Have You Gone Public with Your Praise?, Part 1

That's it. That's why it's called the gospel, which literally means good news. It's the good news.

Have you come out of the closet? Have you come to the place where everybody knows that you are not ashamed to praise the Lord, to lift him up anywhere, anytime, for any reason at all in front of anybody? See, if you're appraiser, just wave your hand in the air and wave it like you just don't care. Because if you're a real appraiser, guess what? This ain't even for you. Because you say to me, pastor, I don't need to

come out of closet. I ain't never been in. From the moment I accepted Jesus Christ, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everybody who believes. I was glad when they said unto me, let us come into the house of the Lord. And so I came to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. So now I ain't in no closet. I don't need to come out because I praise him wherever I am. I don't play church. I am the church. And you and I know there's

power in praise. Have you read your scripture? You open your Bible and you'll see there's power in praise. Acts 16 Paul and Silas are in jail now. They're not in jail because they didn't pay their child support. They're not in jail because they violated their order of protection. They're not in jail because they were pushing crack. They're in jail because they were preaching Christ. You heard that before. And so they didn't call Johnnie Cochran. Guess what they did.

Paul said, my name starts with P. I'll pray your name starts with S. You sing. And so Silas starts singing and Paul start praying and praise turn a jailhouse into a worship house. And they were set free by the power of prayer. I can imagine them now, Silas said. I don't know what to sing. He said, come on, just sing something. Your name starts with it. Victory is mine. Victory is mine. Victory! Today is mine! All the prisoners now. Is hearing. What's this noise coming out of there? Get

thee behind victory today! Then all of a sudden, the bars got happy. Victory! And then all of a sudden, they just fell down. Prostrate to God. Whoo! And so what happened? Praise turned to jailhouse into a church house. And I submit to you, if you study the passage, here's what you'll find. They stayed in jail longer than they had to. How do you know that, Pastor Ford? Because what got him out of jail? Praise. That's what the. Read, read, read it, I ain't telling. Look, look, I ain't telling

you no lies. Read it. Acts 16. They start praising them, and God released them from the jail. But what time they go to jail? 6 p.m.. What time they start praising round bout midnight. How many hours is that? Six hours a day. That started six hours earlier. They'd have been released earlier. Maybe there is some of you who are bound because you don't know how to praise. Amen. Amen. And so they were set free. Look what happened. Children of Israel, walls of Jericho. No bulldozer, no wrecking ball.

But the dynamite of praise blew down the wall. God said walk around seventh day seven times and then shout. And when they shouted unto the Lord, Hallelujah! The walls came down. And so a fortress was turned into a freeway. Because the Bible says. They walked up on the wall into the city. So the wall didn't fall out. The wall fell in because God want to make sure even when I deliver you, I'm going to make sure it's easier for you to walk up in that city. I'm

telling you, that's the power of praise. Praise turned a war into a worship service where Jehoshaphat had three enemies. And he said, here's what I want you to do. Put the choir in front. And the choir began to sing it. It says, as they praised him. In the midst of all the praise, the enemy was defeated. There's power in praise now don't look at me funny, because

David says the same thing. He says, in essence, in this 34th Psalm, the Lord must be praised for who he is, not just for what he has done, so that everybody knows that our praise is not conditioned by our condition. Mhm. See, praise has the power to lift you above fear and circumstances, and it lets everybody know. Look, I don't have to have things as long as I have him. I will rejoice in him because when I have him, I have everything I need. We have to

go public with our praise Saints. I'm serious about this. Now, let me give you the con. Before I give you the content. You gotta study. And then, like I say all the time, if you won't come to Bible study, I'll bring the Bible study to you. Psalm 34. Look at it. Look at your app or your or your Bible. It is. Notice it has a superscription. What's that? Uh, right. Before you get to the first verse, here's what it says a Psalm of David when he changed his behavior

before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed. Now he's given us the context of why David wrote it. So if you don't know why he wrote it, it won't make the impact on you that it should. But when you know he wrote this when he went to Abimelech, feigning that he was insane, running from Saul, going to the enemies of God and the people of God to get help. Mhm. And so he it's found in first Samuel 2110 through 15. And it is acrostic psalm, say

acrostic psalm. Say what is that Pastor Ford. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. And he uses all 22. There are 22 verses. So he starts it off with uh, a and a Beth and then all the way down until he gets to the end of the alphabet. So each verse starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. Now there's meaning to the madness. Why does he do that? He gives you a literation ration for memorization. That's why I do it. You say everything you do, pastor,

