Define: praise (Webster): To express approval; to glorify.
I. Jehoshaphat-“Seed”
A. Moab went to battle against Jehoshaphat under the leadership of Mesha, who had gained Moab’s independence from the Omri dynasty of Israel soon after Ahab died. The battle mentioned here took place when Ahab’s son Ahaziah was king of Israel. The defeat of Jehoshaphat’s enemies in Israel only meant the rise of other enemies outside Israel. This situation would test Jehoshaphat’s faith.
B. Jehoshaphat’s reforms were not hollow religiosity, and they did not break under the strain of sour circumstances. As soon as he heard of bad news from the north, Jehoshaphat sought God and proclaimed a fast. He knew that success required God’s favor. And if God was for them, they could not lose.
C. Jehoshaphat recalled God’s care for his people Israel in the past, when he had led them to victory over their Canaanite foes.
II. ~Praise~
A. Psalms 34:1-5 ~
“I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make a boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and be glad and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were enlightened: and their faces were not ashamed.”
Praise is magnifying and exalting the Lord in our hearts. Praise is glorifying the Lord with the fruit of our lips. When we begin to praise God with all our heart, we lose sight of the magnitude of our problems as we gain a vision of the greatness of our Lord.
In order to truly praise the God, we must learn to go beyond our human limitations and ourselves. Many times when the enemies of Israel would encamp around them, they would tell Joshua to send out the tribe of Judah first. Judah means praise. Judah would go out before the enemies of Israel, armed with nothing but instruments of PRAISE.
When the tribe of Judah would begin to praise God with their whole heart, God would set ambushment among the enemy, and confuse them. The same principle happens in the spirit realm. When we really begin to praise God, our praise literally confounds the enemy, and demonic forces begin to withdraw their power and influence.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4; “For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Praise and worship is the most profound way of expressing our love to the Father. God loves to be praised and worshipped. However, in order to praise God, we must understand the power that praise and worship wield. Praise and worship can break demonic strongholds that have bound some of us. Praise and the Word of God are able to pull down strongholds. There is power in praise and worship. Let us pause here to examine this spiritual concept of praise as a weapon against spiritual strongholds.
First, let us define strongholds. Strongholds are roadblocks or stumbling blocks that prevent God’s people from truly releasing themselves in praise and worship to God. There are several strongholds but we will only talk about one. The erection of strongholds takes place in our thought-process.
For example, suppose you were visiting a new church where their method of praise and worship is somewhat different from yours. Immediately, your mind tells you that their way is wrong, or worse still, that they are not saved. This is a stronghold. Remember that a stronghold is a belief system that is contrary to what Gods’ Word says. You see, in this case, your church has spoken against being too expensive in worship and praise. To them praise and worship does not have to be loud and noisy, or it don’t take all that.
I have noticed that many people in the church do not know how to worship or praise the Father. We get nervous when someone during service gets too loud and starts to worship God differently from our normal style. We want to worship God in low voices and that’s only on Sunday mornings in our lofted buildings. We must appear “respectable.” But in the clubs at baseball or football games, the same people will yell and make as much noise as they can without getting the least nervous or losing their “respectability.”
The Lord loves to hear us praise His holy name and doesn’t get nervous when we either become too loud or too quiet. It is we who discriminate about how to praise God. We must be very cautious about this area of our lives. If we allow Satan to build strongholds we create more roadblocks in our minds that prevent us from praising God freely. Someone once said, “a free person is a dangerous person because they do not allow anyone to dictate what they say or do except the Lord!”
III. What is Praise?
A. Praise is replacing your thoughts and the enemy’s thoughts with the thoughts of God. The Word of God, the Name of Jesus, and the Blood of Jesus are weapons of God that transform and change our thoughts. Although many people may not realize this truth, a tremendous amount of power is released when praise is offered to God. This is a weapon hat is often taken for granted. Imagine what David felt as he composed his Psalms. When you take God’s thoughts and enter into praise, you become like a battering ram against the strongholds that Satan has erected in your mind
B. Another stronghold that we must pull down in the idea that the believer should look sad and gloomy whenever he is going through a difficult time. We think that the devil is having his hey day with us, using us like a dust rag; this ought not to be. We must speak God’s Word over the state of our emotions. It is indeed possible to change the state of your mind through the Word of God. Satan tries to destroy you through your mind. Allow the Lord to direct you.
C. Have you ever heard the voice of God through the thick of the night and thereby you get your victory? It wasn’t because you were smart; it wasn’t because you were taught; it wasn’t because you were so good; but maybe just because you learned how to say, “Lord, I love, I praise you, I’m in trouble, but I still love you.” “I have trials, but I still love you.” “I don’t feel good this morning, but I still love you.” “I have bills I can’t pay, but I still love you.” David said, “I will bless the Lord at all times.”
