The Ultimate Combo?
You’ve heard of peaches and cream, Lucy and Ricky, Martin and Lewis, Peanut Butter and Jelly and those were and are some pretty great combinations.
How about some of these classics, the Baconator, the Ruben, the Big Mac, oh and we cant forget this one, the western whopper,
Yes indeed, those were some very successful sandwich combinations, and ad campaigns.
One of my most favorite parts of performing the wedding ceremony is the ending, when I say…
What God hath joined together let not man put asunder and who could or would want to argue with that.
Because if God is involved, there’s no telling what two, united individuals will be able to accomplish in their lifetimes.
Amen?
Faith and patience both require effort, but neither are burdensome when you cast your cares and leave them at the feet of Jesus.
Hope and Love are married at the hip and
Goodness and mercy, I think it would be safe to say, you cant enjoy one without the other, their inseparable.
But this morning, I want to talk to you about the ultimate combo, the mountain moving, earth shaking, tag team of Prayer and Praise.
1Thes. 5:16-18 Msg.
16-18. Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
Be happy, pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens, that’s Gods idea of living,
But what about, stop... But they, stop and realize, that those are no matter what moments!
The accuser will try to throw a lot of, no matter what moments at you, if you let him.
Phil 4:6-9 Msg.
6-7. Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9. Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
Put your hands up, this is a stickup
While no one would ever want to be caught in that scenario, the put your hands up part, is actually some good advice,
Its what you should do, when your praising God, singing or otherwise.
You’ve heard of the saying, “reach out and touch someone” if ever there was a time you wanted to do that, that would be the appropriate time! Amen?
Ex. 17:11-13
10. So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
11. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12. But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Moses told Joshua to pick some men, to fight the battle in the natural.
Joshua fought the battle on a natural plain, but the victory was won through the supernatural power of prayer and praise.
Moses arms got tired, sometimes the praising part is hard to do.
Lord Help us keep our hands lifted high, when doubt and unbelief want to rear their ugly head in our situation!
Help us also to hold up the hands of our brothers and sisters, as they are going through their situations!
For that’s when the battle will be won, when the prayer and the praise doesn’t stop!
Real prayer and real praise, is real work and takes commitment, it is not for the faint hearted.
That's why everybody always wants a true prayer warrior praying for them
because they know that they will pray and touch the throne room of God and they won't stop until victory is won
Will you always feel like praising? No,
Its in those moments, when you don’t feel like praising, its called a sacrifice of praise.
Its when you praise Him anyway, not for what you can feel or see, but for what you know and believe!
What you know and believe will move the mountain, what you feel will move you, if your lucky.
Its when your battle cry changes from, "woe is me" and becomes, “I’m not moved by what I feel or see, I’ve got the Victor living in me!
Praise Knows how to move fear and doubt, Praise tells fear and doubt they have to go, to hit the road, there’s no room for you here!
Mark 5:35-43Msg.
This is the story of Jairus daughter,
35. While he was still talking, some people came from the leader’s house and told him, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?”
36. Jesus overheard what they were talking about and said to the leader, “Don’t listen to them; just trust me.”
37-40. He permitted no one to go in with him except Peter, James, and John. They entered the leader’s house and pushed their way through the gossips looking for a story and neighbors bringing in casseroles. Jesus was abrupt: “Why all this busybody grief and gossip? This child isn’t dead; she’s sleeping.” Provoked to sarcasm, they told him he didn’t know what he was talking about.
40-43. But when he had sent them all out, he took the child’s father and mother, along with his companions, and entered the child’s room. He clasped the girl’s hand and said, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, get up.” At that, she was up and walking around! This girl was twelve years of age. They, of course, were all beside themselves with joy. He gave them strict orders that no one was to know what had taken place in that room. Then he said, “Give her something to eat.”
When you need a miracle, you don’t need someone around that’s not willing to pray and praise with you until you get your break through,
You need to surround yourself with people that know what the knee mail is!
Jesus realized it and showed us what to do, when confronted with the situation!
He ask fear and unbelief to leave the room, prayer and praise will always give fear and unbelief their marching orders in short order.
When we come to church, its easy to get distracted, (repeat)
but we should be focused on praying to God and praising Him for answering our prayer and meeting our need.
The longer we take to do that, the longer it takes for the anointing to break the yoke and for the power of God to fall and meet the needs of His people.
that’s why sometimes you’ll hear people say, I just didn’t feel the power or the presence today, like I have before.
They didn't sing my favorite song, and that one song, can you believe they sang it 17 times,
the guitar player was to loud, why can't they just do like they did that one time!
It's not about what we feel, it's about what we know!
Those are sacrifice of praise moments, those are the moments that can either push you back down the mountain,
or push you through, to the other side of the mountain where your victory is waiting for you to arrive!
Amen?
That's right, your victory is already and has been waiting for your to arrive!
Lord bless the day, when we are ready and focused to pray and praise God when we arrive at church
and the power of God starts to fall the moment the music starts,
Instead of having to sing a song 17 times, until you finally forget about the world and focus on the anointing God is willing to pour out!
Prayer focuses on the problem, by it’s very nature prayer is recognizing a need.
