Thank you, Lord. Would you bow your heads as we pray? Oh, Lord, you are worthy, Lord. And we thank you last week, Lord. Pastor spoke about rejoicing, and this week we get to learn about worship. Lord, so let us rejoice and be glad that we're relying on you, Lord. We thank you so much for our time in your word. Would You speak to us, Lord, and clear our minds and our bodies from any type of distraction, Lord, that we may hear clearly what it is that You have for us this morning, Lord. So we thank You. We love You. We ask these things in Your name only, Jesus, we say amen. Amen and amen and good morning and welcome. And you can be seated. Thank you. So glad you're here. Those of you online, we're so glad you're joining with us. Before we jump in though, I want to let you know that this Tuesday, 7 p.m. is our prayer meeting. The date is April 1st. Forget what Max said about that. I'm going to try to word this differently than first service. I will do my best to do a brief teaching. That still didn't work. And listen to the title, What Happens When I Don't Pray. Isn't that a terrible title? Because the inference is that something's going to happen when I don't pray. What's going to happen when I don't pray? You'll have to come on Tuesday night, 7 p.m., and you'll find out. And I'll try to be brief. Keyword, try see if I can. So last week, thank you Jesus, we finished with the fall of Babylon at the end of chapter 18. And as such we commence with chapter 19 and our text is going to be verses one through six, amazing verses. So I know a lot of you are more comfortable sitting for the reading of God's Word, but scripturally there's a reverence and standing for the reading of God's Word. If you're able to stand, I'll invite you to do so at this time. If not, no worries. Just follow along as I read, beginning in verse 1. John now is writing by the Holy Spirit what he is seeing in the heavenly scene. And he writes, verse 1, After this I heard was sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, For true and just are His judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of His servants. And again, verse three, they shouted, we okay? Hallelujah. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever. Hallelujah. Yeah. Verse four. We're not done yet. The 24 elders and the four living creations, as I prefer to refer to them, fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne. And they cried, Amen. Hallelujah. Then verse five, a voice came from the throne saying, Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, both great and small. Then verse six, I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder, shouting Hallelujah. And I love this, for our Lord God Almighty reigns. Chicken skin. Let's pray. I think we need to pray. I know I do. Oh Lord, this is fantastic. This is what awaits us. Oh Lord, this is too high for our understanding, but we have it here in Your Word before us today. So Lord, will You, as only You can, take this text, lift it off the pages of our Bibles or the screens on our devices, and by the Holy Spirit grab our attention and hold our attention so our minds don't wander. We don't want to be robbed of the glorious riches that You inspired John to write and preserved in the canon of Scripture for us, 2000 years later, to be blessed and encouraged by, to be edified with, to be strengthened with. Please Lord don't let anyone, myself included, leave here today without having heard a word from You to us. Speak Lord. Your servants are listening, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. You can be seated. Thank you so much. So what I want to talk with you about today is how praising and worshiping God, which by the way, we were created to worship God. How praising and worshiping God affects us as believers, the effect that it has on us. In the text that we have in front of us today, we see this heavenly scene, thankfully. But in it we also see the effect on the heavenly host, who shout and cry loudly, hallelujah, hallelujah, means simply praise the Lord. Did you know that? You learn something new every day. Now, certainly as Coppono just so beautifully led us in worship, he is worthy. Worthy is the lamb. In fact, that's where the word worship comes from, worth ship. He is worthy of all of our worship and praise and glory and honor. But there's more to it than that. Because see, God in His love for us, His grace to us, His mercy on us, knows of the effect that praising Him and worshiping Him will have on us. You'll forgive me for the emphasizing of shouting loudly. Hallelujah. I don't know. Did you, did you count? I'll do it for you. Four times in six verses. Hallelujah. And it's not, it's not one of these, hallelujah, praise the Lord, He is worthy of all of our praise. No. The reason I'm, let me have this one. Okay. The reason I'm emphasizing the loud, you know, there's the strong silent type. That's not me. I don't mean to be disrespectful of pastors who are soft spoken. I'm just not one of those, in case you haven't noticed. But the shouting, praise and worship. Now this