is alliterated. If it's not alliterated at the beginning, it's alliterated at the end. Why do you do that? Because I'm getting old. It's hard to remember. And I can remember all P's, all R's, all S's, and so can you R. And so remember now this is a song. And when you look at it, I want to remind you that Leviticus was the worship handbook. The Psalms is the worship songbook and revelation is the worship picture book. Okay. Let me bring it together for you, Leviticus. You have

to know it in your mind. This is how God prescribed worship. Worship is prescribed. That is, you don't get to decide how you want to worship God. God tells you how he wants you to worship him. Ergo, if you don't worship God the way God says worship him, then you're not really worshiping God. Then Psalms, You sing it in your heart. So Leviticus know it in your mind, sing it in your heart. And revelation gives us the picture of worship so we can store it in our mind.

So when you go to revelation chapter four. Chapter five, you see in revelation chapter four the worship of the father for creation. Chapter five the worship of the son for Calvary. And you see them giving him glory and honor. And he says, listen, uh, we wanted to be on earth as it is in heaven, in heaven there shouting, and there's joy in the presence of God in heaven. There's a Amen and a hallelujah for the Lord in heaven. Somebody dancing, somebody singing, somebody shouting in heaven. My only

question is what's going on down here on earth? And so David praises God because God gave him what he needed and not what he deserved. You know why he wrote this? Because he was wrong. But God only did him right that he was in a mess. But God turned into a message. Okay, let me see if I can get you to connect. If you lived the way you were supposed to live when you left here last Sunday to this Sunday, and you never sinned and you never did anything wrong. And you never thought a wrong.

You never did a wrong. Then you could just sit there and just look at me. But if God has forgiven you of something he has provided for you, he's put clothes on your back, food on your table. If God has put a roof over your head. He didn't say that he had to do that, but he did that. Look at all the things you thought about. I just leave it with me. Look at all the things I thought I shouldn't have thought. Look at all the things I said I shouldn't have said. Look at all the

things I did. I shouldn't, did. But yet I was able to walk in here under my own power. He gave me mercy. He gave me grace. He allowed me to come and talk to you today. I got to give him praise. I have to, I have to, because unlike you, I got issues and I struggle with them. And every time he. I don't get a lightning bolt out of heaven. I quote Romans chapter two. Don't you know that the goodness and forbearance of God is designed to lead you to repentance? But God ain't looking over it.

God is saying, alright, I'm going to give you one more chance. Imma give you one more chance. And I'm here today. You don't want to know why? Because he gave me one more chance. And so I gotta thank you.

have missed. Again, it's treasure truth radio. Let's get back to our look at Psalm 34. Once again, here is Pastor Ford.

You see what's happening here? What happened? You begin to hear it, and it began to inculcate itself in your memory. So now you can regurgitate it. It's long gone. Nobody's using it again. But it's become so much a part of you. All I have to say is five, 82, 300 and everybody says Empire. That's what David is talking about here, that that's the way praise ought to be. It ought to be innate. It ought to be something that when somebody says, Jesus died for us, if Jesus

died for you, Amen. Uh, yeah. That he covered me with his blood. If he covered cover you with his blood. Amen. I mean, it's a natural response of what God has done for us. David feigned madness to get out of his trouble, and he says, I'm out of my trouble, but not because of my astuteness, but because of his authority, not because of my obstinacy, but because of his omnipotence. Not because of my skill, but his will. David praises God because God gave him what he needed and not

what he deserved. David's saying, even when I was acting not in faith, God was still faithful because he cannot deny himself. Now let me let me just give you a little bit of teaching here. Y'all don't mind the Bible, do you? In verses one through ten is a natural break, and then 11 through 22 is the second division. There are two divisions, or what we would call two choruses to this psalm and one through ten. It's the praise portion of it. in 11 through 22. It's the proclamation

part of it in one through ten. It's a song, but in 11 through 22 it's a sermon, and one through ten it's a devotional. But in 11 through 22 it is doctrinal. And then finally, in one through ten, the focus is the grace of God. In 11 through 22, the focus is the government of God. Now let me put it together for you so you can see what David is doing. David is saying he, give me grace. And so what I want to do is give him government.

In other words, since he's given me the grace of God, I want to tell you he's in charge of my life since he gave me a song in my heart. I'm going to preach you the sermon. And whenever God has had me in devotions, I want to give you doctrine. That's what David is saying. He's saying, listen, if you're going to go public with your praise, you need these things. Let's drop em. Let's not push them, clothe ourselves with them and go on and let me get my number eight.

