In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of praising God and laying aside the spirit of heaviness. He quotes various verses from the book of Psalms that call for praising God for His goodness and wonderful works. The speaker challenges himself and the audience to praise God seven times a day, acknowledging that God's loving kindness is better than life itself. He highlights the significance of God's kindness and forgiveness, stating that without them, life would end in eternal death.

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers, too. This week we have Ben Crandall with his message, Garments of Praise. Wonderful! All hail King Jesus! I love it, praise God! I'd like to read to you a verse of scripture found in Isaiah, the 61st chapter and the 3rd verse, "...to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness." I want to talk to you for a few minutes this morning on the garments of praise instead of the Spirit of heaviness. God wants you to lay aside the Spirit of heaviness, and worry, and fear, and discouragement, and He wants you clothed with the garments of praise. Hallelujah! Praise is so important. It is so important, folks sometimes don't realize the power and the importance of praise. Praise is important because praise will lift your faith up toward God. Praise makes God who He really is when you praise Him the way He asks us to in the book. Praising God increases your faith and reduces your problem. So many folks have a big problem and a little God. When you've got that situation, you're in trouble. You're in real trouble. But God would like to reverse that for you, and He wants to give you a big God, a big God, and He wants to reduce your problem to the size that you realize God is great to handle it, and praise does that. Praise lifts your faith. It gets your eyes off of your circumstance, and off of your problem, and onto the answer, and onto the cure, and onto the victory. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise is vital to you, and it's wonderful. We've had such marvelous praise here today, just wonderful. But you've got to learn to be clothed with praise, and to take praise outside of these doors, and to live with praise to where you're identified with it. Garments identify you. And Isaiah said, God wants you clothed with garments of praise. He wants you to be identified. He wants to see you that way. And you want to see yourself and realize that, and let folks hear the praises of God, because that's what is truth, and that's where the victory is. Hallelujah! Praise God. Another great reason, very vital reason for praise is so important, is because praise is the truth about God. God deserves all of the credit. He deserves all of the praise. He will not share it with anyone, because He is the one that gives the answer. He's the one that does it. And God is truthful. He wants the truth. There's no, nothing false about God. And it's praising God is right, because it's the truth. None of us deserve what we receive. Thank God. Aren't you thankful that God doesn't give us what we deserve? He gives us the victory. He loved us. He saved us. He is carried for us. He is the one that defeats the enemy. He's the one that has the victory, and He wants us clothed with that, understanding that, and filled with the power and glory of praise. Don't allow Satan to put on a, give you a garment of heaviness. Don't let him give you a garment of discouragement. I don't care what your problem are. We've got a God big enough to handle every problem in this building. It doesn't matter. God is greater. And when you get into praise, God begins to become who He really is, and your problems become so that God can handle them, and He gives you the victory, and lifts you above the circumstances. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So let me just go through now. The book of Psalms, in the Hebrew, it is called the book of praise. Now, the Greek calls it Psalms, but really, it is the book of praise. And let's turn to that and find out why it's such a big book. Why there's so much of it in this Bible. Because it is so vital to you, to your success, to your future. Praise God. Psalm 100, and the fourth verse says, enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. Enter His gates. The only way you get into the gate is with thanksgiving. You don't come in with heaviness, and complaining, and burdens, and all of that. That is not how you get in. You enter the gate with thanksgiving, and when you begin to praise God, the gates swing open, and you get into His presence. Hallelujah. Enter His gates with thanksgiving. Praise God. Psalm 118, 19, and 20. Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. For this is the gate of the Lord. Praise is the gate of the Lord. Hallelujah. Psalm 22, 26. They shall praise the Lord that seek the Lord. If you're seeking God, begin with praise as the Lord's prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Praise is how you begin your prayer. Hallelujah. Praise God. Psalm 56, 12, and 13. I will render praise to you, for you have delivered my soul from death. I'm going to praise you, God, because you saved me. You redeemed me. You saved my soul from death, from eternal death and destruction. I am going to praise you. I don't care what the devil says or what the circumstances are. I am committed to praise. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Psalm 63, 3. Now this is a great verse. Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. I am going to praise you, because your love and your kindness is better than life. Hallelujah. What is better than life? What in the world is better than living? Incredible statement of praise. Because without the Lord's kindness and love, you would have eternal death. You would have death. Jesus said, what would it profit you if you gain the whole world and lose your soul? Without God's salvation, life is going to end in total death. Eternal death. So he said, there's something better than just plain living. Because that ends in death. It's God's kindness and his forgiveness. Hallelujah. It is better than life. More important because that gives us eternal life. His loving kindness is going to save me from death. Hallelujah. And it's going to give me eternal life. Hallelujah. There's nothing as important as God's gift of life. His eternal life. So he said, I'm going to praise you. It's the best thing there is. It's better than just plain living, because that leads to death. My living in God leads to eternal life and with you forever. Forever. