11-5-2017
Catching Fire
Power of Praise
Pastor Mike Gowans
Acts 16:16 – Once while we were going to the place for prayer, a servant girl met us. She had a special spirit, a demonic spirit, a wicked spirit that was in her and she earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes. This girl followed Paul and Silas and shouted, “These men are servants of the Most High God. They are telling you how you can be saved.” She kept this up for many days. This bothered Paul so he turned and said to the spirit, “By the power of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her.” Immediately the spirit came out.
Now I have to pause and take a detour. If this is your first time, we take lots of detours. Hopefully you will go with me on those detours, if not just stay over there. We will be right back. We have just come out of this series of prayer that is going to continue. Every morning there is going to be prayer here, ongoing at 6:00 A.M. Sunday through Friday and then Saturday we all get to sleep in until 7:00 A.M. and 7:00 A.M. will be prayer on Saturdays. Come out any morning for an hour of power. It is going to continue on as long as God says do it, we are going to do it. So as well as Monday night and Wednesday night at 6:00 P.M. we are going to have prayer here as well so feel free to come and join us, dive right in.
I want to pause for a moment because during this season of prayer, what we have been looking at is how to pray the way Jesus prayed and how to pray effectively. I want to point something out here that is really important. I love Acts. I love the Book of Acts for many reasons. One of the reasons is it is just ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The Book of Acts has no ending to it. I remember years ago reading through the Book of Acts and I came to the last chapter and I thought, Where is the next page? It does not really end. There is no logical kind of ending to it and the reason is because it is still being written. It is still being written in Heaven. It is the Acts of the church, the sons and daughters of God.
The question is are you living in a manner worthy to be written about. I know I want to be. I know I want to live in such a way that Heaven is writing about my life. God wants to write about your life. He has already written several things about your life. The question is are you going to fulfill the things that God has written about you. If you are not praying, there is a good chance that you are not going to fulfill all of those plans. See there is a moral will and there is a sovereign will. The moral will, God has this incredible plan for your life and not all of those things are going to come to pass if you do not listen to Him and if you do not connect with Him. His sovereign will is that Jesus is coming back and He is taking back everyone that has called upon His name, regardless if you have ever done anything for Him since. If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, guess what? You will stand before Jesus and give an account for your life. That is a wonderful thing.
The scripture says though that what we have done with His plans and His purposes for our lives will be tested and it will be tested with fire and whatever was not part of His moral will, was not part of His plan that will be burnt up. You yourself will be saved, Hallelujah, you yourself will be saved, but who wants to live in eternity smelling like smoke. Now, it is kind of a joke because you are not going to smell like smoke but will you have anything to offer God for what you have done here on Earth. See we only have one life to live by faith. We have an eternity to live with Him in fellowship and we are going to do things and there is things that are planned but right now we have this opportunity right now, right here to live by faith.
So back to my original tangent, Paul prays not, Hey Jesus would you cast this spirit out? Would you remove this spirit? He says, In Jesus name. He speaks to the spirit to come out. See many times we are asking God to do something that He is asking you to do. He is asking you to speak to the mountain. He is asking you to speak to the circumstances. See a lot of times it is our way out, God heal this person, and if it does not happen, Well God just did not do it. It was not because I did not have faith or I did not really believe. Now again we know God is the one at work. If you read the Bible and you actually look at how Christians prayed in the Bible, it looks a lot different than how many Christians pray today. That is probably the reason why we are not seeing the things that we see in the Bible. I do not know about you but all you have to do is repent and say, Hey I am going to stop doing it the way I have learned or saw it done. I am going to do it the way the Bible says to do it. That is what we are committed to. If the Bible says it, if the Bible illustrates it, that settles it for us. Amen? All right so there is my tangent. Now I am back.
So when the owners and the servant girls saw this they knew that now they could not use her to make money. So they grab Paul and Silas and drag them before the city rulers in the marketplace. They brought Paul and Silas to the Roman rulers and said, “These men are Jews and are making trouble in our city.”
