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Sermon of the Week 
Friday, April 07 2017

                                                                                       

    Psalm 100. "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.v2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing.v3 Know 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.v4 I will enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.v5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endures unto all generations."                                                                                                                                             

    While watching bits and pieces of a variety of sports, you can't help but notice that before beginning the games, each athlete will take the time to get himself or herself in a proper frame of mind. You might call it, "Getting in the zone." Each athlete understands the connection between the right mental preparation, and a great performance. Regardless of what each athlete mentally visualizes during that moment before the competition, I'm pretty sure it doesn't involve defeat. They don't allow themselves to visualize failure as they enter the game. 

    As I reflect on that, I ask all of us today, do we take time each day for spiritual preparation as we go into our day. How many bad performances have resulted because we did not take the time, to get in the zone of God's spiritual values and principles? How many tests of faith were failed, giving sin and Satan the victory, simply because we did not take the time to connect our spirit man or woman, with God's Spirit, ...                                                                                                                              

    Isaiah 55:8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. v9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. v10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not the same way, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. v11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thingwhere unto I sent it. v12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. v13  Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off".                                                                                                                                   

    This scripture is about how we are to live "...in the zone." We are choosing to call it the Praise Zone. How much of your life is spent in the Praise Zone? By the way, there are other "zones" to choose. 

    We can live in the Critical Zone, the Complaining Zone, the Angry Zone, the Doubting Zone, or the Defeated Zone. We can live in the Grey zone of I'm never sure... In the Fun zone of thinking it's all about how much fun you can have....The Security and the Safety zone where you live your whole life preparing for some tragedy or misfortune to happen....But we are told here in Isaiah that we should resolve to live each day in the Praise Zone!                                                                                                      

    A friend on Face Book wrote...."I Don't stop, Won't stop, Can't stop, Can't eat, Can't sleep until, I get my breakthrough"...Now that's all about meaning business when it comes to living in the Praise Zone!!!                                                                                                       

    A good portion of the Psalms, is involved with encouraging us to live in the praise zone. The Psalms are filled with expressions of praise.                                                             Psalm 18:3, "I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised."                     Psalm 34:1 "I will bless the LORD at all times,His praise will continually be in my mouth                                                                                                                                                      Psalm 150:6, "Let every thing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.                                                                                                                                                       

    It has come to my attention, that seventeen of the Old Testament books, and eleven of the New Testament books, refer often to praising the Lord. There are enough verses in the Bible as a whole, to have a praise verse for every day of the year. If the Psalms and the entirety of God's Word are filled with praise, why isn't that the case in our lives as God's people? Of all the people of the earth, Christians are the most blessed, yet if we were to examine our words, many times we would never know it! How much of our daily conversation is spent in praise to the Lord? Do we have a reputation as the people that are filled with praise?                                                                                                     

    Robert E. Longacre, is an eminent linguist who has been working with the Summer Institute of Linguistics and pioneer Bible translation since the 1950’s. He is the author of over 150 published books and articles, Longacre’s work got my interest as he was writing about what he termed as “peaking”. He states that in a narrative as well as a lecture, the part of the narrative or the lecture where the text reaches a climax or main point of emphasis is where it starts "Peaking". Certainly we could say that David starts "Peaking" when His narrative brings us into the place of Praise!!!                                       

    For centuries, Christians have sung a hymn known as "The Hundred" based upon Psalms 100. You might best know it as a Doxology.                                                                    "Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."                                                                                                                            Psalm 100 belongs to every day of the year! It is a demonstration and expression of our praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and it should dominate our daily existence and cause our day to begin to "Peak" with praise ! Someone said, "Praise is acknowledging who God is and Thanksgiving is about what He has done for you."                                                                                                      

    Praise has been defined as an awareness and declaration of our dependence upon God. Another definition states that praise is the human expression of honor given unto God, for His character and action. However you define it, the question remains, "Does praise define you?" This short but beloved 100th psalm gives us reason and needed inspiration to live everyday of our lives in the Praise Zone.                                                      

    The Praise Zone is international. Psalms 100:1 says,"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands." God's goodness and grace has been revealed to the whole world, therefore, every person in every land should praise Him! Praise is for everyone. The poorest of nations and people on the earth, are included and invited to the Praise Zone. Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world! Our mission mandate is to tell the whole world, "every creature" of God's redemptive love so that everyone, everywhere can come into the praise Zone! Praise causes you to attract the things of heaven!

