Eternal Benefits

Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef sharing his personal experience with the power of praise.
Dr. Michael Youssef: When my feet hit the floor, I begin as soon as I wake up by praising the name of Jesus. No matter what difficulty I face that day that comes my way, no matter what challenges that I experience, no matter how painful the news I may receive, I find that my eyes begin to lift away from my current situation, my current condition, into my heavenly position.
Guest (Male): Thank you for joining Friends Across Six Continents for this life-changing episode of Leading The Way. When stress is building, are you one of those folks that finds yourself snapping at people, especially family and friends? Maybe even lashing out at God. Or are you one who withdraws? You just go right into the darkness of your situation. Well, today on Leading The Way, Dr. Youssef begins a very personal series, revealing that when you pause wherever life has you and you offer praise to God for the good and for the bad, you are inviting power into your circumstances. Listen along as Dr. Michael Youssef begins his encouraging practical series called Empowered by Praise.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Many of you are familiar with my testimony, but I will testify until the Lord takes me home, whenever that may be. In the early days of the birthing of this church, I was running haggard. I was having early appointments to late appointments, and my time with the Lord got less and less and less until God put me on my back for two solid weeks. During that time, the Lord so graciously got my attention and began to minister to me. The Lord began to teach me that I’m missing out on the life of victory and triumph. I was preaching. I was studying the scripture. I was faithful to exposition of the word of God. I was ministering. I was counseling. I was serving. But the Lord showed me very, very clearly and continues to. I thank God for that. I cannot minister effectively for him until I've spent adequate time with him. From that day on until this moment, every morning the moment my feet hit the floor, I begin my time of praise and worship and adoration of my Lord and Savior. That what ministering to the Lord is all about. I remember the first time with this double pneumonia on my back, when the Holy Spirit began saying, "You can't minister to people until you minister to me." And I said, "Lord, how do I minister to you?" I spent 11 years in seminary, and I was asking the Lord what it means to minister to you. And then graciously, he began to teach me how to minister to the Lord before I can minister to others. Now, if you think worship only takes place in the church, if you think worship is only through music, if you think worship is only a public activity, you are missing out on the real daily power for living. I pray God that he will open our spiritual ears today. I am praying in fact that this series of messages will ignite the power of God in many a life, in many a home, and many a community and ministries in this place. Why do I say this? Because when you become a praise-filled person, you will experience transformation in life. When you experience the strength of the will, only then will you experience a higher level of faith. Only then will you begin to experience a deeper level of victory like you have never experienced before. So today, I want to show you four things the Lord has taught me about the praise-filled life those many years ago. First of all, praise reveals my true spiritual condition. Not what I want to think, but my true spiritual condition. Secondly, praise refocuses my personal destiny. And thirdly, praise reestablishes the rule of God in my life. And fourthly, finally, praise reinforces my true relationship with the Lord. Let's look at these very quickly. Very quickly, I’m not going to dwell too long on them. First of all, praise reveals to me my true spiritual condition. In Matthew 12:34, the Lord Jesus Christ said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." We say it in the colloquial, "What's in the well comes out in the bucket," right? It's the same. That's where we got it from. We got it from the Lord. The Lord is telling us that we cannot separate what we think from what we say. We can claim all we want, "Oh, I did not really mean that." Yes, you did. Just say, "I meant it and I'm sorry about it." That's better. So, if your heart is filled with praise and thanksgiving, worship and adoration, then that's exactly what emanates out of your mouth. Imagine that there is a fan belt between your thoughts and your mouth. I know occasionally in my case, that fan belt gets a little looser every now and then and needs tightening. Don't get uppity, I know you do too. But that does not negate the intrinsic connection between what's inside of us and what comes out in words. I heard an interesting description about the mouth not long ago. Somebody said the mouth is the grocer's friend, the dentist's fortune, the orator's pride, and the fool's trap. I know we say that the eyes are the window of the soul, but the mouth is not always the door to the brain. Now let me give you a piece of advice I give myself all the time. When your mind goes blank, remember to turn off the sound. Did you get that? When the mind goes blank, turn off the sound. And Jesus is saying that our words express what we believe deep down. Listen to me. If you are griping and complaining all the time, it is an expression of ungrateful heart. If you are in a fighting mood all the time, everywhere you go, it's a sign of pride and arrogance. If you have a disconnected and dissatisfied attitude all the time, if you speak critically of everyone every time, it is because you are indwelt of a critical spirit, and you have grieved the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. Your praising lips are in direct proportion to your believing and your trusting heart. Can I get an amen? Some people say, "Oh, I praise God on the inside. I don't have to mouth the words. It doesn't have to come