Recently we talked a lot about the weightier matters of the Law.  In that we talked about how that Law could be summed up by one word, - Love.  God’s law is an extension of His Love.  The Great Commandment is first and foremost Love.  We are to Love God with everything we are and everything we have.  Secondly we are to love one another.  This love manifests itself in our relationship with Him and with each other.  How do we show that love to God?  Obedience, sacrifice, and service are good ways to start but we can also gather clues in the Model prayer.  Mr. Walker recently did a series on this passage and it is not my point to duplicate his efforts but glean a principle from the first part.

In the Model Prayer in Matthew 6 we are given a formula to pray rather than a script.  To simply say the words of the model prayer takes about 30 seconds so it is clear this is not what God wants from us in prayer.  Even if you listen to the song created from this prayer it only lasts a few minutes.   I don’t want to go through the whole passage but I do, however, want to begin today by reading the first part.  Some might think of it as a preamble and not think much of the words. Before we focus on ourselves in prayer, before we focus on our needs and the needs of others, we are to focus on God.  And specifically when we are focusing on God, where do we start?

Matthew 6:9-10  9 "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.  10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

When you read these three sentences, what does your mind linger on?  What jumps out at you?

Is it His location? His name? His Kingdom? Or His will?

While these four parts are the basic components of the beginning, trying to sum up these sentences with these four components misses a vital element.  That Element is praise.  Learning to give God praise is so important to a proper relationship with Him.

And while it is very important that we learn to praise God in our prayers, it is critically important that we learn to praise God with our lives.  It is one thing to say the words, but it is so much more when we learn to live a life of praise toward God and others.  The title of the sermon is:

Finding God in the storm, and praise him.

Today we are going to talk about praising God and not specifically in prayer.  We need to praise God in our prayers but that can be difficult during life’s storms.  Instead of just praising God during the sunny days of our lives, we need to live our lives as living sacrifices that praise God not only in Song and prayer but also in the way we live each and every day.  When we can praise Him in the storms of life and we can praise him in the way that we can live our lives, then the real winner in this approach to life is us and our relationship with Him.

Carnal Man’s approach to praising God
First of all what is praise?  I would suspect that the average person on the street would have a different view than what God has.  Case in point:  Somebody asked me once why God requires praise.  “If He is the greatest being in the universe, why does He need the praise of mere mortals?”

I asked him if he thought praise was nothing more than flattery of weaker beings to curry favor from the more powerful?  He asked what other purpose could it serve?  I told him nothing could be further from the truth.  Praising is showing God the proper honor He deserves but it’s the giver of praise that benefits most not the receiver.

Even though I told him that I began to think about my own prayers. Did I praise God?  Over the years I have realized that many of my prayers followed a pattern where I would give thanks before I asked for something, I would try to be forgiving before I asked for forgiveness.  Instinctively I think we know that prayer cannot just be about asking God for stuff.  It has to be a relationship.  So I had to ask myself if praising God was part of that relationship. 

Is being thankful enough?  I decided it was not and so I set off to praise God.

I tried to come with everything I could think of.  I praise you for your mercy, I praise your majesty, I praise you for being the Supreme Being.  You are wonderful and you are …. And to be honest, I felt a little silly.  The reason is I heard the words of my co-worker coming back to me asking why God needed this from me.  I also felt terrible that I failed at doing it.

Have you ever felt this way?  When I started studying praise something from the  Model prayer jumped out at me and I can’t believe I never noticed it before.  The Model prayer, in the first sentence lays out the framework of our communication with the Most High God.   “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” 

Now you might not always think about it, but the first part of this is very important.  We often start our prayers “Our Father in heaven”.  Have you even thought about the fact that we are not to read the rest of the prayer but this first part we read over and over so often in prayer?

