The Purpose of Praise

Most of us probably have never heard of the man by the name of

Martin Rinkard, but he was the son of a coppersmith and he was

raised in a very poor family. But he decided one day to make

sure he furthered his education, especially in the realm of

theology. Upon his graduation, he became a

pastor in his his hometown of Eidenberg, Germany in the year

1617. The interesting thing about that

is in the year 1618 the 30 years war in Europe broke out and

Martin Rinkert only only pastored for 32 years.

So 30 of the 32 years he was engulfed in war and conflict.

In the year 1637, a massive plague began to sweep through

all of Europe. And then once it reached his

town of Eidenberg, people began to die in droves.

They say that 50 people a day died.

A total of 8000 people died in that town alone, and Martin was

the man who ended up burying most of them because all of his

pastor friends died in the plague.

Another person who died in the plague was his very own wife, so

he buried her as well. In all, over the 30 years war, 8

million people were killed. And so 30 of the 32 years of his

pastoral ministry, he embarked on war and conflict.

Loss, plague, disease, pain. He spent his whole ministry

comforting those who had lost loved ones.

He spent his whole ministry trying to help bury those who

had died. He spent his ministry trying to

help people understand the the sovereignty of God and the

presence of God in their lives. And during that time, he he

wrote a hymn, A hymn that is in our hymn book even today.

And he wrote that hymn specifically because he wanted

the people of Eilenberg to understand that the only way

through their adversity was through Thanksgiving.

So he wrote this hymn called Now we Think We All are God.

This is how it goes. Now we think we all are God with

heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things hath done, in

whom his world rejoices, who from our Mother's arms hath

blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and

still is ours today. O May, this bounty is God

through all our life, be near us with ever joyful hearts and

blessed peace to cheer us and keep us in His grace, and guide

us when perplexed, and free us from all ills in this world and

the next. All praise and thanks to God the

Father now be given the Son and Him who reigns with them in

highest heaven, the one eternal God, whom earth and heaven

adore, For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

He wrote that Him in the midst of all the pain that He himself

had experienced, but knew that the only way to make it through

the hardship of his life was to give thanks and to rejoice in

his God. A lesson that He understood

because He, like us, was on the pathway to praise, a pathway

that would take Him one day into glory.

But He understood Isaiah 43 verse #21 that the, the people

who are called by My name, they, they will declare my praise.

He understood that. He also understood Psalm 147

verse #1 which says for it is good to sing praises to God, for

it is pleasant, and praise is becoming or beautiful or

fitting. He understood that when when we

neglect to give joy and praise to God, life loses its luster,

our soul loses its song. And Martin Rinkert wasn't about

to lose the luster of the beauty of his life by not giving praise

to God, but simply to thank him and to honor his blessed name.

And that's what he did. Thus, all these years later, we

sing this hymn, and yet very few of us understand that in the

midst of whatever it is we're going through, the only way

through it and the only way out of it is through hymns of

Thanksgiving and praise to our God.

And so to better understand that, we've embarked on this

journey called The Pathway to Praise.

We began several weeks ago looking at the privilege of

praise. Then we looked at the profit of

praise, then the people of praise, then the prerequisites,

the praise. Last week it was the priority of

praise. This week, it's the purpose of

praise. What is the purpose of praise?

Well, we're going to give you 4 then this morning.

The first one you will readily recognize.

The next three, maybe not so much.

But in all reality, they build 1 upon the other.

And when you understand the purpose of praise, the pathway

to praise becomes a whole lot smoother.

So point #1 is this that the purpose of praise primarily is

to fulfill a command from God. You understand that praise

fulfills the command from God. I've told you the last couple of

weeks that the most frequently repeated command that all of

Scripture is to either rejoice always or to praise the Lord or

to give thanks to His name. The Bible records that command

to give thanks 85 different times.

It it commands us to praise the Lord 250 times, and it commands

us to rejoice 300 times. So well over 600 times in the

Bible we are commanded to to give praise to God, to rejoice

always, to give thanks to his name.

It's a command that we obey. Paul would know that.

