The Law of Praise Pt. 5

This is Ronald Hopkins, and thank you for joining the Life Center Church.

For believers, those who actually believe, this week is really the most important.

This is like the Super Bowl of Christianity.

Today is actually called Palm Sunday.

The time when a humble servant rode in on the donkey.

Because they thought he was gonna rule a different way.

But he came in on the donkey.

And some misunderstood who he was.

But Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

And then Jesus said something to Peter.

He said, Peter, the gates of hell shall not only prevail against thee, but I'm gonna change your name.

And I'm gonna change your name.

And when I change your name, I'm gonna change your status.

When I change your status, you're gonna do great things for me.

That's because he understood who Jesus actually was.

Now, I don't know about you today, but if you know who Jesus is, and you know what he did for you, and you know the price that was paid for your life, you won't be ashamed of the gospel.

You'll lift up your hands today, and you'll say, Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you for being my healer, thank you for being my deliverer, thank you for being my provider, thank you for being my savior, thank you for being my Lord.

Man, let's let's get right into this.

There's some things that that are on my heart.

If you're a first-time visitor, we welcome you here to the Life Center Church.

You all can be seated.

You take a moment to scan the QR code that would show on the screen.

We just want to know who you are and where you come from.

So just take a moment to scan that card.

We just want to follow up really to see how you enjoyed our service today and see how we can really be a benefit to you in the future.

We're gonna bring this to a close today.

We've been talking about the law of praise.

And on last week, we began talking about the enemies of praise.

So we're gonna continue in that same vein as we close this out.

Let's go back to Psalm number 147.

Psalm number 147.

Standard number one, it says, Praise ye the Lord.

For it is good to sing praises unto our God, for it is pleasant, and praise is comely.

Now, remember this: the state of your heart, or it is the state of your heart that determines the response from God.

So it is the state, or it is what's happening in your heart that will determine a response from God.

So, what the enemy is always endeavoring to do is to get into your heart.

Because from your heart flow the issues of life.

So he's always trying to set traps and get people to come against you to get into your heart because he understands if he can get into your heart, he can keep you out of the presence of God.

He understands if he can get to your heart and you give your heart to things or to people prematurely, then you won't get a response from God, you'll get a response from people.

So let's get into this today.

Point number one, I may bounce all the way around because there's a certain place that I believe that the Spirit of God wants me to cover.

Um point number one: you must not allow discontentment to settle in your heart.

Discontentment, which is the first enemy, or I would say one, two, three, the fourth, maybe.

I don't know what I gave you last week.

Maybe four, maybe five, but this is another enemy of praise.

First Timothy chapter six.

Minister Adrian's not here, so I don't believe I get a lot of amen today.

She's at home receiving her healing.

Um, she was blowing up my phone trying to tell me what to do this morning.

1 Timothy chapter 6, verse number 6.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

It says, but godliness with contentment is great gain.

Let me say this before we get started.

Your godliness should match your contentment.

I knew it wouldn't get a lot of amen, because most of God's people are not striving to live a godly, set-apart, holy life.

Okay, let me show you why.

Definition number one, contentment.

A restless dissatisfaction with what God has given you that causes you to believe that something or someone else will make you more happier.

Thank you, Char.

I'm gonna read the scripture again.

I'm gonna reread the definition.

But godliness with contentment, the Bible says, is great gain.

It's going to benefit your life when you understand godliness with contentment.

So your godliness and how you live your life coupled with contentment will bring gain to your life.

It'll actually make your life better.

Now, this word contentment means a restless dissatisfaction with what God has already given you.

When you don't understand this, you will then believe that something or someone else will make you more happier than what God has already provided for you.

And what's happening in the body of Christ is no different than this is the reason why the apostle Timothy wrote this to the church.

Because what was happening then is still happening right now.

Believers are rating their self-worth based off of possessions.

You believe that you're somebody because you drive a certain car.

You believe your worth is tied up in Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags and designer glasses.

So now you believe that you're worth something because you have stuff.

And too many believers are competing with the world.

Trying to achieve what they achieve instead of going after godliness, instead of learning how be how to be content, satisfied with life.

It's when you're chasing after things instead of going hard after God.

It's so interesting that that we spend all of our time chasing after stuff that's gonna fade away.

That's gonna get too little, too old, it's gonna pass the time frame, but yet we're going after this stuff, and then we're leaving God stranded.

And the reality is one day we will all stand before him to give an account on how we lived our lives and what we did with this thing called time.

And your time is running out.

Until you learn to be satisfied with Jesus, you'll never be satisfied.

