Happy New Year Saints!
With God the life that is before us, is so much greater than what is behind us, for the best is yet to come!
The gospel artist Cece Winans once said, “If the Rocks cry out in Praise to God, I will join the Choir.” I agree wholeheartedly, and I will join the Choir too!
Introduction
In the last Sermon Series I preached entitled, “The Story of Noah: You’re Gonna Love It,” we learned that the Supreme Benefit we have inherited through the New Covenant is God’s Everlasting “Loving Kindness” towards us. (Eph. 2:4-7) The Greek word for kindness is “chrēstotēs.” It is used to describe someone who is kind, good-hearted, gracious, generous, and gentle, even towards those who do not deserve it. Under the New Covenant we have with God, God is systematically and automatically “Kind,” Good-hearted, Gracious, Generous, and Gentle towards us; even though we do not deserve it.
Motivated by Love, every exceedingly great and precious Promise of God flows to us through His Kindness: Salvation, Healing, Deliverance, Security, Prosperity, and so much more. In fact, an estimated 250 separate Promises in the New Testament that are repeated 750 times, all flow through God’s Kindness. And, to all of the Promises in God in Christ, He has said, “Yes and Amen” to the glory of God.” (II Cor.1:20) Praise God, all of God’s Promises are approved and have been given to us!
This was all made possible for us by the finished works of Jesus Christ on the cross: His Death, Burial, and Resurrection on the third-day, and Ascension to the right hand throne of God the Father. Wherein, God also through His infinite mercy and grace, quickened, gathered, and raised us all up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in the Anointed King Jesus. (Eph. 2:4-6) My, my, my God did all of this for us while we were yet sinners. (Rom. 5:8)
God placed us all in Christ so that throughout the ages to come (in perpetuity) we might together be inheritors of His “Kindness” through Christ Jesus. God’s Kindness toward us is not conditioned based on our performance, but solely on Jesus’ Perfect Performance. I know it’s hard for many born-again Christians to accept this, but no matter how far we may stray, miss the mark, or fail to live up to God’s standard of Holiness, God’s Kindness never stops flowing towards us! And, if we would only yield all of our members completely to God, we would realize in greater manifestation, the acceleration of God’s Kindness in and through our lives. God has already made your tomorrow greater than today, and He is waiting for you to come and enjoy all that He has prepared for you. (I Cor. 2:9-10)
In this Sermon, I ask the question of the Body of Christ, and to you directly, what should be our/your response to God’s Kindness towards us/you?
The answer is: God’s Great Kindness is deserving of “Great Praise!” The Body of Christ corporately, and individually, needs to come to the place where we “covet” giving God “Great Praise.” Additionally, we must learn from God’s Kindness towards us that we are to be kind one to another, especially to those who are in the household of faith. For we are all “One” in God in Christ. (Gal. 3:26-29)
More specifically, at Ephesians 4:32, the Apostle Paul instructed the Saints at Ephesus as follows, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another, even as God for Christ sake has forgiven you.” In Christ, what an opportunity we have been afforded; we have the power to be as kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving of others as Jesus has shown towards us. Praise God, we “own” the gift of forgiveness, and are Commanded to forgive others as Jesus forgave us!
Oh Saints, when will Church denominations, and the people of God of all races and backgrounds, get this Message? God has forgiven all of our sins, why then have we not also forgiven everybody who has wronged us, and moved forward to continually do acts of kindness toward all people without consideration of merit?
Oh, how I pray that one day, we can all clearly see the beam in our own eye and remove it, before making it our ambition of removing the motes from the eyes of others! (Matt. 7:1-5)
Everybody Just Look Back!
Everybody just turn around and look back over this past year of 2024, and then over your whole life, and reflect on the Kindness of God towards you. Think about God’s Good-heartedness, Graciousness, Generosity, and Gentleness towards you. You will discover a pattern in your Covenant-relationship with God. That is, whenever you got into trouble, self-inflicted or perpetrated against you by others, God delivered you! Yes, even when it seemed as though you were unable to bear the trouble, God strengthened you through it. Please do not be nonchalant in remembering God’s Kindness towards you. It’s vitally important that you “remember!”