is when we are in heaven, and it will be such that we will not be able to contain ourselves. It's, there's no, I'm getting ahead of myself. Actually, there's something I need to mention here. This is probably as good of a time as any. You know, I, oftentimes am asked to put it nicely, more like blasted actually, for being loud, you know, and yelling. It is a custom in my country. But actually it's more that Sometimes as I teach God's Word, which I am profoundly privileged to do, there's such a passion that wells up within me. I just can't contain it. It's like Jeremiah chapter 20 when he tries to tender his resignation. I think this is like the third time he tries to quit. I said, God, I've had it. God's like, wait a minute, you're a slave. Slaves can't quit. So he shreds the, you know, letter of resignation and says, But it's really interesting because Jeremiah and God are having this dialogue, and Jeremiah is actually upset. He's like, God, You kind of, You didn't go over the fine print with me, the terms of service, the terms of agreement. You know, not that some of your translations, I think, render it poorly. It's not that you deceive me, God. It's that You didn't fully disclose to me God what, but He did in chapter one. Jeremiah, this is what I'm calling you to. And by the way, you will have no one in your church. And nobody's going to come to a saving knowledge of the true living God. But you're still going to keep your hands to the plow, remain faithful and steadfast. And you're going to preach the words that I put on your lips. You're going to have death threats. People are going to throw you into a pit and leave you there to die. But you're going to keep on keeping on. So in chapter 20, he's gone through so much already. In fact, there's a contract, another hit out on him to take his life. So he's like, you know, I'm getting too old for this. So he's entering into this dialogue with God. And then he says, you know, you didn't necessarily on my terms give me a full disclosure of your terms. But he really did, because it's never on our terms, right? It's always on God's terms. But here's the thing, you prevailed over me. How so Jeremiah? Did God prevail over you? Oh, He put a fire in you. And even if you wanted to, you could not keep it in. It burns and it has to come out and you can't contain it. And he went forth and finished well. and remain steadfast. Now why do I go into all that? Because I love Jeremiah. For those of you that were with us through our verse by verse study in Jeremiah, oh my goodness, the weeping prophet, they call him that for good reason, you know. The reason I'm talking about Jeremiah in this context is because, you know, some people are just more passionate than others. As I sheepishly raise my hand. I mean, God uses all kinds of personalities. I mean, look at your pastor for crying out loud. Are you kidding me? And He does so because in the end He's the one that gets the glory. Because when you look at someone like me with a personality like mine, you think it has to be God. It's not Him. He doesn't even have a resume. So God gets all the glory. He chooses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and the weak to shame the strong. So even if I wanted to, I can't take any credit. But I stand before you as again, it is my profound privilege to say to you that God will speak through, if He could speak through a donkey, in Numbers 22, He could speak through an Arab donkey. One more thing, and I so appreciate the song that Capone wrote, he's going to have to write another one on chapter 19. This was out of chapter 12. But this heavenly praise and worship is intense and passionate, and there's no holding it in, and there's no holding it back. It burns. You have to let it out and shout. Yeah, listen, I get the emails from the Proverbs. A soft answer, a gentle word breaks a bone. So I've got my own Proverbs, you know, that I just don't respond. I used to. I'm just, I don't have the energy anymore. I like to think it's spiritual maturity. It's not. It's just age and lack of energy. But what I want to, before we move forward, and we will, what I want to, just from my heart to yours, share with you is that when I get behind this pulpit in the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, I would be grossly remiss to try to grieve the Holy Spirit, because for some strange reason God has chosen me with my personality, my cultural passion. I remember as a little boy, I couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old. And Arabic was the language my mom and dad would speak in the home. And Arabic is a rough language, you know. I mean, here's greetings in Arabic. Marhaba. What did you call me? Now contrast that with French. Voulez-vous avoir. Oh, thank you. I just cursed you. It's just such a smooth language. But everything, you've got to clear your throat and spit on people when you're speaking Arabic. It's like German. It's a rough language. I remember going to my mom saying, Mommy, why are you and Baba always fighting all the time? She says, Oh no, Habibi, it's just the language. We're not fighting. We're talking. I'm like, I don't want to learn Arabic, because it sounds like, because it's an intense, passionate. Hey, by the way, it's not just the Arabs. How about you Italianos? You will speak with your hands. You're a passionate people. