Amen. Oh, Father God, we love you, Lord. God, we're so thankful for you, Lord. God, I just come to you this morning with a grateful and a thankful heart, Lord. Lord, that we can just be in your house this morning, God. Lord, that we can worship in your name. Lord, I want to thank you for Brother Daniel, God. Lord, I want to thank you for this church, God. Lord, I want to thank you for what you did at Calvary, God. Lord, that you'd save an old wretched sinner like me, God. Lord, you had to reach way down for me, God, but I'm glad you did, Lord. I'm glad you came and got me where I was, Lord. Lord, I'm faithful that you're my shepherd, God, that you're my father, Lord, that you left the 99 to come get me, God. Lord, I want to thank you for that this morning, Lord. God, I thank you for Calvary, Lord. God, I ask that you would bless this service this morning, God. Lord, that you would bless that suit, Lord. God, that you'd bless the man who's going to wear it, God. Lord, touch Brother Tyler, God. Lord, that you'd fill him with the Holy Ghost, God. Lord, that you'd let him preach your word everywhere he goes, God. Lord, that he'd be a witness and a testimony for you, God. Lord, I'm thankful for his friendship, God. I'm thankful for the man he is, for the stand he takes, God. Lord, I'm just thankful this morning, God, for preachers, Lord. I ask that you bless every man of God in this place, Lord, that you'd put the power of the Holy Ghost on them, God. Lord, bless Brother Jason as he brings the message for this hour, God. Lord, that you just speak through him, God. Hide him behind the cross, God. Lord, get in this thing, Lord. Get so big in it today, Lord. God, help Help us to get little before the throne, Lord. Lord, that we'd see you high and lifted up, God. Lord, this world needs to see you in your rightful place, God. Lord, help us to be a witness unto you, God. Lord, I just want to thank you that you said you didn't have with the praise of your people, God. Lord, we just wanna praise you this morning, God. Lord, all of this is in vain unless you get in the middle of it, God. Lord, unless you come down, Lord. We're seeking to see your face this morning, God. Lord, we're seeking after you, Lord. Lord, help us to follow after you, God. Lord, I ask that you bless the service, God. Bless Brother Daniel, bless this church. Bless Brother Jason as he preaches the word, God. Oh, Lord, have your way, God. Lord, help us to get pride and jealousy and self out of this whole thing, God. Lord, that we'd humble ourselves before the throne, God. Lord, that we would see you work, God, like never before. Lord, that we would see your power and all of its might, God. the power of the Holy Ghost in this place, God. Lord, I'm just going to go ahead and thank you for all that you do this morning, God. Lord, if there's one here that doesn't know you, God. Lord, help them to come to know you before it's everlasting too late, God. Lord, people are searching for things, God. Lord, in all the wrong places, God. But if they're here this morning, they done showed up to the right place, God. Lord, I ask that you would touch their heart, God. Lord, put them under conviction, Lord. God, I ask that you would let revival spread, Lord. God, we need revival in our churches, God. Lord, that you'd touch every man of God that's represented the church here this morning, God. Lord, that you'd let Revival spread, God. Lord, I ask that you be with Brother Daniel, God, as he gets ready to come up to our church, God. Lord, that he bring the message as needed for the hour, God. Lord, bless him in a mighty way, God. Lord, bless this church, Lord. Bless this community, God. Lord, bless these people, Lord. Lord, we love you this morning, God. We're thankful for you, Lord. Lord, I praise your name this morning. In Jesus' name I pray. Oh, it's a name like no other name. Oh, there is none higher. Lord, we love you. And amen. I think he was enjoying that. Brother Jason, you believe a man ought to improvise? You believe a man ought to be able to improvise? Okay, let's all stand. I don't want any music here. I want him to lead Amazing Grace a little bit line singing. It means you go, amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Then wait, and everybody, oh, amazing. Like the friendly babies used to. Come on up here. You can't be from West Virginia and not know line singing. You know what, Terry, do you know how to do that? Come on, Terry. Come on and help him, Terry. Amen. I love this. Now, you gotta repeat what he's saying. Get up here, Jason. Don't you bail out now. Then you sing it. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ You gotta sing it. ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ Okay. Sing it now. ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ I once was lost but now I'm found. That's how they sing. ♪ I once was lost but now I'm found ♪ Was blind but now I see ♪ Was blind but now I see ♪ Through many dangers, toils and snares ♪ Through many dangers, toils and snares ♪ I have already come ♪ I have already come brought me saved thus far. And grace will lead me home. Okay, let's be normal and sing it in hymns. Amen. All right, amazing grace, Yeah. Yeah. person in my church. They don't go there no more. But a while back they said, I don't like that fifth verse y'all do of amazing grace, because I don't want to be told when I'm supposed to praise. You know, the Bible says he's due your praise. You know what that means? You owe a debt this morning because what he did for you, you are due to praise him. Amen. He deserves your praise. He don't say when you feel good. He don't say when you got it Praising this morning. Praise God. Oh, praise God. Praise God. Praise God. I'm saved. I'm saved. I'm saved. I'm saved. Oh, I'm saved. Praise God. I'm saved. Praise God. I'm saved. Praise