This thing called discontentment is very dangerous because one of the things that it leads to is us comparing.

Now go to 2 Timothy chapter 10.

2 Timothy chapter 10, verse number 12.

It says, For we dare not make ourselves of that number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they are measuring themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves.

And the Bible says, when you get to the place when you start comparing yourself to somebody else, comparing what they do compared to what you do, comparing how you sound versus how they sound, comparing your assignment to their assignment.

The Bible says that's not wise.

One translation says you're ignorant.

Trying to be somebody else, trying to put on somebody else's shoes, trying to wear somebody else's clothes.

Listen to me.

Your assignment is not their assignment.

Your call is different than theirs.

So why are you still looking at them?

God did not design you to measure your life against somebody else's life.

Let me say that again.

God didn't call you and set you apart for somebody else to be your measuring stick.

Because what happens is when you get into this place of comparison, it'll lead you down a road of being insecure.

Because now when God is explaining to you and talking to you about stepping out to do something, because you've compared yourself to somebody else, now you're scared.

Now you're insecure.

You don't believe that you can do it.

So then now, because you believe that, God deals with somebody else to do your assignment.

Have you ever said to yourself, when you see somebody else do something that you know in your heart you should be doing?

Somewhere along the line, some insecurity creeped in.

Comparison will cause you to chase someone else's life and abandon yours.

See, this is one of the reasons why social media is dangerous.

Because you're spending all your time scrolling and looking at somebody else's life and wondering how you can do what they do.

And the reality is, can I help you out?

Can I really help you out?

They're not even living like that.

It's a lie, it's a trap.

It's called clickbait to get you so caught up with somebody else that you're not even paying attention to what God is trying to do in your life.

I'm just listening because I've got to get to a certain place.

I'll give you the scripture.

Go back and reread it.

John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

Peter started comparing himself to John.

Go back and read it, and Jesus checked him.

He checked him.

He was in his business.

And Jesus responded, What is that to you?

Why are you so busy trying to figure out what I told him?

You need to figure out what I'm telling you.

Yeah, it's it's it's because what happens, Sean, you can lose your focus.

And when you lose your focus, you lose balance.

And when you lose your balance, it's easy for you to be picked off.

That was a flow.

So point number two resist the urge to be offended, which is an enemy of praise.

I'm gonna show you how the enemy gets into your heart.

This thing called offense.

Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Your focus really should be following Jesus.

You should be locked in to whatever Simon that is.

Anything else is a distraction.

You should be locked in to this is what he told me to do, and I'm about doing what my father told me to do.

If you study the life of Jesus, you will see that from a child, he made this statement.

I must be about my father's business.

That was his whole mission, whole assignment.

He must be about his father's business.

Handling the business of his father.

Let me ask you a question.

Whose business are you handling?

Because what I'm beginning and what I'm realizing more and more, if I'm going to handle his business, then he's going to give me all of the resources that's needed to handle what he told me to handle.

If I'm handling things on my own and it's not the father's business, then I have to figure out how to fund it.

That could be one of the reasons why your business is not working.

Because he never told you to go in his business.

That was something that you wanted to do.

Find out from the Father, Lord, what is your business?

And once you find out what his business is, then you begin to manage his business.

Even where his money is concerned.

Not your money.

Find out what he wants you to do with his money.

And when you understand that, then you'll never lack.

Now, Luke chapter 17, verse number one.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Then he said unto his disciples, it is impossible.

It's impossible.

So this is going to happen.

You cannot control what people say to you.

Or you cannot control what they say about you.

The only thing you can control is how you respond and how you act to what they say about you.

Too many of God's people have allowed people to determine our life based upon what they said to us.

He says, offenses will come, but woe unto him through whom they come.

Now, this word offense means an obstacle.

It's a circumstance that will cause you to slip, fall, or waver.

These stumbling blocks can be negative words, hurtful words, they can be gossip, they can be slander, false lies, accusations against you that will try to damage your character reputation.

Criticism.

All these things or all these different offenses are coming against you for the sole reason of trying to hinder your spiritual growth, your spiritual development.

It's how you handle what they say about you.

Offense is also a negative reaction.

So, yes, they may have said these things, but it's your negative reaction to these conditions, listen, that will affect your heart.

So it's your response to what they said about you that's going to affect what's happening here.

Now, when you allow offense in your heart, its assignment is to steal your peace and keep you out of God's presence.

So if that's the case, why do people get offended?

Number one.

Go to Proverbs chapter 12.

Proverbs 12 · chapter mention

The first reason why people get offended, Proverbs chapter 12, verse number 16.

Proverbs 12 · chapter mention

I'm gonna read it from the P T.

