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  FAITH RESULTS IN PRAISE
  by Zac Poonen
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Summary: Faith and praise are closely linked, and praising God is a key
part of expressing faith and thanking Him for His deliverance.

Duration: 25:16 Topics: "Faith And Praise", "Thanksgiving And Worship"
Scripture References: Romans 10:9

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of praising God as a demonstration
of true belief in His promises. It highlights the power of faith
expressed through thanksgiving, contrasting genuine faith with mere
visualization or confession of lies. The examples of King Jehoshaphat
and Jonah illustrate how praising God in the midst of challenges can
lead to deliverance and victory, showing that faith is rooted in God's
word and not in self-generated declarations.

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CONTENT
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We want to consider today what should be our attitude when we have
recognized that Christ has finished the work of our salvation and
redemption on the cross. He said it is finished, our sins were paid for
completely, he's paid the punishment for our sin and also Satan was
defeated on that cross. So what should be our attitude now? Well, the
Bible says in Psalm 106, in Psalm 106 and verse 12, it says when the
people believed God's words, they sang his praise.

One of the clearest ways in which you can know that you believe what God
has said is that you praise him. For example, if you're a student in a
college and you need some money to pay your fees and you ring up your
father and your father calls you back and says I have transferred the
amount of two thousand rupees or whatever it is to your account. You
believe his word, you don't have to check your accounts at all.

You say well thank God I can pay my fees, I've got the money to pay.
When you believe something, the proof of it is you're thankful. If you
don't believe, then of course you're not thankful.

So as long as we don't praise God, we can be pretty sure that we haven't
believed his words. If you believe that when Christ said it is finished,
your sins are finished, the devil's kingdom was finished, you will
praise God because it's such a tremendous deliverance. I mean think if
you were down with a serious case of cancer and the best doctors gave up
hope but one doctor said listen let me do some surgery and see and he
does surgery on you and after doing a test discovers there's not a trace
of cancer in your body, are you going to be thankful or not? You're not
going to go hard of that hospital miserable looking unless you don't
believe the doctor's words.

If you say well he may be just saying things to please me, it may not be
true, I may still be having cancer, it may be spread all over my body
and he doesn't want to tell me the truth. You don't believe his words,
you look miserable but if you believe his words, you will go out jumping
for joy and if he's a truthful doctor and he's speaking the truth,
you're free. There's a basis for your happiness.

Now when God says something, there's no need to doubt it at all. When he
says your sins and iniquities I'll remember no more, he means it. He
will not remember our sins and iniquities anymore and when he says that
the devil's power has been defeated so that you don't have to live in
slavery to fear anymore, we believe it.

So praise is a very important part in our deliverance. It's important.
God wants us to express our faith with our words.

Faith is not found in the words but we have to express it. Let me read
to you a verse in Romans chapter 10. In Romans chapter 10 it says that
in verse 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, Romans 10
9, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will
be saved.

Deliverance or salvation comes through faith in the heart. Faith is not
in the mouth. Faith is in the heart and we confess it with our mouth.

That's what it says here in Romans chapter 10 verse 9. So what we
believe in our heart, like I said, we tell the devil you've been
defeated on the cross. It's because we believe it. We testify to the
devil, the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed me from all sin.

We are only following the example of Jesus Christ himself. When the
devil came to him with the temptation, Jesus spoke a word to him. He
didn't just think a thought, he spoke a word and said to Satan, it is
written.

When he came with the second time to tempt him, again he said it's
written. He spoke a word. It was with that spoken word that he drove the
devil away.

When he said, came a third time, he said the same thing, get behind me
Satan, because it's written like this. And that is what we need to do
too. Jesus spoke from his mouth what he believed in his heart, what was
promised in the word.

Now we can't say something with our mouth which is not promised in the
word. I may like to have a full head of hair, but there's no promise for
that in the word, so I can't just confess that. I will get it one day
when Christ returns, but not before that.

There's no promise in the word. There's no promise in the word that God
will give me a bigger house or a better car or something like that. I
can't confess these things.

That is sort of new age teaching where you visualize something and you
pretend that you're going to get it, shut your eyes and imagine that you
get it, and then you say what is your heart's desire? Mostly for
material things. There is a gospel being preached today which is telling
you to do that. You won't find any of the apostles or Jesus teaching
that.

That is to satisfy covetous people who love material things, whose
kingdom is of the earth. But those who have come into the kingdom of God
know that if they seek God's kingdom first and his righteousness, all
these other material things, they don't have to confess anything. God
will add them to him, but we need to confess to the devil.