God. I'm saved. Praise God. Praise God. I'm saved. Praise God. ♪ I'm saved, praise God, praise God, I'm saved. ♪ Hey, be seated. Okay girls, they gonna sing about two. Amen. That works about anywhere, don't it? And it's sad, Brother Jay Taylor, that the most popular song in America, most recognizable, Amazing Grace, and so few even know what it means. Singing Amazing Grace trying to work their way to heaven. Singing Amazing Grace and don't even know the substitutionary death of Christ. His grace can't be earned, can't be paid for. Aren't you glad that God's made this thing? He will get all of the glory. Amen. Sing it, ladies. You came along and made me wanna shout I just wanna thank you Lord Made the good times outnumber the bad. ♪ I just wanna shout, I just wanna thank you, Lord ♪ Thank you, Lord ♪ I just wanna thank you, Lord ♪ Thank you, Lord Testing, testing, testing. ♪ Thank you, Lord, praise your name ♪ For the breath that I breathe For every blessing I receive. Please keep me humble and let me work for Thee. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you, Lord, praise your name. Thank you, Lord, for every blessing I receive. Please keep me humble and let me work for Thee. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. You save my soul, and I'm so glad. Please use me, Lord, that is my plea. Let your light shine in me, so the whole world may see. Thank you, Lord, for saving When I praised you, but I don't care what people say. Thank you, Lord, you've been so good to me. me. Please keep me humble and Lord send me. Thank you Lord for saving me. I needed you You saved my soul, and I'm so glad. Please use me, Lord, that is my plea. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Brother Ray preaching out in the First Baptist Church in Oklahoma, got up and said, we're going to preach on storehouse tithing. And that old woman went crazy shouting, praising God. that the Lord had showed her the vision of him praying between the cotton rows, and he'd be the man God had used to help bring a revival to America. She's a shoutin', no brother race said the deacons went to her, took her outside to cool her off. So brother Jason, before you get cooled off, come on up here. It's been a blessing to have him. Ain't the Lord good, go ahead. Glory. God. Oh, God. Amen. Hallelujah. Here it go. Oh, God. Oh, God. God, make me that strong. God, make me that strong. Thank God. Hallelujah. That's an order. All right. I don't believe God does anything without purpose, without a reason. No, through this Bible, you're gonna see purpose and reason and God doing things. Amen. And in your life, you're gonna see purpose and reason why God does stuff. Sometimes you won't understand it. I'm sure that wasn't your testimony as soon as that happened. Oh, but now, pray to God I'm that strong one day. Should I thank God for this wheelchair? Amen. Well, it's been a great week, amen? God's been moving. And I don't know, man, I've preached hard at you all week, and I'm just overflowing this morning, amen? And Tyler said over and over just about those messages Tyler brings out, I love them. I love how God uses men differently and he'll just bring that, all that typology and all those pictures together and it'll all come together at the end and last night, just so powerful. Talk about those names and different things in the Bible. Awesome stuff. And I 100% agree with these men that in your King James Bible, God has done all kinds of things. Names, numbers, numerology, you look at that, phenomenal. Types, symbolism, and even more. I mean, you look, this Bible is so amazing. Only a fool can say God didn't write it. Only a fool on the History Channel is going to tell you God didn't write this. I mean, on Easters, I try to preach to try to prove what we believe in a sense, because the Bible says, by many infallible proofs. Now, I know there's faith, and you've got to have faith. But God gave us enough evidence to give us that faith. And I like to preach on that. I preached on the psychology of it. I preached on how St. Thomas Aquinas said long ago something, and now modern psychology has proved it, that it is psychologically inconceivable that 12 men told a lie. They didn't seem resurrected. It's psychologically inconceivable that they'd go across the world preaching it, and all of them but one die for a lie. That's psychological proof that they truly saw the resurrected Savior. Now, I believe that. It's inconceivable. I mean, and I saw a post the other day that said 12 of the world's most powerful men couldn't keep alive for three weeks in Watergate. They couldn't keep it. And it meant their lives. It meant everything about what they do. But the apostles kept it for 40 years till they died? I don't think so. You hear me? He really resurrected, amen? And then one year I used prophecy and I looked through all that and no other religious text tells the future. The Quran tries to twice, I believe, and one, it got right at 50%. That ain't something I want to trust. It's because it was a war. It was just a chance. And these people went to war. And the fact is, they say if you have a text that can tell the truth, that can predict the future only eight times, that the chances of that just happening by chance would be one in 10 quadrillion chances. What that is is that's the state of Texas covered in 50 cent pieces from one foot high across the entire state and you take one of those coins and you put an X on that coin and you put it out in the middle, shuffle it all up, take one man, blindfold him, tell him to go out the chances of him reaching down and picking up the coin with the ax, that is the chances of eight prophecies coming true unless it was divine and from God. I can give you three verses in the book of Isaiah that By the way, the secular historians will say it was written in 