Psalm 103:1-5 states:
Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Saints, I urge you never to forget that God has “Crowned” you with Loving-Kindness. Repeat that after me: “God has crowned me with Loving-Kindness.” At its core, this means that God has marked and distinguished your “life” as a part of His Royal Family. God through Christ Jesus has made you a son of God. (John 1:10-12) You are a citizen of the Commonwealth of the Kingdom of God and Heaven, and with all the Saints of God, and have been made commonly wealthy in Christ Jesus. (Php. 3:20-21, Rom. 8:17 & II Cor. 8:9) Your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. (Rev. 21:27) You are the rightful owner of the Promise of Eternal Life. (Titus 1:2)
This is why when trouble sought to destroy you, God stepped in and delivered, protected, and secured you. Let me not forget to add that because God is Kind towards you, even when you have failed to keep His Commandments and sinned, God’s Tender-Mercies also encircled your life, and He takes no account of your sins! (Ps. 32:1 & Rom. 4:8)
I know that the people of the world, including many Christians as well, have chosen to sit in judgment of Christians who have committed sins, but as I said earlier, God’s Covenant with His people is that He is forever “Kind and Merciful unto our sins, and remembers them no more!” (Heb.10:16-17)
In these last days, with the state of our country and world being filled with political, social, economic, and environmental peril, you need not be dismayed, nor afraid, as God has crowned you with Loving-Kindness and Tender-Mercies. Nothing will ever separate you from the love of God. (Rom. 8:35-39) God is faithful to deliver you from all evil. This will always be the case as long as you remain in the earth, and then life with Jesus in Heaven will just keep on getting sweeter and sweeter than the day before. (John 14:1-3)
Now Saints, in this life we experience hardship, persecutions, and sufferings. (John 16:33) We live in a fallen world in which tribulation and persecutions are a part of the human experience. But, God is faithful to deliver us from evil in life and physical death. For Christ has abolished death and brought immortality to light. (II Tim.1:11) We also receive chastening from the Lord when we behave not according to His Commandments, which may seem at times difficult to handle, but chastening is for our good and profit. (Heb. 12:5-11) How would we ever learn to walk as dearly beloved children of the Lord, in love and kindness, if we did not receive chastening from God?
If you look back over this past year, as well as years gone by, I guarantee there have been times when the Lord has chastened you to forgive someone who wronged you, someone who took advantage of you, abused you, mistreated you, gossiped or told lies on you.
You didn’t want to forgive them, but God through the Holy Ghost “squeezed” you, kept reminding you, would not let you rest until you forgave and went and reconciled with the other person. Oh Saints, we must grow up spiritually to understand that being disciplined by the Lord is a part of His Loving Kindness towards us.
God Sowed Kindness Toward Us to Reap Our Love
There is an old saying that is so true. Jot it down please. “Love blooms where Kindness is planted.” Never forget, “Kindness is a spiritual seed that produces love for harvest.” God planted His Loving-Kindness for the Cosmos and Mankind in us, when He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to save the world from sin. (John 3:16 & Rom. 5:8). Jesus said, “There is no greater love, than a man would lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) This is what Jesus did for the world, and each one of us. Although the world hated Jesus, He was the best friend of us all. God gave Jesus to us in hopes that all of Mankind would choose to love and worship only Him. God, in planting Jesus in the world had an expectation of reaping bountifully our love for Him.
Truly, those of us who have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed the report; we can’t help but love God, given His Great Loving Kindness towards us. The Apostle John wrote, we love God, because He first loved us. (I John 4:19)
As God has expressed His great Love through Covenanting His Kindness towards us, so also we must express our love towards God through faithful actions of keeping His Commandments. Jesus said “if you love me you will keep my Commandments.” (John 14:15) Keeping the Commandments of God is true worship, and God the Father seeks for such to worship Him. The Great Commandments of our Covenant is that we love God whole-heartedly, and love one another as Jesus has loved us. In response to God’s Kindness towards us, He is searching for true worshipers; willing lovers of God, and all people without conditions or merit. (Mark 10:19 & John 4:24)
Great Praise is Commanded of True Worshipers of God
A key element of worship of God is “Praise.” God has Commanded His people to Praise Him, and while we are at it, we are to make our praise of God “glorious!” By glorious, I mean our praise must be personal, only for God, and from the very depths of our hearts and souls. I don’t know why when Christians greet each other, many waste their breath saying “Hello.” Examine the following Scriptures that Command our Praise of the Lord at all times.
Psalm 150:6: “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.”
Psalm 95:1-2: “Come, let us praise the LORD! Let us sing for joy to God, who protects us!”
Psalm 34:1-15: “I will praise the LORD at all times. I will constantly speak his praises”
Examine Psalm 150:
Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.
This is what so many born-again Christians do not understand is that Praising God is not an option; it is an obligation. It is both our delight and duty. The greatest truth about God is that He is worthy of our highest praise, and the deepest truth about ourselves is that we have been created to Praise God. When we were all seated together in heavenly places in Christ, recreated as new species in Christ, we were specifically fashioned in the Spirit to Praise God with our whole-beings together. Acts 17:28 states:
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
As new creations in Christ, we are not only made in the image of God, but we have the Godhead bodily abiding in us, and all around us! Oh, how can we heap praises upon any other person, or thing, greater than God? I stand amazed at how so many people, including born-again Christians, can reserve their highest praise for sporting and entertainment events; as well as athletes, celebrities, and politicians. Many people attend venues in outlandish costumes, stand in long lines, endure all kinds of weather elements, spend large sums of money, and cheer as loud as they can for hours for their favorite teams and stars. They cry real tears when their teams lose, and shout for joy and dance when their team wins the game.
