and truth of Jesus Christ will not be confused about who they are, nor will they be oblivious to the spiritual weapons at their disposal…

…like one preacher I read about that was trying to sell his horse.

A potential buyer came to the church for a test ride.

"Before you start" the preacher said, "you should know that this horse only responds to church talk.

The word for “Giddy up” is praise the lord,

And the word for “stop” is amen.

Hearing that, the man excitedly jumped on the horse and said, "Praise the lord!"

To his delight the horse started to trot.

The man again said "Praise the lord" and the horse started to gallop.

Suddenly the man spotted a steep cliff right in front of the horse and yelled "Amen!!!"

The horse stopped just at the edge of the cliff.

The man wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "Praise the Lord."

The moral of the story is that we should always remember the meaning of things—what worship is, why we worship, and what God will accomplish through it.

Now, let’s look at what the Bible says about Praise. First,

There are three levels of Praise

In 100th Psalm, David tells us exactly how to become involved in praising and worshipping God. Listen closely as he names the 3 levels of praise:

A psalm of thanksgiving.

1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! 2 WORSHIP the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy. 3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with THANKSGIVING; go into his courts with PRAISE. Give thanks to him and praise his name.”

The 3 words listed are in order are: WORSHIP THANKSGIVING, and PRAISE.

Worship, according to the greatest worshipper of all time, is based on the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that God is, He made us, and we are His people.

It’s always interested me that in Romans 1, the mark of the ungodly is, “…they thought it foolish to acknowledge God…Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks.”

So the very thing David exhorts aspiring worshippers to do, the ungodly refuse to do.

The result for the ungodly was “They traded the truth about God for a lie… Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness…and they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.”

So WORSHIP is the trademark and practice of the Redeemed!

Next, David teaches us how to come into God’s presence:

Enter into His gates with THANKSGIVING…”

Thanksgiving is an expression of gratitude to God for what He has done. David said that thinking to thank God is the way we open the door and walk into His presence.

Do you hunger for God’s presence?

Do you enjoy sensing the Holy Spirit around you?

Do you long to fellowship with the Lord at all times of the day?

Then David says THANKSGIVING is the pathway to God’s presence.

Not only that, but thanksgiving is directly connected to peace of mind. Paul wrote:

Phil 4: 6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Notice how THANKSGIVING is what we should salt and pepper our prayer time with, even before we’ve seen any answers at all!

Here’s something to think about:

If you thank God after He’s answered you, that’s gratitude.

If you thank God before He’s answered you, that’s faith!

When we ask God, say for a job, faith will move us to THANK GOD for the answer before we’ve knocked on even one door.

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot yet see.” Heb 12:1

Next, David said we are to:

Enter His courts with PRAISE

E.M. Bounds wrote: “Praise and thanksgiving go in company. A close relationship exists between them.

Praise and thanksgiving are so near alike that it is not easy to distinguish between them...

Perhaps the only way to tell the difference between the two is that thanksgiving seems to be a verbal expression, while praise relates to singing a hymn. One is talk, the other is song.

Then finally, we are to…

WORSHIP the Lord

“Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness…”—Ps. 96:9

Worship is the act of thanking and praising Him exclusively for Who He is. Not for what He’s done, but for Who He is.

One example would be Rev. 7:11…

“11All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!"

Another thing you should know about worship is:

Worship changes us

INESCAPABLE FACT OF LIFE:

You will become like what you worship.

Jer 2:5 “They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.”

Ps. 115: 8 “Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.”

If you worship superficial things, your life becomes superficial.If you worship perverted things, your life becomes perverted.If you worship evil things, your life becomes evil.If your worship the true God, you become godly. 2 Cor 3:18 TLB “And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.”

Praise defeats the enemy

Ps 8:2 “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.”

"Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, 'A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Sea.”

"After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: 'Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.'"

"As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”—2 Chr. 20: 20-23