700 B.C., and they'll say, I think I got it right, they'll say the Dead Sea Scrolls show that it was written in at least 100, they're from 100 B.C., and they got a perfect copy of Isaiah in them, therefore Isaiah was written at least and there's a prophecy in there. I can show you three verses that have eight prophecies of what happened on the cross of Calvary. You know what that means? And there's actually 300 messianic prophecies at least. What that means is this is divine, this is inerrant, this is infallible, this is the Word of God, and there's no way we're wrong about it. I'm not wrong about it. Amen. Why do you think the devil's trying to change it? Hundreds of times. That's why. That's why. When you got something that powerful and that real, that's why Brother Tyler's saying everything in it means something. Everything in it's got some power to it. You hear me? There's something about everything in it. So I found something peculiar in it that I want to preach on for just a minute. And let me just say this real quick before we go to the text. We don't need no modern day prophets. There's no open revelation. All the prophecy we need is in this book. That's why 1 Corinthians 13a says, charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether the tongues, they shall cease. Whether it be knowledge, it shall vanish. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. Paul wrote that when only three books, I believe the New Testament was written. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. That smashes your entire charismatic movement, amen. They'll try and tell you, I've argued with them, they'll try and tell you, well, let's talk about when Jesus comes. That's when Jesus comes, I don't believe that. I believe that's the Word of God. And it's in whole now and you don't need all that stuff. And in the Old Testament, God would send prophets to tell the people how to live in his will. Do you agree with that? This Bible is here to guide you in his will. You remember yesterday I talked about the wills? You'll find your preferential will in here. What God wants you to do, he'll guide you. I read it one and a half times, and by the end of that, I couldn't run from preaching anymore. I knew what God preferred, wanted me to do. You hear me? You're not going to miss your perceptual will. If you start reading this, you're going to find the precepts of God in it. You actually have to have this for you to know the perceptual will of God for your life. Don't believe the preacher. I mean, believe him, but back it up with the Bible. You need to know this Bible and know what God wants you to do. You've got to know the will of God for your life through his word. So I found something in here that I believe helps guide us in His will, since this is His will for us. So I want you to go to the 595th chapter of your Bible, if you will. Just flip over there. No, no, no, no, hold on, hold on. Turn to the 595th chapter from the end of your Bible real quick. All right, go to Psalms 117. I'll quit playing games. Go to Psalms 117 for just a minute this morning. And when you get there, you're gonna find that this is the shortest chapter in all the Bible. We're gonna read the whole thing. I hope that don't belabor you. It's two verses long. In this Bible there happens to be, in your King James Bible, I don't know if the false versions change the number of chapters. I don't know how they take out thousands of verses, but I don't know what they do with the chapters, but there's 1,198 chapters, 595 from the front, 595 from the back. It's Psalm 17. 117, here it is, the shortest chapter in the Bible. Two verses long. Dead sinner, chapter wise, in the Word of God. I believe we can find a central theme in our Bible. You believe that? Dead sinner in the Word of God. You're gonna find one short, power-packed chapter completely on praising God. Dad, sinner, and everything God wants you to do is to give him praise. Dad, sinner, everything God does for you, just like Brother Rick did, even in the worst thing in his life, God did it, and in time, Brother Rick praises him for it. He wants praise out of your life. He wants praise now. So, I wanna preach this message for just a minute. How to be dead center in the will of God. We talked about the will of God. First two days, we dealt with inner man. God led us to do that. Bitterness and carnality. Then, yesterday, God led me to deal with being in the will of God and things you can do. But I just want to give you one thing today. Now, there's other things, but one thing that many church folk miss that helps put you in the will of God. And I would like to go on record to say, you can't not do this and be in the will of God. And I'll tell you why in a minute, you'll understand. But I want to do this. I was called, I was given the moniker yesterday of Dr. Law. I just want to say Dr. Law has left the building, but Dr. Grace's physician assistant has entered in. But I do warn you that my bedside manner is still a little rough. So it may sound like I'm telling you what to do, but if you'll just take your medicine this morning, I promise in the morning you'll feel better. All right? I mean, I've preached this before. This is all good stuff. I've had deacons come to pastors after I've preached this and said, why is he telling us that? But he just saying, cause we don't do it like him. We ain't right. Now I'm going to give you Bible. I'm gonna give you all Bible this morning, all right? Can I just say, if you decide this morning to help me and say, I wanna be in the will of God. I wanna do this one step that this preacher's teaching this morning to be in the will of God. I promise you, you'll walk out of here blessed this morning. If you do what the Bible's telling you to do this morning, you will walk out of here blessed by God. You can't really be in the will of God without giving him any praise for what he's done in your life. I'm going to give it to you straight real fast. The Bible over and over again tells us to praise the Lord. One man counted and said over 250 declarative statements to praise the Lord. 250. He does not tell us to forgive 250 times. He does not tell us probably to even love one another 250 times. He does not tell us to be faithful to the house of God 250 times. All these things we put all this emphasis on, He only tells us a couple times, but over 250 times in the Word of God, He says, praise the Lord. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so I mean there's not much you can give him in your life Yes, you ought to tie do that, but he don't need your money ends a cat on a thousand heels Yes, you ought to serve and do all you can but he'll get somebody else to do it If you won't do it, my friend, you're not that valuable, honestly No matter what it is, but here's the fact because of what he's done in your life He deserves and he does back desires every bit of praise you'll ever give him this morning There's a God in heaven that deserves and desires it. Just because of who he is and what he's done. That ought to be enough for you to want to praise Him this morning. I mean, God's setting all this up. God's setting all this up. He put an energy in this place when we walked in here. He put an energy in that prayer room. He put an energy in that hymn. Listen, He put a power. I mean, that's a better word, right? That energy sounds like I'm a guru or something. He put a power. He put a power in that solo hallelujah. He put power in this stuff. He wants the people of God to give Him some praise this morning. Let me tell you what praise is. By way of introduction, what praise is and when praise is. What praise is supposed to be, many people say, what have you heard? I praise God. There's that voice again. It just comes out. I praise God in my own way. I do it in my own way. Well, what we got to do is compare everything we do to the Bible. Am I right? And I preached on worship here a while back. Now, worship and praise, I know the contemporary movement done confused everybody on that, ain't the same thing. Worship in Old Testament, I compared when I preached here, the last time I compared them Old Testament sacrifices, which is a way of worship, and you ought to live holy and confess sin and do right, that's a way of worshiping God, giving the Lord glory, doing His name, bringing offering, coming to Him, worshiping the beauty of holiness. You ought to worship him by giving praise. That's part of it. Praise and adoration. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel. You ought to worship him by completely sacrificing your life. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, you present your bodies to live in sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. That word service is the same word as worship. You can say, you can say, I worship by cleaning my church. Good, that's awesome. I worship by doing everything I can. Now, I worship through the avenue of praise. That's great. Some wouldn't say that. I worship this way. But here's what praise is defined as. Strong says this for the word praise in the text we're preaching from, which I haven't even read yet. We'll read in a minute. You don't wanna read it. Oh, praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise Him, all you people, for His merciful kindness is great toward us. The truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. Three times in two verses right there. Now, here's what Strong says, literally, to use the hand. That is to hold out, physically to throw at or away, especially to revere in worship, with extended hands, to intensively bemoan. When I first got to my church, there was people that said we were taught not to cry in church, and if a tear hits my eye, I go to the bathroom and make sure I look proper. Have you lost your mind? To make confession to give thanks. One man said, a commentator I read, I've said, praise is an outward expression of our appreciation, trust, confidence, and thanksgiving to God for his works in our life. If you study your Bible and look at other forms of the word in, I guess, the Hebrew and the Old Testament there, I don't have all the words here, but I do have the meanings that I looked up. One of them means to lift both hands. One of them means to shout, hey, man. One of them means to clamor about foolishly. One of them means to kneel in adoration like you ought to be doing at altar call at probably every service. One of them means to sing praises, amen, like we do congregationally. That's why we do it. It sounds to me, my friend, that the Bible college has got it wrong and the old-fashioned Baptist church has got it right. And what we do in a service and what we ought to do in our life sounds exactly like biblical praise. I said, amen, preacher. I said, thank you, God. I said, praise your holy name. I said, what we do in the church house looks a whole lot like praise in my Bible. Amen. Don't it? Amen. It's biblical to wave them hands in the air. It's biblical to shout amen. It's biblical to fall on an altar and weep and cry. It's biblical to praise God. And churches are crazy nowadays. I mean, think about it, guys, what would it do? I ain't trying to prep nothing. We'll follow God, but in a church service, if people really got to a place where they realized what God had really done for them, and like Pastor said the other day, salvation being the ultimate experience in their life and what their whole life is centered around and what really touches them and what really does, what if we really got their church? What if we really got where we're supposed to be? And when an altar call come, instead of coming to the great genie in the sky and