Broken Hero's Pt 6

Plan to Rejoice

I am beginning to think God is trying to tell us something. I have noticed that rejoicing has been a reoccurring theme over the last month or so. Two weeks ago my wife preaches an amazing sermon on Deborah and Barrack. After the recount of Deborah and Barrack we find Israel doing what Israel does best. We find them partying, praising God and rejoicing in song.

Now it’s difficult to preach any song of praise Israel does because it’s often sporadic if not prophetic in nature meaning it doesn’t follow any real patterns. If you were to get into my prayer journal you would find I pray the same way. However, there are themes and so we are going to discuss these themes. This will keeping us from trying to replicate the prayer like many do over the Lord’s Prayer, but it’ll give us an idea of how to praise when we may not know how. I’m not going to read the entire chapter of Judges five, but we will discuss it’s concepts.

The first concept we find is the expected one:

Praising the Lord.

Judges 5:3 ESV

“Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the Lord I will sing; I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel.

In order to continue to receive victories we must give the honor to where the honor is do. In life, as well as our relationship with God, it is offensive when people trying to take credit for things they never did. When rejoicing we need to make sure our praises are pointed to God and not ourselves. No one likes to be around a narcissistic praise vacuum. These people talk about all the things they did even if they didn’t really do anything, but receive. God gives great gifts, but all we do is receive.

When we gather people around to rejoice with us we need to make sure all glory comes to God.

The second concept we find is:

Praise those who helped you

Judges 5:13 ESV

Then down marched the remnant of the noble; the people of the Lord marched down for me against the mighty.

When we are done praising God we need to make sure we praise those around us. It’s easy to soak up the glory, but we see in the New Testament Paul praises people often.

Philippians 1:3–5 ESV

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Paul is saying because of your success in spreading the Gospel I rejoice because of you. They took what Paul taught them and grew the kingdom of God. When this church grows it’ll not be to my boasting because it’ll be due to your spreading of God’s word, your work, and your faith. I can preach the most