Captain Eddy Richenbacker was in an airplane crash in Atlanta
and was rushed to the hospital. He was going in and out of
consciousness. It was thought that he would not survive. The most
famous radio commentator in the U.S. then was the late Walter
Winchell. He said in his broadcast, "Friends, pray for Eddy
Richenbacker. He is dying in an Atlanta hospital. He is not expected
to live out the night." Richenbacker was listening to that broadcast,
and when he heard this he took a jug of water and threw it at the
radio knocking it across the room. He said, "I'm not going to die.
I'm not going to give up." Here was a man wh survived many trials
because he never gave up. When he received the Horatio Alger
Award, which was given to outstanding American men who fought
their way from poverty to success, he said, "My mother, a very poor
woman in Columbus, Ohio, taught her kids to pray, read the Bible, to
follow Jesus Christ and never to give up."
In the literature of success the theme you will confront most often
is the theme of persistence. The athlete who didn't have a chance, but
who by perseverance and persistence became the best. The Bible is
loaded with this theme as well, and one I never saw before is the
persistence of Lot. Two angels came to Sodom, and Lot seeing they
were strangers invited them to come to his house and spend the night.
Their response to his hospitality was very definite. We read in Gen.
19:2, "No, they answered, we will spend the night in the square." Lot
did not know he was arguing with angels or he might have weakened,
but he did not take no for an answer. Verse 3 says, "But he insisted so
strongly that they did go with him and entered his house." His
persistence in showing hospitality led to his being saved from the
destruction of the city. We could go on and on with illustrations of
how persistence is the key factor in every form of success.
Never give up, for the wisest is boldest,
Knowing that Providence mingles the cup;
And of all maxims, the best, as the oldest,
Is the stern watchward of 'Never give up!'
Holmes
This morning we want to pursue this theme as it applies to our duty
as priests in offering to God the sacrifice of praise. One of the
primary dangers with every new idea is the danger of faddishness.
We jump on the current bandwagon of what is hot, and ride that until
we tire of it, and then hop on the next fad express that tingles our
fancy. It is a part of our culture, and Christians are as guilty of it as
anyone else. The church is constantly following fads and promoting
some theme as the greatest idea since sliced bread, and then a few
months after it is passe and nobody even remembers what it was, for
we have moved on to a whole new world of posters, flyers, and
promotional gimmick for a new idea.
There is a risk that we will treat praise like this and go through a
phase of praise thinking, and then move on to something else and leave
praise behind. It is my prayer that we will not treat praise as a fad,
but recognize that the Scripture demands that it become a perpetual
part of our lives. We are to never give up, but be persistent in praise
all of our days, and then on into eternity. To promote this kind of
persistence we want to focus our attention on the word in our
text-continually. "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer
to God a sacrifice of praise." The Greek word is diapantos, which is
used 7 other times in the New Testament. It is used in the very last
verse of Luke: "And they stayed continually at the temple, praising
God."
We know the Apostles did not live 24 hours a day at the temple
praising God. The point is, it was their regular pattern of life. They
did not just stop in on the day of atonement to praise God. They did it
persistently, and so for us also, praise is not to be a periodic function
of the priesthood of all believers. It is to be the regular and perpetual
duty we are to never forsake. In Heb. 9:6 the word is used again to
describe the duties of the Old Testament priesthood. "When
everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly
into the outer room to carry on their ministry." The word regularly is
the same word as continually. Just as the Old Testament priests had a
ministry that did not cease, so the New Testament priesthood has such
a ministry-the ministry of persistence praise. We tend to have
regular times of prayer, but neglect to develop regular times of praise.
If someone asked you if you are in the ministry you would not
doubt be honest and say no. But in your supposed honesty you would,
in fact, be lying, for if you are a believer you are in a ministry that
never ceases, and it is this ministry of praise. You can get out of the
ministry of preaching, teaching, counseling, and visitation. You can
quit or retire or get too sick or die, and thus, end your ministry, but
there is no way out of the ministry of praise. In Psa. 146:2 we read, "I
will praise the Lord all my life, I will sing praise to my God as long as
I live." That sounds like there is an end, and at death you can give up
this ministry, but not so, for in Psa. 145:1 he has already said, "I will
praise your name for ever and ever." The only way out of this
ministry is by neglect and disobedience. As long as we walk in
obedience we are in the ministry where we are obligated to offer
persistently the sacrifice of praise.
