The Progression of Praise
Text: Psalm 100
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.
As we have been celebrating Thanksgiving this week I have been doing some meditation about the concept of thanksgiving. At the same time our youth ministry mentioned that they are planning a progressive dinner here in a very few weeks. For some reason I connected the two and begin to think about the progression of praise. To progress literally means to “to move forward or to develop to a higher, better, or more advanced stage. As I began to think about thanksgiving and then the progressive dinner I began to think about the fact that thanksgiving is just one stop in a two stop progression. However, I also realize that each stop is important. In a progressive dinner one stop is not more important than the other. They all play a key role in completing the meal and the experience. And so I want to talk about the progression of praise, but I do not want to diminish any stop along the way. There are truths and lessons that we must learn from each step.
David deals with this progression. He simply says that we are to enter His gates with thanksgiving. Without going into great detail concerning the tabernacle setup it serves to reason and to logic that the gates were the first place you enter. It would parallel our front door. It is simply the entry point. The first step. It is essential to get in, but there are deeper things and places to go. Then David says that we gain access or entry into a deeper place called the courts with praise. David’s tabernacle had no veil to shield the presence of God from the people. So once you gained access into the courts you were in God’s presence. David teaches us that there is a progression to praise. We enter with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving gets our foot in the door, but praise takes us higher and further into God’s presence.
So if you will allow me this morning I would like to talk to you about this progression!
I. Thanksgiving
I want to deal with Thanksgiving first. Before we go too far may I share with you my deep revelation? OK, buckle your seat belts, hold on, get your pen ready, scoot to the edge of your seats, and hold your breath. Here it is – are you ready? Thanksgiving always proceeds Christmas! O.K., O.K., I know every elementary school student knows this truth. So nobody will write a book based on this thought and I certainly won’t get a call from TBN to expound on this concept. I realize that no one sits around pondering which comes first, the turkey or the tree. However, this thought may be more powerful than we think. I remind you of this because it seems that we rush past Thanksgiving to get to Christmas. Before we ever carve the turkey we hang stockings!
a. Thanksgiving proceeds miracles
Thanksgiving always proceeds the season that is about the birth of a miracle. There is a spiritual principle here! Thanksgiving precedes divine birth! There are numerous scriptural accounts that validate this principle, but perhaps the most significant one is Lazarus. Jesus approaches the tomb of a dead man prepared to perform a miracle.
Remember the account in John 11? John 11:39, “39Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.”
But a dead man is about to be reborn into life. Moments before Jesus wakes the dead with the clarion call, “Lazarus”, he pauses mid-miracle and has Thanksgiving. Listen for the pattern in this account. Look for the truth.
John 11:41-44, “41Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”
For those of you, who need further proof, remember Jesus follows this same pattern before feeding the multitudes. Matthew 15:36-38, “36and he took the seven loaves and the fishes; and he gave thanks and brake, and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. 37And they all ate, and were filled: and they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces, seven baskets full. 38And they that did eat were four thousand men, besides women and children.”
Jesus knew that thanksgiving provokes and spurs God to work on our behalf. Jesus knew that a thankful heart stirs God’s hand.
You may be looking for a season of birth in your life. You may be in dire need of a birth of a new job. The stress and strain of ministry life might be demanding a rebirth emotionally and spiritually. Sickness could have you on bended knee crying out for a new body. Perhaps a quick peek in your checkbook reveals that a financial birth better take place soon. Thanks first. Get the order right and see what is birthed.
Paul bears this truth out when in Philippians he teaches us the same
lesson in chapter 4:6, “6In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” We let our needs know by giving thanks first.
We get it backwards we want the miracle and then after the result we will give thanks. The truth is we should give thanks first! So my question is if we aren’t seeing miracles, breakthroughs, answers could it be that we fail to enter His gates with thanksgiving? Have we become so negative and ungrateful that we fail to give Him thanks? Has our attitude has become what have you done for me lately? And so we fail to develop an attitude of gratitude and therefore we fail to have miracles. Just a thought.
b. Thanksgiving requires us to change our focus.