asking for gifts and blessings, we just came and we fell down on our faces, prostrate on the floor, weeping and crying, saying, thank you, God, for salvation. Thank you, God, for sending your son. If the people of God had shed the pride, and the preachers had shed the pride, and the women had shed the pride, and get rid of all that junk and learn to truly praise Him, oh, something would happen in the body of Christ. Hey man, it's hard to be in God's will and not praise him. 250 times he told you to and you ain't going to do it? You're just going to say it's how I was raised? Well, I was raised where you don't do all that stuff. I just showed you Bible that that's what you're supposed to do. And you're going to say because the way I was raised I ain't going to do that? You're choosing to be outside the will of God because I'm so prim and proper because I don't want nobody laughing at me. I'm getting in my message before I even get there. Let me get there. That's that bedside manner again. When are you supposed to praise Him? A life full of praise. You ought to praise Him at home. You ought to praise Him at work. You ought to praise Him in the car. That's just when you spill that coffee. Praise God it didn't get on my white shirt. Amen. I'm like, put up. Just praise Him all the time. Thank Him. Let people know how wonderful He is to you. I believe the Bible tells us to praise Him publicly. Am I right? 107.31, all that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works, cheering the men, let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people. Don't you ever let some dead, dried up Christian or church or preacher tell you you shouldn't be praising in a worship service or church. Yes, everything needs to be in order and we ain't gonna go crazy. I probably won't swing from them chandeliers, but half the Lord told me to, I would. Why in the world, why would we have a worship service and a praise? I just don't understand all this. It's forgiving in praise. This old boy right here is gonna praise the God of heaven for saving my wicked soul. I'm gonna praise him for fulfillment through salvation, freedom from the subjection of sin, hey, forgiveness from that sin and a home in heaven. Amen, I'm thankful. Every person that's ever been truly converted, filled with the Holy Ghost of God ought to show for some form of praise. You ain't gotta do everything I do. I understand some of you ain't gonna be that crazy or whatever. But I just gave you some definitions of it and there ought to be some form of praise in your life if you're truly saved. And I believe dead sinner in the middle of everything God wants us to do is give him praise. That's what it's all about. And I'm preaching on this thought. I don't want to miss the will of God in my life because I won't praise him. Amen. So I'm going to show you just what God is saying in the dead sinner. And this is short and easy. It will be done in 15 minutes. There's a cause for praise. Let's pray. Father, I love you. God, let us learn to praise you. God, even us that think we got it down, Lord, I pray you take us to another level. God, that man that ain't had a tear in his eye. God, that preacher that preaches and never gets a tear in that eye, never gets tore up, God, I pray you'll touch that soul. God, show them how good you've been to them. God, give them that praise they used to have. Return, God, to where they used to be, dear God. Touch them people in that pew, God, that ain't never gave you praise. God, pride's had a hold of them their whole life. God, they ain't never done it. God, I pray this morning, God, you'll chip away the pride. God, I pray you'll touch them in such a mighty way, God, that they learn it don't matter what nobody says, but all that matters is what you say, God, and they give you praise. God, help us, Lord. God, change us this morning, God. Let us walk out of here, God, feeling like we did everything you wanted us to do in the avenue of praise. God, don't let a person walk out that door that says I should have lifted my hand. I should have said amen. I should have testified. But God, let us walk out clean. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. There's a cause for praise this morning. Look at verse number two, for his merciful kindness is great towards us and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. You could go a hundred different ways with that right there, but I like different hermeneutical principles and I study the law of first mention. I like it. And what that means is when a doctrine or subject's mentioned the first time in your Bible, you can get a fundamental meaning or doctrine from that. And I like to look at words and figure out when the first time they were used in your Bible. So I went back and looked at the word mercy that I see in that verse right there. And I found it in Genesis 19 and 16, when a man named Lot was playing around where he shouldn't have been. He'd already been counted righteous, but he was in there getting vexed in the spirit. up messing around with stuff. And it says, and while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters. And the Lord, being merciful unto him, they brought him forth and set him without the city. Verse 19 says, Behold, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, and thou hast showed unto me in saving I know that he was already counted righteous, but if I could rewind you to the day you got saved, the greatest act of mercy that has ever happened in your life was the day that God come to you, and it is sovereign power convicted your heart, and you called upon his name, and you got saved. Listen, I belong in hell. You belong in hell with your back broke. We deserve death. We don't deserve eternal life. We don't deserve the grace of God. But thank God one day, one day he saved my soul from