‘Your Praise And Your Possession’.
Text: Isaiah 43:21, Psalm 67:5-7.
(Testimony and Thanksgiving Service)
There is a connection between our praise and our portion, both in this life and in the life to come, because you know that in the life to come, there is nothing else we will be doing in heaven other than praise and worship our creator and our maker forever and ever.
I will give you two examples of people that saw the connection between their praise and their possession.
1. The children of Israel left Egypt on their way to their inheritance. A portion of their inheritance was Jericho and across Jericho and Jericho could not be taken except with praise. In Joshua 6, God gave instruction to the children of Israel as to how they will both conquer and possess Jericho. They were to proceed into Jericho with a blast of trumpet and a shout of praise and when that happened in Joshua 6:20, as they blasted the sound of the trumpet and gave the sound of praise, the wall of Jericho collapsed and the people went in straight into the city and took their possession. That makes it clear that your praise is connected to your possession, it is connected to your inheritance. There is something that belongs to you in life that you cannot access without your praise.
That’s our first example of how praise gave Israel their possession.
Maybe it is a spiritual possession or marital possession or financial possession but your praise is a vital link between what you lack and what you can have.
2. David was that instrumentalist that worshipped God with his instruments, he worshipped God to the point where he created an instrument to the worship of his maker. It was that worship that gave him a place at the palace of King Saul. 1st Samuel 16:17-18. Psalm 3:1-3.
The place you belong right in the front there, can be gotten by your praise and your worship.
What is praise all about?
Praise is not just what we sing but praise is what we show. Isaiah 43:21.
Praise is something we display, it is something we demonstrate.
1. Praise is about the display or demonstration of value for the creator. Showing reverence to the one who made you without whom you can’t survive. Psalm 29:2.
2. It is about the display and demonstration of gratitude and appreciation to the Almighty. Anyway you can do it, by singing, dancing, sacrifices-it is the demonstration. Psalm 100:1-4. The most ungrateful creatures you will ever see are human beings.
3. It is about the display and demonstration of excellence and distinction in the Name of God.
You decide not to be a failure so you don’t bring Him reproach. You become a star student, a star employee. That is, wherever you find yourself, you shine and it brings glory to God. Let not your carrying of Bible become a reproach to God. Don’t be a liability staff in that your company, don’t be a liability student, don’t be a reproachful contractor. If you will not want to be excellent for yourself, please be excellent because of God. If you would not want to live an outstanding life because of yourself, live an outstanding life because of the one who may get the insult from your mediocrity.
In the same way that the father or mother of an award winning child receives congratulations from other parents and the principal and the school authorities, in the same manner, Elshaddai, Elhohim, is waiting to receive praise even from His enemies. I am sure you have never heard of it before that excellence is part of your praise. It is part of your worship and praise to your maker, to do well in life, to stand out in life.
3. It is the demonstration of God-glorifying character. Your humility just melted their heart, your sincerity, ‘You mean you returned the change, you mean I forgot money in your hands?’ The safety of others through your character. You demonstrate such character that make people go to church without even hearing a message. It is true that people have come to church because of the character of Christians- it is also true that a greater number of people have left the church because of their character.
Matthew 5:16.
Counsel
1. Determine to live for God in time so you can live with Him in eternity. If you don’t live for Him here, how will you live for Him there. 2nd Corinthians 5:15. Why do you take the next step without having the mindset of eternity?
2. Determine to direct your lifetime, energy and resources into that which will produce dividend both in this time and in eternity. Mark 12:30.
Only a mad man will start painting a house that has been marked for demolition, putting more resources in what does not have a future.
You will never miss it!
3. Don’t do tomorrow what you can do for the Lord today, that will only bring regret both in time and eternity. 2nd Corinthians 6:1-2.
4. Let all who know you know your heavy value for you God. It is part of your praise. Don’t ever let anybody take your relationship with God for granted. If the people who know you don’t know your value for God then you have not started. Daniel 6:4-5. If you say Daniel don’t pray, then you can send him to prison because he will pray. You are going to church and someone says follow me to somewhere and you say I am going to church, and he says church will always be there now…where will he have that kind of mouth to talk to you?
When I visited my father in the village there was palm wine in his front but I believe that by the end of his journey, he was cleanly in line with God. God healed him of diabetes, healed him of hypertension, under this ministry. So we sat and we were talking and he said, ‘can you stretch me that?’, asking me to pour the wine into his cup or something, then he said ‘Sorry, sorry. You are not permitted to touch this one now. You can’t touch it now’.
Because it is your father, you may find it difficult to say no but he said oh sorry, you are not permitted to touch this now. Every time I visited the village, people will gather, himself will gather people. When I start praying for people, he is the one that is shouting the fire more than anyone. He will say ‘Ola ola ola’, because he knew from the beginning that this guy is not faking it. He knew it.
Don’t let anybody take your relationship with God for granted otherwise you will be grounded.
Smith Wigglesworth – the Apostle of Faith was once a sinner, drunkard. He told his wife, ‘Honey if you go to church, you won’t come back to this house. She said, ‘Darling, you are my husband, Jesus is my Lord. I love you, but I’d like to obey my Lord’. She eventually loved the husband into the Kingdom.
Let all who know you know the value of God.
5. Let the presence of God be your greatest addiction, your greatest attraction. Any other thing that attracts you more than God may be the thing that distracts you away from eternity with God. Psalm 122:1.