Our warfare is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and
powers, and we praise God for that which he has done, and if God has
said that he will do something, we can praise him for that too. But it's
very important that we don't go around confessing lies thinking that
that is faith. That is another type of teaching going on today where
people are asked to confess to something which is not true.

You know in the Bible we read about a blind man who was brought to
Jesus, and Jesus it says took him outside the city. You read about that
in Mark chapter 8 and verse 22. He went to a place called Bethsaida, and
they brought a blind man to him and entreated him to touch him.

Now this man was in a town which was full of unbelief, and they didn't
repent. And so Jesus took the blind man right outside the village. He
normally never did that.

He would pray for the person right there, but this was such a
unbelieving atmosphere in the village that he took the man right outside
the village, and then he spat on his eyes and laid his hands on him, and
he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, well Lord,
I see a little bit, but it's all confusing. Men and trees look alike.
And when I see men walking, it's like trees walking.

Well you know and I know that men don't look like trees. And if you see
trees walking, you know that your eyesight is still not good. So what
did Jesus do? Now if it were one of today's preachers, he would have
told this man, no, no, no, you must confess that you're healed.

He prayed for you, just confess that by his stripes you're healed. Never
mind what you see, just say I can see everything perfectly, and then
everything will be perfect. But that's not what Jesus said.

How could Jesus ask a man to tell a lie? That's what a lot of preachers
tell you to say. Tell a lie, say you're healed when you're still sick.
But Jesus never taught that.

When this man could not see properly, Jesus wanted him to be honest. He
said, Lord, I can't see. And Jesus appreciated that honesty.

He always appreciates honesty. And so Jesus said, okay, I'll pray for
you again. This is the one time we read of a two-step healing in Jesus'
ministry.

And so he laid his hands upon his eyes a second time. Do you believe
that Jesus Christ needed to lay his hands upon a person twice to heal
that person? I believe he did that deliberately to teach us in the 21st
century that we shouldn't believe this type of deception. This one
incident is written in scripture to teach us that you don't have to
confess that you can see when you cannot see.

You don't have to confess that you can see clearly when you cannot see
clearly. You don't have to confess that you're healed when you're sick.
You don't have to confess that you're fully healed when you're only
partially healed.

This guy was certainly partially healed. He wasn't fully healed. Why
should he confess that he's fully healed when he was only partially
healed? He spoke the truth.

And I want to say to you in Jesus' name, don't let any preacher tell you
that you got to tell a lie. God hates lies. All liars go to hell.

And if you're going to tell a lie that you're healed when you're sick,
well, God's not going to appreciate it. The devil will certainly
appreciate because the Bible says the devil is the father of all lies.
And this man was certainly not going to let the devil tell a lie through
him that, oh yeah, I can see everything clearly.

He spoke the truth. And because he spoke the truth, the Lord touched him
a second time. Now, it's very easy for us to be deceived in this area by
people quoting all types of scripture, saying, well, Abraham believed
that he was going to have... Yeah, you can believe.

But Abraham did not get up and confess, I have a son, when he didn't
have a son. When Isaac was not born, he did not say, I have got Isaac.
No.

He believed that one day God would give Isaac. Sure he did. But he did
not say, I have got him already.

That is a lie. So it's very important that we understand what faith is.
Faith is not confessing a lie.

Remember that. This man did not confess a lie. And that's why he got a
complete healing.

He came to the Lord a second time and the Lord touched him. And then he
began to see everything clearly. And the Lord told him, don't even enter
that village where you come from, because it's full of unbelief.

So that is a word of caution in the midst of a lot of preaching about
faith that's going on today. I want to show you an Old Testament example
about the power of praise. And that's the most, the classic example is
in Second Chronicles in chapter 20.

There's a great lesson there, a spiritual lesson that we can learn from
the story of this King Jehoshaphat that you read in Second Chronicles
20. He was one of the kings of Judah. And one day he heard the news that
a great multitude, Second Chronicles 20 verse 2, was coming against him
to fight against Judah from beyond Syria and those parts.

And what did Jehoshaphat do? He was scared. He was really afraid. The
Bible says he was afraid, but he did the right thing when he was afraid.

He sought the Lord. He turned to the Lord and said, Lord, what shall I
do? And he proclaimed a fast. He said, let's fast and seek the Lord.

That's a very good thing to do when something serious happens in your
life, when you have a problem or many problems, and they all seem to
come together against you. Seek the Lord. Fast and pray and seek the
Lord.

And when you're afraid, that's the best thing to do. So he gathered
other people together, and they began to seek the Lord. And he prayed.