What this means is that praise is the link that connects all of life
into a unity. For the praising Christians there is no distinction
between the sacred and the secular. The whole of creation, and the
whole of life, is full of things for which we are to praise to God. Praise
is not a Sunday thing, but as Psa. 145:2 says, "Everyday I will praise
you." It is a Sunday through Saturday thing. It is a perpetual
ministry with no days off. The Psalms tell us we are to look at all of
nature, and all of history, and see the providential hand of God in His
creative wisdom and praise Him ceaselessly.
If you just tell yourself it is your ministry to praise God, and begin
to look for reasons to do so, you will find them by numbers to great to
calculate. I got up one morning and began to praise God for my life,
wife, bed, clothes, the parsonage and all who helped build it for the
warmth of the heat, for the sink and water, mirror, towels, all the
people I love, and I had a good long list of comforts and pleasures of
life to praise God for even before I got to the breakfast table. I was
overwhelmed when I realized there are hundreds of things we take for
granted and neglect to praise God for.
We think of sacrifice as something we have to give up, and this can
be the case, but if you look up the word sacrifice, you discover it also
can simply mean the offering of something to God. It is your gift to
God, and it does not mean you have to suffer loss to offer this
sacrifice. In fact, in offering praise to God you actually gain, for there
is power in praise to heal, restore, and benefit the one who offers it in
many ways. You gain rather than give up when you offer the sacrifice
of praise. It is important that we grasp this or we will have a problem
that will make praise a legalistic work rather than a response of love.
C. S. Lewis, as a new Christian, was offended by the idea that God
was like a dictator, celebrity, or millionaire who demanded that
people tell them how wonderful they are. We are all offended at the
vain person who is ever fishing for compliments to reassure them of
their self-worth. Is this the kind of God we worship? Is He one who
needs men to be ever praising Him to feel good about Himself? This is
absurd, for God is self-sufficient and needs nothing to be content. He
demands praise, and is pleased with it for the same reason we want
our children to learn to be polite and thoughtful. It makes them
better and more pleasant people who will be liked and loved. God
wants us to learn to praise Him perpetually, for the praisers will be
the most effective and most loved children.
The Christian who sees the most in life to praise God for is the
Christian who will most fulfill his highest purpose, which is to glorify
God and enjoy Him forever. The more you praise God, the more you
enjoy Him. The more you praise God for His creation, the more you
enjoy His creation. The more you praise God for His Word, the more
you will enjoy the Word.
Your own happiness is in direct proportion to your persistence in
praise. God does not need your praise for His happiness. You need to
praise Him for your happiness. When C. S. Lewis discovered this, he
wrote in his book Reflection On The Psalms, "I had not noticed how
the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious,
minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised
least. The good critics found something to praise in many imperfect
works; the bad ones continually narrowed the list of books we might
be allowed to read. The healthy and unaffected man, even is
luxuriously brought up an widely experienced in good cookery, could
praise a very modest meal: The dyspeptic and the snob found fault
with all. Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere,
praise almost seems to be inner health made audible."
In a sentence: The healthiest Christians are the Christians who
praise God persistently. God invites us to praise Him, not for His
need, but for ours. When we praise God and enjoy Him, we find the
highest happiness we are capable of experiencing. This is the paradox
of the sacrifice of praise. We offer it up to God, but it is we who get
the most benefit. The Old Testament sacrifice illustrates this. When
an ox or a lamb was offered to God, the parts that could be eaten were
grilled and then eaten by the priests, and on special occasions by the
people offering the sacrifice. God did not need the meat, but man did.
The sacrifice to God was enjoyed by the sacrificers. They feasted on
what they offered to God, and so it is with the sacrifice of praise. It is
the offerer of praise who most benefits by this grateful spirit. God is
pleased just as you are when your child learns to say thank you, but
your pleasure is not so much that you needed the encouragement, but
because it pleases you to have your child becoming a grateful person.
Praise is good news to God, for He knows thereby that the praiser is
becoming a better and happier child of God.
The more persistent we are in our praise of God the more we are
becoming what He wants us to be. All happiness is some form of
preoccupation. When we are preoccupied with something beyond
ourselves, and are not thinking about ourselves, we are happiest. That
is why hobbies and sports are so popular. They enable us to get
beyond ourselves, and this is the best thing for the self. Self-forgetful
devotion to something beyond the self is the key to happiness. That is
why praise is the key to the highest happiness, for it is devotion to the
highest. Glory to God in the highest, sang the angels, and we can know
they were happy angels, for they were preoccupied with God and not
focused on their own glory.
If the angels would cease to praise, they would cease to be happy,
and that is why heaven is always shown to be a place of perpetual
praise. Luther said that hell is hell because there is no praise there,
and heaven is heaven because the praise of God is always there. Psa.
