The Need for Praise and Thanksgiving
Prayer: Fighting the Invisible Battle • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Good Morning! Welcome to church this morning! We’re continuing on our theme of prayer today, and I would like to ask you all to join me in praise and thanksgiving to God.
Pray
There were once two guys - a fairly interesting duo - who made it their chief mission to tell other about Jesus. One day this girl who is inhabited by an evil spirit that could tell the future found the guys and started saying “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved!” She did this for a few days, before finally one of the guys had had enough, and commanded the spirit to leave her. Immediately it did, but her owns we’re too pleased that their source of income was now gone. Long story short, they prosecuted the men and had them thrown in prison.
But here’s where the story gets good.
That night the guys are sitting in prison, their feet in stocks. It wasn’t a cushy set up - most likely this prison was once a cistern, now turned holding cell. It wasn’t built for five star accommodations. And they start singing praises to God. About midnight, there’s a massive earthquake that shakes the foundations of the jail, so much so that all the doors fling open and people’s chains fall off. The jailer sees what’s happened, and assuming all the prisoners escaped figures he might as well kill himself and save others the trouble. But these guys look at the jailer and tell him that everyone is still there. The jailer can’t believe his eyes and ears, and realizes he needs to meet the God these guys were praising, who not only loosed the prison but also kept everyone where they were. That night, the jailer got saved, with his household!
This is the story of Paul and Silas in prison from Acts 16:16-40. You know one thing that I think is awesome about it? Paul and Silas are in prison, in stocks, and they are praising God. Then God moves in power. I don’t think that’s coincidence. I wanted to start with this story because it is about praise, and how praise is a powerful tool for drawing us to God, and testifying about our faith to others.
We’re on week three of our five week series on prayer: fighting the invisible battle. This week the big thing we are going to be discussing is that:
Christians need to be known as people who are full of praise & thanksgiving.
Why should we be people of praise? What is our motivation behind this core part of our identify as the people of God? This is what we are going to look at today. But before we do, I want to touch briefly on what praise and thanksgiving are.
Praise and thanksgiving are common themes found in Scripture relating to worship. In fact, praise and thanksgiving are facets of worship. When we worship God we give Him glory and honour, we serve Him and live our lives for Him. Praise and thanksgiving are part of what it means to worship God. They are part of what it means to love God. Praising means to give Him honour and glory for who He is and what He does. Praise and thanksgiving are often tied together, which is no surprised. As we focus on who God is and what He does, we hopefully will have grateful hearts for how He does what He does, and how He looks after and cares for his people.
Prayers of praise and thanksgiving are especially important in the life of a Christians, as we will see.
Today, we are going to explore three motivations for why we should be characterized as people of praise & thanksgiving. The first motivation we encounter is:
God is Worthy
God is Worthy
Throughout Scripture, we find multiple times when we are told to priase and thank God.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 145:3 and Isaiah 25:1 I believe helps us to understand the rationale:
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and his greatness is unsearchable.
O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
Did you notice that in both of these Scripture notes how the Lord is great, has done great and wonderful things, and as Ps 145:3 says, God’s greatness is unsearchable! Throughout Scripture we read of different reasons to thank God and praise Him: who He is, what He’s done, He steadfast love, how He keeps covenant with His people despite their rebellion, and of course, our salvation through Jesus Christ!
And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.
“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Again, the prophet Isaiah, speaking even of end times, shows how people will praise God - because He has done gloriously! So we see Scripture is filled with reasons to praise God. Moreover, we also need to thank Him.
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Praise and thanksgiving are recognized by Scripture as important parts of our worship. Like we discussed last week, we need to start here. The Bible commands praise because God is worthy of it. Moreover, Scripture teaches that even our very life breath is a gift from God. We should be thanking God for everything He gives!
Harkening back to last week, we saw also that Jesus begins the model for prayer He gave us in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 by acknowledging God as our Father, and then hallowing - or praising - God’s Name. Jesus, as our example, equally recognizes with Scripture the importance of beginning prayer with Praise and Thanksgiving.