I always say this wrong.

T P T version.

It says, if you shrug off an offense or an insult and refuse, refuse, refuse to take an offense, you demonstrate discretion indeed.

One of the first reasons why people get offended is because you have a certain expectation from people.

Let that sit in for a minute because we have a tendency to trust people that are not even our friends.

True friendship isn't performance based.

You have some folks in your life that's really they not for you.

But yet you trust them.

And their behavior has shocked you.

Okay.

Oh, I already know I heard what to say today.

And now you're in disbelief of their attitude.

Because now their behavior caused you to be disappointed.

And then your disappointment in their behavior caused you to be offended.

Yeah, it caused you to question.

It caused you to say something back.

Not to them.

You're talking about them to somebody else.

You got offended.

See, the enemy's job is to get offense in your heart so that your heart isn't pure before God.

Now, I don't have time for this one, but I'm going to give you another reference.

Go to Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

When you go back and you read this, you will see that John the Baptist got offended at Jesus.

It's mind-boggling to understand that John the Baptist recognized why Jesus came.

He recognized that he is the Son of the Living God.

But John the Baptist got offended at Jesus because he expected Jesus to become somebody that he wasn't.

Let me say that again.

John the Baptist expected to for Jesus to be somebody that he wasn't.

You expected somebody to operate in the role of your father, and that's not them.

So now you got offended.

You got upset.

It hurts you.

It caused you to stay stuck in a particular place.

You expected that person, listen, oh, thank you, Lord, to be your husband, but God never told you to marry him.

God never told you to marry her.

So now you're expecting them to function in a specific role.

And now you're disappointed.

Now you're hurt.

Now you're upset.

Now you're frustrated.

Because now your offense is distorting your perspective of life.

So now you cannot see right.

You cannot hear properly.

And now you're all over the place.

You're unshaky in every decision that you get ready to make.

You're not even sure what direction to take because you got offended.

Offense can lead to resentment and spiritual stagnation.

In the heart of a person who's operating in resentment, you're resenting that person, you're really going to refuse to worship.

Or you might be the person that offended somebody.

And then what happens is that you try to justify that your offense or you saying that was right.

And what happens is that your offense will blind you, so you really can't see.

If you go to Matthew chapter 13, because I know I've got to get to a certain place, but I wanted to reference this.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

You get to the place where you read Matthew chapter 13, you will see that the religious folks got offended with Jesus.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

They couldn't even see who he was.

So when you're offended, you can't even see what God is doing in your life.

Because you're so concerned about what they did to you.

You're concerned about the people that you missed the provider.

Okay.

Let's go here.

Matthew chapter twenty-six.

Matthew chapter twenty-six.

Verse number thirty-one.

Then Jesus said unto them, all of you shall be offended because of me this night.

He says, It is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

But after I'm risen, I will go before you into Galilee.

And Peter answered and said unto him, Peter was something else.

Watch this.

He says, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.

Though all of these eleven are gonna be offended, not me.

I will never be offended.

Listen to this.

Peter got offended when Jesus spoke the truth.

The truth exposed something that he wasn't ready to admit.

He wasn't ready to admit that he was in all that he pretended to be.

His confidence in himself was greater than his weaknesses.

So what did he do?

He got offended.

And he walked away.

He got offended and he walked away.

You'll see this when you get hurt.

Because the tendency when you get offended is to be isolated.

And isolation makes you vulnerable to deception.

And what happens then is when you're isolated, you open up your temple to the spirit of loneliness.

I'm going to take my time on this part because it is a spirit.

And spirits have personalities.

And those personalities are expressed through your behavior.

So you are, if you are comfortable with being alone, lonely, and isolated, it's not you.

And the spirit of isolation is connected to discouragement.

So if you're easily discouraged because you're isolated, you got company.

And it's not just the Holy Ghost.

It's the spirit of loneliness.

And that spirit of loneliness brings seven other demons.

Depression.

Anxiety.

You're not by yourself.

Oh, I'm tired, I don't want to go around.

You got company that's not allowing you to come around.

You're making an excuse.

Now I understand why in the book of Hebrews it says, not forsaking.

I get now and I understand and I see why people stay away.

It's not because people don't want you.

No, no.

When you're around like-minded people and you stay away, it's not you.

It's what's in you that's causing you to stay away.

And if you don't deal with it, then it will cause you to a place where you think you're okay, but you're not.

Go to Proverbs chapter 18.

Proverbs 18 · chapter mention

Verse number one, I'm gonna read it from the Amplified that says, He who willingly separates himself from God and man seeks his own desire.

