Summer of Praise and Thanksgiving

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. Alright, good morning Salt Church! How are you guys this morning? You guys awake, have you had your coffee?

If you didn't, too late, I'm up here now. It is a privilege again to get the opportunity to come up here and share God's Word with you guys today. Real quick, before I get started, I'm going to pray for me and pray for God's Word that you guys would hear it, and you wouldn't hear me, but you would hear God through me. So if you guys would just bow your heads real quick with me. Lord, right now I just come to you as a humble servant.

Lord, nothing more than a flawed vessel. And so I pray right now, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would fill me, would work through me. And Lord, what people would hear today would be you. It would not be me. In your name we pray.

Amen and amen. I love getting the opportunity to get up here and share God's Word with you because I'm passionate about it. I love it, and I believe that it has an effect. The Bible tells us it is sharper than any two-edged sword. It cuts straight to the heart.

It is not dull. And so I'm not a very dull person. I tend to kind of cut straight to the point and go after it. I told Justin this morning what I was preaching on, and his first response to me was, sweet, it's going to be like an upbeat message. Like you're not like bringing the sledgehammer.

Sorry. Yes, I'm preaching from the ESV. So, no, there is some King James and some NIV in here today. Ongoing joke if you're new with us today. It's just a long-running joke between me and some brothers.

So, today I am, it is summer assault. It has been an awesome summer. My wife and I were in Jamaica last week and missed it. And I have to tell you, I was sad when I heard we missed what we missed as far as the praise and worship and the awesome word. But I will tell you, I was not sad because it was my wife and I with no kids in Jamaica for a week.

So, missed you guys, but not that much. Everybody, you got to go have fun. I'm telling you now, like my wife and I were sitting, and I'm just going to do this real quick because I have a very limited amount of time today. We were talking about our trip and I said that ranked probably tied with our honeymoon for the best trip that we have been on as a couple. We just had fun.

Like we just went out and remembered why we loved each other. I felt like we went back in time like 15, 16 years. Like we just, we danced, we sang karaoke, like we had a blast. And I'll tell you, if you're married, please do that. Go do it.

It's so worth it. And if you're not married and you're going to get married, make that a habit every year to go do a trip with your wife without anybody else. Because it just, it was just fun. As tired as I am physically, I was, it was just so much fun to be with my wife for that week. So I'm glad I'm back.

And during this summer of salt, I'm going to be talking about today is summer of praise and thanksgiving. And I'm going to go ahead and jump right into scripture before I do my intro. So if you have a Bible or if you want to pay attention to the screen, this is Psalm 100 out of the ESV. But Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of this pasture.

Pay specific attention to this. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness is to all generations.

So as you guys can tell, I love to praise and worship. Matt even turned off my mic today and it really doesn't matter to me. I don't care. I am going to praise and worship. I am going to exult God.

I it is just something that is in my heart. I just love it. I love telling God how good he is and reciting the things that he has done for me over and over and over again. And there is so much power in that. And as a someone who has been around the church for a long time in pastoral positions as a pastor's kid.

I was born while my dad was in seminary. So I've been around church for a long time. And one of the things I've noticed is that there's this seems to be this prevailing thought that praise and worship, especially on Sunday mornings. Is something that we can miss. It's like plays second fiddle to the word of God.

And I can just picture in my mind this going on on Sunday morning. Honey, we're running late. We need to hurry. Oh, no worries. We got 45 minutes of praise and worship before the word.

We can stop it at Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, 7-Eleven. You know what? We can stop at Golden Corral and do brunch before we even get there. And we won't miss anything. It gets quiet.

It's going to get quiet here in a second, too. And then we get up here, for those of you who make it, and we like to congregate in the hallway and talk about everything except God most of the time. Did you get that surf last week? Yeah, man, dude, that was epic. I got a new board.

Or, man, I went fishing last week, caught all sorts of mahi. Or maybe it was I just got back from Jamaica. When are you going to go? I'm going to keep rubbing that in your faces. You didn't understand.

But we have this thing like, oh, praise and worship is just kind of there. It's there for the ambiance. It's to set a mood. And I see it and I know it because when I'm up here and I come up to speak, all of a sudden, right before the last song, it's like ants scurrying to their hole before the rain comes. It's like .

And we go from 20 people in here to, like, 60 in a matter of, like, five seconds flat. It is not wrong. I know I'm not wrong. I'm reading from God's word. But I want you guys to know that the praise and the worship is not .

