SHALL A ROCK CRY OUT FOR YOU?
THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
LEACHES, LEACHES... EVERYBODY WANTS MORE THAN I CAN GIVE...
I hear so much about ENOUGH... HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH...
What can I do when nothing I do is ENOUGH...
Everybody is sucking the very power of life out of my veins...
MY ENOUGH IS NOT ENOUGH, WHAT DO I DO?
I. PRAISE IS NOT ALWAYS AUTOMATIC OR EASY... SOMETIMES TO PRAISE AND FIND JOY
CUTS AGAINST EVERY GRAIN AND FIBER WITHIN THE HEART OF A PERSON.
AT THESE TIMES PRAISE BECOMES A SACRIFICE... PRAISE IS AN OFFERING...
A. OFFERING/SACRIFICE:
THE GIVING OF SOMRETHING YOU VALUE OR LOVE FOR SOMETHING THAT IS
GREATER.
The voluntary giving up of something valued, to give up a thing...
Contribution or gift, donation.
To transfer the possession of freely, hand over...
Jeremiah 17:26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and
from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt
offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the
house of the Lord.
Jeremiah 33:11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of
the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy
endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will
cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the Lord.
Hebrews 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the
fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
B. THE COINSIDENCE OF THE SACRIFICE OF A LOVED NECK TIE...
On my second missions trip to Haiti, I was traveling to different churches to speak of my burden,
and give the opportunity of others to give to Haiti.
The Preachers in Haiti love neck ties. If they are wearing a tee shirt they love a neck tie. The tie
is sort of a symbol of authority. I sent word a head to the church, if they had any neck ties they would
give bring them to the service. We had hundreds of outdated, unwanted neck ties donated. We used
the neck ties as packaging material around the breakables.
I was speaking at Winchester, KY. at the Assembly of God, Herman Gilley was the pastor. Herman
and Davetta have been personal friends 30 years.
There was a large pile of neck ties on the altar in the church as I spoke. Pastor Gilley started crying.
I noticed he was broken and crying very hard, He loosened his neck tie and started pulling the tie
from around his neck. Broken and spilled out he quietly made the trip to the altar and lay his neck tie
down on top of the other ties.
Later that night, Herman's wife, Davetta told me that was Herman's all time favorite neck tie. He had
loved that neck tie and only wore it on special occasions. I tried to give the tie back to Herman, and he
told me the Lord had spoke to him to GIVE THAT TIE TO HAITI.
I watched that tie, I honestly planned on giving it back to Herman later.
As I was packing the guitars in boxes, I placed rolled of ties inside and around the musical instruments
we were taking. I placed Herman's tie in the mouth of a flattop guitar.
I shipped the music ahead of me. When I land in Haiti and got the missions stuff out of CUSTOMS,
we went to the hosting church. Later I was unloading and setting up the guitars and instruments, I got
Herman's tie and held it in my hands and prayed for him and Winchester A/G. Only I knew the sacrifice
of love that tie represented.
One night we gathered all the Pastors of Haiti and prayed over them. We had the neck ties neatly
arranged on tables. Each Pastor could get three ties. We lined the pastors up, oldest to youngest and
allowed them to walk through the line and pick up 3 ties. The first pastor walked through the line, and
to my amazement the first tie he picked up was HERMAN'S LOVE GIFT. The old man only picked up
one tie, he started crying and he had someone put the tie around his neck. The old, black preacher
was crying.
I had no interpreter to tell the preacher the story. But I shall forever remember the SACRIFICE OF LOVE.
Many gave their old, outdated, unwanted ties... that was good. But the LOVE TIE WAS THE FIRST
GIIFT PICKED UP.
Was this a COINSIDENCE?
II. DAVID BECAME AN EVANGELIST OF PRAISE...
A. EVANGELIST MEANS: PUBLISHER OF GLAD TIDINGS...
B. DAVID WANTED PEOPLE EVERY PLACE IN THE WORLD TO PRAISE GOD.
Psalm 107:8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children
of men!
C. Any author knows there is LITERARARY TOOL has POWER IN REPETITION, to repeat a major point
re-inforces that point.
Psalm 107:15 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the
children of men!
Psalm 107:21 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children
of men!
Psalm 107:31 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children
of men!
III. DO WE UNDERSTAND WHAT PRAISE MEANS? PRAISE HAS SEVERAL COUSINS.
A. PRAISE: Honor, dear affection, warm approval, admiration, glorify, deep respect...
B. GLAD: Pleased, willing, joyful, feeling contentment.
C. GLORIFY: To transform to splendid, to show forth praise, to make glorious, abundance, honor,
dignity of mind and heart.
D. EXTOL, EXHALT: Praise highly, raise in power or rank, lofty, noble,
E. MAGNIFY: Make things appear larger, INTENSIFY.
Brother Vannucci praising God says: I MAGNIFY THEE...
I always pondered: HOW CAN YOU MAKE GOD LARGER THAN HE IS...
One day Frank Germanceri was talking, he said: TO MAGNIFY DOES NOT MAKE THE OBJECT BIGGER
THAN IT IS, MAGNIFY MEANS YOU SEE THE THING AS BIGGER, LARGER...
F. GLAD, CHEERFUL, JOY...
In good spirits, feeling of joy, contentment, in good spirits, bright, pleasant, light hearted...
IV. THE PLAN OF GOD AND THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS TO PRAISE...
ARE YOU A PRAISER? HAVE YOU A REGULAR ESTABLISH PATTERN OF PRAISING GOD?
A. In the New Testament Church every day is the SABBOTH...
Every year is the YEAR OF JUBALEE...