out of my mouth." Right. Your words are the expression of your heart. And so, praise reveal to us our true spiritual condition. Our praise reveals what? Can you say it with me? Praise reveals my true spiritual condition. Amen. Secondly, praise refocuses my personal destiny. Now, I don't need to remind you of the enormous challenges that we are facing globally. I don't need to remind you of the things around us that frustrate us, that challenge us, that disappoint us, and indeed aggravate us. But if you focus on these problems 24/7, you will soon forget your destiny in Christ. Your destiny will become foggy and misty and unreal. Very soon you're going to lose sight of that destiny that you are destined for the throne. You very soon will slide into fear and pessimism and depression. Very soon your life will lose luster and joy and excitement. You don't think I know what I'm talking about? This is not theory for me. I know it. I know it experientially. Listen to me. I am testifying to you. I am pleading with you. I am imploring you to do this today. Make a permanent change. Don't get temporarily affected. Make it a daily habit for one week. And then make it another week. And then make it another week. You will be pleased of how blessed you are as you keep doing this. You would form a daily habit to bless the Lord first thing in the morning. Don't wait till late at night when you're tired. Start the morning blessing the Lord. Blessing the Lord, lifting up the name of the Lord. That is going to help you overcome the fog. That daily exercise of praising the names of Jesus, the attributes of God, the character of God, the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, the grace and the mercy of God. If you do that every morning, it's going to carry you on the wings of praise all day long. All day long. When I miss a day, I know for whatever reason, and seldom I do, but when I miss, I know my life is a mess all day. All day I'm messed up until I repent. Please try it every day this week. Just try it every day. You'll never regret it. When my feet hit the floor, I begin as soon as I wake up by praising the name of Jesus. No matter what difficulty I face that day that comes my way, no matter what challenges that I experience, no matter how painful the news I may receive, I find that my eyes begin to lift away from my current situation, my current condition, into my heavenly position. My eyes immediately recognize the smallness of my problem in relationship to the bigness of my God. My eyes immediately refocus from the temporary to the permanent. My eyes immediately begin to see with clarity my eternal destiny. My eyes open to the heavenly realm. Then and only then, the presence of God fills me to overflowing. When the praises of God dominate my thoughts, when God's perspective on my situation becomes my perspective, I'm lifted up. I'm lifted up. Even when you don't feel like it. Even when you don't feel like it. Your feeling has nothing to do with it. It's a discipline. Praise reveals my true spiritual condition. Praise refocuses my personal destiny. Thirdly, praise reestablishes God's reign on my heart. And you say, "Well, Michael, doesn't the Bible say that God is omnipresent?" Yes. And that is why Psalm 22:3—Psalm 22 is a Messianic psalm—here's what it says in verse 3. You, talking to God, "You inhabit..." Another translation said "indwell". Another translation said "you tabernacle". Another translation said "you enthroned in the praises of your people". Here's a fact I pray to God that you'll never forget. When God indwells or inhabits, he rules. See, that's why we say God is everywhere. Yes, but God doesn't rule everywhere. He does not rule in the hearts of those who have rejected him. That's why the Bible in Romans 1 says, "He gave them up." He doesn't rule in the hearts. But he rules in the heart of those who invite him to come and to rule. And so, when the Bible says God indwells or literally pitches his tent in the praises of his people, it means that God is ready to take over. God doesn't take sides. If you ever get in a fight, God doesn't take sides, he takes over. And that's why the Bible said the Holy Spirit of God can be grieved and he can be quenched until you ungrieve him through repentance. And that is why the praising of his name, the praising of his character, the praising of his attributes first thing in the morning is your invitation to him to come and rule in your life. Listen to me. If you’re spending time in praising him, you are saying to him, "You are my authority. You are my sovereign. You are my king. You are my ruler." God cannot be everywhere where he is invited without taking over. He has to take over. God does not take sides, I said, he takes over. And when you invite him into your marriage, he's going to take over your marriage. When you invite him to come to your home, he will take over your home. When you invite him to come to your family, he takes over your family. When you invite him in your business, he'll take over your business. When you invite him to come to your church, he will come and take over your church. And that is why praise is our explicit invitation for him to come and reign and rule in our lives. And when he takes up residence, indwells, inhabits, he rules. And that is why praise is our clear invitation for God to come and rule over our situations. And that is why praise is a foremost means by which you invite God to establish his authority over you. And beloved, forgive me being blunt, as if it's something new. But that's why some believers don't spend time praising God. God does not share his authority, his rule, his power, or his glory with anyone. Either he takes over or he's grieved and quenched in a corner in your life. Finally, praise reinforces, reinforces my relationship with him. My relationship with him. Think how easily it is and how quickly we fall in love with ourselves. How quickly and how easily we fall in love with our ideas. How quickly and how easily we fall in love with our talents and our abilities. How easy it is to fall in love with our