. Be played second fiddle. See, we come to church on Sundays, or when we're at home, and we have this thought process that it's like, okay, praise and worship music, that's great, and then it's the almighty anointed word of God, oh my goodness, he's gonna preach, we better get in there. We better run in. It's like going to a really nice restaurant.

Sometimes you get the appetizer, sometimes you don't. But man, as long as I'm there for the main course, I'm good. Can't miss the steak. But the problem is that's the wrong view. That's the wrong view in your daily walk with God.

That's your wrong view on Sunday mornings. And I'm not just talking about Sundays, but Sundays is always an example of the symptom of the way that we live our lives. So if you don't prioritize Sunday, and you don't prioritize Praise and Worship on Sunday, there's no doubt in my mind you don't prioritize it the rest of the week. Because most of us try to put on our best church face on Sunday morning. And so if we're gonna prioritize church or the Bible on Sunday morning, well, we're gonna prioritize it.

We're gonna make sure people know we are here. And so if you are gonna prioritize anything, you're gonna show it. And so I know that we don't. But what we should see is that Praise and Worship is kind of like the drink with your meal. How many people here have been to a restaurant where you sat down and they did not bring you your drink for like a long time?

How many of you dropped your tip incrementally with the minutes that you waited and waited and waited and waited? I'm a server, guys. I did it for a long time. I worked at Impongo. My wife was a server.

And I'm telling you right now, as someone who was a server, if I sit there for 15 minutes while I'm waiting on at least water, you would just lost a lot of tip. Sorry. Hate to be the guy, but I am. I know how it feels to show up sick. I know how it feels to show up and not want to be there.

And you still have to put on your best face and you still have to give your best service because it's your job. But it's the same way. Like the difference is we show up to church and it's like we're okay with eating the steak without the water, without the rest of the meal. It's like having a very unbalanced diet. It isn't good for you.

God didn't create it that way. He doesn't want us just to read the word. When we go read his Bible, I just read you a psalm. And in all those verses, it never, never once talks about prayer or reading. He talks about praise and worship and praise and worship and praise and worship.

There is an entire book in the Bible that is pretty much focused on praise and worship. And if you haven't read Psalms, go read it. David was a man after God's own heart. Flawed, yes, but he was a man after God's own heart. And so this is reading the heart of God.

Sorry, Justin. Not all nice and pretty. So I'm going to go to Psalms. You guys can follow me if you like. Psalms 95, 2 and 3.

I'm going to be jumping all over Psalms. So if you have your phone or your iPad or your Bible, you can just keep your finger on Psalms. Can't imagine why I would be sitting in Psalms while I'm preaching on praise and worship. I'll start in verse 1. O come, let us sing to the Lord.

Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. I'm going to go ahead and read verse 3. For the Lord is great and a great king above all gods.

See, I've given you guys some notes there so you guys can take these home and have these as a shortcut. God is worthy of our praise. There is no one else. There is no other God like our God. He is the king above all kings.

His kingdom is at the top. And so he not only deserves them, but requires our praises. And so often I think we forget he deserves our praise. He deserves for us to show up with an attitude and a heart of praise before him. In expectation of what he's going to do, not just because of what he's done.

See, there's so many times through Psalms as we read, and I'm going to give you some more examples here. And I'm going to give you a story out of 2 Chronicles 20 in just a second, where the praises of God saying, Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. You are so good to us. You have done so much in my life.

You have done so much for us. Actually came before God ever acted. And it works that way here. See, we should come in with a heart of thanksgiving, not because of what God has already done, even though he's done a lot, but what we know he's about to do. See, the word, the word that God has every Sunday, guys, it's not coincidental.

And I'm not just saying this because I preach it. I'm saying this because I know how much time and effort Pastor Leon puts in. I know when Tim comes up to preach, how much he puts into it. I know Seth is going to be preaching in a couple weeks. I know how much he's going to put into it.

This is prayerful. This is the Holy Spirit that comes to us and leads us to what he wants us to preach. And so when we walk in that door, we should come in already grateful, knowing God is about to do something. Thank you, God, for what you are about to do. Praise you, Lord, because you have already done many, many things.

But I praise you right now, Lord, for what you're about to do in my heart. But the problem is, is that when we get to those front doors on Sunday morning, how many people walk in here with junk in their trunk? And if you do not raise your hand right now, you are lying. You are lying. I have gone to church now for 39 years.