And he said, Lord, you're our God. And he confessed with his mouth the
truths of Scripture, how God had made a covenant with them. And finally,
he stood before the Lord and said these three things in verse 12.

Wonderful prayer when you can confess these three things in a difficult
situation. Number one, Lord, we are powerless before this multitude. We
don't have any strength.

Can you say that? Secondly, we don't have any wisdom. We don't know what
to do. We don't have strength.

We don't have wisdom. Number three, but we are trusting in you. Our eyes
are on you.

And so having said those three things, he left it. He said, Amen. Lord,
I don't know.

I don't have any strength. I don't have any wisdom, but I'm trusting
you. And in every situation where you find yourself in a tight corner or
you come to some difficult problem you're facing, here is what you need
to confess.

Lord, I don't have strength to handle this. I don't have wisdom to know
what to do in this situation. But I'm trusting you.

That last statement is very important. And then it says the Lord sent a
message. In those days, it was through a prophet.

And the Lord sent a message. The Spirit of the Lord came upon one of the
prophets there. And he said, Listen, the Lord says, Don't be afraid.

The battle is not yours, but God's. You don't need to fight in this
battle at all. The Lord will fight for you.

Go out tomorrow, believe in the Lord, and He will fight for you. That's
all. And Jehoshaphat did not say, Well, you know, it's a big army or any
such thing.

No, it doesn't matter how big the problem is. The Lord is on your side
against the enemy. The Lord is on your side against the devil.

He fell down, it says in verse 18, and worshiped the Lord. Do you know
what he did the next day? Instead of sending soldiers in the front of
the army to fight against the enemy, it says he appointed people right
in the front of the army to praise the Lord. 2nd Chronicles chapter 20
and verse 21.

He put people right up in front who went forward praising the Lord,
saying glory to God and give thanks to Him because His loving kindness
is been so good to us. He's won the battle. Praise the Lord.

God's defeated the enemy. And they kept on praising the Lord. And listen
to this.

Verse 22. As they began singing. It's very important to read that.

When they began. As soon as they began. Now, previously, in verse 12 and
before that, they were praying.

They were not praising. They were praying. And God spoke in answer to
that prayer.

And then they started praising. They didn't pray now. They didn't go to
the enemy, go in front of the enemy and say, Oh, God, please deliver us.

No, they'd already prayed. God had said, I'm going to do something. They
only praise.

They believed His words. And when they believed His words, they praise
the Lord. And it says as soon as they began singing and praising, the
Lord defeated all those enemies.

And they got the wealth of their enemies and they became rich. Now, this
is the principle. They got victory, not through fighting, but through
praising the Lord.

Because they believed what God had spoken. If God has not spoken, then,
of course, we can't believe when the Lord says the devil's been
defeated. We believe that we praise the Lord for that.

We cannot believe where the Lord is not spoken. When the Lord has
spoken, the Lord told Abraham, you'll have a son. Then you can believe.

But if the Lord has not told you that and you're a barren woman, you
can't believe that. We can't just believe, shut our eyes and visualize
and believe whatever we want for. That's what a lot of people are
teaching today.

And that's not scripture. The Bible says in Romans 10, verse 17, faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. The Lord has to
speak a word before we can have faith.

There can be verses in scripture, but for you to have faith in that, it
has to become living to you. Look at the multitudes of people, for
example, who believe in their head that Christ died for their sins.
Ninety percent of them are not born again.

They are what we call nominal Christians. You go and ask any of them,
did Christ die for your sins? Oh, yes. Did he rise from the dead? Oh,
yes.

Is there a Christian on earth who will deny that? But you know that
ninety percent of them are not born again. They believe what's written,
but it does not produce faith in their heart. In the same way, somebody
can quote a scripture to you.

It's written in the scripture. Okay, but it has not brought faith in
your heart. You can't believe that.

You can't act on that. So don't be deceived in this area. You can act on
the word that has brought faith in your heart.

You praise the Lord and the proof of it will be results. If the result
doesn't come, obviously, you didn't have faith. It's just your
imagination.

It's just your visualization. And so many people are being thoroughly
deceived by this today in the name of faith. That's not faith.

That is imagination. It's presumption. And the devil tries to fool
people like that.

He even tried to fool Jesus by saying it's written. Have faith in this.
He will give his angels charge over you to keep you.

They'll protect you from dashing your head against the stones or jump.
But Jesus wouldn't jump. That wouldn't have been faith.

That would have been presumption if he had jumped. No angel would have
protected him. He'd have fallen down and broken his head.

