Church Of The Harvest | Sermon Podcast | Cleveland, TN
Your Praise Is A Weapon - Pastor Barbara Salley
Please welcome with your hand clap only Pastor Barbara Sally to the pulpit. Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Come on, let her hear it this morning! [cheers and applause] I thank you, Father, for your presence in this place this morning. I thank you, Father, you went before and prepared the way that it was strong and it was mighty. Father, I thank you for these people who worship you and who love you. And this morning I ask God that you put your seal on this word. Father, you speak what needs to be spoken. Father, that it would go into the hearts that need to hear it. Father, that our lives would be changed and moved closer to you by your word. In Jesus' name, amen. So, I'm going to read a couple of things. First, I want to read from Psalms if I can see it because I didn't bring my glasses and I hate my contacts. So, I'm going to read from Psalms 149, and it says, "Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song and praise in the assembly of the saints. Let them praise His name with dance and let them sing praises to Him with the timbre and the harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in His people. He will beautify the humble with salvation. Let the saints be joyful and glory. Let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand." And Psalms 96 says, I'm only going to read the end of it because I love this. It says, "Let the skies," and this is from like the passion translation. It says, "Let the skies sing for joy. Let the earth join the chorus. Let the oceans funder and echo this exact ecstatic praise until every swinging tree of every forest joins the choir. Let the animals come and dance, lifting up their songs of joyous praise to Him, and let all of creation rejoice and extravaganza before the Lord." Isn't that good? Like, I love that. Oh, my goodness. See, I believe this morning that I do have a word from the Lord. And I do believe it is a word for us, and I believe it is a word for this season. See, last month when we were teaching through the Psalms, I automatically thought I knew which one I would do. But I just kept, I don't know, and I just drug it out and drug it out because I felt the Lord kept pulling me to praise. And I would tell Pastor Anda, I'm going to tell you because we were picked it. And I was like, "I'm going to tell you probably tomorrow. I'm going to tell you this week." And then I wouldn't tell her because I was like, "Mm, man, I love that one, but I just kept feeling the Lord pulling me toward praise." And the Bible has a whole lot to say about praise. There are 64 chapters in the Psalms that talk about praise. There are more than 8,000 times that it's mentioned throughout the Bible. The Word says that God is glorified in the praises of His people. And all through the Word for thousands of years, the Word has been a blueprint for praise, and it's still used in our hymns and our songs today. So David wrote, "I will bless the Lord at all times, seeing praise to the Lord, all you saints, and give thanks to the remembrance of His name. Hebrews encourages us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, giving thanks to His name, and we could go book by book by book and tell you everywhere it talks about how we are called to praise His name. But I didn't know I'd get that extra 15 minutes, so I didn't do that. But I think that it's fair to say that praise is pretty important. And I love praise and worship. And there are two different things, and today I'm talking about praise, but I love it. See, my family, we love to dance in the kitchen, we've done this forever. Sometimes we'll do it to just fun songs, mostly it's Christian, but we get in there and we just turn the music, and sometimes I dance just simply because I'm happy. And sometimes I dance because the devil has made me stinkin' mad, and I turn the music up really loud, and I dance, and I just have a dance party, just to show him, you know what? I am gonna praise him no matter what. So about a week before I was supposed to speak, and I'd already told Pastor John I was gonna do Psalms 150, I was dancing in the kitchen. But it was a little different because I was learning a dance. It was called the Church Clap. Have you heard that? I mean, it's really, really fun. And so the boys told me that I could not do it during praise and worship. But you know, I told them we never know what I might do during praise and worship, so. But it is actually really, really fun, and I did learn it, but in the process of learning it, I hurt my foot pretty bad. And that made me mad, like really, really mad. So I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything for several days because I thought, you know what, devil, you're trying to steal my dance, and you're not stealing it. And so I just kept walking on it, and it kept getting worse, and I just kept walking on it until I couldn't walk on it anymore, and Tim kind of saw something was kind of weird, and then he sat me down, and so, but it was to me a confirmation that God wanted to talk about praise, and the devil doesn't like it. So last week when Pastor Rhonda asked me to speak, I knew that the Lord had already started that word, and I knew that he wanted to talk about praise. And it's not because you're like horrible prasers because this morning, man, it's like you knew. You don't talk about praise. I don't want that praise on. You weren't praise on the Lord. He was good in here. And I was over there like, oh, so, but anyway, I knew that, so if you were here that Wednesday that I taught on Psalms 150, sitting in a chair, then you may hear a little bit of that in