hell. Glory. Don't you ever forget that day. I'll never forget. Hooked on alcohol. Drinking a case a day. Hooked on dope. Had a messed up family. Everything was fouled up. I had nowhere I could go. The police was after me. And mama said, come to church. I forget a lot of stuff, preacher. I forget all kinds of stuff now, probably because of my life back then. But I will never forget the condemnation and the weight of sin. And I said, that puny crushed me down. And I said, oh God, save me. God, save me. And I walked out of there, and I laid down an alcohol bottle I'd sipped out of for seven years, never to touch it again. I threw out a socket pod, never to touch it again. I turned off radar movies, never to watch them again. I quit the field, and God changed me. Talk about act of mercy. Talk about act of mercy. Let me guess what. You deserve to be saved, don't you? I don't care if you're a church kid. I don't care who you are. You don't deserve nothing God's done for you. You deserve hell. How you gonna stand in a pew and not praise God when you deserve hell but you get in heaven? I mean, I'm getting the streets of gold, and I deserve the pits of hell. I'm getting a mansion on the hilltop, and I deserve a lake of fire. I'm getting a glorified body, and I deserve everlasting pain. I feel like preaching. See, when y'all get me preaching mean, I got to be quiet and develop stuff. I just want to preach. I'm glad I'm saved. How in the world could you not get a little excited that God saved your soul from hell? Praise God, why you think we sing that amazing grace like that? If I was lost, sitting there saying, praise God, I'm saved, I'm saved, you ought to fall under such condemnation and conviction, even lying to God like that. I'll forever lift my hands and shout and praise God for my salvation. You ain't gonna do it like I do it. But there better be some kind of praise. Assess yourself right now, how you doing? How you doing? How you doing? When's the last time you did it? When's the last time you did it and how'd you do it? There's a cause to praise. His mercy. That's not getting what you deserve. Then there's a crowd of praise. The crowd that ought to be praising. I know right now some of you may be saying, maybe I can get out of this right here, maybe I'm not in that crowd. But verse 1 says, O praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise Him all. That's red and yellow, black and white. That's everybody in my sight. You all supposed to praise Him. All ye people. There is a Bible declaration of praise. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. If you're a living, breathing organism, you're supposed to praise God. And like I said earlier, it's not when you just feel good. It's not that. The Bible says praise the Lord. Here's the crowd. I tried to figure reasons. I got a couple and we'll be done. I thought about sanctimonious training. CHURCHES HAVE TRAINED PEOPLE NOT TO PRAISE. SEE, I'M NOT MAD AT YOU. I MEAN, PASTOR DANIEL, I KNOW HE TEACHES RIGHT. MAYBE YOU'RE NOT FROM HERE. MAYBE YOU'RE SITTING THERE AND NOBODY'S EVER TOLD YOU YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PRAISE. BECAUSE IF YOU GO TO CHURCHES THAT AIN'T LIKE OUR CHURCH, A LOT OF TIMES YOU'VE BEEN TRAINED NOT TO. I TOLD YOU THOSE INSTANCES. I HAD PEOPLE TELL ME IF A TEAR TOUCHED MY EYE, I'M GOING TO GO TO THE BATHROOM AND CLEAN IT OUT SO NOBODY SEES IT. I MEAN, I'VE HAD PEOPLE SAY, YOU AIN'T SUPPOSED TO GET ON AN ALTAR IN THE MIDDLE OF A SERVICE. What? What is going on, man? There's a sickening unbiblical teaching and it's going on in a lot of Bible colleges and transferring to Bible college churches. I'm not against Bible college, man. If it's right, it's right. But you've got to know the book, too. Man, form your praise not based off some man, but based off the book. Based off the book. There's all this formalistic religious customs. And I got my own theories. I mean, I got my own theories. I got the 1905 Azusa revival, charismatic explosion. Maybe we backed off from that back in the day. I don't know. I got theories. I got theories. But religion has done it the worst. And y'all may have different philosophies on where we come from. I don't believe I was ever a part of the Catholic Church. So you've got most Protestant denominations coming out of the Catholic Church, who by the way, did all their false doctrine in those councils and brought in all that stuff and wrote their own Bible, basically did all this stuff. But you've got that Protestant Reformation where you come out and you get all these different churches, then other denominations spring off of those. And that's nothing but formalism. That's where it was learned. None of them praised God. One preacher I know said it like this. He said, I ain't got no verses. For your dead, dry formalism, that's Roman Catholic, that's Protestant. I come out of the wounded side of the Lord Jesus. I didn't come out of the womb of the great harlot. And when the Roman spear run up in the side of my Savior and blood and water come out, that's where I come from, honey. I ain't got no verses for your dead, dry, cold pride, but I got a lot of verses for leaping and shouting and rejoicing. When you praise God, the people around you is gonna know it. Some of you is looking at me like, I don't think I've ever praised him that way. Number two, Sanctimonious training. What about spiritual trouble? There's a lot of people that won't praise because they're in severe spiritual trouble. It's really hard. I mean, you're not gonna praise him if you lost. You don't have appreciation for that. And having a form of God that's benign, the power thereof, and such and such. Yeah, I understand that. And we got a lot of unconverted people in our modern churches. There's unconverted people. And a lot of times, that's why they won't praise. Say