Come on Church it is time to make some trouble. I do not know about you but it is time to make some trouble. Hey young people. God is calling you to make some trouble. Who is on? Who is with me? Let’s do this. Let’s shake up things. We are done with the status quo. We do not just come to do church and be religious. Come on let’s see those greater things. Let’s see people walking on water. Let’s see people speaking to the sun, Stop, and see it stopped. Let’s see the dead raised. Why not? If God says it, that settles it. Let’s just do it and stop trying to figure it out. Just do it. Come on God had that slogan down long before Nike. Okay? God is saying, Just do it, guys. Just do it. I finished it. Now do it.
Acts 16:21: “They are teaching things that are not right for us as Romans to do.” The crowd joined the attack against them. The Roman officials tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and had them beaten with rods. Then Paul and Silas were thrown into the jail and the jailer was ordered to guard them carefully. When he heard this order he put them far inside the jail and pinned their feet down between large blocks of wood. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing songs to God as the other prisoners listened. Suddenly there was a strong earthquake that shook the foundation of the jail. Then the doors of the jail broke open and all of the prisoners were freed from their chains. The jailer woke up and saw the jail doors were open thinking the prisoners had already escaped. He got his sword and was about to kill himself but Paul shouted, “Do not hurt yourself. We are all here.” The jailer told someone to bring a light. Then he ran inside and shaking with fear, fell down before Paul and Silas. He brought them outside and said, “Men what must I do to be saved?” They said to him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. You and all the people in your house.” So Paul and Silas told the message of the Lord to the jailer and to all the people of his house. At the hour of the night the jailer took Paul and Silas washed their wounds, then he and his people were baptized immediately. After this the jailer took Paul and Silas home and gave them food. He and his family were very happy because they now believed in God.
The Power of Praise. We are going to look at eight reasons why you should praise because we are all asking, What is in it for me? Come on Pastor. You may not say it because you know that is so selfish and that is so, you know, in this selfie world that we are in, right that is wrong but, come on. God knows it about you and He is just fine with you asking that question. He really is. Do you know it is impossible to please God without faith? You must believe that He is. You must believe in the nature, virtue and person of God. As you believe in that, as you exalt that, as you recognize that faith is stirred up and you are able to see the Kingdom of God come in your life. You are able to see that He is your great reward. He said, Look if you seek me I will reward you. So what I am saying to put it out to you, Listen up because there are some amazing benefits to praise.
Number One of what praise does. Praise Directs Our Focus. As I said earlier in our selfie world that we live in, it gets our eyes off of ourselves, off of our circumstances and on the great and true reward. Let me tell you what the dictionary says about praise. Praise is simply expressing esteem for a person. We are praising their virtues and their accomplishments. See praise is to give honor, is to glorify, especially attributing the attributes of perfection. It is an expression of approval to give value or merit. A good, praiseworthy characteristic that somebody or something has. See the Hebrew word for praise is Yaddah. It means to throw, to shoot, to cast. Now if you are going to properly praise, it is going to involve all of your heart, your soul, your mind and strength. If you want to fully praise, He wants you to fully commit to it.
Now it can start in this believing in my heart but as it starts coming you have to let that grow. That is why we express ourselves like this. That is why we clap. That is why we jump around sometimes. That is why we shout. Okay? We shout praises to Him because praise helps focus our life on what is really valuable. See praise is what brings purpose out of pain. Praise is what brings hope out of despair. So praise helps direct our lives.
Psalm 150:2 says this: Praise Him for His mighty deeds. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Psalm 35:28: And my tongue shall speak of your righteousness and of your Praise all the day long.