84:4 says, "Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever
praising you." The nearest we can get to heaven on earth is perpetual
praise. Spurgeon preached a marvelous sermon on Psa. 145:2 which
says, "Everyday I will praise you." Listen to a portion of that
message:
"Each day has its mercy, and should render its praise. When
Monday is over, you will have something to praise God for on
Tuesday. He that watches for God's hand will never belong
without seeing it. If you will only spy out God's mercies, with
half an eye you will see them every day of the year. Fresh are
the dews of each morning, and equally fresh are its blessings.
"Fresh trouble," says one. Praise God for the trouble, for it
is a richer form of blessing. "Fresh care," says one. Cast all
your care on Him who careth for you, and that act will in itself
bless you. "Fresh labor," says another. Yes, but fresh
strength, too.
There is never a night but what there comes a day after it:
never an affliction without its consolation. Every day you
must utter the memory of His great goodness.
If we cannot praise God on any one day for what we have
had that day, let us praise Him for it tomorrow. "It is better
on before." Let us learn that quaint verse:-
And a new song is in my mouth,
To long-lived music set:-
Glory to thee for all the grace
I have not tasted yet.
Let us forestall our future, and draw upon the promises. What
if today I am down; tomorrow I shall be up! What if today I
cast ashes on my head: Tomorrow the Lord shall crown me
with loving-kindness! What if today my pains trouble me,
they will soon be gone! It will be all the same a hundred years
hence, at any rate; and so let me praise God for what is within
measurable distance. In a few years I shall be with the angels,
and be with my Lord Himself. Blessed be His name! Begin to
enjoy your heaven now."
There is much of heaven we can enjoy now, but that part of it we
can enjoy now is praise. Praise brings us into the presence of God.
The more we praise, the more we live in His presence, and thus, the
more experience His guidance. This is a strong conviction of the Jews.
Mark Van Doren and Maurice Samuel, two outstanding Jewish
authors of our day, tell us that the book of Psalms, even though it is
the longest book of the Bible, is taken every day to the Western Wall
in Jerusalem, and two groups of Jews chat it from beginning to end.
These songs of praise to God are offered up every day in perpetual
praise. How much more should we as Christians praise God every
day who already have God's promise to Israel fulfilled in our Savior?
The Hebrew name of the Psalms is The Book Of Praises. They are
the main source of praise in Israel and the church. If they are taken
seriously we see that praise is no part time job. It is the duty of a
believer to offer praise to God daily and perpetually while there is any
breath in him. In some old monasteries the monks would take turns
before the alter repeating the Psalms every moment of the 24 hours in
a day. The problem with this, and the Jewish groups doing the same
thing, is that it is mechanical, legelistic, and sounds more like a work
of merit rather than a response of love to God.
I can not speak for God, but I know from my own point of view, I
love to see the grandchildren spontaneously express their love and
excitement to me in my presence. I can not imagine being as pleased if
they came to the house and read a prepared text. If God could really
be pleased with a mere mechanical reading of the Psalms, we could all
read them into a recorded, and let the recorded play every day, and
thereby fulfill our priestly duty of daily offering the sacrifice of praise.
The Pharisees would have loved it, but I doubt that God would be
impressed.
God delights in the same thing we all delight in. We love to be
appreciated. God is no super-egoist who gets a kick out of man's
mechanical praise. He gets His kicks the same way we do; out of our
children and grandchildren sincerely expressing appreciation. I am
not opposed when Cindy will say to the grand kids,"Now say thank
you to grandpa." But this does not compare to the pleasure of their
coming on their own to express thanks. We are made in the image of
God, and we can assume that God likes His praise this way as well. He
wants it free and meaningful, and not forced and mechanical, because
His children really are thankful and want to express it.
Praise balances out prayer. Prayer is primarily asking. Praise is
primarily giving. We tend to spend most of our conversation with
God in asking, and very little in praising God for His blessings.
Children do the same to their parents and grandparents. We expect
it, and do not do a lot to help children balance out their requests with
respones of gratitude. The result is that children grow up always
wanting from parents, and not a lot concerned about giving to parents.
Christians have the same relationship to God by and large. I am sure
I have spent the greatest portion of my prayer time asking, and only a
fraction of it in giving God praise. I suspect I am not unusal. One of
my goals is to balance that out with a higher percentage of praise.