But, tell me, what is the noise decibel level like in the Church of Jesus Christ? Shouldn’t the noise decibel level be higher in Church in celebration of Jesus Christ, the world’s eternal Hero, than the noise level in stadiums? Remember now Psalm 100. It reads:
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations
Tell me, who do you cheer louder for, God, or your favorite sports team? Who was it that gave life to you, God, or the sports team?
Watch this, Psalm 66:1-4 specifically instructs us to “make” our praise glorious unto God. It reads,
Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:
2 Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.
3 Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
4 All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.
On purpose, we are to “make” our praise Great for God. I remember growing up in the Pentecostal Church, the Saints would bring washboards, tambourines, horns, and bongos to Church…and of course we would carry our Bibles too.
We were not ashamed to be seen by the world parading for God. We were not ashamed to be called, “holy-rollers.” Church was always packed and rarely did anyone come late to Church. We came ready to give God the highest Praise! We expected to have a shouting good time in the Lord. We made sure everything was loud and noisy!
Our singing, dancing, praising, preaching, and of course praying with God was always loud. But more important, we did everything for God from the heart. We never let a rock cry out for us. God was everything to us, and every Church meeting the Saints knew it was time to make His Praise glorious! At times it was so loud you couldn’t hear yourself talk to the person next to you. When was the last time you were in a Church and the decibel level was that high?
There is something else I recall about Church in those days. That at the end of Service, people were almost always at the altar. People gave their lives to Christ, people got baptized in water, people tarried for the Holy Ghost, people got healed of diseases, demons and devils came out of folks, people got filled with the Holy Ghost, and people wanted to hang around each other long after Church was over. Yes, brotherly love continued.
We loved our Church family more than our own flesh and blood family. We were not a cult. Rather, we were a band of Saints who loved Jesus Christ more than any person, or thing, in the world. (I John 2:15-17 & Matt. 10:37) We were a people who glorified God in our bodies and spirits, which belonged to the Lord. (I Cor. 6:20)
Great Praise of God Shields Us from the Enemy
God Commands us to Praise Him, not just because He deserves it, but also because of what it does for us. When we Praise God from the depths of our hearts and souls, He inhabits our Praise. (Ps. 22:3) You see, this is why we don’t want to have Church Services, with “one and done song-singing!” This is why we don’t want to Praise God for a short-duration. This is why we only want to sing songs that agree with what the Word of God says. This is why we don’t want the congregation to just sit in the pew silently with sad faces, and watch-watching while the songs of Zion are being sung.
God inhabits the Praises of His people. This literally means, God “occupies and takes up residence in our Praise!” The unwise and fool asks where is God? I will tell you: God is in your Great Praise of Him! God says draw near to me, and I will draw near to you. (James 4:8)
Saint’s, why do we sing songs of a short-duration? Don’t we want God to stay with us for a long-time? So many people, including born-again Christians, have never experienced the Presence of God, or rarely do. The reason is because they don’t make their Praise of God glorious. They refuse to give God Great Praise, as He Commands.
When God inhabits our Praise, it’s as if we have been placed with Him in a small broom-closet with the door shut. We feel God’s Presence not only all around us; but His Presence touches us! God’s Presence breathes on us and we inhale new life within us. When Great Praise is made unto God, God showers us with Loving-Kindness. He removes whatever burden we are carrying, and destroys whatever yoke of sin we have been hiding. Then God’s Spirit ushers in refreshing springs, strength for our journey, and everlasting joy into our holy tabernacles.
I’m telling you Saints, give God Great Praise, and devils and demons who have been oppressing your thought-life (brain) will immediately leave you. This is why Satan seeks “desperately” to keep people out of Church, especially men who are the leaders of the family. At all cost, Satan has got to try to keep our men/families/generations, from making their Praise glorious unto God! To this end, Satan tries to keep people:
*From regular Church attendance.
*From coming to Church on time. (He wants you to miss the Prayer and Praise portions of Service.)
*From setting their thoughts and affections on God, by having them distracted by worldly cares.
* From making their own joyful noise, by tempting them to sit quietly as the praise team, choir, or soloist sing the songs of Zion. Satan wants people to treat Praise-Time as a Performance or Theater Production that they are there only to observe.
*From making their own joyful noise, by tempting them to come to Church with negative emotions, feelings of tiredness, despondence, or apathy.
Satan tries all he can to stop or hinder us from making a joyful noise, because He knows we were “created” by God, to Praise God! He knows everything in heaven, in the earth, and beneath the earth was created to Praise God. He knows that when God’s people make their Praise glorious, God inhabits their Praises, comes in their midst, and kicks him out of their lives! Glorious Praise of God is a “sacred place,” where Satan has no part or access!