We will remain unthankful and negative unless we change our focus. We learn to be thankful in spite of what we don’t have. Was Lazarus alive? Not yet. Was there enough meat and bread to go around? Not yet. But when the focus is changed from what we don’t have to who we have thanksgiving is possible.
Some of us need to change our focus. All we can focus on is our empty checkbook. It is time to change our focus to the God of provision. Some of have been focusing on our sickness. It is time to change our focus to the stripes that secured our healing. Some of us focus on our pain and our sorrow. It is time to change our focus to the one who bore all of our sorrows and felt all of our pain.
To get in the gates we must change our focus from us to Him!
Some of us need to start at Thanksgiving. In spite of what we see or don’t see. In spite of what we hear or don’t hear. In spite of what we feel or don’t feel. I challenge you this morning to enter His gates with thanksgiving and see if the change of focus doesn’t produce a change in outcome! But don’t stay there. Don’t stay at the door.
II. Praise
Thanksgiving is based on what someone does. It is based on action. The reality is that it is easy to praise when you see what God has done. He saved me. He rescued me. He set me free. He lifted me up. He set my feet on the solid rock. He restoreth my soul. He . . . I have no problem thanking Him this morning. My heart is full of thanksgiving. I remember what He has done and I am thankful. But thanksgiving only gets you in the gate. In order to get to the higher levels, the deeper levels we must move past thanksgiving and move into praise.
There is a progression we must go through. Thanksgiving is easy! You do something for me and I say thanks. That is child’s play. Necessary. Note worthy. Right. In order. But easy. Praise, however, is not based on what someone does. It is based on who someone is. It is based solely on the inherent worth of something. This is adult mentality. As adults we progress and we begin to give praise because of the value of something. I may never own a Ferrari, but I can praise its workmanship, quality, lines, and style all based on its value and worth.
Praise is more difficult than thanksgiving. That is why we are called by Paul to make a sacrifice of praise. This is the progression. This is when we mature and go deeper into His presence and don’t base our worship on what He has done for me, but rather on who He is. This is when we can honestly and genuinely say, “God if you never do anything else for me ever again I will still praise you.” This is when we have learned to worship Him in good times and in bad. This is when we learn to look past our circumstances and see that He is still and will always be worthy.
That is where we grow to when we can say with David in Psalm 34:1, “His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” We can’t say that if we are stuck in thanksgiving. We can’t say that if we haven’t moved beyond only being grateful when He comes through. Thanksgiving is on our lips based on what he does or has done. Thanksgiving tends to be tied to our circumstance and condition. Praise can stay on our lips constantly because it is based entirely on His worth! His worth never changes or never diminishes so our praise can remain constant.
I wished I could stand up here this morning and tell you all of the reasons He is so worthy of praise. However, I am not capable or articulate enough so watch this!
MY KING VIDEO (you can get this from www.sermonspice.com)
I don’t know what you are going through this morning. But I do know this that doesn’t diminish His worthiness. I don’t know what trials and suffering you may be dealing with, but I do know that He is still God, still awesome, still infinite, still mighty, still faithful, still powerful, and still God!
Challenge you this morning – enter His gates with thanksgiving. Develop an attitude of gratitude. Thank Him before you see the rebirth. Thank Him before you see the miracle. Thank Him before He multiplies anything. Thank Him before He sends the answer. Your heart of gratitude will move His hand. However, don’t just stop inside the door. Move deeper in the progression. Go to a higher, better, or more advanced stage. Move into praise. Praise Him for who He is. Praise Him for His worth. Join David in the rest of Psalm 100 in verse 3 he praises Him because He is God. In verse 5 he praises Him because He is good. He praises Him because His love endures forever. He praises Him because He is faithful to all generations! He is worthy of praise.
Get in the door. But move deeper. Make the progression to praise.
