Sermon Cloud

The Problem with Praise 1

by John Musick 

Introduction

The problem with praise is that it is far too rare.

When the church misses something that is so

evident in scripture and is commanded…

We are either ignorant or deceived.

Ignorant?

"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into the His marvelous light." I Peter 2:9

We were created to praise God 

& we have a good reason to praise.

Praise Definitions

Bob Sorge has written and excellent book on praise and worship called “Exploring Worship”, in it he gives several clarifying definitions:

"We praise God directly by extolling Him or expressing our admiration to Him; we praise God indirectly by commending Him or magnifying Him to others."

"Praise is preoccupied with who God is and what He has done. It focuses on both His incomparable character and His wondrous acts on behalf of His children"

Deceived?

Praise is optional

Praise is not part of my personality

We didn’t praise at my church where I grew up

Praise is emotionalism

I’m more of a worshipper

Praise requires something of you. 

Praise is physical.

Praise is expressive

Sorge:

“This is just my way of praising the Lord.” Wrong! First of all, there is no such thing as “my way” of praising the Lord; there is only God’s way,” and his way has been shown to us clearly in the Scriptures. And second, the Bible shows us that praise is tob declared or manifested. Psalm 66:8  exhorts, “Let the sound of his praise be heard.” Praise is not praise until it is vocalized or shown forth. In other words it is impossible to  praise with your mouth shut.

Examination of the affect of emotions and feelings upon praise

Our values are out of whack

The Kadesh

Part 1. Emotions and feelings and praise

Praising God both when there is no specific gift received from God or when we emotionally do not “feel” like praising may feel “Inauthentic.”

This might be true if our faith was based upon how we felt and our feelings about god were solely based upon God giving us what we wanted all the time.

Your feelings, while valuable and important, are often a poor guide because they are tainted by our brokeness, are not driven by truth (but my your perception), and your feelings often seek to satisfy self (they gravitate to fill the lowest part of you or to fill the vacuum of your soul.

Feelings vs. Emotions

Your feelings are responsive to what is occurring to you or around you.How you feel about something is often based upon that somethings ability to give you satisfaction or fulfillment. Your feeling shave their basis in nature but are molded and solidified by how you are nurtured.

Your emotions are how you humanly express the interaction of our thoughts, feelings information and their impact upon our mind, heart, and spirit. 

Our devotional lives are greatly affected by how healthy our feelings and emotions are.

Fickle or repressed feeling will effect our motivation to connect with God

What’s in it for me?

Am I going to get out what I put in?

Your feelings can cause you  to be selective regardless of truth thus causing you to be unwise. 

Repressed emotions prevent one from experiencing the fulness of God’s impact upon our lives.

The good news? God is not limited by us.  The word of God is able to pierce the most fickle of feelings and melt the most “emo” of emotions.  The word of God is thaumaturgic!

The good news? The Holy Spirit is not restricted by the limitation of the vessel in which it resides.

An ark in the hands of the philistines brought rats and boils  and the hand of Uriah upon the ark by stumbling OX sent the wrath of God roiled. An ark on a cat brought blessing and prosperity to Obed Edom.

Part 2. Our values are out of Whack

We are far too dissatisfied with God

and become angry too quickly,

and give up on God too quickly.

Far too often as children of the King

do we storm into our air conditioned rooms, 

rooms filled with color t.v.’s, computers, mp3 players, 

and we slam the door behind us, 

almost shaking off the wall the pictures 

from our vacations to Hawaii, London and Omaha - 

yeah Omaha, we have some relatives that lives there.

These are pictures we took and printed 

with our digital camera and photo paper ink jet printer

We flop down to mope on our select comfort beds, 

My sleep number is 75 in case your wondering, 

We pout while gripping our National Association of Chiropractory 

approved Italian goose down filled 

and swedish foam encased pillows.

Sipping our Venti mocha frappacino

with whip.

God can be so unfair… and stingy, 

don’t you think?

We’re mad at God because we aren’t blessed enough.

he’s a better Father than that.

How come every little hardship that we face…

We either curse God or we give him the silent treatment.

Hebrews 12v4: you haven’t lost any blood in your battle against sin.

You haven’t lost yet!  Your still here and God is still with you. You can make it, your gonna make it. 

Jesus tells us in John 16v33 that there’s gonna be trouble.  So when  you have trouble, It’s just Jesus fulfilling a promise!

Why are we so arrogant to think that we deserve better?

Are we better than the Bedouin shepherd?

Are you better than the Haitians, the Burmese, the Hutu, the Shiites?

Is it enough 

to live in one of the most beautiful states 

of one of the most wealthy countries 

in the most free nation of 

one of the most plentiful continents on earth 

in one of the greatest times of human history 

upon the most wonderful planet in our solar system, 

nee… galaxy?