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. That's what I'm trying to say. I just, I'm not being true to who I am and who God has called me to be. If I try to tone it down, make it a little bit, you know, softer around the edges, sound more pastoral. No, sometimes, you know what? There needs to be some more shouting. loud shall I? Well, one might ask. So this passage is a description of how we'll praise and worship God in heaven. But what about here and now while still on earth? You ready for the answer? Why wait? Praise the Lord now. If for no other reason other than the effect as we're going to see, the powerful effect it has on us, on earth. Besides, some of you need some practice. Sorry. Here's where I'm going with this, and then we'll get into this. The reason why praising God and worshiping God has such a powerful impact on us, there are many reasons, not the least of which is that, as I mentioned, God, I want you to think this through, God created us for eternity, not time. God created us for Him to worship Him for all eternity. That's why we were created in His image. So God created us for eternity to praise and worship Him for all eternity. What I want us to do is just look at three. There are numerous and glorious others, but just three effects. that our praising and worshiping of God has on us, here and now, as we wait for that trumpet sound, which could be any time now. The first one, verses one and two, it affects our soul. John hears what he likens to the roar of a great multitude, shouting, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to, notice, our God. Don't you find it striking that we call it the Lord's Prayer? It's not actually the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is in John 17, but it's the model for prayer. When the disciples asked Jesus, Lord teach us how to pray, which is interesting, because I would have totally asked Jesus to teach me how to preach. Why do they ask Him to teach them how to pray? Because they saw firsthand the power of His prayer life. The many times He would go off by Himself and pray to the Father, and the power that would ensue, the miracles that would ensue. And they know that that's the power source, and they want that power source, teach us to pray. And don't you find it interesting that what we call the Lord's Prayer, which isn't the Lord's Prayer. It's our Father, which art in heaven, and not my Father, which art in heaven. In other words, the Lord, our God. He's my God. He's your God. He's our God. And all the glory and power and salvation belong to our God. And this effect is not only due to the salvation of our souls. Understand the soul is the person, the personality, the idiosyncrasies, the emotions, the But they're praising and worshiping and shouting because not only the salvation of our souls, but God's condemnation of the other souls. What other souls? The unrighteous, the wicked. And notice it's true, it's righteous, it's just. Why? Because you're avenging your people. That's just. That's justice. You've meted out just justice. So we're praising and glorifying and worshiping our God because He saved our souls and rightly and justly meted out judgment. against the other souls. If you're anything like me, and I pray you're not, because I'll pray for you if you are. But I struggle. By the way, we're going to see this Thursday. Habakkuk, you can pronounce it, Habakkuk, whatever you want. I don't think it's a cook, but you can pronounce it if you want. Chapter one, this Thursday, communion two. I've titled the expositional teaching of chapter one, I don't know what God is doing, but God does. And here's why. This is all you're getting out of me. So, spoiler alert, Habakkuk is really struggling. He's asking the Lord questions like, how long are you going to let them get away with this? Kind of reminiscent of Asaph in Psalm 73, which we've talked about on numerous occasions. I suppose you could call it a crisis of faith. But understand that a crisis of faith is not necessarily that you doubt and start losing your faith. No, a crisis of faith can be because you have faith. And you know that God just with the, He doesn't even need to snap His fingers or click His mouse. He doesn't need a mouse. He effortlessly, instantly could change the circumstances, but doesn't. And you know He can, but He won't. Why not? What's taking you so long? Why won't you do it? Oh Habakkuk, I love you man. You don't know what I'm doing, do you? No, don't worry. I know what I'm doing. And actually because I love you so much, I'm going to let you in on it. You're on a need to know basis, because if I let you in on too much, I know you too well. You will try to help me out. Oh come on, Let's be honest with ourselves. If we knew what God was doing, we would want to jump in, roll