And so when he wrote to those in Thessalonica, he said, for he

simply this rejoice always, pray without ceasing in everything.

Give thanks. For this is the will of God in

Christ Jesus concerning you. It is God's will for you to be

joyful, prayerful, and thankful. These are commands that God has

given to us and we are to obey them.

We are to follow them, the Bible says in First Timothy chapter 2

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

verse #1 First of all then, I urge that entreaties and prayers

and petitions and Thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men for

kings and all who are in authority.

God says, I command you to not just pray for your kings, not

just petition me about those in authority, but I want you to

give thanks for all your kings and all those in authority.

I'm sure that you pray for our governor, but do you thank the

Lord for our governor? I'm sure you pray for our

president, but do you thank the Lord for your president?

I'm sure you pray for your spouse, but do you thank the

Lord for your spouse? I'm sure you pray for your boss

at work. You should, but do you give

thanks to God for your boss at work?

Someone has said this. When a person prays without

Thanksgiving, he has clipped the wings of prayer so that it

cannot rise. So you pray for your governor,

but you don't thank the Lord for your governor, so your prayers

do not rise. You petition the Lord on behalf

of your boss, but you don't give thanks to God for your boss, and

therefore your prayers refuse to rise.

We forget that Thanksgiving and praise and prayer go hand in

hand. You can't have one without the

other. It's imperative that we we

understand this. We, we are to be anxious for

nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with

Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.

So the reason we don't rid ourselves of anxiety is not

because we don't pray. We do, but we don't pray with

Thanksgiving. And therefore our anxiousness

resides within us still because we refuse to praise the Lord and

therefore clip the wings of prayer so they do not rise

praise. Thanksgiving fulfills a command

from God. It says in John chapter 14,

John 14 · chapter mention

these words verse #15 If you love me, you will keep my

commandments. So put it into today's message.

If you love me, you will praise me.

You will give thanks to me, You will rejoice in me if you love

me, He says down in verse #23 If anyone loves me, he will keep my

word. What's my word?

My command to give thanks and to praise me.

And my Father will love him, and we will make our abode with Him.

He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word

which you here is not mine, but the fathers who sent me.

If you love me, you'll praise me.

If you love me, you'll give thanks to me.

Because it's a command that God has given.

And He made it very clear that if you love me, you'll keep my

commandments. Excuse me.

So he says this in verse 21 of John 14.

He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves

me, who loves me, will be loved by my Father, and I will love

him and will disclose myself to him.

In other words, if you love me, you will praise me.

If you praise me, I will manifest myself to you.

I will disclose myself to you if you praise me, if you give

thanks, if you obey the most frequently repeated command in

the Scriptures, I will manifest myself to you in such a way that

you will understand me. And one of the reasons we have a

hard time comprehending God is because we refuse to obey the

command to give thanks to Him, to praise Him, or to rejoice in

Him. And so #2 point #2 is this.

If praise fulfills the commandment from God, then

praise is that which furthers my consciousness of God.

Praise furthers my consciousness of God.

A thankful spirit is the single greatest act of personal worship

because it recognizes God for who he is.

So if I give praise to God, if I obey the command of God to

rejoice always, then what God does is He manifests Himself to

me. He furthers my consciousness of

His existence, of His presence, of who He is.

For example, He furthers my consciousness of His Holiness.

The Bible says in Psalm 30 verse #4 Give thanks at the

remembrance of His holy name. Give thanks at the remembrance

of His holy name. In Psalm 99, God three times

says that He is holy, that we are to give thanks to Him.

For the Lord your God is a holy God.

Stephen Charnock has written voluminously about the

attributes of God. In it he says this is about

God's holiness. He says God's holiness is the

crown of all His attributes, the life of all His decrees, the

brightness of all of his actions.

Nothing is decreed by Him, nothing is acted by Him, but

what is worthy of the dignity and becoming the honor of this

attribute. In other words, God is a God of

grace, and that grace is a holy grace.

God is a God of love, and that God is a holy love.

Our God is a God of wrath, and that wrath is a holy wrath.

Our God is a God of justice, and it's a holy justice.

Our God is a God of righteousness.

