The Prayer of Praise

To the giver of all, give thanks. 15 weeks ago today, we

began a journey, and that journey is called the Pathway to

Praise. And while our teaching on this

subject is going to come to a close, your testimony about this

subject is going to continue on all throughout eternity.

If you've learned anything, I would trust that you have

learned this one thing over the last 15 weeks.

Number one is that praise will always bolster your condition to

praise will always beautify your complexion, and praise will

always brighten your situation. If you remember anything,

remember that praise will bolster my condition.

Why? Isaiah 61 verse #3 says that the

Spirit of God will clothe you with the garments of God so that

you no longer have a spirit of fainting.

That's important. So when you are clothed with

this garment of praise, it bolsters your condition and #2

praise will always beautify your complexion.

Because the Bible says in Psalm 33 verse #1 that praise is

beautiful. Psalm 147 verse #1 says praise

is pleasing and is beautiful. There is nothing that beautifies

the complexion of an individual. Then praise and thirdly praise

will always brighten every situation because the Bible says

in Psalm 34 verse #5 that those who look to Him will be radiant.

So when you walk into a situation, whether it be good or

bad, praise brightens the situation.

So if you don't remember anything at all, at least

remember that because that will move you along the pathway to

praise. But let me say it to you this

way, there are 1189 chapters in the Bible Now.

The chapters are not inspired. The words are, but the chapter

breakdowns are not. The verses and their numbers are

not. Those are given to us by the

translators. The words themselves are all

verbally inspired by God, but there are 1189 chapters in the

Bible. So even even when the

translators are putting together the scriptures and they begin to

number them and to give them chapters and chapter headings,

God in his Providence was even at work in that.

For if there's 1189 chapters in the Bible, that means that there

was 1 chapter that is smack dab in the middle of all the

chapters, right? That means there's 594 on one

end and 594 on the other end. So there's something exactly

smack dab in the middle and it's in the middle of your Bible.

And even even God in his Providence had everything mapped

out to perfection because in the middle chapter of the Bible is

the core and the center of everything.

Even God orchestrated that. And even though that chapter is

the smallest chapter in the Bible, consisting of 2 verses,

he 13, I'm sorry, 17 Hebrew words in 2 verses.

Even though it's the smallest chapter in the Bible, it is the

most potent chapter in the Bible because it's the core of all

that we believe and hold dear. And that is Psalm #117 So turn

in your Bible to Psalm 117, Psalm 117.

Listen to what it says. It says simply praise the Lord.

All nations, laud Him, all peoples, for His loving kindness

is great toward us and the truth of the Lord is everlasting.

Praise the Lord. So right smack dab in the middle

of the Bible. God says praise me.

He gives the scope of His command.

I want all people and all nations to praise me.

I want everybody in creation to lift my name on high.

I want everybody in creation to give thanks to me.

The scope is never ending. All nations, all people in

Romans 5, I'm sorry, Revelation 5 verse #9 tells us that there

will be one day people from every tribe, every tongue, and

every nation lifting praise to God and glory.

But that doesn't mean that everybody on earth is going to

go to glory. But the command is given, and

the scope of that command is all people, all nations.

And then he gives the specifics of the command.

Number one, His loving kindness is great #2 His truthfulness is

forever. Why do all people, all nations

praise Him? Simply because He is a merciful,

compassionate, loving God who only gives truth to people.

He is the God of truth. And so the specifics of the

command for all people everywhere are to praise him

because he's merciful, and to praise Him simply because he is

truthful and everything he says is absolute and that lasts

forever. And the summation of the command

simply is praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Hallelujah,

praise him. Right smack dab in the middle of

the Bible is the essence of our existence to praise the living

God. And those of us who are

believers can do that because the Bible says which is our

theme verse Isaiah 4321. You can remember by saying

IS4321 Isaiah 4321, it's our key verse.

The people that I have formed for myself, they will declare my

praise. And so we as believers, because

we've been formed by God, we declare the praise of God.

That's what we do. We praise his glorious name, but

the unbeliever cannot more so the unbeliever will not, they

won't listen to what the Bible says in the book of Romans verse

21, chapter 1. For even though they knew God,

they did not honor him as God. Even though the Pagan people

know God, they refuse to honor him, to praise him, to glorify

him as God, and then next phrase and give him thanks or give him

praise. Everybody in the world knows

that there's a God. Agnostics do not exists.