the sermon this morning, but it is my prayer that you are encouraged by the word. It is my prayer that the Lord stirs up the spirit of praise on the inside of you. It is my prayer that it gets so deep inside of you that when you go home, you turn on your music and you dance in your kitchen. That is my prayer that his spirit comes so, so heavy and so strong. In Judges, it says, "It came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord saying, 'Who shall go first against the king of knights?' And the Lord said, 'Judah shall go first, for indeed I have given them this land.' And then we find the same thing down in Judges 20, the people of Israel arose and they went to the house of the Lord and they inquired about him and they said, 'Who shall go first for us to fight against Benjamin?' And the Lord said, 'Judah first.' See, Judah means praise. So the Lord was saying, 'Praise goes first into battle, praise goes before the sermon, praise goes before your week, praise goes before your day, praise goes before the answer comes, and praise goes regardless of what the situation looks like. Amen? Praise goes first because the praise activates the power of God in our life. And in 2 Corinthians, Jehoshaphat is going into battle. And the Lord says, 'Do not fear, for the Lord is with you.' And they stood and they praised the Lord. And he appointed those who should sing and instructed them to put on a garment of praise to go before the horses and before the chariots, before the army and the spears and the swords. The worshipers go first saying, 'Praise the Lord for his mercy and dears forever. Praise the Lord for his mercy and dears forever.' Praise the Lord for his mercy and dears forever. Amen. Now, can you imagine that because that's like crazy to me, that's like dangerously crazy to me. I mean, I watch war movies and I like those old ones, you know, and you've got both the armies and they're like huge all the way back to there and all the way back. And they're marching toward each other and they're coming and they've got their swords and their chariots. And I mean, they're coming in and they're coming and here comes the army of the Lord and here they're singing out loud, praises to the Lord. And they're saying, 'Praise the Lord for his mercy and dears forever. Praise the Lord for his mercy and dears forever.' I can't imagine what that army thought when they heard those people coming. But I know it threw them off a little bit because it's not how it's done. And they were thrown off just a little bit by that. But the Lord knew exactly what he was doing. You know, I can imagine if they're singing, their voices are loud singing. It has to be like, 'What in the world are they doing?' But not just like, 'What are they doing?' 'Oh my gosh, what in the world? What are they thinking?' 'No.' No, they're like, 'What is happening here? This is not how this is done. What are they doing?' So it tells me, you know, when we get into a situation, it doesn't matter how bad it is. It doesn't matter what it looks like. Sometimes God might ask you to do something that's just a little crazy. He might ask you to do something that just doesn't make sense to your natural mind. Something that you just want to surrender yourself and just do what he says. And then he goes and accomplishes something great, amen? So as they began to sing those praises to God with full expectancy that he would fight for them, I'm sure when they heard from the Lord to do that, they were like, 'Okay, we've got this and they were doing it.' But here when they're going in expecting, 'I don't know how God's going to work through this, but I know he will because if he said it, he'll do it.' And they're going in. They're knowing that he is a keeper of his word. He began to set ambushes around about that surprise attacks. That's when you don't know what's going on. God is setting surprise attacks around because he is going to fight the enemy for you when you praise him, amen? So God does the unexpected and that goes for us every time because our enemy, he is smart. I want to say that's stupid devil, he's not stupid. He is smart and he says, 'I think wise as a serpent.' And he knows what he's doing and what the thing is, is he watches you and he knows just exactly what he needs to do to get to you. And he goes after it hard and heavy. And so when we go into battle and we take our praise before us, when we're standing there and we're saying, 'Lord, I don't know, but I know you are good. I know you are faithful and I know you'll see me through this.' The enemy doesn't even know what to do with that because he doesn't expect it. He expects us to be like, 'Oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, I do that too. Oh goodness, Lord Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.' But when we say, 'Oh no, when we get it and we begin to praise him, praise changes the atmosphere and praise creates an atmosphere for God to work.' So when we're praising him, he's working on our behalf. He's sending the angels in. He's throwing the enemy off. That's why praise should encompass every part of our life. That's why we praise him. So coming out in every area, in every place, there should be praise, making it our aim to praise him anytime and anywhere through prayer. At my desk, doing dishes, telling others about him, and especially in the sanctuary, we should praise his name because he is worthy. See David loved to praise the Lord, but it wasn't just that he loved it, but it was because of his love for God that he couldn't stop it. He didn't want it, he couldn't contain it. And I'm afraid sometimes, sometimes in life and sometimes in the sanctuary, I think we sometimes contain it. I think we put a