# Psalms 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
What is sacrifice? It is an act of giving up something of the value for the sake of something of greater value or importance.
What is the meaning of Praise? It is an expression of approval or admiration, respect and gratitude as an act of worship.
I believe all of us have no problem singing praises to God, but there is one very important aspect of praise that I want to share tonight, praise is a sacrifice. We are all called to praise and it requires sacrifice. Even when you make up time go attend service when you’re busy or tired is a form of sacrifice. It It is sad to see how many people miss out on God’s blessings; protection, guidance and love just because they do not spend time praising God. It is amazing to see God’s faithfulness and mighty hand while we render praise.
Praise helps you focus on what God is going to do in your life rather than you keeping your focus on what is happening around you.
Our goal as a church is to create an atmosphere in our cell group meetings/services, that has the presence of the Lord.
But firstly, we need to know how to carry the presence of God.
When a people carry the presence of God ...
- You can sense the anointing in their voices ... thinking ... preaching ... singing.
- It is tangible, it is real ... they carry a substance.
Eg-let me ask you, if you’re asked to celebrate a friend’s bday at a karaoke place and you know that you hv to go to church, where would you choose to go in the end?
We should know how to balance up our relationship with people around us. We should learn to put God first in every situation in our life. Maybe we can join the karaoke session after church or surprise your friend with another celebration later on. Balancing with wisdom is the key, making adjustments so that we can attend church service n go for the party.
Every problem whether it is small or big is a trial. If you have low-level commitment, God will send you low-level trials which will take you only into low-level anointing.
- Most people want high-level anointing but they don’t ever check the price tag ... high-level anointing = high-level trials!
- When God sees your commitment, He will shake your hand with a compliment: “Good commitment, congrats! Now, here’s a trial!”
Whether it is a healing anointing, soul-winning anointing, anointing for revival ... for business.
- UNDERSTAND: There is a price to that anointing!
- Jesus got anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit only after six and a half weeks of fighting the devil in the wilderness.
If you’re always agitated, it is because your soul is damaged.
- But the presence and the power of God in this house can restore your soul.
- It can heal you in your heart ... heal you in your mind (memory).
# Matt. 12:20 (NLT)
He will not crush those who are weak, or quench the smallest hope, until
he brings full justice with his final victory.
When Jesus finds a crushed heart, He doesn’t break it, He mends it.
God is a good God—He is not going to break you.
- He’s going to re-fire you.
- He’s going to restore your soul.
# Psalm 23: 3-4
He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
The only way out of your problems is going through them.
All you got to do is keep walking…
- When you want to run away and hide.
- When you don’t want to turn up at church anymore.
- When you don’t want to go to CG anymore.
- When you don’t want to read the Bible and pray.
You have to keep walking, keep walking, keep walking, keep walking ...
- And you’ll find yourself getting through the valley.
- In the Book of Ezekiel, there was a pile of dry bones in the valley.
- They were once people with great potential, visions and dreams.
- But when they were hit with a valley ... they stopped walking ... they gave up!
Friends, that is not a good spirit. We need to continue walking even when circumstances pull us down.
It is because God moves when you move ... God stops when you stop.
- And when those guys stopped walking by faith, they were dried up to their bones ... and they died!
- It is like when your heart stops pumping, you’ll die.
# Psalm 23:5
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
God had prepared a table for us to work out on a solution. The table is always there for us whether do we have trials in life. It is for us to sit there at the table, to pray, plan and find solutions for our battle with 1 condition, which is to put God first in the situation and to use God’s way to solve problems.
There may be things that are threatening your life right now, but don’t concentrate on them.
- Concentrate on the table that God has put in front of you.
- Focus on the promises which God had made for you, not the problems only.
If you’re concentrating at your problems—the financial pressures ... broken relationships ... sicknesses and poor health…
- You’ll miss this incredible feast that is right in front of you.
- Right here, right now, the great power of the Holy Spirit can touch you.
# Psalm 23: 5-6
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I
will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
It means God prepared a feast for you in the presence of your enemies. God welcome you as a guest, anointing your head with oil. Your cup overflows with blessings.
I love the house of the Lord. What about you?
We are all getting ready for the courts of God in heaven.
But the church is the courts of God here on earth.
- If you can dwell in the house of the Lord permanently here on earth ...
- You’ll find it easy to fit into the lifestyle of the house of God in heaven. (That is why we have ongoing programs to integrate members into this church.eg: friends night, emerge, 6degree programmes )
- Church is the place where prayers rise up to God .
- Visions and dreams are sent to us from heaven.
- WE love God’s house and I want to champion the cause of the
church! Amen?
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FACE A TRIAL?
It is not always going to be easy, or convenient to praise God ... it will usually cost you something.
‒ And God’s house must be filled with the sacrifice of praise.