up our arm sleeves. All right, let's go. Let's do this, God. God's going no, no, no, no, no. You want to help me? Don't help me. You're going to make it worse. Ask Peter. You're going to have Malchus's ears all over the place. Bloody mess. Taking matters into your own hands, fighting a spiritual battle with carnal weaponry. No, just stay out of my way and just watch what I'm going to do. Okay, that's all you're getting out of me. That's Thursday night. You have to come Thursday night for the rest of it. Here's the takeaway. I want, and again, let me rephrase it this way. Please use your God given intellect and you have a God given intellect. and process what I'm about to share with you through a biblical lens and worldview. Okay, you ready? Our eternal life began when we believed and put our trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins at the time our souls were saved and we were born again. Have you ever thought about that? So for me it's been 43 years. My eternal life began 43 years ago. So what's your point, Pastor? My point is this, If your eternal life began when you were born again of the Spirit of God, why aren't you praising and worshiping Him now? It will have a profound impact on your soul, your emotions, just the attitude of gratitude. Why do you think Paul in his letter to the church in Philippi, Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 through 8 writes that you want to worry about no thing, thank God for anything, and pray about everything. And the peace of God from the God of peace will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And then Stop thinking like that. Think on these things. Whatsoever things are pure and peaceable and of a good report. You got stinking thinking. You need a checkup from the neck up. Because the Proverbs say, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Well, we're kind of tying into the second one, which is in verses three and four. And it's that of the effect on our body. Now, it's important to note that the church is represented by the 24 elders. We already went through that prior. I won't take the time to go back over that. But we, along with the four living creations, watch this, we just fall down. And we start crying. And this isn't just a whimper. We're wailing, crying out loudly, Amen, Hallelujah. You know what Amen means? That's not a good, I'll give you the answer. So be it. So be it. Praise the Lord. And we're on, we're on our face. This isn't something like, you know, there's a worship leader up there. And hey, you guys bow down, you know, throw yourselves down to the ground and worship your God. No, this is, this is a an intense reaction, bodily reaction, in our praising and worshiping of God. In fact, if you want, go back through Scripture in your time in God's Word, and what you'll find is that any time there was an encounter Whether it was Isaiah, Moses, Peter. Remember when he said, get away from me. I'm a sinner. I'm a filthy man. I'm a wretch. Isaiah, get away from me. I'm a man of unclean lips. Take the coal, cleanse my lips. This is just the response bodily when we're in the presence. praising and worshiping our God. What if I told you that there are studies, I don't know, these people make their whole living off the grants, and they keep getting and applying for more grants. And they study, you know, things like how jellyfish work on a treadmill. And I'm not kidding. Actually, there's a weird one like that. But You know, you hear these, you know, research has found, experts have found, research has discovered that when you meditate, not that, your blood pressure comes down, your heart rate settles down. Everything changes. The physiological effects, when we praise and worship God, it's not just physically, it's mentally. Example, I've used this. I'll kind of freshen it up a little bit. For those of you that have heard it 110 times, just consider the new people. Be considerate of the new people, will you? So you know, you come on a Thursday night, especially a Thursday, right? You're tired. And then you make the fatal mistake of having a big dinner before. And a drowsiness, an other world drowsiness settles in upon you, the likes of which you have never experienced before. And here's what goes through your mind concerning your tired body. You know, I think I'll just watch online. That's okay if you're online. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. But it's not the same. So you, you know, you're kind of drugged, not drugged, you drag. That's even a bad word too now. Where do I go with this one? You push past it and say, no, I'm going to go. You're tired. You're beat tired. You've had one of the worst days at work. Everybody's fighting with everybody. Your inbox is full, your mailbox is full, and they're all bills. And he said, you know what, I'm just going to go. So you get in the car, start driving. Don't fall asleep driving. You pull in. Someone took your parking spot. Your sanctification flees from you. So again, whatever, I'll park over here, as you write down the license plate number. So then you, you know, come into the church and someone took your seat. Oh, this is bad. I knew I should have stayed home. Well, I'll just sit over here and give you stink eye. And then Capone comes up and he starts leading us in worship. And everything changes. This has happened to me and I've confessed this. I've repented. So please don't look at me like some of you are looking at me. You know, I'm a busy guy, just like everybody else. And Thursday about three o'clock it hits. I've been expecting you. Yep, right on schedule, 3 p.m. Man, I think I'll just watch online. Then I realize, wait a minute, I'm the pastor. I can't. I'm the one teaching the Bible study. I have to go. So what do I do? I do what I don't feel like doing. Now stay with me on this. You, the last thing you feel like doing is praising and worshiping God. That's the best thing you can do when it's the last thing you feel like doing. The feelings follow. If you wait until you feel like it, how's that working out for you? Hey, I'll praise the Lord when I feel like it. What year is this? No, you know, I just, I'll praise and worship. I'll go to church when I feel like it. Maybe the last time you've been in church was a year ago then, because that was the last time you felt like it. Oh, so we're living and walking with the Lord by feelings, not by faith. All the righteous shall live by faith. So you start worshiping. And this is a fact, by the way, because research has found. This is for guys. Women, wives, please don't elbow your husbands. You know, guys, your testosterone level raises by 30% when you raise your hands. So I'm going to preach the rest of the sermon with my hands raised up. 30%? Listen, dude, I'll take all the testosterone I can get, you know. Here's another one for you guys. Women, just wait. Your turn is coming. I don't know when, but it will. Here's another one for you. They're very interesting. I learned this many years ago. You know how the difference in the brains between women and men? That's by God's design, right? Because if you were both the same, one of you would be unnecessary. So the women use the left side of the brain, men use the right side of the brain. You have your exceptions, obviously. Did you know that when you sing, guys, you're using both parts of your brain? How's that one? One more. And I'll just be personal and open with this. I've gone through things in my life over the years where the bottom fell out and I was just laid out. And there wasn't any shouting or yelling. And some of you are thinking, wow, I wish that were the case now. But I'm just only, barely a moan. The tear ducts long ago dried up. There's no more even liquid prayers. These are just cries of the heart. And on one particular occasion when I was just so downcast, I just was prompted by the Holy Spirit to just start praising God. And being the godly man of faith and prayer and praise that I am, My response was, really? I'm in the fetal position. Are you kidding me? No, I know you don't feel like it, but just praise me and watch what happens. So you know these God given hormones and chemicals in the brain, endorphins. I have yet to meet an endorphin. I've heard about them. serotonin, you know, the melatonin actually, that's the dark one that makes you tired. Serotonin wakens you up when sunlight enters in through the eyes. Dopamine, adrenaline, et al, all the above, those are all God given. And when we worship as we were created to, our God, All of that activates. All of a sudden now, we've got some dopamine going on, and the neurotransmitters are firing. Why? Because God, did you know that God wired our brains for music? Research has found No, true story. They did a study on the effects of having no music. So they for 30 days would monitor, make sure he didn't whistle or sing or hum. No music at all. He almost went insane. They had to stop the study. Think about that one. God created us for music. Music is very powerful. whether for evil or for good. Now I happen to have come to Christ at age 19 because of satanic music. When I realized that Satan was real, I concluded that Jesus had to be real. And On a cold winter night in January of 1982, I went into my room. I had two roommates at the time, and I'm not proud of this. I was very stoned, very intoxicated, very inebriated. And I slurred my prayer, and I fell asleep praying, I don't want to go on the highway to hell. I want to go to heaven. You know, I woke up the next morning, a new creation, in Christ. Old things had passed away. Behold, all things have become new. I would start my day with all the usual. I went to reach for Him, but now I've got the Holy Spirit inside of me. You don't need that anymore. And I know it's different for everybody. How dramatic the experience is does not determine the authenticity. But for me it was pretty dramatic. I mean, it was like boom. And I never looked back. And all of those things that I tried to quit with my own willpower. That's it. As of today. Okay, starting tomorrow. You know what I'm talking about, right? And when I had the Holy Spirit in me, because that's