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Why should I praise God? He's given me the gift of life. He's given me the gift of eternal life. He saved me from hell. He saved me from death. He saved me from destruction. And he's brought me into his family. I will praise God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Psalm 136 and 1. Give thanks to the Lord for his good, for his mercy endures forever. Because his mercy will never run out. My mercy is not long. Your mercy isn't long if you have any. And if I have any, it's not for long. But God's mercy is forever. And it embraces us. So we praise him for his mercy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Psalm 118, 21. I will praise you for thou hast heard me. I want to praise you because when I called, you heard me and answered my prayer. Isn't that a great, great, wonderful. I praise God because he hears me when I pray. Hallelujah. Now, how do we praise him? Psalm 9, 1 and 2. I will praise you, Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all of thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praises to thy name, O Most High. I will praise you with all of my heart. And I felt like, choir, I felt like we were getting into that this morning. I felt like, boy, that we were praising God with all of our heart. Now, half praise and half-hearted praise and half-hearted thanksgiving is worthless to God. He wants all of it. He said, I will praise him with all of my heart. I'm praising him honestly. I'm praising him sincerely. I have no reservations. I have nothing holding me back. He has saved me and I'm praising him with all of my heart. With all of my soul. With all of my life. I praise you because when I was lost, you found me. When I was going to hell, you stopped me. And you rescued me. And you protected me. And you have kept me. And you have kept me until this hour. He brought you here today. He has watched over you. He has fed you. He has clothed you. He has kept you. And he says, I'm going to praise you with everything within me because it all goes back to you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise him with all of my heart. Hallelujah. Praise God. Sing praises to God. And we were doing that today. Sing praises to our King. For God is the King of all of the earth. Hallelujah. Clap your hands, all you people. Shout to God with a voice of triumph. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Shout with a voice of triumph. Shout with a voice of victory. You're victorious this day. I don't care what the devil says. If you're in Christ, you're victorious. We won. We won the victory. Hallelujah. Praise God. We won. We are victorious. Praise God. With a voice of triumph. Victory. You know, I don't know much about sports. Nothing against it. Just kind of ignorant. But I do remember about a year ago, this past year, not this season, but a year ago, the Red Sox won the World Series. Now, they hadn't won it for decades. They went crazy. They won the World Series. They were triumphant. Talk about shouting, horns blowing, people going crazy. The Red Sox won the ball game. And that's fine. I'm glad they did. They needed to. But we have won over Satan. We have won. We have won. Hallelujah. we won we won over the grave we are winning over the grave death will not hold us we're gonna be resurrected we have won over all of life's problems Satan is defeated and we have won hallelujah hallelujah thank you Jesus this is this is a great verse here Psalm 57 7 and 8 I will sing and praise God now I should sing more we should sing even by ourselves even though people around you may not enjoy it like with me but saying for God hallelujah anyway he said David said I will awaken the lute and the harp I will awaken the dawn he said I will get up before sunrise and speak to my instruments and say to the lute get up you instrument get up wake up and to the harp wake up and he was such a harp player wake up harp and he said because when the Sun comes over the eastern horizon with the first light shades first beams of light when you're coming with a golden sunrise we're going to be praising God we're gonna welcome the day with praise to God he's given us another day I'm gonna play this instrument I'm gonna blow this horn I'm gonna shout and sing when the Sun rises because it has risen in my soul and someday it's gonna rise never to set with me hallelujah so I will awaken the dawn I'll get up to praise God I will get up to worship him I'll get up to honor him hallelujah he'll be the first thing that I'm gonna think about and I'll get up early just to praise God in that fantastic hallelujah praise God praise God praise God this is a very interesting verse 71 23 my lips shall greatly rejoice I never thought about happy lips before did you ever think of that but when you stop and think I've seen sad lips and I've seen happy lips up smiling lips he says when I praise God my lips get happy I never thought of that before did you praise God my lips will greatly rejoice when I sing to thee my soul thou has redeemed and my mouth is happy praising God hallelujah very different praise God thank you Jesus hallelujah how wonderful the praises of God Psalm 98 Oh sing to the Lord a new song for he has done marvelous things his right hand and his holy arm has gotten him the victory sing keep singing old songs but sing new songs because he gives us new experiences he's got another experience for you he's got another blessing for you and with it comes a new song and another song hallelujah I love the singing here in this church I really I get lifted up when I come here praise God because I love the singing I love the choir I love the music because it lifts us to the Lord hallelujah praise God sing a new song for he has done marvelous things now it says make a joyful noise unto the Lord now I'm not against churches that sang funeral songs but I'm really not blessed much by it I really don't feel like sad when I go to church make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth make a loud noise there's a minister that I knew in some denominational man said him and why do you Pentecostals think God is deaf he said we don't think he's deaf but he's not nervous either and he loves us to praise God because the Bible says make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praises well the Red Sox made a loud noise just over a ball game we're gonna make a loud noise because of our Redeemer hallelujah and praise him with all of our heart hallelujah hallelujah thank you Jesus praise God Psalm 107 