Progression of Praise

Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

As we have been celebrating Thanksgiving this week I have been doing some meditation about the concept of thanksgiving. To progress literally means to “to move forward or to develop to a higher, better, or more advanced stage. As I began to think about thanksgiving and then the progressive dinner I began to think about the fact that thanksgiving is just one stop in a two stop progression. However, I also realize that each stop is important. There are truths and lessons that we must learn from each step.

David deals with this progression. He simply says that we are to enter His gates with thanksgiving. Without going into great detail concerning the tabernacle setup it serves to reason and to logic that the gates were the first place you enter. It would parallel our front door. It is simply the entry point. The first step. It is essential to get in, but there are deeper things and places to go. Then David says that we gain access or entry into a deeper place called the courts with praise. David’s tabernacle had no veil to shield the presence of God from the people. So once you gained access into the courts you were in God’s presence. David teaches us that there is a progression to praise. We enter with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving gets our foot in the door, but praise takes us higher and further into God’s presence.

I. Thanksgiving
I want to deal with Thanksgiving first. Before we go too far may I share with you my deep revelation? OK, buckle your seat belts, hold on, get your pen ready, scoot to the edge of your seats, and hold your breath. Here it is – are you ready? Thanksgiving always proceeds Christmas! O.K., O.K., I know every elementary school student knows this truth. So nobody will write a book based on this thought and I certainly won’t get a call from TBN to expound on this concept. I realize that no one sits around pondering which comes first, the turkey or the tree. However, this thought may be more powerful than we think. I remind you of this because it seems that we rush past Thanksgiving to get to Christmas. Before we ever carve the turkey we hang stockings!

a. Thanksgiving proceeds miracles
Thanksgiving always proceeds the season that is about the birth of a miracle. There is a spiritual principle here! Thanksgiving precedes divine birth! There are numerous scriptural accounts that validate this principle, but perhaps the most significant one is Lazarus. Jesus approaches the tomb of a dead man prepared to perform a miracle.

Remember the account in John 11? John 11:39, “39Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.”

But a dead man is about to be reborn into life. Moments before Jesus wakes the dead with the clarion call, “Lazarus”, he pauses mid-miracle and has Thanksgiving. Listen for the pattern in this account. Look for the truth.

John 11:41-44, “41Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”

For those of you, who need further proof, remember Jesus follows this same pattern before feeding the multitudes. Matthew 15:36-38, “36and he took the seven loaves and the fishes; and he gave thanks and brake, and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. 37And they all ate, and were filled: and they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces, seven baskets full. 38And they that did eat were four thousand men, besides women and children.”

Jesus knew that thanksgiving provokes and spurs God to work on our behalf. Jesus knew that a thankful heart stirs God’s hand.

You may be looking for a season of birth in your life. You may be in dire need of a birth of a new job. The stress and strain of ministry life might be demanding a rebirth emotionally and spiritually. Sickness could have you on bended knee crying out for a new body. Perhaps a quick peek in your checkbook reveals that a financial birth better take place soon. Thanks first. Get the order right and see what is birthed.

Paul bears this truth out when in Philippians he teaches us the same lesson in Chapter 4:6, “6In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” We let our needs know by giving thanks first.

We get it backwards we want the miracle and then after the result we will give thanks. The truth is we should give thanks first! So my question is if we aren’t seeing miracles, breakthroughs, answers could it be that we fail to enter His gates with thanksgiving? Have we become so negative and ungrateful that we fail to give Him thanks? Has our attitude become what have you done for me lately? And so we fail to develop an attitude of gratitude and therefore we fail to have miracles. Just a thought.

b. Thanksgiving requires us to change our focus.
We will remain unthankful and negative unless we change our focus. We learn to be thankful in spite of what we don’t have. Was Lazarus alive? Not yet. Was there enough meat and bread to go around? Not yet. But when the focus is changed from what we don’t have to who we have thanksgiving is possible.

Some of us need to change our focus. All we can focus on is our empty checkbook. It is time to change our focus to the God of provision. Some of have been focusing on our sickness. It is time to change our focus to the stripes that secured our healing. Some of us focus on our pain and our sorrow. It is time to change our focus to the one who bore all of our sorrows and felt all of our pain.

To get in the gates we must change our focus from us to Him!

Some of us need to start at Thanksgiving. In spite of what we see or don’t see. In spite of what we hear or don’t hear. In spite of what we feel or don’t feel. I challenge you this morning to enter His gates with thanksgiving and see if the change of focus doesn’t produce a change in outcome! But don’t stay there. Don’t stay at the door.