how we live a holy life. Holy Spirit, Holy Light. Now He indwells within me. He lives in me. And He empowers me and enables me to be holy as He is holy. I have God the Holy Spirit living inside of me. So do you if you're born again. How cool is that? This is talking about mentally. All of a sudden now you go from, you know, that doxology, that classic timeless doxology of all praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Wow, that's the best you got? No. It might start that way, and that's okay. But as you worship, and we're going to see this in a minute, as you worship our Lord God Almighty who reigns, it ruins you. And everybody's looking at you, because you're raising your hands with your sweat stains underneath. And you're singing loud and everybody's looking at you because you can't sing. So you just tell them, I'm just told to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. I don't know how joyful it is, but it sure is noisy. Whatever. But it's not for you. It's for Him. So get out of my face. You have to be blunt like that. That's, you know, mean. I don't mean to be mean. I don't have to try. I already usually am. So, but wait a minute. So the changes start taking place physically and mentally, in my brain and in my body. All of a sudden where did this new burst of energy come from? The power of the Holy Spirit. earlier, I was ready to lie down and just go to bed early. I could use a good night's sleep. And now I'm here screaming and making a not so joyful noise unto the Lord, and everybody's looking at me, and my hands are up in the air, but my testosterone is up too. Are you even the same person? No, because a change has taken place. What happened? I'm doing that which I was created to do. Worship Him. You know that saying, Father knows best. We use that on our kids, right? That's really old and really tired. I hope you don't still use it. It doesn't work anymore. I tried, trust me. Father knows best. Well, our Heavenly Father knows what's best for us. Body, soul, and this next one and last one, spirit in verses five and six. Listen, this might seem like a nice sermon in a can, three points, nicely packaged, body, soul, spirit. But do you realize that when we're told that we're created in the image of God, we are triune in nature? God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, body, soul, spirit. Best illustration is that of a light bulb. I use it sometimes in internments or memorial services, because the big question, especially on the non-believers mind, is what happens when you die? What we're told in Scripture to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in spirit. So you've got the light bulb, triune in nature. You've got the bulb, you've got the light, and you have the electricity source. So when a person dies, they're deceased. When that light bulb burns out, it's ceased. You take it out and you throw it out, dust to dust. That's the body. It goes back to where it was created. Do you realize, and this isn't research as found, This is more like biblical truth. The 17 elements in the dust of the earth are the same exact 17 elements in the flesh and blood and bones of our bodies. Did you know that? God created Adam out of the dust, literally, the same 17 elements. And then He breathed His Spirit into him and gave him life. Okay, so now back to the light bulb illustration. And by the way, if you've got a better one, please let me know. So we take that bulb, the body, and we put it in the rubbish, and it goes back into the ground from where it came, dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Where does electricity go? The Spirit, back to its source. If born again of the Spirit of God, you're absent from that body, but present in spirit with the Lord. If you're not born again of the Spirit of God, I shudder in terror and fear and trembling. But it's the truth. You will spend all eternity in hell. There's no in between. I was mentioning at the prophecy update for service that there are only two people on this earth. There are only two kinds of people in this world. And no, they're not Republican or Democrat. They're either lost or saved. That's it. And at the end of the day, at the end of time, that's the only thing that's going to matter. When you take your last breath in this life and your first breath in eternity, the only thing that will matter is, are you saved or are you lost? So we get saved. We're born again of the Spirit of God. Jesus said, you want Me to go? The disciples were struggling with this. He told them, I have to go. You have to let Me go. If you don't let Me go, I can't send you the Holy Spirit. Yeah, but you've been with us. No, now I'm going to be in you, not just with you. So what do you want? I mean, you want Me to stick around, be with you? Or would you rather have God, the Holy Spirit indwelling in you all the time? It's kind of a no brainer. You're trying to settle them down, calm them down. He's days away from the cross, and they're freaking out. No, don't go. No, you want me to go. Because when I go, I will send you the