It's a holy righteousness. The law of the Lord is holy.

He's given us His Spirit. It's called the Holy Spirit.

So in other words, when we fulfill a command given to us by

God, it furthers our consciousness of God by helping

us to understand not just His Holiness, but even His nearness.

Listen to what the Bible says over in Psalm 75 verse #1 Unto

thee, O God, do we give thanks, for thy name is near.

I give thanks because Lord, you are near, You are present.

Paul would say in Philippians chapter 4 verse #4 Rejoice in

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice.

Why does he say that verse 5 for the Lord is near and because the

Lord is near be anxious for nothing but in everything my

prayer and suffocation with Thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made note unto God.

So there's this rejoice always. Then there's this prayer with

Thanksgiving, but right in between there is the Lord is

near. So when I fulfill A commandment

from God to give praise to His name, it furthers my

consciousness of God. Not just His Holiness, but His

nearness. And not just His nearness, but

His willingness. Listen to what the Bible says.

The Bible says this in 2nd Corinthians 915.

Thanks being to God for His indescribable gift.

What's the gift? The gift of the eternal life.

How did we receive the gift of eternal life?

Because of His willingness to come and die, right?

He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made

the righteousness of God in Him. He willingly did that.

He did not think equality with God something to be grasped, but

He willingly took on the form of a servant, became a man and

died. The Bible says, For you know the

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich, yet

for your sake he became poor. That youth through his poverty

might become rich. He did that willingly.

And when you fulfill a command to to God to rejoice always, to

to give thanks to Him, to praise His glorious name, it

automatically furthers your consciousness of who God is by

understanding His Holiness. By understanding his nearness,

by understanding his willingness, by understanding

his forgiveness, Paul would say in First Timothy 112, I thank

Christ Jesus my Lord for he because of him I was shown

mercy, Mercy. I was forgiven, the Bible says

in Nehemiah 917 Thou art a God of forgiveness.

Ephesians 432 God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us.

That's what our Lord has done. And whenever I fulfill A

commandment by God to obey Him because I love him, He discloses

himself to me. It furthers my consciousness of

God that I might understand who he is and what He's done.

If you go through the through the Bible, you can understand

more about his greatness, more about his goodness, more about

his loving kindness, more about his graciousness, more about his

uniqueness as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy

Spirit. All that is just open up to me

because I've obeyed the commandment of God, because I

love him so. So the Bible teaches that when I

give thanks to God and praise his glorious name, it fulfills A

commandment from God. And once it fulfills the

commandment from God, it furthers my consciousness of

God. And then it forges my

convictions about God. It forges my convictions.

It solidifies my convictions. It strengthens my convictions.

It shapes my convictions about God.

Think of Martin Rinkert when he would fulfill A commandment by

God to give thanks. It helped him understand and see

God for who he is and only shaped and solidified his

convictions about God. You can see that in the life of

Jonah as he sat in the belly of the fish, his convictions about

God were forged. Or Job after you'd lost

everything in Job 121. The Lord gives and the Lord

takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

His convictions were only forged all the more through his adverse

circumstances. Or even Habakkuk looked at him

last week. Habakkuk chapter 3.

Habakkuk 3 · chapter mention

His convictions were forged all the more when he became

conscious about his God and his sovereignty and his wisdom.

But how about Daniel the prophet?

Turn back with me, if you would, to Daniel chapter 6.

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

Daniel chapter 6. Daniel is the one man who led in

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

two world empires. Daniel was taken off into

captivity when he was around 16 years of age.

He was taken from his family. He was taken from his town.

He was hauled off into captivity for 70 years and yet all the

while Daniel was one who fulfilled A commandment from God

by giving thanks to the Lord, and it only furthered his

consciousness of God and only forged his convictions about

God. And he was one who would pray

and give Thanksgiving to God every single day.

When you come to Daniel chapter 6, he overseas the 120 different

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

state traps and commissioners in the land.

He's put in charge. And those who did not know the

Lord, we're not happy that Daniel was put in charge.

And so they came against him, trying to defame the man's name

and to get him removed from his position of authority.

Understand that that Daniel was there primarily because of the

sovereignty of God. God placed him there.

