The Power of Praise

Week 4: Progression of Praise 
Psalm 150:6 New King James Version
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
So far we have established that Scripture is filled with this phrase to PRAISE THE LORD! And as we saw, it’s not a suggestion, it is something that God expects us to do! And I believe there be something to it for the Holy Spirit to put in the Bible so many times. 
Definition of PRAISE: 
Praise includes commending; expressing approval or a favorable judgment of; and glorifying, especially by crediting with perfections. (Websters)
On top of that, we have looked at all the Biblical ways to worship (SINGING, SHOUTING, MAKING A JOYFUL NOISE, THANKSGIVING, STANDING, KNEELING, CLAPPING OUR HANDS, DANCING AND JUMPING FOR JOY, LAUGHTER, UPLIFTED HANDS, TONGUES, AND MUSIC)  
Last week we reinforced that God is worthy of our praise in the best of time, in the mundane times, and the worst of times.
Praise that reaches God takes us beyond the confinements of routines. Today I want to talk about Progression of Praise. We experienced a small dose of this progression last Sunday. 
Let’s begin with this scripture:
John 14:6 NKJV
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 
Here, Jesus was alluding to the Tabernacle. 
The Tabernacle was a representation of heaven and the throne of God. Moses was given comprehensive instructions on building it, including the layout of each item of clothing, jewelry, and artifact. The Bible devotes a sizable portion of its pages to the Tabernacle, demonstrating that Jesus, represented by the Tabernacle, is and has always been the focal point of God's plan.
Ultimately, we want to Enter into the Holy of Holies, God’s Presence. 
The Jewish people used names for the entrances at the Tabernacle. 
1.    The Way—leading into the main court, a place where sins were atoned for. 
2.    The Truth—leading into the Holy Place, finding bread, light and incense. 
3.    The Life—leading to the person and presence of God Himself. 
I want to tie this into the Progression of Praise…
THE WAY—leading into the outer court.
The first entrance took the worshipper into the outer court from the outside which was symbolically referred to as “The Way” where burnt offerings and sacrifices were made to atone for the sins of the people. 
(picture) Immediately upon coming through the gate, the entrant was confronted by the brazen altar and the laver in the background. The WAY to God today is by the WAY of the Cross. Christ is that WAY. 
Salvation and the beginnings of spiritual development are found here. It is here that we receive grace from Jesus.

Psalm 100:4 NKJV
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him; and bless his name.”
According to this verse, how are we supposed to enter the gate? Thanksgiving…How is that connected to our Salvation? 
What I want to point out to you is there’s a direct connection between grace and thankfulness. 
I want to read two versions of the same verse to show you the connection. 
Hebrews 12:28 NKJV 
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”
Hebrews 12:28 New Living Translation
28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.
Notice the phrase “let us have grace”, the NLT says, “let us be thankful.” 
The word gratitude comes from Latin word gratus, which means thankful or pleasing. The Latin root is also where we get the word grace, which is an unearned gift from God. 
You cannot be unthankful and be in the grace of God.
How do you say “thank you” in Italian? Grazie. Spanish? Gracias. What do we call our prayer of thanks before meals? “Grace”.
We enter into his gates with thanksgiving (THE WAY) by realizing that everything we do, we say, or pray is a response to the gift of God’s love—God’s grace. 
You cannot separate thankfulness from the grace of God. 
Our response is never forced, but always a free choice. Why do we love God? Because He first loved us, and we have experienced that His love through Him sending His Son to die on an old rugged cross for our sins. 
We enter into his gates with thanksgiving (THE WAY) by confessing that Jesus is our Savior. 
IN Hebrew, which is a more concrete, action-based language than an abstract language, the word “thank you” is directly related to the Hebrew word for the hand. So, “thank you” is stretching out the hands. And when we stretch out our hands to God, we’re saying “thank you.”
In fact, this the very reason our worship and praise of God: it is a love-response borne out of gratitude. 
With the connection of grace and thanksgiving in mind, let’s read what Paul wrote:
Colossians 3:15 NKJV
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Paul speaks about what it means to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit:
Ephesians 5:18-20 NLT 
18Do not be drunk with wine, because it will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
It’s remarkable how much the church has focused on the negative and ignored the positive. Isn’t it? I mean, everybody knows you shouldn’t be drunk with wine but what does that verse tell us “TO DO INSTEAD”?
What’s the result of being filled the Spirit? The next verse tells us:
19singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the LORD in your hearts. [And, what’s the final overflow?], 20And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ.
When you are full of the Holy Spirit, you will be continually giving God thanks. In fact, you can measure the fullness of the Spirit within you partly by that, how much time do you spend giving God thanks. Because, when you cease to give God thanks, you’re beginning to leak out. The check engine light should be on!!
Are you thankful for God’s grace? 
Salvation or “The Way” is acknowledging what Jesus has done for us as our sacrifice on the CROSS!! 
It here, in the outer court that sin must be settled at the cross before there can be real worship. Unfortunately, many people stop at this place and do not enter in further into God’s Presence. 

