Offering The Sacrifice Of Praise

SHALL A ROCK CRY OUT FOR YOU?

THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com

LEACHES, LEACHES... EVERYBODY WANTS MORE THAN I CAN GIVE...

I hear so much about ENOUGH... HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH...

What can I do when nothing I do is ENOUGH...

Everybody is sucking the very power of life out of my veins...

MY ENOUGH IS NOT ENOUGH, WHAT DO I DO?

I. PRAISE IS NOT ALWAYS AUTOMATIC OR EASY... SOMETIMES TO PRAISE AND FIND JOY

CUTS AGAINST EVERY GRAIN AND FIBER WITHIN THE HEART OF A PERSON.

AT THESE TIMES PRAISE BECOMES A SACRIFICE... PRAISE IS AN OFFERING...

A. OFFERING/SACRIFICE:

THE GIVING OF SOMRETHING YOU VALUE OR LOVE FOR SOMETHING THAT IS

GREATER.

The voluntary giving up of something valued, to give up a thing...

Contribution or gift, donation.

To transfer the possession of freely, hand over...

Jeremiah 17:26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and

from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt

offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the

house of the Lord.

Jeremiah 33:11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of

the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy

endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will

cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the Lord.

Hebrews 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the

fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

B. THE COINSIDENCE OF THE SACRIFICE OF A LOVED NECK TIE...

On my second missions trip to Haiti, I was traveling to different churches to speak of my burden,

and give the opportunity of others to give to Haiti.

The Preachers in Haiti love neck ties. If they are wearing a tee shirt they love a neck tie. The tie

is sort of a symbol of authority. I sent word a head to the church, if they had any neck ties they would

give bring them to the service. We had hundreds of outdated, unwanted neck ties donated. We used

the neck ties as packaging material around the breakables.

I was speaking at Winchester, KY. at the Assembly of God, Herman Gilley was the pastor. Herman

and Davetta have been personal friends 30 years.

There was a large pile of neck ties on the altar in the church as I spoke. Pastor Gilley started crying.

I noticed he was broken and crying very hard, He loosened his neck tie and started pulling the tie

from around his neck. Broken and spilled out he quietly made the trip to the altar and lay his neck tie

down on top of the other ties.

Later that night, Herman's wife, Davetta told me that was Herman's all time favorite neck tie. He had

loved that neck tie and only wore it on special occasions. I tried to give the tie back to Herman, and he

told me the Lord had spoke to him to GIVE THAT TIE TO HAITI.

I watched that tie, I honestly planned on giving it back to Herman later.

As I was packing the guitars in boxes, I placed rolled of ties inside and around the musical instruments

we were taking. I placed Herman's tie in the mouth of a flattop guitar.

I shipped the music ahead of me. When I land in Haiti and got the missions stuff out of CUSTOMS,

we went to the hosting church. Later I was unloading and setting up the guitars and instruments, I got

Herman's tie and held it in my hands and prayed for him and Winchester A/G. Only I knew the sacrifice

of love that tie represented.

One night we gathered all the Pastors of Haiti and prayed over them. We had the neck ties neatly

arranged on tables. Each Pastor could get three ties. We lined the pastors up, oldest to youngest and

allowed them to walk through the line and pick up 3 ties. The first pastor walked through the line, and

to my amazement the first tie he picked up was HERMAN'S LOVE GIFT. The old man only picked up

one tie, he started crying and he had someone put the tie around his neck. The old, black preacher

was crying.

I had no interpreter to tell the preacher the story. But I shall forever remember the SACRIFICE OF LOVE.

Many gave their old, outdated, unwanted ties... that was good. But the LOVE TIE WAS THE FIRST