“Our Father in heaven” Think about what that means

Our God was not created by man.  He is not a figment of the imaginations of the superstitious; He is not a feeble explanation of the unexplained.  For thousands of years man has struggled with the question of why were are here and who put us here.   Man has worshiped the sun, moon, stars as well as everything that is on earth.  Turn over to Jeremiah 10: 

God is not in the creation.  Our God made the creation.  Our God does not inhabit the physical world He inhabits eternity.  And while He is everywhere because of His spirit, He lives in heaven.  Heaven is not part of this physical creation and is above every thought of man and any god he could ever create.  This is part of what God told His people through the prophet Jeremiah at the end of the Kingdom period when He was about to take it all away.  And why was He going to take it all away?  Because they forgot who God was.  They started looking in all the wrong places for Him and worshipped Him in all the wrong ways.  Lets read through the first 10 verses and see this.

 

Jeremiah 10:1-10  NKJ Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.  2 Thus says the LORD: "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.  3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.  4 They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple.  5 They are upright, like a palm tree, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, For they cannot do evil, Nor can they do any good."  6 Inasmuch as there is none like

 

You, O LORD (You are great, and Your name is great in might),  7 Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You.  8 But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.  9 Silver is beaten into plates; It is brought from Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of the craftsman And of the hands of the metalsmith; Blue and purple are their clothing; They are all the work of skillful men.  10 But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King.

 

 

Man for centuries have tried to worship all kinds of things from the Creation.  As God tells us that people worship that which can do nothing for them. 

Earlier, in chapter 2, God specifically brought charges against His people for forgetting who God was and what relationship they should have with Him.

 

Jeremiah 2:7-9   7 I brought you into a bountiful country, To eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled My land And made My heritage an abomination.  8 The priests did not say, 'Where is the LORD?' And those who handle the law did not know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me; The prophets prophesied by Baal, And walked after things that do not profit.  9 " Therefore I will yet bring charges against you," says the LORD, "And against your children's children I will bring charges.

 

So they should have been praising God for bringing them into this abundant land with food, protection and goodness.  But instead they worshipped gods that could not save them nor provide for them.  Look at what God tells them in verse 12:

 

Jeremiah 2:12-13   12 Be astonished, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid; Be very desolate," says the LORD.  13 "For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns -- broken cisterns that can hold no water.

 

 

This has always been the case when people turn their back on God.  They rely on something else for their protection.  God deserves their praise because He is the one who gives all good gifts to His children.  He gives the land, our families, our prosperity and praising Him for these things is the best way to never forget where your blessings come from. 

Remember the Parable in Luke 12: about the farmer who had many blessings but not the thankfulness and understanding that all good things come from God and therefore are caretakers of the blessings He gives.  Luke 12:16-23

 

Luke 12:16-23   16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.  17 "And he thought within himself, saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?'  18 "So he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.  19 'And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry." '

 

 

It was if he was recognizing himself as the source of his blessings and then was the rightful one to tell himself what to do with that wealth.  It’s as if he were praying to himself and answering his own prayer.

 

20 "But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?'  21 "So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."  22 Then He said to His disciples, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on.   

 

 

You want to praise God, we can start with who God is, what He is doing for His people.  Talk about His plan and His will for His creation.   I think about the way a grandmother praises her grandchildren.  They are always on her mind and she finds herself bringing them up in everyday conversation.  They are ever in her mind and almost boasts about them to others.  This is how we should start our prayers and how we enumerate the things He does and is in our lives. 

If you list isn’t very long then there is a place to start.  What has he done for you and why haven’t you noticed before?

The next part of Praising God is also found in the Lord’s Prayer.  We talked about our Father in Heaven, Now we have Hallowed by thy name.

Hallowed be thy name

The second part of the first sentence is equally powerful.  What does it mean to Hallow? The Dictionary says it’s a verb – Which means it is something that someone does.  It is action

1. to make holy; sanctify; consecrate. to honor as holy; consider sacred; venerate:

God is holy and can make holy what He wills.  We need to honor what is Holy and His name is Holy.  The Greek word for Hallowed is.