Atheists do not exist. In their minds, they're a legend

in their own mind. They think they do, but they do

not because the Bible is contrary to that.

All pagans know that there is a God, but they refuse to honor

him as God, and they refuse to give him thanks.

So verse 22 says they became fools.

Pagans are fools. Unbelievers are, as the Bible

says, morons. Why?

Because they're foolish. They refuse to believe the truth

and obey the truth of God. So it says in verse 28 they did

not see fit to acknowledge God any longer.

So unbelievers refuse to acknowledge God.

They turn their back on God and then it says in verse #30 they

are haters of God. How can you hate something that

you don't think exists? How can you hate something that

you believe is not anywhere around but they're haters of God

and then it says there are unloving and merciful.

Verse 32 and although they know the ordinances of God stop right

there. Even though the unbeliever, the

Pagan man, knows the ordinances of God, the commands of God, the

the precepts of God, even though they know that.

And what do they know? They know that all nations are

to praise Him and that all nations are to laud Him, to

glorify His name because of His mercy and because of His loving

kindness, because of His truthfulness.

They know that. Don't think that the unbeliever

doesn't know that. They do know that.

How do we know verse 18 of chapter 1?

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all

ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in

unrighteousness. So now we know that the

unbeliever knows the truth. They just push it down.

They suppress the truth. They don't want to honor God.

They don't want to give thanks to God.

So God turns them over to their foolishness, and when he does

that, they refuse to acknowledge him as God any longer, and they

hate God. They hate him because they know

the ordinances of God. And this is this, that those who

practice such things are worthy of death.

Every unbeliever. Now note this, every Pagan,

every unbeliever knows the ordinances of God, the commands

of God, because the Bible says back in Romans one, verse 19,

that which is known about God is evident within them, for God

made it evident to them, verse 20 for a sense of creation of

the world, His invisible attributes and his eternal power

and divine nature have been clearly seen, not vaguely seen,

but clearly seen. And so they know the ordinances

of God, which says the wages of sin is death.

How do they know that? Because God has written His law

upon their hearts, and what they see is clearly evident to them.

But they hate God. They love their sin, but they

hate God. And they will not praise Him.

They will not give Him thanks. They will not honor His name.

And they know that even though they will not do that, they will

not obey the command. They know that because they will

not do that, they're going to die.

They're worthy of death. And it goes on and says that

they and they give hearty approval.

And they said that not only do they do the same, but also give

hearty approval to those who practice the same.

Wow, unbelievable. Simply because God in the middle

of the book gives us the core value of our existence, that we

are to praise our God, laud Him loudly, because he's a merciful,

kind and loving God who speaks nothing but truth.

But the unbeliever hates that, so he will not praise God.

But we can, so we do. We continue to praise Him, not

just for the moment of our conversion, but all throughout

eternity, because we've been cloaked in a robe, a garment of

praise, and we've been formed by God to declare his praise.

And that's what we do. So that brings us to our

conclusion. And the conclusion is the prayer

of praise, having looked at the priority of praise and the

prerequisite of praise and the prayer and the, excuse me, the

perpetuity of praise and, and everything surrounding that, the

priority and purpose of praise. We've done all of that through

the last 15 weeks. We come to the end and we

conclude with the prayer of praise.

And the prayer of praise teaches us how when we pray to praise

the Lord, because every prayer should consist of the components

which we will share with you today in the conclusion of every

prayer you pray. So if you got your Bible, turn

to me. Turn with me to the most

familiar prayer in the Bible, Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 6. It's commonly called the Lord's

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Prayer, but that's the wrong name.

It is not the Lord's Prayer, it is the disciples prayer.

In John 17 you have the Lord's Prayer, but in Matthew 6 and

Luke 11 you have the disciples Prayer for the disciples said in

Luke 11. Lord teach us how to pray and He

would give him what He says on the Sermon on the Mount in

Matthew chapter 6 about the disciples prayer.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

This is how you are to pray, and I want you to notice something

about the prayer. It consists of two major

components. 1 is God and His glory, and the second is man and

his need. And you cannot reverse the two.

