Discovering the Power of Praise, Part 1

I want to make sure we understand that there's power in praise. Praising God as a matter of lifestyle is something that I believe all of us who are followers of Christ need to learn the importance of. To be a praiser, not just sometimes, but a praiser as a matter of the way you live your life. When you cheer for your favorite team, what does it look like?

Is there shouting, high-fiving, singing the fight song with both hands raised? Now let me ask you, when was the last time you praised God like that? You're listening to Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California.

Now don't feel guilty if you can't remember. Pastor Paul wants you to be encouraged, not ashamed. Today he reminds us just how powerful praise can be in prayer, but better time to be reminded than now as we find ourselves just a few short days away from a brand new year. Stay with us or stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand.

That's pastorpaul.net. Here is Pastor Now with today's Destined for Victory message, Discovering the Power of Praise. Some of us have learned that there's power in prayer, but I want to make sure we understand that there's power in praise.

Praising God as a matter of lifestyle is something that I believe all of us who are followers of Christ need to learn the importance of, to be a praiser not just sometimes, but a praiser as a matter of the way you live your life. The fact is we live in a world where there aren't many people who take God seriously. And the fact of the matter is we who know the Lord, we who have a relationship with him have got to demonstrate to people around us that we're not people who are part of a religion.

We have a relationship. Please understand that Christianity is only called a religion because there are people who have put it in the category of the world's largest, most prominent religions. But let's be technical. Jesus did not come to earth, certainly didn't die on the cross to establish a religion. Jesus came to give us a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I am not a religious guy. I just want you to know that straight up. I love the fact that I'm not religious.

I'm just saved. I really have no interest in religion. So when people say, I don't believe in organized religion.

Well, good. Neither do I. I do believe, however, in a relationship with God and I'm part of the kingdom of God. So while you don't like the fact that it organizes itself into churches, I can't help that.

You're going to get something significant done. You got to have order and organizations allow you to have order, but our organization is not based on a religious creed. It's based on what our savior taught us.

The great commission is go into the world, preach the gospel, baptize those who will follow and teach them to observe all things that I commanded you. That's why we have churches. That's why we have radio ministries and all the other things we do because we're teaching people to observe what Christ taught us. But it is not about a religion. I could care less about religion because religion is man's attempt to reach out to God. Relationship recognizes that we could not reach out to him unless he reached down for us and thank God through the blood of Jesus, through the coming of Jesus, he reached down and he who knew no sin became sin on the cross. So you and I who were the centers could become the righteousness of God in him. And I'm glad that I know it's really not about religion.

It is about a relationship. That being said, since it's all about a relationship with God, one of the things you got to learn is to give him the praise that he is worthy to receive. And I want to be among the people in this world who never leave a doubt in anybody's mind who knows me or deals with me that I'm a lover of God and I'm a praiser of God. I'm a worshiper of God and I'm not ashamed of him. I'm glad to be able to know him, to love him, to serve him, to worship him, and I'll do it for the rest of my life. I'm not ashamed of the one who died for me and I'm going to be a praiser in my private devotion and also publicly. I'm going to praise him. And you know what?

It's funny. People will let you be on the record about just about everything else but they get uncomfortable now the more that we decide we are lovers of Jesus Christ. You find that folk who you can be any old kind of weird thing you want. But if you decide you're going to be on the record, a praiser of God, there are people who will give you problems.

Well, they're just going to have to have an issue with me because I'm going to be somebody who lets everyone know I'm saved by grace through faith and I praise the one who came and who died for me. Why is praise important for those of us who have a relationship with the Lord? There are some wonderful reasons.

Let me share them with you. I shared them recently in Following Jesus 101 course and I want to expound on them now. One of the reasons why we must discover the power of praise is because we were created to praise God.

It is literally part of our purpose. Isaiah 43 verse 21 says, this people I have formed for myself. They shall declare my praise. God said I have formed this people. Now of course in the in that generation he's talking about his people Israel. They were then and are now the people of God. And he said, I formed them for myself that they may declare my praise.

Well guess what? We are now an extended part of the family through the new birth in Jesus Christ. So while I'm not a Jew by blood, I'm a Jew inwardly by relationship with God through Christ.

And furthermore, if you want to say, well that's Old Testament, I don't believe in that. All right, let me take you to 1 Peter 2 9. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people for what purpose that you might declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So don't hit me up over where Isaiah doesn't apply to you. Well, first Peter does and I was raised up in a chosen generation and a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own special people. King James says peculiar. I don't like that cause I know some peculiar people and that's not a wonderful thing, but we are his special people and he called us out in order to show forth his praises. My job is to show his praises.

My job is to proclaim his praises. You can't get me to shut up about God. I don't believe in this thing where everybody, well, you know, the separation of church and state. I'm not talking church, I'm talking Jesus.

You can separate the church, but you can't separate my free speech talking about Jesus. I can talk about him wherever I want to talk about him because he's the one who brought me out. If it weren't for him, I'd still be lost and undone without God or his son, but thank God he reached down his hand for me and I'm going to be a praiser. We were created to praise him. Part of your purpose on earth is to give him glory.

