Empowered by Praise, Part 6

Welcome to Leading the Way with Pastor and the author of more than 50 books, including My Refuge, My Strength, Dr. Michael Youssef.

Dr. Youssef grew up in Egypt, in that region where many biblical events actually occurred. He attended Bible school in Australia, seminary in California, then added years of passionate worldwide ministry experience so that each and every message contains very unique insights into God's Word for you. Thank you for listening to Leading the Way, practical words for life in 2024 and beyond. Up next, Dr. Youssef looks at God's desire to bless those who offer praise. This is a unique life changing message called a giving heart. As I bring this series of messages to an end, I'll bring it to a close today. As I bring it to a close, this last message is going to be a challenging message, not to all of you, I know, but to some.

But before I get there, I want to recap what we have been seeing throughout the series of messages. We have been seeing how God's blessings, God's peace, God's joy always follows a praise filled life. Here is a principle that you must never forget. Blessings follow praise.

Would you say that with me? Blessings follow praise. Blessings always follow praise. But I want to be very clear, while God does respond with blessings to the praise filled life, his blessings are only the byproduct.

Did you get that? It's a byproduct of the praise filled life. But there's more that I want to emphasize, at least one more thing. Our Heavenly Father is not motivated to bless us just because we utter some words that we know he likes to hear. But rather, our Heavenly Father is motivated to bless us because praise and thanksgiving places us in the posture of receiving more of his blessings. Let me illustrate this from a Semitic languages point of view.

When Psalm 103 said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. The root word for that word bless the Lord, Barakah, in the Semitic languages. Bless, Barakah, it has its root in kneeling. And it comes from the fact that in the Middle East, a camel has to kneel all the way down on all four in order that he may receive the goodies.

A camel is very, you can't dump the stuff on the camel unless he kneels. So the two words are interconnected. As you kneel in praise, you get the blessing. Think about this, think about this with me. The same word blessing as kneeling. When you want God's Barakah, you have to barak on your knees. Question, how do we bless God? How do we bless God? If we bless the name of God, only in words, no, with the totality of our being. We bless God by submitting to him in every area of our life.

We bless God by pouring out our love on him and on others. And when that happens, you can be assured of the fact that God will say to you, keep on pouring it, then I'm going to keep pouring more on you. As you pour it out, I'll pour it in.

As you pour it out, I'll pour it in. Today I want to tell you that praise living and self-giving are the Siamese twins of a praise-filled life. Let me repeat this, praise living and self-giving are the Siamese twins of a praise-filled life. You see, praising God just with our lips is hollow. We have to praise God with our substance because praising with lips and praising with substance are inseparable. Praising God in words alone can be empty praise, but praising God with our substance confirm the praise-filled life.

Praising God with our mouths can be hollow unless it is accompanied by self-giving. Perhaps there is no greater example of what I'm trying to tell you than in the life of the greatest singer on the face of the earth in history, the greatest singer. King David wrote some of the most magnificent songs.

He wrote some of the most magnificent songs. He knew what it means to enter into the presence of God in praise and in worship. David wrote and composed many of the magnificent songs that are blessing us now 3,000 years later. In fact, no one understood the importance of the praise-filled life like David, and we've seen him before. But David did not praise God in words only, but he praised God with his substance.

Let me tell you about it. Remember that King David was so overwhelmed in thanksgiving to God of what God has done for him, all the struggles of life that he brought him through and where he placed him. He was so indebted to God. He was so grateful.

His heart was flowing. He said, God, I want to build a temple for your glory. So far, we have a tent that is housing the Ark of the Covenant. And he said, God, it's the longing of my heart to build you a permanent place for your glory, for your honor, so people can come and praise you and glorify your name and thank you. And God said, no. And you hate it when God says no. But I can tell you, the greatest experiences of my life is when I prayed for things and God said no. I go back and bless him for that. So don't ever be put off when God says no, because that's your blessing.

It's for your glory. David was not put off by that. He was not put off by that. God said, no, no, no. Not you, David. Your son Solomon is going to build it for me.

I'm not going to be put off by that. That's fine, Lord. You're sovereign.

And my gratitude to you knows no bounds. And so he gives his net worth. Everything he has piles it up. And he says, I'm going to leave it here so that Solomon can build the temple.

Some people estimate that net worth was equivalent to our money, probably a billion dollars of today's money. Question, what was David's motivation for praising God with his substance? The answer actually is found in 1 Chronicles 29 in verses 3 and 4. He's basically saying in those two verses is, Lord, this is my tangible expression of my personal gratitude to you. I've been praising you all of my life for writing psalms.