37 a`gia,zw hagiazo {hag-ee-ad'-zo}

 Meaning:  1) to render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow 2) to separate from profane things and dedicate to God 2a) consecrate things to God 2b) dedicate people to God 3) to purify 3a) to cleanse externally 3b) to purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin 3c) to purify internally by renewing of the soul

Origin:  from 40; TDNT - 1:111,14; v

Usage:  AV - sanctify 26, hallow 2, be holy 1; 29 times

 

God is the opposite of profane and we live in a profane world.

Profane - adjective

1. characterized by irreverence or contempt for God or sacred principles or things; irreligious.
2. not devoted to holy or religious purposes; unconsecrated; secular (opposed to sacred).
3. common or vulgar.

Profane - verb (used with object), profaned, profaning.

4. to misuse (anything that should be held in reverence or respect); defile; debase; employ basely or unworthily.
5. to treat (anything sacred) with irreverence or contempt; violate the sanctity of:

When we praise God we are acknowledging our subordination to Him and His law of love.  We also acknowledge that this world is living contrary to His way of life and that also helps point us in the right direction.  Praising God is like a daily compass check on our lives to ensure we are growing toward His Kingdom.

Remember the story of Job.  Turn the Book of Job chapter 1.  He started out with an amazing relationship with God.  When trials came they came one after another in quick succession.  As he learned about each tragedy we read that while the messenger was still talking another came in to tell him about another, and while he was still talking another came until Job was left with nothing.  Everything was gone all at once and not from the same cause. 

You lose your entire family to some accident that is horrible but to lose your family to different accidents all at once.  What goes through your mind.  Lets read what was going through Job’s mind.

 

Job 1:20-22 20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.  21 And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD."  22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

 

 

Job didn’t just have the Praise God in church frame of Mind.  He had the Praise God with his life frame of mind.  And even with this incredible reaction to a horrible trial, God needed him to learn an important lesson.  When Job calls on God for answers God is silent.  What he needed was compassion from God and he got silence. Has this ever happened to you?  In Job’s case we know that the silence was not a lack of concern but the only way that God could teach him a vital lesson.  After a while Job feels sorry for himself and starts feeling self-righteous about his trials.  They are not fair.  They are unjust and then he even tries to put God on trial.

So God finally sets him straight in Chapter 38:  

 

Job 38:4-12  4 " Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.  5 Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?  6 To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,  7 When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?  8 "Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb;  9 When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band;  10 When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors;  11 When I said, 'This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!'  12 " Have you commanded the morning since your days began, And caused the dawn to know its place,

 

 

We think in the here and now and what are we going through.  Can’t God see what’s going on??  Yet God is keeping the entire universe together and has given us the recipe for prosperity and that is to focus on Him and not us.  You see, what God does is worthy of praise.  Every day is a gift.  Every day is an opportunity to live in a world that He created.  Job came to understand this and God forgave and restored him and his household.  What God wants from us is the same understanding of our place in the universe.  We serve at His pleasure.  This is His show that we are a part of, and when we remember that everything is for His glory and not ours, then He will shower us with everything. 

Sometimes it would be nice to have part of that everything right now.  But it would not be good for us.  What we do have though is a gift and we need to appreciate it and praise the one who gave it to you.

That is where living a life of praise comes in.  Are we thankful for what we have or do we take credit for what our hands have made?  When we build is it for our benefit? for someone else?  What motivates us?  If it is our love of God? His People, and His priorities? It the answer is yes, then we are living a life that honors Him because we are putting Him first in our lives. 

Let’s look at an example of proper praise of God.  Since David was a man after God’s own heart then it is good to follow his example on how to offer praise to God.  Psalm 145 is an excellent example of praise to God.  Lets read the entire Psalm and see what we can glean from it.

 

Psalm 145:1-21  I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever.  2 Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever.  3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.  4 One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts.  5 I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works.  6 Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, And I will declare Your greatness.  7 They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness.

 

 

Notice that David never seems to run out of things to say.  The list can go on and on and on.  It it does.

 

 

8 The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.  9 The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.  10 All Your works shall praise You, O LORD, And Your saints shall bless You.  11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power,  12 To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.  13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.  14 The LORD upholds all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down.  15 The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season.  16 You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.  17 The LORD is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.  18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.  19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.  20 The LORD preserves all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.  21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD, And all flesh shall bless His holy name Forever and ever.