Praise focuses on the power of God to meet that need.
When Jehosaphat was confronted by an innumerable host
He did 2 things specifically: They prayed and then they praised.
2 Chronicles 20:3-4, 18-23 Msg.
3-4 Shaken, Jehoshaphat prayed. He went to God for help and ordered a nationwide fast. The country of Judah united in seeking God’s help—they came from all the cities of Judah to pray to God.
18-19 Then Jehoshaphat knelt down, bowing with his face to the ground. All Judah and Jerusalem did the same, worshiping God. The Levites (both Kohathites and Korahites) stood to their feet to praise God, the God of Israel; they praised at the top of their lungs!
20 They were up early in the morning, ready to march into the wilderness of Tekoa. As they were leaving, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Listen Judah and Jerusalem! Listen to what I have to say! Believe firmly in God, your God, and your lives will be firm! Believe in your prophets and you’ll come out on top!”
21 After talking it over with the people, Jehoshaphat appointed a choir for God; dressed in holy robes, they were to march ahead of the troops, singing,
Give thanks to God,
His love never quits.
22-23 As soon as they started shouting and praising, God set ambushes against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir as they were attacking Judah, and they all ended up dead. The Ammonites and Moabites mistakenly attacked those from Mount Seir and massacred them. Then, further confused, they went at each other, and all ended up killed.
It wasn't natural efforts that got the job done that day, it was their super natural efforts that moved the Heavenly's!
Prayer and Praise took care of their need, in a supernatural way!
And that’s exactly what the ultimate combo of Prayer and Praise will do in your situation. Amen?
From a damp dark prison cell with backs beaten and bleeding, Paul and Silas turned their pain into praise
At midnight They Prayed, and sang Praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them, the power of praise that night, caused an earthquake, a real Phenomenon!
Did they have their Sunday go to meeting clothes on, I’m sure they were quite a site
Praise doesn’t have to be pretty to be powerful
Praise is more than a feeling, or a thankful Heart, or an attitude of thankfulness, or a song about Gods goodness.
It's a, or at least it should be a 24/7 state of mind,
That means every time you have an opportunity to do it, you realize your already doing it, without realizing it!
There are 8 hebrew words the bible uses to describe praise, or different elements, and facets to praise.
1.Halal= To be boastful, excited, to enjoy.
2.yadah= A public expression, to worship with hands extended.
3.Barak= To kneel to bless
4.Zamar= Making music in praise to God.
5.Shabach= To speak well of in a high and a befitting way,(to shout ).
6.Towdah= To thank God for things that haven’t happened yet.(as when Israel shouted while the walls of Jericho were standing)
7.Tehilla= Singing our halals, It speaks of singing under the inspiration of the spirit=new songs.
8. Ruah= To shout in joy.
For Paul and silas prayer and praise destroyed the foundation of their confinement, destroyed the yokes that bound them, and loosed all of the other prisoners around them.
For jehosaphat prayer and praise confused the enemy, and they killed each other.
For Joshua the amalakite enemies were greatly discomfited, as prayer and praises flowed through Moses uplifted hands,
No wonder David ends the book of Psalms with this command
Psalms 150:6 NKJ.
Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.
Ill. “BIGGER AND BETTER RATTLE SNAKES"
Mr. Jones called his pastor from the hospital one day and frantically said, "Oh, pastor come quickly, my son, John was just bitten by a rattle snake and is at the point of death." Of course the pastor hurried to the side of the worried father. "Pastor, pray for my son!", cried the father, " I have promised the Lord that if my son recovers, I will come back to church and bring my family and will again start living for the Lord."
Of course the pastor prayed. He said, "Dear Lord, we come to you now in behalf of Mr. Jones’ son. We pray that he might recover from this snake bite. We want to praise your name for sending this rattle snake to bite John! This one rattle snake has done what I or the church has been unable to do in the life of Mr. Jones now for over 5 years. During all this time, he has not been interested in his spiritual well-being or the spiritual well-being of his family and this one rattle snake has turned his mind back to you. Lord, could it be, what we may need in the lives of many of our other church members are bigger and better rattle snakes?"
God works all things together for those that Love Him!
And one the things that should be at the top of the list of the list of those who love God, is Continual Praise offered up to Him!
Praise for all He has, does and continually does for each and everyone of us.
Ill. As you come into church, you’ll notice a tiny ant hill in a crack of the concrete by the front door.
Its closest form of entry would be the flower bed, which is about 10 feet away,
but due to the unusually wet spring from the abundance of rain, it would probably be an unlikely entry point.
The next entry point, would be the edge of the driveway, some 120 feet away.
All that way, just to get to their home site, to establish their colony under our entrance,
The sheer determination and tenacity, that must have taken, is nothing short of amazing.
shouldn’t we be willing to do the same with our praise, following our prayer request,
To praise God, the one who makes all things possible, until we reach our desired destination or answer, were seeking?
Prayer only, is like taking the long, sometimes seemingly impossible route,
But prayer and praise together is an unbeatable combination,
the shortcut, straight to nothing but endless possibilities, Jesus has lined up for us, already to receive!
Amen? Amen!
Lets pray and praise!
Thanks to Terry Sisney for the outline
