Praise The Lord

Introduction

Praise affects the total person. You will never meet a consistently negative person who also praises. Complainers and grippers rarely praise. Yet all these kinds of people agree our God is worthy of praise. The Book of Psalms is full of praise. Have you noticed the young people have numerous choruses that are called praise choruses? Some of them will bless your soul as they lift up praise to our Lord. We are privileged to give praise here and for eternity, and the lesson speaks to both. We must encourage all ages to Praise Our Incomparable God.

I. Our Confidence In God Leads Us To Praise The Lord

Micah 7:7-10

A. Our Confidence In God’s Perceptiveness

Micah 7:7

Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me. Micah thought He could wait for the Lord to Hear him.

A pastor friend of mine spoke to me proudly about his son. His son was the Music Minister of a Baptist church. The church was having great financial difficulties. The interim pastor laid out the bills, and said folks we need these bills paid. The electric bill was several months over due. The son of this pastor took the electric bill and said I will pay it. He took his car fund to pay the electric bill for the church. He told his dad, and his dad said, “Son you can’t do that, you really need a newer car.” He tried to persuade his son not to pay all of the electric bill by himself. His son said, “Dad did you teach me I could trust the Lord; did you teach me to follow what the Lord tells me to do?” With tears in his eyes the father said, “Yes, I did son.” The son said, “Well are you telling me now not to trust the Lord.” The dad said, “No!”

A few days later the father received at his office a letter saying the writer was impressed of the Lord to give their used van to some needy family. The father with tears in his eyes called his son with the news. The boy said, “Dad, that van is just what I had hoped to buy. You really can trust the Lord can’t you.” As he told me the story we both shed some tears.

B. Our Confidence In God’s Pardon

MIcah 7:8-9

8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, The Lord will be a light to me. 9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case And executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness. NKJV

C. Our Confidence In God’s Punishment

Micah 7:10

Then she who is my enemy will see, And shame will cover her who said to me, "Where is the LORD your God?" My eyes will see her; Now she will be trampled down Like mud in the streets.

It is said that about 200 years ago, the tomb of the great conqueror Charlemagne was opened. The sight the workmen saw was startling. There was his body in a sitting position, clothed in the most elaborate of kingly garments, with a scepter in his bony hand. On his knee lay a New Testament passage, with a cold, lifeless finger pointing to reference Mark 8:36: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

Are you and I confident in our God? Praise The Lord right now.

II. God’s Control Leads Us To Praise The Lord

Micah 7:11-17

A. God’s Control In Rebuilding

Micah 7:11-13

In the day when your walls are to be built, In that day the decree shall go far and wide. 12 In that day they shall come to you From Assyria and the fortified cities, From the fortress to the River, From sea to sea, And mountain to mountain. 13 Yet the land shall be desolate Because of those who dwell in it, And for the fruit of their deeds. NKJV

B. God’s Control In Restructuring

Micah 7:14-15

14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff, The flock of Your heritage, Who dwell solitarily in a woodland, In the midst of Carmel; Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, As in days of old. 15 "As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,I will show them wonders." NKJV

C. God’s Control In Regretfulness

Micah 7:16-17

16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; They shall put their hand over their mouth; Their ears shall be deaf. 17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; They shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, And shall fear because of You. NKJV

One of my favorite stories is about a pastor in Oklahoma who went to preach in view of a call to a church in Davis, California. The church called him and he and his wife prepared for the move. The son became very sick, and the doctor told them their boy needed to be under the care of a doctor in California who pioneered in treating this disease. They asked where this doctor was located, and he said he is connected with a University in a town you probably never heard of; it’s called Davis, California. The pastor then shared with the doctor what he believed about the Lord’s control.

III. God’s Compassion Leads Us To Praise The Lord

Micah 7:18- 20

How do you define compassion? Compassion is what makes a person feel pain when someone else hurts. - Unknown

Note his compassion evidenced. One day a student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead for the earliest sign of civilization in a given culture. He expected the answer to be a clay pot or perhaps a fish hook or grinding stone. Her answer was "a healed femur." Mead explained that no healed femurs are found where the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, reigns. A healed femur shows that someone cared. Someone had to do that injured person's hunting and gathering until the leg healed. The evidence of compassion is the first sign of civilization. - R. Wayne Willis Louisville, Kentucky

A. God’s Compassion In Forgiveness

Micah 7:18-19

18 Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. 19 He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea. NKJV

Sign In Front of This Sea  -  No Fishing For Past Sins.

Satan would love for you to wade in this Sea of forgiven sins trying to make quilt out of forgiven sins.

John B. Gough, in Worcester, Mass., was down as low as any man could be. So low and miserable was he that there was none to look at him. He was an outcast from the respectable churches, and the raging devils of the craving for drink were in his heart and soul. He went out one day, he said, determined to do away with himself, a poor drunkard, lost to everything; and a young lad, called Joel Stratton -- John B. Gough never forgot it -- put his hand on the poor shoulder, and said, "John, man, I believe you'll give up the drink yet." John B. Gough staggered away from him; both went to their knees, and the trembling hand of John B. Gough wrote the pledge; but, better than that, he said, "Lord, save my soul;" and Joel Stratton's hand never left the shoulder of John B. Gough in Massachusetts till John B. Gough stood erect, till, with a tongue of clarion peal, the rescued one spoke for God. When multitudes came round him in America, and in this country, amid his oratorical triumphs, John B. Gough said that he felt to his dying day the hand of Joel Stratton on his shoulder. By J. Wilbur Chapman, "Present Day Parables.

B. God’s Compassion In Faithfulness

Micah 7:20

You will give truth to Jacob And mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers From days of old. NKJV

Joe Bayly in his book, “View From A Hearse,” says that one of the best contributions we can make to a person going through intense suffering and loss is our presence without words, not even verses of Scripture dumped into the ears of the grieving. He said: Don't try to "prove" anything to a survivor. An arm about the shoulder, a firm grip of the hand, a kiss: these are the proofs grief needs, not logical reasoning.

I was sitting, torn by grief. Someone came and talked to me of God's dealings, of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. He talked constantly; he said things I knew were true.

I was unmoved, except to wish he'd go away. He finally did.

Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk. He didn't ask leading questions. He just sat beside me for an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, left.

I was moved. I was comforted. I hated to see him go.

God’s faithfulness is there, maybe in the presence of a deacon, Sunday School Teacher, Friend, Pastor.

We Are Led To Praise The Lord Through

Our Confidence In God

God’s Control

God’s Compassion!