II. Praise
Thanksgiving is based on what someone does. It is based on action. The reality is that it is easy to praise when you see what God has done. He saved me. He rescued me. He set me free. He lifted me up. He set my feet on the solid rock. He restoreth my soul. He . . . I have no problem thanking Him this morning. My heart is full of thanksgiving. I remember what He has done and I am thankful. But thanksgiving only gets you in the gate. In order to get to the higher levels, the deeper levels we must move past thanksgiving and move into praise.

There is a progression we must go through. Thanksgiving is easy! You do something for me and I say thanks. That is child’s play. Necessary. Note worthy. Right. In order. But easy. Praise, however, is not based on what someone does. It is based on who someone is. It is based solely on the inherent worth of something. This is adult mentality. As adults we progress and we begin to give praise because of the value of something. I may never own a Ferrari, but I can praise its workmanship, quality, lines, and style all based on its value and worth.

Praise is more difficult than thanksgiving. That is why we are called by Paul to make a sacrifice of praise. This is the progression. This is when we mature and go deeper into His presence and don’t base our worship on what He has done for me, but rather on who He is. This is when we can honestly and genuinely say, “God if you never do anything else for me ever again I will still praise you.” This is when we have learned to worship Him in good times and in bad. This is when we learn to look past our circumstances and see that He is still and will always be worthy.
That is where we grow to when we can say with David in Psalm 34:1, “His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” We can’t say that if we are stuck in thanksgiving. We can’t say that if we haven’t moved beyond only being grateful when He comes through. Thanksgiving is on our lips based on what he does or has done.

Thanksgiving tends to be tied to our circumstance and condition. Praise can stay on our lips constantly because it is based entirely on His worth! His worth never changes or never diminishes so our praise can remain constant.

I don’t know what you are going through, but I do know this that doesn’t diminish His worthiness. I don’t know what trials and suffering you may be dealing with, but I do know that He is still God, still awesome, still infinite, still mighty, still faithful, still powerful, and still God!

House of Mirrors

House of Mirrors

You remember it, don’t you? It was usually nothing more than a little travel trailer set up at the county fair that you used to attend as a kid. You would enter and giggle and laugh at the strange reflections you would see caused by the various mirrors. In some mirrors you looked taller. Others made you look one foot tall and 18 feet wide. Big head, big feet, little eyes, and large ears… the contortions varied and fascinating. Do you realize that every moment you spend with your children you are taking a step back into the house of mirrors? These mirrors, however, are living and breathing. Your kids are simply reflections of you!

Now stop a second and think . . . is the reflection you see contorted, scary, out of balance, grotesque? Like it or not, we reproduce ourselves in the lives of our offspring. If they are cynical, skeptical, angry, lazy, rebellious, apathetic or passionate, committed, considerate, servants, outreach-minded, then look closely because you are seeing yourself. Granted we aren’t the only ones they reflect. But don’t let that be a cop out. If you don’t like what you see in your children, then just remember they are nothing more than a mirror. If you want them to change, then you must change. If their attitude stinks, closely examine your own. Paul understood this principle. He admonished others to “follow me as I follow Christ!” In other words, reflect me! I have met folks who are filled with cynicism and then they complain about that trait in their own kids. I watch as parents stand stoically in worship services, then moan about their kids who are uninterested or uninvolved in worship. We never seem to make the connection! They are simply reflecting us! It is time to take a careful check of the image we reflecting. You may not smell cotton candy or hear the midway salesmen trying to get your quarters, but every day as a parent you venture back into the House of Mirrors!

Family Jewels

Battle lines are drawn. The armies are gathered. It is time to go to war. Time to reach for the shield, sword, armor, crown, and the bracelet. Wait…doesn’t that seem like an odd list for a soldier? The shield we understand. The sword without a doubt is an essential piece of equipment. The armor, a soldier’s life depends on it. But a crown and a bracelet? Why would anyone go to a war zone bedazzeled? It may seem odd, but it is not unlike the stripes that today’s high-ranking officers display on their uniforms. The king would wear the crown as he entered battle to signify his authority. The king and his sons would wear a bracelet or armlet (around the upper arm) to denote their position and rank as royalty.