lid on it. I mean, you know, I don't want to be too much and I don't know, you know, I wonder what they would think about me and seriously, I really don't know what I'm going to look like. You know, I was going to get up here and pass it on to say, 'Did I want to be on the stage or on the floor?' Let's go on to what shoes I can wear. And then I was like, 'Vanities of entities,' but you know, we wonder what will we look like if, see, I wore these shoes, they're hills. I thought about wearing tennis shoes, but now you're looking at those. So I did think about it though, I thought that'd be really fun. So I wonder if when David was talking in Psalms 145 and he said, 'I will meditate on your wondrous works.' If meditate is the secret key, I wonder if that's what brought forth the life of appraiser in David. In 2 Samuel, he danced before the Lord with all of his might. And when his wife saw him, it says she despised him for it. Hmm, then he said, 'Oh, I will be even more undignified than this when it comes to praising my Lord.' And that is where we need to be. Like it doesn't really matter what you think. It doesn't really matter what I look like when I'm praising him, because I'm not praising you. And I really don't care what you think about it. I love you, but I don't care. So see, we meditate on things of God. We think about him throughout the week. We're in the Word, we're listening to praise and worship, we're thinking about his greatness and his faithfulness, because the more that we get to know him, the more we want to praise him. And the more that of the life that we live, it's the more times we see his faithfulness and his goodness come through for us, amen? And so it's the more that we want to praise him. So we come in early because you've been doing it all week. So you come in here and you cannot wait. Like that, Mama Linda says, I come early just to be part of the praise and worship practice. So I can then be a part of the praise and worship because I'm excited to be in the house of the Lord because she's been praising at the house and she can't wait to come and praise with this people, amen? And that's where we need to be. Like I cannot wait to get into his presence because he has done so much for me. So you're just excited to praise him. Kind of like that Brandon Lake song that says it might get loud. I love that song. I've been driving everyone crazy because I play the same songs over and over all week. It says excuse me for a minute because I've got a song to sing. No one else can tell it like I can. And this might take me all day so I better start right now and it might get loud because I'm going to talk about how good he is because he's faithful all the time, yes and amen, yes Lord. So we've got to do that. That is what Sunday mornings need to look like but we get so busy in the world. You know it's been a hard week. I just haven't really had a lot of time to think about praise this morning. You should see what's happening at my house. I mean we've been busy after all. I haven't really had that much time and I'm really kind of tired because I had to work all stinking week. And then when I come in here I'm just hoping they sing a song I like. But in my opinion and you know this everyone's entitled to theirs and in my opinion I believe that our praise and worship should sound better than a sporting event. I believe when we're at a sporting event and everybody is cheering for their team because we're cheering for the one and the only one who deserves our praise and that, let me let's just be honest. We can go to the ball games. We can go watch our kids play and I think you should shout. I mean when you go to watch your kids play or you love sports and there you know Marcus is he loves football. I mean he's like up off the couch yelling at the TV you know and that's all good. That's all great. But let's be honest. Those balls are going to lose at least sometimes. I'm sorry, yeah the Alabama is going to lose too and you know all those people they're going to lose some pardon so they're going to lose but but Jesus wins every battle he ever attends. Yes he does. He never loses one. So you can shout and you can praise him because you can guarantee that he's going to win everything he starts. A man? See our praise literally activates the power of his name. The word says he inhabits the praises of his people. He begins to work on our behalf that he deserves our praise. He's working for a sea Buddha. Buddha's not doing anything but sitting in a corner with fruit in front of him that he can't even eat. I don't even understand that. And then you've got Muhammad. Well Muhammad is dead and he didn't raise from the dead but Jesus did and Jesus was sitting on the right hand of the Father and he is coming back one day and he deserves our praise. Amen. Yes. Yes Lord so all throughout scripture from the very opening verse in chapter one in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and right there right off the bat we learn that wherever God's spirit works wherever God is there are two things that are going to happen. One there's going to be a movement. That's why we gather. That's why we lift our hands and our voice. That's why sometimes you see someone get a little excited. Maybe they step out of their comfort zone. They start dancing and jumping. They get a little bit loud because in those moments the spirit of God is moving on them. They feel his presence and they remember when God stepped in when they were at their very lowest and set them free from what the enemy thought was going to keep them captive. Amen. He renewed their mind when they should have lost it. He restored what the enemies stole. It's like fire shut up in their bones