“How would my praise please God?”
Did your praise this morning give God pleasure? Did your worship bring Him pleasure? Most people
don’t even know the difference between praise and worship. Everybody can praise. Did you know
that? Did you know you don’t even have to be saved to praise? The Bible says that Heavens are
declaring glory of God right now. Anything can praise! The Bible talks about the trees of the fields
clap their hands. Jesus told the disciples,
‘If you don’t praise Me, the rocks will start screaming.’
Rocks ain’t saved, but they can praise. Anything can praise God. You don’t even have to be saved
to praise God. I get amazed at all these artists that win these awards and they ain’t got one ounce
of God on the inside of them:
‘I just want to give God praise.’
Yeah, but can you WORSHIP Him?
Because you can praise Him and not have a relationship, but you can’t worship Him and not have a relationship.
It’s kind of like when somebody sets you up to go on a date [with a friend of theirs that really likes
you] and you just went. And it was fun while y’all were bowling. It was fun while y’all were eating a
pizza and it was fun while y’all were watching the TVs. And it was fun when all the games and
everybody was loud, but if you ever got in a quiet moment or intimate moment, it got weird. Why?
Because you didn’t feel about them the way they felt about you.
And that’s the way most churches are when we hear worship. When we hear worship, you lose about
half the congregation. Why? Because God knows good and well you don’t feel about Him the way
He feels about you! So when all the fanfare starts, the lights go down, and the guitar shuts off, and
now we’ve got a quiet, intimate moment with God, we’ve got to find something to do. We got to hunt
for a cough drop, or we got to get a Kleenex, or we have to run to the bathroom. Why? Because it’s
just you and it’s just God and you know you don’t love Him the way He loves you, and so it’s weird.
I ain’t even touched Ephesians, have I? It’s bad when you’re stuck in a room and don’t feel about
them the way they feel about you. Don’t act like you’ve never been in that room either.
Now, you’ve got to understand that God pleasured it, God willed it, and God predestined it. It’s very
very clear that He lays this out, the plan and the strategy, behind your life. Now, when you start
talking about destiny, that brings in a whole lot of topics because destiny is process. Whenever
you talk about destiny, destiny is process. My kids were wanting to go see ‘Transformers’ the other
day, a new movie. And they said,
“Now Daddy we need to tell you that thing lasts 2 hours and 47 minutes.”
I said,
“Oh, I need medicine to sit in a chair that long.”
But they know an hour to 2 hours my leg… I just can’t sit that long. And why does that movie take
that long? Because it takes a process to get to destiny. You wouldn’t go see the movie if they just
showed the last 5 minutes. They got to take you somewhere.
When you talk about destiny, God has to take you somewhere. Now, when God has to take you
somewhere, here is the problem: You don’t always want to go where He’s taking you.
Because a lot of the ways you see you getting there and the way God sees you getting there are
totally different. Okay? So God predestined you according to His good pleasure, according to His Will.
Now, God is now responsible for orchestrating life and creating scenarios to move you. We call them
seasons. But what you’ve got to understand is if God has a destiny, then the Bible says,
“Many are the plans of men but it is the purpose of the Lord that prevails.”
And the Bible also says in Ephesians 1:11,
“…we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who
works all things according to the counsel of His will”
Did you hear that?
If God has given you a destiny,
He gives you the option of ALL the routes you can take,
but His will WILL be done.
Ron Carpenter, Redemption World Outreach Church