God is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving! This is one of the chief reasons for why we praise and thank God. Yes, it is a powerful tool for us, and yes it has to do with our testimony to the world (which we’ll talk about in a minute). But, it also has to do purely with the fact that God - by His nature - is worthy. So even when we don’t feel like it, even when we don’t see a reason to praise God or thank Him, we still need to.
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Sacrifice means that we offer something to God at personal cost - it costs us! This sacrifice of praise comes at a cost - when God seems very far away we still need to praise Him. This isn’t about “rewarding” God for what He’s done. Real praise comes out of our hearts being postured to worship God no matter what, because He is worthy of it! (Gotquestions.org - https://www.gotquestions.org/sacrifice-of-praise.html).
We praise and thank God, why? Because He is worthy of it. But this also leads us into our second motivation:
Praise Points Us Up
Praise Points Us Up
Praise points us up. Again, the model we received from Jesus on prayer in the gospels has us looking up and focusing on God from the outset. We know that God is worthy of our praise, and that especially in hard time when God feels far away praise becomes our sacrifice to Him. When we praise God is helps us to focus on who He is and draw near to Him, and appropriately orients us to bring everything to Him. Think about the reasons for which we praise and thank God!
Give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
As we look at these Scriptures, and implement them into our lives, our hearts get drawn towards God. We draw near to God, and we become ready to serve Him, to trust Him, and to live for Him. By in engaging with praise and thanksgiving we must inherently take our eyes off our current situation and put them on God.
Read
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
In this psalm the psalmist is not looking to the hills for help. In Ancient times those who traveled knew that in the hills there was evil and danger. But despite that, the psalmist says that His help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth! Right away the Psalmist is focusing on God, noting where His help really comes from.
Praise and Thanksgiving cause us to look past ourselves, and to God. This does two things:
Causes our problems - no matter how large - to seem small in God’s presence.
Prepares us to meet with God, hear His voice, and listen to what He is saying.
Praise and thanksgiving point us up. They force us to take our eyes off of ourselves and focus on God. So we see that God is worthy of praise and thanksgiving. But also, when we engage in praise and thanksgiving it becomes an uplifting and life-giving endeavour. Moreover, we follow a Biblical mandate. We are not supposed to be people who are run down by the problems of this world. Instead, we are supposed to be people who find hope, strength and courage through the power of the Holy Spirit. But that means we need to be in tune with God. Our “heart eyes” need to be focused on God. Yes, God is bigger than anything, and yes He is always with us, but for us to experience His presence and see Him work we need to be postured to hear from God. When we give God the glory, and enter into heartfelt praise and thanksgiving, we are poising ourselves to have an encounter with God.
Praise Is Our Testimony
Praise Is Our Testimony
When we praise and thank God for who He is and what He has done, we are putting the attention on God, and taking it off of us. This can be a powerful demonstration of our faith to those who don’t believe. This about the story at the beginning of our message. Paul and Silas are in prison, worshipping God. That had to have quirked a few eyebrows. Like, guys, you do know where you are right? You do know that things could get even worse, right?? Who is this God that you are willing to give glory and honour to even in the midst of this place?
I was reading in the book of Acts a few days ago, and encountered this verse at the end of Peter and the other apostle’s flogging:
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
James 1:2 tells us to count it joy when we face trails. If we do this, even as the apostles in Acts did, is this not a testimony to others?
When we rejoice even in the trials - when we thank God for everything, we show the world that there is something different going on. Why, no matter what, would someone joyfully praise God for who He is and what He’s done? Why would you choose to thank God no matter if He feels close or far away?
My prayer for our church is that we are people who are filled by God’s spirit and empowered by Him. My prayer is that when someone walks through the doors of our church, they go “whoa, somethings different in here.’ Why? Not because the building is super pretty or in inviting, or because I’m so great, or you are so great. No, I pray they notice there is something different because God’s Spirit reigns in this place. You cannot have a neutral encounter with the Holy Spirit! But for this to happen, for God’s presence to be tangibly felt, we need to let God have his way here, and be ready and willing to have him use us.