THE TRUTH—leading into the Holy Place, finding bread, light and incense. 
Second, (picture) the door of the Tabernacle corresponded to Christ who is “the truth.” This door led from the outer court to the Holy Place. 
It is in here that our praise begins to become our entire being. It is the place of praise and worship in where our body, soul, and mind become one in the Spirit of God. 
It is here where our praise of thanksgiving becomes more than just words, more than just songs, more than lifting our hands, more than kneeling. Our praise and worship begin to incorporate our heart and soul in the TRUTH of who Jesus is. 
We begin to worship based upon the TRUTH of Jesus. 
We cease to worship Him out of our opinions, out of our weaknesses, our hurts, bad experiences, our denominations, our religious rituals. We begin to live and move and have our being… 
Look at the context in which Paul says this: 
Acts 17:22-28 New King James Version
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being…

Then Jesus speaks of this when talking with the Sarmatian woman. 
John 4:23 New Living Translation
23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 
(Picture)In the Holy Place, our body, soul, and mind become unified in Christ. We begin to learn the truth from the Word (Table of Showbread). Truth becomes a light to shine to reveal the darkness of our souls (Golden Lampstand). And by our Praise becomes a sweet aroma to God (Altar of Incense). 
Perhaps one of the most well know instances in the New Testament where incense or a fragrance is mentioned is when Mary poured out her perfume on Jesus’ feet.
John 12:3 New Living Translation
3 Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.
What is so significant about the use of incense or fragrance is that it is always offered in reverence, and it always comes at a price.  When Mary knelt at the feet of Jesus and poured her perfume over His feet, the others was shocked that she would pour a year’s earnings out to simply wash His feet. But the fragrance of the perfume that filled the room after Mary’s sacrifice created the most Holy atmosphere to welcome Jesus. Her act of worship set the tone for the rest of the evening.
Jesus said that “John 4:23…The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.” 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Are you ready to enter in the Holy Place? Where the Spirit leads us to Jesus? 
John 16:13 New Living Translation
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth… 
Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot truly worship. 
When we are led by the Spirit, it is then that we are ushered through the next gate, the curtain the Jewish people called the “The Life:. 
THE LIFE—leading to the person and presence of God Himself. 
(pic) When they entered into the Holy of Holies there was only one object that was housed there: the ark of the covenant, which was a representation of God’s presence going with the people of Israel and His Promise (His Covenant) with them. In fact, there was no light inside the chamber other than the glow from God's glory. One of the things about the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of God is that it was serious business. You couldn’t just enter the Most Holy Place any way you wanted to. If you did, it meant certain death. 
Leviticus 16:1-2 New Living Translation
1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him. 2 The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.
You see, in the Old Testament, God provided Moses with the instructions for redemption through the sacrifices of animals. But EVERYTHING CHANGED with the sacrifice of JESUS!! 
Here is when it happened.
Matthew 27:50-52 New Living Translation
50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead.
Paul describes this in Hebrews:
Hebrews 10:11-16 NLT
11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 13 There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. 14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.
15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,
16 “This is the new covenant I will make
    with my people on that day, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”
When we enter into the presence of God in our worship, it’s no longer about us. It’s no longer about our prayer requests. It’s no longer about our desires and wants. Our worship becomes about His glory. 
We begin to recognize His majesty, His wonder, His holiness, His mercy, His strength, His power. We see that He has every right to meet us with a harsh judgement, yet because we have entered through the WAY of the CROSS, and have been ushered through TRUTH, God receives us into His Presence. 
It is there, that we receive LIFE, and life in abundance. It is here in our worship that God gives us beauty for ashes. It is here that He mends our hearts. It is here that God changes in what we would have deemed impossible to change. 
We see a glimpse of this in one of my favorite passages from the Bible.
Isaiah 6:1-8 New Living Translation
1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
    The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
I said, “Here I am. Send me.”
Are you ready to be led in your praise and worship by the Holy Spirit through Jesus being the Way, the Truth, and the Life?
Make yourself available to HIM. That’s all that it requires…