For if you reverse the two, you diminish God's glory in your

mind and you accentuate your glory on your behalf.

So you cannot reverse them. It's all about God's glory, and

then it's about man's needs. And you know the prayer, it

simply states it this way. Pray then this way.

How well you pray. Our Father who is in heaven.

Those who pray listen carefully, are captivated by His paternity,

that He is their Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Those who pray properly are not just captivated by His

paternity, they are consumed with His purity, that His name

be made holy in their lives. And then He says your Kingdom

come. Those who pray properly are

concerned with God's program, not their program.

And then he says your will be done on earth as it is in

heaven. In other words, they are

committed to God's plan. That's how you know you pray

about God and His glory, you are captivated by His fraternity,

you are consumed with His purity, you are concerned with

His program, His Kingdom, and you are committed to His plan.

Once you understand that, then you tackle man and His needs.

Give us, forgive us, and deliver us.

And those who pray that way, pray.

Give us this day Our Daily Bread.

You always rejoiced in his provision.

And then you pray and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven

our debtors. You recognize his pardon.

And then it says, And do not lead us into temptation, but

deliver us from evil. You rest in his protection.

And then it says, For yours is the Kingdom, and the power, and

the glory forever. Amen.

You rejoice with all praise. The the doxology is what I want

to talk to you about this morning.

For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. A doxology is simply a praise

that's offered to God. It's simply the prayer of

praise. And the prayer of praise will

consist of five major components.

Now you'll notice that in your Bible, that last phrase, the

doxology, is in brackets. And the reason that is, is

because there are some manuscripts, excuse me, they do

not include it, and others that do.

So the question comes, why is it in brackets?

Did the Lord really say it? Because in Luke 11 it's not

recorded, but in Matthew 6 that is recorded.

So did the Lord really say these words?

Well, I believe He did, and I believe it based on 2 major

issues. 1 is that no Jew would ever conclude a prayer on the

negative, always on the positive.

That's number one. All you got to do is research

Jewish prayers and talk to Jewish people.

But #2 everything that's stated is absolutely true.

In fact, it sounds a lot like David's prayer in First

Chronicles 29 when it says in verse #9 Then the people rejoice

because they had offered so willingly, for they made their

offering to the Lord with a whole heart.

I love that because I wonder if when you gave today, you gave

willingly and fully. They were collecting for the

temple and they were going to build this structure.

Solomon was for the glory of God, so they gave willingly.

They gave fully with all of their hearts.

They did it joyfully because they wanted to honor their God.

I read that and I wonder how many of us today, when we gave

to the Lord, we did it willingly, we did it joyfully,

we did it energetically, we did it fully because we wanted to

honor God with the first fruits of our increase.

That's what they did. Listen to David's prayer.

So David, bless the Lord in the sight of all the assembly.

And David said, blessed are you, O Lord God of Israel, our Father

forever and ever, our Father who art in heaven.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and

the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the

heaven and the earth. Yours is the dominion, for yours

is the Kingdom. Yours is the dominion, Yours is

the glory, forever and ever. Verse 13.

Now, therefore our God, we thank you and praise your glorious

name. That's just one example.

Let me give you one more Book of Revelation, 5th chapter, 13th

verse. To him who sits on the throne

into the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion

forever and ever, Same thing. And the four living creatures

kept saying Amen and the elders fell down and worshipped.

Those are just two examples, one of the old and one of the new

that that really point to the fact that as you pray the prayer

praise a doxology, you pray specifically for yours is the

Kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory forever.

Amen. So what are the five components

of the prayer of praise #1? The prayer of praise consists of

this, that you always affirm His preeminence with the phrase.

For yours is the Kingdom. The word is Vasilia, which means

to rule. It means terrain.

It means that yours is the dominion.

Same thing said in Revelation 5 and First Chronicles 29.

For yours is the rulership, for yours is the Kingdom.

Lord, I want to affirm the fact that you are preeminent.

You are the king of all, and you're the only one who can give

us a Kingdom. In fact, the Kingdom of God is a

is a endless, changeless, priceless Kingdom.