Psalm 118:24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
B. GREAT MEN AND WOMEN IN THE BIBLE PRAISED GOD...
1. Noah parks the ark, builds and altar and PRAISES GOD.
2. Hannah has a dysfunctional family, she prays and the Eli accuses her of being DRUNK, she
RAISES UP AND PRAISES GOD... a son SAMUEL IS BORN...
V. PRAISE FIRST? ! WHEN THEW TROUBLE RAGES AND THERE IS NO SOLUTION...
SENT IN THE PRAISERS... PRAISE ALWAYS CUTS THE WAY TO VICTORY...
A. JACOB AND LEAH HAD 10 SONS TOGETHER...
JACOB AND RACHEL HAD TWO SONS...
B. SO JACOB BECAME ISRAEL --- PRINCE AND FAVOR WITH GOD AND MAN...
HE HAD 12 SONS...
C. THE 4TH SON OF ISRAEL AND LEAH NAME WAS JUDAH...
JUDAH ESTABLISHED HIMSELF IN A SPECIAL AREA...
REMEMBER IT WAS JUDAH THAT SAVE HIS BROTHER JOSEPH'S LIFE...
BUT JUDAH BECAME FAMOUS FOR PRAISING GOD...
THIS LIFE OF PRAISE, FAME FOR PRAISE SET JUDAH AND HIS DESCENDANTS ASIDE TO
BE KNOW AS THE LEADERS OF PRAISING GOD...
WHEN ANY EVEN WAS TO BE HELD IN THE NATION AND THE CHURCH JUDAH'S FAMILY
WAS CALLED TO LEAD PRAISE...
D. THERE WAS A DARK DAY IN ISRAEL'S HISTORY...
THE MOABITES, AMMONITES, THOSE FROM SEIR OUT NUMBERED GOD'S PEOPLE 10 TO 1.
The Moabites came against God's people and they seemed to be DOOMED TO DEFEAT.
E. Jehoshapat was King and DEFEAT was obvious. Nothing could stop Moab.
King Jehoshaphat called the nation to FAST and PRAY.
F. WHAT BATTLE PLAN DOES GOD HAVE?
PUT THE PRAISERS, PUT JUDAH IN FRONT, BEFORE THE WARRIORS, PUT THE PRAISERS.
1. GO EARLY
2. BELIEVE IN GOD!
3. BELIEVE THE PREACHERS...!!
4. START SINGING PRAISE... SING--- SING--- SING---
2 Chron. 20:19-22 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites,
stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high.
[20] And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went
forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
[21] And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should
praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his
mercy endureth for ever.
[22] And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of
Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten
G. WHEN THE PRAISE AND SINGING STARTED GOING UP...
GOD STARTED FIGHTING AND SMOTE TO ENEMY... YOU CAN NOT LOSE WITH PRAISE...
Praise works... THE ANSWER IS IN PRAISE...
2 Chron. 20:25 And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found
among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped
off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil,
it was so much.
[26] And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed
the Lord: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day.
[27] Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to
go again to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them to rejoice over their enemies.
H. MORE THAN ENOUGH... MORE THAN THEY COULD CARRY...
THEY PRAISE GOD BEFORE, DURING, AFTER THE BATTLE...
THEY GO HOME WITH JOY...
WHAT IS THE ANSWER WHEN EVERYTHING IS A LEACH AND DRAINS THE STRENGTH AND
POWER OUT OF MY BEING...
Seems everyone wants something? I have given until there is no more to give?
My enough is not enough... I am drowning... PRAISE!
VI. IN COMPLETE HARMONY ALL NATURE GATHERS AROUND JESUS AND THE GLORY
COMES DOWN... PEOPLE ARE CAUGHT UP IN PRAISE...
A. JESUS IS ON HIS 7TH TRIP IN JERUSALEM,
He is riding on a donkey that has never been ridden.
The people cry: Hebrews: HALLELUJAH--- The same in every language...
but in GREEK: ALLELUIA...
B. They are throwing their clothes and cutting palm branches and throwing them BEFORE THE
SON OF GOD...
C. They ask Jesus to tell the people to QUIT PRAISING GOD...
JESUS TELLS THEM A GREAT TRUTH... IF THEY QUIT PRAISING ME
THE ROCKS WILL PRAISE ME...
Luke 19:40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out.
D. CAN STONES CRY OUT?
Did Jesus open the mouths of deaf/dumb people to RAISE THEIR VOICE IN PRAISE?
The rocks could exalt the MIGHTY CREATOR'S HANDIWORK...
E. Jesus was talking about all the rocks along the VIA DOLOR ROSA... THE WAY OF PAIN, THE ROAD
FROM THE MOUNT OF OLIVES TO GOLGOTHA OVER WHICH JESUS WALKED ON THE WAY TO
THE CROSS... THUS THE PATH OF SORROW.. A TIME OF TROUBLE ... PRAISE...
THE ROCKS OF THE TEMPLE... THE WESTERN WALL/WAILING WALL COULD PRAISE GOD...
Luke 24:2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
F. HOW ABOUT THE ROCK THAT WAS ROLLED AWAY FROM THE TOMB?
IF THE ROCK OF THE EMPTY TOMB COULD PRAISE THE LORD JESUS...
CONCLUSION:
Psalm 150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.
We have a duty and responsibility to PRAISE GOD...
Open the blinds, turn off the negative news, RAISE YOUR HANDS AND PRAISE GOD...
IF WE DO NOT PRAISE GOD... THE ROCKS WILL CRY OUT...
I DO NOT WANT ANY ROCKS TO TAKE MY PLACE...
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Pass my work to another?