knowledge and what we know and what we think. How easy it is to think so highly of ourselves. Who we are, who we know, and whom we know, and what we've accomplished. We listen to the praise of people and we believe it. Don't you believe it. Don't you believe it. Let me tell you something. That's the principle I learned a long time ago. I used to tell my colleagues in the past, "You know, when somebody starts blowing wind up your shirt tail, just wait for the other shoe to drop." In graduate school I had a wonderful professor and he used to say to us, because we were all mid-career, and he would say, "Publicity is okay as long as you don't inhale it." And that is why daily we must begin our day by continuously, unhurriedly—did you get that? Unhurriedly, you have to get up early, get up early—begin with praising the name of God. Why? Because praise reminds me of my sinfulness and my failures. But then immediately reminds me of the awesomeness of the grace of God. Praise reminds me of my limitation, but then immediately it humbles me to think of how unmerited, unworthy I am of receiving the grace of God. Praise reminds me of what a tiny fraction of God's love and God's wisdom and God's power I really comprehend. Praise makes me say with Job, "I know that you can do all things. No plan of yours can be thwarted. My ears have heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." I'm getting close to the end, so I don't want you to misunderstand the remaining part that I want to tell you. It's very important. The reason we recognize that we are not worthy is not because that we go around life moping and sulking. "Oh poor me." No, no, no, no, no. It's not going around with long face, head down, "Oh I'm sinful, I'm sinful, I'm sinful, I'm unworthy, I'm a terrible person, I can't do anything." No. Read my lips. No. Say "no" with me. If you do that, you have not really learned the triumph that comes through praise. You have not learned to minister and to serve in God's power and strength and not yours. What praise does is continuously, while we are realistic about our sinfulness, yes, we are realistic about our shortcomings, yes. But it's continuously leading us to repentance and restitution and therefore victory and able to minister with power and strength, not ours but his. Praise gives us deep, deep, deep appreciation for the grace of God. And that motivates you for life. And the more you are realistic about our failures and inadequacies, the more you can comprehend the depth of God's graciousness toward you. And the more you comprehend God's graciousness toward you, the more delighting yourself you are in the strength of God. And the more you delight yourself in Christ's strength, the more effective you are for Christ. And that is why the word of God exhorts us to focus on praising the character of God, the attributes of God. Look at the samples of the men of God in the scripture. If you ask Isaiah, "What is your life's purpose?" in 43:20 he would say, "That I might proclaim his praises." If you ask Peter after being restored and repentant of his denial of his Savior, and you ask him, "What is the life's purpose, Peter, after restoration?" he would say in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 6 and 7, "That I may bring praise, glory, and honor to Christ Jesus my Lord." If you ask the Apostle Paul, "What is your life's purpose?" in Ephesians 1 he would say, "To the praise of his glory." Praising his character. See, that's what glory means. Glory doesn't mean fireworks and all kinds of stuff then. The glory is the character of God. And when you praise of his glory, you praise his character. If you ask our Lord Jesus Christ, "What would happen if your people do not praise you?" he would have said to us in Luke 19:38 to 40, "If you don't praise me, the stones will. The stones will."
Guest (Male): Thank you for joining listeners in this community and in communities just like this worldwide for a new teaching series from Dr. Youssef called Empowered by Praise. Empowered by Praise: Dr. Michael Youssef will guide you into a richer understanding of God that will forever change your relationship with him. Filled with practical scriptural guidance and stories from his own personal life, Dr. Youssef's book explores the blessings, challenges, and power of praise. You can dive deep with a comprehensive workbook, which features practical reflection questions and small group activities. You can experience the deep abiding joy of entering God's presence, seeing his power on display in your life, and glorifying him with all that you are. Discover how praise can lift you above difficult circumstances and transport you into God's presence and power like never before. For your gift of any amount, you can order your copy of Empowered by Praise. Visit us at LTW.org. LTW.org. Will you stand with Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way today? Get your own copy of Empowered by Praise. This is a great complement to Dr. Youssef's current teaching series, and we will send you this book when you offer a gift of any amount to Leading the Way. You can learn more about the impact of Leading the Way and join us in reaching the world with the gospel when you visit LTW.org. Now, you can also speak with a ministry representative at the call center at 866-626-4356. Now, on behalf of Dr. Michael Youssef, you're invited back again next time for more Leading the Way audio.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Praise works. The praise-filled life works. But you have to try it. You have to practice it. You have to exercise it because praise will change you and it's going to change you for good. Because praise will change your life, praise will change your attitude. Trust me, praise will change your relationships, praise will change your perspective, your sensitivities, and even your desires.
Guest (Male): Do plan to listen to upcoming episodes when Dr. Michael Youssef once again passionately proclaims uncompromising truth on Leading the Way. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at LTW.org.