Ninety-six percent of those 39 years, Sunday morning was the worst morning of the week. So I know it. And so what happens is, you show up, it doesn't magically disappear. Your bad attitude or your kids' bad attitudes, they don't disappear at the front door, they get worse. Like, the moment you walk in the door, it's not like all of a sudden there's this, like, Holy Spirit blanket that just washes over you.

And you, like, go from this to like, oh, no. It doesn't happen. That's not what happens. That's not what happens. No, what happens is, you come in with a crappy attitude.

You come in butthurt. Somebody's offended you. Something's going on. Your wife and you have had arguments. Maybe there's waves and you're here out of obligation because where you really want to be.

Or maybe it's flat but there's lots of fish running. Or maybe your family's in town and they're all over at Ocean Breeze and you're here because I have to be here. And you bring that in with you. And if anybody here in college remember communications? If you didn't go to college, there's this class everybody had to take call to communications.

And one of the things that they taught us was body language is a huge deal. And so when I look out, I know who's listening and who's not based on this. Matt is always like this when I get up here. Leaned back, arms crossed, looking around, counting how many dots are on the ceiling tiles. When is Chris going to be done?

Like, they took attendance. I'm pretty sure I saw him doing it at the door. So God knows I was here. Come on, Chris. I know you always preach long, so can you please make it short today?

And that's the attitude that we walk in with. We bring everything from the world, everything that we've dealt with all week long, and we walk in and it comes with us. My father-in-law who's a pastor up in Harrisonburg had a church, beautiful church, built it like no debt. They have this gorgeous building. And he'll tell you when he gets up there, this church was perfect until we walked in.

The moment we walked in, the church is no longer perfect because we all brought our junk with us. Matt is telling me my time's up at 11.15 because he knows I've got like four closings. So it's so important that when we bring our junk in, before we are able to hear and accept and receive what God has for us in his word, we have to do something. Something has to change, and it's in our hearts, and it's in our minds.

We have to prepare ourselves and allow ourselves to be ready to hear what is going to be spoken from God's word because if you're still dealing with the same junk and you're still in that attitude of counting dots on ceilings and counting how long I'm going to take to preach, you're not listening. I have a four-year-old son. He got in trouble this morning. I put him down on this chair right here. He said, you sit there until I come back.

He's obedient enough that he knows if he moves, he's in a lot worse trouble. We're going out back. So I come over. I sit down next to him, and this is what I do. Aaron, look at me.

And he looks at me, and then he starts doing this with his eyes. Aaron, look at me. I'm talking to you. I don't know you're listening unless you look at me. So he'll look at you for like two seconds, and then he's, he's not listening.

He's already thinking, where's Max? I want to go play. Where's Savannah? I want to go push her down. Like, he's not there.

And we think we're all cool because we're adults, and we're 40, 30, 20, whatever we are. We act the same way. We come in here, cross our arms, kick our legs back, and our eyes are everywhere, and our ears are everywhere except what God has to tell us. And so it requires something of us before we can get to that place of receptivity of God's word. Psalm 18.

1. I told you I was going to be all over Psalms today. I wasn't kidding. And I'm trying to make it a habit of actually doing this and reading this. I know it's weird, like, out of my Bible app and not just sticking them in my notes because the effort of having to go to them sometimes, it just, it helps me stop and think for a minute.

Psalm 18.3. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. We're going to talk about that again in just a minute. Now you guys can jump back.

I'm going way back. Revelations 5, 11 through 12. I'm just going to paraphrase this. It gives us a picture of what the throne of God is going to look like when we have the opportunity to be there. And what is going on at the throne of God, what is going on around his feet, is the angels and the saints are doing nothing day and night but lifting up praises to God.

They are telling God how good he is, and they are telling him about the things that he has done over and over and over. How worthy he is. That is our example. That's the example that has been set for us. God is worthy of our praise.

And I'm going to talk about three things real quick because I want you to know what the difference is between some of these things. I'm only going to touch on worship a very tiny amount today because I believe that praise is something that gets neglected. And that's the reason that most of us don't understand how important it is in our life. Worship is declaring who God is. God, you are good.

God, you are awesome. God, you are mighty. You guys can hear a lot of that when we're singing our songs. You hear us using descriptive terms for who God is and just how amazing he is and how awesome he is. My favorite song all time is a song called Awesome God.

It's like three verses. It's the simplest song in the world. I've sung it to my kids, every single one of them, when they were babies, as I was putting them to sleep. And it is nothing but worship. Praise is declaring what he has done.