second verse let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy now here's a cry of God's heart in the eighth verse oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men oh that folks would understand what God has done and praise him then in the 15th verse oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness then in the 21st verse oh that men would praise the Lord the cry out of the heart of God why don't they understand and praise me and realize what I've done and then in the 31st verse oh that men would praise the Lord that we would praise him praise God the psalmist challenges me in one verse 119 and 169 the 119th Psalm it says seven times a day I will praise God that challenges me I don't always do that you must think boy he must be praising God all the time no I'm preaching to myself as well as you I think of his some days look I haven't praised God seven times I have why should he praise God more than I praise God why should he praise God seven times a day and some days I hardly praise him that's not right I want to praise God seven times a day I want to wear a garment of praise that I've got it on all day long and praise him in the morning praise him at the coffee break praise him at lunchtime praise him in the middle of the afternoon praise him at dinner praise him when you go to bed just wear the garments of praise that you are praising God all day long because he is worthy he is worthy he is worthy he has redeemed us from every nation and kindred and tongue he's brought us back to God and he's worthy of our praise and he redeemed us when nobody else could we are going to praise God with all of our heart hallelujah hallelujah thank you Jesus we're gonna praise him hallelujah now here's a great reason for praising God a tremendous argument Psalm 6 5 & 6 listen to these next four verses for in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall praise you Psalm 6 5 & 6 Psalm 39 what profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit shall the dust praise thee shall it declare your great truths Psalm 88 10 will thou show wonders to the dead shall the dead arise and praise thee question for God the answers in 119 Psalm 175 let my soul live and it will praise you he's the argument that David is putting is this God if I'm dead I can't praise you but if you will keep me alive you've got a great praiser hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah if you heal me if you resurrect you keep me going then you've got somebody that's gonna really praise you and that's valuable because it's the truth hallelujah so he says keep me alive that I can praise you keep me alive don't let anything happen to me God because you lose a great praiser hallelujah hallelujah that's a great argument in it hallelujah hallelujah God is watching you because you're a great praiser you're honoring him you're lifting up his name because it's the truth because he's worthy because he's the one that gets the praise hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you Jesus thank you Jesus praise God I love that keep me alive and I'm gonna praise you now I want you to turn with me if you have your Bible you can turn with me to the psalm will turn over to Psalm 148 148 and one 150 listen to this 148 praise the Lord praise him from the heavens praise him in the heights of the skies praise him all of his angels of heaven praise God all of the angels of heaven are praising God praise him all of its host other than angels praise him creation praise him son son God created you praise God moon praise God because God created you praise him all of you stars of light all of you stars twinkling stars and galaxies that no one has ever seen the end of it no one knows could go forever nobody knows how vast his creation is but he says let every star let every star in the sky praise God hallelujah hallelujah now wonderful praise him all heaven of heavens all the waters above the heavens in the clouds praise him let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created he also has established them forever and ever he's established them he has made a decree that shall not pass away praise him from the earth now that's the heavens every angel every creature everything in the heavens praising God everything in heaven everything in the earthly heavens praise God hallelujah praise God then he says after that praise him all the creatures of the earth the great sea creatures in the depth praise him fire every fire in California and all over the world praise God fires hail the hail storms praise God every hail bit of hail snow praise God snow praise God clouds stormy winds hurricanes tornadoes praise God you great powerful winds that show the power of God fulfilling his word mountains Mount Everest the Alps praise God all of you mountains praise God with your peaks pointing to the sky and all little hills you rolling hills praise God you hills praise God and fruitful trees you preach peach trees of Georgia and you apple trees of New England and the pear trees praise God with your fruit hanging down you're a praise to God and every moving cedar and every pine and every tree praise God and all you beast of the field all the cattle and all the animals and all the lions and all the bears and every beast of the field praise God you praise God you beast and all the cattle and he says you creeping things you little ants praise God you praise God running around that floor you praise God you little ants praise God hallelujah hallelujah and the flying fowls from the little hummingbird to the majestic eagle praise God every time you flap your wings kings of the earth praise God all people princes judges all young men and women and old men and children everybody praise the Lord praise the Lord hallelujah psalm of 50 praise God in the sanctuary praise him in his mighty firmament of the heavens praise him for his mighty acts opening the Red Sea bringing out the children of Israel raising Christ from the dead hallelujah praise him according to his greatness praise him with the sound of the trumpet praise him with the lute and the harp praise him with the dance with stringed instruments and flutes with loud cymbals high-sounding cymbals that everything in the heavens and the earth praise God praise God praise God praise God you've been listening to the from the pulpit and classic sermon series this week you heard Ben Crandall and his message garments of praise tune in next week to hear Leonard Ravenhill speak about when a storm arose and Christ arose on from the pulpit and classic sermons