He quarrels against all sound wisdom.

So when you begin to stay away, when you begin to isolate yourself away from other believers, you start relying on your own perspective.

And when somebody's trying to help you and give you some wisdom, you're so argumentative.

See, you're trying to help them out, but you're not understanding that you're not dealing with them.

So now you're frustrated because they're not listening, because you're talking to the wrong spirit.

And what happens is that now that spirit of loneliness begins to amplify and make the issue bigger than it actually is.

Because now that isolation or the spirit of isolation now leads to hopelessness.

There's a progression of this.

Proverbs 13, 12 says, hope deferred maketh the heart sick.

Think about that.

Hope deferred makes you have heartaches, breaks your heart.

But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Hopelessness is when you feel things aren't getting better and you don't see a way out.

And many of God's people, unfortunately, are suffering in silence.

You're a pretender.

You're just pretending.

You wear a mask and it's not even Halloween.

And it normally happens, or it will attack those who are spiritually weak.

You're vulnerable to this.

Let me say that again.

It normally happens specifically to the people who are not in the word.

You don't have prayer life.

You don't have the right tools to fight.

Because this is not a natural issue, it's a spiritual issue.

So you're trying to fight things of the spirit with natural weapons, and they don't work.

And then what happens is because when you are hopeless, it's a pattern of thinking that opposes the truth and that turns into a stronghold.

And then that lie of hopelessness, when you believe it, it starts to feel like it's actually truth when it's not.

Might want to close that door.

Now let me show you how this works.

This is a progression of what the enemy is always endeavoring to do.

He starts with painful events in your life.

And these events, he's trying to convince you that God isn't going to help you.

And from that painful event, a lie is then whispered in your ear.

He might tell you that you're alone.

Nobody wants you.

You don't belong.

Then, number three, even though he's whispering that, you have to make a decision.

But because of the lack of word and the lack of prayer, then you exercise faith not in God's word, but you believe the lie.

And then you might say something like this, because I hear this all the time.

Something's wrong with me.

What's wrong with me?

How come this?

Why is this happening to me?

You believe somewhere along the line, you believe the lie.

Watch this.

And then it becomes your mindset.

And then you will say out of your mouth things like people always do this to me.

This is always happening in my life.

Because you believe the lie.

And then your mindset becomes bondage.

And that bondage is you stay away from people.

And then you'll make this excuse.

I'm good.

Still love God, but you believe lies.

I'm gonna let that settle in for a moment because there are a lot of believers that are faking it.

Fake it till you make it.

That's not even Bible.

I don't need to fake it, I need to be free.

I don't need to fake it, I need to be free.

Why don't you stand on your feet if you're able to?

This will cause you to be free today.

I need you to focus in for these next couple of moments.

I don't need you to look at me, because you know what's happening.

You know what they said, you know what they did, you know what they accused you of.

You know the hurt that's in you, that God sees.

You know it.

You feel it, you remember it, you rehearse it, you know the stronghold.

At some time in your life, you're gonna have to get free.

I'm not sure how long you want to keep living like this.

Today, if you would receive it, you walk in a level of freedom that you've never had before.

Okay.

So in the name of Jesus, I command every spirit of rejection.

I command every spirit of abandonment.

Some of you have been abandoned by your parents, you've been abandoned by people that you thought were supposed to take care of you, and they left you, and it hurts.

You've been abandoned by your children, it hurts.

You've been abandoned by godparents, it hurts, it wasn't them, it was whom they yielded to.

So I'm talking to the spirit that's been holding you captive.

In the authority of Jesus, I command you by his blood, loose them right now.

Let them go.

Come up and come out.

You have no legal right from this moment forward to operate in their lives.

What you're hearing right now is freedom taking place.

You have no legal right to remain in them.

Come up and come out.

I speak to the spear of intimidation.

Loose them right now in the name of Jesus.

Repeat this after me.

Today I'm free.

So I reject.

So I reject the spirit of loneliness.

I reject.

I reject.

Sadness.

Sadness.

I renounce.

I renounce rejection.

I renounce.

Emotional oppression.

I renounce.

Feeling alone.

Feeling inadequate.

I break your agreement now.

Right now.

Right now.

I'm free.

In the name of Jesus.

Some of you are gonna have to tell yourself you're not alone.

God is with me.

God is with me.

God is with me.

God is with me.

God is on my side.

God is on the inside of me.

I belong to the family of God.

I'm accepted by Jesus.

I'm loved by God.

I'm in Christ.

You're gonna have to tell yourself that when you get home.

No longer isolated, no longer broken.

No longer believing the lie.