Now this is my tangible way of saying thank you. David, writing psalms and singing psalms were not enough. To David, mere words, even those magnificent words that have emanated from a praise-filled life were not enough. His praise had to be confirmed by sacrificial giving. Look with me at verses 14 all the way to 18, 1 Chronicles 29.

I'm going to read them for you. Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. We are aliens and strangers in your sight, and as were all our forefathers.

Our days on earth are like a shadow without hope. Oh, Lord, as for all this abundance that we have provided for the building of your temple, for your holy name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. I know, my God, that you test the heart and you are pleased with integrity. All these things that I have given, it goes from the giving of the congregation to his personal giving, his personal sacrificial giving. He said all these things that I have willingly given with honest intent, and now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. Oh, Lord God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, keep this desire in our hearts and in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. And all of God's people said amen.

Beloved, here's what David is saying here. He's saying loyalty to God is expressed in giving and in praising. Loyalty to God is manifested when you give with all of your heart and your praise with all of your might.

Loyalty to God is expressed in words but also in action. The same principle operates in the New Testament. You see, don't let anybody mislead you of saying that we have two books, Old Testament and New Testament. We have only one book, two sections.

One says he's coming, the other one said he's here. One book. We have one book. It's the Holy Bible. It's the Word of God. Because the same principle operated in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if you've never taken time alone quietly read 1 Corinthians 15, you must do that. It's long, it's 58 verses, but it is a magnificent chapter. And the Apostle Paul is actually giving them intellectual proof and reasoning proof of the resurrection, our resurrection, because of the resurrection of Jesus and the joy of our resurrection and how we're going to live forever with Jesus. Then he goes on and on and on.

It takes us to the very portals of heaven. And then in verse 1 of chapter 16 he says, now as for the collection. What? What? You just took us all the way to heaven and then you come to the mundane thing as a collection?

Yeah. Paul is saying that heaven and giving are interconnected. That giving and heaven are interrelated. That heaven and giving are intertwined. Here he tells us about the link between the joy of our resurrection in terms of sending on timber.

I know this is a figure of speech. Sending on some timber for your mansion in heaven. Some are still unable to think about the distinction and the relationship between heaven and giving. So I want to give you three things. First of all, giving back to God is an indication that you really believe that everything you have belongs to God.

That's the first thing. The second thing I want to tell you is this. Giving back to God is sowing seed for future blessings. You're sowing seed. You're sowing seed for future blessings. And the third thing, giving feeds on praising and praising feeds on giving.

And they both feed on each other. I'm going to show you in a minute. Look at this very, very quickly.

If you blink, you're going to miss it. First of all, when we praise God with our giving, we are testifying to the fact that we really believe that everything we have belongs to Him. That He owns everything we have.

We are affirming tangibly that every breath is a gift from God. Some will say, God owns everything. And then God gets very precious little of what He owns.

Let me tell you about a proven fact, a proven fact. The more you give, as Jesus said, and I tell my words, the more you give, the more you are actually creating room for God to give more, to pile it back. See, some people think giving is like having a pie and you slice it so when you give, you got a few slices left. That's not biblical concept. That's not biblical concept.

That's secular concept. God's concept is that your life is a silo, and you have the grain in that silo. And every time you open the faucet and get some grain, God has a key to the top lid of the silo. He has the key to it. So He opens up and pours some more.

And the more you use, the more He pours it out from the top. Everything we have is a loan from Him. You remember when you went to the bank and you borrowed some money, you bought a house, and you moved into the house and said, that's our house. That is not your house.

You agree? It's not your house. It's the bank's house. It's the mortgage company's house. You don't believe me? Just try not to pay the monthly payment.

Two or three months. You'll see what I mean. I hope you don't do this. Soon you discover it's not your house. It's not your house. Beloved, it's in the same way everything we have.

They are all on a loan from the great banker of the universe. Not only that giving proves that we actually believe that God owns everything, but secondly, giving is sowing seed for future blessings. Listen to me. God established the sowing and the reaping principle back in Genesis. The Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 6 38 affirmed this principle of sowing and reaping. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 6, 7, and 8, he affirms this biblical principle when he said, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will reap generously.

But you know what? That would not be good to stop here. The Apostle goes on verses 7, 8, and 9, 2 Corinthians 9, God is able to make all grace. How many?

How many? All grace. About to you. Question, what is the result of that abounding grace?

