I've been listening to the mainstream. To Dr. Michael Youth of Over the Air. I usually don't listen. Do all these.
T V and uh radio manager. But surprise started. getting into Dr. Michael using messages I really felt It is got and got really leaked. And his message is on Tainted and polluted these days, especially.
In the United States of America, Dr. Michael Youssef gives rubber manna according to. Yeah. means personally for me it's very useful. I'm attracted by the Meiki.
propagates. Gospel in the Muslim countries. I'm really touched by the way the gospel is propagated through him and the way God is using him mightily. Glory be to God. Thank you.
Praise the Lord. Dr. Yusuf would like to hear your story as well. He's always so blessed to hear how God has used His voice to reach the hearts and the lives of people all around the world.
So if you'd like to share testimony that might be used on air sometime in the future, we encourage you to call us. The number is 877-941-7934. Just follow the prompts when you get there. Again the phone number 877-941-0. seven nine three four.
And if you'd like to learn more about Leading the Way, order products, or support Dr. Youssef with your gifts toward worldwide ministry, well, the easiest way is to visit us online. ltw.org. That's ltw dot org. Thank you for taking time to join Dr.
Michael Youssef as he looks at praise and worship. as outlined in Psalm 47. on leading the way. You will get a fresh and biblical perspective on this often misunderstood part of the Christian experience. Please do remember that leading the way is listener supported.
made possible by God's provision through the generosity of listeners just like you. Find out ways that you can stand with Doctor Youssef and be a part of taking the gospel around the world when you visit ltw.org. Or when you call us, and you at 866. six two six four three four. Yeah.
Well, let's give Dr. Youssef as much time as possible for today's teaching. Listen as he begins. From the very beginning of time, People have always fallen into temptation. of getting sidetracked.
from the one and only call in life. When God called Abraham, 4,000 years ago. He told him that the world will be blessed through you. How? By his testimony.
That he's going to testify to Jehovah God, and the world will see God in him, and they'll become blessed. That they will come to him and to his son down the road, his descendant Jesus, down the road. God said to Israel, from the moment he took them out of the land of slavery, he had said to them, You shall be a light to the nations. How? That they're going to be his witnesses in the world.
That's the call of their life. That they will make him known on all the earth. That is really the very call and the very reason why God called Israel and did not call the Amorites and the Ammonites and one of those other mosquitobites. I mean, he called Israel specifically to be a light to the nations. But listen.
This has been the modus operande of God from the very beginning, that He calls a people. He calls His people to make Him known. He calls His people to testify to Him. He called His people to lift up the name of Jesus. He calls His people to lead others to Him alone.
He called His people to light the way to Christ. But what happened? Israel became An exclusivist group. Israel became an elitist nation. Israel became a holy huddle.
Israel became smug and self centered and self focused. Israel, in fact, stood in the way and would not let people come to God. And again and again, God in His Word in the Old Testament, through one prophet after another, He called on them to remember their original calling, to remember the purpose for which He called them, that they are to be for the praise of His glory, that they are to be a light to the world, that they are to make Him known through the miraculous intervention of God. Why else did He do what He did for them? But instead What happened?
They got bogged down. In their rituals, they got bugged down in their lifestyles and they became navel gazers. You know what a navel gazing is? Gazing at your navel, that's really what it is. And finally.
God began to point to a time in the future that is coming. When his Messiah comes and corrects all that wrong attitude about God and about the worship of God and about the mission of his people in the world. And Psalm 47 is called the messianic psalm for a reason. It's called a messianic psalm because the psalmist was projecting the coming of the Messiah in which he will come and change all of that. Why else did you think Jesus, four times at the end of each of the Gospels and then in the book of Acts, He said, You go, you go, you go, you go.
He says, Don't sit there and wait for them to come to you, you go to them.
So I want you to turn with me, please, to Psalm 47. A thousand years before the virgin birth. The psalmist prophesied. The psalmist looked forward. The psalmist projected the future in which.