And so when you pray the prayer praise, you are affirming the

fact that God himself, because he's the king, is preeminent

over all. That's why Christ is in Matthew

633. Seek ye first my Kingdom and my

glory, and all these things should be added unto you.

See, our problem is we have another Kingdom, ours.

We're building our own Kingdom. We think we're the ruler, we're

in charge, but he is the king. And yes, there is a universal

Kingdom where God is the king over heaven and earth.

There's a spiritual Kingdom where he sets up his throne in

your heart and mind. And one day there will be a

literal Kingdom. Zechariah 612 and 13 will where

the branch, the son of David will rule and reign as priest

and king from Mount Zion. But you affirm his preeminence,

for yours is the Kingdom. The Bible says that Psalm 2910

the Lord sits as king forever. The Bible says in First Timothy

117 that he is the King eternal. The Bible says in Revelation One

that he is the ruler of the kings of the earth.

In Daniel 4 he is the king, the king of heaven.

In Matthew 2 he's the king of the Jews.

In John One he's the king of Israel.

In First Timothy One, he's the King of the ages.

In Psalm 24, he's the king of glory.

Revelation 15, he is the king of nations.

In Revelation 19, he is king of all kings and Lord of all Lords.

The prayer of praise affirms his preeminence.

You're the king, and yours is the Kingdom, and I'm going to

seek your Kingdom of my Kingdom. I'm going to submit to you as my

king because you're in charge. That's the prayer of praise.

It affirms his preeminence. He is king of all, and that

Kingdom is priceless. That's why Matthew 13 gives us

the parable about the treasure and the parable of the great

Pearl. For the man who finds the

Kingdom is willing to give up everything to obtain the Kingdom

because of the value of the Kingdom.

It's priceless. So the prayer praise consists

number one of the fact that it affirms His preeminence #2 it

consists of the fact that you always acknowledge God's power

for years is the Kingdom and the power power.

How do you acknowledge His power?

This is how Paul did in the book of Colossians.

The first chapter we said this. We proclaim him, verse 28,

admonishing every man, teaching every man with all wisdom, so

that we may present every man completing Christ.

For this purpose also I labor striving according to his power,

which mightily works in me. Paul acknowledged God's power.

Paul acknowledged the fact that the reason I teach and the

reason I admonish every man, that I might present every man

completing Christ because of the power of God within me to allow

me to accomplish that purpose. So I acknowledge His power.

I love what the book of Nahum says when it says the Lord is

great in power. 56 times in the Old Testament is called

almighty. 10 times in the New Testament is called Almighty,

nine of those 10 times in the Book of Revelation.

He is the Pantocrator, the almighty one who rules over all

the nations and is powerful enough to do whatever he wants.

The Old Testament calls him El Shaddai calls him El Gabor, El

Shaddai God Almighty, El Gabor, the mighty God.

What's the difference between El Shaddai and El Gabor?

Glad you asked El Shaddai from a Hebrew word which means breast

because God is the sufficient nurturer of his people, so He is

great in power because of His provision.

El Gabor comes from a word that stems from the fact that he is a

hero, a warrior, a soldier. Therefore he is powerful enough

to protect you. El Shaddai.

He's powerful enough to provide for all that you have.

El Gabor, he is powerful enough to protect you from whatever

comes your way. So when you give the prayer of

praise, you say for yours is the Kingdom, I'm going to affirm

your preeminence, and yours is the power.

I'm going to acknowledge that you had the power to accomplish

anything and everything. And then #3 yours is the power

and the glory. I'm going to accentuate your

person. That's the prayer of praise, for

yours is the power, the Kingdom, and the glory.

Glory speaks of who He is. In the Old Testament, the root

for glory is, is the word heavy. So a person was heavy because of

the amount of possessions that he had.

That was His glory. And the heavier, heavier He was

in possessions, the greater glory he received.

Or he was heavy in terms of his position.

He climbed the ladder of success.

And the more powerful power he had because of his position, the

more glory that individual had. So therefore a man was glorious

by the number of possessions that he had, the amount of power

that he possessed because of the position he was in.

They were weighed down, they were heavy in those things.

That was a man's glory. There's nobody more heavier than

the Lord Jesus because He owns everything.