My tongue. Now we are going to keep unpacking this power of praise over the coming weeks. There is some fresh revelation that I believe God has given me about praise. Here at Bethel we like to just be real. Okay? The reality is this: I am going to preach who I am and I am going to preach the things that God is showing me. Yes I can preach the things that He has already shown me but even the things He has already shown me, He can bring something new in this moment and make it fresh so it does not become religion and we are just going through the motions. He can make all things new, every word. Whether it is the hundredth time I have shared it or not, it can be new and fresh and you can have heard my story. There are some of you here that you have heard stories of mine over and over, but if you receive it with listening ears it can be like it was the first time. It can actually bring greater joy and laughter to you the 100th time, right Anna, than the first time. That is what love does. See love never lets anything get old. Selfishness does that. So if you come to church and you think, Well I have heard this one before, now you have just missed the blessing because God’s Word is always new. It is always fresh. Amen? Now these are going to be things praise the Lord that I have probably never said too in the coming weeks, but just to give you a side just in case I say something you have heard before, rejoice, receive it. Amen?
All right so the facts are that I am still not a morning person. Even though the last forty days I have been waking up at 5:00 A.M. and denying my flesh and getting out of bed, having gotten about four and a half, you know sometimes six hours of sleep. I have prayed my whole life, God make me a morning person. It has not happened yet. I have not woke up like it is Christmas morning like a child consistently. Now I am still believing and still speaking to that flesh, Arise and shine. Right? But it has not happened yet. So my drive over here it takes about between nine and ten minutes every morning for me from where I live. I give Him praise. I sing unto God with my lips and it sounds a little bit like this.
This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made. I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made.
Going old school. Now this leads me into the second powerful point about praise. Not only does it focus us and give us purpose, but it Humbles Us because some of us every time we sing it is a humbling experience. Right? We do not have to fight pride like some of these gifted people up here that have to, you know after they sing they have to go off stage and say, God it is all for your glory. Okay? But every time we sing to God, every time we praise Him, it goes through that auto tuner somehow. That somehow between here and when it reaches God it becomes in tune and sounds beautiful. Right? Because the Bible says that is what it sounds like to Him. When you sing praises to Him it is beautiful and if that is not a miracle for some of you. But praise, seriously, it reminds us of our dependency on God. See as we praise Him we acknowledge our need for Him. We praise Him as creator, King of the world. We admit and recognize we are not in control. That He is above all else.
Psalm 95:2 says this: Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise…
Oh yes and it is joyful, you know especially at 5:30 in the morning, more noise than joy.
…Unto him with songs of praise for the Lord is great. He is a great God. He is a great King above all gods.
We enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart. We enter his courts with praise. Tell me this is the day that…
I do not have lyrics…
I will rejoice for He has made me glad.
Here we go.
He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. He has made me glad. He has made me glad. I will rejoice for he has made me glad.
Now that might not make you glad but somehow, some way when I sing that it makes me glad. Okay?
Psalm 35:18 says this: I will give you thanks in the great congregation. I will praise you among much people.
Number three Praise Makes The Enemy Flee. Praise makes the enemy flee. It pushes back the darkness that surrounds you, that blocks the attacks the devil and the lies that he is speaking over you. Evil will not stick around if you are praising God. Now get this, when you begin to praise God, the devil puts his hands over his ears. He is going to hang out for just a little while and see how long you are going to praise Him. He is going to say, I can only handle this for so long. See the enemy can only handle hearing praise to God. It sickens him. He hates it. He absolutely hates it because it reminds him of all that he lost because he was in charge. Understand? He was in charge of praise but he wanted it for himself and he absolutely hates when you and I praise Him. The Bible actually tells us, turn over to Psalm 68 and see what God says about our praise and what it does to the enemy.
Psalm 68:1: Let God arise and the enemies be scattered. Let those who hate Him run away from Him. Blow them away as smoke as driven away by the wind, as wax melts before a fire. Let the wicked be destroyed before God. But those who do right should be glad. They should rejoice before God. They should be happy and glad. Sing to God. Sing praises to His name. Prepare the way for Him who rides through the desert, whose name is the Lord. Rejoice before Him. God in His holy temple. He is a Father to the orphans. He defends the widows. God gives the lonely a home. He leads prisoners out with joy. But those who turn against God will live in a dry land. God, you lead your people out when you march through the desert.