and they cannot contain it and they don't want to contain it and they don't want to be quiet. Amen. And number two when the spirit is present you're going to see light and you're going to see revelation. It's all of a sudden one of those songs is just going to hit different. Have you ever had that happen? They're singing raise a hallelujah or he's a way maker. I mean those get me going because you know he is those things to me. See I've been there. I know. So you start thinking about how good he is and how good he's been to you and he's the one most high over all my circumstances. His name is mighty and strong. He speaks something and he speaks into nothing and brings something. He is sovereign over all the world. He's the creator of the universe and he interacts with a moment. And when God's people move toward him he moves toward you. Oh yeah and he reveals himself and we begin to see him for who he is. After crossing the Red Sea Mariam led the women into praise. Sing to the Lord for he is triumph gloriously. After taking her son to the Lord Hannah praise there is none like my Lord. There is none beside you. There is no rock like our God. Solomon praised him blessed be the Lord who fulfills his promises. Paul in the middle of prison not knowing if they were about to come and kill him gave praises to the Lord saying rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. And when Stephen was being stoned his faith in Jesus he lifts up his voice and says keep your eyes on Jesus for we will be able to rejoice in his presence. See he is our God that does all of those things. He is faithful he's your God Tina you've seen him interact in your life. You've seen him step in when you didn't know what was going to happen. Yes he is the God of every situation Anthony he's your God. You've seen him step into your life. He's been faithful to you right amen he has. Yes he comes in when we don't even know what's going to happen and he walks into the middle of our praise he is worthy and because of those things we can't even we should never even be able to contain our praise because we couldn't even exist without him. He is supreme he can exist without us he doesn't want to he doesn't even need us but he wants us. Isaiah says I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the angels cried holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come and the whole earth is filled with his glory see they didn't just say it once because once just wasn't enough but they kept crying it out and they've been crying it out now for thousands of years circling the throne of God saying holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty and sometimes not all the time but sometimes we get to we're facing something and we come in and we barely move or lift our voice when the praise team is leading us into worship when they're trying to usher in the presence of God and I'm saying we can't take those moments lightly. We are blessed people I mean we are blessed in many ways we are blessed because we get to come here and gather in his name freely and nobody was sneaking in under in the darkness in the cover of night but we come right in this house we turn the music up loud and we get to praise him we are privileged in that area we have a great praise team and they come and they give of their time in the mornings yep and we are blessed by that we are blessed by them and that's why we've got to come in here and use our voice and lift our hands break that flesh off of us and when they repeat a verse a couple of times it's because sometimes some things just take repeating to get it for it to get past the distractions in our mind for it to get on the inside of you for you to say it out loud for it to become alive in you at that moment and when it does God moves in light pushes back the darkness and it's like that praise is going before you into battle into the week when you don't even know what's coming but God does he says praise goes first he is so big and so mighty and we should never be sitting on that I'm I'm just I mean you guys did great praise in the Lord I'm not like me I was like you hate me but I'm not it but we should never sit quiet on that when he is in the room it is our job it is our honor to praise him a man and I heard about an article that says that it's that there's something about this I don't know something about the chords of the music that just strike your emotions and then it that just makes you be a that makes you you know like cry or maybe act crazy and maybe it's a little bit of a demonstration maybe they're pulling on you and it's just like a little bit of drama well I'm just gonna tell you that made me mad too like it made me really mad like for several days I was mad and I was just like no I was mad and then I fought okay that's fine to that I say God made me emotional so Chris go ahead and hit that chord that strikes my emotion that one you know that God created in the heaven anyway you go ahead and strike that corn you know the God that created the whole universe and the whole everybody was praising him in heaven go ahead he started it anyway and I'll just go ahead and get a little bit of emotional and I'll go ahead and praise him because you know what that's who he created me to be they can take their little emotional articles and burn them so I feel about it because see when I'm talking about his goodness I can't help it I get so excited because I know that he is taking care of situations that I can never take care of on my own amen so it's really it is who I am but it is really who you are too because it's who God created us to be and and sometimes it we just get a little uncomfortable and when it comes out maybe it looks a