You have saved us. You have redeemed us. You have brought me out of the fire. You have brought me out of the night. You have brought me out of sin.

And thanksgiving is when we tell God exactly what he has done for us as individuals. And all three of those were blanks. Who God is, what God has done, and what God has done for us. And so we go back to that first verse, and it tells us that we are to enter his courts with what? Enter his gates with thanksgiving.

So the gates, if you guys can imagine a city back in those days, the gates is the outermost. So you enter into the gates with thanksgiving. That means before you ever enter into the presence of the king, you're already giving thanks for what he's done. You give him thanks for all the things that he's done for you. And then in order to enter into his courts, you do what?

You praise. Before you can ever enter into the courts, you have to have a heart of praise. You have to recognize what God has done. You have to lift him up. Tell him how amazing he is, how good he is, the things that he has done for you.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving in your hearts. Enter his courts with praise. This is David. This is how he says he approaches God. And it sets an example for us.

When you go into your quiet place in the morning, guys, this isn't just a Sunday morning thing. I want to make that very clear. This is every time you approach your king. Every time you go to talk to God, it should be done. Giving thanks.

Lord, thank you for provision for my family. Thank you for the roof. Even if it's not as big. Or as fancy as I want it. Thank you, God.

Thank you for the job you've provided me that allows me to pay my bills. Thank you for healing me. Thank you for saving me. And we go from thanksgiving and giving him thanks, then we go to praise, telling him all the things that he has done. Thank you, God, you're a redeemer.

Thank you, God, for pulling me out of the miry clay. Thank you for the things that you have done. Thank you for the things that you are doing. And you continue to give him thanks and giving and praise. And then you approach the king.

Then you approach with your prayers. Then you approach with your requests. See, it's real easy for us just to go to God, right? Whenever we want something, and we quickly forget all the things he's already done. God, I need a better job.

This one stinks. Well, you were working at 7-Eleven before this, and now you're a manager at Wawa. You got a promotion, and that's not enough. You were making $20,000 a couple months ago, and now you're making $40,000. Yeah, but I need to make $60,000.

God, I need this. God, I need this. God, can you do this? God, can you do that? And we don't after lift up thanksgiving and praise for the things he's already done, and he's looking at us like, you already forgot.

Am I not good? Your earthly fathers give you gifts. Do I not give you even greater and better and more perfect gifts? And when you get real down to it, did I not sacrifice my only son so that we could be reconciled, so you could even approach me? So we have to do it.

The reason that praise is important is this. I've got 14 minutes. I'm trying real hard. Praise takes the focus off of us, and it puts it on God. So when you come in on Sunday morning, 90% of us, when we're out in the hallway, are talking about us.

Right? And I'm talking about me. When I get here at 7 a.m., well, I'm here a little before that.

When Alex and I are in here setting up at 7 a.m., most of the time this morning it's like, hey, man, how was the grand opening at the surf shop? Hey, did you get in the water this week? Hey, how was Jamaica?

It's all of our conversation leading up to praise and worship is really us-centered. It's about us. It's about what we're going through, the things we're doing, our job, our car, our kids, how brighty they were this week, how bad they were, how many times they had to spank them, how many times they had to sit in the corner, the list goes on. But it focuses completely on us. That's the world, right?

Self-focused, self-centered, everything is about me all the time. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the earth orbits around me and my family, pretty sure, and that's where praise comes in because what happens is you can't help. But when you begin to give thanksgiving to God and praise to God, your focus goes here to here. And all of a sudden, all these things about yourself begin to fade into the background, and who you see and who you pay attention to is the Almighty God. And all of a sudden, your circumstances, they just fade into the background, and you begin to remember how good he is, how perfect he is, how amazing he is.

Praise is an essential part of our walk. This is non-negotiable. Now, I am telling you right now, for those of you who like to show up late or, and this is not condemnation because this is, I want you to hear my heart in this. You're missing out. This isn't like I want you there in front of me when I'm singing.

I could care less if you're there. You could stick me and you can ask my wife. She will tell you. You could put me in a field with nothing. I can praise and worship God.

I don't need you here. I like having you here because I like being together with my family, and I like being in one accord and unified when we praise and worship God, and there is power in that. But personally, and I can do it in my car. I can do it at home. I can do it in my bathroom.