But he wouldn't listen to the devil. And don't you listen to the devil
either. Even if he comes through a preacher telling you to believe some
word of scripture without seeing other scriptures that balance out.

That's why Jesus said it's also written. Don't tempt the Lord your God.
And I believe that is a word that many Christians need to hear today.

Do not tempt the Lord your God by doing stupid things in the name of
faith. And saying I trust God. I'm going to praise him.

Faith is not a technique. Praising God is not a technique. Praising God
is the result of a genuine faith that's born in our heart on the basis
of what God has spoken or God has done.

Certainly we can praise God for things which are definitely written in
scripture. Like our sins are forgiven. The devil has been defeated.

These Now let me show you another example in the book of Jonah. Jonah
was a prophet, you know, who God wanted him to go to Nineveh. He ran
away.

And when he got into a boat to go another direction, there was a big
storm. And the people realized that Jonah was the cause of it. And they
threw him overboard.

And when he was thrown overboard, God arranged, God cared for him,
arranged for a fish to swallow him, a big fish. And notice what
happened. It says here, the Lord appointed a great fish and Jonah 117 to
swallow Jonah.

And Jonah was in the stomach of this fish for three days and three
nights. Now, what was he doing for three days and three nights? I have a
feeling that he was trying to crawl out of the fish's belly. He tried,
tried, tried for three days and three nights.

Every time he slipped back in that slimy old stomach of the fish, and he
could never get out. And when he could not get out, it says then, then,
then means after the three days and nights were over, he began to pray.
It doesn't say he prayed all three days and nights.

It says for three days and nights, he was there and then Jonah prayed.
So he prayed, now Lord, please deliver me from this. You know, that's
usually our way.

We get into a difficult situation, some type of fish's belly we are in,
some type of problem, very often due to our own sin or foolishness, like
Jonah, and we try for days on end to get out of it. And we are not able
to get out of it. And then finally, as a last resort, we pray.

Well, that's what Jonah did. He prayed. Nothing happened.

He prayed some more. Verse two, verse three, verse four, verse five,
verse six. And finally, he stopped praying.

And he started thanking the Lord. He said, all right, Lord, I'm going to
thank you. I will praise you, verse nine, with the voice of
thanksgiving, and I will say deliverance can come only from the Lord.

I praise you. If you want to keep me in the whale's belly forever, I'll
stay here. I want to praise you because you're on the throne, etc.

Then, notice the word then again. It's the second time the word then
comes in chapter two of Jonah. Then the Lord commanded the fish and he
vomited him up.

The Lord said, this man started praising me. Send him out. He got
delivered when he started praising the Lord.

So in Psalm 50, we read these wonderful words, Psalm 50 and verse 23. He
who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me. And to him who orders
his way right, I will show the salvation of God.

And another paraphrase of that is reads like this. The one who offers a
sacrifice of thanksgiving thereby makes a way for me to show him my
deliverance or salvation from that situation. The one who offers a
sacrifice.

Now, a sacrifice is something painful. We can praise God when things are
going smoothly. That's easy.

That's not a sacrifice of thanksgiving. But when God hasn't fully solved
the problem yet, but we know he's on the throne, we can praise him not
for solving the problem. That's not solved yet.

But we can praise him that he's on the throne. There are a lot of things
we can praise God for, even if a problem is not solved. I don't have to
tell a lie and say, oh God, thank you for solving the problem.

And the problem is still there. The enemies are still there. But the
David says, you have set a table before me in the presence of my
enemies.

They are there. I don't pretend they are not there, but I praise the
Lord because he's on the throne. The devil's been defeated.

My sins are forgiven. All things work together for good to those who
love God. He will not allow me to be tempted beyond my ability.

All these things are true, even if the problem is still there. I don't
have to confess a lie, but I can praise God for those eternal truths,
which never change. And Christ defeated Satan on the cross, makes all
things work together for my good, etc., etc.

And it's painful for me to say this. It's a sacrifice because I'm facing
problems. My enemies are still there.

But I believe the Lord set a table before me in the presence of my
enemies, and I praise God. And when I do that, God makes a way for me to
come out of that. That is how we can be free from discouragement.

You need never be discouraged if you learn in those situations to thank
God and praise him for the truths that never change. Like God is on the
throne. He's still on the throne.

All authority in heaven and earth belong to Christ. Satan's been
defeated. Your sins are forgiven.

He will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability, etc., etc. Think
of the life we can live of overcoming if we will praise him in all
situations. God bless you.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/O0qAcStKjQo.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/faith-results-in-praise/
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