    The Praise Zone is multi-generational. Psalms 100:5 ends with, "..and His truth endures to all generations." We hear much about praise in contemporary Christianity and you might even think, to listen to some folks, that praise is something that was only recently discovered. 

    Over the years, American Christianity has coined the phrase, "worship wars." It actually means that Churches and generations have actually fought and become divided over praise and worship! What type of beat or rhythm is right or wrong.... what style is right or wrong....which phraseology in the lyrics is right or wrong... In many churches the old and young will not worship together, because they cannot agree on organ or guitar, drums or tamborines....to have or not to have dance.. and we forget that Praise, isn't for us, it should all be for and about HIM!!!!

    The young and the elderly can live together in the Praise Zone if it's about HIM!.                                                        Our challenges and perspective may be different, but our need is the same... TO GIVE PRAISE UNTO HIM! Every generation of Christians needs to praise the Lord.                               Jesus said that if we do not praise Him, the stones will cry out! God can replace you with a rock! And for many entrenched (I shall not be moved) Christians, that would not be too difficult!

    The Praise Zone is intentional. While there are occasions when you are overtaken by a spirit of praise, and caught up in the euphoria of praise, most of the time if praise is going to occur in your life, you must make it happen! Notice Psalms 100:2 says "I will enter into His gates.." This is a diliberate act of the will! In verse 4, it says to "enter into His courts". These phrases speak of a journey to the Old Testament Temple, God's House of worship and praise. Jews had to go out of their way and drop everything else they were doing, to place themselves in God's courts of praise!                                               Each of these phrases express responsibility and determination to get ourselves in a position of praise. We have come to think of praise as a shallow activity, which corresponds to certain songs we sing....but that has little to do with the greater and broader application of making praise a vital part of every day, all day long. True praise begins in the region of our will, our volition, and our choice to make it a priority.                                                                                                              

    Philip Brewer wrote....God uses where you are, to take you where you never could have gone. God uses what you can do to accomplish what you never could have done. God uses who you are to let you become who you never could have been....                           This is an area where all of us as believers need to keep developing and growing. Our old sinful fleshly nature is not inclined to notice God's blessings and give Him praise. The spiritual believer is a person, who through a determination of the will, has trained their spiritual senses, to see the hand of God in all the things around them. It takes time, effort and determination to stop our minds and sing His praises, when the world wants us to sing about anything else.                                                                                         

    he Praise Zone is personal. In Psalms 100:4, in the phrase "come before His presence," the word "presence" is derived from a Hebrew word (pen-oo-ale') which means God's face. This is not the worship of a distant deity, but a very personal God.                                                How many worship services are we part of, that we fail to "enter into His presence"? Every day we live, and every worship opportunity presented in church, is our own personal choice to "enter in." No one else can get us into the Praise Zone and keep us there. We must make up our minds to live there, with God's help!                                       When someone dies, we say they are "with the Lord"...I want to be so into God's praise that no matter where I am or what I'm doing, they can say, "He's with the Lord"!!!                                                                                   

    The Praise Zone Identifies you....Psalm 100:3 says "...we are His people." Acts 17:28 says, "For in Him (in God) we live, and move, and have our being, for we are His offspring."                                                                                                                                   

    What you praise and worship and give honor and devotion to, Identifies who you are..  "If you praise and worship superficial things, your life will become superficial. If you praise and worship perverted things, your life will become perverted. If you praise and worship fleshly things,You will become fleshly. If you praise and worship evil things, your life will become evil. If you praise and worship the true God, then your life will become godly." 