God will appear in the flesh. And he points out to that time with a great deal of anticipation, with a great deal of excitement, with a great deal of expectation. And the psalmist looks forward to that day. When God's people From every tribe, from every nation, from every tongue, from every corner of the globe will worship the living God. When people from every race and every color and every background would lift up the name of the Lord.
When people, whether they be rich or poor, whether they are educated or not, We're joined together in the praise of His glory. Verse one: Clap your hands, all you people. Shout to the Lord. Here's a shout. If you're a Pentecostal, but if you're a Presbyterian, Whisper?
Here's a shout if you're charismatic, but if you are Episcopalian, mumble. Shop. All the people. Listen, I know and you know. That you have no problem.
Clapping. and shouting for your sports team. Right? But when it comes to church, most Christians come and sit in their hands. Ugh.
how they become tongue-tied. They master words.
Some don't even do that. They come to praise God, but they never do. The God who saved you eternally. They keep our mouths shut. But listen to me.
When you go to the sports arena, you're not going there so you can spend $10 on a lousy hot dog. You don't go there because of the pristine environment. You don't go because you really love it when people shove you and push you all over the place, and so I don't go. But anyway. Yeah.
You are there, so you can root for your team and enjoy the game. And that's fine, but listen to me. Why on God's earth are God's people go to church supposedly to worship the living God, but they never do? They come there and they fold their arms. Let's see what the old boy is going to say today.
Somebody said something to me some time ago, I said, Oh. I'm just not getting much out of church today. You're not supposed to get anything out of church. You're supposed to give it to the church. You give praise and honor and glory, and then watch how much God gives you back.
That's really the purpose of the existence of the church. That we are gathering in the name of Jesus to say to him, Lord, we love you. You are a mighty and living God. Lord, you are the Lord of all the earth. You are Lord and sovereign over all the world.
That you can set up kings and dethrone others. Lord, that you are sovereign over our homes, over our hearts, over our businesses, over our finances, over our social life, over our relationships, over our family, and over our future. We're here to acknowledge that. And God said, That he inhabits the praises of his people, that he's going to show up in a special way. The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians.
That when a person who does not believe in the Lord walks into the assembly. And he's going to watch you. Worshiping the living God. He's going to watch you. Welcoming them, but also.
Your love is for Jesus, and you're lifting up the Lord Jesus. He's going to look at you, and he's going to say, I want that. I want that joy. I want that wonderful life that you are living. I want to worship a God who died for me and paid the price for the forgiveness of my sins.
Read 1 Corinthians chapter 14. That is the purpose of the church so that those who would walk in, don't know the Lord, walk out converted to Christ. Listen carefully, please. You don't need to market Jesus. You're not out there to sell Jesus.
You don't have to make him palatable to culture and to society and to people who don't want him. People are going to see your love for Him, they're going to see your commitment to Him, they're going to see your adoration of Him alone, and they're going to say, That is how I want my life to be. And you do that and let the Holy Spirit does the rest because that's his work. Clap your hands, all you nations. Toward to God.
Shout to God. With cry of joy. How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King above all earth! He subdues nations under us, people under our feet.
Some of you have already been exercised by those words. What does that mean? You're going to subdue people off feet. What is this about? Listen carefully.
Here's what it means. God's people now in every corner of the globe, literally, They are Under the feet Up there. Persecutors. Right now They falsely accuse the children of the living God simply because they believe in Jesus. Right now there's discrimination against the children of the living God.
The police are chasing the like criminals. In every corner of the globe, This is taking place right now. Christians are being muzzled, even in the West. Christians are being intimidated and they're frightened. And they are under the feet of those who hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
But is what the psalmist is saying? He's saying the day is coming when we are going to reign and rule with Christ in the universe. The day is coming when we're going to have authority to rule the nations of the world. And this is. The hope that we have for believers around the globe.