I’m not arrogant about being in Minnesota, 

I’m undone! It blows me away. 

I grew up around trailer parks, smoke stacks, 7-11’s

CB radio, divorce, striking workers, singing:

Well theres a young man in a t-shirt

Listening to a rockin rollin station

Hes got a greasy hair, greasy smile and greasy skin

He says: lord, this must be my destination

That was my America, little pink houses for you and me

Minnesota is Awesome!

My kids are growing up with diversity, museums, 

parks, Mary Tyler Moore and 

giant statuary of fruit laden table wear.

They’re growing up singing:

There is a castle on a cloud, 

I like to go there in my sleep, 

Aren't any floors for me to sweep, 

Not in my castle on a cloud. 

There is a room that's full of toys, 

There are a hundred boys and girls, 

Nobody shouts or talks too loud, 

Not in my castle on a cloud.

Sure there are other places that are nice.

But...

Kansas City has chiggers and 

Texas has fire ants, 

California has earthquakes, forest fires & killer bees,. 

Florida has humidity and Floridians. 

At least Wisconsin has the Packers and real fireworks,

 all Iowa has is pig farming, 

which is destroying Iowa, so I hear.

Sure Minnesota has 

high taxes

and we’ve got mosquitoes

and road construction

and you never know how people really feel about you

until either 

you get them drunk

or they leave the church.

I’m not arrogant about being an American either, 

I’m undone! 

Sure there are other places that are nice.

Saudi Arabia has lots of money and 

free healthcare and education.

They also cut off your hands for stealing 

and dish out clitorectomies...ohh, that’s sounds nice.  

Not too mention lots of sand and 

Islamic fundamentalism. 

Sign me up, because I love the beach 

and Jihad.

Scandinavia, yeah their cool. 

Beautiful people and great furniture 

and legal weed and 

the pastors that are paid by the government.  

But they also have the highest taxes 

and the least number of Christians in Europe 

and they also very high suicide rates…

it is also the home of ABBA 

which may explain the latter.

Other places, when they have a tidal wave, 

200,000 people die in 5 minutes.

An earth quake in some places, 69,000 people die

A tropical storm, 15000 people die.

Ok, ok, that Katrina thing, that was pretty rough…

Oh and those tornado’s a while back were not cool.

Now please, do not interpret what I am saying as that 

God loves America more than anyone else. 

We do have a lot of our own trouble. 

I love the USA, but believe me, 

I would leave this country in a minute

if I could live on a beach in Mazatlan 

and not have diarrhea.

So were not perfect But we do have it good! 

My point is not to lift up the USA. 

My point is that we are so spoiled as Christians, 

if anything we ought to wake up praising God 

just for our surroundings.

We risk becoming emotionally retarded and 

spiritually bankrupt because our dependence is not upon God. 

We’ve become so spoiled by God’s generous gifts, 

that we are tempted to worship the gifts and not the giver.  

Hello...Romans 1 people…

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

How about,  “exchanged the glory of the immortal God 

for temporary comfort, wealth and pleasure…”

 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 

 - Let me stop here and say, ewww.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

or simply

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, and they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

The Message: 

they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

“No they di-ent!” Uh-huh!

Do you love the King or what’s on the Kings table.

Do we not praise because we are simply worshipping and serving other gods?

Do we only praise when we feel like it?

Because if you’re like me, you have to do a lot

of things regardless of how you feel.

Is Jesus not enough to cause praise 

to pour out of not only our lips but out of our lives?

Have we become disconnected from what God has done in our lives 

and not present to what God is doing now, today, here and tomorrow.

Should we, like David in Psalm 51 pray:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from Your presence,

And take not Your Holy Spirit from me. 

Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation,

And renew a right spirit within me.

The Kadish

Origins of the Kadish go back to when Rabbi’s would teach, as a pause between topics, they would recite the Kaddish as a way of reorienting the student to the purpose of their studies.

It later became a prayer for the dead as Catholic faith went through out the world. 

Prayer of mourning after the death of a child or parent

They who are closest to the departed and most affected by their death.

3xday for 11 months at the synagogue

No mention of death or dying.

It is a praise to God

Glorified and sanctified be God's great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

We are the recipients of such a great gift

that we should skip everywhere…

Um, why are you skipping… why Jesus of course.

Martin Luther:

“A person cannot praise God only, unless he understands that there is nothing in himself worthy of praise, but that all that is worthy of praise is of God and from God.”

Psalm 42v5-6

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
       Why so disturbed within me?
       Put your hope in God,
       for I will yet praise him,
       my Savior and my God.

Psalm 54v6

 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;
       I will praise your name, O LORD,
       for it is good.