little bit different but it doesn't need to look the same you know they said the boy said pester on to praises praises the Lord like you I said maybe I praise the Lord like his drawn because I watched your like and I read her like a book all the time because I wanted what she had you know that's what we do we we find we get in his presence we don't let anything pushes back or stop us because all we want to do is praise him giving him everything that you are and sometimes it's bowing sometimes it's just speaking his name lifting our hands sometimes it's loud sometimes it's clapping Psalms 147 says clap your hands all ye people and shout with a voice of triumph see clapping and shouting happens almost without thinking about it when you're excited have you ever noticed I do it all the time and and you can't you just can't just can't stand still you're excited you're you're you're shouting about it you can't help it and the same thing should happen in the house of the Lord amen see God wants to get us to the place where we praise him on purpose it says I will praise you with my whole heart until of your marvelous works to praise him with defined moments I stop seven times a day just to praise him because you are perfect in all of your ways to praise him with our very being let all that I am praise the Lord we live to bring him praise and not stay silent scripture says open your mouth and let his praises come forth and of the all of the weapons that the Lord gives us praise and worship is one of the highest because through our praise God deals directly with our spiritual enemies and I'm telling you when you're desperate you'll do desperate things when you're desperate you won't really care what anybody thinks when you get when things get so bad that you don't want anyone even to look at you that thing about caring about what they think when you praise the Lord falls away see I've been there because in my between me and my hardest and my darkest days he gave me a song between me and the things that weigh heavy on my heart even today I am telling you that I would have lost hope if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living in my land in my house in my family I would have given up hope but I know I know that he is faithful so when you get to that place and your heart just really gets it your focus changes you have to see it through his word the truth of his word see I love him and I am so thankful for the times that he picked me up and carried me when I couldn't do it by myself because if it wasn't for him I wouldn't even be right here today years ago when the enemy came against us and I didn't want anybody to look at me I was like I just don't even look at me and all I could do is I just wanted to get in the altar just just I just had to get there and the Lord began to work and he began to do a work inside of me I am thankful for what he's done for me and it might touch my emotions but it's my heart and my spirit that doesn't keep quiet for the Lord is good and his steadfast lavenders forever and his faithfulness is to all generations he forgives iniquities he heals diseases he redeems our lives he executes righteousness and justice he is merciful and gracious he is slow to anger and abounding and mercy because he gave us his only begotten son and he gave us a blessing of calling us his children he's offered a salvation that we do not deserve and he gives us his Holy Spirit see these are more than enough reasons to praise him and David wrote I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me out of all of my fears remembering that God has delivered us before reminds us to praise him while we're waiting on that deliverance again it reminds us that we can trust him to do it again see he's faithful to his word to complete it he is your strength and your peace and your hope and your confidence and the word talks straight to your soul and whenever you find yourself in a place that's just so heavy I just I just go to the Psalms and I just start reading them out loud I just start and they get into my mind and they get into my heart and the Lord draws near he begins to comfort my spirit because he is near to all who call on him it doesn't mean that your situation is going to change I wish it did like that be beautiful maybe not though because then you might not grow you might not see him in the different ways that he is sometimes it takes that sorrow and that hurt and that broken in 1999 I was on my front porch and we were going through it and I had third day playing and they were singing your love oh Lord and I played it because I get a song and if it's ministering to me just play it and but that day standing on my porch my spirit got it it hit me different and his sweet presence washed over me and nothing had changed not one thing in 2015 I was sitting in my breezeway and the song Good Good Father came on and the enemy had been wearing me out but in that moment the Lord he just swooped in so gently he just wrapped me up in his love and nothing had changed not one thing in my Bible I have all these dates of places where he spoke to me and I've wrote the date and what I was praying about and I was looking through whenever I'm reading and looking through I'm a hall I remember when the Lord spoke to me about that I remember when the Lord came and changed that situation he is so good he loves us so much I don't see how we can ever be quiet I don't see how we can't just get emotional oh but when we read about it when we hear about it when we sing about it there is no way just to be silent about it unless you don't know him because if you know him you can't be quiet because he can walk on water when it's impossible he can take children his