THE PRINCIPLE OF PRAISE:
"Seven Habits of Highly Successful Christians"

Mother of God Prayer Meeting
October 2, 2002
 

Most of us don’t consider ourselves Highly Successful Christians, I don’t, but when I was praying about tonight I sensed that this was what the Lord had to say to His Body. There are indeed habits that will lead to victory or success in our discipline to be Christian men and women who are seeking to serve the Lord with all their hearts and mind. One of our aims is to try to center our lives on these good habits. The world has used this statement of success to motivate people and for a purpose that is a worldly end but we are motivating each other for the end of the Gospel. We believe the Lord Jesus lives in us. We are called to move on following the Spirit.

In God’s eyes each of us are apart of His beloved Bride, His beautiful Church, a heavenly people and therefore to use a term of our world today we are each highly loved by God the Father and in His eye more than highly successful – we are highly loved people. God loves each one of you so so much.

I’m sure, each of us here has a list of seven habits or more you have that leads you to victory and I’m certain it’s as good as mine but let’s have a little fun and talk tonight about just one habit. Tonight we are going to be considering one of my seven habit and yes only one due to the time limitations. This habit is the practice and understanding of Principle of Praise.

We’re going to be basing our discussion on a book that I read - called Power In Praise by Merlin Carothers. Carothers was an Army Chaplain and served in the 82 Airborne. It is a simple book to read yet very challenging you to live out a greater Christ like thinking - I still reading through in my life with my job, marriage, and children. My brother is a Trappist monk and has been in the monastery life for over 27 years and said to me recently that this book changed his life more than any book he has ever read. He still thinks about it’s truths daily.

Let’s pray – Heavenly Father teach us your ways tonight. You have worked in our hearts tonight and we thank you. We ask that you open our hearts to your truths – to pour out your Holy Spirit - take us deeper in our Praise that you have for us. Bring us to the things that you want to teach us. You have used us and so many people this century in the Charismatic Renewal – continue your outpouring tonight.

Power in Praise - 1 Thes 5:6-18 “Always be joyful. Always keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. What Carothers is saying here is that our praise is based on the acceptance of the present as part of God’s loving and perfect will for our salvation. Praise is not based on what we get out of it now or later. Praise is not based on what we think our hope will happen in the future. WE praise God , not for what we expect will happen in or around us , but we praise Him for who He is – that he is Lord - that He choose us before the foundation of the world and he is the all powerful God that controls the entire universe and knows every hair on our heads.

We praise Him where and how we are right now in this present moment – right now. It is a perfect moment because this moment in time flows right out of God to each one of us – right now.

I have meet Catholics that are always joyful and always seem to be walking close to the Lord in each and every circumstance. They do this because they have accepted the teaching of Scripture and have indeed applied it to their lives. My father became one of those people – he loved the Lord and would quote this Scripture to me all the time.

Others can’t seem to accept that God allows the bad things to happen to them and I have seen bitterness last against God for 80 years. I had the privilege to have a heart to heart discussion with a women who was 90 years old and she regretted many things in her life and one was how she held onto grudges her whole life.

St Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises is really big on offering all of our daily trials up to the Lord may be purely directed to the service and to praise HIS Divine Majesty Praise is our active response to what we know God has done and is still doing for us today – in our lives and in the world through our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

God wants us to understand that he loves us and that He has a plan for us. Rom 8: 28 And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plan.

Are you surrounded by difficult circumstances right now? Have you been struggling to understand why they have come to you? Then try to accept with your understanding that 1. God does love you and has allowed those circumstances because He knows that he can bring good out of this for you.

Value of the Good News

If I were to offer you $.10 you probably won’ t get very excited about it. As a matter of fact, in today’s economy you would probably laugh at the gift. If I continue to give you dimes until the value escalates to 1M dollars I think you would be stunned and leaping for joy. I’m sure you have all watched Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and how people really get thrilled by the million dollar winner. You would want to tell someone right away about the wonderful gift you’ve received.

“Wow, did I ever tell you about the Million dollars I was given for free”

God has given us something far greater than a million dollars that is subject to all the limitations of time and space. We have been given eternity or paradise something far greater than this earth has to offer. These gifts are all free for the asking. But we may know of them as only the $.10. Our hearts don’t beat faster when we think of receiving a dime. Neither do we cry tears of gratitude and joy when we think of God’s gifts for us. What’s wrong? Is it Gods gifts? No, we are living in a ten-cent faith level.

Power Unlimited

“ I want you to tell everyone that will listen to be thankful for every detail of their lives , and I will open the windows and pour out more blessings than they can hope for” This is a wonderful word that Merlin received one day when he was worried about the lack of power he was experiencing in His ministry.

Count it all Joy

We all know how futile and frustrating it is to think that we can change ourselves. We want to be more loving, more understanding, more joyful and all the other fruits of the Spirit but our experience is a different we have a difficult boss, rebellious children, financial loss, drinking problems, drug problems, The reality of our lives are trials and tribulations – anxiety, fear, hatred, grudges and powerlessness.

“I have been trying for ten years on this or that problem and it just doesn’t work”

James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops patience. For when your patience is fully in bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in charter, full and complete”

God is fully aware of our trial and allows them to tesst to see if we wiil praise Him through them all. Why would James instruct us to consider it joy?

Rom 5:2, 12:1- 2

Jer 29:11

Stop the Grumbling ---

WE are all familiar with the amazing account of Moses leading the Israelites to the promised land and how once they got there they weren’t allowed in. Can you imagine the conversations that were in that camp. We read about the murmuring that happened no matter what the Lord did to answer there prayer. Are you in the habit of thanking God only for what you want? Carothers quotes.

1 Cor 10:10 “ And don’t murmur against the Lord and his dealings with you, as some of you did, for that is why God sent his Angel to destroy them. All these happened to them as examples as object lessons to us – to warn us against doing the same things; thy were written down so we could read about them and learn from them”

Paul was speaking about the behavior of the Israelites and how they tolerated grumbling in their midst.

Although God’s promise still stands – his promise that all may enter his place of rest – we ought to tremble with fear because some of you may be on the verge of failing there after all … For only we who believe God can enter into his place of rest. He has said, I have sworn in my anger that those who don’t believe me will never get in (Heb. 4:1 , 3)

Carothers discovered a truth that God has a place of perfect rest for us all now. Does anyone want rest now ? It is a that state of perfect trust in Him that we can enter now. But in order to enter this rest we must give up our sin of unbelief , our grumbling when things go bad, our murmurings, and our complaints. Unbelief is a serious offense against God!!!

The world’s primary sin is? Unbelief – people don’t believe God today. People believe in computers and the worlds system of pragmatism.

Jn 16:9 The worlds sin is unbelief in me…. said Jesus. Unbelief, like all sin, is an act of rebellion against God. We can choose to believe or not to believe. Do we choose to believe God tonight ? Of course we do, this is the MOG community -- a tried and true body of Christ.

Webster defines unbelief as a “withholding of belief, incredulity
Or skepticism: a rejection of what is asserted”

Now if unbelief is a deliberate withholding of belief – then we are responsible for our action or decision not to believe. We must do something about our sin.

The first step in dealing with any sin is confession.

EXAMPLE - I didn’t think I had unbelief in my life until I stated asking the Holy Spirit to measure myself. I always look good in our own eyes but when I humble ourselves to the Holy Spirit I begin to see my unbelief…        

Let’s pray --