He receives all the glory, all the praise.

It speaks of of the manifestation of His brightness

because the glory of the Lord would shine all around when the

Christ child was born and John would say in John one verse #14

He would say, and we beheld His glory.

The glory is that the only begotten of the Father, full of

grace and full of truth, we beheld His person, His presence,

His manifestation in the flesh. We beheld the heaviness of our

God by looking in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord.

And those who pray the prayer praise.

They not only affirm God's preeminence because He's the

King of His Kingdom, and not only do they acknowledge His

power because His is the power, but they accentuate His person

for His is the glory. In other words, they they

accentuate the fact that God is to be seen in and through me.

I am not to be seen by anybody because I don't matter, only God

does. That's the prayer of praise.

The prayer of praise says Lord, I want the righteous radiance of

my Redeemer to be reflected in and through his redeemed.

That's what it means to give glory to God and accentuate his

glory. And so that's what we do.

That's the prayer of praise. And whenever we go to the Lord

in prayer, it's all about God and his glory.

Then it's about man and his needs.

And we have this great crescendo, this great doxology

that leads us to say, For yours is the Kingdom.

I affirm that you are preeminent, and yours is the

power. I acknowledge that you are the

powerful one and yours is the glory, and I receive none.

Therefore, I accentuate your person and then forever.

Yours is the Kingdom and the power of the glory forever.

In my prayer of praise, I acclaim His permanence.

He is the eternal God forever and ever, which guarantees his

reliability and gives me security.

It guarantees his reliability because he's forever.

He's the eternal God. No one created him.

He's always existed. Try to wrap your mind about the

fact that God has always been. He's always been.

He always is and was and will be.

He's the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, but

yet God had no beginning. He's the eternal God that's

always existed and what he does last forever.

And so I guarantees the fact that I can rely upon my God.

He is absolutely reliable because he's always there.

He's never not there and that gives me security knowing that

my God is my protector because He's the all powerful one.

So the reason, the reason that I pray this way and the reason

that I claim His permanence is because I've accentuated his

person and I've only accentuated his person because I've

acknowledged his power and I've affirmed his preeminence over my

life. That's the prayer of praise.

And then it concludes with Amen. Amen.

It concludes with accepting. Accepting His Providence, so be

it, so be it, Lord, I, I, I affirm that you the eternal God.

In fact, the Bible says in Revelation 3 that He is the

Amen. In other words, Christ is the

final and fullest of all that God is and was and will be, and

therefore He is the finality of everything.

So I say, so be it. Amen.

I, I, I agree. I accept your providential

control over everything in my life and your plan for me.

I accept that you're my Father in heaven.

I accept your paternity. I accept that your name is to be

made holy in my life. I accept your purity.

I pray thy Kingdom come, I accept your program, I pray thy

will be done. I accept your Providence and I

pray. Give us this day Our Daily

Bread, because I accept your provision and I say and forgive

us our debts as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

I accept your pardon and I pray and leave me not a temptation,

but deliver me from evil. I accept your protection.

I accept it all because you are King, You are Lord, and I want

to pray the prayer of praise and all God's people said let me

pray with you. Father, thank you for today.

Thank you for your words. So much to cover in such a

little time, but you are a great God.

Thank you for allowing us to be here today all by divine

appointment. I love, I love the fact that

nobody comes to church by accident.

They come by divine appointment. Whether they were dragged here

by their parents, where they were pushed here by a friend,

where they were invited to come. They just drove by and saw the

sign, looked us up on the Internet and saw the name of the

church there. All of that within the realm of

your Providence. Was it divinely appointed time

for us to hear how we are to pray the prayer of praise?

Our discussion on the issue could go so much longer.

There's so much to say about praise, Thanksgiving, and

rejoicing. But Lord, you gave us these 15

weeks to look at what the Bible says concerning the pathway to

praise. We come through these months

better people. We come through these months

recognizing the beauty of praise.

We come through this knowing that our condition is only

bolstered by praise, our complexion is only beautified by

praise. And our situation, no matter

what it is, we'll only be brightened by praise.

So we praise you and we thank you that we can be here today to

lift your name on high and to glorify you as King of kings and

Lord of Lords in all God's people said.