children through on a sea on dry ground he can raise a man from that's been dead for four days he can raise him up he can heal a woman who has been sick for twelve years he can do all the things that we need him to do we just have to trust him and sometimes we just have to break our flesh before him and say I'm going to praise him because I don't feel like it nothing is going right Jesus yes I don't even see how you can ever fix this thing that I'm facing God I don't see how but God I know I know that I know that I know that he can and no one can take it away from me Jesus and the thing about it is sometimes sometimes the Lord brings that answer but sometimes you see he brings that answer for someone else and you're still over there waiting and you just keep raising him you just keep praising him because when the devil told me something the other day and he was just bothering me and I said you know what I don't know I don't even know but you know what I do know it's gonna happen because God said it was gonna happen and if I'm doing this over heaven I'm gonna see it happen because it's gonna happen because God said it was going to happen so just please shut up I mean really sometimes you just got to stop stop see he's faithful to complete his word and the word is when he just begins talking to you oh there's nothing there's nothing like it he can step in the very last minute the the very last ending of a game when we are ready to give up and do the impossible amen he is able to do all of that he's greater he's bigger than the biggest he's better than the best he's higher than the highest he is most God above all others he is so good and he didn't get up with an alarm clock today he's not sitting around wondering what he's gonna do later on this afternoon he's not trying to think hmm planning out what what I'm gonna do here and what I'm gonna do there no he is just focused on your praise he's coming to this place to meet you right here and when you when we gather you can guarantee you gather in his name you call out his name and he is there you start singing the praise songs oh we're building an atmosphere for him and he comes and he's over here he's touching somebody over here he's touching somebody over here he's touching somebody over here and you're at the very end of yourself you don't even know how you're ever gonna make it you don't even know you're just here you just made it in the door and all of a sudden his presence moves and he moves right over here and before you know it you can't even stand it because his presence is coming saturated you and you get it and you know it's gonna be okay a man Jesus so our praise has to go before us into the week it has to go before us into everything that we're doing and while we're praising him he's stepping into your past he's stepping into a situation that you found yourself in in a time that you were hurt in a time that you feel like you messed up so bad there's no fixing it a time when you cried and you felt like he wasn't even there he steps in and redeems at time and then he comes right out of that and he walks right into your future oh he just walks right in and he starts fixing stuff see that's my Jesus that's what he does he is good that's why we praise him because nothing is too impossible for him he is over all the things are passed he's working he's working into our present he's working we see he's gonna work out I'm gonna praise him he's gonna be working on something that I don't even know is coming but I'm already praising him and I'm already saying God oh Lord Jesus you are worthy so whatever comes father I will you will find me praising you Lord let me always be found praising you oh Jesus and your answers may not come right away it could be a decade from now but you just hold on if he said it he is not a man that he should lie and he will do it a man so we declare his loving kindness in the morning we declare his faithfulness every night everywhere every moment that we get every opportunity we take it and our voice our voice is one of the more most important things you have so make it loud sometimes we were going through something and I had to keep the music so loud because I had to drown out the voice of the enemy and if it wasn't loud he would just whisper his lies to me and I had to turn it up I'm just blare it and and drown that voice out and that's what sometimes we have to do and sometimes I just scream it out loud Jesus because I need you on this situation right now God there is nothing I can do about this but God you can but he is faithful and he will amen so any it doesn't matter when things are going great you know it's easy but man it's in those hard times when things aren't going great sometimes that's hard to praise him but we praise him anyway amen he is merciful and I think sometimes trouble kind of makes us forget that he's faithful kind of makes us forget that he is going to come up and show off for you so we open the book and we start reading it out loud and we remind ourselves he's got a pretty good record I think I can count on him I might not can count on you to always have my back but I can count on him to always have my back I can't always count on you to be on my side but you know what I can always count on him to be on my side I can't always count on you to see it like I see it but I can count on him if he said it hey it's all I need I know he said it I know when you know that you know that you know there is nothing can take that away so God is calling us to be appraiser he is calling us to be appraiser that has emotions and feelings and flesh and failures going through some junk but we'll say I'm not going to be quiet not in the middle of any of this I'm