Praise and thanksgiving orient our hearts to accomplish these purposes. When we praise God, we are focusing on how great He is. When we thank God, we are reliving all the times God has been faithful. Simultaneously, we are saying “God, I know you will do it again. I know you have this covered!” Praise and thanksgiving are part of our testimony, and I think they prime the pump for our heart to be ready for God to move. Read:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Our role is to proclaim the excellencies of the One who has saved us! When we do so, we are proclaiming to the world the message about the Almighty God. We are telling us and demonstrating how Jesus saves! This is our testimony.
In the world we live in, there is an absence of love, joy, peace, hope. This world is dead in trespasses and sin, as Ephesians 2:1 tells us. Though God clearly reigns, people cannot know Him without being saved through Jesus. When we come along, praising God for who He is, and what happens? A dead world comes in contact with the Living God who made them and wants to save them. When we thank God for what He has done, they get a glimpse at the Father who cares for us, who provides for us. When we praise God, I believe something supernatural occurs, and the world gets to witness that. Lifting God high, giving his the praise draws the body of believers into unity and I believe gives space for the Holy Spirit to work. Non-believers see that, and no matter what they choose to do with the experience they are still touched by the supernatural. Praise and thanksgiving are powerful way in which we point back to Jesus, and allow others to meet Him.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We’ve been considering today how
Christians need to be known as people who are full of praise & thanksgiving.
Worship is not just a Sunday morning thing when we sing a few songs and pray and read the Bible. Worship is a whole-life thing. Yes, Sunday morning is an important part of that, but we should live our lives in a way that glorifies God. This is our worship. As part of that, we need to be people of praise - people who give God the glory. Likewise we need to thank God, in all circumstances, for what He has done, how He is moving, and for being with us. I have been reading a book Called Power of Praise by ____________ that suggests that we even thank God for the hard stuff, and the painful stuff. Why, because God is using that to shape us into the person he wants us to be. So we are supposed to thank God and praise Him for any situation, and trust Him to move in His perfect timing.
We’ve discussed three motivations for why we need to be people who are full of praise and thanksgiving:
God is worthy
It lifts our eyes up
It is our testimony.
These three motivations I think really flesh out for us the need to be full of praise, and ever thankful.
How has this struck you today? Maybe you have been tracking with me this entire time, and what I said is right where your heart is at. If you feel full of praise and really thankful this morning, praise God! As we go to sing our closing song in a few minutes, would you just express that during our worship?
Maybe what you heard today you’d like to implement, but to be honest it feels like God is still far away. The burdens you’re facing God can handle. If it feels like He isn’t, I encourage you to wait for God’s timing and watch how He will move. I believe that if you choose to praise God in the hard times, you will find strength to persevere through them. My encouragement to you to to praise God anyway. Thank Him for where you are at right here, right now. He is using what you are going through to build you, so praise God and watch for how He will move in your life.
And perhaps you’ve heard what I said, but you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus yet. If this is the case, I’m so glad you came today. The Holy Spirit is working on you, right now, moving you towards the truth. Accept Jesus, and praise God for who He is. Thank Him for bringing you to this point in your life, right now. Accept the free gift of salvation and allow Jesus to be your Lord and Saviour. Do you realize that anyone who believes and gives Jesus their life immediately has access to God, and can be filled with praise, and have the same ability to count every circumstance as joyful? I encourage you to come and meet Jesus today, and discover what everything we talked about today is all about.
This week, my challenge for us is to praise God in every circumstance. When you wake up in the morning, praise God. When you go to work, praise God. When you get home praise God. When you go to bed, praise God. Thank Him for another day, for your job, for getting you through the work day (which I know for some really does feel like a supernatural feat). We have so much to glorify God for, so this week, please take up this challenge and join with me in beginning to be people who are full of praise and thanksgiving.