I can do it out in the field. I can do it on a surfboard. But you're missing out because what happens is you're not getting everything that God has for you when you don't come prepared and receptive to what he's speaking. You don't. When you come focused on you, when you come focused on your circumstance, when you come focused on your problems, you miss out on what God is saying because you're so focused on you.

And so you're missing out. You are missing out. When you walk in as the worship ends and the praise and worship ends, I don't even have to question it. I can tell you you're missing out. Now, we had a brother, Rob, who just a few weeks ago, we were having an interaction on Facebook.

And it was one of the first times he had entered into praise and worship. And he posted, I think he was responding to something that Leon posted. And he said, that was the most amazing service I've been in yet because I was able to enter into praise and worship. I allowed myself to be involved in praise and worship. And it's because it prepared his heart.

In a way, his heart had never been prepared. His focus wasn't on him. His focus was, his gaze was on the cross. His gaze was on God. And he was open and ready, arms wide open, ready for whatever God had for him that day.

And I'm not going to go read all these scriptures because I don't have time. But they're here for you to go look at. It is essential. It is non-negotiable. It is needed.

If all you eat is cocoa puffs for your meal every day, you will die early. If all you do is eat dessert, good chance you're going to get real big and have diabetes. You need the meat. You need the milk. You need the vegetables.

They're good for your body. And in the same way, you can't just live on the message every Sunday or in the message every day. You need to be putting yourself in a position to hear from God. You need to allow yourself to be open and ready and have face, eyes focused on the one that matters. Praise prepares our hearts.

Man, it just, it opened. It like prepares the soil for a seed. It gets rid of all that junk. Look, it takes- It takes- It breaks everything out that we've been dealing with. It pulls the weeds, it breaks up the fallow ground, and it prepares us so that when we hear the Word, when we read the Word, when we go before God and He gives us, He speaks to us, our hearts are prepared.

They are ready to hear. That seed does not fall on hard soil. It doesn't fall on soil with weeds that are going to creep up and get it. It doesn't fall on rocky soil. It falls on soil that is ready for the seed to be planted.

It prepares our hearts. Praise ushers in God's presence. He inhabits the praises of His people. That is, throughout God's Word, there's multiple verses there, and there's even more. I only put two on there.

There's probably ten. Where when you go in, you will see where God tells His people to praise, and then I will be there. Go praise me. Go lift my name up. Go shout from the earth.

And I will come. I will be there. Because He inhabits our praises. His Spirit comes and moves. People come up to me and tell me after, we'll be talking about after Leon's message, and they'll be like, man, that was such a good word.

That was so awesome. I knew before it ever started that they were going to get something, because I was watching them. I was watching them praise and worship. I was watching them putting themselves in position to hear. And this one is important, because I want you guys to hear this.

So many of us don't understand that praise defeats the enemy. Praise defeats the enemy. When you come in, and you're dealing with junk, and you come in, and you praise, and you worship the Most High God, and you glorify Him above everything, and you put Him in His place above everything, dude, the enemy runs. They don't want to hear how... Satan doesn't want to hear how good God is.

When he begins to hear how powerful and how mighty, and he hears and has to relive all of the success that God has had over him in the past in your own life, he trembles. He trembles. I'm going to read one verse on this one. You can go to 2 Chronicles 20 if you like. This is Old Testament.

2 Chronicles 20. This is Jehoshaphat leading Israel. He's got armies all around him that are about to lay siege to him. They're going down. They are going down.

He knows it. He is before his people, and God leads a young man to come in and give him essentially a prophetic word, and here's the prophetic word, and it was actually the son of Zechariah, and he said, listen, all of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says the Lord to you. Do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed at the great horde, for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, go down against them.

Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jerul. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf. O Judah and Jerusalem, do not be afraid.

Do not be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them, and the Lord will be with you. Here's what I want you to see. Their response immediately, and the Levites, and I can't even pronounce these other two, stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a very loud voice. See, they hadn't even gone into battle yet.

They didn't even know what God was really going to do yet, but they knew that the battle was his, and the moment that they released the battle, they gave praise to the Lord. Lord, we praise you for what you're going to do tomorrow morning when we go down. We're going to trust that the battle is yours. We're going to trust that our enemy is defeated, and so we're not going to wait until you actually defeat the enemy. We're going to go ahead and give you praise right now because we know you're going to, and that's what praise does when you come in here, and you already give him all those circumstances that are surrounding you, financial, marriage, sickness, whatever they are.