comforter, the para, alongside parachute, para legal, indwell you and fill you to overflowing upon. Three different Greek prepositions for the description of the work of the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to go into that, nor do I have the time. But here's the point. It has such a powerful effect on our spirit. which bears witness with His Spirit as children of God. When John says that a voice came from the throne, saying, now this is from the throne, Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, great and small. And then he likens this to the roar of rushing waters, stop right there, that alone, That's terrifying. Rushing waters, now if that doesn't get you, how about the next one? And loud, loud peals of thunder. I know people who, when there's lightning and thunder, they become like a little baby. Oh, sorry, maybe I struck a chord. You know who you are. I won't look at anybody again. I mean, it's just earth shaking, almost. I mean, it's so loud. It's so unnerving and unsettling. And this is what John is describing. And this is likened to this. And they're shouting again. Can't you ever stop yelling? Hallelujah. for our Lord God Almighty reigns. And they're shouting this with all of their heart and all of their soul and all of their minds and all of their glorified bodies and all of their strength and all of their being. You don't think that's going to lift your spirit up? It's not, I don't, in any way wish to be dismissive of anyone who is really going through a difficult time right now. I think about David and the Psalms, 42 and 43. Some believe they're one Psalm, which are Psalms, which we're going to talk about in a moment. But they're one Psalm split into two chapters, 42 and 43. And David is having a talk with himself, not self-talk, He's like, sit down boy, we need to talk. Why are you so downcast? Why is your spirit so down? Trust God. You shall yet again have reason to shout Hallelujah. and praise our Lord God Almighty who reigns. Listen, I mean, just in my preparing for today's sermon, just my notes, I was getting chicken skin. And I haven't even gotten up to the pulpit yet. And I started praying for you because man, anybody that's going to be there today, they're going to get me yelling again and shouting and But you know what that does to you, to your spirit? Listen, if you're discouraged, downcast, you're struggling, you're going through the trial of your life. God, the Holy Spirit in us lifts up our downcast spirit for us. And it comes when we praise and worship Him, which we were created to do for all eternity, especially when we don't feel like it. And by the way, I don't think the enemy is not behind it either, you know. That's why it is when you go to pray, the phone rings, the emails come in, someone's at the door. It's always the wrong address, wrong number, wrong Because see, Satan knows that a Christian in prayer, he's a defeated foe and he runs and he flees. He will do everything and stop at nothing to get a Christian from praying and praising God, praying to God and praising and worshiping of God. Because he knows that spells his defeat. He just doesn't want us to know that. So back to this personal experience, I just hold myself up. I started off slow. I just put on some worship music that exalted the name of Jesus. I qualify it, because not all worship music does. In fact, sometimes you'd be hard pressed to find even the name of Jesus in some of these new songs. So now I turn up the volume. I don't care about the neighbors. And all of a sudden I just, I just let it begin to kind of fill my heart. And then I start singing along. And it wasn't very long. before I'm just praising the Lord. Moments ago I was in the fetal position. Now I'm standing up praising God. But the feelings follow. The feelings follow. If You'll kindly allow me to, I'll close with just three psalms. You know Psalms are songs, right? Yeah, good. And I selected these three in this order for a reason. I think you'll see why. But they speak to the powerful effect that praising and worshiping God has on us, body, soul, mind, spirit. Starting with Psalm 22, three, listen carefully. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Wait, some of your translations might render it in thrones, inhabits, indwells, the praises of His people. In other words, when we praise God two or more, He's in our midst. He inhabits our praises. He's present here right now. So I don't want to get, you know, weird on, don't get weird on me. But He inhabits the praises of His people. So when I start praising Him, He enthrones Himself and inhabits the praise that I offer Him. Now He's present with me. He's not just indwelling me by the Holy Spirit. He's present with me, inhabiting my praises. Now watch this, Psalm 1611. You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Wait, so He's now present, inhabiting my praises and dwelling and throning. He's present. And now in His presence is found fullness of joy. Oh, that's why. That's why. And pleasures forevermore. The last one, Psalm 30, 11 and 12. This seals the deal. Listen to this. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. I don't think you got it. I'm going to have to try that again. I was just in the fetal position. Now I'm dancing and praising You, God. Only You could do that. How did You do that? By praising and worshiping You, because You inhabit into all my praises, and You're present there. And as I praise You, You change me, turn for me my mourning, my despair, my discouragement. I think of David dancing when they brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, and he takes off his royal garments, and he's dancing, and only to go home to his wife. That's another story for another time. Oh, you know the story. All right, I'll just leave it at that then. But I mean, he was no holding back. I mean, he was just dancing unto the Lord. Hallelujah. Made a fool of himself. for his God. And then it gets better. We're almost done. You have put off my sackcloth, a outward symbol of mourning and sorrow and grief, and clothed me with gladness. That's a good deal. I'm wearing this gunny sack, sackcloth, itches And you're going to say, let me give you a change of clothes. And instead of being clothed with sorrow, let me clothe you with gladness. Let's do it. And then verse 12, To the end that my glory may sing praise to You. And not be silent. Stop keeping it in. Stop remaining silent. Don't care about what the person in the other lane thinks about you at the stoplight. Praise the Lord. What are they going to do, turn you in? Think you're crazy? They already think you're crazy. Praise the Lord, man. I'm talking to God all the time in the car, especially in traffic. I've already confessed that one too. You know, just can I please get a parking spot at Costco Evie Lay. Please God, just I don't want to have to park in Y and I. Yeah. Okay. You have the right to remain silent? No, you have no right to remain silent in light of what God has done for you. Praise Him. Oh Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever, forever. Oh, I want to do that. You can. Just stop yelling. I can't. I want to, I want my praise to God to Which, by the way, if he's going to inhabit it, and dwell it, and throne it, and his presence is there, and his presence is fullness of joy, joyful, and he's going to change out my clothing from sorrow to gladness and fullness of joy, we're clothed in Christ's righteousness. garments of praise. And we're silent when it comes to giving Him thanks for that. I'm going to end. Don't look at your watches yet. I just have a question, and I ask it of myself too. Lord knows my heart on this one. When was the last time you just praised, worshiped, and thanked God? without asking Him for anything. Just thanking Him for everything. I'm going to just leave that between you and the Holy Spirit. But what, here's what you'll find. Once you start down that list of everything that you can thank God for, starting with your salvation, the joy of your salvation returning. What you're going to find is that list is virtually endless. And when Paul says that your heart and mind, notice he doesn't go mind and heart, your heart and mind. He's going to go over your head to your heart. Keep your heart and mind at peace, the peace of God from the God of peace. It's like Isaiah who says, he whose mind is stayed on You, He will keep him in perfect peace. Maybe you need look no further than this for the reason as to why you haven't had any joy. It's not a got to, it's a get to. You know, this whole thing about quiet times, devotionals. I stay away from those cliche words and labels, but just time with God. Just think about it as a fallen earthly parent. If your child came up to you and said, okay, I've got to spend time with you. Let's get this over with. You're like, that's a word, by the way. No, thank you. Not like that. No, it's, oh, what a privilege it is. It's a get to, not a got to. You realize we have unfettered access to the Creator of the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is any time and we won't get voicemail? And we don't avail ourselves of that. That's on us. And I think we pay a heavy price. The happiest, Spirit filled, joy filled Christians are the ones who praise and worship and thank our Lord God Almighty who reigns. Hallelujah. Come on up Capone, I want you to stand up. Thank you for your patience with me. We'll close in prayer and song. I see some guys need some testosterone, so we'll pray for you too. I need it more. Father, thank You. Oh God. Oh Lord. Oh, thank You for this. We needed this. I needed this. What a much needed reminder. We get so caught up in the busyness of our lives, the cares and the affairs of this world, we forget, man, we're saved. We're going to be there before Your throne, falling down before You, casting our crowns down before You, shouting loudly, praising, worthy, worthy, worthy, holy, holy, holy, hallelujah. Lord, would You help us now? because we're still here. We want to be there. So until we get there, while we're still here, will You please help us, empower us to worship You like this? In Jesus' name,