God put him there. God was going to use him there.

But there was something about the person humanly that was

unique because the Bible says in Daniel 6 verse #4 that he had an

extraordinary spirit. It wasn't what everybody else

had. He his character was, was

unique. And it goes on to say in verse

number #5 and six that he was faithful to his God.

He was committed to his God. And so from the divine

standpoint, God placed him there.

But from the human standpoint, he was a man of great character

who honored his God. And so the efforts of those he

oversaw to discredit him, they could find nothing about the

man. They could find nothing in the

man because he was of supreme integrity.

And so they decided to have the king, King Darius, sign a decree

that you could not bow down and worship or pray to any other God

than the great king himself. So Darius did, and this is

Daniel's response in verse #10 Now when Daniel knew that the

document was signed, he entered his house.

Now, in his roof chamber he had windows open towards Jerusalem.

He continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying

and giving thanks before his God as he had been previously doing.

He did the same thing he always did.

He prayed and he praised his God.

You see, we we get so wrapped up in preserving and protecting our

lives that we forget to pray and to praise the God who truly is

the protector and preserver of our life.

So because we forget to pray and praise the God who protects and

preserves, we set out a journey to protect and to preserve our

own lives as if we are God of our lives and the true God of

the universe is not. But Daniel knew that the only

way to be protected and preserved was to pray and to

praise. So we did.

He knew the outcome. He knew what was going to

happen. But his convictions were forged

in conflict. His convictions were shaped and

molded in conflict because he had fulfilled the command from

God that furthered his consciousness of God, that

forged his convictions about his God.

He wasn't afraid, wasn't scared. He distrusted Darius, was a

strong because he loved Daniel, but he knew there was no way out

of the document that he signed. So Daniel was thrown into the

lion's den. Of course, you know the story.

Almost everybody knows the story.

But in the very next day, Darius wakes up at dawn, verse 19, at

the break of day, and went in haste to the lion's den.

When he had come near the den to Daniel, he cried out with a

troubled voice. The king spoke and said to

Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom

you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?

Then Daniel spoke to the king. O king, live forever.

My God sent his Angel and shut the lion's mouths.

They have not harmed me it as much as I was found innocent

before him. And also towards you, O King, I

have committed no crying. Incredible narrative the Lord

gives us about Daniel. My God was able to do exactly

what he said He would do. The Bible says in Ephesians

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 that our God is able to do exceeding abundantly above

all that we can ever ask or think according to the power

that works within us. Our God's able to do that.

He's able to go way beyond what we can ever ask or think because

he's equipped us with his power. And I wonder if, if if you have,

you have seen that in your life and in your family that your God

is able to do way beyond what you can ever imagine, what you

can ever conjure up in your mind.

Because of the power that works within us, our God is able to do

incredible things. But if we disobey a command

which says we are to give thanks in everything, we are to rejoice

always, we are to praise His glorious name.

And God gives us that command repeatedly all throughout the

Scriptures. If we don't do that, then we

will not receive a further understanding of who God is, and

therefore our convictions about Him will become very, very weak.

But not Daniel, not Job, not Paul, not those heroes of faith

in Hebrews Chapter 11. No, their convictions were

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

shaped and strengthened and solidified because they were

people of praise. So what is the purpose of praise

Number one? It fulfills a command from God

#2 it furthers our consciousness of God #3 it forges our

convictions about God. And once it does that, it just

fuels our commitment to God. It fuels our commitment to God.

It's almost like our commitment is set ablaze with passion, with

drive. And so our commitment to God

never wavers, never goes by the wayside simply because we

understand who our God is. We shared with you Acts 16 about

Paul and Silas when they're in prison.

Paul and Silas were men of praise.

They fulfilled the commandment from God, thus further in their

consciousness of God, thus forging their convictions about

this God they served only fueled their commitment while they were

in prison to praise and to pray to their God without ever

knowing they would be set free from the shackles that

enraptured them. Same is true with the apostles

of Acts chapter 5. They were men of praise.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Read Acts 2. The early church gathered

together and they praised God daily.