going to praise him regardless regardless of what it looks like I'm going to praise him and there's something that happens when you do that there is something that gets unlocked when you praise him something that gets loosed something that gets unleashed she prays and thanksgiving submission and worship they go hand in hand and they they unlock there's so much power in that and Psalms 86 says no pagan God is like you none can do what you can do because you do wonders see God is not a trend he's not something new that just came on the scene he is faithful he's been around forever there is no one that can compare to him and when Jesus entered the city the people praised him and the leaders got mad about it they didn't like it and he said if they don't praise me the rocks will cry out I said I had never really seen a rock cry out I had seen the ocean roar in the trees wave but if you want to know about a rock ask Chris because the rocks are crying out the Bible says there's coming a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord and we get to do that right now in Psalms 150 it spans all of our expression of praise from quiet sorrow to loud celebration it gives us a picture of loud and vibrant praise it stands out as the loudest and the most celebratory it leaves very little doubt I don't think it leaves any doubt that loud instruments dancing are an important part of the history of God's people and then he says lift up your voice and praise the Lord because your voice is a weapon pastor Steven would you thank you see our voice is our greatest weapon so you send your praise into the week send your praise into that impossible situation this week and watch God work for you he's just waiting on you to open your mouth and praise him he's just waiting to hear from you let everything that hath breath praise the Lord for his mighty deeds and his excellent greatness see the word in no way leads us to believe that we are supposed to be a casual observer of this thing called praise it says to get loud about it it says to praise him anywhere it says to talk about his goodness and his mercy everywhere you go all day long just talking about the goodness of God and when you walk up to someone and you hear they're telling them your story and you can tell them let me tell you about what God can do for you let me tell you about what God did for me see someone said to me one time is how do you have that testimony when you haven't seen that answer well that made him mad too and so I was like well all I know is that I can trust him and all I know is if he said a thing he will do that thing because he's worthy of our praise amen so when you really get to know him you can't help but praise him when you we couldn't even exist without him so I challenge you to take your praise to the next level in the sanctuary in the kitchen maybe don't do the church clap but just praise the Lord like a normal person and turn up the music really loud like loud like I don't always listen to it loud but sometimes I just need it loud so turn it up you know it gets to that emotional part better and just make it loud and walk through your house praising him I'm telling you there's nothing like it it's a it's amazing how that makes you feel so I encourage you this week send praise first and right now I'm gonna give you an opportunity to practice I want to give you an opportunity not that you didn't do great this morning that row right there you know the prize I could give up prizes so I didn't bring any like chocolate kisses or something or I toss them out there but the the Lord dove chocolate that's better to me the Lord wants us to praise him so I'm gonna give you the opportunity you'll stand I want to encourage you this morning first of all just just with eyes open wide if you don't know him he came for you today if you haven't made him your personal savior and asked him to come in and live and rain in your heart he came for you today he's been waiting on you if you want a closer walk with him if you say you know what the enemy has been wearing me out I think I've lost my praise I think I forgot about that you say I've been such a battle fighting it in the natural was it's been so hard that I forgot God says send praise first and watch me work for you whatever that need is in your life send praise first amen you send praise first and you remember that when he hears your voice he answers when he hears your voice he shows up on the scene he answers the prayers he meets the need there's nothing too difficult there's nothing too hard for him he loves you he wants to hear from you it's your voice he wants he's he's starving for it because he wants to come in and meet you and blow your mind isn't that a good thing Jesus is good he is faithful so I am and you might also think you know I've seen kind of like you know different things and honestly I'm just gonna be honest with you to just let loose kind of freaks me out a little bit one time I was in a big event and and they were all dancing and I'd never seen it but I felt hungry for it like I was like if that's real I want to be able to do I want I want to do that so I just went off a way by myself and just started worship just start doing what I need to do and then started dancing before him and there's no going back from that so he is after your heart this morning so I'm gonna ask you if you will come down make this altar your dancing place come in and dance before him come in and just give him your best praise worship him for who he is if you have a special need and you want someone to specifically pray for you grab one of us all we would love to do that otherwise let's just give him worship a man let's give him praise [MUSIC PLAYING]