Saul it is.

It was a lie to break you, to destroy you, so that you don't fulfill why God sent you in this earth.

It's just a lie.

When you put the lie versus the truth, the truth goes here, and a lie becomes nothing.

But today is a day of freedom.

The church doesn't want to talk about these things because many of the pastors aren't bold enough to deal with these demonic forces.

That's a lie.

It's a lie.

They exist, and they're real.

And they don't care anything about you.

Their assignment is to take you out, to steal, kill, and destroy in every area of your life.

But Jesus says the reason why I came, if you just understood how much God loves you, if you just really, if you really understood that, if you really embraced that.

If you really understood how much God is in love with you, He never wants you to suffer.

You just laugh at it.

Like this is the this is the best you can tell me.

Is that all you got for me?

Once you get a hold to that love, you'll be untouchable.

You'd be so you'd be so fired up.

You grab a hold to that, and God is in love with me, and there's nothing that I could do that can separate me from that love.

And that love causes me to be an overcomer in every area.

If you get a hold of that, that's why he died.

Because he loves you.

Some of you have never heard somebody tell you that and actually meant it from their heart.

So you search for things in other people trying to gratify a void that's in your heart that only one person can ever fulfill.

God loves you, He's in love with you.

And when you grab that revelation, everything in your life will change.

You won't have lack.

Your mindset will be different.

You won't tolerate certain things in your body.

Because love doesn't want you to live like that.

Love won't have you settle for less.

When you get a revelation of that, everything changes.

You'll never be the same again.

It's because God loves you so much.

And really think about this.

He wants to spend eternity with you.

That's how much he loves you.

That he never gets tired of you.

Your personality, your little quirkiness, you being weird, your hair, your lack of hair.

He doesn't care about.

He loves you like you are.

When you get that, when you walk in that.

Not by a demonstration of things, but reveal yourself to them.

Show them.

Remind them that when everybody else left, you've always been there.

Remind them when nobody else is around that it's you.

Remind them that the greater one lives on the inside of them.

And greater is he that is in them than any demonic force that's in this world system.

Show them your love and manifest yourself and show them that you're real.

Father, I pray that you give them dreams, you give them visions, you speak to them throughout the day.

That your voice will be louder than the voice of the world.

And that from this moment forward, they would hunger and thirst and chase after you and pant after you, and they would have a desire to spend time with you more than anything in their lives.

I release my faith for that today, Father, in the name of Jesus.

Hebrews chapter thirteen, verse number fifteen.

I don't know what day that was, and in the dream, the only thing that I saw was a water faucet.

I don't remember if it was in the bathroom, I don't remember if it was in the kitchen, but what I saw was a water faucet that was running.

And when it was running, the water was filling the sink.

And anytime that you see water, it's going to represent Holy Ghost and the flow.

Then when I read the scripture, it made sense.

Hebrews 13, verse number 15, it says, 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.

So notice this scripture.

It says, offer the sacrifice of praise how with what?

So watch this.

If you praise, there will be a deeper move of a spirit that will change your circumstance.

Let me say that again.

If you begin to praise God, there will be a deeper move of the Spirit of God moving in your life that will change your circumstances.

That's why it becomes a sacrifice.

So there's a sacrifice in this.

And when you offer up the sacrifice of praise, then he begins to move to change your circumstance around.

When you praise, which means that's not limited to church.

Whenever you begin to offer the sacrifice of praise to him, then there will always be a deeper move of him looking around to see how he can change your situation around for your benefit.

Amen.

Did you all get anything out of the series?

You remember, I I inquired of the Lord in at the end of 2025 about your life for 2026.

And all of these messages are geared towards you looking a certain way at the end of 2026.

So it would benefit you because God desires for you to look a certain way and to achieve certain things by the end of this year.

So it's going to cause or it should cause you to press in more.

Because there's more that He has in store for you when you press in.

So you got to learn how to press past the flesh.

Because when you learn how to press past the flesh, see, there's a rhythm.

There's a rhythm in the spirit.

And when there's a rhythm of the spirit, you just got to jump in.

And when you learn how to jump in the flow, that river of him will just kind of you ride that thing.

You ride, you just, and before you know it, you'll be surfing in that rhythm.

It's a rhythm.

There's a rhythm.

There's a rhythm.

There's a rhythm.

There's a rhythm.

Jump in.

You gotta jump in.

Might be uncomfortable, but you jump in and you'll see that it'll change you.

Every head is bowed and every eye is closed.

Never want to take this for granted.

Maybe you're in here today.

Maybe you've never accepted Jesus until your heart.

This is part of