He continues. So that in all things, how many things? All. And in all, at all times, how many times? All. Having all that you need, how many?

All. You will abound in generosity. Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that amazing? Just because some people misapplied the word of God and used it for their selfish purposes, it doesn't make it less the word of God. Are you with me? God's desire for his children is abundance. God's desire, as the Bible said, God's desire not for anyone to perish. It's his desire, his longing. He wish all of people saved.

But what happened? They reject Jesus so they don't get saved. So God's desire for his children, his redeemed flock, it is his desire for them to abound in everything. And how many things? All. I'm talking about all things, all things. Listen to me, we are the ones who can block his desire for our abundance. This is not works. I don't believe in works. If you listen to me long enough, you know that I believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, through Christ alone.

Sola Scriptura is what we teach in this church. But this is what the word of God said. Listen to me. How do we block this abounding? I'm going to prove it to you from the scripture, from what Jesus said. By the measure you use is going to be measured back to you.

Beloved, listen to me, my plea is for every one of you. Please do not block God's desire for your abundance by being chinchy with God. Let me illustrate this from the orient. There's an oriental legend about a potato farmer. It says the potato farmer decided one day that he's going to eat all the big potatoes and sow seed for the next season, the smaller ones. Well, he kept on doing this.

As years have passed, subsequent harvests got smaller and smaller until the potatoes were tiny marbles. Listen, we can say all day long, everything we have belongs to God. God owns everything and we can say that until we're blue in the face. We can intellectually believe that God will multiply the seeds for the sower, but until we actually sow some seeds, we are proving that our praise is hollow. Neither praise alone nor giving alone is enough to put you in a position of receiving of God's blessings. But consecrated praise and devoted giving places you directly under God's shower from the sky. Giving and praising acknowledges God's ownership. Secondly, giving and praising is the seed for further blessing. And finally, giving feeds praising and praising feeds giving. They feed on each other. But not only that they feed on each other, but they encourage others to do the same. I have never met a generous person who was not filled with thanksgiving and praise in her life.

I have never met one. By the same token, I've never met a person who is filled with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord and he's not generous in his giving or her giving. Now I can tell you, I'll tell you this only to the glory of God. Really to the glory of God. Whenever I travel overseas, I have people come to me and they would say, we thank God for leading the way. We thank God for kingdom set. We thank God for their sacrificial giving to make it possible for us to hear the gospel. We thank God that you are broadcasting the gospel freely. All praise goes to God. All praise goes to God.

By his will and his strength, we're going to do more and more and more because we will be invading more and more of Satan's territories. We will help set free. By God's grace and mercy, we will set free men and women, boys and girls from sin and death. We will give more and more the opportunity for people to hear the good news of the gospel, the love of Christ for them. Beloved, we have so much more harvest yet to come. If I did not believe that, I wouldn't be standing right here.

We have much more. Many souls are yet to be won for Christ. When David, the great praising man of God gave generously, others were motivated to do the same. When the Macedonians, Paul said they gave out of their poverty.

They were not rich people. They gave out of their poverty. When they did, the Corinthians were motivated to give. Beloved, our praising and giving creates hunger for God in the lives of the lost.

It really does. Our praise and our giving, our greatest impetus to reaching the world for Christ and our Savior. Our Savior is worthy. He is worthy of all the praise. He's worthy of all the giving.

He's worthy of everything. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way. If you'd like to speak with someone about salvation or living a praise and spirit-filled life, reach out to one of our Leading the Way pastors or counselors, and you can start that conversation by filling out a contact form at ltw.org slash Jesus. Join Dr. Michael Youssef as a Frontline Mission partner and passionately proclaim the uncompromising truth of Christ in your community and in closed countries through Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. As a partner, you're at the heart of this mission. Brand new Frontline Mission partners will receive special ministry benefits, including the On the Frontline photo booklet, as well as exclusive ministry updates and a 20% discount on all resources at ltw.org. I want to specially speak to our Frontline Mission partners. You have been standing with me for so many years in partnership in the gospel of Jesus Christ, taking it 195 countries. I thank God for you, and I pray that you continue to stand together as we take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Don't delay. Become a monthly Frontline Mission partner today and stand with Dr. Youssef on the frontlines of faith. Sign up at ltw.org slash frontline, ltw.org slash frontline. Call now to learn more. 866-626-4356. A ministry representative will be so happy to help you. That's 866-626-4356. Or that website again, ltw.org. Well, it is time to say goodbye, but allow me to quickly invite you to join Dr. Youssef once again next time, right here, for more Leading the Way. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.