They were a people of praise. They understood that they were

on this this pathway that it was all about praise and they

understood the the priority of praise and they understood the

prerequisites to praise. And, and they completely

understood that they were a people of praise that had been

formed by God for his glory and for his honor that they would

declare his praise. They understood that they they

understood that praise was befitting, becoming, beautifying

their lives. They understood that they praise

God daily, so when they were flogged and and beaten, all they

did was rejoice because their convictions had already been

forged and just fuel their commitment, all of them more to

keep on preaching the Word even though they were beaten because

they did. What a great testimony.

If you got your Bible, turn me for a moment to John's Gospel,

the 6th chapter. Giving thanks to God truly fuels

your commitment. And we're going to use Jesus as

the illustration because he was committed to doing the Father's

will, was he not? And in John chapter 6, you had

John 6 · chapter mention

you had the feeding of the 5000. It's the only miracle in the

Bible outside of the resurrection that's recorded at

all four Gospels. And so there's, there's a reason

why Matthew, Mark, Luke and John recorded this miracle.

Yes, it's because they were under the inspiration of God and

yes, they were obedient to God. But yet if it's repeated 4 times

and the only miracle that is it must be significant, it must be

important to understand, we, we must grasp the meaning of this

marvelous meal that was beyond anything we could ever

understand. Because he only counted to the

men in those days. So it's 5000 men not counting

their wives and not counting their children.

And Jewish families tended to be large families, not small

families. So you think of somewhere

between 20 to 25,000 people, a lot of people.

And they come to the end of the day and Christ asks the

question. He asked a question to all the

men, but he specifically asked Philip because Philip is from

Beseda and the feeding of the 5000 takes place in Beseda.

And he asked a question, not because the Lord is looking for

information. Our Lord doesn't need any

information. There's nothing He doesn't know.

So when the Lord asks a question, it's not for His

information, it's for your illumination.

So you want to understand, so you will grasp what it is God is

doing. And He asked the question for

the purpose of examination, because he was going to test his

men. They had been with him and seen

him perform many, many miracles. So when he asked the question,

verse #5 where are we to buy bread so that these may eat?

He, he's thinking now that they're, they, they, they've

seen the miracles. There's no reason to doubt that

God can do whatever he wants to do.

But instead, they begin to think through things logically,

rationally, humanly. He asked Phillip because he's

from Beseda, and maybe he knows about all the restaurants in

Beseda. Maybe he knows about fast food

places that are open after dark in Beseda.

Maybe Phillip knows the place, the location where there will be

enough food to feed 25,000 people.

But the answer Give him my Phillip is 200 anari worth of

bread is not sufficient for them for everyone to receive even a

little anari was one day's wage. 200 days wages is not nearly

enough to defeat all the people they're they're thinking in

terms of. Of pennies.

But they're not thinking in terms of power, they're thinking

from a logical perspective. None of them money.

And you finds a lad with a couple of fishes and a few

loaves of bread, brings them to the Lord.

That's all we got. Don't have anything else.

So listen to what the Lord says in verse #6 this He was saying

to test Him, for He himself knew what He was intending to do.

That little phrase is enormous. He test them, He gives them an

examination because he wants to know where they are with their

perception of God. He wants to know what they're

thinking about what God can do. But they're not thinking about

what God can do. They're thinking about what they

can do. And yet that little phrase

speaks volumes as to our relationship with the Lord,

because the Lord always knows what He intends to do with your

situation. He's got a plan.

He knows what he's going to, what he's going to do.

And miss your difficulty, miss your pain, because he has a

plan. But He also knew not just what

he he intended to do at that moment, but He knew what He

intended to do for the salvation of lost souls.

He knew what He intended to do because if you read go down to

verse #11 it says Jesus then took the loaves and having given

thanks, I would have loved to have been there to hear the

prayer of Thanksgiving that God would give there on the northern

shores of the Sea of Galilee, the little village called Beseda

with 25,000 people around. I wonder what the prayer of

Thanksgiving sounded like coming from the lips of the Son of God.