III. Shabach`(Hebrew)
A. Shâbach-to address in a loud tone (expound)
B. Bârak-to bless God (expound)
C. Yâdâh-to reverence or worship with extended hands (expound)
D. Tôwdâh-an expression of thanks, praise, confession (expound)
E. Tehillâh-to extol highly
IV. Music and Praise- (Importance in the church-Expound)
A. 2 Kings 3:15, “But now bring me a musician. And it happened when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.
B. Elisha requested for a musician because he saw the need for music. We too need some music in the church. Music has the ability to change attitudes and emotions within us. It has the ability to mold and shape thoughts. We have an assortment of instruments – drums, tambourines, organs, and pianos. (Expound)
C. One king obtained the victory just because he has an orchestra with him. The musicians of the temple of the Lord played musical instruments until the enemy of Israel became confused and started killing one another.
D. God loves music. He said, “If you want me to move, play me some music.” Get me somebody who has got and instrument.” When Saul was possessed with demons, David would play on his harp until the demons leaped out of Saul. There is something about the anointed music of the Holy Spirit.
E. Anointed music will drive out demons, trouble and sickness. That is why you must be careful about the type of music that you allow to enter your soul for it has a great effect on you inner man (spirit man). Get some anointed and powerful music. If you want your body to be healed, get some music that speaks healing into your body. Elisha said, “Get me somebody who will play me a song.” The Bible says that when the minstrel began to play, the Word of the Lord began to flow out of Elisha’s mouth.
F. Don’t you allow anyone to take your song from your lips. You may lose friends, but don’t lose your song. You might not sing well in the hearing of other people, but keep your song. You might croak like a frog, but keep your song. David said, “Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye land” (Psalms 66:1). Paul demonstrated that if you have a song, you could sing your way out of the jail. If you have a song, you can encourage yourself. Even when there is nobody around to encourage you, and you feel all alone, if you have a song you can encourage yourself in the Lord. My song is “Stand.” I have learned how to stand in it all. (Expound)
G. God will move when you start praising him. When you start to praise God, He will come in the middle of your drought, in the middle of your wilderness and in the middle of your dry place, and say, “I’ve got a plan!”
V. Intimacy in Worship- (Expound on importance of being intimate in worship)
A. In order to praise, you must understand how to worship and how to be intimate in worship. Matthew 4:10, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him shall thou serve.”
B. Whatever we worship is what we ultimately will end up serving. Our nature demands that we worship something.
C. What we worship is up to us. John 4:23, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
D. To experience true worship you must first develop a relationship with the Father. All relationships are dependent upon good communication. For us as believers, prayers is the means of communicating with the Father. This relationship can be likened to that of a man and his wife. There is the sense of intimacy, closeness, and oneness. It is the closeness that you should never share with anyone else.
E. When a man and a woman first get married, their relationship is new and exists on that level of looking deeply into each other’s eyes. This is the honeymoon stage. As this stage, the couple worships the ground that the other walks on. Their focus is on each other. But, as time goes on, the honey dries a little and the moon begins to lose its lustre. The newness in their relationship begins to wear off, giving way to a different dimension in their relationship.
F. They begin to know each other on a more intimate relationship. They can feel each other’s hurts and desires. They avoid what will hurt each other or that would jeopardize their closeness. They don’t hide anything; rather, they express their feelings in confidence and trust. They trust each other with their weaknesses and shortcomings, confident that they would not be used against them. This is the kind of desire that the Lord wants us to enjoy with Him, a close relationship that leads to intimate worship.
G. There are different kinds of gods we may find ourselves bowing to. Some of us worship our children. Some worship money. Some worship sin. Some worship themselves while others worship all types of things, … paychecks, reputation etc.
V. II Chronicles 20: 1-13
A. In the peripheral of our text, we see that the people of Moab went to battle against Jehoshaphat. Some even came from the sea of Syria, and Hazazon Tamar {which is En Gedi}. The bible records that Jehoshaphat feared the Lord and began to seek the Lord, and proclaim a fast throughout all Judah.
B. The Bible lets us know that Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said, “O Lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven, and do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you? Are you not God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham?
C. It is amazing that we can’t get people to fast for one day, but Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast for a length of time and the people obeyed.
D. Watch this! The bible records in verse21, “And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness.”
E. You have to understand this! You can’t get any and everybody to do praise and worship service. I don’t care how good he or she may sing. I don’t care how many tongues they know. I don’t care how much they stick under the pastor. Everybody hasn’t been anointed to lead praise services!
F. The bible records in verse 22, “When they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah.
G. It was there praise that promoted their provision. The bible goes on verse 25 and shows their provisions from their praise.
H. The found an abundance of values on their dead bodies, precious jewelry, and on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, (which means “Blessings” to remind themselves of God’s goodness.)
I. Praise Promotes Provision!