The paradox is that Jesus eliminated sacrifice, and at the same time
elevated sacrifice to a full time job for the believer. The sacrifice of
praise is to be offered continually. This could be seen as a negative, as
if Jesus was demanding too much, almost life slave labor, and to be
ever at it in praising. But we need to see praise, not as labor but as an
expression of love. Praise is the way we enjoy God, and this makes all
of life more enjoyable. Spurgeon recommended that we do more
singing. He says that as priests we have a duty to sing as much as
possible. We should encourage singing at the table. Jesus and His
disciples sang at the Last Supper. It is good for digestion, and family
joy, and it pleases God. Look for times when the family can sing
together more often. As priests we are never off duty, and so praising
God is not to be limited to our church experience. The job of praising
God, if we take it seriously, and do it perpetually, will eliminate most
of the complaining, gripping, and conflict that damages the family and
the church.
Persistent praise means one has to have a positive perspective on
life where they see the good, the true, the beautiful, even when llife is
not conspicuously full of these things, but just the opposite. One of the
most optimistic minds I have ever read about was that of the little boy
who got a new bat and ball for his birthday. "He was so eager to try it
out that he pestered his dad to take him to the park. Finally, the
father gave in. When they got there, the kid said, "Watch this, dad."
He tossed the ball up in the air, swung at it real hard with the bat and
missed. He picked the ball up again, and said, "Watch, dad." He
tossed it up, swung and missed again.
This went on and on many more times, but each time the kid was
just as enthused when he hollered "Watch this one, dad." Finally, the
kid picked the bat and ball up, walked over to his father and said,
"What do you think, dad. Have you ever seen such great pitching?"
The ability to see a good side to all of life is based on belief that
God means what he says, and will work in all things for good with
those who love Him, and that He will keep all His promises to be with
us forever.
I stand in the great forever,
I lave in the ocean of truth,
And I bask in the golden sunshine
Of endless love and youth.
And God is within and around me,
All good is forever mine,
To all who seek it is given,
And it comes by a law divine.
Thus I stand in the great forever
With Thee as eternities roll;
Thy Spirit forsakes me never,
Thy love is the home of my soul.
The more persistent we are in praise, the more we produce a
heavenly environment in time. The more we neglect and forget praise,
the more we produce the envioronment of hell. It is not how good life
is, nor how much of the grace of God you have experienced, that is the
measure of your spiritual success, but, rather, the degree to which you
have been persistent in praise.
Remember the ten lepers? They all experienced a miracle of healing
grace, but only one experienced the giving back to Christ the sacrifice
of praise. It may have cost him time and inconvenience, but listen to
this poem that describes the remorse of one who did not go back.
I meant to go back, but you may guess
I will filled with amazement I cannot express.
To think that after those horrible years,
That terrible loathing and passion of fears,
Of sores unendurable-eaten, defiled,
My flesh was then smooth as the flesh of a child.
I was drunken with joy; I was crazy with glee,
I scarely could walk and I coud scarely see,
For the dazzle of sunshine where all had been black;
But I meant to go back, Oh, I meant to go back!
I had thought to return, then my people came out,
There were tears of rejoicing and laughter and shout;
My cup was so full I seemed nothing to lack,
But I meant to go back; Oh, I meant to go back.
-Anonymous
Your praise is the only wealth you have that is acceptable currency
in heaven. By means of it you can please God, and actually repay Him
in a minimal way for His goodness to you. Psa, 116:12 asks the
question, "How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me?" In
verse 17 we see His answer: "I will sacrifice a thank offering to you."
Thanking and praising God is like paying off the mortgage on your
heavenly home. Gold and jewels are no big deal in heaven, but praise
is priceless and will go on forever.
Kenneth Osbeck, a leading authority on church music, and author
of 9 books on church music, tells of how his father always sang as he
did his job. He was a painter, and his customers called him "The
singing painter." At his funeral many of his customers told of the
positive impact his cheerful attitude had on them as he painted. He
was offering the sacrifice of praise continually. We cannot all do that,
and singing on our job could be a great annoyance rather than
blessing. The point is, the Christian is to never cease to seek for ways
to make his life a life of praise, for this is our calling, to be persistent
in praise for all of our days.
C. S. Lewis wrote, "We-or at least I-shall not be able to adore God
on the highest occasions if we have learned no habit of doing so on the
lowest. At best, our faith and reason will tell us that He is adorable,
but we shall not have found Him so, not have "tasted and seen." Any
patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun
which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These
pure and spontaneous pleasures are "patches of Godlight" in the
woods of our experience." If you want a happy New Year, and a year
of Christian growth, and a year of better spiritual health, the way to
these goals is to offer the sacrifice of praise continually, and be
persistent in praise.