When you go ahead and give God the praise and the glory for what he's going to do instead of waiting to see if he does something, Lord, I thank you for what you're about to do in my finances. Thank you for what you've done in my marriage. Thank you for what you're working in my marriage. Thank you for where you're working in my body right now, Lord. I praise you that you're the healer.

I praise you that you're the provider. I give you glory and honor, Lord. I lift you up in this place today, and I say, have your way in my life, Lord, and then we can just wait and expect. But so many of us come in, man, I hope Leon saw me. I better make sure I talk to him so he knows I was here because I'm sure he probably talks to God on Monday and tells him who's here and who's not, and I better hit my quota because, man, I'll go to hell if I don't hit that quota.

Hey, Leon, what's up, man? Awesome message. I don't remember any of it because I wasn't listening, but awesome message, man. For real. We laugh because it's true.

We laugh because we know we've been there. We know we've done it, and for some of us, it's a habit. For some of us, church is not 1030. Church is 11 because I know that's when Leon gets up. For some of us, our quiet time doesn't start at five.

It starts at six because that gives me just enough time to read a verse and pray and run out the door, but gives me zero time to prepare my heart for the Lord. Praise is not second fiddle. Praise is part of the process. If you're coming here on Sundays and you keep thinking, man, I just don't get it. I don't get anything on Sunday mornings.

I just don't understand. I don't hear from the Lord, and man, I don't know what this whole thing to read the Bible is about because I read it all the time, and I'm not getting it. I would challenge you today. Make praise a part of your daily habit. Before you Open up God's Word.

Start by giving Him thanksgiving. Enter into those gates with thanksgiving, and then step forth in praise. I promise you, you will see an increase in the power of God working in your life. I promise you that you will see, hear things that you didn't think you could hear, that the Word will stick in your heart in ways that you have never imagined or fathomed it could, because God will prepare your heart before He speaks to you. And I promise that you will walk in more victory in your fights in your life, if you can walk around giving God thanksgiving and praising, than you ever will if you just give that up.

And we have this amazing worship band, Praise and Worship Band, and you guys can come up now. We have this amazing team that comes to lead you guys in praise and worship. They practice, they prepare, they prepare their hearts. They come up here, not because we want to put on a show. They come up here because they want to help prepare your hearts for what God is going to tell you today.

They want to help you overcome the enemy before you hear God's Word today. They want to help you leave the junk that is in your trunk at the door. There's three ways that we can praise that are very simple. With our voice, we can lift Him up. We can praise His name.

We can give Him the thanksgiving, the honor, and the glory that He's due. The other thing is with our body. Lifting up your hands, putting yourself in a position where you show God, I'm praising you, I'm here, this is about you, Lord, this isn't about me. And through music, this is a part of it. That's why we do this.

That's why these people practice. Their heart here is to help you. Their heart here is to usher in the presence of God so that you can come and be impacted on Sunday morning. And hopefully, if you practice it here on Sunday morning, then when you go into your quiet time, when you go home into your place, you'll practice it there, and you will see God work in ways He has never worked before. You will overcome things you didn't think you could ever overcome because you enter into His presence with thanksgiving.

I'm going to pray real quick because I want to give anybody an opportunity who's here today and does not know God to know Him. And then, guys, what better than to practice what I've been preaching? So I've had the praise and worship team come up, and we're actually going to sing the last song that we sang today. We're going to sing that again. And I would challenge you as I'm praying right now to begin to put yourself in a place of praise and worship.

Focus on God. Give Him the praise and the glory and the honor He's due. Step out. That thing that's been holding you in that place where you're looking around and your hands are in your pockets and you're worried about the guy who's next to you or the person who's behind you, close your eyes. Put your gaze on God and find yourself in His presence.

You guys can stand up. If you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ, I want to give you the opportunity. Maybe your heart's been pricked today. You understand, man, I felt alone. I want to be able to enter into His courts.

I want to be able to call on Him. I want to overcome some things in my life, and I know the only way to do that is through Jesus Christ. And that's true. He is the only way. If you're here today, just pray this with me.

Lord, I come to you humbly, and I come to you as sinner. Lord, I ask you to forgive my sins, to wipe me clean, to wash me white as snow. Lord, I ask you to send your Holy Spirit, to inhabit my heart, inhabit my soul, to take your rightful place in my life as my Redeemer, as my Savior, and as my Lord. Lord, I commit my life to you today, that I will live and walk according to your word, and that I will praise your name and give you the glory and the honor that you deserve. In your name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Thank you.