Notice in Psalm 66:2-3, the Psalmist states when we make our Praise glorious, God through the greatness of His power makes His enemies, which are also our enemies, submit to Him. Satan and every demon in hell are stilled, when our Praise of God is made glorious. People get healed, delivered from demonic possession and oppression, as well as prospered when God’s people together make their Praise of God Great!
When our Praise is glorious unto God the devil is rendered helpless. It’s like in the natural, being in a street brawl and you land a punch to the throat/wind-pipe of your enemy and knocks the wind out of them, rendering them helpless and submitted unto you. This is the gift God has given to us, our Praise of Him. Great Praise is the weapon that stills the enemy.
No matter the age group that makes Great Praise unto God, the enemy Satan is defeated in that moment. See Psalm 8:1-6.
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
This Passage of Scripture helps us even to understand that God has “anointed” and “appointed” Praise of Him to “stop” and “defeat” our adversary the devil in whatever he seeks to destroy, and then God releases glory and honor upon us. When we reserve our Praise for God, and make it glorious, we live in dominion over the earth, as God created us to do. Everything in the earth, seen and unseen, is subject to our authority and dominion. Yes, this is why it’s so vitally important to join the rocks and mountains, and everything else God created, and sing Praises only to His Holy Name.
You see, whenever we make our Praise Great before the Lord, Satan is reminded of his shame, and instant defeat in the before times, when he tried to rebel and dethrone God. He remembers how he was expelled from heaven, falling like lightening, when after he foolishly said in his heart toward God, “I will exalt myself to the throne of God;” and foolishly tried to lead a portion of the angels and pre-Adamites who inhabited the earth in open rebellion against God.
Examine Isaiah 14:12-15, of how Lucifer, afterwards named Satan by God, lost his privilege and place in Worship and Praise of the only True and Holy God.
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Lucifer’s self-indulgence from the heart of his magnificent beauty and wisdom given to him by God, had turned him into a desperately wicked fallen angel. In his heart, believing his own lie that he could be God, and all creation should worship and praise him, eternally destined Lucifer to be the eternal resident of hell. As such, Satan, nor any force within the kingdom of darkness can inhabit our Praises of God, when made glorious from the heart.
Let us laugh at the enemy Satan and make him Jesus’ footstool by giving God Great Praise. Every time we make our Praise glorious of God, it reminds Satan of his habitat, which is hell. Glorious Praise of God refreshes his memory of his everlasting doom and destruction and final place, which is the lake of fire and brimstone. (Rev. 20:10) Satan is angered and tormented that you will not be joining him in hell, and there is nothing he can do about it! Furthermore, there is nothing he can do to interrupt God’s Kindness towards you, and flowing into your life because of the glory of the Lord released during our Great Praise, is set above all of the heavens. (Ps.8:1)
Let me close with this admonition for the Body of Christ, as well as all of us gathered here today. Let us all obey God and reserve all of our Praise for Him. God is worthy of our sole-Praise because He is God, and there is “none” besides Him! Who is like unto our God, having created us for exclusive Worship and Praise of Him? He is the God that has given us the Weapon of Praise to be made glorious before Him, to exploit and expel the enemy Satan from our midst.
God is seeking for those who desire to give to Him Great Praise; to inhabit their Praise, and thereafter, accelerate the blessings of God in manifestations never experienced before in their lives. The greater the Praise, the Greater the Promise of Loving-Kindness and Tender-Mercies are showered down on us from Heaven’s storehouses. Our greater tomorrow is found and experienced in making our Praise glorious before the Lord today.
If God can find even as few as one or two persons, who are willing to gather together with Him in Great Praise, respectively, a thousand devils and ten thousand devils can be driven away! (Deut. 32:30)
So imagine the impact the Body of Christ, or a single Church can have on families, communities, and the nations if we/they unite with the commitment to render to God Great Praise, and have an abiding trust in the Supreme Covenant-Benefit of God’s Loving-Kindness and Tender-Mercies towards us. I tell you the truth millions of people would experience, “better” tomorrow, than their yesterday. When I consider the condition of Mankind and the Church of Christ today, I lament with King David when he wrote at Psalm 107:8-15, 43. It reads:
8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
And then Verse 43 reads:
Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.
The wise person has learned through the human experience of “trouble,” that God is perpetually good, that deliverance from evil comes only from God, and they are forever mindful to make their Praise of God glorious. Therefore, be prudent and sensible Oh man or woman of God. On purpose, make your Praise Great before God every morning you awaken, and when you enter into the House of the Lord, come into His Courts making a joyful noise unto the Lord and serve Him in gladness.
The best is yet to come so let’s join together and make our Praise Great for God alone! Amen, for the preaching of God’s Word.
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