 

David did not lose this praise when the storms of life came. 

Praise God in the Storm

David Praised God because that’s who he was.  He recognized the power and majesty of God and had so much respect for God.  That is why David had so much respect for Saul, not because Saul did things worthy of respect, but because God put Saul on the throng and David had so much respect and praise for God he could not help but show respect for the LORD’s Anointed.

When David’s life was in peril, he praised God.  When things were going well, he gave God the credit. 

When things were going poorly he asked God for help but praised God for always answering prayer and looking after His people.  David would thank God in advance of an answer.  He knew God would take care of Him and He praised God in advance.  Let’s look at an example in Psalm 56.  Here is a song about the time that David was captured by the Philistines in Gath and His life was in danger.

 

Psalm 56:2 - 57:1  NKJ 2 My enemies would hound me all day, For there are many who fight against me, O Most High.  3 Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.  4 In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?  5 All day they twist my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil.  6 They gather together, They hide, they mark my steps, When they lie in wait for my life.  7 Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, O God!  8 You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?  9 When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me.  10 In God (I will praise His word), In the LORD (I will praise His word),  11 In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?  12 Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You,  13 For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, That I may walk before God In the light of the living?

 

It takes faith to thank God in advance of an answer.  Romans 5 talks about faith turning into Hope.

Romans 5:1-6  NKJ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;  4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

What about our lives.  Think back to the many times that you fell to your knees and begged God to intervene in your life or that of someone else.  What was going through your mind?  Hopefully it was on more than just deliverance.  Was it on repentance? Reflection? Making a deal with God?  Or Learning God’s will?

How about Praise?  Have you ever thought to thank God for what you will learn from your trial?  Praise Him for what He is about to teach you that you so desperately need?

It is only natural that we will get down during a trial.  But remember that God can boost our countenance.  Psalm 42:5 says;

Psalm 42:5  5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.

And 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 says   17 pray without ceasing,  18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

There is a song that inspired this message and it is what I based the Title on.  The song is by the group Casting Crowns and is called “I will praise you in this storm”.   From the first verse it sums up the problem we often find ourselves in when life begins to fall in all around us.  The first verse goes like this:

• I was sure by now, God, that You would have reached down, and wiped our tears away
• stepped in and saved the day.  But once again, I say amen and it's still raining

It acknowledges how difficult life is but how important it is to praise God anyway.  He is the source of Hope when you have none; he is light in the darkness.

I would like to have Amanda sing it for you so you can be encouraged by the very positive message.

When we can learn to live our lives with the knowledge and understanding that everything God is doing is ultimately for us and our good.  For our future and future of the whole world we see that He is worthy of our daily praise. 

Isaiah 43 gives ample reason why we need to praise Him.  While it talks about the relationship God has had with his people, it also hints to the future and what this human experience is all about.  Why did God create man in the way that He did.

 

Isaiah 43:1-21  NKJ But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.  2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.  3 For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.  4 Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life.  5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west;  6 I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth --  7 Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him."  8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes, And the deaf who have ears.  9 Let all the nations be gathered together, And let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this, And show us former things? Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; Or let them hear and say, "It is truth."  10 "You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me.  11 I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no savior. 

Moving down to verse 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.  20 The beast of the field will honor Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I give waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My people, My chosen.  21 This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.

 

We Sing songs of praise to our God and that is good.  We need to give praise to God in our prayers and that is even better.  But to live a life of faith and hope in the one that will bring all things into submission to the one great God and live our lives in that peace.  That is best.  The storms of life can make that difficult but if we can praise him during the storm, we can praise him always.  In closing I would like to read a verse from one the hymns we sing as it is a sort of lament of what God wants from us and for us.

“Oh that men would praise their God for all he does for the sons of men.  O that they would give thanks to Him, with shouts of Joy and with songs of praise.  Some crossed o’er the stormy seas; they see the wonders of God in the deep.