Flaunting the family jewels, King Saul faced off against his archrivals, the Philistines. He had been fighting them for years and had been victorious in the past. However, this time he found himself defeated and mortally wounded. Rather than facing torture and public humiliation at the hands of his enemies, Saul fell on his own sword. Meanwhile, David, fresh off a victory over the Amalekites, was brought word that Saul and Jonathan were dead. When David asked the messenger for proof of his story, the young man produced the king’s crown and bracelet as verification. The conversation with this young man also revealed that this young man was a descendant of the Amalekites. Ironic. A descendant of the very people Saul failed to destroy as God commanded now showed up with Saul’s family jewels.

We can quote all the verses about our armor and our sword, but what about the family jewels? According to Luke 10:19 and John 1:12, we have been crowned with authority and blessed with the position of sonship and royalty. We must learn from Saul’s mistake. The enemy we allow to stay alive will produce a descendant that will destroy us! What relationship, habit, tendency, or situation is still producing offspring in your life? Wonder why you struggle to control your tongue, your thoughts, your desires? It could be because it is absolute purity that produces absolute power. The offspring robs you of the authority to do battle. Confidence shaken? Self-esteem through the floor? Where is the security you once felt? Position stolen by that thing that was supposed to be dead and buried?

Find the thief and take the jewels back. They are yours. They are family property. Claim them, wear them, protect them, and walk in them. You will look like a king.

Glow Show

Read Exodus 34:33-35.

Got a veil handy? Unless we learn to protect our anointing, then we had better keep a veil within reach! Moses wore a veil so that the people of Israel would not realize the glow of God’s anointing was diminishing. News flash! People can tell when you are losing the glow. Moses found out that the people were less likely to listen and obey when he didn’t have the glow. The same is true today. People are less likely to listen if you don’t have the “mark” of anointing on you. Without that anointing we are helpless and ineffective.

We must learn to protect the anointing of God on our life. It is our glow that sets us apart, gives us power, and authority. It is that anointing we must learn to guard and keep.

So how do we keep the glow? To answer this you must find out what caused Moses to lose the glow. The longer Moses stayed away from the presence of God, the more the glow would dissipate and diminish. When we have long periods of time in which we are separated from intimate relationship and communion with God, the noticeable mark of God’s anointing seems to fade. Moses learned that he had to get back into the presence of God and to communicate with Him in order to maintain that special mark of intimacy. It is in the pulling away from the crowd, spotlight, and applause. It is in the climbing of the mountain into His consuming presence that we find our “anointing”. We must be careful to go into the quiet place often. The problem is that many of us wait so long to go that our glow is completely gone. The people we are trying to reach realize it before we do. Like Samson, we try to shake ourselves and think we still have the glow only to find that it is gone. Look in the mirror; do you see the glow? Is it time to pull away and replenish? Or is it time to wear the veil? I encourage you not to settle for a cover up. Get into God’s presence and let the glow show!

Corral or Crown?

You are the man. Anointed. Oil dripping. Crowd affirming. Hands applauding. Front and center. Called and crowned. Now what? Take the throne? Force your way to the top? Demand rights? Pull strings? Work the system?

David faced this situation. He was the man. His whole family stood and watched as he was anointed as the next king of Israel. Samuel’s anointing oil ran down his head and onto his clothes. There was no doubt, David’s place was on the throne. I know what we would have done. We would have run to the nearest Kinko’s and ordered “King of Israel” business cards. We would have put together a “Straight from the Throne” tape ministry. We would have asked Saul to step aside. We would have called for a vote. But we can learn a lot from David. What did David do he when was named the next king? We discover the answer in I Samuel 16:17-19.

Saul, being tormented by an evil spirit sent by God, looks for a man who can play and sing to provide relief. One of Saul’s assistants responds that he has heard a young man who fits that bill. Guess where David, the anointed one and oiled one, was located? In verse 19 Saul says to Jesse, “Send me your son David who is with the flock.” That’s right, God’s anointed man of faith and power left his debut and “promotion party” and went right back to tending sheep. Rather than running for the crown he ran for the corral.

Some of you have been called and crowned. You have received a word that promises you a great destiny. Others have heard it and agreed. They may even think the old king is out of his mind and needs to be replaced. They may try to get you to speed up the process and take your rightful place now. Run for the flock! Don’t try to take the throne. You have been anointed; now tend sheep. It will do us good to remember the promise that if we will remain faithful in the little things, then we will be made rulers over much. Galatians 6:9 assures us that if we don’t grow weary in well doing, in due season we will reap if we don’t faint. Take care of the sheep God has given you. Don’t push your way into the palace. Reflect on the story of Absalom and discover what happens when we try to take a position before it is time. We get hung out to dry.

Put away the new business cards and promotional pieces and allow God to promote and exalt you at the right time. Remember, sheep. . . then scepter.