True Praise

Matthew chapter 16, starting in verse 13 today, a few verses here. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, Matthew chapter 16, starting in verse 13 today, a few verses here. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon, son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Petros, Peter, and on this Petros, this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades, death, the region of the dead, shall not prevail against it.

On this rock, I will build my church, says Jesus. Nobody in apostolic days ever had any idea, as so many people seem to have today, that you can get saved and then go on and on, just you and Jesus. Never occurred to them that you could do such a thing.

It was just understood by everybody that when you're reborn, you are immediately sent into the fellowship of the redeemed. God is faithful, says Paul in Corinthians, who has called you into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is not just you and Jesus, but you and Jesus and all the redeemed, the church, God's church, the body of Christ, the kingdom of God on earth.

This was a clear thing to them, that it was something that the Lord himself was doing. And it never occurred to anybody in apostolic days either to tamper with the Lord as he's building his church on this rock. I will build my church.

He's doing the building. And they didn't mess with what he was doing. Never thought of sitting around and discussing, well, last Sunday the attendance was down.

What can we do to build it up? How can we get more members? They were clear in their minds that their work was to get out there and proclaim the gospel in the places where they were and let the Lord add to the church as he chose. And if they ran into problems, as they did, they would take these problems to the Lord, who was Lord of the church and with them. Lord, what do we do? The Greek widows are hollering that the Hebrew widows are getting more food.

Lord, what do we do? They got Peter in jail again. And every time there was an answer, and the answer came from the Lord. They were very, very conscious that the Lord was ruling his church, that he was among them, and that he was the one to turn to.

Now, the fact that we're gathered together in this place today, if we have any kind of eyes to see at all, is evidence that Jesus is still building his church. Because surely in this fellowship here, this assembly, there's only one thing we have in common with each other. We don't vote the same way.

We don't eat the same kind of food. Perhaps we don't have the same cultural background. We don't have the same kind of jobs.

We don't talk alike. The one thing we have in common, and the only thing, is Jesus. He's the one who brought us together.

He's the one who holds us together. And he's the one who shows us the answer to our problems if we bring them to him. And we can be sure that he will do that.

For instance, at the moment, there are surely at least two very urgent needs that we have in our life together here. And you probably can think of about 50 more, but think of these two. First of all, there is the need for us to learn to praise God corporately, so that we really come together in praise of him, in whatever means we happen to use at any given time.

Sunday mornings we use this liturgy, and people have all different conceptions or ideas about this liturgy, but the liturgy that we're using, every gathering of believers has a liturgy. Even the ones that claim they worship strictly a free type of worship, they develop a liturgy. It's a form that begins to emerge.

And the form that we use here is what's been used for 15 or 18 centuries by the vast majority of people who name Jesus as Lord. We're not saying this is the only way it should be done, but this is what we're using, and if we would allow the Spirit of God to teach us how to praise him, this will be the means by which this, on this track, will come right into his presence. Or when we're singing these hymns, you know, that it's really worship of God, or when we're gathered at a Bible study, in prayer or praise or whatever it may be, that we may learn how to praise him, and that it's true praise, not some kind of culty activity where 300 spiritual robots all do exactly the same thing at the same time.

My hands may be up, your hands may be down, somebody else's hands may be in his pocket, and yet if we're praising God together, immunity will really be won before the throne of God. And it will be free praise, coming from our hearts, not imposed from outside, coming from within as the Spirit directs us. The other urgent need among us at this time is for laborers, especially for the thankless, monotonous tasks that have to be handled well in any group of believers if you're going to have, in fact, an effective gospel army.

You know, people that work in the nursery, people that cook for potluck, people to clean up, people to provide reliable transportation, people to visit the sick, people to prepare for singing and the music part of our worship together, people to write letters, people to work the streets, people to do the thankless work of adding and subtracting that has to be done. No assembly of believers is going to get anywhere in its service to God out there in the world if it doesn't have people who are faithfully and cheerfully, gladly, effectively doing the thankless jobs and doing them well. So here we have two needs.

The need for praise, to learn how to praise God, and the need for laborers. The temptation, of course, is to get together and work out a solution. But the only solution to these two things, the only solution that's going to be effective is one that comes from God.

It's not going to do any good to turn to man to learn how to praise. And when you need laborers, the place to turn is to the Lord of the harvest. Now, we've learned that more effectively, for instance, in the area of money.

One of the things that most of us agree on here is that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all the things we need, including the unrighteous mammon, money will be provided. And so you never hear us appealing for funds. We never ask for pledges.

We never beg. And the only time the financial needs are even put before the congregation are at the annual meeting in January. And everybody's welcome.

It's not closed. It's open to anybody. And then you find out, you know, and we plan together, we decide what we'll add or take away, and that's it.

And if we start running short, if things start getting tight, the one we go to is the Lord. And we've literally done this again and again. And sometimes we've had to sweat for a while.

And sometimes some dramatic things have happened. Oh, it was last spring, early spring or late winter, when Johnny was trying to figure out how he was going to pay all these bills and, you know, what was going on. And some of us were praying about this matter, and somebody who knew nothing at all about the need, nothing, somebody from the flock, was told by the Lord to take their savings account out and dump it in here.

We said, don't do it. You know, you need it for this, you need it for that. They said, no.

You know, but it has to be coming from God. And it has to be only to His glory. If we ever come to the day as a flock where the money doesn't come freely from the hearts, without any pressure from outside, from those who have come to see the importance of being faithful to God in the unrighteous mammon, if we get to that place, that means that it's time for us to lock up the doors.