there's unconverted preachers too, that's why they won't praise. But no matter what it is this morning, in your Christian life, if you don't have any form of praise, there's a severe spiritual issue. Don't let me fool you the first six years of my salvation. First six years of my salvation, I robbed God of His glory, because that's what praise is. When you praise God, you're giving Him the glory for what's happening. And when you don't, you are literally robbing God of the glory. You're robbing it." And I robbed him for six or seven years. Six or seven years. I told Kenny, I said, I know it ain't a form of praise, but I said, don't even call me to pray. Because I didn't want to talk. I didn't want to do nothing in front of anybody. I never spoke in front of people until I got called to preach. And I said, I do not want to speak. I don't want to do anything like that. I never went to the altar. I wouldn't even, listen, I wouldn't even, most folk, they won't even pull out a hymn book. They won't even try and help you. That's corporate worship. That's praise right there when you sing to congregationals. But sometimes I'd just pull it out and just say, watermelon, watermelon, watermelon, watermelon. I wouldn't even sing. And I really didn't know why I was doing it. I was too prideful. I didn't want people to hear me sing. And I didn't want to go to an altar. I had all this, and mine was pride. It was pride. And I can't use my sodomite voice. I gotta use my Pharisee voice. Well preacher, that's just not who I am. It's not my personality. I don't like singing in front of people so I will not pull out my hymn book. Well sir, do you sing in the shower? Well I do like to sing a little Peter Frampton from time to time. That's pride. You'll sing at home by yourself when nobody's in there. But you won't open a hymn book and sing with the people of God. You're filled with pride. You hear me? Preacher, I just don't want to go to the altar in front of everyone. You mentioned sin in one sentence and a second point. Someone will think I'm not living proper. I don't want someone to think something of me. You're filled with pride. There's no way I'll say hallelujah, amen. I will sound funny and I'm not doing that. Your field with pride. There's no way I'd ever lift my hand. What if someone sees the sweat in my armpit? Your field with pride. I robbed God of his glory for seven years, but all the day I realized that I could just give him thanks and not worry about anybody else. Just say, God, I love you and I'm praising you. I ain't praising them. I don't care how foolish I look. I don't care. I don't need that no more. I just want you, God. You do that and realize what God will do in your soul. It will change you. I mean, my goodness, some of y'all gonna get to heaven and have a heart attack. You're gonna be like Fred Sanford and say, here's a big one, Elizabeth. Praise God. Most churches, most churches, have at least a few that have never testified, never come to the altar, never sang a congregational, never lifted a hand, never said a word and testified for God, there's a serious problem. I literally had one a couple months ago. I hope he's watching because I love him. He'd sit there and see a pastor, if the pastor got any spiritual discernment, they already know. They already know. I had a buddy that sat in the back, real friendly and cool, but you never saw an ounce of one of those. Pastor Daniel comes down and preaches on false conversions. Man had been claiming to be saved 25 years. He got under such conviction, he pulled over on the side of the road two days later, heard a preacher say the name of Jesus and that was it. What are you gonna do with Jesus on the radio? And he pulls over weeping and crying and gets saved. Man started doing everything he can to serve the Lord. And now he'll go, he went to Myrtle, and now he'll pray. Now he'll praise. Now he'll get on an altar. Now he'll get up there and shed tears and wrap his arms around his children. Say, thank you, God, for what you've done. Thank you. It's because he got converted. It's because God showed him. God saved his soul, and he got on that altar, and he weeps and cries over a little Miss Claire. Little Josiah cries and weeps. Hey, listen, I'm telling you, you start praising God, He'll change you inside this morning. Cause you're getting in the will of God when you do it. You're getting in the will of God. Sanctimonious training, spiritual trouble. That's a sign of the times, y'all. Churches, I'm tired of these guys talking about in the old days. Old grandma would grab that hanky and all this, and we'd say, where's it at, where's it at? It's in the Bible, it's a sign of the times. Praising God has a lot to do, it is all about how thankful you truly are. That thankfulness ought to override that pride that I just talked about. Remember that quote, praise is an outward expression of our appreciation, trust, and confidence and thanksgiving to God for his works in our lives. Here's what 2 Timothy 3 and 1 says. This know also that in the last days perilous times will come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous boasters, proud, we just said that, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unholy is the last one, but then right there is one, unthankful. We live in a day and age where we're not thankful for anything because we've got so much. We have an entitled spirit. We're entitled to everything. And listen, we think we deserve to be saved. You think you deserve that great family. You think you deserve that job you've got. You think you deserve that health you've got. We ought to just realize what God's truly done for us this morning. You hear me? You hear me? Lauren, come play that song. Listen, we've gotta start thinking. I know I've been harsh all week, that's how I am. Tyler rescued me