    The God who made us, made us for Himself, and He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He has a plan for our lives even better than the one we might have!!!                                                                                                

    The Praise Zone Declares Who God Is....Psalm 100:5, "For the LORD is good."           In all of life, we can be sure of this one thing, the Lord is good. The fact that God is good, means that He is kind, He is gracious and He is generous. We never need doubt God's goodness. We may not understand the things God brings or allows in our lives, but we must always know that it is for our ultimate good. Whatever God does is perfectly timed and ultimately and absolutely the very best for us! We may question the means, but we can praise Him for the outcome!                                                               

    Verse 5 continues by saying, " His mercy is everlasting." The Hebrew word (o-lawm') is translated here as "eternal, perpetual mercy," it is also translated as lovingkindness. God's mercy is His desire to love and bless His people always, at all times, forever! In short, we can count on God treating us even better than we ever deserve, ....forever! (no expiration date) God is faithfully true to His Word. 

    Verse 5 ends with, ".....and His truth endures to all generations." Human laws and rules are constantly changing. There are some human laws that need to change, but for some reason, they remain on the books. For example: In Kentucky, it remains the law that a person must take a bath at least once a year. In Massachusetts, it remains against the law to put tomatoes in clam chowder. In Phoenix, Arizona it is still illegal to walk through a hotel lobby with spurs on.                                                                                                                                  

    Aren't you grateful that God's truth is never outdated or out of style. What was true for past generations, is truth for every generation. What worked for past generations, works today and for future generations. God's promises extend to every generation.                                 Today, you can make your own personal commitment to live your life from this day forward, in the Praise Zone. Look at what happens when we live in the praise zone.   

    When we praise, we elevate our attitude and our focus is solely upon God and His power, ...not our problems! In this place God's Spirit affirms that He is bigger than our problems and pain. God is so big, He can use our suffering, pain and problems to accomplish His eternal purpose in our lives!                                                                                

    God uses problems to Direct us, to Inspect us, to Correct us, to Protect us, and to perfect us! When you enter His presence with praise, He enters your circumstances with power!!! So don't tell God you have a big problem, tell your problems you have a great big God!

    According to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a height of 100 feet is composed of less that one glass of water. That amount of water is divided into about 60 billion tiny droplets. Yet when those minute particles settle over a city or the countryside, they can almost blot out everything from sight. Many Christians today live their lives in the fog of the Grey Zone. They allow a cupful of troubles and worries to cloud their vision and shut down their spiritual growth. They allow anxiety, turmoil and toxic relationships, to defeat and strangle their faith.                            

    A certain company moved into a new skyscraper and discovered that the builders  had not put in enough elevators. Employees were disgruntled because there were long waits for the elevators, especially at both ends of the working day. The company got a wide cross-section of the staff together and asked them to sit down and solve the problem. 

    The task force came up with four possible solutions:. 1. Speed up the elevators, or arrange for them to stop more regularly at certain floors during rush periods. 2. Stagger working hours to reduce elevator demand at either end of the day. 3. Install mirrors around entrances to all elevators so people will get distracted by looking at themselves. 4. Drive a new elevator shaft through the building. 5. Promote a physical fitness program, with employee benifits. Which solution would you have chosen?    

    According to Professor DeBono, if you chose the first, second, or fourth solutions, then you are a "vertical" or traditional thinker. If you chose the third and fifth possibility, then you are a "lateral thinker." The vertical thinker takes the narrow view; the lateral thinker has a broader view. The solution was found by promoting the health benifits of taking the stairs, with points given which could be converted to cash in their paychecks. Many folks still took the elevator and complained, but many others, praised the health benifits of the stairs! Sometimes God has us take the stairs!!                                                                                                                    

    The Praise Zone humbles us. Pride has a hard time bowing. Ego and praise to God will usually clash. Our pride can cloud our minds with frustration and anger because we are focused on our rights being violated or that we have been wronged. Praise to God keeps ego in check and brings pride into proper perspective. So often the solution to the problem is hidden, because we're looking in the wrong place. When we begin to praise God, we begin to see what we didn't see before...                                                                                                                                        

    A man bought a classic 1979 pontiac and when he drove it to the store to get different flavors of ice cream, it was all fine until he bought vanilla. Then the car wouldn't start. He complained to the dealership, who wouldn't take him seriously. But finally, he got a technician to come check and go with him to the store. The first time, they bought chocolate and the car started fine. The next trip he bought strawberry and the car started fine. The next trip, he bought vanilla and the car wouldn't start. They did this several times and each time he bought vanilla, the car wouldn't start.      