King David, in 2 Sam 24, was out at war and needed to offer a sacrifice to God as a payment for David's own sin. He went to a man who lived nearby and asked if he could build an altar on his land in order to offer the sacrifice to God. The man complied and even donated the land and the oxen for the sacrifice. But David interrupted the man and said, "I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
What is important about David's response to the man was the condition of David's heart. David knew the value of the sacrifice to God and to himself. He knew if he offered a sacrifice to God that didn't cost him anything, then it wasn't really a sacrifice. David would have given up nothing out of his own time, money, and resources; the offering would have no meaning. The meaning was so important that David insisted on it costing him, as David wanted to be the one to make the sacrifice.
In that situation, David was faced with a great temptation ..
He could have conveniently satisfied the demand of God without having to make any personal sacrifice.
- This temptation will come to us again and again!
In the end, David bought the land and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. (act of a sacrifice)
We all run a busy schedule. Our minds are preoccupied with so many things. We are often tired physically and emotionally.
Every time when we come into the house of God, we can easily let the singers, musicians, choir and church leaders make the sacrifice of worship for us!
v24 But David realized that the key of sacrifice = he himself
had to be the one to make the sacrifice!
- David realized that it would be an insult to the face of God to offer a
sacrifice that cost him nothing.
So, David decided to be a giver, not a taker.
- He understood that the underlying principle of all sacrifice = it must touch our hearts and flesh. It is something he does in spite of the way he feels.
God is not interested only in the praise that we give Him when things are going well. God goes after the praise that comes in the midst of great trials, great difficulties, grief, sicknesses, demonic oppressions, temptations, relationship difficulties and financial problems.
When you can give Him your praise in times of difficulties, it means all the more to Him.
A sacrifice must cost you something, it might cost our time, energy or resources that we have. Most of us praise God when it is easy for us—when things are going well, when we get: pay raises, extra bonuses, good examination results, rising careers.
Today, you and I don't offer burnt offerings (sin offerings) up to God. Jesus Christ was that burnt offering, or sacrificial sin offering. Jesus suffered on the cross, not because He was excited to do it, but to end anyone having to make a sin offering. If Jesus was the final offering for our sins, then how do we offer up to God a sacrifice that costs us something? How do we make sure our hearts are like David's?
# 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.
It means we should continually offer up to God the sacrifice of praise. The sacrifice of praise, in this instance, is an actual utterance from our lips and takes the place of us having to make a sin offering. Yes, there are other forms of praise to the Lord, but specifically, it is talking about what comes out of our mouths to praise and glorify Him. That praise, in this verse, is a direct response to God having already forgiven our sins. It is praise for Him and His amazing work in our lives that He completed 2,000 years ago on the cross.
You may not feel like praising the Lord at every given instant of the day, but at times we've sinned, done things we shouldn't have, think thoughts that are not right, we don’t have burn a offering every instant of the day. Every moment of the day is a chance to praise and thank God, with your lips, for the sacrificial offering of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins. Do it in remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross for your own personal salvation.
And if you have no other thing to praise the Lord for, do it because it will bring Him honor, even if you are not excited to do it. If you still can't think of anything in your current situation to praise Him for, do it anyway. It's a sacrifice because He deserves it even when you don't feel like it. It's OK if it costs you something.
1. How often each day do you praise Him for dying on the cross for you?
2. How often each day do you praise Him when you don't feel like it?
3. How often each day do you praise Him?
I want to encourage you to continually offer a sacrifice of praise. It is easy to give praise and thanks to God when you have everything, when all is going well and you lack nothing. But the true challenge is offering up that praise and worship to God when you have NOTHING! If you can still worship the Lord when you have nothing, when you are still suffering, when your body is filled with pain and your heart is aching over a loved one, when your pockets are empty and the bills are mounting, when you’re lonely and desiring a companion, when you seem to be attacked on all sides, if you can still worship the Lord when all you have is your FAITH while seeing no physical His Word, even when prayers are not yet answered.
Are you struggling through life? Are you facing eminent death? Are your finances in crisis? Do you need guidance and direction for your life right now? Whatever situation you are going through, God will be there for you.
As a matter of fact, Joel 2:32 says “whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” It says whosoever, whosoever, WHOSOEVER! That means even you. If you just take a minute and call upon the name of the Lord, YOU WILL BE SAVED from whatever situation you are in. Feel free in His presence. Call upon His names and be blessed and delivered.
When you know you are doing things for God and the things that you do can glorify God, it is an act of praise.The more you praise God by His names, the more He will change you. Let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess His name!
1. Let us be bold in praising, engage with our emotions n not with just our lips.
2. Able to lift up our hands up high.
3. Be sensitive of God's doing around our lives daily n praise Him for all that He has done.
Whatever we do, do all for the GLORY of GOD, who alone is worthy of the GLORY and the PRAISE!
The most important time to praise the Lord
is when you least feel like praising!
is when you least feel like praising!
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