Here's the elements. Here's the first one. Your praise must be personal. Mm. I know you like that one. See, that's what I've been talking about. Just because they run, that don't mean I gotta run. Just because they holler don't mean I have to holler. Shoot this personal. Yes it is. Notice what he says. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth, my soul. Now, you need to understand what's going on here. The I is emphatic. The my is emphatic.

What does that mean, Pastor Ford? Glad you asked. You ask, uh, intelligent questions. I focus on the actor, the one who's doing the blessing. Will is the attitude. Contrary to how I feel. Uh, bless the Lord. Uh, is a focus on action. This is the action. And, of course, the Lord. Uh, the focus is on the Almighty. So here I will bless the Lord. Uh, is actor attitude, action. And almighty. That's what he's saying. That's the focus now. It's personal.

What do you mean by that passport? I mean, it's emphatic. So what's emphatic? Here's what he's saying. I don't care what everybody else around me came to do. I came to praise the Lord. I don't care if nobody else says Amen. I'm going to say Amen. I don't care what anybody else do me. Let me tell you, let me tell you I don't know what you came to do. But I came to praise the Lord. I came to bless his name. I came to jump and shout. And

that's exactly what he's saying. See, if you came to get something from God, then you came for the wrong reason. If you're one of the ones who only come for the sermon, then you came for the wrong reason. Because it's not about a sermon. It's not about a band. It's not about a choir or praise team, or even the preaching of the Word of God, even though it

should be central. But it's about coming together in a corporate expression and expressing to one another, and to God how grateful we are that he let us come back one more time. Sound. Yeah. Here's what he's saying. Yeah, it ain't just about a sermon. Now notice he says it must be voluntary will. It must be voluntary. In other words, he's saying I got the Lord's praise on speed dial. That's what I have. See, he's teaching us that praise is not an option. Praise is an obligation. Oh, yeah,

it's an obligation. Yeah. Okay. Get this. Uh, I like sports, but I like football. I'm not a baseball fan. Even though Pirates is my team, I just say Pirates. My team. I don't even watch the games. And I was wondering, what's the uproar? What are y'all hauling about? And, you know, all in the store. Yeah, yeah. High five slapping high fives. The Cubs are going to the World Series. I said really? Yes. Finally we're going to. Oh, hey, bro, check this out. Yeah,

you heard right. You heard. Now, it's not just because I'm not from Chicago. But let me tell you what I start thinking about. I start thinking about y'all. I said, how many of them right now who sit there all service. Don't open their mouth. Don't move. Don't say nothing. Don't stand. If you say, look at your neighbor. They're like, I don't want to see him. Look at my neighbor. I ain't high fiving nobody. I live in the suburbs. What

are you talking about? High five. I said, I wonder how many of them was in the store talking about. Did you hear? Or at the job? The cup we in, we in. And then I begin to think the Cubs didn't go to Calvary and die for you. But you can holler for them. But you can't holler for Jesus. The cubs didn't cover you in their blood, but you can holler for the cubs, but you can't holler for Jesus. The cubs didn't write your name in the Lamb's Book

of Life, but you can holler for the cubs. But you can't holler for Jesus that the Cubs ain't coming back to get you. But you can holler for the Cubs. But you can't holler for Jesus. The Cubs don't come in the middle of the night when your body is racked with pain. You don't say, oh, cubs! Huh? Yeah. No one has to coerce you. No one has to prompt you. You ain't praying with me. I submit to you who tell me. Well, you see, when I worship,

I'm a kind of person who doesn't get excited. Then there's something wrong with you and your worship and your relationship with your God. Because if, if, if, if Uptown Funk can make you move and a song about somebody who died for you can't make you move, then there's something wrong with your salvation. Amen. Amen.

faith has heard dozens of excuses from non-believers. Phrases like I'm a good person or I'm spiritual but not religious. Maybe those sound familiar to your ears, but do you know how to respond to those objections? In the book How to Witness to Anyone, R.A. Torrey shares Scripture verses for occasions when you're not quite sure what to say

on your own. Now, this is a practical book that grew out of Doctor Torrey's own work as an international evangelist, and it can equip you with confidence and power when you share the gospel. So request how to witness to anyone when you give a gift of any amount to treasure truth. Just call us at 888644 7660 or go online to Treasure Truth radio.org. You can also send a check in the mail and feel free to include a note in the envelope. Our address is Treasure Truth, 820

North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Take advantage of the limitless power of God's Word and request how to witness to anyone while it's still fresh in your mind. Again, call us at 888644 7006 60 or go online to Treasure Truth Radio.com. I'm Steve Hiller. Our producer is Amy Rios. Join us again next time as we continue this message. Have you gone public with your praise? That's here on Treasure Truth. A production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.