every time. We've gotta realize what God's done for us. There's a story I heard a preacher tell. About way back in the day when they used to do adoptions and you didn't have to do all the red tape back then. It was just you go make the adoption and before Christmas there'd be a run on the shelters. And people would go and they'd say we want to adopt a child. And I don't know if they'd bring them back after Christmas if it was just a temporary thing or what. They'd go get a child for Christmas time. There was a rich couple, Brother Terry, that drove down there to the shelter and said, we want a child. This was Christmas Eve. Said, we want somebody. We want a little boy. We want a little boy to take home. And it was a rich couple. I think it was in a Mercedes or something. And they said, we want a little boy. And the lady said, well, everybody's already gone. You're too late. And as she said that, that lady saw a little boy run across the upstairs. She said, who was that? And that lady said, oh, that's little Johnny. We just got him out of the dumpster down the street. His clothes are still all torn up. He's still got lice in his hair. He's all greasy and dirty. You don't want him. You don't want him. That lady said, she looked at the husband and dad said, that's him. They took little Johnny home and Johnny goes out and he runs and he slides in across that leather backseat in that Mercedes Benz and he says, whose car is this? Whose car is this? Dad looks over his shoulder, it's your car now son. They drive home, they pull in the gated community and go in and pull up some big mansion-looking house with pillars all the way up. And he said, whose house is this? Whose house is this? And dad says, it's yours now, son. He runs inside and says, and he runs upstairs and sees a big room painted blue, got toys hauled in. He said, whose is this? Whose stuff is this? And the dad's behind him saying, it's yours now, son. And that little boy, he's living the life. He's loving it. Oh man, it's just a wonderful life. Then after a little while, a couple of weeks, he's coming down to the breakfast table. Mama notices he's got tears in his eyes. She gets all worried, gets all upset, says, honey, I don't think little Johnny loves us anymore. I don't think he wants to be here. There's something he don't like about it. He don't want to be here no more. And the mama says, or the dad says, honey, tomorrow, go hide behind the door. See what little Johnny's doing when he gets up. So she goes up there the next day and hides. She waits for little Johnny to get up. He gets up and he's getting ready for breakfast and he's going over there. Instead of putting on his breakfast clothes or his clothes for that day, he walks over. And before he does it, he gets down to a drawer in his Chester drawers and he pulls it up. and he grabs his shirt and he lifts it up and he steps over and he looks in that mirror and what it is is that's that old tattered shirt he used to wear. And he looks in the mirror at that shirt and he holds it up, tears start to flow down his eyes. Let me tell you something, Christian, little Johnny was looking at who he used to be and where he used to be. You need to open the drawer of the past and look in the mirror of the present and realize what God's done for you. and give Him praise. Why would you not praise Him? It'd be a good morning for some folks to get on an altar and say, thank you, God, for saving me. Thank you, God, for saving my wife at that 10 meeting. Thank you, God, for letting me meet her in a bar and saving both of us and giving us a family, God. Thank you, God, for my health this morning. Thank you, God, for my family. Oh, God, he's good. A form of praise is kneeling in adoration. Now's the time, church. Give him praise. Get in his will this morning. Thank you, Holy Father. Sing, baby, do it in your key, sing it. Oh, God. ♪ Looks upon me as I struggle alone ♪ They say I have nothing ♪ Oh, but they are so wrong ♪ In my heart I'm rejoicing me. For there's a roof up above me. I've a good place to sleep. And now I know I'm not wealthy and these clothes they're not new. I don't have much money. ♪ And to me, that's all that matters ♪ ♪ Though this world may not see ♪ ♪ Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me ♪ ♪ For there's a roof high above me ♪ table and shoes on my feet. You gave me your love, Lord, and a fine family. Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me. ♪ And these clothes, they're not new ♪ I don't have much money ♪ Oh, but Lord, I have you ♪ And to me, that's all that matters ♪ Though this world may not see I have a good place to sleep. There's food on my table and shoes on my feet. ♪ For so long in my heart I'm rejoicing ♪ How I wish they could see ♪ Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me ♪ For there's a roof up above There's food on the table and shoes on the floor. ♪ These clothes they're not new ♪ I don't have much money ♪ But Lord I have you ♪ And to me that's all that matters ♪ Though this world may not see ♪ Thank you Lord for your blessings There's food on the table and shoes on the floor. Your blessings on me. And now I know that I'm not wealthy. And these clothes, they're not new. And to me, that's all that matters, though this world may not see. Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me. There's a roof up above. a good place to sleep. There's food on my table and shoes on my feet. You gave me your love, Lord, and a fine family. ♪ Looks upon me as I struggle alone ♪ They say I have nothing ♪ Oh, but they are so wrong ♪ And in my heart I'm rejoicing ♪ How I wish they could see sings on me. For there's a roof up above me, I've a good place to sleep. There's food on my table and shoes on my close their praise this morning. Give Him praise. Sing that song with her this morning. Glory to God.