Bob didn't tell us. It's just that he took the bread

and he gave thanks. I really truly believe that it

fueled his commitment to fulfill the Father's will because later

on in John Six, he, he would end up talking about bread from

heaven. That he was the manner that came

down out of heaven, that he that he was actually the bread of

life. Knowing that he would sacrifice

his life. And then on the eve of the

crucifixion, he would take the bread, He would break the bread.

He would give thanks for the bread, which was representative

of his body and said this bread is my body which is given for

you. Do this in remembrance of me.

So you go back to John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

And this prayer of giving thanks goes way beyond thanking the

Lord for some fishes and some bread that He was going to

multiply over and over again. I mean, actually, just think

about it. He could have just said bread

for everyone and they all would have had bread, fish for

everyone and they all could have had fish.

But that's not what he did. He, he gave this instruction for

his men to set them down into groups of 50 and 100.

And then they would come back to him.

They would receive fish and bread.

They would take it to those groups, come back, receive more

fish and bread, take it to the next group, come back, receive

more fish and bread. And they just kept doing it over

and over and over again. And they only had just a few

fishes and bread to begin with. But God was using these men in

an exercise that would help fuel their faith and their commitment

to God to give thanks for all that He does and how He provides

because He's a great provider of man.

It was all said and done. They had 12 baskets full of

bread and fish and the word for basket in John Sixes cofinos,

which were a little coffin like baskets that would keep their

food for the day. And God was showing them that

they would have food for their meal on the next day.

And God was giving thanks because he was doing something

miraculous among them, but he was giving thanks because it

just fueled more his commitment to God to be the bread of life

for the souls of lost men and women.

That was his aspiration. That was his passion, that was

his dream. That's what he wanted to do.

And this miracle, which is, which is huge in terms of its

numbers, was a small way of he exemplifying the fact that he

was the bread of life and that he would supply the needs for

man way beyond what he could ever imagine.

Because he was a God who truly cares for his people, took the

bread, He gave thanks. And what he said in that prayer

of Thanksgiving is not recorded, but the implications of that

prayer are absolutely huge because in all reality, He was

teaching his men a very marvelous lesson in praise and

Thanksgiving. Because the very next scene, the

scene where Christ would send His men out in the boat and He

himself would go up into a mountain to pray, and they would

find themselves fearing for their lives amidst a huge and

great storm. And Christ would begin walking

on the water to meet His men. And having gotten into the boat,

He would calm the waters. And Mark's account tells us that

the disciples were astonished, but it also tells us this Mark 6

verse #51 it says, or excuse me, verse #52 they were utterly

astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the

incident of the loaves, but their hearts were hardened, cold

and calloused. You see, it's imperative that

you learn from the feeding of the 5000.

There's a reason it's in every gospel, and it's the only

miracle repeated in all the Gospels that Christ himself

performed. Because if you don't learn about

the incident from the loaves, you're not going to make it when

tough times come. Because if you don't trust God

for your daily provisions, you will not be able to trust God

amidst difficult situations. In other words, you must learn

to give praise and Thanksgiving to God no matter what the

situation, even in the midst of a boat on the sea when it looks

like you're about to lose your life.

They struggled at the oars. They try to protect and preserve

their life instead of pray and praise to the One who was the

protector and preserver of their lives.

So important, the purpose of praise.

It truly fulfills A commandment from God.

It helps us understand who God is.

Once we understand who God is, we are truly convicted about

living for Him. That conviction leads to a

lifelong commitment that's unreserved in serving our God.

As you journey, as we journey on the pathway of praise, may we

understand the purpose of praise for each of us.

Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for today and

all that you do. Lord, you are a great God.

You go way beyond we can ever imagine.

You truly, truly want us to see who you are.

You just simply say obey me. I will disclose myself to you.

You'll be able to see me and all of my splendor and all of my

glory. Once you see me.

You'll be convicted like never before, and your commitment will

never wane in your service of the King or go before us.

You know what's happening in each person's life personally.

You know what's going on in their family, at work, at

school. You know what they're facing on

this day. May they on their journey along

this pathway learn to praise you all the more, more so now than

ever before, because you are the one who protects and preserves

your lives in Jesus name, Amen.