That would be a clear sign from God, as far as I can see, that it's time for us to close up shop, because if we're not found faithful in the unrighteous mammon, the spiritual gifts aren't going to come. Now, in terms of the need for learning how to praise God and the need for laborers, we have to go at this in exactly the same way. The place to go is to the Lord, who is Lord of the church.

He's building the church, we're not. And He knows what the needs are better than we do, and He cares more than we do. And He ministers to those needs and creates that life in His body, the church, through the prayers, the intercession, the obedience, the faithfulness of His people.

But it's important for us to have in mind clearly what we're asking for. For instance, when we're asking for a spirit of true praise, Lord, give us a spirit of true praise. And many of us will picture every hand is up, you know, and heavenly chanting just sweeps over the flowers.

Now, that may be, that may happen. But true praise of God is much, much, much deeper than that. To truly praise God is to serve God with body, mind, and spirit, gladly.

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing.

These things are wrapped together in one thing. And if our praising of God is going to be real, and if we're going to come before the Lord with singing, if we're going to really make a joyful noise to Him that's not sinning, then we're going to have to be serving Him with gladness. Revelation 3, And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, The words of him who hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know your works.

You have the name of being alive and you are dead. Awake and strengthen that which remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Okay, the church in Sardis had a reputation of being alive.

And if you went to one of their gatherings, one of their meetings, you would doubtless have been impressed with a beautiful worship, wonderful praises of God going up there, only those praises were empty because the Lord had not found their works perfect in the sight of his God. And the reason the works weren't perfect was they were not wholehearted. They were not glad.

Otherwise, you had a hard time finding people in that church in Sardis to do the humdrum job, the monotonous job, the thankless thing. You can get people to pin themselves down anymore, you know, to do the things that are going to have to be done day after day or week after week. But what else is praise of God but that? To praise God is to offer your body as a living sacrifice to God, to be spent in the monotonous, the thankless, the glorious tasks without ever grumbling.

Oh, I've been so faithful with the Lord. You know, we think in our hearts, I've been faithful with him. Nobody appreciates what I'm doing.

And every time I turn around, I get a kick in the teeth. You know, what kind of praise is that? And yet we all think like that. Brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship, your praise.

How did Jesus live to the praise of his Father? By emptying himself of his glory, coming down in the form of a man, serving obediently even unto death. That was his praise of God. And how does the apostle Paul live to the praise of God? Through great endurance in afflictions, hardships, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, fastings.

So when we're asking God to give us a spirit of praise, we need to understand that that spirit of praise isn't just emotion, but it's a spirit that is willing to serve him with gladness. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lambs. Go ahead, do it.

Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. We also have to get clear in our minds what we're really asking for when we're asking God for laborers.

God, give us laborers. And right away we picture 50 people lined up over there on the other side next Saturday to go out on the streets. All kinds of volunteers for the nursery, more than we can handle.

Food for the potlucks that's coming out our ears. People willing to scrub floors and do all the cleaning that needs to be done. We picture volunteers on the left and the right, drivers who are as steady as a clock.

Men and women going out through the city with a gospel. People who go down and help Bruce and Marlene English. And by the way, when I was talking about that other, the financial thing, it's not just for here.

It makes it possible for us to support Bruce and Marlene in Bolivia, full support. Al Freudenberg and Marlene in New Guinea, partial support. Sister Lee down in the catacombs.

All these things become possible. You see, now we're going to give them laborers. We're going to send people here and there and everywhere.

And we're going to open up five more catacombs all over the city. Now, all those things might happen if we ask God for laborers and really mean business. But the true laborers in the kingdom of God are the men and women who are absolutely on fire in their hearts with thanksgiving to God for his goodness.

Jesus says, Terah ye in the city of Jerusalem until you receive power from on high. And they remain in Jerusalem when the power from on high came, the Holy Spirit. The first thing that happens is that the Spirit gives them utterance and they're proclaiming the wonderful words of God, praising him, thanking him, giving testimony to those words.

And then they go out into the harvest. Who are the people, the men and women, who really are getting the job done? They are the ones who have first learned to come into God's gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise, who know in their hearts how to be thankful unto him and bless his name. There are laborers among the believers in the church who are very diligent and they're steady, but they never sing and they almost never smile.

And they're very serious about themselves. Well, somebody has to do some work around here. And after a while, after a while, sometimes a long while, they collapse with exhaustion.

On the other hand, there are laborers who are also very diligent, but they're always singing, constantly renewing themselves before God. And you absolutely cannot wear them out. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

What does it mean to wait on the Lord? It means to praise him. That's all. Revelation 4. Round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind.

The first living creature, like a lion, the second living creature, like an ox, the third living creature, with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature, like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to sing. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.

Were these four living creatures, are these four living creatures who are still doing it, wasting time? You know, all they do is sit around praising God day and night, and we have to do the work? No. Through those four living creatures and others like them, the Lord Jesus holds his whole universe together. On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death shall not prevail against it.

And he is indeed building his church all over the earth today. More obviously and dramatically than has ever been seen since the beginning of the church, Pentecost. And he is building it here.

And the fact that some of us, perhaps all of us, are bringing before God these two needs is evidence that it's his Spirit himself that is inspiring us to pray these things. And you can be absolutely sure that in the coming days two things are going to be given to this assembly. First, a spirit of praise, such as we've never seen before, that will manifest itself in glad service to God.

God grant that our hearts may be open to that spirit as it moves. And secondly, we will see laborers, an army of laborers, who will joyfully live and die to God's praise. God grant that we may be found among them, because they're going to be here.

Let's pray.