But this is also a reference To what God did on behalf of Israel. He brought them out of the land of the slavery in Egypt after 400 years supernaturally. He opened the Red Sea for them supernaturally. He drowned their enemies who have enslaved them supernaturally. He provided for them for 40 years in the wilderness not only water and food, but also the cloud and the pillar of fire supernaturally.
Then he got them to cross the river Jordan supernaturally. Then he got them with a shout to pull down the strong, mighty walls of Jericho supernaturally. He gave them the land of promise supernaturally. And yet, when they got into the promised land, they got bogged down in their lives and in their rituals and in their dogmas and in their likes and dislikes. And they forgot.
About the God. Who delivered them? With all these supernatural acts of God. They forgot it. and they went to worship other gods.
put their hope in idols. Sticks and stones. worthless, dumb idols. And so Psalm 47 says, That the day is coming When the name of the Lord will be lifted high, throughout all the earth. Yeah.
because of his Faithful children who are going to obey his commission, who are going to obey his command, because faithful people are going to take that gospel message to the ends of the earth. They're going to sacrifice to see that this is done. Because of his faithful people, they are willing to pay the heavy price. Because so many of his faithful people may even give life itself for the sake of the gospel. Back in the nineteen hundreds.
One of the great British historians. by the name of Arnold Tomby. He authored twelve large volumes. Of the history of civilization from the beginning. to 1961.
Credible. And he isolated Thirty-four distinctive Civilization. And he divided them. Into three sections. He said there were thirteen.
Independent civilizations, and then there were fifteen, what he calls satellite civilizations, and then there were six aborted civilizations. They all came and went, but the Lord our God is still on the throne in heaven. Egypt was once a great power in the world, it is a power no more. Babylon was once a mighty power, although most of the land there is oil-rich, but there is power no more. Greece and Rome were the wonder of the world, but they are wonder no more.
The Soviet Union terrified the world, but the Soviet Union exists no more. And we know that all of these civilizations have come and gone, but God is king over all the earth. Listen to me. Whenever We put our faith In any earthly Messiah. Other than the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to fail.
We're going to fall and we're going to stumble. And nations that arrogantly depart from their righteous biblical roots. Will be brought down. Nebuchadnezzar. The most powerful man on the earth.
Defies God. And within seconds He was grazing like an animal in the field. His son Belshazzar Who desecrated the vessels of the temple. In twenty-four hours, he was overthrown by Darius the Mede. And the only hope for America.
Today is for God's people Turning up. And personally, and passionately, and with total commitment, praise the name of the Lord and call upon the Lord, not just when they need something, not during times of crisis, national crisis, but all the time. Our only hope is for God's people to intentionally enthrone God once again upon the thrones of their hearts, upon the thrones of their businesses, upon the thrones of their homes, upon the thrones of the churches, and upon the thrones even of governments. That's the only hope we have.
So that God may have mercy. and send us fresh wind and fresh fire. To burn all of the sin of this nation. Look at verses Five, six, seven, and eight. It says God went up with a shout.
The Lord with the sound of trumpet, verse 6: Therefore, sing praises to our God, sing praises. You know, every time You hear the word shout and you hear the word trumpet. You think of the words of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians that that's how the Lord Jesus is going to show up. There's going to be a trumpet, there's going to be a shout. And that should cause you, my beloved friend, to rejoice in the midst of tough times.
That should cause you to lift up your head because your salvation is drawing nigh. Whether you are in the dark corners of life right now, whether you're going through tough times or not, whether you are on an easy street or you're living in the light, wherever you are, there is nothing that will lift you up. Other than the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ. C.S. Lewis said Only In the act of worship and praise, can a person learn to believe in the goodness and the greatness of God?
And then he continued. He said, God wants us to praise Him not because He needs or craves in any sense our flattery, but because He knows that praise creates joy and thankfulness. Let me recommend to you If you haven't read it already, my book, Empowered by Praise. God taught me how to praise Him in the tough times in my life, and that book comes out of the It Will Revolutionize Your Praise Life. But hear me right on this.
