Praising as a Lifestyle Living for a Legacy (Part I) Elder Ricardo Rick Pina Unity of Faith Worship Center, Rocky Mount, NC Wednesday Night, June 25 th, 2008 Introduction: Welcome to the Celebration of 20 Years of Ministry in Rocky Mount by the Unity of Faith Worship Center! Give God some praise! Today we live in a society of quitters. Many people start lots of projects, but very few have the Spirit of A Finisher! Very few maintain the fire of a Vision for the Long Term! It s been 20 Years and Unity of Faith is Still Here! This ministry is Still making an impact in this City and we ought to Praise God for it! The Theme of the 20 Year Celebration is A Proven Past A Promised Future! As much as you have to be thankful for when you look back into your past, You have an Even Greater Future! Solomon said, Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof (Ecc 7:8). Why would Solomon say such a thing? Because he knew that God, our God, is a God of Progression and not Regression! With God The Best is Yet to Come! Tell someone, Your Best Days are Ahead of You! Foundational Scripture: (1 st Thes 5:16-18 KJV) Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. This is Paul s first letter to the church in Thessalonica. This letter was written TO THEM, but it is also FOR US! In this letter he taught about living a life that is pleasing to God! In his closing remarks he said, Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. How do we live a life that is pleasing to God? By maintaining our joy, by keeping an active prayer life, and by giving thanks to God IN all circumstances. Now, notice that he said IN all circumstances and not FOR all circumstances. Not everything that happens is good and we will not like everything that we face, but we should have the confidence in God, because of our relationship with Him, to know that at the-end-of-the-day we will still come out on top. I may not be able to Thank Him FOR IT, but I can still thank Him IN IT! This tells me that I am to LIVE a LIFE OF THANKSGIVING! I am to LIVE A LIFE OF PRAISE! I will Praise God at all Times This is God s Will Concerning me! My lifestyle should be a LifeStyle of Praise! Your lifestyle should be a LifeStyle of Praise! Our lifestyle should be a LifeStyle of Praise! So what should we Praise God For? 1
Jehovah: The answer to that question is found in the most Common Name For God in Scripture: JEHOVAH! It is most commonly translated as LORD in our English Bibles (w/ all capitals). Yahweh is the covenant name of God. It Hebrew it only has four letters and the Jews call it the Tetragrammaton. Which means: the name with four letters. The power of this name is unlocked in the root word it comes out of. This name is a perfect tense past, present, and future tense all together of the Hebrew verb Havah; which means: TO BE! It is the PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE TENSE of TO BE! In other words, "I AM WHO I AM" or 'I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE" as revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus Chapter 3). Jehovah, then, is the God of: o Our Past! o Our Present! o And our Future! He is the God of: o Our Yesterday! o Our Today! o And our Tomorrow! He is the God of: o Our Already! o Our Right Now! o And our Not Yet! So what should be Praise God for? We should Praise God for: o What He HAS DONE! o What He IS DOING! o And what HE WILL DO! We are to Praise God for what He HAS DONE! Post-Performance Praise! Tap into the Power of Building Altars: (Joshua 3:17 NIV) The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground. (Joshua 4:1-7 NIV) When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, (v.2) "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, (v.3) and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight." (v.4) So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, (v.5) and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, (v.6) to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' (v.7) tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever." 2
God instructed Joshua to have ONE MAN from EVERY TRIBE to grab a STONE from the middle of the river, where the ARK was when they were passing over, to build an altar that would stand for Generations to Come! Why? To serve as a reminder of what God had done. To serve as a REASON for Post-Performance Praise! To serve as a Witness of the Goodness of God! We ve Come this Far by Faith: You know the song, We ve come this far by faith. The lyrics say: o We ve come this far by faith o Leaning on the Lord o Trusting in His Holy word o He never failed me yet (forget the yet) o Oh! Can t Turn Around o We ve come this far by faith Bishop Alfred A. Owens: A Heard a Message one time from Bishop Alfred Owens in DC where he said that when faced with a challenge you should: 1. Brace Yourself 2. Pace Yourself 3. Trace Yourself 4. Grace Yourself The point for us is the Trace Yourself part. When you TRACE YOURSELF in God, what do you see? It s been 20 years! What do you have to Praise God for? The songwriter said, When I think of the goodness of Jesus. Learn to Praise God Daily FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE! We are to Praise God for what He IS DOING! Mid-Performance Praise! Your RIGHT NOW God! As powerful as POST-Performance Praise is, as powerful as knowing what God HAS DONE is, I run into people all the time that Can t tell me what God is doing in their life RIGHT NOW! Although he is the God of your past, He is also the God of your Present! Although yo have A Proven Past, and A Promised Future, you also have a POWERFUL PRESENT! Don t ever lose the power of a RIGHT NOW GOD! Maybe you haven t been a member here for 20 years. Maybe you haven t been a member here for 20 months. Maybe you haven t even been here for 20 days, but you are here NOW! Glory to God! PRAISE GOD FOR YOUR NOW Experiences in HIM! Increments of Days: (Psalm 118:24 KJV) This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Although God gives us long-term vision, but don t live out the vision in Long- Term chunks. 3
Although He blessed us for months, and years, and decades, we live out our lives in increments of DAYS. The psalmist said, This is the day, not the month or the year. THE DAY that the Lord has made. You and I must be ready to Praise God for Today! What is God doing in your life RIGHT NOW? Praising God for Your RIGHT NOW keeps your relationship with God: o FRESH! o INNOVATIVE! o PERSONAL! So Praise God for what He is doing RIGHT NOW! We are to Praise God for what He WILL DO! Pre-Performance Praise! Pre-Performance Praise: And finally, anybody can praise God after it s already DONE! Anybody can praise God when they SEE IT! But can you Praise God in advance? Can you Praise God on credit? Can you Praise God before He does it? King Jehoshaphat: This is a common story. We know that Jehoshaphat and tiny Judah were outnumbered. They had NO POWER against their enemy. Humanly, they had NO HOPE! They were facing a certain defeat! But what happened, they received a WORD FROM GOD! They got a WORD from THEIR PROPHET! The Word said: (2 Chron 20:15-17 KJV) And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. (v.16) To morrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. So far we know that they were not supposed to be afraid, but they were going to have to GO DOWN and FACE their enemies! God told them where to go to find their enemies! (v.17) Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you. Problem: They were not going to have to fight. But why then send them to go find their enemies? Why would God sent them to find the enemies if they were not going to have to fight? Twice God said, GO OUT AGAINST THEM! GO OUT for what? God did not tell them FOR WHAT! He just promised to be with them! 4
The King said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper (v.20). o Believe this Word. o Believe the fact that you will not have to fight. o Believe the fact that you can go out there and face your enemies and watch God do it. o Believe the Word of the Prophet and You will Prosper! The Only Conclusion: (v.21) And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. After thinking about it. After consulting with his advisors. After mulling over the options. The ONLY CONCLUSION they could come up with was that they should PRAISE GOD right in the FACE of their enemies! They determined to PRAISE GOD BEFORE IT HAPPENED! They determined to PRAISE GOD PRE-Performance! They determined to PRAISE GOD in ADVANCE! And WHILE they were praising God they got their Breakthrough! So what should we Praise God For? Praise God for what He HAS DONE! Praise God for what He IS DOING! Praise God for what He WILL DO! A Proven Past, A Promised Future! 5