He's a God of purpose. I recently shared the seven principles I learned decades ago from Dr. Miles Monroe. They changed my life. I think it was back in 1991 that I first heard him preach the late Dr. Miles Monroe preached a message called the power of purpose and that thing changed my thinking back then. He gave seven principles of purpose.

I have memorized them decades ago and they still live in me. Number one, God is a God of purpose. Number two, everything God creates has a purpose.

Number three, not every purpose is known by us. And you got to learn that because there are some things you'll never understand in this life. Some of y'all always trying to figure out everything. Please get delivered from the need to know everything.

There are things we don't know and you're not going to know till you get into the presence of God or you won't need to know them then so he won't even bother telling you at that point. But stop trying to figure everything. You know these people I'm talking about who have an answer to every question. Have you ever met people who always have an answer? If there's a question, they'll give you the answer.

Doesn't matter that the answer is whack half the time. They will give you whatever answer they got. You need to be comfortable with three words I don't know. I don't know.

I've been a pastor since my 20s. I'm comfortable saying I don't know. Sometimes I run them together, it's not three words. I don't know.

Just not even three separate words. I don't know. And you know you come to my office and snotting and crying trying to get me to figure out the mysteries of your life. I can't figure that stuff out.

So I just hand you tissue and say I wish I could help you. I don't know. Let's pray. We'll be right back with more of today's Destined for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd. To listen to any of Pastor Paul's recent broadcasts, be sure to stop by pastorpaul.net to listen on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. And stay with us after today's message when Pastor Paul joins me. We'll let you know how you can get a copy of his new full-length book Lessons from the Vineyard for your generous year-end gift. But first, stay tuned now for the second half of today's message, Discovering the Power of Praise.

Once again, here's Pastor Paul. Fact of the matter is not every purpose is known to us. But his fourth principle was where purpose is unknown, abuse is inevitable. Where purpose is unknown, abuse is inevitable.

What does that mean? If you don't know the purpose of a thing, you can't do anything but abuse it. What is abuse?

It's the marriage of two words, abnormal use. Where purpose is unknown, abnormal use is inevitable. So you've got to understand the things God has given you to know the purpose for, use it for his glory. And your life's purpose is to glorify him. His fifth principle was, by the way, if you want to know the purpose of a thing, don't ask the thing.

That's good too. If you want to know the purpose of a thing, don't ask the thing. Why? Because it's the created, not the creator. One of the problems we have in our world is we're trying to figure out stuff we didn't create.

Go to the creator. He is the one who can tell you what its purpose was for. If you want to know the purpose of a thing, don't ask the thing. His sixth principle was purpose is only found in the mind of the creator. Purpose is only found in the mind of creator. And his seventh principle was purpose is the key to fulfillment. And for your life, if you want to be fulfilled, fulfillment's going to come as you live out your purpose. And one of your purposes is to give God conspicuous praise, not to be a closet follower, not to be a closet praiser, not to be one of those folk who's ashamed.

Just go around the offices and the hallways of your job secretly looking for other Christians. You know the Lord? No, no.

No, no. I'm on the record. I'm saved. Everybody who knows me needs to know I'm saved.

Because you don't know how your witness is going to impact other people. You don't know how God will use you. And all you're doing is just expressing your purpose. I was created to praise God. I'm chosen.

I'm royal. I am holy. I'm special so that I can declare his praises.

Those of him who brought me out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Be an on the record follower of Christ. I don't even like Christian because there's a lot of people who wear that title I don't want to be associated with. I'm a follower of Christ.

And I'm on the record. Everybody else out the closet, why would I still be in there? Everybody's out. Do you know there's not a group left in the closet but a few of you folks who's scared to let people know? Everybody's out.

They're walking up and down the street. They're proclaiming whatever it is they are, what they believe, you know, all of that. So I'm not staying in the closet by myself. Get on out there and let the world know that Jesus saved. And here's the good thing, being a follower of Christ means you don't have to condemn other people. Jesus came so none of us would be condemned.

That's why I don't like Christian because some folks, some brands of Christianity specialize in condemnation. But have you ever noticed Jesus, when he had the opportunity, when they dragged a woman caught in the act of adultery and brought her out to Jesus, they said, now the law said, stoner, what do you say? Trying to trap him. What did Jesus do? He said, well, excuse me for a minute.

You who are without sin, if y'all want to have a stoning, go ahead and start. And then he got down and started writing in the ground. And we don't know what he wrote. I even had one of these special people tell me what he wrote one day.

Honestly, honestly, that's why I told you, some folk, I just can't handle them. Well, pastor, I heard you say, you don't know what he, he said, we do know what he wrote. I said, yeah, what is that? And he told me something. And I thought, oh, you wasn't them peculiar people that King James was talking about. You're going to tell me what he wrote like you standing over his shoulder. I mean, sometimes he started writing whatever he wrote. The people who wanted to condemn this child, they looked over and saw what he wrote, whatever it was, let them know. I know your sins. I know your sins.