Praise is the one thing yet you do. Here on earth. That invites the presence of God. I already pointed you to the scripture. God says, I'll always inhabit the praises of my people.
But there's more to that. Praise is the one thing you do here on earth. that aligns you with the population of heaven. That's what they're doing right now. And when you praise the name of the Lord, you are lining up with them and joining with them in praise.
John the Revelator in chapter 5 verse 12. who saw heaven as it is and as it will be. He said the angels are constantly praising God and saying, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. And then in chapter 7, verse 12, John goes on to say, They are praising God and saying, Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength to our God forever and ever.
Amen. Not only that. That the angels are praising God right now. But all of our loved ones Those who knew the Lord and loved the Lord. I know we have loved ones and family members who have gone ahead of us.
They too are praising God right now. And when we praise the Lord, we are lining up with them. Listen to what John said in Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 and 8. He said, Before me was a great multitude that no one could count. From every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.
And they were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice. Did you get that? They weren't mumbling. They want whispering.
They were crying with what? God bless you. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Let me ask you this. Are you discouraged today?
Begin to praise the Lord. And watch what he's going to do. Are you fearful today? Begin to praise the Lord. Are you confused and uncertain?
And I can tell you, in all my life, I've never seen a more confusing time than the one we're going through right now. We'll begin by praising the Lord. Are you going through doubt? Begin by praising the Lord. Are you struggling financially?
Begin by praising the Lord. Are you desperate for God to answer your prayers? Begin by praising the Lord. Are you blessed of the Lord? Then praise the Lord anyway.
Verse 9. Verse nine, last verse. It tells us about God's purpose all along, from the very beginning of time. See, the church is not man's invention. The church was God's invention from the very beginning, from the day he called Abraham.
God's purpose all along was to bless all those who put their faith in His Messiah, who is a descendant of Abraham. When the Bible said, I'll bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you, it is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's a promise to all those who put their faith in the Messiah. And there is nothing more important in all of life. Than belonging to the kingdom of Jesus. I don't care what country club you belong to, I don't care what union you belong to, I don't care what elite association you belong to, nothing more important to life than belonging to the kingdom of Jesus.
And if you don't belong to the kingdom of Jesus, you can today. Right now. The kingdom of Jesus, which another word for rule, the rule of Jesus is in the hearts of the believers. And we experience it. Spiritually.
Those who have spiritual eyes. But the day is coming. The day is coming. The day is coming. When the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed.
and they'll become visible to the whole world to see, as we saw in the last message. He will rule with a scepter of iron over all the earth. Those who loved him on this earth, those who have praised him on this earth, those who have joy in praising his name, they're gonna have that joy multiplied millions of times as they begin to praise him face to face and forever and ever and ever. Imagine an entire eternity of passionate praise and worship of the Savior. Thank you for listening to Leading the Way with Dr.
Michael Youssef. In his newest book, Winning the Invisible War, Dr. Michael Youssep declares. Many people, including many Christians, pretend there is no war. They even try to deny that Satan exists because they can't detect his presence with their physical senses.
But the invisible war is real. It's raging every day all around us and within. In Dr. Michael Youssef's book, Winning the Invisible War, he offers timely hope for the battle worn. Dr.
Youssef reminds you that victory is guaranteed in Christ. As a Bible scholar and compassionate pastor, Dr. Youssef gives you the tools to stand strong in the strength of the Lord and be victorious in winning the invisible war. Pre-order your copy today and learn more about the content when you go to ltw.org. ltw.org.
Request your copy of Winning the Invisible War Today. You can get all of the pre-ordering details from your Leading the Way Ministry representatives at 866-666-666-666. Six two six four three four. Yeah. And of course, you can order online.
And learn more about the life-shifting content when you go to ltw.org. Dr. Michael Youssef's My Journal is the invaluable monthly publication of Leading the Way. Each month, you'll find my journal offering rich biblically based devotionals from Dr. Yusuf that help you deepen your study of scripture.
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