    Finally the technician went in the store to locate the icecream, and found that all the other flavors were at the very back of the store, but the vanilla was right inside the entrance. He realized that the problem had nothing to do with the ice cream, but was about vapor lock. With the vanilla just inside the door, the engine didn't have a chance to cool down, so vapor lock was preventing it from starting. Often we are too close to the problem to see the solution... Praise changes our perspective....                                                                                                                         

    The Praise Zone Makes a God Connection....When I hear a child cry "daddy" or "paw-paw," in a crowded store, I automatically turn my head and my heart rate increases. That little voice instantly connects me with my children and grandchildren! It is the same when we praise the Lord, we are declaring our devotion and allegiance to God. As God's children, praise is one way we connect with the Heavenly Father. Praise raises our level of expectation and gets God's attention and brings us into His presence so we can hear Him just as a child hears the voice of His Father....                                                                                                                                    

    The Praise Zone motivates us to holy living..... In your house, there are drawers and doors that you would prefer to leave closed. Why? They are full of junk that you have stashed away. (come on) How many have a junk drawer? It's not that there is anything bad in those drawers or closets, but all that junk displaces needed space that could be better used. It is the same with our lives and hearts. Praise demands that we open ourselves, and open our hearts to God. It demands a transparency which will often reveal the clutter that has taken up space that is reserved for His presence only, in our lives! So often, praise demands that we confess our secrets sins. 

Praise is a purging, purifying agent. It cleanses the soul! The more we praise and worship the Lord, the more we desire to be like Him and the more transparant we become!                                                                                                                                       

    We had a neighbor who used to come by and have coffee in the morning with my wife. As they fellowshipped, Winnie used the time to help her grow spiritually. They would pray, worship and praise the Lord together. One day as they were worshiping, this woman began to repent of being lazy, and having a messy house, and not being the example to her family that she needed to be. When she became a praiser, what she knew became who she was. They prayed together and she went home and spent the week correcting things she had dealt with as she was in worship and praise. Her entire family came to Christ and her husband experienced a miracle healing.                                                                                                             

    The Praise Zone increases our joy!  Psalm 100:1 says, "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD." Verse 2 speaks of "gladness" and "singing!" Joy, gladness, and singing, is the constant companion of praise. .Christianity ought to be contagious and it should not be a superficial, manufactured joy! True Joy is just epidemicly contagious!                                                                            

    In Romans 14, Paul tells us that the "kingdom of God" is not about living in fear, or keeping someone's rules, but it's about the joy of a fulfilling relationship with God, fueled by the Holy Spirit! We obtain joy when we know we are pleasing those we love! Praise releases joy and joy releases God's strength...The joy of the Lord is my strength...!                                                                                                                                     

    The Praise Zone Establishes our Faith. Praise and thanksgiving is an exspression of  faith. Someone said, "If you thank God after the fact, that is gratitude. If you thank God before the fact, that is faith." The greater we see God, the greater our sense of confidence and trust in Him and His ways. Faith is just another word for trust, and    

    Praise proclaims our trust in God, especially in times when we don't have a clue about what is happening in our lives, where we are or where we are going.                                                                                                    We shouldn't be like the airplane pilot who got lost and announced to the passengers..."We're lost and don't have a clue where we are, but we're making real good time".We praise, because our pilot knows our destination and He's right on time.    

    I think of the words of Job...in Job 23:8 "Behold, I go forward but I do not see Him, I go backward but I do not perceive Him. v9 On the left hand He is working but I cannot behold Him. He hides Himself on the right hand that I don't see Him. v10 But He knows the way that I take and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

(When you're in that place, it's always a good place to give Him praise!)                                                                                       

   

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