I know yours. They all walked away. I sure would love to know, but he didn't tell us. Did he write? He looked at one guy, said Jerusalem holiday in, I don't know what he was writing on 7 13. I don't know what he was writing.

Whatever he wrote, let them know. Not only didn't they stone her, they didn't even hang around. Bible says they started walking away and finally he looked at her, said, where are your condemners? And she said, no one is left to condemn me.

And listen to what Jesus said. Neither do I condemn you. So these Christians who love going around condemning people, they're not like their savior. He said, I ain't come to condemn. I came to free them from condemnation by asking them to just follow me, put your trust in me and I will make you the person you're called to be. That's what we're about. We're about telling folk, come on and follow the Lord.

Let him transform you. It's not our job to clean people up. You still got churches going around saying we need to clean up the church. How dare you think you can clean up the church? You're not even fully clean yourself.

You still got issues and stuff you working through. We don't know it cause you put on your facade when you come to service, you put on your praise the Lord and God bless you and I'm blessed and highly favored and all that stuff. Look, I've been around church folk all my life.

I've seen that and then I've seen them at their house or ran up on them. Pastor Jenkins and I was in Maryland recently and we were walking down the street there. We were going to a restaurant and one of his members was there smoking something and just, just follow along for smoking something and all out on the street. I mean just, just, just, and he saw us coming and oh, he went to the, and I said, I know he don't want to drop it cause he don't want pastor to know what he's smoking. I already saw what he was smoking, but he just had it back then.

Listen, we don't need that. If you still doing something that you think you ought to be delivered from yet, just stay following Jesus and at least be clear about it. I'm not finished yet.

God's still working on me. No need of me being a hypocrite over it cause if you comfortable enough to smoke it out on the street, then why is pastor the problem? But that's the way church folk had done. I remember back when I was an associate pastor in Philadelphia and I went to visit some family. I forget what was going on and I was walking up there, walkway toward their house and it was a summertime so their main door was open.

Their screen door was the only thing you could hear him in the house. And then somebody looked out the window said, Oh, pastor Paul, come here. Put it up, put it up.

They in there clinking. I said, you know, when I got in there, I say, Hey, how y'all doing? Whatever you were doing, keep doing. I'm just here just to see whoever I was there for. I don't have a hell for anybody. I have neither a heaven nor hell. You got to answer to God. My job is to teach his word, teach you to obey all things that he commanded cause you got to answer to him. You don't have to answer to me. I'm going to be in the same line you're going to be in. Come on somebody. We all got to answer.

What you worry about me for? I'm living to hear him say, well done. That's it. That's all that matters. And so we got to understand we're created to praise God. That's our job to give him glory because without his work in your life, none of us are going to have anything significant in this world to do. And so we got to proclaim his praises. We were created to praise him. The second reason why you've got to discover the power of praise is because God deserves to be praised. Literally God deserves to be praised. Here's what the Bible says in Psalm 18 three, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. Psalm one 13 three from the rising of the sun to it's going down. The Lord's name is to be praised. Revelation four 11. You are worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.

These and many other scriptures tell you that he is worthy. Thanks so much for being here for today's Destined for Victory message, discovering the power of praise. Look for any of Pastor Paul's recent messages online on demand at pastorpaul.net. I'm pleased to welcome Pastor Paul who joins me now again to talk about his brand new book, Lessons from the Vineyard. Pastor, just a couple of times a year we come to our listeners and ask them for help by making a generous gift and here we are at the end of one year and the beginning of another, a time when our friends can help us finish financially strong. Tell me about this book that we're gifting for those who give a gift today, Lessons from the Vineyard.

I'm happy to be able to offer this particular resource because it allows you to understand that growing in the area of character is what makes us people whose lives are really making a difference for both time and for eternity. I don't have to tell you that we have a world that is unconvinced about the reality of Jesus, the reality of the need for salvation and things like that. The best way we can witness these days is not only with our words but with our lives and if we will become people who have ripe fruit of the Spirit in operation in us, if we are loving, joyful, have the peace that passes understanding, have temperance and patience and all of those things that are the fruit of the Spirit, if we are mature in those areas I think that helps us be much better witnesses than if all we're doing is yapping. The world really isn't impressed that much with what we have to say anymore. They'll be more impressed by the way we live out our faith and so this book is written with the hope and prayer that it will help each of us really grow and mature in the area of developing Christian godly character.

That's what it's all about. At the end of the day it's not what we say but it's how we live that's going to impress the world around us. Let's remember how many people responded to Jesus when he lived on earth not merely because of his teachings but because of the way he lived to serve all those around him. Well again this brand new book from Pastor Paul is called Lessons from the Vineyard and it's our gift to you for your most generous donation of $25 or more before December 31st. Please call 855-339-5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory post office box 1767 Fremont California 94538.

Again the address is Destined for Victory box 1767 Fremont California 94538. You're not doing anything special when you praise God you're giving him what he's worthy of what is due to him. I just came to let somebody know it is time for you to put some more on your praise bill. Your praise bill is a little delinquent you haven't been praising him enough. You owe God more praise than you've been giving him. That's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message Discovering the Power of Praise. Until then remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ you are Destined for Victory.