Sermon Central
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The Priority Of Praise
Contributed by David Dewitt on Sep 9, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: Praise must be a priority in our lives
The Priority of Praise
July 9, 2006
Morning Worship
Introduction
Mike Ditka is one of those sports personalities who seem larger than life. Now coach of the New Orleans Saints, he recently shocked his coaching staff when he announced that he would not use profanity anymore. According to those who have known him through the years, Ditka was in the habit of introducing colorful words in virtually every conversation, using them as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. After eight months he has kept that promise and this season told his players, "I have done a lot of stupid things in my life that I probably won’t do again and using profanity is one of them. There is no room for it on the field. It might slip out every now and then, but I don’t want to hear it. Now when you feel like swearing, I want you to say, ’Praise the Lord.’"
Why is it so important to praise God? Why is important to worship God? What does it accomplish for us?
"Would you know who is the greatest saint in the world? It is not he who prays most or fasts most; it is not he who gives most alms, or is most eminent for temperance, chastity, or justice, but it is he who is always thankful to God, who wills everything that God willeth, who received everything as an instance of God’s goodness, and has a heart always ready to praise God for it." William Law
Worship is the act that we offer ourselves over to reveal our love for God. It is an essential aspect of being a Christian, offering your praise, love and your life to God. Worship is not just an act that happens in church on Sunday mornings. It is a lifestyle that drives us to desire becoming more like Jesus.
1 Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. 2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4 praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD. Psalm 150
The Call to Praise (1)
Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
The first verse of this psalm litterally is formed from just two Hebrew words Hallelu Yah which combine to make hallelujah - praise the Lord. We have been called to praise the LORD but what does that mean in a practical sense.
PRAISE = “to commend, to applaud or magnify” - For the Christian,
praise to God is an expression of Worship, Lifting-up & Glorifying the Lord.
WORSHIP = in English, to ascribe worth, to pay homage, to reverence.
- in Hebrew, the word most commonly translated “worship” in the OT means “to
prostrate (oneself)”
PROSTRATE = in Websters, stretched out with face on the ground in adoration or submission, bow down, fall down flat, do reverence
- in Greek, the word most commonly used in the NT (for worship)
means “to kiss the hand, to prostrate oneself
Hebrews 13:15 - Through Jesus, therefore, let us CONTINUALLY offer to God a
sacrifice of praise -- the fruit of lips that confess His Name.
We have been called to lift up the name of God, to humble ourselves and adore Him. The problem is that we come to worship with other concerns that have nothing to do with genuine worship.
Often, we get centered on what we like or what we want from the worship service. We want certain songs or specific types of music. we like certain instruments or certain things.
Matthew 15:7-8 - 7 “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you; 8 ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
It is not enough to just show up to worship and sit through a service. Jesus wants more than that, He wants genuine worship from your heart.
Praise God in his sanctuary
We are to applaud or lift up the name of God in His sanctuary. This means more than just being in church. It means that any and every time that we are in the presence of God, we have reason to offer Him praise. Every place that we are is a sanctuary because we are never out of the presence of God.
Praise him in his mighty heavens
Many translations interchange two other words for heavens: firmament and expanse. In essence, all three are attempting to describe the foundational formation of the universe which is the firmament. The firmament was a great expanse that held the fabric of the heavens together. It is the power that stretches across the entire universe.
